The battle started after Mehmed II, who already had tense relations with Vlad, discovered his alliance with Hungary's king Matthias Corvinus and ordered his forces to ambush him.

The two leaders fought a series of skirmishes, the most notable one being the conflict where Vlad attacked the Turkish camp in the night in an attempt to kill Mehmed.

Later that same year (1460), he captured the last independent Serbian city, Smederevo, and in 1461, he convinced the Greek despot of Morea to give up his stronghold; soon thereafter, its capital, Mistra, and Corinth followed suit and surrendered themselves without struggle.

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.

[12] In his next move, he went on a campaign and slaughtered enemy soldiers and population that might have sympathized with the Turks; first in southern Wallachia, then, in Bulgaria by crossing the frozen Danube.

[15] 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.

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.

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.

A letter of a Leonardo Tocco to Francesco I Sforza, duke of Milan, wrote that Mehmed had recruited 400,000 men from Rumelia and Anatolia, with 40,000 being constructors of bridges armed with axes.

[3] These consisted of the janissaries (the elite slave troops); infantry soldiers; sipâhis (the feudal cavalry); saiales (the sacrificial units composed of slaves who would win their freedom if they survived); Akinji (the archers); silahdârs (the custodians of the sultan's weapons who also protected the flanks); azabs (the pikemen); beshlis (who handled the firearms) and the sultan's personal bodyguards.

In addition to this, the Turks brought with them 120 cannon, engineers and workers that would build roads and bridges, priests of Islam (ulema) and muezzin, who called the troops to prayer, astrologers who consulted Mehmed and helped him make military decisions; and women "reserved for the night pleasures of the men.

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.

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.

[26] 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.

[20] The chronicle goes on explaining that Vlad Țepeș, being aware of Mehmed's strategy, had decided for an attack in the night, knowing how to proceed in his offensive when the enemy soldiers would have to remain in their tents.

[20] Documents differ on the exact result of the skirmish: some sources say that the Wallachians slaughtered a great number of Turks, while others say the Ottoman losses were minimal.

Some chronicles blame a Wallachian boyar named Galeș, who supposedly led a simultaneous attack on the Turks with a second army, for not being brave enough to cause the expected devastation on the enemy.

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.

He divided the men so that either they should die bravely in battle with glory and honor or else, should destiny prove favorable to them, they should avenge themselves against the enemy in an exceptional matter.

And during the entire night he sped like lightning in every direction and caused great slaughter, so much so that, had the other commander to whom he had entrusted his remaining forces been equally brave, or had the Turks not fully obeyed the repeated orders from the sultan not to abandon their garrisons, the Wallachian undoubtedly would have gained the greatest and most brilliant victory.

But the other commander (a boyar named Galeș) did not dare attack the camp from the other side as had been agreed upon....Vlad carried out an incredible massacre without losing many men in such a major encounter, though many were wounded.

And he would have continued to this way, had he not been reprimanded by his friends and brought back, almost against his will.The janissaries, under the command of Mihaloğlu Ali Bey,[Note 1] pursued the Wallachians and killed 1,000–2,000 of them.

[30] Around June 20, 1462, Vlad left a force of about 6,000 Wallachians with the mission "to stay hidden in the forests and, if anyone strayed, to immediately attack and crush him," while he, with the rest of his fighters, hurried to the other front.

The Turkish official "Yusuf," who probably commanded the rear guard, was defeated, but he was aided by Turahanoğlu Ömer Bey, who changed the odds of battle in favor of the Turks, killing approximately 2,000 Wallachians.