Sultan Mehmed III ascended the throne while the Ottoman-Austrian War that started in the period of his father Sultan Murad III continued. Sultan Mehmed III dealt with Austria and Wallachian problems as soon as he was enthroned. Koca Sinan Pasha, who was brought back to sadrazam, continued the expedition initiated by the deceased predecessor and marched to Wallachia. The Turkish army, advancing from Yergöğü towards Bucharest on 23 August, arrived at Kalugeran the next day. Taking advantage of the withdrawal of Wallachians as a result of the Battle of Kalugeran on 25 August, the Turkish army entered Bucharest without combat on 28 August and then into the capital Targovishte. While Koca Sinan Pasha left the 3,500 military garrison in the castle he had built here and retreated towards Istanbul, the Wallachian Voivodeship began to besiege Mihail Targovişte.
After 5-6.000 soldiers of Rumelia were sent as reinforcements were ambushed and defeated by Wallachians, the defenders who could endure the siege for three days surrendered and were impaled. the Turkish army was coming to Yergöğü irregularly, as a result of the Köprü Disaster on October 27, Akincilar, who wanted to protect the rest of the army that had collapsed on the bridge over the Danube, was destroyed by artillery fire and this historic quarry was virtually history. The Wallachian army, which attacked, captured the castles of İbrail, İsakçı, Kili, İsmail, Akkerman, Cangerman and Tatarhan. Upon these negative developments, Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha, who was on his way back, was dismissed and Lala Mehmet Pasha was replaced. The developments on the Hungarian front were against the Ottoman Empire. Taking advantage of the Turkish army's occupation in Wallachia, the 70,000-strong German army under the command of Count Karl Mansfeld besieged Esztergon on 1 July.
Mehmet Pasha, who was appointed as the Serdar of Hungary by his father, Grand Vizier Koca Sinan Pasha, reached the castle with his troop of 10,000 on August 4, but he withdrew from the front on August 5, when Yanık Governor Osman Pasha was defeated by the German army in the battle in front of the castle and Esztergon surrendered on September 2. The German army captured Visegrad on 8 September. The loss of many important castles and cities caused the reaction of state officials and janissaries in Istanbul. Janissaries also wanted the sultan to go on a campaign. Realizing that the situation was getting worse, Sultan Mehmed III gathered the elders of the state and said, “All the sultans, from Osman Gazi, the founder of our state, to our great-grandfather, Süleyman the Magnificent, went on a campaign in front of the soldier. Our father Sultan Murad (Murat III)and our grandfather Sultan Selim (Selim II) broke this procedure. Even we initially made a mistake by ordering the expedition to our pashas. Our children of soldiers want to see us at their head.
It is our decision that we are going to a campaign soon. what he says; His mother, Safiye Sultan, who opposed him, replied, "Valide, we are the sultan, son of the Sultan, why have we donned this sword in Eyüp Sultan Mosque if we are not going to use it? Our decision is our decision, we will go on a campaign. It is said to have sprung up. This was the first time a sultan had led the army in 30 years. Leaving Istanbul on 21 June, the Turkish army arrived in Belgrade on 9 August. The army continued its forward operation in this direction after the decision of the War Council (which could not be taken during the siege in 1552) to march on the strategically important Egri. When reaching Szeged, the German army surrounded Hatvan. The entire garrison of the castle, which had to surrender due to the delay of the troops under the command of Yusuf Sinan Pasha, who was sent as reinforcements, was slaughtered. The Turkish army, which came in front of Eğri on 21 September, managed to capture the fortress with a garrison of approximately 5,000 people on 12 October and slaughtered the entire German garrison in response to the treatment in Hatvan.
The Austrian army under the command of Archduke III Maximilian, the brother of the German King, took action to reclaim the Egri Castle and hit the Ottoman Army. The Grand Vizier Damat İbrahim Pasha, who thought that this army was weak in number, gave an attack order to Cafer Pasha, who was closest to the Austrian army, on October 22. Cafer Pasha, who walked on the rival army with 4,500 soldiers after the Rumelia Governor Veli Pasha, who had 10,000 soldiers, did not obey the order, suffered great losses and withdrew from the battlefield. Upon this, the main Ottoman Army walked to Mezőkeresztes Plain (Haçova), deployed here on 25 October and started to wait for the enemy. In addition to the Erdel forces in revolt in the Austro-German army, there were also Spanish, Hungarian, Polish (Polish), Belgian, Dutch, Papal, Croatian, Czech and Slovak forces. In the clashes on the first day, Ottoman vanguard forces under the command of Crimean Khan Fetih Giray Han and Ağaoğlu Sinan Pasha inflicted a heavy loss of 6,000 men to the Austrian army. However, the Austrian army, which was loaded at the center of the Ottoman Army with all its lines, inflicted great losses on the Ottoman Army with its firepower, which surprised the Janissaries. With the withdrawal of Mehmed III and the Grand Vizier İbrahim Pasha suggesting that the army should withdraw to the sultan, an atmosphere of general defeat started to blow in the army.
