DRACULA AGAINST MEHMED THE CONQUEROR
The military events commenced in the very first weeks of 1462, during a harsh winter, not uncommon for this region of the Carpathian Mountains. After an Ottoman delegation had failed to lure the voivode into a trap, Vlad rapidly took action.
Having caught, mutilated, and impaled his assassins, he divided his horsemen into six contingents and surprisingly crossed the frozen Danube River. The Wallachians simultaneously attacked six of the key Ottoman strongholds and their dependencies along the river in what appears to have been a meticulously coordinated operation. As confirmed by post-Byzantine and Ottoman sources, Vlad established three battlefronts according to geographic particularities and his logistical necessities.
While an unnamed man, probably the same high-ranking nobleman later charged with the defence of the Wallachian–Moldavian border, coordinated the eastern front, the western one, across the River Olt, stood under the command of Neagoe, the founding father of the very powerful Craiovești family that played a crucial role in later struggles against the Ottomans. Vlad most likely coordinated the campaigns from Bucharest – the future capital of Romania mentioned for the first time in contemporary documents. Together with Neagoe, Vlad pursued a pincer movement against Nicopolis, the most important Ottoman stronghold on the Danube. Thanks to contemporary Ottoman census registers (tahrir defterleri), we can say a lot more about the targets attacked in this region. Most of the small localities were mainly Christian and supplied fighters for local auxiliary troops (voynuk). Many voynuks fought within the ranks of the notorious akıncıs, the most effective and feared Ottoman forces in Europe (Rumelia).
A new discovery made by the team of reveals another category of localities that were targeted by Vlad. Besides vital areas for the akıncıs and
