In the Çirmen raid carried out under the command of Lala Şahin Pasha, they were able to win the battle thanks to the tactics and courage of the raiders and their commanders.
So how did they really succeed in defeating the Serbian army, which is almost 90 times more than themselves and has been preparing for this war for months, with great superiority?
The Balkan states were afraid of the Ottomans.
When Sultan Murat I came to the throne, the raids of the Young Ottoman Empire in Rumelia and the Balkans gained momentum. The Ottomans were quickly placing Turkmen families in the Balkans.
All the Balkan states, especially Rumelia, were worried that if the Turks could not be stopped, the next raid might be against their country.
The grudge they had in the Meriç War would set the stage for Çirmen.
At the call of Pope Urban V, the Crusader army of 80,000 people, formed by the kingdoms of Serbia, Hungary and Bulgaria, went on a campaign against the Ottoman Empire. The army was preparing to go to Edirne when they set up camp by crossing the Meriç River.
In this battle known as the Meriç War, the Ottoman army of 8 thousand people had destroyed the armies of the Crusaders with a night raid. This defeat would fuel the Grime War.
For this war, where kings and princes would stand at the head of the army, 70 thousand soldiers were gathered.
In the following years, at the call of the Pope, all three kings of Serbia united and managed to gather an army of 70,000 men. However, many of the soldiers were immature youths who were forced into persuasion and did not even know how to hold a sword properly.
Still, there were close to 2000 knights in the army, and the kings at their head had been preparing for this war for years. Even kings and princes would stand at the head of the army in battle.
Ottoman spies had noticed the army.
Meanwhile, Sultan Murat, who was unaware of anything, left Edirne in order to prevent the conflicts in Anatolia. The Serbs, taking advantage of this situation, set out for the region, but Ottoman spies noticed them.
In the absence of Sultan Murat, Edirne was entrusted to Lala Şahin Pasha. Having heard from the spies, Şahin Pasha immediately sent his messenger to Sultan Murat, but Sultan Murat and his army would not be able to catch up.
The only and last chance of the Ottoman raiders and the commander was tonight.
The spies were following the Serbian army step by step. They followed them to the food they ate. Lala Şahin Pasha, who took with him an army of 800 people who had run from war to war all their lives, was advancing with them near the Serbian army.
The army, which came to Çirmen from the banks of the Meriç River, would camp here to rest. The next day, they thought that they would carry out the Edirne raid they had planned. Commander Şahin Pasha’s last chance was tonight.
The raiders, carrying torches for 2, had panicked the enemies.
The Serbian army, which had camped with its back to the Evros River, was planned to be surrounded on three sides. The Serbs would fall into fear and panic when the drummers stationed in the hills struck their mallets as the raiders took action. Raiders descending from the hills would carry 2 torches, creating an image as if they were 2 people.
When it was pitch dark, the order to “attack” was given, and the drummers began to strike their mallets, and the raiders began to descend with torches. When the raiders entered the camp, they threw their torches into the tents and started a fire.
Tens of thousands of Serbian soldiers drowned in the river.
The knights, who were running towards the center to protect the kings and commanders, could not move quickly due to their heavy armor and became the target of the raiders.
While the commanders and two kings died in their tents, one of the kings managed to escape, but was killed by Lala Şahin Pasha.
While tens of thousands of soldiers, trying to escape with the shock they experienced, drowned in the Meriç River, the rest surrendered. Serbia, which lost its kings, came under the rule of the Ottomans.
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