When the Ottoman soldiers came to the field and were greeted by this sudden sight, they froze in terror, as if staring into the eyes of a monstrous beast. Row after row of their fellow soldiers’ impaled corpses lined the field, covering an area one thousand yards long and almost three thousand yards wide. The stench was horrendous. Flies swarmed, and maggots writhed. The shrill cries of birds pecking at the bodies rose in the air. With some corpses, the stakes pierced their torsos, making them look like food left on twigs by butcher birds. Others had been impaled through the anus, the tips sprouting from their mouths, shoulders, or backs. Groups of crows pecked at eyeballs and decaying flesh, and intestines poured from gutted stomachs like tattered string. Other corpses were torn like filthy rags, hanging half off the spears. Death by impalement wasn’t unique to Walachia; it was also a common punishment in the Ottoman Empire. However, no one had ever seen so many people similarly executed at one time. The sight was more than the hearts of those battle-weary soldiers could bear.
Every soldier turned pale and slumped to the ground, vomiting bile.
It wasn’t long before the empire began to call the voivode by a new name: Vlad the Impaler. Before they started the campaign, they had derided Vlad as the naive ruler of a backwater principality. After entering Walachian territory, they had despised him as a cruel despot who resorted to petty tricks. Now, their hatred swelled to contempt at his unforgivable actions, and they quickly lost their remaining strength. The cries of disgust at Vlad’s cruelty spread throughout the imperial army like wildfire.
Vlad continued to fight bravely, backed by adherents and supporters both within Walachia and abroad. Rumors began to spread that Vlad might even push into Ottoman territory, but the Walachian boyars that had been the target of Vlad’s cruel treatment began to side with the Ottoman Empire and interfere with the Walachian army. Radu, Vlad’s younger brother, was even involved in these actions.
The tide of the war turned.
Though they fought tenaciously, Vlad’s troops began to find victory unattainable as the Ottoman Empire pushed them back.
Realizing that all seemed lost, Vlad decided to temporarily flee the principality for Transylvania. He was seized under the orders of Matthias I, king of Hungary, and incarcerated.
In a cruel twist of fate, Matthias I was the second son of János Hunyadi, whom Vlad had such respect for.
Hunyadi had succumbed to illness many years before. Vlad gave a wry smile, thankful that Hunyadi wasn’t around to see him in his current state. Even after the man had dedicated so much to educate him, Vlad hadn’t been able to contain the power of the boyars. Yet he only had the one life, so all he could do was keep fighting for as long as he could.
Vlad’s imprisonment lasted twelve years.
Throughout that time, his hatred toward the Ottoman Empire never faded.
He disagreed vehemently with anyone who claimed that small nations could survive only through submission to larger countries, that they shouldn’t fight back regardless of their opponent, and that they were fated to simply bow their heads and offer tribute.
Even for a small nation, no one but the citizens should be involved in how it’s governed.
The aristocrats and government officials in Walachia who offered such murky promises as “one day” and “for now” did nothing more than enslave themselves to a more powerful nation. Their conspiracies crushed those who resisted in the name of justice. That wasn’t the way to run a country. They would reform the government, train a proper army, and work for the enrichment of everyone, not just the wealthy. Only then would it be a proper nation. Vlad would make that a reality.
No matter how treacherous the path seemed, no matter how many cursed his name, he would give everything he had to save his motherland.
1476. With the help of Stephen, the voivode of Moldavia, Vlad took back the title of voivode of Walachia for a second time. And this time, he did it without choosing to submit to the empire.
Once more, he gathered his armies and set out for a final confrontation with the Ottoman Empire.
Mehmed II had grown weary of Walachia’s stubbornness and waited patiently in the capital for good news. He no longer hated or despised Vlad but simply pitied him, recognizing his actions as those of a zealot. He had spared Vlad in the last battle and not subjected Walachia to his suzerainty, only making them promise to provide tribute and gifts. He had forgiven everything. So why was this man turning his sword against them? If he had just come under the protection of the more powerful country and done as they required, his small nation would open the way to peace. If Vlad didn’t understand that, then so be it. He would entertain the man’s desire to fight and wipe him from the face of the earth.
The prospect of facing the imperial army imbued the Walachian soldiers with a nervous energy they hadn’t felt for many years, but their enthusiasm lacked the same passion—the same spark it had before. Many of the boyars had sided with the Ottoman Empire when Vlad had been deposed and didn’t want to lose their current positions of power.
A few people rallied around Vlad to protect him.
Among them were Razvan and his son.
The twelve years had aged Razvan considerably, but he hadn’t lost his skill as a commander.
His son George was now thirty-two years old, with a wife and daughter at home.
Even with so few allies, George decided to fight for Vlad. One thing, however, tugged at his conscience: Vlad’s conversion to Catholicism.
Before returning to Walachia, Vlad had followed Hungary’s lead and sought the support of the Catholic Church as part of his anti-Ottoman strategy. For that, he had abandoned Walachia’s Eastern Orthodox Church and converted to Catholicism.
This affront to the Walachian people caused many to lose faith in him. Aristocrats and commoners alike scorned the decision. Discarding the religion he had followed until then amounted to a betrayal on both an emotional and societal level. Vlad couldn’t defend himself if accused that he no longer saw Walachians as his people.
While they were preparing for war, George visited the voivode on behalf of his father to ascertain Vlad’s true intentions behind his conversion of faith. Had Razvan gone, depending on how the conversation went, there was a chance he would have openly expressed opposition to the voivode’s decision. So he sent his son George instead.
Razvan had assumed that having his son talk to Vlad instead of him would minimize the ramifications of any missteps, but George still felt incredibly nervous. The slightest lapse in concentration could endanger his life, even as a trusted and long-standing retainer of the voivode. Recently, Vlad wouldn’t hesitate to execute anyone when his anger got the better of him. He had wrapped himself in too many conspiracies. His life was filled with assassinations and treachery, and even though he’d surrounded himself with only those he thought he could trust, his own brother had betrayed him. It wouldn’t be unusual if Vlad was suspicious of everyone by now. George hadn’t known if the voivode’s whims would result in his or his father’s impalement.
Yet even so, he had to act.
George hoped to find something, no matter how small, that would help them continue the fight. If he didn’t know the voivode’s true intentions, then he couldn’t lead his troops as effectively.
Vlad immediately granted his request for an audience. He expected much from Razvan and his son and eagerly wanted to hear reports on troop numbers, equipment, and the specifics of their strategies.
This allowed George the opportunity to converse with Vlad in private. Pointing at a map spread out on the table, he suggested various methods for their meager forces to harry the Ottoman army.
Purely in terms of tactics, Walachia had won the last war. Had they not been betrayed, they likely would have been able to drive the Ottoman Empire out of their lands. Stopping the fighting there had been a major mistake. They couldn’t employ the same tactics again, and the imperial army would surely advance carefully this time. Even if they ambushed the invaders as they had previously, there was a good chance that the Ottomans would repel them.
George felt that they had to quickly eliminate the enemy commander early on while minimizing losses to the main troops. The longer the fighting went on, the harder it would be for Walachia. They would form an elite assassination squad, which, while their main force made a show of fighting a regular field encounter, would approach by a different route and launch a surprise attack on the commander’s location. They would only get the one chance.