Rewind the clock to a little over half an hour ago—
"The sun is setting," Manuel, astride his warhorse, murmured as he watched the sun dip towards the western horizon, then immediately issued an order for a forced march: "All troops, advance to Bayburt, forced march!"
His soldiers had been waiting for this moment. "Yes, Caesar. Loyalty!" With a roar that could part rivers, the Bosporus Army rushed northeast, intent on relieving their compatriots in Bayburt.
Back to the present. Seeing the Bosporus Army, like a dark cloud, drawing closer and closer, Ali, in the White Sheep central army, was so enraged his face nearly twisted. "It's definitely on purpose, absolutely on purpose, these Christian goat-fuckers!"
"Bey, time is of the essence, please give the order!" A subordinate beside him hastily reminded him that this was no time for anger. Ali, coming to his senses, used this as an opportunity to save face, and immediately ordered the entire army to prepare for battle, arraying their forces to resist the approaching Bosporus Army.
Many White Sheep soldiers couldn't help but feel anxious about the sudden arrival of the Bosporus Army. Seeing some of his Ghazi Warriors even show fear, Hamza, commanding the right flank, mounted his warhorse, spurred it on, and passionately addressed his soldiers: "Do these damned Christians think this can defeat us? Ghazi Warriors, you must believe, this is merely a trial, a trial bestowed by Allah."
But honestly, if this was a trial for the White Sheep Army, couldn't it also be one for the Bosporus side? Although Manuel, based on previous experience fighting the Turkmen, boldly surmised that they would be in a relatively vulnerable state of readiness at dusk, this was, in the end, just his conjecture based on experience. If he was wrong this time, then the Bosporus side would be facing a crisis.
Fortunately, Manuel had gambled correctly.
On the White Sheep side, Hamza's passionate speech did indeed inspire many Muslim soldiers, but just as he wanted to say more, the vanguard of the Bosporus Army had already reached the White Sheep Army's right flank. Facing the impending crisis, Hamza had no choice but to swallow many unsaid words and direct his already somewhat fatigued army to engage the enemy.
Learning from previous battles, the White Sheep Army did not employ their usual tactic of sending cavalry fearlessly charging directly at the enemy. Instead, they moved their heavily armored infantry to the front, while most of their horse archers temporarily dismounted to act as archers, blocking the first wave of the enemy's pikemen and spearmen.
This tactic was indeed effective. The Kurdish infantry on the right flank largely held off the strong assault of the attacking pikemen from the vanguard. Had it not been for the rushed and incomplete preparations, there was even a tendency to push back.
Although slightly unwilling, Manuel, commanding from the Bosporus central army, had not expected the first wave of assault to crush these valiant White Sheep soldiers. After clarifying the situation, when he issued the order for defensive offense, he also proactively had Philakatoi escort him to the front line to better grasp the battlefield situation. At the same time, a small squad of lightly armored messengers mounted their horses and, under his command, quietly galloped towards Bayburt city without being detected by the enemy.
According to Manuel's order to switch from defense to offense, the units on the front line, after sacrificing some advance soldiers, very quickly formed defensive squares, using their sharp spear tips to make the light cavalry subsequently sent by the White Sheep Army, like teeth that had broken, achieve almost nothing.
Upon receiving news of the situation on the right flank, Ali, in the White Sheep central army, immediately ordered most of his horse archers to attack from both flanks, while also ordering his heavily armored infantry to directly wield their scimitars and sharp spears, piercing through the Bosporus Army's outer pikemen, aiming to destroy their defensive formation in a hit-and-run manner.
But just as the White Sheep heavy infantry advanced to within half a pule rong of the Bosporus pikemen, the flash of saltpeter fire from within the Bosporus Army suddenly caught their attention. Before they could react, several unlucky Kurds and Turks were struck in the face and fell straight down. When their comrades came to retrieve their bodies, they discovered a small but conspicuous lead bullet in their horribly mangled faces.
"Is it the Christians' firearms again?" Several knowledgeable White Sheep Turkmens couldn't help but feel their hearts race with worry, almost losing their composure.
However, they quickly recovered from their momentary panic, because these White Sheep heavy infantry found that the lead bullets fired from somewhere within the enemy's army did not seem as dangerous as they looked. Although at close range, lead bullets were like a summons from the Angel of Death for light infantry, light cavalry, and lightly armored infantry, for heavy infantry, the threat of such firearms was not as great as that of heavy arrows from longbows.
Seeing that the effect of the firearms this time was not as significant as in the past, Posadas, commanding on the front line, couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat, but Manuel, who had already moved to the front, calmly ordered the artillery to use small cannons, under the cover of the pikemen on the front line, to bombard the White Sheep Army's central army.
Soon, the artillerymen, having received Caesar's order, took turns igniting their respective cannons. In an instant, with flashes of fire and cannon roars, numerous stone projectiles of varying sizes thundered from the cannon barrels towards the White Sheep positions, directly blowing over many heavily armored infantry.
Just as the Bosporus pikemen were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Hamza, in charge of the White Sheep right flank, having learned from previous lessons, personally led over 700 horse archers to attack the left flank of the Bosporus Army, attempting to break through the enemy's defenses from that direction and, incidentally, clear out the opposing artillery.
But the Bosporus side was not without cavalry. Facing the aggressive Turkmen horse archers, Kristo Balin immediately led over 500 Tatar cavalry to intercept. Although they were numerically at a disadvantage on that side, the quality of their elite troops temporarily masked this fact.
At this moment, Ali, deeply uneasy about the stalemate, was reminded by Sheikh Hassan that the enemy was short on skilled cavalry. Encouraged by the Sheikh and his tribal leaders, he decided to take a risk and launch an attack, hoping to end the battle before nightfall and thus completely drive these Christians from across the Black Sea out of their territory.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Bosporus soldiers discovered with horror that nearly a thousand lightly armored White Sheep Turkmen cavalry were furiously attacking from their right flank. Even Manuel in the front army was stunned, only able to frantically direct the pikemen on the front line to shift to the right flank, slowing down the enemy's offensive.
In this chaotic situation, neither side realized that in order to break through the Bosporus front and central armies, the White Sheep Army had now deployed too many troops to its flanks, making them as thin as paper.
Yet even so, the Bosporus Army could only be suppressed to death, if the White Sheep Army had not neglected Bayburt city, which they had been attacking earlier.
Just as Ali and others were celebrating in their hearts for an easy victory, the gates of Bayburt city on their flank suddenly opened, and then a Bosporus garrison of a thousand strong, led by Dungar, charged into the now vulnerable right flank of the White Sheep Army, shouting "Hallelujah!"
With their entry, the situation on the battlefield changed once again. The White Sheep central army, which had just been in an advantageous position, was directly overwhelmed, and the two flanks sent to attack the Bosporus Army immediately fell into complete chaos. With the counterattack of the previously suppressed Bosporus Army, countless Muslim soldiers were caught in this disarray, attacked from front and back, even trampling each other, and dying tragically.
This chaotic situation spared none of the White Sheep Army's generals. Large numbers of tribal leaders were shot, pierced, or beheaded by the Christians they fought against, and even Ali, who commanded the entire army, was captured by Nicholas, under Dungar's command, after the central army collapsed.
Thus, the Battle of Bayburt, which lasted until that evening, finally ended, declared a complete victory for Bosporus.