On the plains in April, the sun was already a little hot at noon, and the oncoming wind seemed a little warm.

A farmer wiped the sweat from his face with a towel wrapped around his head, and was about to lower his head to continue his work, when his son, who was not far away, suddenly shouted to him.

The farmer looked up in the direction his son was pointing, and saw in the distance a troop of troops crossing the field.

The farmer immediately beckoned his son to his side, and he saw that it was the Ottoman army, and although he had not heard of any terrible thing that these infidels had done to them, it was strange and terrible to look at their apparently different appearance from his own.

Although some soldiers who look like Europeans and even Balkans can be seen among them, their clothing is still inexplicably terrifying.

The farmer took his son and hid in his door, and then looked out through the crack window.

They noticed that the Ottoman troops were in a hurry and seemed to be in a hurry, which made the people of the village secretly breathe a sigh of relief, but they soon discovered that the Ottomans, who seemed to be big men, had entered the village.

The Ottomans stopped in the village for a moment, then took a fancy to a few houses on high ground, and after smashing open the closed doors and driving the owners out of the houses to vacate them, an Ottoman man of apparently high status moved in, accompanied by his entourage.

As for the locals who had been driven out, just as they were furious but unable to vent their anger, a Balkan-looking retinue threw at them two heavy bags of money.

"My lord rewards you," said the attendant, pointing to the purse that was still on the ground, "so that you don't have to go around talking nonsense." ”

A young man tried to reach for the purse, but was stopped by his father, and the farmer stared at the retinue across from him, who was also from the Balkans but dressed as an Ottoman soldier, and spat on the ground fiercely, and then turned away with his reluctant son and wife.

"Didn't those people ask for money?" Elope, who was drinking water in the house, asked his attendant who had come back with a money bag.

"Maybe they'd rather have a whip." The attendant complained in Ottoman language, "Sir, why do you still give them money, everything here is requisitioned by us." ”

Eleup smiled, he sometimes found it amusing, in his attitude towards the Balkans, many of the subjugated natives who were later subjugated were more radical and cruel than the real Ottomans, and sometimes the methods they proposed to suppress the natives would be considered a bit excessive by the Ottomans.

And the reason why they do so seems to be to prove their determination to make a complete break with their own people and beliefs in this way.

"Brutal repression and merciful tolerance are the two hands by which the conqueror rules, and neither can be done without either," said Elop to his entourage, "We are not passing and staying here for a while, but we are going to rule forever, so we need a more prudent policy towards the people here, and blind cruelty is not a sign of a good official, understand?" ”

Seeing the attendant's cautious nod, Eyrip walked to the door and looked at the village built along the mountain.

"We've had to stay here for a long time, the Bosnian king obviously doesn't welcome us, we, but we still need his help, so tell our people not to harass the locals easily, that could lead to conflict with the Bosnians, we're here to encircle and suppress Hurva in Zagreb, in that case we have to get along with Rwa."

Listening to the retinue around him, Elop's eyes were already looking towards the endless mountains ahead.

"I really want to know where that Helva is now, but I hope we can deal with this Darius of Zagreb as much as possible, or the Sultan's wrath will make us all regret coming into this world."

El Lup muttered to himself, but he also knew that it really wasn't that easy to accomplish this task.

Just two days earlier, the Helva army had attacked an Ottoman baggage caravan, and in addition to looting a large amount of jewelry for military expenses, what really angered the Sultan was that they had destroyed all the artillery that the baggage team was escorting.

This included two siege guns that had just been cast in Sarajevo.

This made the Sultan furious, and in the secret order sent by him, the Sultan ordered Aryup to get rid of the "Darius of Zagreb" as soon as possible, and to make him pay for his stupidity.

For this reason, the Sultan at the same time made it clear in his secret decree that the Bosnian king Rwaqi should fully cooperate and obey the orders of Elup.

Elip knew that Rwajli must be dissatisfied with this order, and if it was a normal Sultan, he would never give such an order that was completely different from his previous style, but when he saw the Sultan's explanation of the current situation in the secret order, Elip also knew why the Sultan was so desperate, and did not even consider the order that Rwaj, who was dependent and allied, felt at all.

