Night attack at Târgoviște

1462 Wallachian battle with the Ottomans

Vlad Țepeș's only ally, Mihály Szilágyi, was captured in 1460 by the Turks while traversing Bulgaria. Szilágyi's men were tortured to death, while Szilágyi was sawed in half. Vlad Țepeș had not paid the annual jizya of 10,000 ducats since 1459. In addition to this, Mehmed asked him for 1,000 boys that were to be trained as janissaries. Vlad Țepeș refused the demand, and the Turks crossed the Danube and started to do their own recruiting, to which Vlad reacted by capturing the Turks and impaling them. The conflict continued until 1461, when Mehmed asked the Prince to come to Constantinople and negotiate with him. At the end of November 1461, Vlad Țepeș wrote to Mehmed that he could not afford to pay the jizya, as his war against the Saxons of Transylvania had emptied his resources, and that he could not leave Wallachia and risk having the Hungarian king take over his domains. He further promised to send the Sultan plenty of gold when he could afford to and that he would go to Constantinople if the Sultan would send him a pasha to rule over Wallachia in his absence. Meanwhile, the Sultan received intelligence reports that revealed Vlad's alliance with Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus. He sent the bey of Nicopolis, Hamza Pasha, to stage a diplomatic meeting with Vlad at Giurgiu, but with orders to ambush him there; and thereafter, take him to Constantinople. Vlad was forewarned about the ambush and planned to set an ambush of his own. Hamza brought with him 1,000 cavalry and when passing through a narrow pass north of Giurgiu, Vlad launched a surprise attack. The Wallachians had the Turks surrounded and fired with their handgunners until the entire expedition force was killed. Historians credit Vlad Țepeș as one of the first European crusaders to use gunpowder in a "deadly artistic way". In a letter to Corvinus, dated 11 February 1462, he wrote that Hamza Pasha was captured close to the former Wallachian fortress of Giurgiu. He then disguised himself as a Turk and advanced with his cavalry towards the fortress where he ordered the guards in Turkish to have the gates open. I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed 23,884 Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him (Sultan Mehmet II). The Christian Bulgarians were spared and many of them were settled in Wallachia. His precise numbers were counted as such: At Giurgiu there were 6,414 victims; at Eni Sala, 1,350; at Durostor 6,840; at Orsova, 343; at Hârsova, 840; at Marotin, 210; at Turtucaia, 630; at Turnu, Batin, and Novograd, 384; at Sistov, 410; at Nicopolis and Ghighen, 1,138; at Rahova, 1,460. When hearing about the devastation, Mehmed—who was busy besieging a fortress in Corinth—sent his grand vizier, Mahmud, with an army of 18,000 to destroy the Wallachian port of Brăila. Vlad Țepeș turned back and defeated the army, and according to the Historia Turchesca of Giovanni Maria Angiolello, sometimes attributed to an Italian chronicler Donado da Lezze, only 8,000 Turks survived. Vlad Țepeș's campaign was celebrated among the Saxon cities of Transylvania, the Italian states, and the Pope. A Venetian envoy, upon hearing about the news at the court of Corvinus on 4 March , expressed great joy and said that the whole of Christianity should celebrate Vlad Țepeș's successful campaign. Many Turks were now frightened of Vlad and left the European side of their empire and moved into Anatolia. Mehmed, when hearing about the events, abandoned his siege at Corinth and decided to go against Vlad Țepeș himself.

Mehmed sent messengers in all directions to assemble an army, "which in numbers and armaments must have been equal to that which he had employed on the siege of Constantinople." On 26 April or 17 May 1462, the sultan moved with his army from Constantinople with the objective of conquering Wallachia. The Greek historian Laonikos Chalkokondyles wrote of Mehmed's army as "huge, second in size only to the one that this sultan had led against Constantinople." He estimated the force at 250,000, while the Turkish historian Tursun Bey mentioned 300,000. A smaller estimate of the size of the Turkish forces was made by the Venetian envoy at Buda, Tommasi, who mentioned a regular force of 60,000 and some 30,000 irregulars. Chalkokondyles reported that the Danube shipowners were paid 300,000 gold pieces to transport the army. In addition to this, the Ottomans used their own fleet that consisted of 25 triremes and 150 smaller vessels.

