"This letter is…" After summoning the other party, Jahan looked at the unfamiliar messenger with a Greek appearance and felt quite puzzled.
"From His Majesty Manuel, the Bosphorus Caesar of the Bosphorus Despotate, a distant in-law of His Highness the Bey, of the Gavras Family," the messenger humbly informed the other party of the sender.
People from the Gavras Family? If he remembered correctly, they were indeed distantly related through their Komnenos family members. But they usually had no contact at all, so why were they seeking him out now?
After a moment of contemplation, Jahan had his attendant take the letter from the messenger, while also considering another key part of the messenger's words, "Bosphorus Caesar? Bosporus, I see."
Although he and the entire Black Sheep knew little about this emerging political entity, at least from what he already knew, a large part of the reason the Black Sheep Dynasty had the spare capacity to deal with Shirvan in the Caucasus was that the Despotate had gotten involved with the White Sheep while vying for the Trabzon succession, diverting a great deal of their energy. This forced their Black Sheep archenemy to withdraw many effective forces from its eastern border.
Although Jahan did not understand how they had gained a temporary advantage in West Armenia, it was evident that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, these Romans from north of the Black Sea would surely suffer a crushing defeat when facing the White Sheep Sultan Kara Osman leading his main forces in conquest.
"So, they've come to us Black Sheep?" Jahan sneered inwardly, "But unfortunately, we only managed to deal with Shirvan because of this opportunity. How could we casually get involved in your war now? Wait until I finish reading the letter, then you can obediently go back."
However, for diplomatic purposes, Jahan did not directly express his thoughts to the messenger. Instead, he adopted a serious demeanor, said a few kind words, and had someone escort him to the embassy. Afterward, he prepared to return to his room to carefully read the handwritten letter from his distant in-law whom he had never met.
If nothing else had happened, perhaps this handwritten letter from the Bosphorus Caesar would not have achieved the effect its writer hoped for.
Fortunately, the message from the Black Sheep Dynasty arrived quite timely.
Just as Jahan was about to continue handling his routine daily duties, a secret agent sent by the "nail" the Black Sheep had planted in the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty arrived outside the Tabriz palace, reporting that he had important matters to convey and requesting an audience.
"Bring him in quickly," hearing that there was important intelligence, Jahan became fully alert.
The newcomer was wrapped in a thick black cloak, and others could not see his true face. This was the "small price" he had to bear as a secret agent, after all, there were also "nails" planted by the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty within the Black Sheep court.
After dismissing all unrelated personnel and offering a few brief words of comfort, Jahan immediately asked what important intelligence he had to report.
"Your Highness," the secret agent reported respectfully, prostrating himself, "According to reliable information, not long ago, during the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty's process of recapturing Erzurum, it seems they suffered heavy losses at a mountain fortification, possibly due to a Roman scheme."
"To what extent?" Jahan's eyes seemed to faintly emit a flickering light.
"The complete information is unclear, but at least around a thousand tribal Ghazis have lost their combat effectiveness."
Upon hearing this news, Jahan couldn't help but clench his right fist, "Allah, are there really so many Ghazis gone?"
"If he did not know this, my lord would certainly not have sent this humble one to the capital of Tabriz," the secret agent said, lowering his head even further.
"Good, you may withdraw for now. Rise, and may Allah grant you and your lord peace."
"Yes, Your Highness. Allah will also protect your well-being," saying this, the secret agent rose, bowed again, and quickly withdrew from Jahan's sight.
As soon as the secret agent left, Jahan clenched his hands, raised them to his chest, and became completely invigorated. As the heir to the Black Sheep Dynasty, this tribal confederation, he deeply understood what the loss of around a thousand tribal Ghazis meant for the White Sheep.
"White Sheep, I've finally found your weakness. Hand over Diyarbakir to me," his eyes, still those of a Bey, were filled with greed and passion. He immediately summoned his trusted attendant and instructed him to immediately transcribe everything he was about to say.
About a quarter of an hour later, after checking the content recorded by his attendant, Jahan waved his hand, telling him to package and refine this written document as a letter and immediately organize personnel to ensure his father received this letter as soon as possible.
By that evening, after confirming that the letter had left Tabriz, Jahan, whose mind had been changed by the intelligence, slowly summoned the messenger from Bosporus back into the palace. He then subtly hinted that the Black Sheep had considerable interest in the matter, but at the same time reminded the other party not to harbor excessive, undue expectations because of this. "No matter what, only one's self can defeat the enemy," he emphasized this vague statement.
At noon the next day, after confirming the departure of the Bosporus messenger, Jahan, for the first time, ascended to the top terrace of the Tabriz palace, his eyes like an eagle hawk, looking down towards the west, and murmured, "The situation has been set. Romans, remember to work hard to tie down the White Sheep's main forces."
Now he just awaited his father, the Black Sheep Sultan Kara Iskander's reply. Having done all this, Jahan felt an indescribable sense of relief.
"I truly hope to give the White Sheep heretics a big 'surprise,'" he thought to himself.
Incidentally, Tabriz's response to Manuel came more than a week after the White Sheep had captured Palantoken Mountain. At this time, due to the loss of over a thousand brave and skilled Turkic Ghazis, Kara Osman had to slow his pace, letting the remaining troops encamp on the north side of the mountain, waiting for their morale to recover before attacking the nearby city of Erzurum.
This gave Manuel, who was stationed with his army on the outskirts of Erzurum, some time to breathe. One afternoon in late October, after finishing his lunch, he looked towards the distant Eastern Caucasus mountains and murmured with a smile, "Calculating the time, that letter should have reached Tabriz by now."
And Badars, who stood beside him and had long harbored doubts, seeing his Majesty's demeanor, finally couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, will those Shiite Turks really act as we expect? To place our hopes on them is perhaps too…"
"Badars," Manuel gently interrupted him, "you seem to have misunderstood something: it's not that I'm placing my hopes on them, but that they will definitely be unable to restrain themselves and make a move."
"?"
"Because the heir to the Black Sheep Dynasty," Manuel thought, "is Jahan Shah, who later led it to its peak."