Murad II was furious—it was a disgrace. For a monarch who dominated Asia Minor to Southeast Europe, to lead an army in person only to be toyed with by the Bosporus, suffering near total annihilation of his twenty-thousand-strong army and almost losing his own life, was the most shameful thing imaginable. Moreover, his opponents were a group of Romans he had never even bothered to look at before!
In other words, for the Sultan, who was now completely enraged, the order he had just given was no idle threat: He was going to get serious.
Unlike last year, when he mostly deployed smaller forces like the Ankara Legion more for amusement, this time he decided to deploy the Rumelia Legion, which was the largest and strongest unit in the Ottoman. Therefore, in his eyes, although he had temporarily lost some territory on the southern shore of the Black Sea and was forced to leave time for the enemy to occupy some mountain passes, as long as the Anatolia Legions attacked first, and then the Rumelia Legion crossed the Dardanelles Strait, these Romans from north of the Black Sea, no matter how cunning they were, wouldn't be able to struggle for long.
"As for the time needed to mobilize the troops," Murad II, now securely seated in Ankara, said with a sinister smile, "consider it a good time to compose yourselves before I send you all to hell."
However, would everything go as the Sultan wished?
Three days later, upon learning of the Karaman Beylik's declaration of war against the Ottoman, he reacted as if he had been blindsided by the Karaman. "Has the new Bey of Karaman lost his mind too? Ibrahim II has problems, and Suleiman has problems too!? Allah, what are these Karaman people after? I completely don't understand, what has my Hamid done to you?"
Murad was stunned. Why was Karaman so fixated on Hamid, which was under Ottoman rule? And it chose to make trouble precisely when the Ottoman was having a headache with the Bosporus in its northeast. Moreover, he had already clearly learned from intelligence that the Mamluk, who had always been indifferent to the Ottoman, was supporting the new Bey in this Karaman civil war. This forced the Sultan to carefully consider his countermeasures, to avoid truly clashing with the Mamluk and delaying the Ottoman's strategic deployments in other regions.
"What a headache, these Karaman Turkmen really create problems for me," Murad thought, annoyed. Because of this, he was forced to order the Anatolia Legions to temporarily change direction and prepare to resist the Karaman army. As for the Bosporus, he could only make further arrangements when the Rumelia Legion arrived in Asia Minor.
Meanwhile, in Samsun, the Bosporus Army's high command did not relax after achieving a strategic victory. On the contrary, facing the Ottoman Sultanate, whose strength was actually far superior to theirs, they dared not and had no room for relaxation.
"Not long ago, our army almost completely annihilated an Ottoman army of about ten thousand. Their defenses in the northeast of Anatolia should be somewhat weakened as a result. Therefore, it will take at least one to two months for the Ottoman to react. So, during this time, we must take advantage of their unpreparedness, quickly send troops to seize the plateau and mountainous areas where their defenses are relatively weak, to make the Ottoman believe we still have reserves. Afterwards, if all goes well, Karaman and the Mamluk behind it should have already clashed with the Ottoman. When the Ottoman are completely exhausted, we will, at the appropriate time and after ensuring our safety, withdraw from the battlefield through peace talks."
This was the new phase of the strategic plan Manuel presented to his generals. From a certain perspective, this heavily relied on his relationship with Karaman. If the Karaman Bey hadn't been his close friend and confidant, Suleiman, he would never have dared to place his hope of withdrawing from the battlefield on Karaman, but would have continued to find ways to resolve it through the Bosporus's own diplomatic mediation.
After roughly explaining the details of this part, Caesar Manuel stood up and looked around at his subordinates, "That's roughly it. Are there any other questions?"
"Yes, Caesar." The first to ask was the Western European Dungar, "Why don't we continue this war? If the Ottoman will truly be exhausted in the coming period as Caesar said, then why should we withdraw from the battlefield instead of continuing to fight? Wouldn't that deal a heavier blow to the Ottoman and allow us to reclaim more land? Perhaps if we continue, we might even reclaim Asia Minor." As an English nobleman with Irish blood, Dungar always harbored some strange fantasies about the Crusaders.
To this, his monarch merely told him faintly: "Our economy is about to collapse… If we maintain this scale of army for another half a year, the Bosphorus Despotate will go bankrupt."
By then, even if their Gavras Family sold the entire Tauris Peninsula, they still wouldn't be able to pay off their debts. Thinking of this situation, Caesar couldn't help but add a silent retort in his heart, reclaim Asia Minor? It would be good if they didn't explode first.
After continuing to address the doubts of the other generals, the Bosporus Army began to quickly occupy the areas around Janik and Trabzon, following the strategic plan proposed by their Caesar.
Just as the Bosporus Army began its operations again, Gracio, acting as a "messenger," had arrived before his superior and informed him of the Bosporus's request.
"That's it?" Gracio's superior, Pietro Lando, the Venetian Black Sea Consul, was quite surprised, "They only want us to do this?"
"Yes, Consul," Gracio replied, bowing his head, indicating that his words were true.
"Alright, our Black Sea Consular District will cooperate with this ally in advance. But they actually defeated the Ottoman, even if it was just one legion, it shouldn't be something their Tauris Romans could handle." Lando stroked his beard thoughtfully when discussing the war between the Ottoman and the Bosporus.
After a moment, he nodded slightly, having roughly thought of something, "I will also report this matter to the Governor's Office. I believe the Council of Ten and the Senate will also make some adjustments to their future strategy because of this ally: because this ally is more valuable than we originally thought."
"His Holiness the Pope and the Emperor of Constantinople will probably also make their due reactions, right?" Gracio followed up, guessing his superior's thoughts.
"Don't celebrate too early, after all, the war on the southern shore of the Black Sea is not over yet." The Black Sea Consul stopped his subordinate's apparent premature celebration, "First, tell these good tidings to the Prince who is currently serving as Regent in Tauris. Although as the Bosporus Regent, he should already know Caesar Manuel's current movements and progress."