Vlad Țepeș asked the Hungarian king for assistance. He received no support despite promises made by Corvinus and instead called for a mobilization that included "not only men of military age, but also of women and of children from the age of twelve up; and included Gypsy slave contingents." Various sources mention the strength of his army to be between 22,000 and 30,900, with the most popular accepted number set at 30,000. When night began to fall, we climbed into our boats and floated down the Danube and crossed over to the other side several miles below the place where Vlad's army was stationed. There we dug ourselves trenches, so that cavalry could not harm us. After that we crossed back over to the other side and transported other janissaries over the Danube, and when the entire infantry had crossed over, then we prepared and set out gradually against Vlad's army, together with the artillery and other equipment that we had brought with us. Having halted, we set up the cannon, but not in time to stop three hundred janissaries from being killed Seeing that our side was greatly weakening, we defended ourselves with the 120 guns which we had brought over and fired so often that we repelled the prince's army and greatly strengthened our position Vlad, seeing that he could not prevent the crossing, withdrew. After that the emperor crossed the Danube with his entire army and gave us 30,000 coins to be distributed among us. The Ottoman army managed to advance as Vlad Țepeș instituted a policy of scorched earth, poisoned the waters, and also created marshes by diverting the waters of small rivers. Traps were created by the digging of pits, and then covered with timber and leaves. The population and animals were evacuated to the mountains and as Mehmed advanced for seven days, his army suffered from fatigue as "he found no man, nor any significant animal, and nothing to eat or drink." Vlad adopted guerrilla tactics as his cavalry made several hit and run attacks. He would also send ill people suffering from lethal diseases, such as leprosy, tuberculosis—and in more significant numbers—those who suffered from the bubonic plague, to intermix with the Turks and infect them. The bubonic plague managed to spread in the Ottoman army. The Ottoman fleet launched a few minor attacks on Brăila and Chilia, but without being able to do much damage, as Vlad Țepeș had destroyed most of the ports in Bulgaria. Chalkokondyles writes that the Sultan managed to capture a Wallachian soldier and at first tried to bribe him for information; when that didn't work, he threatened him with torture, to no avail. Mehmed was said to have commended the soldier by saying, "if your master had many soldiers like yourself, in a short time he could conquer the world!" The Turks continued with their advance towards Târgoviște, after failing to capture the fortress of Bucharest and the fortified island of Snagov. On 17 June, when the Turks camped south of the capital, Vlad Țepeș launched his night attack with 24,000, or possibly with only 7,000 to 10,000 horsemen. Chalkokondyles retells the story that, before making his attack, Vlad went freely into the Turkish camp disguised as a Turk, and wandered around to find the location of the Sultan's tent and learn about his organization. The anonymous Italian chronicle of Verona mentions that Mehmed had disallowed his soldiers to exit their tents during the night, as to not cause panic in case of an attack. and would cause great confusion in the Ottoman camp. The Wallachians made noise from their buglers and illuminated the battle with their torches; and in that night, they launched not one, but several attacks. Vlad Țepeș himself aimed for the tent of the sultan, as he routed the Asian cavalry, but mistakenly went for the tent of the two grand viziers Ishak Pasha and Mahmud Pasha. A Wallachian point of view of the events was recorded by the papal legate, Niccolò Modrussa, years later at the court of Buda when Vlad was being imprisoned by Corvinus. It is said to have been told by a Wallachian veteran: pursued the Wallachians and killed 1,000–2,000 of them. According to the chronicle of the Venetan bailo at the Porte, Domenico Balbi, the total casualties for the conflict are numbered as 5,000 for the Wallachian side and 15,000 for the Ottomans. Even though the morale of the sultan and his army was low, Mehmed decided to besiege the capital, but instead found it deserted with its gates wide open. The Turkish army entered the capital and for half an hour, the army marched on the road that was bordered by some 20,000 impaled Ottomans. There, they found the rotten corpse of Hamza Pasha impaled on the highest stake, to symbolize his 'high ranking'. Other sources say that the city was defended by the soldiers, while the impaled corpses lay outside the city walls for a distance of 60 miles. Mehmed ordered for a deep trench to be dug out around the Turkish encampment in order to prevent enemy penetration and the following day (22 June), the Turks retreated. On June 29, the Sultan reached Brăila, which he burned down, and then sailed to Adrianople, where they arrived on 11 July. On 12 July, the Turks called for a celebration for their "Great victory" over Vlad Țepeș. The Turks had enslaved many of the local inhabitants, which they marched on their way south together with 200,000 cattle and horses.

French writer Victor Hugo wrote about the conflict in his poem La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Centuries). The film Bram Stoker's Dracula begins in 1462 with the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia; a night battle (ostensibly this attack) takes place, ending with Vlad Țepeș's victory. The Big Finish Productions audio drama Son of the Dragon depicts the battle from the perspective of the Fifth Doctor and his companions. The 2014 film Dracula Untold includes an altered rendition of this attack, in which Dracula blocks the sun with black clouds instead of the battle occurring at night. In the video game Age of Empires II: The Forgotten, this attack is showcased in one of the final Dracula campaigns. After killing several Ottoman troops and suffering losses of his own, Dracula calls off the attack because he realizes Mehmed II fled the camp before the attack began. The TV series Rise of Empires: Ottoman depicts this battle in episodes 5 and 6 of its second season.