"What did Father say?" Jahan, the heir to the Black Sheep Dynasty, asked impatiently after quickly scanning the letter, eager to confirm his thoughts.
"Sultan said," the messenger prostrated himself respectfully, "that as Allah wills, Your Highness may make decisions at your discretion. As long as it is within reasonable bounds, even if there are minor conflicts with other countries, it does not matter."
The implication was that his father, Black Sheep Sultan Kara Iskander, fully condoned his coveting and claiming of White Sheep territory. In other words, he could lead his army to attack White Sheep himself.
After seeing off the messenger, Jahan suppressed his excitement, summoned his confidants, and ordered, "Have the remaining troops prepare. In a while, we will, by Allah's will, liberate Diyarbakir from those Sunni heretics."
Roughly half a month later—
One day at noon, outside the city of Erzurum, a messenger soldier from Diyarbakir, the capital of the tribal alliance, galloped into the White Sheep Army camp, inadvertently changing the stalemated battle.
"Damn Shiite heretics!" Kara Osman, in his tent, stood up and cursed loudly upon receiving the precise military intelligence from the capital. According to the messenger, their old archenemy, the Black Sheep Dynasty, had taken advantage of their temporary eastern void and sent a large army of several thousand to try and outflank them and attack their home base.
"Allah above, why now of all times?" Feeling that the siege plan had fallen through, the Old Sultan could not help but sigh, pressing his hand to his forehead. According to his pre-calculation, if they besieged Erzurum for another one to two months, once the city's provisions were nearly depleted, the Bosporus Army, holed up inside, would inevitably be forced out. At that time, the White Sheep Army, whose field combat capability far surpassed that of the enemy, would be able to, as in the past, crush and break the enemy's effective forces in one wave.
As a result, their old enemy, the Black Sheep, came knocking at this time…
"Then, Father, what should we do now?" This was asked by his third son, Mahmoud. His other two sons, Hamza and Sheikh Hassan, also cast troubled glances at their father, hoping to know how to respond.
Facing a potentially easy victory, Kara Osman's first thought was to continue concentrating his main forces on besieging the city, but his reason immediately brought an emergency halt to this decision. From the current situation, the Bosporus, coming from north of the Black Sea, whether from a strength or strategic perspective, posed only a minor, but not significant, threat to the tribal alliance. As for the Black Sheep to the east, since its establishment, it had always held an annexationist attitude towards the Turkman tribes in the west, and the threat of the Black Sheep heretics was a major reason why the White Sheep could unite. Losing to the Romans would only mean losing land; losing to the Black Sheep would truly mean the destruction of the country.
Analyzing it this way, the choice was obvious. Yet, even so, Kara Osman still did not want to give up this part of West Armenia, where many small tribes were scattered.
"The main force will return to Diyarbakir to prepare for those devil-spawned heretics," the Sultan ordered glumly. "But two to three thousand men must be left to supervise the city's defense. Mahmoud, you will lead these men."
"Yes, Father." Mahmoud bowed solemnly, accepting his father's direct order.
Thus, the Bosporus, in hindsight, once again passed a critical moment. On the third night after Kara Osman made his decision, the White Sheep Army, having completed its troop arrangements, packed up and broke camp under the cover of night, hoping to quickly reach the eastern frontier for support.
And how could the Bosporus, who had been closely observing their movements, be unaware of the enemy's actions? In fact, by noon the day after Kara Osman made his decision, the enemy movements below the city walls had already caught the attention of Manuel, who was directing the defenders on the ramparts.
"They are no longer pressing the civilians or militias to find a breakthrough, and many soldiers are doing things unrelated to defending the city, yet moving hurriedly… It looks familiar." Observing the enemy's behavior, Manuel stroked his chin thoughtfully and murmured, "A bit familiar, isn't it?"
"Your Majesty, isn't this just like what we encountered earlier in the Tauris area, and previously when we met the White Sheep detached forces?" Tukharovsky, who was coordinating the command beside him, complained softly, somewhat unable to hold back, looking at Caesar, who seemed to be deliberately building suspense.
"Ah, I remember now! The enemies we encountered before always did this when they were making a strategic retreat. Saint Mary, it's truly déjà vu!" In less than half a minute, Caesar smiled with an expression of sudden realization.
"Your Majesty, would it be better to call upon Saint Martha at this time?" Badars, who stood beside him, thought to himself, making a somewhat tangential association.
However, his diverging thoughts were immediately interrupted by his monarch's next military order, "Alright, gather the generals tonight. It's time to consider how to deal with those Turks who have besieged us for so long."
"Yes, Your Majesty, loyalty!"
After a brief and concise discussion of countermeasures that lasted less than an hour that night, the Bosporus Army waited for the moment the enemy withdrew, even if only a part of them.
"Good, it seems a large part of the White Sheep Army is withdrawing." Dungar speculated thoughtfully, looking at the enemy positions partially revealed by the torchlight.
"And it must be because of an urgent situation that they exposed a weakness. Otherwise, based on the experience of the past few months, the Sultan leading the opposing forces would not act so hastily," Tukharovsky added.
"Jahan Shah couldn't hold back and charged with the Black Sheep?" Manuel, who understood the local situation, considered this possibility.
However, the generals of the Bosporus Army did not let their guard down. Instead, they patiently waited until the enemy's main force had withdrawn a considerable distance, yet not completely. It wasn't until the next morning, when they confirmed that the bulk of the enemy forces would be difficult to recall for support, that they began to direct their troops, preparing to deliver a solid counterattack to these infidels who had trapped them for so long.
That afternoon, Mahmoud, who learned that the number of defenders on the city walls seemed to have greatly decreased, was puzzled for a moment. "Did they notice our forces had decreased, so they reduced the size of their defenders to take the opportunity to re-establish contact with other cities?" Having led troops for many years, he felt quite uncertain about such an unconventional enemy. After all, not everyone had the courage and ability to detonate a stationed fort to try and crush a group of difficult enemies.
Just as he was pondering this, the White Sheep defenders stationed at the front suddenly discovered that the Erzurum city gates had opened.
"They're not going to surrender, are they?" A Turk tribal general closest to the enemy city walls immediately became excited. But what awaited him was not submissive surrendering soldiers, but a large contingent of enemy troops in armor, well-equipped, and uniformly dressed.