Looking at the young Christian king cut down by his elite guards, Sultan Murad II, from his imperial carriage in the Ottoman central army, felt a mix of relief and joy, but also a hint of pity for this young and reckless enemy: if this infidel had not been his enemy, he might have achieved remarkable things in the future.
However, his insignificant pity clearly had no bearing on his decisions on the battlefield. After surveying the Polish knights still entangled with his Janissaries with a stern and indifferent gaze, he motioned to the Janissary warrior beside him to raise the unseeing head of Władysław III and shouted loudly:
"Infidels, lay down your arms and accept your fate! Your king has fallen in battle, and your fight is useless!"
"May Allah have mercy on you, for I will not have mercy on anyone who continues to resist!"
In the clamorous battlefield, few Christians heard the Sultan's call to surrender, but they all saw the young king's head. Those closer could even see the tragic, unseeing look on the king's face.
Thus, Władysław III turned the tide of the battle; more precisely, his death turned the tide in the opposite direction of what he had hoped for in life. Ironically, his bravery had almost pushed the scales entirely to the Ottoman side. Countless Christian warriors, upon witnessing the king's death, lost all courage, replaced by a fear of death and a terror of the Turks.
Hunyadi, at the other end of the battlefield, quickly learned of this tragic news, and the horrifying reality immediately overwhelmed him: the Crusader warriors, who had originally led the charge at the king's call, successively displayed a fear that should not have been shown on the battlefield; many of them even fled, wide-eyed and weak-limbed, towards the rear of the formation, only to be caught and killed by pursuing Ottoman cavalry; the Hussite wagon soldiers almost completely lost their momentum to block the enemy with their wagons, instead weakly firing a few muskets, only to be struck down by stray bullets; even the bravest warriors found it difficult to encourage their comrades to continue fighting, struggling even to defend themselves.
Even in this situation, Hunyadi still displayed his formidable military capabilities and decisive style. After ordering Fruzhin to secure the right flank within a short time, he immediately led the plate-armored knights back to the central army. There, the most elite group of heavily armored Crusader warriors, led by Cardinal Cesarini, the Papal Legate, were anxiously resisting the Turk's blades.
Upon his arrival, Hunyadi quickly cut through the encircling Ottoman infantry. When Cardinal Cesarini, who was barely maintaining the formation in the central army, saw Hunyadi's banner, he was instantly invigorated, quickly moved closer, and made direct contact with the Army Commander.
"Commander, what should we do now?" This was Cardinal Cesarini's first question upon seeing Hunyadi again. He had originally thought that even if this battle at Varna would not succeed, it would at least not incur any losses. How could he have known that the young king's usual recklessness would lead them to a desperate situation where all their previous efforts would be in vain!
"His Majesty's soul has ascended to heaven, and now all we can do is ensure His Majesty's remains rest in peace." Upon seeing the Legate again, Hunyadi tried his best to stop his sword-wielding right hand from trembling, "Only then will the warriors of Christ not completely collapse because of His Majesty, and this is the only thing we can do now."
His meaning was clear: try to retrieve the body of the fallen Polish king to rally the morale of the Crusaders who had not yet completely dispersed. This way, the allied army would at least not be chased and routed by the Ottoman, and could at least preserve some viable forces to retreat to the occupied territories.
"Then, let us follow the will of the Lord." Hunyadi held his sword vertically, his face directly facing the blade.
"Lord, have mercy." Cardinal Cesarini drew the sword from his waist, also deciding, for once, to lead from the front.
There was no time even to mourn the death of Władysław III; the next to charge the Ottoman army were "White Knight" Hunyadi and Papal Legate Cardinal Cesarini, along with their combined Hungarian, Bohemian, and Lithuanian forces!
While the "White Knight" and others chose to lead their armies to continue clashing with the Ottoman, in the village of Krushevo, south of the main Varna battlefield, the engagement between the Bosporus Army and Turahan Bey's Ottoman forces was finally nearing its end. Although Turahan Bey outnumbered the Bosporus Army by over five thousand men, these five thousand hastily conscripted Bulgarian able-bodied men were not only of questionable quality but also had no desire whatsoever to fight their fellow kinsmen, relying entirely on Ottoman soldiers to drive them. After the Ottoman soldiers driving them were successively cut down by the Bosporus's elite troops, the Bulgarians either surrendered peacefully on the spot or immediately found a way to escape the battlefield, leaving Turahan Bey and other Ottoman Generals to rage impotently in the rear.
