Chapter 201: 196: The Crusade Is Over

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

-        The Iron Lady

Pál Kinizsi stopped crying and after trying for a long time, finally squeezed a smile on his full of tear marks face, though that smile literally looks nothing like a smile, instead it looks like even worse than crying. 

John Hunyadi grinned with Pál Kinizsi, tidied up his armour, picked up his helmet wearing it for him, then gave him a pat on the back and ordered softly. "Summon every one, I shall be waiting." 

A minute later, Pál Kinizsi sounded the horn calling out to all Hungarian Crusaders to gather around. Slowly every single survivor hearing this blew off the tiredness in their heads wiping the mixture of blood, sweat, tears and dirt off their faces and dragged their restless bodies here making this entire place a little crowdy, but they all kept silent, and eyed their general sitting in the middle eagerly anticipating what he have to say. 

John Hunyadi waited until every one is seated on the ground and started speaking facing his men. "Gentlemen! Listen to me." 

He looked at his soldiers with a confident smile on his face despite droplets of sweat already started showing up as he tries to sit up with his back straight. 

"An army, is of no difference than other professions, just like those jobs you see in your daily lives like carpenters, doctors, black smith and bailiffs. The more failures they encounter in their long years of career, the better they become in their profession… In other words, they need to experience mistakes in order to learn from it increasing their experience."

The King Regent John Hunyadi smiled looking around at the men listening to him and continued. "If… If we DO NOT experience a few defeats, how can we learn how to gain a victory? I have rarely heard or learnt about military leaders that have never been defeated for once in their life. However, I know a lot of our ancestors that are once defeated in a battle, but instead of giving up he went on to cultivate himself building himself stronger with a better knowledge of himself, his opponent, and his army coming back to claim back his victory!"

In the end of his lines John Hunyadi rose up his fist in the air feeling excited thinking back on these words, but after a while his face flushed red coughing, had to put down his hand continuing his lecture. "I know, twenty thousand combatants, if including the logistics a total of fifty thousand men. Fifty thousand men, coming southwards marching across the Transylvanian Alps and the Danube far away from home town, coming here to fight in the name of God with a surge of hot blood and zealous mind, but is defeated by the Ottomans, badly… Now, we are safe, and we must take the precious time to think…"

"Why?'

John Hunyadi pointed towards the sky. "Why are we defeated? What can we learn? What mistake did we make? What advantage did our enemy have?" 

John Hunyadi looked around hoping some one can give his opinion. 

Sadly, theres none. 

He sighed and continued making an analysis and conclusion for not only himself, but the entire army. "This defeat, is not coincidental, looking back from now it is a certainty. First, with no plans before hand I hastily drained up every remaining strength of the Kingdom which has not yet recovered from the last engraving defeat, as we can see from the sheer number of kids and elders in the army; We do not know ourselves."

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"Secondly, we have almost no intelligence of our enemies… Who is Zaganos Pasha? How many Ottomans are we facing? I must admit that our troops did get pretty complacent of themselves after achieving several victories against that Karaca Pasha, and I also admit that it is a mistake that we got him killed… A lame enemy commander is much better than a capable one, and by mistake we took the two of them the same; We do not know our enemies."

"Thirdly, we have entirely no coordinated command between every crusader. We have the Sicilians fighting in Epirus, hospitallers and Lombard fighting in the Aegean, and us, although it looks like we are here together with the Serbians and the Bosnians here in Bulgaria, but we do not have a coordinated command which means basically we are fighting by ourselves, which led to the distrust between us and the allies; We do not know our allies."

"And fourth, it is me." John Hunyadi rose his hand up stopping the sudden bustling of his men on his words and taunted on himself. "especially me, I am the biggest one at fault in this battle that led to our defeat, perhaps I am really way too old in my late forties, or have I forgot my own teachings in war, that I did not even see through this small trick that the Ottomans played on us making all of us look like a bloody fiddle." 

"But do not worry, as defeat, thinking from another angle, is a good thing."

"Only defeat, can teach us how to succeed, only defeat can teach us how to gain victory, only defeat can teach us how to defeat the Ottomans." 

"Although we are defeated, but our foundation is not damaged, we still have a Kingdom, two million people, twenty cities and countless castles, trust me, if God gives me another ten years, I shall return, return with a larger, more powerful army, and myself with a clearer mind. While for the Ottomans…"

"… The Despot of Serbia is right, when facing difficulties, we see them units together against all outside troubles, but once the outsiders are gone from their room, they start fighting among themselves. I can see that, I can see the court of Edirne is literally on a fire barrel now. In no time we shall see them split into several smaller parts, and the Ottomans shall be defeated, by us, and only by us."

Some colours of positive feelings finally came back onto the faces of the Hungarian Crusaders as they nod in support and discuss with their pals. "Yes, indeed… The Ottomans shall be defeated." 

"Alright brothers!" John Hunyadi stood up. "I brought all of you here, and now I shall bring you back… And I, shall come back in ten year's time, but now, it is time to go home for us the lucky ones, and bring back the news for those who are unfortunately lying here forever." 

The next day, the Crusaders set off under the escort of their Bosnian allies. 

Zaganos Pasha stands nearby looking in the distance of the Christians for a while, shaking his head and asked. "Did we kill John Hunyadi?"

"…"

"We are not sure, honourable pasha. Perhaps we have?"

Zaganos Pasha closed his eyes painfully and shook his head, then rode back towards his army.

The Crusade of the Balkans is now over.

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