"All in all, I only accepted their peace proposal to mislead the other party," Manuel explained his intentions at the end of the conversation.
"If that's the case, Your Majesty, then why are our forces still at a stalemate with the Georgian Royal Army on the front lines?" The Chief Minister was quite puzzled, as he had, more or less, learned about the current battle situation on the front lines between the two armies on his way to Batumi.
"Well," Manuel said with a slightly awkward smile, "first, our artillery is still in the border region and hasn't been fully transported here, so it's not easy to suppress these brave Caucasus mountain people.
"Secondly, a certain unknown force hasn't given a definitive reply yet, so the Circassian Legion, which excels in mountain warfare, cannot be transferred south from the Adyghe region for now."
"Unknown force, you mean?" the Chief Minister asked, puzzled.
"You'll know in a few days." To his subordinate's confusion, Caesar merely gave a mysterious smile, then waved his hand and turned to head to the camp outside the city, preparing for a secret meeting with the envoy sent from Tbilisi.
A quarter of an hour later, Caesar Manuel negotiated with the Georgian envoy in the Bosporus central army tent outside Batumi. Although the Batumi region was under the rule of the Samukhetsi Principality, Atabeg Ivan II and other Georgian feudal lords, due to the influence of the Bosporus and their own positions, would not casually send people to investigate them outside the city. Therefore, the confidentiality of this peace talk was guaranteed.
The Georgian envoy who came to negotiate with the Bosporus was a collateral branch of the Bagration Royal Family, slightly older than the young Caesar across the negotiating table. He wore a pure white kaba and was relatively short and stout. Facing the emerging young monarch, his expression was visibly serious.
Meanwhile, Caesar, sitting opposite him, was in military attire, draped in a pure purple silk sleeveless long cloak. His expression, though serious, was clearly relaxed, a complete contrast to the envoy.
After a brief joint prayer and a greeting to King Alexander I of Georgia, both sides proceeded to the main topic of the peace talks.
"Manuel," the Georgian envoy, speaking fluent greek, directly stated his request, "I represent my King Alexander I and humbly ask Caesar to withdraw his troops."
"Why?" Such a direct request, without any additional explanation, amused Manuel a little.
The envoy across from him was waiting for precisely that question. "Caesar," the envoy formally presented the reason given by his King, "we, Georgia and the Bosporus, being of the same lineage, should be the frontline against infidels. Why should we fight each other? Are you not afraid that the infidels will rise up and destroy the last remnants of the orthodox cause?"
Manuel had anticipated such rhetoric. "That's incorrect. Since you yourselves are aware that we are the frontline against infidels, then why, when we repeatedly requested to establish contact with your country, were you always lukewarm, and even colluded with those opposition factions within the Bosporus that have long since become inconsequential? By doing so, you are truly ignoring the orthodox cause, aren't you? After all, your country seems not to care at all about the survival of its fellow believers nearby."
"This is a fabrication…" The envoy momentarily tried to refute the accusation, but upon remembering his purpose for coming, he immediately retracted his words and continued to earnestly and specifically try to persuade the other party. "Your Majesty, regarding the establishment of diplomatic contact, we are truly sorry. Our country is currently embroiled in conflicts with the Black Sheep Dynasty, which is why we temporarily had no time to attend to the west. If you don't mind, we can establish equal diplomatic relations at any time. As for colluding with Komnenos family dissidents, it is very likely a slander by Atabeg Ivan II and his people. We Georgians are too busy dealing with the Black Sheep Dynasty ourselves; how could we have the energy to intervene in your internal affairs, isn't that right…?"
"Oh," the sharp Manuel immediately seized on the flaw in his words. "I haven't even mentioned the name of the rebellious force in my country, so how did you know it? And you still claim you have no contact with them!"
"This, this, this…" The envoy was instantly speechless and dumbfounded. It was a fact that the Bagration Royal Family favored the Komnenos family, with whom they had always maintained friendly relations, and it was a well-known secret between the two countries that Alexander Komnenos had received verbal recognition from Georgia in the early stages of his uprising a few years prior. He never expected to stumble because of this, but to clarify that Georgia was not currently supporting the Komnenos remnants within the Bosporus, as a collateral branch member who did not know too many internal details, he was clearly unable to do so.
Afterward, the envoy made some weak and futile explanations, but Manuel refuted them one by one. Consequently, he completely failed to accomplish any of the tasks entrusted to him by his King, and unhappily, under the respectful escort of the Bosporus soldiers, he embarked on his journey back to Tbilisi.
After seeing off the Georgian envoy, Manuel did not leave the military tent to direct the next moves of his troops, but instead remained seated in his chair, awaiting the arrival of one of his subordinates. Although it was somewhat unfair to summon a subordinate who had just returned from foreign aid to the battlefield immediately, this was precisely the person whose accumulated military experience could be put to good use at this moment.
About four or five minutes later, Staurakios Posadas, the old subordinate whom Manuel had sent to Karaman to aid Suleiman, who had not yet been reinstated at the time, arrived in military attire that appeared rough but was in fact extremely practical. During the time Caesar sent him to Karaman for support, he not only strongly aided Suleiman's army, which was outwardly weaker at the time, but also taught this general, who had previously focused solely on slaughtering enemies, many methods for flexibly deploying troops on the battlefield. Although Caesar could not guarantee it yet, at least Suleiman's reply to him had repeatedly praised Posadas for "having already become a capable general in his own right."
"I truly apologize for summoning you before you had fully rested," Manuel said sincerely, but he quickly changed his tone. "So, Posadas, your willingness to respond to me so quickly, even arriving at the front lines a few days early, is… no, not surprising at all.
"Therefore, I intend to entrust you with a difficult secret mission. Display the courage you showed in Southern Anatolia." After the preamble, Manuel seemed to see a blazing fire ignite in the eyes of this general, whose physique was like an iron tower, filled with a craving and greed for the battlefield.
"As Your Majesty commands! Loyalty!" Knowing that he could finally serve the monarch he wholeheartedly pledged allegiance to again, Posadas declared his heartfelt words in a booming voice, as his reply upon leading troops for the first time since his return.