However, two interesting events happened that changed the fate of the battle. The first was that his teacher Hodja Sadeddin Efendi, who prevented Mehmed III, who was on his horse to retreat, from leaving by holding his horse by his reins, attempted an attack that surprised the Austrian army with his veterans and Crimean horsemen, and the second was when the soldiers of the Austrian army who came to the center of the Ottoman army began to plunder. It is that the lumberjacks, tent makers, servants, camellers and cooks, who are their servants, start attacking the enemy with the pickaxes, wood splitting, ax, scythe, cauldron and ladles. His order was disturbed as the Crusader army participated in the plunder, and this sudden attack caused panic. The balance was broken when the raiders and the janissaries started to attack the Crusader army after the enemy's decline. Mehmet III wore Hz. Muhammed's cardigan and was fighting in the front. Seeing that he was fighting in the front line, the soldier had begun to fight more lustfully.
This war is also known as the "Bucket and Win War" in the literature, since the back servants contributed to winning this war. Thanks to the rapid maneuver of the Ottoman raiders, the Austrian army, which lost its advantage of range of fire during the battle and could not discipline its soldiers who had entered into plunder, began to retreat. "The Enemy is on the Run!" The air of defeat turned into victory with his shouts, and this time the Ottoman Army was loaded on the Austrian army, which had lost its combat order in all its lines. Maximilian lost only 20,000 of his soldiers as they got stuck in the swamp while withdrawing irregularly. About 100 cannons with the imperial coat of arms were captured by the Ottoman Empire. Having lost his assault guns and his most elite infantry, Maximilian was forced to flee his headquarters. The Ottoman Army also did not attempt to follow Maximilian, as he had suffered a lot of losses and thought he had suffered enough losses to the enemy. With this victory, the way to Vienna was opened to the Turks.
After the victory, Yusuf Sinan Pasha was appointed as the Grand Vizier, and Sokulluzade Hasan Pasha was appointed as the Serdarist of Hungary and the Sultan III. Mehmet returned to Istanbul with most of the army. Satırcı Mehmet Pasha, who was appointed as Serdarı-ekrem, arrived in Belgrade on 13 August, departing from Istanbul on 9 June. Meanwhile, the 50,000-strong German army under the command of Prince Maximilian besieged the critically important Yanıkkale, which was captured by the Ottomans in 1594. Upon the news that the Turkish army was approaching, the German army withdrew by lifting the siege. Continuing its forward operation, the Turkish army besieged Tata fortress, which was conquered in 1594, but took it back on 12 October. After the rebellious King of Erdel besieged Timişoara, Satırcı Mehmet Pasha sent reinforcements to the region, while he led the main army and marched on the German army headed for Vaç. Satırcı Mehmet Pasha, who suffered a loss of 3,000 soldiers in the Battle of Vaç, which started here on 1 November, retreated to Belgrade when the winter approached.
The German army determined the recapture of Yanıkkale, 120 kilometers from the capital Vienna, as a definite target in 1598. As a result of the neglect of the castle garrison, the castle passed into the hands of the Holy Roman Empire on 29 March. Despite this, Satırcı Mehmet Pasha, instead of marching against the German army with the Turkish army he commanded, launched a campaign against the Kingdom of Erdel. Timişoara was in danger after Erdel captured Lipva, Çanad and Varad. Satırcı Mehmet Pasha, who departed from Belgrade on June 18, waited in vain for the Crimean forces in Beçkerek for 55 days. In this process, when he heard that the Tata castle was taken by the German army and that he besieged Palota, he was content with sending reinforcements to the region and marched on Erdel. Çanad on 8 September and Arad on 10 September were easily captured. Varad, on the other hand, was besieged on October 1 and could not be taken because the army was brought with only 3 cannons. 10 guns requested from the Eğri castle could not be delivered to the front due to adverse natural conditions.
While the siege continued, the German army of 80,000 under the command of Archduke Maximilian and Archduke Matthias of Austria besieged Budin as it reclaimed Bespirim and Palota (which he lost in 1593). Satırcı Mehmet Pasha lifted the siege of Varad on 3 November and turned to Budin for help. Since the necessary bridges could not be established due to bad weather conditions, the Turkish army had to cross the rivers with raft with all their weight. After the Janissaries revolted in Szolnok, Satırcı Mehmet Pasha gave up Budin and headed to Belgrade to winter. Simultaneously, the German army lifted the siege of Budin due to bad weather conditions. While the Turkish army was continuing the Operation Erdel, Mihail, the Wallachian Voivodeship, who was in revolt, trapped the Niğbolu Guard, Hafız Ahmet Pasha, and defeated the 3,000-person unit under his command. At the end of 1598, the war, which had been going on for more than five years, started to turn against the Ottoman Empire, despite the great victory it won in the Battle of Haçova two years ago. As a matter of fact, the Holy Roman Empire regained the castles it had lost in 1593-94 and captured the castles in Slovakia and Esztergon.
The Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, could not only hold the Eğri conquered in 1596 in the face of these losses, but could not suppress the uprising of its affiliates (Erdel, Wallachia and Boğdan). In addition to this, the economic and social problems caused by the prolonged war started to affect Anatolia as well, and the Celali rebellions that would keep the Ottoman Empire busy for a long time started with the Karayazıcı Uprising.
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