Jahan Shah, whose full name was Jahan Shah ibn Yusuf, was the seventh and third-to-last Sultan of the Black Sheep Dynasty in official history.
After ascending to the throne, he led the Black Sheep Dynasty to decisively defeat the descendants of Timur on the Iranian Plateau, expanding their territory and leading the Black Sheep Dynasty to its peak.
Then, in 1467, he was utterly defeated by Uzun Hasan, the Sultan of the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty, and died directly in Mush…
But that was a long time in the future; at least for now, Jahan, as the heir of the Black Sheep Dynasty, was certainly more influential in the current situation than Uzun Hasan, who was still a young boy.
And from the historical records Manuel understood in his previous life, even before officially ascending to the throne, the ambitious Bey Jahan would certainly not miss the opportunity presented by the emptiness of the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty's eastern border.
As for the letter he wrote, Manuel didn't put too much weight on it.
In his eyes, this letter would at most act as a catalyst, and it would be best if it immediately enticed the Black Sheep to act.
It wouldn't matter if they didn't move immediately; the Bosporus would beat the White Sheep into such a state that the Black Sheep couldn't stand by and do nothing.
After realizing this, he withdrew his gaze from the Caucasus and stepped out of his tent, saying, "Badars, you'll understand the specifics in a few months.
For now, just focus on preparing to deal with those ambitious Turks."
Just as Manuel said, by late November, the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty, which had barely recovered from its costly victory at Palantoken Mountain after nearly a month of rest, had gathered an army of 8,000 under the leadership of its Sultan.
With renewed morale, they marched majestically towards Erzurum.
In Kara Osman's eyes, without the mountains to block them this time, these Romans, who had come from afar, surely couldn't trouble him much anymore.
Under normal circumstances, this would be true.
But this time, these enemies had learned some tactics from the local Armenians that made their scalps tingle: the tunnels that the Romans were once skilled at.
Speaking of tunnels, anyone familiar with Anatolia's history and geography would likely think of the underground structures that have existed on the Anatolia Plateau since ancient times.
The most complex of these ancient underground structures could even serve as underground fortresses for locals to live in and resist enemies, with the most typical being the underground cities in the Cappadocia region.
These underground structures were initially built by the indigenous Hittites of Anatolia over a thousand years ago; after the Roman army arrived, they became bases for locals to resist foreign invaders; after the Romans assimilated Anatolia, they became bunkers for Eastern Orthodox to resist Turk invasions; and in official history, after the Ottoman destroyed the Karaman Beylik, they would in turn become positions for the Karaman Turks to resist Ottoman tyranny.
However, these underground structures have little to do with the "tunnels" mentioned earlier.
Due to various limiting factors, the Eastern Anatolian mountains did not have underground structures as complex and well-equipped as those in Cappadocia.
But a simpler type of tunnel was quite popular among the Armenians in that area.
This was also one of the reasons they managed to survive various military conflicts throughout history and remain the main ethnic group in West Armenia, though it wasn't a very important reason.
Generally speaking, normal rulers would not value this technique of the Armenian mountain people.
But Bosporus was different; to win the war against the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty, Manuel had set a tone of "by any means necessary" for the entire army even before the war.
Whether it was treating the Armenians, who were fellow Christians, with special favor, or deceiving the two hundred and fifty soldiers to their deaths by detonating the earth fort to collapse the mountain, or sending people to secretly collude with the Black Sheep, the starting point was always the same: to achieve ultimate victory.
Thus, under the lure of various empty promises made by Manuel, a large group of Armenian craftsmen eventually volunteered to come forward and build tunnels for the Bosporus Army.
Combined with the existing excavation capabilities from Tauris and the relatively mature tunnel technology from Trabzon, the Bosporus Army was able to race against time to build many tunnels of decent quality along the outskirts of Erzurum to transport supplies and hide troops.
Furthermore, since it was now winter, under the cover of ice and snow and the earth, the enemy army was completely unaware that 隊 after 隊 of Bosporus soldiers were already lying in ambush underground, ready to launch a surprise attack from behind.
As the White Sheep Army's soldiers swarmed in the distance like a black cloud, Manuel received intelligence from his scouts that the White Sheep were about to launch another major offensive.
After confirming this, he immediately stood up alertly, made a resolute decision with determined eyes, and decisively ordered the soldiers deployed in the tunnels to proceed as planned.
Only after the entire army began to act actively did this young Caesar complain in a voice no one else could hear:
"Alas, if only I still had explosives," he shook his head sadly, "my precious nitroglycerin.
I managed to prepare some before leaving my hometown.
I originally intended to use it to blow up the Pontus mines, but it ran out prematurely.
This stuff is so hard to make…"
While he lamented that his stock of potions was completely insufficient, the vanguard unit sent by the White Sheep Army had already reached the foot of Palantoken Mountain.
Out of caution, before they set out, Kara Osman had already sent his sons to sweep the eastern and western sides of the mountain range, and to scout the terrain and enemy situation, striving not to be ambushed by any potential lurking enemies and suffer a humiliating defeat.
After confirming that the enemy had not established many strongholds in these areas, and that all of them had been cleared, Kara Osman finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It was already afternoon, and as he stood at the northern foot of the mountain, he quickly received a report from his scouts.
"Is the road to Erzurum truly unobstructed?" This report from the scout made the old Sultan both excited and wary, "Allah above, what new trick are the Romans playing now?"
But to stop and hesitate out of worry would not achieve the objective.
After half an hour of careful consideration, Kara Osman decided to send the vanguard unit that had already reached the foot of the mountain to probe the outskirts of Erzurum city, to figure out what new tricks his enemies were up to.
Thus, this thousand-man vanguard unit, led by 200 Turkmen Ghazi, mounted their warhorses and rode towards Erzurum city in the afternoon.
Having been at odds with that mountain for so long, they finally had a chance to fight on their somewhat unfamiliar warhorses.
However, after a long while, and as the snow fell even heavier, they still saw no enemies.
"Could these infidels be huddling in the city because they think it's too cold?" The leading general couldn't help but wonder, looking at the not-too-thick snow around them.
And just as he was about to give the order to continue forward, a subtle disturbance suddenly emanated from around the unit.