Concurrent with the flight of the cannon fodder conscripts was the decline of the various corps that formed the backbone of the Ottoman army. Under the superior firepower of their own artillery, the pikemen and musketeers mercilessly charged into the Ottoman ranks. At the same time, the agile Tatar cavalry demonstrated far superior mounted archery skills compared to the Turkmen cavalry, ruthlessly disrupting the enemy's central army.
"Bey, the Romans' cannons and heavy armor are too difficult to deal with." His deputy, seeing their side's decline, reported the situation to the General with a nearly tearful face.
"Hold on a little longer, at least until the Sultan finishes dealing with those at Varna..." Just as Turahan Bey was about to grit his teeth and lead his troops to persevere, a squad of communication soldiers from Varna, braving the intense fighting, reached him and informed the Bey of everything that had happened on the Varna battlefield so far.
"Is this the Sultan's will?" Turahan Bey was filled with trepidation.
"Yes, by Allah," the communication squad leader reported without hesitation.
Upon receiving the Sultan's message, Turahan Bey smirked and ordered: "All troops prepare to leave here. Let our brave Oghuz lads save their energy for the next war, and as for the Romans, who are at the end of their tether, let them become an insignificant achievement for the Sultan."
Thus, Turahan Bey, showing clear signs of decline, orderly led his remaining seven or eight thousand men to retreat south, away from the battlefield, and Bosporus achieved a victory that was difficult to describe.
Forced by circumstances, the Bosporus side gave up their close pursuit of Turahan's forces, and at this time, Tukharovsky, the Tauris Army Commander in the army, advised his monarch, "Your Majesty, Varna is ahead. But to encounter the main Ottoman force, we would likely have to cross the marshy waters, primarily Varna Lake. If we are truly to engage the main force led by the Ottoman Sultan next, these complex and muddy terrains will likely only be a disadvantage for us."
What Tukharovsky said was true; even if the Bosporus Army's engineers could quickly build temporary fortifications to traverse the marsh in a short time, it would merely be a farcical performance in front of the well-prepared Ottoman army.
"The marsh is indeed a problem. If it were in the past, we probably would not have been able to face such a formidable enemy after crossing the marsh." Manuel narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he had thought of something.
"But," changing his tone, Manuel pulled a secret letter from his pocket, and upon closer inspection, it clearly bore the signature of Falero, the Bosporus Naval Admiral, "I have already considered this.
"So next, Murad has miscalculated."
Finally, he looked up to the south, where squads of wagon soldiers were orderly boarding ships; and on the sea directly east of the Bosporus Grand Army, warships bearing black double-headed eagle banners were approaching the coast.
By the time the Bosporus Army began to implement their plan, it was already afternoon on the Varna battlefield, and the battle was unfolding as Sultan Murad II had envisioned.
In order to reclaim the king's body, prove that the Crusaders still had the strength to fight, and thereby stabilize the rapidly declining Crusader morale, Hunyadi, after several frantic, red-eyed charges, gradually lost his momentum.
The "White Knight's" desperate gamble failed. Or rather, his futile attacks accelerated the allied army's defeat. After Papal Legate Cardinal Julian Cesarini was shattered by a stone cannonball, he was almost the only one left among the few leaders of the Catholic allied army.
"Commander, Fruzhin Shishman, he, he took his Bulgarians and the right flank..." Just as Hunyadi was hesitating about how to proceed, his deputy informed him of the sudden, terrible news.
It was over. Hunyadi understood this, and he couldn't even blame his allies. He could only suppress the grief in his heart and issue his last military order at Varna,
"All troops retreat!"
What happened next was simple. Soon, the allied front was breached by the Ottoman, and the wounded Hunyadi János could only retreat with a very small number of people.
The Catholic Crusader forces at Varna were completely defeated.