At this moment, Alexander, who had been beaten and fled in a panic, embarrassedly led his army back to his fortress in Akçaabat, only to see an unexpected person in front of it.
"Holy Father! Andrea, and the troops I detached, how are you all here too?" Seeing Andrea's unit largely intact, Alexander was first surprised, then a little worried and confused.
"Reporting to Your Highness, this humble servant, upon learning that Your Highness had been temporarily repelled by those usurpers, panicked for a moment, fearing that this humble servant's side might be caught in a pincer attack by the assembled enemy, leading to Your Highness's distress. Therefore, I rushed here to guard Your Highness," Andrea bowed and confessed.
"What about the mountain strongholds along the way, our control areas?"
"Reporting to Your Highness, the soldiers originally defending those areas must still be fighting valiantly for Your Highness. The original controlled areas should still be able to hold out for a while."
"That sounds good, but you just directly abandoned reinforcing strategic locations and border strongholds and fled back behind me, didn't you?" Alexander's heart immediately blazed with anger as he understood the situation. But remembering that he himself had fled in defeat, he was in no position to criticize him, so Alexander could only suppress his anger.
"Forget it, let's talk about something that can make me feel better." With this thought, Alexander asked Andrea as gently as possible, "No matter, under the protection of the Three Saints, I still have over 400 soldiers who can fight. Andrea, you haven't directly clashed with the enemy, so you should still have nearly 500 infantry…"
"I regret to inform Your Highness, our army was briefly pursued by the enemy during our retreat. This humble servant's side now only has 400 men available for combat…"
Alexander felt his dark pupils instantly become hollow and lifeless, "Ah?!"
"It's alright, Your Highness, all our strongholds are in the mountains, and the noble lords there are loyal to us. They will surely fight to the death against these blasphemous usurpers…" Andrea, seeing his monarch on the verge of collapse, was so frightened that he quickly tried to comfort him with a mix of true and false information, even losing his calm tone from earlier. Other noble lords, seeing this, also stepped forward to express their loyalty. After a while of this, Alexander finally calmed down again.
"It's alright, the local lords are still loyal to us, as long as they hold their ground, we still have time. Yes, that's right, that's how it is, the Holy Father will bless us…" In the end, Alexander could only use such words to hypnotize himself into believing that events would unfold this way.
Unfortunately, he seemed to have misunderstood something again—
Two days later, in the morning, Manuel, with an indifferent expression, led his army into a small village named Torul. In a fortress next to the village, he accepted the allegiance of a Trabzon lord.
"Your Majesty, including the castles and strongholds bombarded by artillery, this is the 21st enemy stronghold our army now controls. According to the local lords who have defected to us, if we take eight or nine more strongholds, Akçaabat, where Alexander Komnenos is located, will be an isolated city in Trabzon," Badars organized the intelligence and reported cautiously to Manuel.
Manuel nodded, quite pleased. Thanks to the Battle of Machka, many Trabzon lords who had harbored illusions or obsessions saw the disparity between themselves and the Bosporus side, allowing Manuel to conquer them quite smoothly. The few Bosporus Army units that resisted fiercely were not spared; the portable light artillery was brought out to bombard them. Under the advanced firearms, these old defensive fortifications could not resist for more than four or five hours, not to mention that most of these fortifications and strongholds lacked maintenance. The ones that were taken down served as a warning to the others, prompting the local lords to "abandon the darkness and embrace the light."
After listening to the brief report, Manuel stroked his budding beard and mused, "According to the intelligence provided by David and related lords, Akçaabat, as a military town in southern Trabzon, has relatively comprehensive fortifications. Relying on our current numbers alone might be a bit troublesome. Aidian, when do you think Tukharovsky and his forces will arrive?"
"Ah, well," Aidian, suddenly asked, was a little surprised, and could only follow Manuel's lead, "Your Majesty, according to the last communication, the commander and his forces should arrive in Torul shortly…"
"I thought so too," Manuel waved his hand carelessly.
"Your Majesty, forgive my presumption, are you contemplating something now?" Badars bowed and asked.
"Will the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty watch us eliminate the remaining forces of Trabzon? Probably not entirely. These Turkmen Turks are all of the same ilk," Manuel's eyes sharpened as he spoke, "If they don't hurry and rendezvous with us, then our opponent will not just be the weak and incompetent Alexander. Therefore, we can only strike while the iron is hot and eliminate these rebels."
As he spoke, the messenger he had dispatched suddenly arrived at the fortress. Seeing this person approach the fortress, Manuel's face immediately lit up with joy, "The Three Saints bless us! Tukharovsky is here, and at just the right time!"
About half a day later, that is, at dusk, Alexander, with a pale face, received the military intelligence gathered by the scout.
"Damn it, these lord nobles are all useless!" Upon learning that many lords had defected to the Bosporus and that those who supported him had been captured by artillery bombardment, Alexander cursed angrily.
"Your Highness, if this continues, Akçaabat will become an isolated city…" Andrea reminded him uneasily, but was directly interrupted.
"I know!" Alexander's face was extremely grim. "But I've done my best. If I had known this, I shouldn't have come to Akçaabat, but to Artashan or Rize. These places are not only adjacent to the White Sheep, but also closely related to the two principalities of Guria and Samtskhe in Georgia. If conditions were favorable, I could even connect with the Genoese. Now everything is over!"
"But Your Highness, didn't you come to Akçaabat precisely to prevent Trabzon from being controlled by the Georgians as it was at the beginning of its founding? And our power is strongest in the southeast region…"
"Andrea, what's the use of talking about this now!" Alexander roared incessantly.
"Your Highness Alexander, please calm down, and please believe that the Sultan will firmly stand with Your Highness." A deep, powerful voice interrupted Alexander's panic. He looked closely and saw that it was the Turkmen sent by his cousin, Sheikh Hassan, who had spoken.
"Lord Özgür, do you have any countermeasures?" Alexander asked with a grim face.
"Forgive my impertinence, Your Highness. Please allow me to propose an offer on behalf of Sheikh Hassan." The Turkmen named Özgür had a yellowish-brown complexion and deep brown eyes like a beast, but his posture was very polite.
"Is it that?" Alexander, forcing himself to calm down, smoothed his black hair and beard, his dark eyes looking directly at Özgür.
"Yes, Your Highness. To exchange Akçaabat for Your Highness's throne," Özgür said bluntly.
This time Alexander did not refuse. "Tell your master, the offer is accepted." Alexander let out a few gloomy, dry laughs. "'If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.' I still understand that kind of principle."