"Dungar, do you mean you met Georgia's Monaspa?" Manuel, in the small hall of the Mtskheta town guild, suppressed his excitement and put aside a document he had been distractedly reading. He turned his gaze to Dungar, who was in a very poor state due to his defeat.
The document he had just read was sent to him by Serenus, roughly detailing the political movements of the major Western European powers.
Among the information highlighted by Caesar was that the Holy Roman Empire's Emperor Sigismund of the Luxembourg Dynasty had died at the end of last year, and his throne was inherited by his son-in-law, Albrecht II of the Habsburg.
"Yes, Caesar." It was the afternoon of the same day as the skirmish with the Georgian Monaspa army.
Dungar, having reported the details of the battle, lowered his head somewhat fearfully, unwilling to face his monarch directly, lest he see an accusing or angry look.
And when summarizing, he even became incoherent, "Saint Mary, these Laz people actually held back a trick.
These Monaspa heavy cavalry are truly too strong, to be honest, Caesar, I actually thought I had returned to the time I personally experienced the Anglo-French battlefield…"
Before he finished speaking, Manuel lightly coughed, interrupting his Army Commander's rambling.
"So, to summarize, this time you encountered about five hundred Georgian heavy-armored elites, including about 50 heavy cavalry.
Our army, consisting of about two thousand mostly pagan conscripts, was ambushed by them and suffered nearly half its strength in losses, roughly speaking."
"To be honest, Dungar, I don't blame you.
After all, the Georgians' attack and the forces they deployed this time even surprised me, even though I had roughly guessed they might launch a surprise attack." Speaking of this, Manuel smiled magnanimously, as if the matter was now closed.
"However—" Hearing Caesar's tone shift, Dungar immediately bowed his head again, ready to accept Caesar's possible reprimand.
But to his surprise, Manuel did not scold him; instead, he slapped his chair and laughed unrestrainedly, "Monaspa heavy cavalry, very good, excellent, too good.
This is what I want to see!"
"So Caesar, what are we doing next?" Dungar de Lapole was startled by Caesar's anger-turned-laughter and was at a loss for what to do.
"Fight, of course, fight to Tbilisi," Manuel said with a casual smile, "Otherwise, if we just go back like this, wouldn't we Romans become the laughing stock of the Caucasus commoners?
Besides, Alexander I only brought out the Monaspa now, which already shows that this heavy-armored army is their last resort.
As long as the Monaspa is defeated, then completely controlling Georgia will only be a matter of besieging Tbilisi."
"Go, think carefully about how to defeat them later.
You also prepare to atone for your actions through meritorious service."
"Yes, Caesar.
Loyalty!"
After his Pontus Army Commander left, Caesar gently stroked the armrest of his chair, contemplating the future positioning of the Monaspa.
If, after defeating Georgia this time, he could incorporate their Monaspa into his own army, even in the form of conscripted vassal troops, it would be considered an overachievement of the war goals, Manuel thought to himself.
However, he quickly pushed that thought aside for the time being and headed to the town hall, preparing to discuss with his subordinates how to deal with the Monaspa.
Meanwhile, in Tbilisi, Alexander I was overjoyed upon hearing the good news that the Monaspa had successfully defeated the ambushing enemy, and even planned to hold a small celebration banquet early.
However, after being advised by officials and his sons, he quickly calmed down and began to think about how to expand the victory.
Just as Alexander and his sons were discussing how to repel the enemy, bad news from his son, Prince George of Kakheti, disrupted their planned strategy.
"Sultan Jahan Shah of the Black Sheep has sent troops to invade the border, and Kakheti, being on the front line, cannot send troops to support." Upon receiving this devastating news, King Alexander slumped onto his throne, completely stunned.
If they couldn't gather the forces of Kartli and Kakheti to block the Bosporus, even if the Monaspa continued to win battles, it would only be a matter of time before the Romans, supported by a large number of Georgian feudal lords, wore down the Tbilisi court, which was being attacked on two fronts.
Finally, Crown Prince Vakhtang's words of "taking one step at a time" barely managed to lift his father's spirits, and he ordered the suppression of the news's spread in Tbilisi.
However, whether it would have any real effect depended on the future war situation of the Bagration Dynasty.
And because Jahan Shah made no secret of his military actions, Manuel, who had just finished discussing the campaign plan with his subordinates and lords that evening, quickly learned of it.
Knowing that his cousin-in-law was taking advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters, Manuel, who had already changed out of his military uniform and was preparing for bed, immediately started cursing, "To hell with your Shiites!
You don't come early, you don't come late, you didn't come when I invited you, but you come just as I'm about to take down the Monaspa and even Tbilisi.
I've conquered half of Georgia, and you, you bastard, want to snatch the Caucasus from me like a hyena!"
But anger alone was useless.
Although Manuel wished he could immediately transform into an Archangel and fly to the Georgian border to strike down all the Black Sheep Turkmen, he quickly calmed down upon considering the reality of the situation: to monopolize Georgia, the best way was to occupy it factually before a third party could establish a fait accompli.
In other words, strike first!
Having understood this, he forcibly suppressed his anger and slept soundly.
Then, the day after the Monaspa's initial victory, Crown Prince Vakhtang Bagration of Georgia, to boost morale, personally led over fifteen hundred Kartli soldiers to the Zages front line at dawn, taking full command of the Monaspa army, which naturally included the 50 most elite Royal Monaspa heavy cavalry.
Another day later, the fully prepared Bosporus Army, after sweeping the front-line mountains and ensuring the enemy could not use the mountains for archery as before, launched an attack on the Zages region at first light.
This time, Manuel learned from his subordinate's lesson and personally led three thousand elite soldiers on horseback.
Although they were not all Bosporus soldiers, more than eighty percent of them were armored, so they would not be ambushed by long-range arrows as they were last time.
He also deliberately avoided the seemingly convenient shortcuts to reduce their disadvantage against the Georgian army, who were skilled in mountain warfare.
Because the Georgians were much more experienced than before, the Bosporus Army's movements did not escape their notice.
But facing the Romans' aggressive offensive, Vakhtang was clearly in a difficult position.
However, at the urging of the Monaspa officers and his strategists, he finally made up his mind and led over two thousand soldiers capable of open-field combat to attack, attempting to repel the Bosporus once again.
Thus, on the morning of that day, the Bosporus and Georgia met in battle in the western region.
The Battle of Zages, which would decide the fate of the Caucasus, thus began.