While Theodoro was calculating how to carve out another piece of meat from the Crimean Khanate and strike a heavy blow, in Adamakha, one of the ancestral lands of the Girey Family and the temporary capital of the Khanate, Haji Giray, the Khan of Crimea, was stroking his beard worriedly, beginning to ponder his next move.
As mentioned earlier, after a forced march to Cherkassk, Giray used his excellent tactics to successfully repel the Golden Horde army led by Tenek Emir, preventing further loss of Khanate territory. However, even so, Crimea was already showing signs of decline. After the territories north of Bakhmut refused to rebel against the Golden Horde's rule again, Giray knew that the Khanate had reached a crossroads.
"We must advance and retake the steppe lands north of Bakhmut, otherwise the tribes below might become uncontrollable," Giray worriedly tugged at his hair. His prestige had suffered a considerable blow due to the previous failure to retake Northern Crimea, coupled with the steppe lands north of Bakhmut acknowledging the Golden Horde's renewed rule. A few days prior, his personal guards had even captured several minor tribal chiefs attempting to kidnap him to surrender to the Golden Horde. Although the main culprits had all been executed, he could feel that his foundation below was becoming unstable.
This was a common problem for nomadic regimes; if they could not consistently achieve victories, or if their victories far outweighed their defeats, then an unforgiving, failed fate awaited their leaders.
Of course, this was not just true for nomads; all regimes primarily driven by military conquest had this problem. Unless such a regime could, at the opportune moment or through long-term management, transform into a stable government, it would inevitably be overthrown by internal and external pressures.
Oh, right, the Ottoman was an exception. It's complicated to explain; it's an entity that cannot be measured by conventional logic.
However, what happened with the Ottoman was not yet the concern of the Crimean Khanate. To rebalance the gap between the two sides, Giray, after careful consideration, decided to head north next month, in February, to retake the areas north of Bakhmut. At the same time, he would send letters to the Volga Bulgars and the Nogai, hoping they would also raise the banner of rebellion against the Golden Horde soon, to alleviate his pressure.
After his messenger departed, Giray let out a long sigh and looked in the direction of Lithuania, "By the way, have the Lithuanians finished their civil war?"
The answer was absolutely not. The current King of Lithuania, Švitrigaila, was fiercely fighting Grand Duke King Sigismund of Ruthenia, supported by his brother, the King of Poland. The war was in a white-hot stage, and neither side currently had the strength to intervene in the Eastern European Great Plains, let alone help him, a pagan of unclear allegiance.
Although Giray did not fully understand this, a brief internal reflection could still yield a result close to the truth. After realizing that the Lithuanian civil war was unlikely to end anytime soon, he began to consider whether to hire mercenaries.
"No money, unless I find the Jewish… No, I already owe too much, I can't take out any more loans." Giray gritted his teeth, ultimately deciding to rely on his own strength to overcome this difficulty.
At the end of this month, after careful preparations, Giray personally led an army of eight thousand north to Bakhmut, attempting to reverse the current unfavorable situation. To emphasize, to guard against Theodoro in the south, he did not go all out this time, but intentionally left a garrison of several thousand troops, distributed across the remaining territory of the Khanate.
Unfortunately, Crimea's administrative system, which lacked even a vague framework, had long been riddled with loopholes by its enemies, and many of these loopholes were actively created by its own people. The reason was simple: not everyone was tied to the Crimean Khanate, and facing a potential defeat, they naturally sought alternative paths.
Among the enemies infiltrating the Crimean Khanate, the intelligence department of Theodoro Principality was naturally indispensable. No sooner had Giray left than the intelligence department's informants in Crimea roughly presented the Khanate's military deployment to Manuel.
"Haji Giray is indeed a rather tricky enemy," Manuel, after a brief review, genuinely, and indeed only internally, sighed, "Just like my vague impression of him in my previous life."
Of course, no one knew these inner thoughts of his except himself. After his solitary lament, he set about revising the previously established battle plan. "It seems spring is indeed not a good time for an offensive," he thought with a helpless shake of his head while revising the plan.
In a blink of an eye, a quarter, or more than three months, had passed. During this time, Giray was surprised to find that while he was leading his army to fight the Golden Horde, Theodoro Principality in the south had not stabbed him in the back, and it was already early summer. Although the ice and snow had not completely melted at this time, it was almost when Tatar cavalry's charging ability was strongest, which made him relax his guard. He secretly transferred two thousand cavalry stationed in the south-central region northward to replenish the losses and casualties of the past few months.
But there are no impenetrable walls in this world, and moreover, this wall had long been riddled with holes like a sieve. A few mornings after Giray moved his troops, Manuel learned of this information from the intelligence department in the town hall of Akmechet. After confirming the authenticity of this intelligence, he excitedly jumped up from his seat, "Excellent, excellent, after lurking for so long, I've finally waited for this moment. Quickly, call General Tukharovsky, and also Posadas and Aidian! It's time to execute our plan!"
Upon hearing the news, the three generals quickly came to see their Prince. In the afternoon, seeing that all three had arrived, Manuel quickly and briefly informed them of the intelligence. Realizing that the opportunity had arrived, they all became invigorated and eager to act, preparing to seize this opportune moment to deliver a painful blow to the Crimean Khanate from behind.
However, the excitement did not cloud the judgment of everyone present. According to the intelligence, they knew that the Crimean Khanate still had one or two thousand guards of varying quality in the south, and to cope with the war, the Khanate could also conscript Tatar nomads on the spot to fight. In short, even a less vigilant Crimean Khanate could not be underestimated.
Based on this, according to the previous war plan, Theodoro cautiously and secretly mobilized several legions that had been prepared and trained over these months. Because this time, capturing Henichesk was indeed the main objective, but if possible, Manuel also wanted to achieve even greater results.