142 Tide of Crusade

"Power is always greater when used in attack than in defense."

- John Hunyadi, regent governor of the Habsburg's kingdom of Hungary.

The horns of a new round of crusade are blown, spreading the message of the Papal bull from the Holy See to all parts of Europe, pinned outside the walls of Chantries and city gates, read out loud by clergies, declared to local nobles, and told to village folks.

Crusades, a term of holy wars among Christians that already has a history of four centuries, starting from the first and the only successful crusade which managed to use the internal chaos of the Seljik and weakness of the Fatimids pushing boundaries of Christendom all the way to Jordan and Egypt. One cannot say that the crusade is a war of justice against evil, good against bad, because of the atrocities done by both sides. But one also cannot assume that the crusade is a tragic event for it pushed the extent of communications between the Christian world and the Islamic world leading to another round of cultural, technological, Economical and social improvements across Europe.

But it seems like there are some people who have already started their preparation of armaments even before the crusade is initiated, while some others, even with the order of crusade released, seems a little carried away by other affairs, making them unable to get back in time.

The King of Bosnia, Stephan Thomas Kotromanići, shows a smirk on his face as the messenger from the Dominican bishop of Vrhbosna addresses the news of a new round of crusade from the holy see advising him to answer the God's will.

The King looks down from the watch tower of the Travnik fortress, among the breath taking Dinaric Alps in a distance, the reflective spring greens of the landscape mountainous ranges glows onto him in the early light, while beneath it rows after rows of soldiers marches southwards on the age old Roman country roads, they march south towards Serbia, where they would join forces with the Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Hungary which is already on a stand off against the Ottoman forces along the river Danube, trying to solidify the kingdom's control in that region taking advantage of current Ottoman weakness.

While in a distance three hundred Roman miles away from him, stands another man of many legends, called Gjergj Kastrioti, the Dominus Albaniae or better known as Skanderbeg of Albania. He needs no crusade or what so ever to push him into war with the Ottomans, as a de facto independent ruler who ruled the lands of Kastrioti seating on the very front line against the Sultanate everyday and every battle is a life and death struggle for him. Skanderbeg is always with his army, which is a rapid deployment force, fast to assemble, and fast to march off.

Considering the geographical distance between Constantinople and Kastrioti, Skanderbeg acquired the message of the victory of Constantinople a few days earlier than the Pope in Rome. Realising how surprising and fortunate the opportunity came, Skanderbeg made no hesitations and decided to seize it before it slips out of his hands. Thus, he gathered his ten thousand strong army and marched off with his sword pointing towards Avlonya and Lëkurësi.

John Hyundai is already watching Ottoman encampments along the river Danube when the order of Crusade arrived, together with it came his king Ladislaus' personnel letter asking him to be cautious on his moves, avoid all adventurous moves with the army and avoid throwing the entire army into a situation which would lead to an all out lose and dwindle the king's influence in this area. Together with the letter arrived three Austrian noble men who claims they are sent here by the king in Vien to help the governor in his impending campaigns, ease his troubles in managing his logistics and supplies.

Do you believe that this is the King's true intentions?

Some yes some no, but John Hyundai do not, he would rather believe that these three fellows are here to supervise him to not do anything stupid with half of the kingdom's army, and 'helping him manage his logistics and supplies' means that if he does anything unreasonable in the king's eyes, the three Austrians can have the right to delay or even cut off his supplies. Things are already troublesome enough with all those hostilities from the Voivode of Wallachia, but the good thing at least this time is that the King of Serbia joined his side.

Nevertheless, as the Papal Bull and the message of a new crusade soars through the plateaus of Iberian peninsula, black forests of Francia and Germania, tundra lands seas of Scandinavia, highlanders of Scotia, waters of the Baltic states, crop plains of Eastern Europe and shore line cities of Italia.

Oh, yes, and the English, they are still part of Europe, by Geographical terms of course.

Thousands after thousands of people ventured towards their local monasteries and churches gathering around expressing their will to join the crusade as they dream of getting a piece of private land as promised by the pope himself. The heat and eagerness among the various lords rose back up again recovering from the just ten years ago foiled crusade at Varna.

But the first ones who acquired the precise undisrupted information of both the Sultan's death and the Papal bull, are the Italians.

The Medicis of Florence, the different lords of Genoa, Ragusa and Venice gathered their fleets and mercenaries and set off towards Ottoman sea waters. The various doges of the Republics, although did not formally join in the crusade, but still turned a blind eye towards their patrician joining and offered shipping services to the Frankish and Germanic nobles at a high price, preparing to earn a sumptuous amount taking advantage of the crusade.

And this led to a series of events in the process, that changed Antonius' view on this whole crusade thing for his entire life.