Soon, the Circassian Legion lived up to Manuel's expectations. In less than an hour, Karlo came to personally report their reconnaissance results to the Caesar: Skala City was generally prepared for battle, but as the Caesar had envisioned, it seemed rushed. Even the number of defenders on the city walls was not sufficient, especially on the northern side.
This was exactly what Manuel had guessed. After careful consideration, he immediately made the decision to feign an attack, ordering a force of about a thousand men to follow him to harass the southern side of the city wall, attracting the enemy's attention. Meanwhile, Dungar would lead the rest of the troops to attack the northern side, moving quickly to give the enemy no time to react. However, in addition to this, to prevent the enemy from having unexpected preparations, he also warned his Army Commander not to get too entangled if the enemy was well-prepared, to avoid excessive losses.
Facing the military orders issued by the Caesar, his subordinates expressed their obedience and immediately acted according to his deployment.
Soon after, the Georgian defenders discovered a vague army of about a thousand men marching towards them. The defending general leading them immediately and keenly realized that this must be the Bosporus Army that General Alexander had mentioned, and hastily ordered the not-yet-fully-prepared defenders to gather the majority to the southern side where this Bosporus Army was located. When asked by his deputy if this was an enemy ruse, the defending general, who hadn't even had time to start a family, confidently retorted, 'It seems like their Caesar is leading them personally, so it's probably the main force. Besides, even if the enemy has a detached force attacking, it's nothing for a small city like Skala. We just need to move troops over and continue defending. Moreover, Gori Main City is still sending troops to support us, so how could it be easily captured?'
Thinking of the Bosporus Romans' achievements in the past few months, the deputy instinctively wanted to refute, but felt it was unnecessary and ultimately held back his words.
Just like that, the thousand-man force led by Manuel soon engaged with the defenders. Because his side was outnumbered and he deliberately slowed down the pace of the attack, a temporary stalemate ensued between the two sides.
However, this state did not last long. As Dungar led the main force to attack the now-empty northern side and Manuel's side suddenly coordinated its efforts, the Georgian defenders fell into disarray. The defending general, who had originally vowed to easily hold the city, suddenly realized that he couldn't spare any troops to defend the northern side and could only watch as it was breached by the Bosporus troops.
That afternoon, Skala Town changed hands. Over a hundred people, including the defending general, were killed, and the rest surrendered. The Bosporus Army suffered only double-digit casualties.
That evening, as Manuel easily took Skala and prepared to further approach Gori Main City, news of the slow progress of the noble army also reached his ears. At this, his entire face almost turned into a sweating bean.
'No, are you Georgians capable or not!?' Upon learning that these noble lords had completely failed to seize the opportunity to capture Belbuchi, and instead had their offensives repeatedly thwarted by the defenders due to disagreements over battlefield tactics, Manuel cursed on the spot. But given that he truly couldn't spare any men, after careful consideration, he had no choice but to transfer Dungar and other generals to the northern front, and issued an edict ordering these noble lords to temporarily hand over command of the entire army to Dungar, to prevent that side from being held up and causing the Bosporus to miss the opportune moment.
Upon receiving the Caesar's personal order, Dungar immediately set off for Belbuchi on the northern front. More than half a day later, after arriving at the front line and successfully temporarily taking over command of the entire army, he began to inquire about the strategic deployment of the entire army. And upon learning of their then-divided strategic arrangement, he was completely dumbfounded.
'What can I say?' Dungar, completely unable to hold back his frustration, spread his hands in front of everyone and said with a tight, helpless expression in English, one of his native languages.
But saying is one thing, doing is another. Even taking over such a mediocre situation, he still did what a general should do and began to prepare a fierce assault on Belbuchi.
While Dungar temporarily commanded the noble army to capture Belbuchi, Alexander Bagration in Gori Main City was not just sitting by watching Skala change hands and the Bosporus Army press closer. As a member of the Bagration Royal Family and the Lord of Gori, he also attempted to retake Skala, but all his efforts ended in defeat against the Bosporus Army, which had Manuel at its helm. Finally, having suffered considerable losses, he had no choice but to focus his energy on fortifying the Main City and supporting Belbuchi, and repeatedly wrote to the Tbilisi central government requesting support from the King or Crown Prince.
But unfortunately, due to the ongoing dispute between the pro-war and pro-peace factions within the Tbilisi central government, Alexander's pleas for help largely fell on deaf ears. Only Crown Prince Vakhtang had replied to him with words of comfort and sent a cart of grain and supplies, but this was largely a drop in the bucket given Gori's absolute disadvantage.
Under these circumstances, less than a week later, under Dungar's command, the noble army captured Belbuchi, achieving one of their few victories since the war began. And after both military towns defending Gori Main City were captured by the Bosporus, the Bosporus Grand Army was able to directly besiege Gori. Now, it was only a matter of time before this ancient city and central hub completely changed hands.
'By the Holy Mother, we have been completely outmaneuvered by the Romans. Both Tbilisi and us.' A week after the Bosporus Grand Army besieged Gori, Alexander received his last letter from Tbilisi. Upon learning that the King was still wavering between war and peace, and had only sent him a handwritten order to 'hold firm,' the eyes of this Bagration Royal Family member were filled only with disappointment and frustration.
But even so, he still did not want to easily surrender to the Bosporus Romans, showing no signs of capitulation.
Manuel was not in a hurry regarding Gori City's stance. Instead, he patiently besieged the city, neither launching a full-scale assault nor completely cutting off its communication with Tbilisi. He simply kept bombarding the city with artillery, completely severing Gori's material exchange with the outside world. Because he knew that if things continued this way, the scales would only tip in his favor.
As he expected, after another half a month of siege, the Gori defenders were finally exhausted physically and mentally due to internal and external difficulties. In addition, Manuel had deliberately restrained military discipline during his conquest of Georgia, and voices within the city advocating for a change of allegiance and surrender grew louder.
Ultimately, Alexander Bagration had no choice but to bite the bullet and approach Manuel, begging for peace talks. Manuel accepted his surrender after he promised to recognize the Bosporus as his suzerain and to lead his troops in subsequent campaigns to conquer other Georgian regions.
On November 11th of that year, a rare warm winter day, Alexander Bagration opened the city gates and surrendered. Gori City, built by David IV, changed hands, and the Bosporus moved a step closer to completely conquering Georgia.