After meticulously assigning tasks to all parties, Manuel did not return directly to his temporary residence to rest. Instead, he took a detour back to the military camp outside the city, preparing to meet one of his subordinates to decide the next course of action based on his results.
After Caesar returned to his tent, Foreign Affairs Director Georgia Mana, who had been waiting for some time, bowed slightly, saluting his respected Caesar.
"Mana, what did that person say?" After sitting on his chair, Manuel asked his Foreign Affairs Director with interest about the results of his collaboration with the Dark Division to contact the western forces of Georgia.
"Reporting, Caesar," Mana replied, bowing, "Although the other party is clearly very interested in our proposal, due to the unclear situation, it seems he only has a wait-and-see attitude for now."
"Did you remind them of the consequences of doing so?"
"Yes, Caesar. But the other party still said he needed to think carefully before making a decision."
"I understand. You may withdraw first." Caesar waved his hand, dismissing Mana. Then he immediately snorted coldly and ordered, "So, you want to be a fisherman, huh? Summon Badars for me."
After Badars arrived, he issued an order for the Commander of the Guard to convey: "Tell Posadas to immediately attack Imereti. It's time to put some pressure on these fellows and make them understand that it's not I who needs them, but they who need I!"
"Yes, Caesar, loyalty!"
The night after he made all arrangements, Bosporus's medium and large artillery arrived in Batumi. The next day, at noon on the third day, the Bosporus Army and the Georgian noble coalition, as planned, set out from Akhaltsikhe, the frontline stronghold, to attack the three fortresses guarding Borjomi. After giving instructions to his subordinates, Caesar personally led the Philaka Legion and two elite peasant-soldier companies, totaling about three thousand soldiers, to march eastward in an orderly fashion towards Petra.
Because the first half of the road to Sari and Petra largely overlapped, Manuel initially marched with the noble coalition, also supervising them to ensure they wouldn't make any irrational moves. Due to the rugged mountain roads, they only reached the fork in the eastern and southern routes near dusk two days later, officially splitting their forces.
After the torches of the noble army could no longer be seen with the naked eye, Manuel immediately ordered the entire army to march at a forced pace, following local guides towards Petra. Facing the doubts of his officers and soldiers, Caesar did not keep them in suspense: "The remaining journey is less than six hundred and fifty pule rong (approximately 19.5 kilometers). If we can approach Petra by midnight, our army will then have enough energy to get some rest during the final stretch, avoiding wasted time when attacking the fortress. Don't forget, for this surprise attack on George Awalishvili, who has not yet sided with the Georgian Royal Army, we didn't even bring a single medium artillery piece."
After hearing Caesar's words, the mid-to-high-ranking officers in the army all became serious, no longer wasting words, but immediately and efficiently began to march. For the next nearly ten hours, the Bosporus Army marched tirelessly at a standard forced march speed towards Petra Fortress, finally seeing what appeared to be the destination's lights at midnight.
Upon seeing the lights, Manuel immediately ordered a halt to the march and dispatched mountain scouts, recruited locally in Georgia, to check for any unusual situations on the roads ahead and behind, as well as in the surrounding mountains, and to confirm if the lights ahead were indeed Petra Fortress. After confirming there were no unexpected events and that it was indeed Petra, Caesar dismounted and ordered the entire army to rest temporarily on the spot for a period, to accumulate energy for the assault operation scheduled to begin a few hours later.
Approximately two hours later, the Bosporus Army, having recovered much of its energy, received orders from Caesar Manuel and, just before dawn, headed straight for Petra Castle, which was less than one hundred pule rong away.
At this time, most of the garrison inside the fortress were still sound asleep, and the few awake on duty were drowsily preparing to return for shift change and rest after just finishing their night shift. Therefore, the Bosporus vanguard basically reached the mountain fortress with little effort and began to set up temporary siege equipment.
It wasn't until the fortress suffered its first wave of attack that the defenders inside awoke as if from a dream, startled into defending against enemies who seemed to have sprung from the mountains. However, by then, the Bosporus Army had already deployed small artillery pieces specialized in support, which, combined with the small siege units that had already scaled the fortress walls using ladders, greatly disrupted the bewildered defenders' rhythm in resisting the enemy. As the vanguard first occupied the city wall, Manuel immediately ordered his most trusted Philaka Legion to follow.
And these converted slave soldiers fully lived up to his expectations. After reaching the fortress with the vanguard, they bravely and orderly cut through the Georgian defenders, who were on the verge of collapse, directly reaching the bottom of the city wall, opening the city gates, and letting in the remaining two thousand five hundred allied troops outside. As Bosporus soldiers poured in like a tide and the defenders surrendered directly, the eastern fortress defending Borjomi was lost. It was only noon at this time.
After the battle, Manuel, having entered Petra, ordered his troops to rest and also sent people to briefly count the casualties of both sides in this battle. The results were very satisfactory to him: the Bosporus Army, at the cost of only about ten casualties, killed over a hundred enemy defenders, not to mention the remaining four to five hundred defenders who directly surrendered and became prisoners. The only pity was that, except for dozens of legitimate Awalishvili private soldiers, the rest of these defenders were mountain people recruited locally, making the intrinsic value of the battle's outcome not very exciting for him.
"I wonder how the other two routes are doing now?" After counting and analyzing the battle's casualty ratio, Manuel stood up and looked towards the west and south, anticipating the battle results achieved by the other units.
While Caesar was looking forward to the other two routes, his Pontus Army Commander, Dungar, was urging the artillery to bombard the walls of Gogia Fortress. Compared to the other two routes, the western route he was responsible for was shorter, so the marching speed of his troops also slowed down accordingly. They only arrived at Gogia this morning and had an intense engagement with the well-rested defenders.
Roughly an hour or two later, as the stalemate gradually turned into an advantage, Dungar felt delighted and couldn't help but recall an incident before their departure when he, out of confusion regarding troop deployment, questioned his monarch—
"Caesar, most of the fortresses in Georgia are built into the mountains, and transporting medium and large artillery is already inconvenient. Even if I am responsible for the relatively flat western route, bringing so many artillery units might not be effective, would it?" Dungar had asked Caesar with doubt at that time.
In response, Manuel, who was of similar age to him at the time, simply smiled and explained, "Georgia's city defenses are still primarily wooden stockades and stone fortresses. Even with the assistance of local guides provided by local lords, as outsiders, our army cannot compete with them in terms of geographical advantage. At this point, we either rely on decent tactical arrangements or sufficiently powerful siege equipment. To ensure success, you should bring them."
"What about you, Caesar?" Dungar remembered that his monarch had not only brought no heavy armored troops this time but also hadn't allocated any medium artillery to himself.
"I will solve it the more traditional way." Manuel smiled cunningly at the time, no longer explaining more.