"Lord Gracião, I believe the Lord will bless us with a smooth journey this time," his attendant comforted him.
"I hope so," the young Venetian nobleman named Gracião almost gave a bitter laugh.
Just as this ship of Venetians from Tana sailed towards Trabzon, three thousand reinforcements from Trabzon had already arrived at Akçaabat, ready to be deployed by Manuel at any moment to confront the upcoming enemy.
After these three thousand reinforcements arrived, Manuel ordered the army to rest well and wait for the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty to arrive, using the local defensive fortifications to fight at their leisure.
A brief mention here: on the military front, why Manuel had the patience to wait at Akçaabat for the White Sheep attack: although on the map, Akçaabat is not on the border between the White Sheep and Trabzon, but rather on the border between Trabzon and the Ottoman, due to the Ottoman's weak control over the Anatolian interior at this time, as long as the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty did not actively provoke the various Pashas set up by the Ottoman in the interior, the Ottoman usually turned a blind eye to the actions of their fellow Turkmen, implicitly granting military transit rights.
Furthermore, in this era, these Turk people's border awareness was not clear. For example, when the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty was not yet the tribal alliance it is now, but purely a nomadic tribe, they often traveled between Eretna and Erzincan to plunder. Even now that the White Sheep has become a clear political entity, the Ottoman still does not pay much attention to the "infringement" of its co-ethnic neighbor to the east on the border; as long as the land is in hand and taxes can be collected, that's fine. If the White Sheep Turkmens really invaded Ottoman territory, then they would just fight back.
It was precisely for this reason that Manuel had the patience to remain in place, waiting for the arrival of the White Sheep Turkmens.
Three days later, the White Sheep Turkmens indeed attacked from the southeast of Akçaabat.
For this advance, the White Sheep side dispatched a total of 5,000 troops, all valiant Turkmens from their tribes. 2,000 of them were led by Ali, the heir to the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty, while Amza and Sheikh Hassan each commanded 1,500 troops, and Alexander Komnenos rode among the army, personally guiding his cousin.
These Turkmen soldiers were recruited from the tribes and lands governed by the three of them. Although their organization was difficult to tame, their combat strength was quite formidable. At least on open ground, they, equally skilled in horse archery and scimitars, were no weaker than the fierce Tatars across the Black Sea.
"If this were on dry land now, it would probably be a difficult battle to win," Manuel felt a bit of a headache looking at these Turkmens dressed in leather armor and wielding scimitars or bows and arrows. His future opponent, the Ottoman, also Turk, would certainly not be easier to deal with than these White Sheep Turkmens in front of him.
Fortunately, he had prepared for three days, even a week, to deal with them. During this time, Manuel specifically drove all civilians from the town's outskirts into the fortress to protect them, and also preemptively removed and burned all local crops to ensure the enemy could not resupply on the spot.
In addition, various simple but nasty temporary fortifications were indispensable; caltrops, chevaux de frise—as long as they weren't too expensive, everything was available. Coupled with the mountainous terrain of Akçaabat, it almost turned the Turkmens'Good at cavalry warfare into a disadvantage.
"Feel the burning mountainous terrain, Turkmens. What's more, siege defense is our army's strong suit," Manuel scoffed, then ducked into the Akçaabat castle, dodging the incoming arrow rain while commanding the battle from within.
Facing the well-prepared Bosporus Army, Sheikh Hassan almost cursed aloud in anger, while Alexander was more incredulous, "How did that bastard cousin of mine manage such a large-scale mobilization? This level of mobilization, besides in books, I only heard my grandfather mention it, as if only during Trabzon's heyday… No, they must have conscripted and extorted! Otherwise, how could those selfish lords and landowners willingly provide supplies?"
In contrast to the two of them, Ali, as Kara Osman's second son and designated heir, was much calmer. Having some countermeasures, he ordered all cavalry to dismount, raise their bows, and simultaneously fire arrows at Akçaabat's castle fortress, as both a test and an attack.
Under this fierce rain of arrows, Manuel, who had taken refuge in the castle, initially felt some pressure, but as the arrow rain subsided, he quickly breathed a sigh of relief, "The Komnenos family really paid attention to the defensive fortifications here."
Indeed, under the White Sheep's arrow rain, the semi-enclosed fortresses and castles did not suffer much damage. And the soldiers guarding the taxi, apart from a few slow-reacting unlucky ones at the beginning, all withstood the attack with their light armor and pre-prepared large shields.
Seeing this, Ali was not annoyed and immediately had the Armenian craftsmen accompanying the army drag out siege engines. He intended to use sheer numbers to create large cracks in these castles and fortresses in an almost traditional manner.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated again.
During the Turkmens' preparations, Manuel immediately ordered the retreating artillery to bring out their cannons and furiously fire these small cannons at the Turkmen positions.
"Your Majesty, do you want the musketeers to deploy?" As the cannons fired from the small artillery caused cries of agony from the enemy positions, Aidian asked doubtfully, "Your Majesty, do you need your humble servants to lead the musketeers to attack?"
"Not for now," looking at the screaming Turkmens everywhere, Manuel felt quite pleased, "Cannons are not affected by mountainous terrain, but muskets are not effective at this range. May the Holy Mother protect us, just protect yourselves. Don't let the White Sheep also bring out some early firearms to engage in a cannon exchange."
His concerns were superfluous, because the White Sheep Army, which had only recently transitioned and whose war thinking was still stuck in the era of cavalry dominance, had no firearms at all.
"These Romans with the devil's thunder tubes!" Ali's face finally turned extremely ugly. In the mountains, they couldn't ride and slash, so the White Sheep Turkmens' combat power was reduced by thirty percent; suppressed by the enemy's firearms, their combat power was directly reduced to less than half.
Moreover, the Bosporus artillery employed a rotation tactic: when one batch of cannons fired, another was reloading; when that batch finished, this batch would take over.
After about an hour of continuous bombardment, Ali, unable to find a countermeasure, discussed with his brothers and was forced to retreat beyond the range of the cannons. While temporarily regrouping, they discussed how to deal with these firearms.