After a long while, he shook his head and called a messenger to relay his military orders, "Summon the Darhkans, and also General Klier."
After the messenger left, he couldn't help but look sorrowfully in the direction of Bakhchysarai, murmuring sadly, "I'm sorry, warriors of the Khanate, and my wife and children. May Allah protect you all."
That night, Giray urgently summoned the high-ranking officials of the Khanate who were still with him in the army to discuss the retreat.
"We're just retreating like this? We couldn't even break through this Isthmus defense line!" Darhkan Ali Muzar, tribal chief of the Muzars Tribe, asked in disbelief.
"Mmm..." Giray lowered his head in annoyance, indicating confirmation.
After confirming the authenticity of the retreat, everyone fell silent. They knew that in less than a month, the Khanate had already expended an excessive amount of energy, manpower, and financial resources in Northern Crimea. "Continuing to drag this out will do no good for anyone," the Darhkans thought.
Therefore, when Giray proposed a retreat, although the Darhkans were still reluctant to abandon their herdsmen, resources, and ancestral lands in Northern Crimea, due to the pressing reality, they felt it was becoming difficult to sustain and decided to support Khan Giray's suggestion, reserving their main efforts for dealing with the Golden Horde. Klier, the guest general, also strategically agreed with Giray's decision.
After confirming the definite retreat, they began to discuss the marching method for the withdrawal.
"March slowly. If those Christian are greedy and pursue, we can conserve energy to deliver a fatal blow. Even if they don't pursue, it will be enough to deter them from moving," Klier suggested cautiously, stroking his still-dense beard.
"Khan, we cannot wait any longer. The front line is in crisis; we cannot delay. In my humble opinion, please order a forced march!" Ali Muzar became quite anxious at the thought of the critical front-line situation, and his anxious statement was a direct reflection of the Tatar soldiers and generals in the army.
"Uh..." Giray hesitated, as he neither wanted to give the Theodoro defenders an opportunity nor did he want to rush back to Cherkassk to reinforce.
"Khan, I have a plan." Mustafa Balin, seeing Giray's hesitant expression, stepped forward, attempting to offer his suggestion. Seeing this, Giray allowed him to continue.
"The solution is simple, Khan. We can solve most problems by secretly and swiftly retreating at night." Seeing the puzzled expressions of the generals, Balin smiled and explained, "To rush to Cherkassk, we must make a forced march. But to guess the thoughts of those despicable Christian is very difficult, no, it's simply impossible, so we must not place such a ridiculous hope as 'the enemy will not attack us' on the Theodoro people. Therefore, we must block the news of the retreat, prevent the enemy from noticing, and at the same time, under the cover of night, have a resilient unit guard the rear. Then, the retreat should be perfect." Balin eloquently laid out his plan.
The generals pondered for a while and all agreed, as did Giray. Only Klier offered some additions, "Good suggestion, but as far as I know, these Christian are fickle and unusually sharp. To ensure our entire army can withdraw smoothly without being interfered with, please allow me to lead the Janissaries to supervise the rearguard. This will also allow us to handle unexpected situations."
The Crimea people were delighted by this request. "Good, Allah be praised, then it shall be as General Klier says."
He's not being polite at all, but never mind, Klier thought. However, he didn't show his thoughts on his face, but instead spoke to express his gratitude: "Allah be praised, thank you for your understanding, Khan."
After thoroughly finalizing the details of the retreat, the Crimean Army began preparations for withdrawal over the next three days, packing military equipment, collecting provisions, preparing supplies, and intending to quickly evacuate the area soon and head to Cherkassk.
Although the Crimean Army had sealed off information about the retreat, the Theodoro defenders still noticed anomalies in their unusual behavior. On the second day of the Crimean Army's preparations, which was the evening of the twenty-eighth day of their attack on the Isthmus defense line, the rotating defenders, who had noticed an unusual decrease in conflicts with the enemy over the past two days, compiled their questions into a report and handed it to Manuel, the commander of the defenders, during the shift change.
After carefully reading the report, Manuel keenly sensed many abnormalities and immediately summoned his generals for a detailed discussion.
Once the generals arrived, Manuel had a guard read the report aloud. After the guard finished reading, he solemnly put it away and asked, "What do you all think?"
"Collecting and organizing supplies, reduced conflicts with us, even noticeably fewer cooking pots, consolidating all soldiers, and the main generals, including Khan Giray, mostly keeping a low profile. Hmm," Tukharovsky narrowed his eyes vigilantly, then cautiously said, "Your Highness, are there any important messages from the Golden Horde?"
"Well, frankly, the Golden Horde, for the sake of Northern Crimea, doesn't seem to have shared detailed intelligence with us. But even with this alone, the Golden Horde has shared some vague front lines with us. According to the latest shared intelligence,"
Manuel began his brainstorming session, "The Golden Horde said their front line is pushing near Kuba and Cherkassk... Wait, the front line is in crisis, strange behavior..."
Everyone present immediately looked at each other: "Retreat?!"
"So that's it. Seeing no advantage, they want to retreat quickly. Gentlemen, what are your thoughts on this?" Manuel stood tall, scanning everyone, and asked.
"Attack! They can only make a forced march now, otherwise they won't make it back. For those infidel cowards, we must crush them and make them understand that we Eastern Orthodox are not to be trifled with," Vladimir said righteously.
Manuel felt he was right, but out of caution and concern, he needed to continue to gather the opinions of his generals.
"No, we cannot attack immediately!" Tukharovsky immediately stood up to refute, "From their posture and current situation, their secretive preparation to withdraw most likely anticipates our reaction. If we attack like this, we will only be sending people to their deaths and won't achieve a true victory."
"Then what should we do?" Manuel asked, frowning. He still really wanted to seize this opportunity to strike a heavy blow against the Crimean Khanate. "Ah, wait, if that's the case, there might still be an opportunity!" He seemed to have thought of something.