Northern Bulgaria can be a dangerous place, even under the protection of the Ottoman Sultan, or the watchful gaze of a Christian Prince, it is an uneasy place to live.
A band of Ottoman cavalry have been raiding near the Danube, I would say pillaging, but there's nothing really to pillage, the peasants are angry. A Boyar from a nearby province has come up with a do or die solution, an ambush in the hamlet, it's a bit suicidal but it might work with his small retinue involved.
As the horsemen approach the ever hopeful Brother Jacob approaches them to try and avoid bloodshed, the locals hide, notching arrows.
With a cry Brother Jacob falls, a spear found his chest. The cavalry see some sport, peasants are going to fight for a change, this should be easy! The horsemen thunder into the hamet.
At first lady luck smiles on the peasants, in fact one woman manages to unhorse two Ottomans with a flail and finish them off with her knife, before she is dispatched by an incoming spear. Two more horsemen are taken down with bow and handgunners, but they forge on killing as they go, the peasant losses are piling up.
As the raiders skirt around a building the ambush is sprung, already surprised at the tenacity of the peasant defenders, they did not expect this. Riding into a hail of arrows, they also has professional men at arms waiting for them, it really wasn't their day.
Thundering off into the distance with arrows whizzing past them, the raiders knew when it was time to go, the losses had been fairly equal in the end, each side losing around half their force, the villagers won, their morale was high. I'm sure the Ottomans will be back and the hamlet turned to ashes.
