"Letting His Excellency run wild as before will only lead to our regret," a nobleman of similar age to him sneered, stepping forward.
But Raus ignored him, turning his head instead to question another person in the crowd before him, "Wolol, didn't you marry my sister? What are you doing?!"
Questioned like this, Wolol reluctantly squeezed out of the crowd, awkwardly defending himself: "Brother-in-law, you should rest for a while these days. The current situation cannot be resolved in the usual way…"
Before he finished speaking, Raus furiously reprimanded them: "Holy Mother above, you incompetent fools! You abandon me, you depose me, this is digging your own graves. Don't you use your seawater-filled brains to think, who found the claimant we are now supporting, giving us a righteous cause? Who secretly contacted the Tatars and even the Golden Horde, so that our uprising would not be isolated and helpless? Who used a scheme to capture Mangup, allowing us to gain an advantage before the war began?
"It was all me! Yet now you want to cast me aside, how dare you? You think I'm bad at marching and fighting, but do others do better than me? Can others do what I cannot? I merely lost one battle, what does that count for?"
But his hysterical speech completely failed to move the crowd before him. Apart from a few acquaintances, most of the people in the crowd merely watched him indifferently, no longer speaking. Some had even left directly, no longer paying him any attention.
But Raus was still unwilling to give up, even if the crowd before him was largely indifferent to his downfall, "What's the use of forcing me out? Is the current situation something that can be resolved by my stepping down?! You wouldn't be thinking of relying on those foreign, different-culture Tatars, would you? Or that puppet little His Majesty?"
"If you really think that, then you are crazy! If you choose the former, aren't you afraid of being usurped?! We are all Eastern Orthodox, and cooperating with infidels is just a temporary expedient, how can it become a fait accompli!
"If you choose the latter, then I'd rather genuinely cooperate with the Tatars! We chose to support little Isaac to resist Prince Manuel's tyrannical centralization. If we let little His Majesty lead us to win the civil war, wouldn't we just be manually supporting another monarch who can suppress us? If so, why would we take such a big risk to start this uprising?!"
But by the time he finished speaking, the crowd that had been before him had all left his residence. In other words, Raus's last words were, and could only be, his impotent rage.
Thus, Raus, who had held high power and prestige in the rebel army not long ago, was overthrown by the rebel nobles due to a major defeat. And what was even more unbelievable to Raus than his own guess, was that after overthrowing him, under the auspices of Wolol and Isaac, the rebels actually decided to try negotiating peace with Manuel again.
By the time the rebel envoy was sent to Sugdaea to negotiate peace, Manuel had already deployed his marching plans. Therefore, on the third day at noon after the Battle of Sugdaea, facing the envoy sent by the rebels, Manuel merely gave a faint cold laugh.
"You mean, my good brother, and your nobles, have all decided to jointly enthrone me and him as co-Princes of the Principality. At the same time, you will sever all ties with the Tatar rebels and join me in eliminating them?" Manuel asked with a gentle smile, muttering to himself, "You sell out your allies a bit too quickly, don't you."
The envoy bowed, with downcast eyes, "Yes, Your Highness. This is witnessed by the Holy Father."
"Still have the nerve to mention the Holy Father? I am clearly the one recognized by the Lord, the future monarch of the Principality, yet in your mouths, I've become a claimant to the throne who can only ascend through your compromises? Doesn't anyone know who the usurper is?" Saying this, Manuel couldn't help but feel annoyed, causing him to speak with sarcastic undertones.
"Your Highness, the Holy Father's thoughts are hard to fathom. And that's not the point, the point is that this will benefit both sides, won't it?"
"Nonsense, my right of succession was established after my baptism as an infant, this is rebellion! A bunch of lawless rebels, why should I give you benefits?"
"Your Highness, we are not rebels." The envoy's words were quite pale and powerless, and realizing this, he immediately changed the subject, "Also, Your Highness, I was sent here to negotiate peace because we have the confidence to do so: although we had some minor failures earlier, even so, we now hold many important towns including Mangup, Phanagoria, and Bakhchysarai; in addition to the Tatars, we also have nearly four to five hundred thousand callable people…"
"What's the use if you can't win." Before he finished speaking, Manuel coldly interrupted him.
The envoy's face quickly turned a pig-liver color due to annoyance and an inability to refute. He opened his mouth to speak several times, but swallowed his words each time. Finally, he barely managed to control his expression and tentatively asked: "Your Highness, we can still talk."
"Very well, my conditions are only these few: First, send my good brother back unharmed, or have him sent to a monastery under the witness of His Excellency the Archbishop; Second, hand over 100 leading rebel nobles, don't play tricks on me, I know what kind of people the nobles involved in this rebellion generally are, and I probably understand your true position in the Principality better than you do, for example, you are on the list of leaders; Third, sever all ties with the Tatar rebels, and at the same time lay down all your armed forces." Manuel mercilessly laid out these conditions.
"You are asking us for unconditional surrender!" The envoy exclaimed after hearing this.
"That's right. Since you've rebelled, you should be prepared for that." Manuel affirmed his statement with a fake smile, "You can't just pretend nothing happened in the end, right. What, are you not convinced?"
"If that's the case, then there's no need for us to continue negotiations." The envoy's face was ashen, intending to end the negotiations there.
"Good riddance." After seeing off the rebel envoy, Manuel continued to mobilize his troops, preparing for battle. He had never intended to resolve this rebellion through negotiation anyway; the main reason he talked so much with the rebel envoy was to toy with the other party and vent his frustration.
That evening, upon learning of the other side's attitude, the rebels in Mangup all wailed. Isaac, sitting in his seat, clenched the armrest of his chair. After a long moment, he finally gave orders in response, "Quickly contact the Tatars, especially His Excellency Shilin and His Excellency Balin."