In mid-February, the Caucasus region was still covered in a blanket of white snow.
The only thing the mountain dwellers were grateful for was the occasional spring breeze, which made them, who had lived in the mountains for generations, feel incredibly hopeful for the future.
At this time, the newly enthroned Black Sheep Sultan Jahan Shah was still temporarily stationed in Gurdjaani with his army, awaiting good news from the finishing unit he had dispatched.
"What are Salem and his men doing? This is too slow! Do they even take my orders seriously?" The Black Sheep Sultan couldn't help but feel a bit agitated due to his subordinate Salem's prolonged absence.
Although experience suggested they should return in another day or two, Jahan Shah, for some unknown reason, had a subtle feeling, warning him that there might be something unusual going on.
It must be a misconception, the Sultan of the tribal alliance frowned slightly, convincing himself not to be overly sensitive.
After all, by common sense, the forces west of Tbilisi shouldn't care who Kakheti ultimately falls to, and there shouldn't be any unexpected complications in Eastern Georgia.
Thinking of this, Jahan Shah calmed down.
Since the other party wouldn't clash with him, he didn't need to worry too much.
And just as he was convincing himself not to overreact, the main Bosporus Army, guided by local Kakheti people and Black Sheep captives, arrived at the Cheremi mountains.
This area was deep within the mountain forests, perfectly situated to block sight and conceal the army.
The reason for this must first be discussed from a geographical perspective.
Gurdjaani village is located on the Alazani Plain at the northern foot of the mountains, with an elevation of just over 13 pule rong (Note: Gurdjaani town has an elevation of less than 415 meters).
The main Black Sheep army was mostly stationed outside the town, with a unit of over a thousand men guarding the eastern peaks of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains near Gurdjaani, wary of any possible movements, seemingly foolproof.
However, one of the biggest geographical differences between the Caucasus Mountains and the Anatolia Plateau and the Iranian Plateau is that the Caucasus has lush forest cover instead of barren plateau grasslands and drylands.
Although the forested mountains also presented an obstacle to foreign forces, in the eyes of the Bosporus Army, who had fought various enemies in the Crimean Mountains and the Pontus Mountains, this was not an insurmountable difficulty.
Moreover, by leveraging the pretense of religion and the strict discipline of Caesar himself, the local people were happy to guide them to drive away those lawless Turkmen infidels.
Therefore, with the assistance of the Kakheti people, the Bosporus naturally found a blind spot like Cheremi, successfully concealing their troop movements by utilizing the mountains and dense forests.
However, to avoid detection by the enemy, Manuel also left most of the cannons and firearms that were difficult to conceal in the rear instead of taking them with the army.
And now, they were quietly marching along the mountain streams, preparing to move silently to another mountain peak to seize the Black Sheep army's position; this process would take a considerable amount of time.
Therefore, Manuel specifically prayed in the church once when he launched this operation, asking Allah that the Black Sheep would discover the anomaly later.
And so, about two and a half days passed...
Due to his extreme impatience with the progress of the finishing unit, Jahan Shah finally sent a small group of scouts on the fifth day after dispatching them to investigate what they were doing.
To his shock, after some twists and turns, the scouts finally learned that the unit led by Salem had been completely wiped out in the villages and towns around the Town of Gremi.
This intelligence was quickly sent back to Sultan Jahan Shah, who was guarding Gurdjaani; by this time, a week had passed since he sent troops to the Town of Gremi to finish the job.
Upon learning of this, the Black Sheep Sultan was dumbfounded.
Although there was no evidence and he was half-skeptical, faced with this fact, he could only conclude that this was definitely the work of the Bosporus or the Georgian forces supported by them.
At this, Jahan Shah felt both astonished and exceptionally angry: the Bosporus was actually willing to protect Kakheti, which was a treacherous act that completely disregarded their supposed tacit understanding and treated the Turkmen like monkeys!
"Issue an order, starting today, immediately set off and bypass the Caucasus Mountains.
Prepare to go to Tbilisi to settle accounts with that Roman monarch!" The furious Black Sheep Sultan immediately issued this order, intending to let the Bosporus, who were new to the Caucasus, fully experience the taste of being tormented by the Turkmen.
Muslims beating and besieging Christians was a recurring event in the Caucasus.
Receiving the Sultan's order, the long-idle Black Sheep army quickly sprang into action.
And due to Jahan Shah's urgent command, many Black Sheep soldiers were abruptly called to action.
In addition, Jahan had only recently ascended to the throne, and for a time, there were even some discordant voices within the Black Sheep army.
Meanwhile, the Bosporus Army finally arrived in the Zlari mountains southwest of Gurdjaani.
Due to Jahan Shah's Pay attention to, he had even withdrawn almost all of the sentinel troops stationed in the mountains to assist in the march.
After all, in his eyes, these Christians should only adopt a defensive stance rather than an aggressive move, which was the optimal solution; now that they were about to move, there was no need to guard against unnecessary things.
But unfortunately, his opponent chose not to follow the beaten path.
After secretly learning of the Black Sheep army's deployment and the withdrawal of the sentinels, Manuel realized that the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed.
After a brief discussion with his generals and distributing the plan, he decided to launch a surprise attack several hours later.
Several hours later, in the dead of night, the Black Sheep army, which had packed its baggage and supplies and was ready to set off immediately after sunrise, finally fell into a deep sleep.
Their Sultan Jahan Shah, meanwhile, cast his gaze westward towards Tbilisi, contemplating the siege tactics to be employed upon arrival and the enemy dispositions they might encounter on the way.
At this moment, the Sultan of the tribal alliance was engrossed in his thoughts on the battlefield situation, completely unaware that the torch signal lit by the sentinel troops stationed in the mountains over half an hour ago seemed a bit off—the light from there was too bright for sentinels.
However, even if he knew, he wouldn't say much beyond a few reprimands in the barracks.
After all, these tribal foot soldiers had made similar blunders before.
But soon he had no choice but to pay attention.
Less than half an hour later, the light that should have remained steadily with the sentinels split, then like a thin, small snake, gradually approached in the dark.
As it drew closer to the Black Sheep's main camp, it paused as if lurking, then quickly extinguished on the spot.
Another fifteen minutes passed, and the "snake" swiftly appeared in the Black Sheep army's camp.
And Jahan Shah quickly heard the terrified shouts from the soldiers within the camp:
"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"