After the meeting, Gattuso and Spinola found a place where Carlo Merlo and his men wouldn't notice them to discuss some matters that perhaps shouldn't be discussed.
"What do you think of General Carlo's strategy?" Gattuso asked.
"I think it's a bit dangerous. He actually wants to launch an offensive, and according to him, it's a high-stakes gamble," Spinola said worriedly. "Although I did agree to him before, I didn't expect him to use such a risky tactic. I feel like he tricked me earlier!"
"Your Excellency Spinola, what do you think?" Gattuso asked anxiously.
"I think it's risky. Let's stick to what we planned before. If the situation goes south, I'll lead my troops back to my jurisdiction."
"Me too." Gattuso then thought of something else, "But without naval support, we won't be able to retreat successfully."
"Leave that to me," Spinola said with a confident smile. "Elvin and I are old acquaintances, and judging by his expression, he probably doesn't approve of the General's risky plan either."
Several days passed in a flash, and it was Christmas Eve, December 24th. Olstyn's Genoa Army was meticulously prepared, just waiting for the commander's orders.
But Carlo was still very cautious, meticulously reviewing the intelligence he had gathered: "According to intelligence, after two major battles, Theodoro currently has only over 6,000 troops left."
"But this is obviously inaccurate intelligence. According to the most conservative estimates, Theodoro must have urgently conscripted at least 2,000 militiamen in the past few months to counter our country, and deliberately concealed this information."
"Other Generals might be fooled by such false numbers. Unfortunately, I've seen through you all," he sneered, then ordered: "All troops, attack! The counter-offensive begins tonight."
On Theodoro's side, this year's Christmas Eve was significantly scaled down due to the ongoing war.
However, the ordinary people, unaware of military matters, were still sincerely celebrating the holiday, awaiting the arrival of Christmas tomorrow.
But the Principality's army and upper-middle classes were on edge, guarding against unexpected events. Fortunately, everything was as usual during the day, with no special circumstances occurring.
But in the dead of Christmas Eve, the city gates of Olstyn Fortress quietly opened from within, and countless Genoa soldiers streamed out through these gates, preparing to take the Theodoro Army by surprise under the cover of night.
At first, everything went smoothly. The Theodoro Army seemed completely unprepared; aside from a few patrolling scouts who were caught and suffered casualties due to their recklessness, they encountered no large-scale enemy forces.
Upon learning this, Carlo became even more vigilant, ordering his soldiers to reduce their use of torches, stay as close together as possible, and maintain their legion formations.
Unfortunately, due to the limitations of nighttime, his orders were not perfectly executed.
Around midnight on Christmas, the 25th, Vargas, at Carlo's request, led his legion as the vanguard, far ahead of the others.
The formation was a long snake array, and they swaggered their way towards the coastal area near the mountains on the outskirts of Partenit.
"The General also said to be cautious and maintain contact. I think there's no need for such trouble at all. The Theodoro people haven't set up many defenses at all. Oh, this wretched weather on the peninsula, it just had to snow now," Vargas grumbled.
"General, are we marching too fast? And the terrain we're in now isn't very safe. What if there's an ambush?" a worried officer asked.
"You have a point, but our equipment is the best. What could they use to ambush us? Farmers? Besides, do you know why I've adopted this single-line formation? It's for easier escape—ah, no, for retreating," Vargas said with a laugh.
"Really? I don't believe it," a soldier muttered quietly after hearing this.
As they spoke, a scout from the front sent a report: "General, there's a large linden tree ahead with its bark stripped off. It seems to have words carved on its trunk. Should we use a torch to take a look?"
"Why not? It's just a tree," Vargas said, not caring, and told his men to shine a torch on it.
After a short while, the scout from the front reported: "General, what's written on it is in Latin. We can't read it."
"How can you not even know Latin?" Vargas cursed, dismounted, grabbed a torch, and began to read the words on the tree trunk. "Let me see, it says: 'Genoa men die beneath this tree.' Huh?" No sooner had he finished speaking than a loud sound of saltpeter erupted from all around, and countless lead bullets were fired at their position.
Antonio Vargas was too slow to dodge and was hit by three lead bullets in his face, abdomen, and thigh, dying instantly in a very unsightly manner.
As he died violently, many Genoa soldiers met the same fate. Many soldiers were struck by lead bullets, crossbow bolts, and fire bottles, seemingly falling from the sky, resulting in either death or injury.
The Genoa Army immediately fell into chaos. Some tried to counterattack but didn't know where to start; those who were terrified immediately threw down their weapons and begged for their lives; but some, keenly aware that the attack was coming from the cliff, realized they couldn't win and tried to escape back, only to find a troop of hussars of unknown numbers blocking them from behind.
After about two hours, most of these Genoa soldiers were either dead or injured, and the few who were barely alive were all terrified and huddled together.
At this moment, the Theodoro Army, which had been lurking, appeared before them: it turned out that these people had been hiding in the small cliffs by the mountains, or in makeshift fortifications on the small mountainsides, ambushing them from above.
In this unexpected ambush, nearly 1,000 Genoa soldiers were almost all killed, injured, or captured; in other words, the entire army was wiped out.
In fact, this ambush was somewhat of an accident. This troop of soldiers was indeed ambushed here by Theodoro, but their role was more to block deserters and Genoa stragglers from the planned Christmas offensive; and there was more than one linden tree with "Genoa men die beneath this tree" carved on it.
Over a hundred large trees around Olstyn also had these words carved on them at Manuel's request, according to him, "This is to show the enemy the will of God."
When asked why he did this, Manuel said with a serious expression. Of course, it's hard to say if His Highness the Crown Prince really thought that. Later, according to unofficial sources, His Highness was actually imitating a certain Eastern story, though he never personally admitted it.
When scouts sent by this legion reported that the Genoa people were suspected of sending a vanguard to attempt a night raid, the high-ranking officials of Gorzuvit quickly responded, having Tukharovsky lead over a thousand soldiers plus a hussar troop to ambush them, to eliminate this enemy force, which was not numerous and relatively isolated in its actions.
In any case, this ambushing Theodoro Army achieved a rich harvest, and the leading legion commander quickly sent someone to inform the high-ranking officials still temporarily in Gorzuvit about the matter.
About a quarter of an hour later, Manuel learned of the incident and the confessions of the Genoa prisoners from a messenger and quickly made a judgment:
"It seems that the General of the Genoa Army, His Excellency Carlo Merlo, has also made a similar choice to ours."