A week later, just as Manuel had envisioned, under his threats and inducements, this rebel army did not directly collapse or scatter. Instead, after a wave of surrenders, they continued to stubbornly hold onto their remaining occupied territories under the leadership of their commanders.
"Indeed, there are unknown forces supporting them from behind." After personally meeting with a few surrendered Rus serf leaders and returning to the military and political council chamber, Caesar's already genial smile became even brighter. "Combined with the reports from the Shadow Division, it seems they really did receive 500,000 ducats from foreign forces."
"But Caesar, according to relevant reports, the forces secretly supporting them are not wealthy enough to provide 500,000 ducats," Commander of the Guard Badars, who was attending him, respectfully corrected.
"How much money they received isn't important. What's important is that these rebellious commoners do have foreign support, and that's enough," Caesar Manuel concluded dismissively. "After suppressing them, we'll need to intensify the 'cleansing' efforts and supervisory measures."
"So, Caesar, are we still not going to actively attack, like this past week?" Dungar asked.
"No need," he replied, waving his hand casually. "I personally returned this time to end this meaningless conflict as quickly as possible. The deliberate slowdown during the previous week was to confirm my suspicions, try to appease groups that might be useful in the future, and weaken the rebel's morale and composition. Now that everything is confirmed, and I roughly know who will still be useful later, there's no need to waste any more unnecessary time."
Although the Generals and important officials present were somewhat confused, they understood Caesar's meaning: it was time for an active counterattack.
In the following days, the Bosporus Army launched a significant counterattack against the remaining rebels in the Tauris interior. However, under Manuel's leadership, it was less of a counterattack and more of a complete military and tactical overwhelming force.
Just five days later, the Bosporus Army had pushed them to the newly established village in the center of the Tauris Peninsula, the Buyuk Onlar village area. This was originally a common pastoral area for Tatars before the Crimean War. After another "re-baptism movement" post-war, the area, like other North Tauris regions, was designated by Bosporus as new reclamation and pioneering territory, and a small village of the same name was built in this area.
However, after the peasant uprising, it gradually became desolate due to the conflicts between the two sides, and now it looked even more desolate than during Tatar rule.
But this was not a problem Manuel himself needed to consider at the moment. The only problem he needed to consider was to quickly deal with these rebels to restore local production.
Therefore, upon learning that the remaining rebel forces were gathered there, Manuel showed no mercy. Instead, he directly ordered the clearing of surrounding farmland and buildings that could be used as cover, giving the enemy no room for guerrilla warfare, so that his own troops could drive straight in and crush their remaining resistance in one fell swoop.
It was under these circumstances that the final battle erupted.
In the early afternoon of early March, while Tauris still retained some remnants of winter's chill, it had already entered early spring. At this time of year, seven out of the remaining seven hundred people besieged in Buyuk Onlar should have been tilling the fields, but now they were engaged in a futile struggle for an already slim hope.
In the face of absolute inferiority, their struggle was simply a joke. The peasant faction leader who led these rebels felt the same. At this moment, this middle-aged peasant named Peter was in a mud house in the village, desperately clutching his scalp, questioning his accomplice, whom he had sent to gather information, with a look of despair.
"You mean Caesar's troops didn't send anyone to offer surrender today either?" Peter asked, terrified, confirming the matter repeatedly.
"Yes..." the messenger, who had narrowly escaped, replied. Before he had finished speaking, the de facto leader of this peasant army furiously pounded the mud wall of the house as if venting his anger, his eyes filled with resentment. "Damn it, Holy Mother, these noble knights really aren't giving us a way out this time! Oleg, what do you think?"
The one he called Oleg was a Rus, the leader of the runaway Rus serfs, who had also incited the exiled Rus to revolt due to Bosporus's exploitation last year. Later, he joined forces with Peter, who led impoverished small farmers, to challenge their lords together. Up until half a month or even half a week ago, they were even considered equals.
However, after their Caesar finished dealing with Asia Minor and freed up his hands, the situation quickly reversed. With the issuance of tax exemption and amnesty decrees, coupled with the peasant army's continuous defeats, over ninety percent of the remaining rebels chose to surrender directly, or to surrender with the heads of their superiors. The situation on Oleg's side was particularly severe; how could he, who relied on prestige to rally people, compare to Caesar Manuel, a noble? As a result, now, there were fewer than a hundred Rus among the rebels, and his position as the Rus leader had completely become nominal.
"I don't know." To this, the once spirited Rus replied.
Then, their gaze shifted to the third leader of the group, Sheikh Abdu, a Tatar from the mainland.
To his companions' question, this infidel actually nodded confidently, indicating that he already had a plan. "As long as you continue to resist, there will definitely be a way. I still have a trump card that even Caesar must consider."
Half an hour later, the final battle erupted on the outskirts of this abandoned village. These remaining peasant serfs, with a mixture of hope and despair, took up their sharpest scimitars and short spears, and charged their enemies without armor.
But their enemies, though only 500 strong, were all clad in excellent armor and wielded long spears and pikes made of fine steel and iron; behind them, archers and musketeers of nearly equal numbers provided support, and cavalry units hidden on both flanks waited to deliver the final blow to these enemies; and their General, Dungar, personally commanded from the center, overseeing the entire situation.
An hour later, this already predetermined decisive battle reached its final scene. Under the counter-charge of the Bosporus peasant soldiers, out of the several hundred remaining peasant rebel soldiers, all but fewer than a hundred were captured; the rest were annihilated on the spot, and their leaders, Peter and Oleg, died directly on the battlefield.
Only one Tatar, protected by his kinsmen, fled towards a gap in the north before the battle even began. But just as the path to survival beckoned him, a group of over 50 light cavalry suddenly emerged, and to his surprise, captured him and his kinsmen alive.
"Got you!" Abdu's surprise was met by a face that looked like it belonged to his own group.