In the city of Târgoviște, at the court of Prince Vlad, the Wallachian ministers gathered in the assembly hall to welcome an important guest.
Vlad sat on the Prince's throne with a gloomy face, sipping the crimson wine in his cup while contemptuously sizing up the envoy sent by the Ottomans.
He and Mehmed II were childhood playmates, but their relationship was very poor.
Vlad resented the Ottomans for failing to help him against Janos, and now that he had ascended to the throne with Hungarian support, he naturally would not give the Ottomans a good impression.
"Speak, why has Mehmed sent you?" Vlad asked nonchalantly.
His disrespectful direct address of the Sultan's name caused the Ottoman envoy to glare at him.
Despite wanting to curse, the envoy suppressed his anger and said coldly, "Please maintain the respect due to His Majesty the great Sultan. I have come at the Sultan's command to demand Wallachia pay this year's tribute; otherwise, the Sultan's iron cavalry will flatten Wallachia!"
Vlad twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing a cruel smile, and the other Wallachian nobles in the assembly hall looked at the Ottoman envoy with admiration, sincerely praising the fellow's fearlessness.
"Alright, you ask me to show respect to Mehmed, so shouldn't you also show due respect to me, your Prince?"
"How am I being disrespectful to you?"
The envoy was somewhat puzzled; this Prince Vlad seemed to be deliberately making trouble.
Vlad pointed to the hat on the Ottoman envoy's head, reminding him, "You should remove your hat and bow to me; that is respect."
The envoy could no longer suppress his anger and loudly cursed, "I will only remove my hat and bow to His Majesty the noble Sultan! Do you think a monarch of such an insignificant small country as yourself can be compared to His Majesty the great Sultan?"
Vlad ignored the other party's reprimand, and the smile on his face grew even wider, looking very eerie.
"Alright, since you are unwilling to remove your hat to salute me, then you shall never take off that stupid and ridiculous hat! Men, nail that hat to his head, preferably so it can never be pulled off!"
Soldiers who had been waiting outside immediately stormed into the assembly hall, dragged the cursing Ottoman envoy out of the palace, and drove three long, thick iron nails into his head, permanently fixing the hat to his head.
Vlad himself drove in the first nail; as he swung the hammer, he laughed loudly, his face ferocious, and despite the Ottoman envoy's pleas, he brutally pierced his skull.
Everyone present was stunned by this bloody and cruel scene, and some even began to vomit.
When the Ottoman delegation on the south bank saw the envoy again, he was already dead, and his death was extremely gruesome.
This provoked immense anger among the Ottomans, who quickly carried the body of this brave envoy back to Sofia and reported everything to Veli Mahmud, the Governor of Rumelia.
This was an extremely severe provocation and insult, and no one could endure such humiliation, let alone the proud Ottomans.
Veli Mahmud immediately selected thirty thousand men from the already largely assembled Rumelia Corps and dispatched them to Tarnovo, ready to cross the Danube River and besiege Giurgiu at any moment, while also sending messengers to Constantinople to report the matter, as the Sultan would make the final decision.
However, just as the Ottoman army was marching from Sofia to Tarnovo, another piece of grim news arrived.
Vlad personally led four thousand Wallachian light cavalry to sweep through the villages and towns of Tarnovo province, massacring thousands of Muslim and abducting Orthodox Christians back to Wallachia, with many Ottoman soldiers and civilians defeated and captured.
On an overcast day, Vlad stood outside Giurgiu, a stronghold against the Ottomans.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood.
With a cold gaze, he waved his hand, and soldiers behind him brought forward a group of captured Ottoman soldiers.
He strode forward, personally seized one man, and with a flash of his dagger, instantly slit the captive's throat; blood gushed out like a fountain, and the captive's eyes widened, a gurgling sound in his throat, remaining terrified until his death.
Next, Vlad walked to an open area outside the city, where countless sharpened wooden stakes were erected, their tips honed to a deadly point.
These were instruments of execution for Ottoman prisoners of war and Muslim who refused to convert.
With precise execution methods, the stakes would pierce the bodies of these unfortunate people but would not cause immediate death.
The suffering would last for a long time, until the victim's blood ran dry.
Of course, those who could not bear it would struggle violently, twisting their bodies, which would damage more internal organs and shorten their agony.
Some of the surrounding soldiers showed discomfort, while others were numb, but under his deterrence, no one dared to speak out in protest.
This bloody scene scattered birds, terrified those who heard of it, and became an indelible nightmare in the hearts of the Ottomans Turks, while also forging Vlad III's fearsome reputation as 'the Impaler'.
Vlad swore to make the Ottoman, the Hungarian, and even the Wallachian all experience the pain and resentment of his many years of wandering.
Soon, Ottoman spies who witnessed all of this quickly returned to the south bank of the Danube River, reporting this human tragedy to Sultan Mehmed II.
Just as Laszlo had predicted, when it came to enraging the Ottomans, Vlad was better than anyone else—he executed all rebellious elements who violated the law with severe punishments, and he was especially cruel to the Ottomans.
In Constantinople, Mehmed II looked at the report in his hand, his hand trembling slightly, not from fear, but from anger, extreme anger.
He wanted to have Radu the Handsome brought to him right away and disembowel him to vent his anger.
Radu the Handsome was Vlad's younger brother, and he was currently serving in the Sultan's court (suspected to be a male concubine).
However, Radu the Handsome was loyal, and Vlad's mistakes should not be blamed on him.
Mehmed II pondered that if the Hungarian could support Vlad to become Prince Vlad, thereby making Wallachia a Hungarian vassal, then he could likewise elevate Radu the Handsome to the princely throne, and given Radu the Handsome's obedience, Wallachia would completely become Ottomans territory.
Thinking of this, he immediately ordered, "Send someone to tell Veli Mahmud that I approve his proposal; let him personally lead the Rumelia Corps to fully attack Giurgiu, and I will follow with the main army to rendezvous. The great holy war begins in Wallachia!"
The Sultan's order was swiftly delivered to Sofia, and Veli Mahmud, seething with anger, immediately mustered the remaining twenty thousand troops and marched towards Tarnovo, where the thirty thousand advance troops were already nearing Giurgiu.