After a meeting with the commanders, he sent a part of his army, around 3,000 cavalrymen, to set up an ambush in the forest near the Krbava field. Although the plan was to fight the Ottomans on the open plains, the Croatian army was initially deployed on the slopes of the eastern part of the Krbava field, near the village of Visuć. The army was set up to face the enemy frontally, and divided into three groups. The first one was composed of soldiers from Slavonia, commanded by Franjo Berislavić, the second section was under the command of Ivan Frankopan Cetinski, while the third was commanded by Nikola VI Frankopan and Bernardin Frankopan. Croatian infantry and cavalry were equally distributed among the three sections. The main commander of the army was ban Emerik Derenčin. The Ottoman army was also arranged in three groups. The first one was commanded by Ismail Bey, sanjak-bey of the Sanjak of Kruševac, the second one by Mehmed Bey of the Sanjak of Üsküp (Skopje), while the middle group was under the command of Hadım Yakup Pasha. Ishak Bey Kraloğlu (Sigismund of Bosnia), son of the King of Bosnia, Stephen Thomas (died 1461), also took part in the battle on the Ottoman side. The Ottoman plan was to draw the Croatian forces further west next to the woods where they had set up an ambush. Ismail's right wing made the first move, heading towards the Croatian left flank. The Croatian army left the slopes and rushed at the Ottomans, starting a battle in the open field. The battle was fought closely with swords, with no use of bows. The Ottoman forces were at first pushed back, and started a feint retreat, which lured Croatian army into pursuit that led them into the ambush. The 3,000 Ottoman cavalrymen located in the wooded area of the Krbava field crossed the Krbava River and attacked the Croatian rear. Then the main Ottoman forces of Hadım Yakup Pasha, also waiting hidden in the forests, commenced a frontal attack. Thus, the Croatian army was attacked from the front, right, and the rear. The Croatian left flank of Bernardin Frankopan could not withstand the attacks of the Turkish light cavalry and began retreating. However, most of the Croatian infantry was surrounded and could not retreat. The Croatian army suffered a total defeat and only a small number of men managed to reach