On 4 April, the Ottoman army launched an offensive against the Montina army on the right bank of the Alger River.

According to the Sultan's intentions, although he was angry at the Europeans who suddenly appeared in front of him, he still did not pay attention to the army of more than 6,000 people.

In particular, the terrain occupied by the other side did not seem to be suitable for defense, unless the opponent was strictly on the line of the Alger River, relying on the river as a natural barrier to stop his army, otherwise as long as his army crossed the river, the Sultan believed that with the strong mobility of his light cavalry, once the offensive sequence was launched on the right bank of the river, then he could easily choose to threaten any flank of the enemy army in a roundabout.

However, although he was sure of this outcome, the Sultan did not act too hastily, he told his army to cross the river carefully after they were ready, and even when it was certain that the enemy did not intend to defend along the Alger River, he did not rush to order an attack after the advance troops had crossed the river.

Rather, while advancing equally steadily, he ordered the light cavalry units to quickly cross the river for reinforcements, while the Sultan gave the commanders of the battlefield who were on the front line a bold and careful order.

In this way, the Ottoman commanders had two choices, and three paths.

One option was to launch a frontal assault on the positions of the oncoming Montina army with the available troops, while the other option was to quickly use the high-speed maneuver of the light cavalry after crossing the river, as the Sultan had hoped, to quickly flank the enemy from both flanks while attacking head-on, in order to defeat and encircle the enemy in the shortest possible time.

The commander only hesitated a little and chose the second option, although he was very confident and more interested in defeating the enemy head-on, but judging from the orders given by the Sultan, it seemed that the enemy on the opposite side really aroused the nameless anger of the great Sultan, so that the Sultan hoped not to simply defeat but to completely annihilate the unlucky guy in front of him.

However, by the afternoon of April 4, although the vanguard had successfully crossed the river, and even most of the Anatolian light cavalry had crossed the river, the Ottomans had not yet fully figured out which onion this guy who suddenly appeared to block the way.

The Balkan aristocracy, led by Ladislas II, was now all in the city of Bucharest, and Helva, the Darius of Zagreb whom the Sultan called Zagreb, had taken refuge in the mountains, and Rwaqi had joined their camp.

In that case, who is this guy who suddenly appeared?

The Ottomans could not find out much about the lineage of the Balkan aristocracy, if not by all, the result of the infiltration from the time of Muhammad made them very clear about the ins and outs of the Balkan nobles who seemed to have a chaotic relationship and their strength, but now this person made them feel very strange.

According to the scout's report, the enemy was between 6 and 7,000 men, and all of them should be in front of them, except for a cavalry force of about a few hundred men that was now being pursued.

Then the number of frontal enemies should not exceed 7,000 people.

Speaking of the princes and lords who can have such an army, even if they are not as good as Rwaqi, they are by no means a small nobleman without a name, not to mention that according to their performance, it can be determined that this army in front of them should be the army that first defeated Rwaqi on the banks of the Muresh River, and then shelled the Ottoman army that crossed the river.

European reinforcements from the Vatican?

When thinking about this identity, the Sultan became even more interested in this head-on enemy.

He even ordered the front-line commanders to try to capture rather than kill the enemy's generals, because he needed to learn from them what attitude the Vatican and European monarchs had towards his expedition.

Although the commander who received the order was a little embarrassed, he did not think that it could be done, but he was somewhat hesitant in the face of which direction the enemy should choose in a roundabout way.

On the map, the place where Montina's army set up its defensive line in this large triangle formed by two rivers and a city is almost to the right of the center of the triangle.

The entire Montina Line was set up diagonally in a left-front-right-back pattern on a hilly area parallel to the Alger River, behind them was the city of Bucharest, the left side of the line was narrow because of the gap exposed by the adjacent to the raging Danube, and on the right, although there was a large plain to detour, but because of the side behind Bucharest, this also made the Ottoman front commanders hesitate.

The choice to break through from the enemy's left flank seemed risky, and the Ottomans despised the cowardice and incompetence of the Europeans, but did not blindly underestimate the enemy enough to ignore the danger.

On the contrary, the Ottoman officers would take the enemy in front of them very seriously every time they fought, and then formulate a plan that was sure enough.

