While the three factions were entangled in the Caucasus, across the Bosphorus Strait, in Edirne, the capital of the Ottoman Sultanate, Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who had successfully conquered the Serbian Despotate, was welcomed by the enthusiastic cheers of his subjects as he rode triumphantly back into the city at noon.
For the past few months, ever since repelling the Hungarian Kingdom's flanking force, the Sultan had not encountered any serious obstacles in his campaign against Serbia.
Therefore, at the beginning of this year, the once wavering George Branković, Despot of Serbia, meekly accepted the peace treaty proposed by the Ottoman in Kosovo, obediently continuing as a loyal vassal of the Sultanate, diligently suppressing pro-Western factions like the Hungarian party within his country, daring not to cause further trouble, and promising to annually pay a fixed percentage of the minting revenue from his country's gold and silver mines.
Now that the foreign war had concluded and he had re-established his and the Ottoman Family's authority, Murad began to arrange court affairs.
After properly settling the future educational focus and exclusive teachers for his eldest son Ahmed, who was now a teenager, and his beloved son Sultan Aladdin Ali, he finally turned his attention to his fourth son, Muhammad, who had long been neglected by him.
"In the blink of an eye, this child is almost 6 years old," the Sultan mused with some emotion that night in the Edirne Palace, looking at his fourth son whom he had not seen with his own eyes in a long time.
To be honest, due to being constantly busy with campaigns, Murad had been completely absent from Muhammad's education.
The only thing he had done for him was to order him to be separated from his birth mother, Huma Hatton, on little Muhammad's 4th birthday.
But because his attention was subsequently diverted by the Hungarians who had invaded his borders, he very naturally forgot to make the next arrangements for his fourth son.
The result was that Muhammad grew up wild and unsupervised from 1436 to 1438, between the ages of 4 and 6, increasingly resembling a Greek who believed in Islam, making the Sultan feel a sense of disgust and guilt for him.
After much deliberation, Murad finally decided to entrust this child to his Sultana, Mara Hatton of the Branković Family.
Sultan Murad hoped that Muhammad would grow into a reliable Prince in her arms.
While Murad was making these arrangements for his sons within the court, in the Caucasus region, Bosphorus Caesar Manuel had gathered over seven thousand Bosporus Army soldiers and their auxiliary forces, and was about to march to the aid of Kakheti.
Meanwhile, the current Sultan of the Black Sheep Dynasty, Jahan Shah, was stationed with his army in Gurdjaani, south of the Caucasus Mountains, awaiting good news from the mop-up forces sent to occupy the Kakheti region.
In Jahan Shah's eyes, this expedition had been quite fruitful; not only had he conquered most of Eastern Georgia, gaining prestige for himself and solidifying his position as Sultan of the tribal confederation, but he had also cut off Georgia's path to restoration from the east.
The only thing that made him uneasy was that his Brother-in-law, the Bosphorus Caesar, a pagan, had initially intended to sandwich Georgia with him, but after his ambiguous refusal, he had not contacted him again, which made him feel somewhat strange for some reason.
But he was about to swallow this large part of Eastern Georgia; at this point, nothing should go wrong, right?
Thinking of this, Jahan Shah felt much calmer.
Even if his Brother-in-law had already taken Tbilisi, he would at most stop there; the idea of monopolizing the entire Kingdom of Georgia was something he should not be fantasizing about.
However, this time, this future Turkmen strongman was largely mistaken.
While the Black Sheep Sultan was envisioning his triumphant return home, the mop-up force of about fifteen hundred men he had sent was entering the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains in Kakheti, which remained outside Black Sheep control.
After a night of searching through the mountains, this Black Sheep force believed they had successfully further compressed the strategic space of Prince George of Kakheti's remaining forces.
Because they had even advanced deep into Telavi without encountering any of these Georgian troops or meeting any decent resistance.
"It seems we will soon be able to return and deliver good news to the Sultan," said Salem, a Caucasian Turkmen Persian general leading this mop-up force, on the morning of the next day, as he took off his armor, sat casually by a small village they had burned, happily whistling, and chatted freely with his subordinates.
In his excitement, he even drank fermented grape juice, plundered from Georgian villages along the way, with his soldiers, all laughing heartily, mocking the weakness and incompetence of the Christians and the bravery and skill of their fellow warriors.
Although they said so, Salem and most of his Black Sheep force actually did not want to return quickly to their Sultan, but rather to continue lingering at the foot of the mountains for some time, plundering more slaves and supplies.
This was why, even though Jahan Shah had sent them to clean up five days ago, they had not yet completed their mission, but instead were only focused on burning, killing, and looting in the local area.
However, even if they were seduced by the wealth along the way and slowed their march, the front line was still steadily approaching the remaining areas controlled by the Prince of Kakheti.
If nothing unexpected happened, they would be able to reach Gremi, the capital of Kakheti, tonight, completely ending the remaining forces of the Bagration Royal Family.
However, at this point, there is always a turning point.
Just as they were fantasizing about how much wealth and beautiful women they could plunder in the Town of Gremi, a constantly moving black shadow suddenly appeared on the hills to the northwest.
Initially, the Turkmen soldiers, who were completely negligent due to being engrossed in wine and rest, were unaware of this, but as the "black shadow" quickly descended the mountain and approached them, the Black Sheep sentry on watch at the village entrance finally noticed something was amiss and quickly ran into the village to report the matter to his superiors.
Upon learning of the disturbance in the west, Salem immediately awoke from his intoxicated state.
Although he had led the charge in indulging in bullying defenseless civilians for the past few days, he was, after all, a seasoned general trusted by Sultan Jahan Shah.
So, in less than a quarter of an hour, these fierce and cruel Shia Turkmen soldiers immediately rushed out of the village under the leadership of their general, attempting to form appropriate formations to repel the unknown invading enemy.
"Why are some still not wearing armor? Hurry up, otherwise…" Just as Salem was riding alone to inspect his troops, that "black shadow," which was several units of light cavalry from the numerous unknown enemy forces, charged out, directly interrupting the Black Sheep general's reprimand of his subordinates.
A startled Salem immediately rode back to the vanguard, intending to first send out his cavalry to disrupt the enemy's rhythm.
But in less than half a quarter of an hour, the main enemy force had already arrived, and their light cavalry quickly retreated, leaving the Black Sheep, who had just entered combat, disoriented.
Before they could react, the enemy's rear ranks opened up, pulled out their muskets, and fired a volley, directly shooting down a row of Black Sheep soldiers who knew almost nothing about firearms, and then immediately launched a charge, throwing them into chaos.
"Allah is great, the whole army listen…" Before Salem could give his next order, a lead bullet, whose origin was unknown, struck him in the neck, causing him to fall from his horse on the spot and be trampled to death by the chaotic army.