Jan Zizka was a tough, war-bitten general. He didn't start out with just one eye - he was born with the requisite two. But the most famous portraits of him depict him after he lost one eye in one battle, and before he lost the other one in another battle, and so one-eyed is the way that most Czechs think of him.His was a ragtag force of mostly peasant farmers, and they had more experience weilding farm implements than weapons. That isn't to mention the fact that they had little money with which to buy weapons. Zizka turned this loss into an advantage, having his men fight with the tools they were most used to using. Hoes and rakes can be as deadly as pikes when used with conviction in battle.
The Hussites also used countless tricks - like putting their horses' horseshoes on backwards so that their enemies could not track them. They travelled to battle in farm wagons - with the Hussite women fighting alongside the men - and when they were engaged in battle, they arranged the wagons in a circle, as a sort of temporary (and portable) fortress.
Zizka was also the first to use artillery in battle (it had theretofore only been used to beseige castles), and was a master at keeping up morale. His Hussite forces liked nothing better than belting out a rousing rendition of their favorite song, "Ye Warriors of God" while preparing to meet the enemy in battle.
By the time the fifth wave of crusaders got to the Czech lands to fight the Hussites, their reputation had spread all over Europe. The crusaders had been shaking in their boots even before reaching Czech soil -- but when they heard those scary farm wagons creaking, and those terrible Hussites singing -- they just couldn't take it. To a man, they turned tail and fled as far and as fast as they could from Zizka and his men (and women).
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