Afterward, under the valiant efforts of the Mamluk heavy cavalry and the Karaman Royal Guard, the Ottoman were forced to temporarily retreat, abandoning the remaining Hamid region.
However, even after such a defeat, the Ottoman's casualties did not exceed five thousand; while the combined casualties of Karaman and Mamluk, their opponents, had already surpassed four thousand.
This casualty ratio was clearly unacceptable to the Karaman and Mamluk side.
Their war even reached Europe, across the Dardanelles Strait, which allowed many factions forced to submit to the Ottoman to perceive an opportunity.
The boldest among them were actually the Serbians; George Branković, the Autocratic State of Serbia, seeing the situation, quickly sought independence from Ottoman rule.
To this end, he even sent numerous letters to the Kingdom of Hungary to the north, exaggerating the Ottoman's weakness, showing no mercy to his son-in-law.
However, Murad also showed no mercy to his father-in-law.
Many of these letters were intercepted by the Ottoman, who were still closely monitoring their European territories.
When they reached Murad's ears, the Sultan immediately felt extremely annoyed, even to the point of anger.
But he knew very well that unbridled rage would only be futile.
After venting his anger, the Sultan quickly made emergency adjustments to his strategy.
Thus, by early April, although the Ottoman were still overtly at war with Karaman and other states, they had secretly sent envoys to contact them, intending to end this meaningless war as soon as possible.
At the same time, he ordered his Grand Vizier and other high-ranking officials to lead the Rumelia Legion, which he had specifically left in Europe, to the Üsküp area, adopting a posture that "the European territories are completely under control" to suppress the restless vassals.
Meanwhile, Manuel in Tauris finally completed his series of efforts for the envisioned dual-headed structure.
Although the absence of several cabinet members made him feel a bit tired, everything was fortunately completed in the end.
The most subversive of these was his official order: from now on, Trabzon City would be the second capital, on par with Bangkok Pu City, in terms of legal validity, military status, and economic and political influence.
From this perspective, it was clear that he genuinely intended to manage the newly acquired Pontus region as his homeland, rather than merely as an adornment on his crown.
If viewed solely from this, it seemed he greatly respected Trabzon's status as a personal union.
However, combined with his previous order to extend the bosphorus code, originally only valid in the Tauris Peninsula, to Asia Minor, intelligent people could discern that he viewed both as his direct territories; the so-called personal union was merely a layer of hazy disguise to conceal his assimilation of Pontus.
Although such a measure seems simple to talk about now and not difficult to implement, if the noble lords of Tauris had possessed the power they had before the civil war, his decision would probably not have passed so easily.
Fortunately, through that civil war, Manuel had largely eliminated the constraints that the aristocracy placed on his decision-making.
And Bosporus thus became his personal autocracy, and his own will finally became the will of the entire Autocratic State, completely overriding all other social strata.
However, not many people were actually acutely aware of this, and even Manuel himself only had a vague feeling about it.
Back to the main topic.
After officially promulgating this decree, in order to demonstrate to Asia Minor that his words matched his actions, and to thoroughly perfect the military and political system he had established in Pontus, and to officially open the Bosporus-exclusive Black Sea trade route, he prepared to return.
"So, I have to go back to Pontus again; having the entire territory divided into two by the Black Sea is really annoying." Thinking of this, Manuel immediately sighed.
Even for him, an energetic Caesar, constantly traveling by boat was somewhat troublesome.
Not to mention that in the coming years, he would basically be unable to escape this state of back-and-forth travel.
Despite his complaints, he quickly made preparations to return to Trabzon.
Approximately three days later in the morning, Manuel, accompanied by only a few trusted generals and attendants, returned to Trabzon's port aboard his flagship, escorted by a small fleet of ships.
After a brief rest, Caesar, protected by Philaka Soldiers, personally ascended the high platform in the city center and solemnly declared to the citizens his decision to officially elevate Trabzon City to the status of the Second Capital.
He also delivered a speech, proclaiming that both the Romans of Tauris and Asia Minor were equally his subjects.
During this speech, he intentionally conflated Bosporus-held Asia Minor with the entire Asia Minor, hoping to subtly influence the Eastern Orthodox communities within the Turk Sultan and Beylik, including the Ottoman, to pave a somewhat useful path for his upcoming strategy.
However, he didn't feel that such verbal gestures would have any immediate effect, other than teetering on the edge of provoking the Ottoman.
After finishing this largely performative speech and returning to Trabzon Palace, Manuel, after inspecting the achievements of the resident officials, finally announced a new appointment in the palace.
"In recognition of your merits, as the Holy Father bears witness, I hereby appoint Dungar de Lapole as the Army Commander of the Pontus region, granting him the title of 'Fatsa Legion Commander' and the qualification to enter the cabinet." In public, he formally established this Irish-Englishman, who was more familiar with the situation in Asia Minor and had achieved many merits in the Asia Minor campaigns and the Tauris peasant faction uprising after joining his service, as the Army Commander responsible for Pontus, and his second Army Commander.
This appointment caused a considerable stir in the aristocratic circles and officialdom of Pontus, and even Dungar himself, who had crossed the sea with Caesar, found it quite incredible.
However, this appointment was naturally made after careful consideration by Manuel; recognition of his military capabilities was the primary factor, and the mere fact that Dungar himself was a Western Europe without any roots was enough for him to entrust him with such an important task.
Fortunately, the topic of discussion among the Pontus dignitaries quickly changed.
Because their Manuel, in addition to various tedious administrative system improvements, also pulled off many astonishing feats.
"Badars, what do you think would happen if I sent people to draw several giant, faced portraits of the Muslim prophet in the Turk settlements of the New Moon?" This was the content of Manuel's discussion with his private secretary, who also served as the Chief of the Dark Department and Commander of the Guard, on the evening of the day Dungar's appointment was finalized.