So the idea of outflanking from the gap between the left flank of the enemy and the Danube was thrown out of the way in just a moment's time.

But if it takes a detour from the right flank, will it provoke a fierce reaction from Bucharest?

After all, an army of nearly 7,000 men is not so easy to defeat quickly, once the enemy is in a stalemate, and Bucharest City takes advantage of the situation, then the light cavalry that goes deep and roundabout may face the danger of being flanked from the front and rear.

As for the possibility that Bucharest may remain on the sidelines for various reasons, this is not something that the front-line commander should consider, as a pure soldier, the possibilities that will appear on the battlefield are what he should consider.

It was with this in mind that, after much consideration, the Ottomans made a decision that surprised Alexander even slightly.

On the afternoon of April 4, the sun had shifted slightly westward from the center, and the cool river breeze with a slightly warm afternoon was blowing in their faces, and the soldiers, who were digging dirt from the trenches and building a low wall in front, heard the rapid sound of horses' hooves coming from a distance.

The soldiers put down their tools and looked into the distance, and soon they saw fast horses with a puff of smoke and dust rushing towards them.

The man on the horse was shirtless, and his body shimmered in the sun because of the sweat.

"Ottoman! Ottoman! ”

The scout leapt over the trench without stopping, splashing the dirt directly on the faces of the soldiers who barely had time to dodge, inviting a foul swearing.

"What did the one who rushed to hell say?" One soldier cursed while spitting on the salty mud in his mouth, "I hope he will fall off his horse and break his neck in a moment." ”

Not hearing his companion's answer, the soldier looked around a little strangely.

Seeing the solemn or apocalyptic expressions on the faces of the people around him, the soldier was stunned, and then suddenly understood what was going on, and his face also turned pale.

He turned his head to look out into the plain in the distance, and muttered to himself, "The Ottomans are coming." ”

The scout quickly crossed one trench after another, and although many of these trenches were shallow pits, the scout still had to slow down and make more detours due to the obstacles formed by the improvised felling and tying up fences.

Alexander was now observing the surrounding positions on a high hill on the hills, and he was more concerned with the setting of the positions and the security of the flanks of the entire front.

He was impressed by the agility of the Anatolian light cavalry, especially at the Battle of Varna, where the Ottomans broke through with light cavalry and then brutally slaughtered them, convinced him that if he could not protect his flanks, things would not be good.

Alexander never wanted to spend all his money in the backwoods of the Balkans.

He still had to take Sofia with him, he had to get the big copper mine he had coveted from Ladislas II, and more importantly, there were so many things to do in Italy that the thought of the open and secret rivalry between Lucrezia and Barenti gave him some headaches, but this slightly sweet annoyance only made him happy.

As for Josha, Alexander felt that she was the one who really reassured him, at least when it came to helping his brother.

"My dear sister."

Every time Alexander wrote a letter that began with it, and he could vaguely feel it, and he seemed to enjoy it.

It's understandable to think about it, after all, there may be many wives and lovers, but a likable sister is destined to be only one.

Unless his merry mother gives birth to another one......

At this moment, Alexander, who was thinking wildly, heard the shouts of scouts rushing from near and far.

"Ottomans! Ottomans! ”

Alexander immediately beckoned his retinue to bring the scout to him, and his face was slightly surprised when he heard the scout report to him before he had time to jump off his horse.

"You mean that the Ottoman advance is advancing towards us, so are you sure you don't see any movement of the enemy light cavalry?"

"Yes, sir," the Balkan scout nodded vigorously, "their light cavalry was only slightly ahead of the infantry, but they never broke away from the infantry, nor did they go farther to the left or right, as you said before, they just followed the infantry. ”

Listening to the scout's description, Alexander muttered a little, and then he hurriedly turned around and walked over to the map laid on a stone to look at it carefully.

When he roughly measured the wide plain on his right flank and the city of Bucharest behind him, and roughly calculated the possible number of troops of the Ottomans in front of the Montina line according to the scouts, the corners of Alexander's mouth twitched slightly, and then he muttered in the slang he had just learned from the Balkans: "γαμώτο"