Meeting the enemy, who were likely the main force and outnumbered his side, so early in the gentler valley, Vakhtang couldn't help but feel a little panicked.
But he quickly forced himself to calm down, so as not to be caught off guard by the other side.
Meanwhile, Manuel, across from him, took advantage of this brief moment to carefully observe the opponent: it was clear that nearly eighty percent of Georgia's most elite field army currently available were armored, with the remaining, apart from a few auxiliary personnel, being skirmishers skilled in mountain warfare.
Compared to the Georgian army, which appeared high in morale and well-organized, Bosporus seemed to be at a slight disadvantage on the surface: although the three thousand soldiers led by Manuel were all armored elites, excluding the one thousand from the Philaka Legion, ninety percent of the remaining two thousand soldiers came from the two independent regions of Tauris and Pontus.
Despite being fully differentiated for less than five years, Caesar still harbored doubts in his heart about whether they could perfectly cooperate; as for the remaining ten percent, about two hundred men, who came from Georgian nobles, well, he hoped they wouldn't be a drag.
This was indeed a bit troublesome; it might not be easy to rely on firearms for a speculative victory this time, Manuel thought cautiously.
However, Manuel did not notice that the Georgian Prince of similar age opposite him seemed even more nervous than he was.
Thus, after a brief standoff of less than five minutes, the battle began.
The first to initiate was Crown Prince Vakhtang of Georgia; while ordering his entire army to maintain a stable square formation, he commanded the mounted archers in his army to launch exploratory volleys at the Bosporus Army, about twenty to thirty pule rong away, wanting to immediately probe the enemy's disposition and harass them.
However, due to Dungar's previous encounter, Manuel was already prepared for this.
Upon seeing arrows rain down on the Georgian position, almost hitting his helmet, he immediately reacted, ordering the frontline heavy infantry to raise the round shields they carried, protecting the large force behind them.
After blocking a large wave of arrows, Caesar immediately ordered the musketeers in his army, under the protection of their own shield-bearers, to try and kill those annoying mountain skirmishers.
The result was obvious: these mountain cavalry, mainly Alans and Cumans, were startled by the Romans' firearms, but they quickly noticed that the accuracy and hit rate of the opposing side were ridiculously low for cavalry like them.
So, very quickly, these skirmishers, adapted to the rhythm of battle, continued to harass the Bosporus Army while nimbly dodging bullets.
Manuel wasn't very annoyed by this; from a certain perspective, these agile mountain light cavalry were naturally superior to his musketeers.
Over the next fifteen minutes, while maintaining the stability of the large square formation, Bosporus also sent its heavy cavalry, which had been poised for action, to charge out first, attempting to disperse these light cavalry with a hit-and-run tactic.
During the brief standoff, Manuel also used the light cavalry he dispatched to scout the enemy's true situation in real-time.
After confirming that the enemy had not set up any other ambushes or secured their retreat, he decided to go all out.
After all the heavy cavalry returned to the flanks in a protective arc, he ordered the foremost heavy infantry to put down their shields every other man, switch to holding long spears, and lead the entire army in a large square formation to charge orderly towards the Georgian center, intending to break the Georgian army in one fell swoop through a head-on clash.
When two brave armies meet, the braver one wins!
Although this was a valley, as a type of mountainous terrain, this principle still applied.
Facing the suddenly charging Bosporus Army, Vakhtang and the other Georgian generals were all stunned; they hadn't expected the enemy to charge directly without clearing away their deployed skirmishers.
But upon seeing that the enemy's vanguard was composed of infantry, Vakhtang believed he had found a weakness in the enemy and ordered the Royal Monaspa Heavy Cavalry unit from the Monaspa Legion to step forward, sending this elite unit, armed with flails and lances, to intercept the enemy, hoping to crush them in one blow.
Upon seeing the Georgian Monaspa Heavy Cavalry deploy, Manuel smiled immediately.
In response, he also drew the sword from his waist and ordered Adian to lead the hundred heavy cavalry from the Philaka Legion, known as the "Ironclad Holy Knights," to step forward and repel the fifty-strong Monaspa Heavy Cavalry.
Thus, in less than half a minute, the two heavy cavalry units crashed into each other like cannonballs.
Their weapons were basically similar: heavy flails or sharp lances.
There was no superfluous skill in the clash of these two elite forces; this time, the two armies were competing purely on morale, courage, and martial prowess.
They both urgently hoped to crush the opponent before their respective main forces fully engaged, allowing themselves to break through the enemy in one charge.
The result was that they became locked in a stalemate.
Under the cold winter sun, their bodies were marked with dazzling bloodstains from blunt or sharp weapons, as they fought fiercely.
Although at this time, the Bosporus side had the advantage in numbers, which tilted the scales of this engagement in their favor.
However, Manuel, riding on his pure white steed, realized that if they continued to be entangled like this, they would absolutely not be able to decide the victor within the optimal time, and perhaps their charging offensive might even be thwarted by the well-prepared Georgian center.
The young Caesar's mind raced, and he immediately formulated a countermeasure.
Then, after careful consideration for half a second, he chose to put himself in harm's way and personally execute this strategy.
"Badars, and the Royal Guard, follow me! Hallelujah!"
With Caesar's command, his personal attendants immediately knew how their monarch would act next.
And regarding Caesar's adventurous move, none of the dozens of them raised any objections, instead faithfully and steadfastly protecting him.
Then, Bosporus Caesar Manuel and his personal guards exchanged their swords for lances, squeezed their horses' flanks hard, and charged directly with his personal guards towards the Monaspa opposite.
His purple cloak whistled in the winter wind, and the Roman Caesar, clad in it, stood out vividly against the snow-covered mountains.
Seeing the purple cloak waving in the wind, his enemies immediately felt it to be incredibly jarring.
But they had no time for sentiment; under the influence of Caesar's leading by example, the Bosporus soldiers were all greatly invigorated.
And the most profound beneficiaries were the Ironclad Holy Knights of the Philaka Legion on the front line.
Upon seeing Caesar's cloak approach them, Adian swung his iron hammer, immediately smashing the skull of a Monaspa, and shouted on the battlefield: "Long live Caesar! Long live Rome!"
"Long live Caesar! Long live Rome!" Accompanied by the thunderous roar of the Bosporus Army, Georgia's proud Monaspa were crushed by the high-spirited enemy.
And following closely behind them to be crushed were the remaining Georgian soldiers on the battlefield.
On that morning, Bosporus achieved a great victory, the Georgian Monaspa Legion was almost completely annihilated, and Crown Prince Vakhtang was captured on the spot.
The Battle of Zages resulted in a complete victory for Bosporus.