Three days later, at noon, under the rapid assault of the Bosporus Army, they had already advanced near Bulančak, a coastal town in the Janik Beylik.
"A few stadia further west is Bulančak, a city the Turks have occupied for several years, which was formerly Terastios (Τεράστιος) under the Komnenos family of Trabzon," the local Greek guide said, pointing to the nearby town with certainty.
Due to the vast difference in status, he, like other common people of this era, bowed his head when speaking, avoiding direct eye contact with the monarch behind him.
Manuel, for his part, told the man there was no need for such formality; he should look up to him as his taxi soldiers did.
It wasn't that he was relapsing into some egalitarian tendency, as he had in his youth, but rather that he always disliked such trivial and militarily useless noble-commoner courtesies during wartime.
However, in the eyes of some of his subordinates, such as a certain civil official, this became a manifestation of Caesar's noble character.
But Manuel didn't notice any of this. He gazed at the medium-sized village-town they were about to reach, thinking, "That was quite fast."
After entering the territory of the Janik Beylik, he had expected to encounter large-scale resistance from the enemy, but to his surprise, within a few days, his army had directly routed the enemy, sending them fleeing west.
The Bosporus officers and soldiers were left wondering if the enemy had prepared some particularly troublesome trap.
Manuel, however, had guessed one possibility. According to pre-war intelligence, the Janik Beylik had only been established five or six years ago when Murad II ceded the area to the Hashimir Beylik.
Before that, the actual rulers of the Janik area were the various minor Beys of the Janik Oglu family. So, how much cohesion could a forcibly integrated Janik Beylik possess?
It was worth noting that even Manuel, who had forcefully integrated his territories and suppressed separatist forces, still felt his rule was not stable. At least, he always felt that just one strategic defeat could revert the Autocratic State to its original form as the Theodoro Principality.
As Manuel continued to ponder the background, several scouts from the units he had sent out to investigate had returned.
However, judging by the tattered military uniforms, armor, and obvious wounds on their bodies, it would be more accurate to say they had fled back rather than rushed back.
This was the first time the Bosporus Army's scouts had returned in such a disheveled state, so the generals and commanders, led by Tukharovsky, did not hesitate and immediately questioned the returning scouts about the situation ahead.
Soon, their expressions grew solemn. According to these scouts, while investigating military intelligence ahead, they encountered resistance from a unit of elite soldiers wearing felt cloaks, red leather military boots, and head coverings adorned with a wooden spoon and a white turban.
These elite soldiers were brave in action and disciplined in their movements, completely different from the ordinary Turk soldiers encountered in previous days.
The few who ran back claimed that if they hadn't escaped in time, they would have been cut down on the spot by the enemy's scimitars, just like their comrades.
After confirming the authenticity of the intelligence, it was immediately reported to Caesar Manuel, who commanded the entire army.
Having led the army for a long time, he immediately understood what kind of enemy he was about to face upon learning this intelligence: "No way, Janissaries again?"
The moment he realized this unit was arrayed against him, Manuel subconsciously trembled violently for a few moments.
But in less than a second, he returned to normal. Caesar, who had already ascended the throne and held great power, was no longer the young Crown Prince who, in the past, would be so scared by the sight of Janissaries' uniforms that he would want to run away.
At this moment, facing an unknown number of Janissaries, Manuel immediately halted his horse and waved his hand, calmly issuing a military order before approaching Bulančak:
"Pass on my command: the entire army is to retreat… no, to strategically withdraw, withdraw back to Taripuri."
Taripuri, as he referred to it, was a village-town that the Bosporus Army had taken without bloodshed just yesterday.
Because the Janik forces had fled too quickly at the time, their defensive works left behind were largely undamaged, making it a resting and garrison point for the Bosporus side.
Coupled with supplies and repairs from the rear and by sea, this village-town should be able to withstand the enemy for about a week.
In any case, given the current situation, he was not yet prepared to fight this Ottoman Janissaries unit.
This was true both psychologically and militarily.
As for why he didn't want to confront the Janissaries head-on? Oh, those were the Ottoman elite troops, the Janissaries!
Manuel certainly did not want to be captured by them and taken to the Sultan's palace for some song and dance performance.
Until he understood why the enemy had entered the fray, he had no desire to fight any unnecessary battles.
Therefore, for the Bosporus Army at this time, retreating was not a bad choice.
In a word, just run. Can a strategic withdrawal be called running away?
Tukharovsky and the other generals were momentarily baffled by their monarch's decision.
But Badars, as the head of the Dark Department and Commander of the Guard, nodded as if enlightened.
As the highest person in charge of the Dark Department and a general, he had dealt with a lot of intelligence related to the Janissaries, and thus he deeply understood the terror of this Ottoman elite unit.
And with this unit once again arrayed against them, his Caesar's willingness to decisively abandon the immediate petty gains and instead choose to preserve the entire army's vital forces was simply the mark of a wise and enlightened monarch.
"It seems Manuel had anticipated this long ago; he is truly worthy of being Manuel!" After this line of thought, the image of Caesar in Badars' heart grew even taller.
And the rest of the generals and commanders in the army, after a brief moment of surprise, also complied with their monarch's choice.
Besides coming up with various reasons, there was also the trust they had accumulated in their strategically adept monarch through numerous campaigns.
So, facing Caesar's "strategic withdrawal" order, they issued it to their various units with little hesitation.
Only Serenus, who was with the army, felt utterly ashamed. "No, no, Saint Mary! This is clearly running away! Why can our esteemed Manuel and all the generals understand 'running away' in such a fresh and refined way?! It's just a unit of Janissaries of unknown numbers; this is fundamentally wrong!"
But civil officials had no say in the army. Thinking of this, the Chief Secretary could only swallow his doubts and grudgingly recorded something on paper.
In short, a few hours later, when Muhammad Ozil Pasha arrived with 750 Janissaries and over 2,000 Janik soldiers, he found that the enemy had already withdrawn from the area, and he had completely come up empty-handed.
"Damn Christians!" Özil, feeling like he had punched cotton, gritted his teeth and cursed.