The change of hands in Adamakha meant that Bosporus had completely controlled all the Sea of Azov coastline except for Tana, a Venetian colony.
At the same time, the reinforcements sent by the Golden Horde Khan had not even reached Sarai.
It was no wonder, after all, there was still some distance from Volga Bulgaria to Astrakhan, and no matter how swift the riders on the steppe were, they could not be as fast as vehicles of later generations.
A day or two later, the two thousand main army sent by Muhammad Khan finally arrived on the outskirts of Sarai, began to gather the defeated soldiers, assemble various tribes and garrisons, and prepare to sweep away these infidel Romans who dared to invade the border, as per the Khan's order.
It was now early to mid-July...
While the Golden Horde army was still sluggishly gathering its troops and dreaming of crushing Bosporus in one fell swoop, Manuel, the Bosporus Caesar, had already ordered the Circassian Legion to be recalled from Adyghe to the front line, and was holding a temporary military meeting in the Venetian city of Tana with his Generals to discuss how to deal with the formidable Tatar army.
Although the Golden Horde Khanate was in decline, these brave and terrifying steppe riders were still a formidable force.
Although the Great Ulus of this period continued to split into several khanates independent of Sarai, these nomadic peoples still possessed sufficiently powerful combat capabilities.
Even if Lithuania resisted the Tatars for many years with both soft and hard tactics, it could not expand its borders east of the Dnieper River.
As for the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which extinguished the nomadic regimes of the Eastern European steppe in the original timeline, it was still more than thirty years before the Grand Duchy of Moscow in official history mustered the courage to resist taxes and defeat the Golden Horde; the esteemed Grand Duke Vasily II of Moscow was still obediently paying taxes to the Golden Horde Khanate for now...
From this perspective, Manuel's leading troops to seize the coastal areas seemed to be a reckless and greedy act for petty gains?
How could that be? Although Lithuania and Moscow could not be relied upon, Manuel dared to launch this border war precisely because he saw some reasons—
In fact, in the Crimean War a few years ago, he had already roughly discerned that the Sarai Khanate's control over the coastal areas had declined to the point where it was only nominally in control of the local region.
Although Sayid Khan, the predecessor of the current Golden Horde Khan, tried to re-establish order in the area by suppressing Haji Giray, his efforts during his reign ultimately came to naught because he was soon driven out of Sarai by Muhammad Khan.
And Bosporus benefited from this.
If Sayid Khan were still on the throne, Manuel, considering all factors, would indeed not dare to antagonize the Golden Horde before the Grand Duchy of Moscow officially resisted taxes.
But since his opponent was the young Muhammad Khan, he had the courage to replicate the independence of the Crimean Khanate in official history, using the same tactics against the Golden Horde to force them to practically abandon control over the Sea of Azov coast.
Therefore, what he had to do now was to do his best to severely defeat the troops sent by the Golden Horde, hurt these Tatars, and make them feel that the gains did not outweigh the losses, forcing them to give up.
When he selectively and briefly explained the above objective to his subordinates, the expressions of the Generals of the Autocratic State all became solemn.
It was clear that they also realized the importance of Caesar's words just now.
"In that case, Your Majesty, how should we intercept the Tatars? The vast steppe is their advantageous territory, isn't it?"
A moment later, Army Commander Tukharovsky, a Rus' who had dealt with the Tatars extensively for Lithuania, was the first to voice his concerns.
This was not because he distrusted his monarch, but because he hoped that the other party could propose a plan that would impress everyone, just as he had done when he defeated the Crimean Khanate last time.
And his respected Caesar did not disappoint him.
"What you said is very true.
Therefore, we must never engage them in a confrontation on the open, flat steppe, but should choose areas that are unfavorable for cavalry, such as wetlands or swamps..."
Having said this, he paused, then cast his gaze towards a densely networked water area on the map.
Looking at the excellent hydrological environment there, Caesar's lips even curved slightly upwards.
"Isn't this place quite good? So... yes, roughly like this... this way, and that way..."
A few days later, the troops sent by Muhammad Khan to aid the southern steppe region, after gathering five thousand elite soldiers and an equal number of auxiliary logistical laborers, set out from the west of the city, preparing to follow the Don River to reclaim the Sea of Azov coast occupied by Bosporus.
Don (Don / Дон), this is what the Rus' and Tatars called it, and the etymology of this name can be traced back to the Scythian-Sarmatian word for water "danu" and its cognate "don" for river.
As for the ancient Greeks and Romans, they more often referred to it as "Tanais River" (Τάναϊς), and this word is also the etymology of Tana, the mouth of this river, which now exists as a Latin colony.
However, with the passage of time, the Romans no longer used this ancient name but followed the customary Tatar name for the river.
Now, these Tatars were moving down this river, intending to quickly reclaim the land occupied by the Goths.
Having secretly negotiated with the Venetians beforehand and obtained military passage rights in the Tana region, this Golden Horde army marched openly along the river, appearing to have no worries.
"These infidel merchants are so easy to talk to," Mahmoud, a middle-aged Tatar and the Golden Horde army's General, remarked with a sense of relief to his slightly younger General.
"That's right," the General said with similar sentiment, "To be fence-sitters between the Great Ulus and the Goths, betting on both sides, they truly are a bunch of profit-seeking Kafirs.
After they die, they'll probably all be thrown into Hell by Allah.
But what does that have to do with us?"
Thus, the Golden Horde army, chatting and laughing, followed the river to a wilderness in the lower Don River, which the Rus' called Khresttsy (Хрестц).
Due to the long-term scouring by the Don River and its tributaries, this area had formed a beautiful but extremely difficult-to-traverse marshy plain.
And for convenience, most of the Golden Horde soldiers dismounted and walked along the way, some even removing their armor to make themselves more comfortable on the road.
Looking at this terrain, the General couldn't help but burst out laughing.
When asked why, he simply explained to the taxi soldiers he led, "Gentlemen, Allah is above.
Look, the water flow here is so complex, and the land is too soft for riding, which is all disadvantages for our army.
But even under these circumstances, the Romans, or rather the Goths, have not set up an ambush here; they are truly a bunch of short-sighted good-for-nothings.
It seems our army will certainly..."
Before he could finish, a scout quietly reported to him: "General, Romans, there are Romans everywhere here!"
"Huh!?"
Upon hearing this, both the Golden Horde's General and his second-in-command were completely dumbfounded...