Just as Manuel was gathering his forces to strike a heavy blow against the rebels, outside Sugdaea, Raus, who was leading the detached troops to besiege the city, looked at the unmoving city walls and the spirited defenders, his expression quite ugly.
To ensure that Isaac, whom he supported, remained firmly under his control, Raus deliberately prevented him from personally leading the campaign, instead having Wolol and others keep a close eye on him in Mangup.
After all, their rebellion this time was to prevent Manuel from centralizing power after he officially took office; if Isaac were to command the army, gain prestige, and become a de facto Prince controlling power, wouldn't their rebellion be in vain?
To ensure this, the nobles led by Raus deliberately prevented Isaac's supporters from Phanagoria and the Tatar rebels from participating in this battle, to ensure they could wield all power.
However, their approach had a huge flaw: taking Raus, one of the rebel leaders, as an example, although he held administrative power as the Principality's Chief Secretary before the rebellion, he was not very skilled in marching and fighting.
As for the other rebellious nobles, there was even less to say; they were called nobles, but they were more like landlords, and their understanding of military matters mostly came from their private retainers and household guards; even those who understood a little about military affairs could not command other people's troops.
Incidentally, this is also why Manuel deliberately avoided them during the Crimean War, instead heavily relying on his own generals and the Principality's old commanders, as war still needs to be left to professionals.
If not for Alexius having distributed a good portion of the conquered land to these local nobles after the previous victory against Genoa, to appease his supporters, they, who had been suppressed by the Gavras Family, would never have dared to cause trouble.
However, due to Manuel's half-performance, half-genuine radical measures and gentle style, a large number of them were ultimately incited by agitators and, blinded by their desire for lordly power, made a rash move.
Speaking of rashness, when Raus enthusiastically counted the troops they had brought, he angrily discovered that the nobles' private retainers and household guards combined totaled less than three thousand men, and this was after they had brought in all their tenant farmers and serfs.
There was no other way; to gather a five-thousand-strong army, the rebels eventually drew nearly a thousand men from the Principality's remaining forces in Mangup, and then, by either seizing or hiring over a thousand small farmers, they barely managed to assemble this motley army.
Now, looking at this motley army under his command, Raus felt a terrible headache.
Even though he was their nominal commander, he actually lacked the sufficient ability and prestige to make these lordly armed forces wholeheartedly obey his every command.
Fortunately, they had strength in numbers. "We have nearly five thousand men! Even after dividing our forces, we still have two thousand five hundred here. Can Theodosia achieve that?" Raus thought proudly.
He believed that the enemy would have to divide their forces to meet the Lithuanian army and also send people to guard against their own forces in Phanagoria, so there certainly wouldn't be as many of them here in Sugdaea to stop them.
Hmm, the quantity of an army is not everything; quality is also a major component.
If he had been deeply involved in the recent Crimean War, he would probably have been more cautious.
Unfortunately, he was a key official in internal and external affairs before, and although not completely ignorant of military and political matters, he was indeed not on the same level as Manuel's side.
And this was accurately reflected in the rebels' siege operations.
"Damn Genoese, why did they build the city walls so strong?!" A few hours later, looking at the city walls that showed no obvious damage, Raus felt like he was going to die of anger.
"Where are the cannons? I remember there were some in stock, weren't there?" he asked his subordinates, turning his head angrily.
"My Lord, we only have small cannons; they can't breach the city walls..."
"Useless! How did Manuel manage to use cannons to breach the walls of Bakhchysarai back then?"
"His Highness and his men seemed to use medium to large ones..."
"Then why don't we have any... Oh, right, the Principality's medium to large cannons were already transferred to Theodosia by them."
Raus had just roared, but immediately remembered their whereabouts.
However, his earlier roar had already affected the lords and soldiers in the army; some of them were already looking at him with suspicious eyes, making Raus feel a bit intimidated.
To encourage them, he had no choice but to stand at the front and deliver a brief speech, "Do not be impatient, everyone; you must know that sieges take time.
Trust me, as long as we continuously attack with trebuchets and onagers, even strong city walls will be split open like the Red Sea."
Just as Raus was exercising his eloquence from his time as Chief Secretary, a messenger rushed to the front and informed him of the scouts' latest discovery, "My Lord, it's bad; a large enemy force has already appeared on the outskirts of Sugdaea."
"How many?" Raus was very displeased with the young soldier who interrupted his speech.
"Unclear, but there should be, three to four thousand people.
And they are marching very fast." When mentioning the number, the messenger swallowed nervously, somewhat fearful.
"Huh?"
Raus had just started to ask in confusion when he heard cheers from the defenders on the Sugdaea city wall that he felt were of unclear meaning.
"What is it?" A noble who sensed something was wrong immediately rushed out of the formation with his military servant to scout the somewhat chaotic situation, but was shot off his horse by firearms about 6 stadia after rushing out of the front.
"Damn it, it's an enemy attack!" This person's misfortune made Raus react.
He immediately had himself escorted into the central army, protecting himself while commanding the entire army to resist the enemy.
Just as he was thinking, Manuel's army, which had come from Theodosia, had already arrived in Sugdaea.
After receiving the reconnaissance report from the scouts, Manuel was even more confused: "I still don't understand why the rebels assembled a motley army to attack Sugdaea?"
But at the moment, he couldn't worry about too much; after repeatedly confirming that the enemy was indeed a mixed army of less than three thousand men and incidentally killing that reckless scout cavalryman, Manuel immediately ordered the musketeers and archers to fire lead shot and arrows first, harassing the enemy to shake their morale.
After observing that the enemy's front and rear armies and both flanks were in disarray and unable to fend for themselves, he immediately ordered the army's pikemen, under the cover of light cavalry, to charge the enemy's chaotic forces.
During this time, a slightly overzealous Manuel even issued a micro-management directive, "Have the left-wing cavalry attack towards the northwest at 11 o'clock, to disrupt the enemy."
Although this military order was somewhat absurd, the rebel army, already disoriented by Manuel's forces, couldn't even withstand this.
After a brief resistance, the morale of the rebel army quickly plummeted, and most of them fled.
Except for Raus and his central army and some nobles who barely managed to escape back to Mangup territory, most of the others were captured alive.
This victory even made the well-prepared Manuel grumble to himself with a mixture of anger and amusement:
"It's like punching cotton—a beautiful feeling."