With their General fleeing and a Deputy General dead, the Bosporus Army had secured victory in this pursuit battle.
Under normal circumstances, these White Sheep Turkmens would have been completely annihilated or captured.
However, to Manuel's surprise, by dawn when the battle ended, a considerable number of these Turkmens were still able to retreat under the command of their remaining Deputy Generals.
It was worth noting that during this time, even the conscripted militiamen had finished looting the supplies and had come to support their own side.
Yet, even in such a situation, Manuel couldn't achieve a complete annihilation of the remaining Turkmen soldiers.
Finally, it wasn't until dawn that the victorious Bosporus Army had time to consolidate their gains.
Looking at the piles of corpses, many of which were his own soldiers, Manuel felt a chill run down his spine, and he began to worry and overthink.
"Fighting a mere White Sheep Army is this troublesome? Are these Turks Anatolian supermen? This is still a medieval army without advanced firearms.
If we encounter the Ottomans in the future, won't it be even more troublesome and disastrous?"
"Speaking of which, can our army truly defeat a full-strength Ottoman Janissary Corps right now? No, it's not possible, no matter how I think about it, it's not possible, is it?"
But given the current situation, it was better to focus on the present.
Considering this, Manuel quickly regained his composure and sent people to tally the casualties and results of this pursuit battle.
At this very moment, Hamza, who had fled back, was kneeling in the White Sheep's temporary military camp in the eastern mountains, receiving reproaches from his brothers.
"What a joke? Allah! Nearly a thousand Ghazi Warriors were buried in the mountains of Akçaabat because of you?! And Hamza, you even led the retreat from the battlefield?
This, this, this..." Ali's deep black eyes widened, so angry he couldn't even complete his sentences, and his turban was askew.
"A mere bunch of Greeks, and Christians at that, what exactly happened?" Sheikh Hassan still refused to believe this fact, continuously shaking his head.
The only one secretly rejoicing was Alexander, who sat obediently by the side, his heart filled with schadenfreude.
"Saint Mary, I previously thought it was due to my own inadequacy, but even the White Sheep Turkmens, who have always ridden roughshod over Christians, were defeated.
Now it seems that the enemy was simply too strong."
After a good fifteen minutes of scolding Hamza, who had remained silent and accepted the criticism, he finally asked in a low voice, "So what do we do now?"
Hearing this question, everyone present fell silent.
After a long pause, Alexander and Sheikh looked at Ali, their eyes full of expectation.
While Ali was contemplating whether to proceed with the original plan, in the guild hall of Akçaabat town, Manuel had already taken off his military attire and sat on the temporarily prepared main seat, listening to the preliminary post-battle report compiled by Tukharovsky and Aidian.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, according to the current statistics, our army has annihilated and captured nearly a thousand Turkmens in total.
Approximately 500 were killed or wounded by our army, and over 500 were captured," Tukharovsky reported respectfully.
"And our army?"
"Including the conscripted militiamen who later arrived to assist, approximately 500 soldiers were killed or wounded.
Among them were 25 Philakatoi and around 125 company farmers.
The rest were all conscripted militiamen," Aidian bowed and reported with utmost respect.
So the conscripts actually increased their own casualties, huh? As expected, conscripts are only good as cannon fodder to take the blows.
Manuel felt like sighing and rubbing his forehead.
While Manuel was considering how to deal with the prisoners of war and how to reduce the scale of the conscripted army or strengthen the local conscripted army's combat power, in the White Sheep's eastern temporary military camp, Ali had already made his next move.
"A loss of a mere thousand men is still tolerable," Ali declared with a somewhat cold tone.
"Continue marching east; the plan to attack Kaysiskoy remains unchanged.
This defeat was ultimately an unexpected incident caused by underestimating the enemy.
Next, we must make these Kafirs feel the wrath of our Ghazi Warriors."
It seems another village is about to suffer, Alexander thought to himself, then inwardly admonished himself not to care too much about such things.
"But as long as I can sit on the imperial throne in the Palace of Trabzon, ultimately, these are just necessary sacrifices."
In the end, the White Sheep Army's plan to attack Kaysiskoy remained unchanged, except that they would approach their upcoming operations with greater caution.
While the White Sheep Army decided to still attack Kaysiskoy, Manuel, still in the Akçaabat guild hall, after careful consideration, ultimately decided to temporarily set aside the matter of the conscripted soldiers.
He would implement a thorough "Gavras-style" transformation of the local area once he had complete control of Trabzon.
After all, the most important thing now was to completely crush the claimant forces of Trabzon led by Alexander, and to shatter their allies' delusions of interfering in the region.
Of course, if possible, he also wanted to carve out a few pieces of flesh from these Komnenos' allies.
They had come to interfere with his conquest of Trabzon; if he didn't take something more, how could he appease himself, the noble lords who stood with him, and his army?
Thinking of this, Manuel quickly regained his composure, asking Tukharovsky and Aidian to stand by for the time being, awaiting a response from his most loyal subordinates.
Soon, less than fifteen minutes later, Badars rushed in, eager to report what the secret department had learned from interrogating the prisoners.
After a brief prayer and blessing, Manuel instructed Badars to directly present all the key findings from the interrogation.
Badars, not daring to delay, quickly summarized the White Sheep's marching plan that had been obtained.
After Badars finished speaking, Manuel's entire demeanor became serious.
Half a moment later, he solemnly issued a new order, "Advance east!
These damned Turkmens must not be allowed to take a single piece of land in Kaysiskoy!"