It was Suleiman who rushed to the Bakhchysarai Palace to stop all of this. After receiving this small unit of over a hundred men, he proceeded to the Palace as planned to control the Girey Family's dependents.
When he arrived at the Palace entrance, through questioning the fleeing servants, he learned about the current situation of the Girey dependents.
This made him change his mind. "If I act now, I won't achieve my secondary objective, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get this unit of over a hundred men from Tukharovsky." Having made up his mind, he deliberately slowed his pace, intending to appear before his target at the opportune moment he had envisioned.
About an hour later, upon realizing that the Girey dependents showed signs of being harmed by the rebellious servants, he made a decisive move, leading his taxi soldiers to the rooms where the dependents were trapped. Subsequently, the scene described earlier occurred.
Suleiman had put no small amount of effort into this moment. During his earlier exile in Northern Crimea, he had fantasized about marrying a member of Haji Giray's family to gain the Khanate's support for his restoration plan.
For this, he specifically collected some information, though not much, but it made him notice Giray's daughter, Aisha. Later, when he was exiled to Theodoro after being wanted by the Crimean Khanate, he had initially dropped this idea. It wasn't until Manuel mentioned her at the celebration banquet that his interest was rekindled.
For this, he voluntarily offered to serve as a spy in Bakhchysarai, gathering relevant intelligence while working for Theodoro. This investigation, combined with the vague information he had previously known, solidified his belief and he decided to try to obtain this girl in his own way.
Now, he finally had the opportunity to personally observe this highly praised young girl. "A ten-year-old girl, Allah, this is truly the age of a budding flower, just as I imagined, it seems what I did should be worth it." He sighed in his heart.
After confirming that his actions were not in vain and had left a good first impression on Aisha, Suleiman composed himself, as he could not forget his primary duties this time.
After personally comforting the Girey dependents, he temporarily placed them under house arrest in the Palace of Bakhchysarai, while ensuring their daily lives could continue as usual without being affected. This was also common practice in that era: no matter how the two sides fought, they would not overly make things difficult for the defeated party. Of course, the prerequisite was that you had to be a noble.
As for Little Aisha, she received his preferential treatment. She could be personally taken out of the confined room by Suleiman and even study poetry and scriptures with him, living a much more comfortable life than her brothers.
However, these were all Suleiman's personal matters. While Suleiman was coaxing the little girl, Tukharovsky was leading his army to reorganize and maintain order in the city, restraining his subordinates' excessive behavior, and immediately sending people to transmit the good news to Mangup so that Manuel could learn about it as soon as possible.
Due to his swift reaction and the short distance between the two places, the news of Bakhchysarai being conquered by Theodoro reached Mangup in less than half a day.
The good news reached Mangup that same night. After confirming the authenticity of the good news, Manuel, who had planned to go to bed, immediately jumped out of his room in excitement, intending to celebrate properly.
However, because the good news arrived too late, he soon had to control his emotions and returned to his room to sleep after a few small glasses of wine.
In any case, with the change of hands in Bakhchysarai, it marked the loss of the Crimean Khanate's last piece of land in Northern Crimea, and also signified that the Principality of Theodoro had completely controlled the entire Crimean Peninsula.
As for the news of Bakhchysarai's fall reaching Haji Giray, it was already Christmas Eve. This was less than three days after he led his army to repel the Golden Horde forces besieging Cherkassk.
Upon learning of Bakhchysarai's fall, Giray's expression instantly turned ashen, as if he knew he was about to be exiled to Lithuania again. His face was grim, his expression ugly, his teeth clenched, and his hands tightly clasped. After a long time, he slumped onto a chair, bent at the waist, waved his hand, and dismissed those around him, saying, "I know. Leave me alone. I don't want to see anything, or say anything right now."
Seeing this, everyone withdrew. After Giray confirmed that no one else was in the room besides him, he finally couldn't suppress it and punched the table. Then, with wide eyes and gritted teeth, he swept all the objects off the table, cursing as he did so: "Just you wait, Principality of Theodoro. And you, Manuel Gavras, I swear by Allah, once I take Mangup, I will castrate you and sell you to the Ottoman Sultan's harem!"
After venting his anger, Giray again slumped down, worried and sad about his family. "My wife and children! Alas, now I can only hope these Christians will follow tradition and not do anything excessive to them."
While Giray was enraged by the fall of Bakhchysarai, in the distant Bangkok Pu Palace, Manuel, who had just finished a few rounds with his wife, suddenly felt a tightening in his lower body for some reason and instinctively covered himself there.
"Hmm? Manuel, what's wrong?" Noticing her husband's abnormality, Barbara immediately asked with concern.
"Nothing, my dear. Maybe someone is cursing me, right?" Manuel reassured her playfully.
"Huh?" Barbara was confused by his explanation.
"Alright, it's nothing, I was just joking. It's okay, my 'third leg' is perfectly fine." Manuel explained somewhat incoherently.
"Oh." Barbara still looked bewildered, but his words just now reminded her of something else. "My Little husband, we've been married for so long, isn't it abnormal that I'm not pregnant yet?"
"Huh?"
"My mother gave birth to my eldest brother when she was sixteen. And the Principality needs an heir, doesn't it?" Barbara became serious.
"Don't be so anxious." Manuel felt a headache coming on. After all, he still didn't want his wife to have a child at seventeen. For this reason, except for the very first few times, he had always made sure to do it on Barbara's "safe days."
"This kind of thing, in the end, depends on the Holy Father. Besides, we are still at war right now, and for a child to come into the world at this time might not be very good for him or her. And there are quite a few things to do right now, such as the Christmas celebration in a few days, and the governance of Northern Crimea…" Manuel's gaze drifted, beating around the bush.
"That's true." Barbara thought for a moment, nodding in a half-hearted way.
Just when Manuel thought he had successfully bluffed his way through again, Barbara sat up abruptly, unsatisfied, and straddled him, saying, "So we should continue even more!"
"Wait, wait, wait, I just… down there is still very sensitive!"