Later the next day, Dungar de Lapole comfortably accepted the surrender of the garrison within Gogia Fortress.
Under the Bosporus Army's continuous artillery bombardment and meticulous assault on the walls, the local garrison, numbering less than a thousand, finally chose to abandon their futile resistance.
The fortress couldn't be held anyway, and rather than risking their lives for a salary of less than two or three ducats a month, it was better to surrender.
Only after leading his troops into Gogia did Dungar realize that this was not only a military fortress guarding a central city but also a mountain village with a significant population.
Even though he had witnessed such villages and towns built within mountains back in Pontus, coming to a village in Georgia built directly within the mountains was quite novel for a Western European like him, accustomed to flatland villages.
"The other two fronts must also be going smoothly..." Tasting the exceptionally sweet sake after the battle, Dungar sat on the city wall and looked towards the distant mountains, thinking expectantly.
His Caesar, needless to say, was not only preparing for the general assault on the central city of Borjomi, which Petra guarded, but also sent messengers with his word to check on the progress of the other two fronts.
However, the Georgian noble coalition responsible for assaulting Sari in the south did not fare as well.
They were supposed to easily capture the fortress as planned, thanks to their knowledge of the terrain, but they stopped and started along the way to conserve energy for potential enemies, which allowed the southern defenders to spot their intentions and prepare.
As a result, when they finally reached the walls of Sari, they were met with a fully prepared garrison.
Even so, the noble army launched its first offensive.
Unsurprisingly, it was easily repelled by the defenders, forcing them to remain at the foot of the city walls, staring at the garrison.
"What do we do now?" Prince Mamia of Guria, young and inexperienced, couldn't help but pace anxiously within the military camp.
"Don't worry, my child," Governor Liparit I of Samegrelo was much calmer.
He patiently advised his second son, who was a bit younger than the Caesar of Bosporus, not to be overly anxious about this, "Think about it, how many days has the operation been going on?
Presumably, the other two forces have only just arrived before Gogia and Petra, and if nothing unexpected happens, they should also be in a stalemate with the local defenders.
Our situation here is just normal..."
Before he finished speaking, Atabeg Ivan II of Samukhetsi returned to the military tent to discuss military affairs with the other lords.
However, his expression was not good this time, and behind him followed a taxi soldier dressed in a Bosporus military uniform.
"This is a messenger sent by Caesar," Ivan II introduced the soldier to his colleagues, and after a brief humble gesture, the soldier briefly informed them that Caesar had already captured Petra.
This made the expressions of Mamia and Liparit's father and son extremely subtle.
Seeing this, Ivan II, who should have shown the same expression as them, couldn't help but reveal a barely perceptible, faint smile of schadenfreude, before immediately returning to his normal state.
But the fact that Bosporus Caesar had captured Petra first truly made them feel immense pressure, and a short time later, Gogia was also captured by the Bosporus Army led by Dungar, further forcing them to launch several hasty sieges against Sari.
However, no matter what state the defenders were in, the result was always an inconclusive stalemate where both sides were forced to maintain a standoff.
The stalemate in Sari in the south soon reached the ears of Manuel and Dungar.
Having been settled in the occupied territories for two or three days, they couldn't help but feel quite disappointed, so much so that Manuel even intended to have Dungar dispatch half of his troops to help the noble army besiege the city, with the remaining half cooperating with him in the general assault on Borjomi.
But to everyone's surprise, just as Bosporus was about to set off again, a letter of surrender from the main city of Borjomi was delivered to Caesar Manuel's desk.
"Surrendered?" Caesar struggled to control his expression so that too much surprise wouldn't show on his face.
"Yes, Caesar," the envoy dispatched by George Avalishvili knelt before Caesar with extreme deference, "Holy Father above, after this battle, Lord Avalishvili firmly believes that you are destined by the Lord to rule the mountains of Georgia..."
Manuel largely ignored the remaining sycophantic words, which were so nauseating that they gave him goosebumps.
However, he thus confirmed that it was precisely the Bosporus's efficiency in capturing fortresses that led the ruling Avalishvili family to side with him.
After exhausting all means to confirm that the other party was truly sincere in their surrender, he grandly led his troops into the main city of Borjomi at noon three days later, welcomed by the middle-aged lord George Avalishvili.
Soon after, the news of Borjomi's main city's surrender also reached Gogia and Sari.
Soon, the noble coalition, who had not set foot inside Sari Fortress for a week, entered the city in a way they had never anticipated.
Especially for the great lords like Ivan II, it is said that their expressions were exceptionally colorful after they took up residence in Sari.
Their performance in this operation also caused concern among the Bosporus high command, their partners—
"Can these good-for-nothings truly be relied upon...?"
Due to his concerns about whether these noble coalition forces could play a positive role, Manuel at this moment even had a hint of doubt about his actions in invading Georgia.
However, he quickly put this worry aside: since he had already dispatched troops, it was completely unnecessary to hesitate any further.
When the main forces of the three armies converged in the main city of Borjomi, the rapid progress of Bosporus and the rebellious noble coalition shocked the Tbilisi court.
What made Alexander I even more anxious was that Western Georgia, governed by his second son, Dimitrios, suffered a heavy blow from a Bosporus detachment, with nearly an entire Monaspa unit being wiped out.
Thinking that Bosporus might still have thousands of troops stationed along the border adjacent to Adyghe and Abkhazia in the north, Alexander I completely panicked.
To help his son defend the border, he quickly sent envoys to the Imereti region, attempting to assist Dimitrios in stabilizing the situation.
However, Dimitrios at this time did not share his father's thoughts.
He had just received another handwritten letter secretly sent to him by Bosporus Caesar Manuel, still elegantly worded and full of goodwill, and the message conveyed had not changed in the slightest—
A call to surrender.