Although some of the doubts in Serenus's mind were answered after hearing Caesar's reply, even more questions flooded his mind. But as Chief Secretary, if Caesar did not disclose relevant information, he had no right to overstep his authority and inquire. Therefore, after pondering for a moment, he could only suppress his curiosity and temporarily give up.
After his subordinates, including Serenus, bid farewell, Manuel turned and summoned the dark department officers directly under him. When they arrived as ordered, Caesar commanded them to step forward and issued his personal order: "Thus, and so…"
As for what he specifically instructed, outsiders naturally knew nothing. However, Caesar's cabinet members would soon find out.
Approximately one week later—
Late that afternoon, Ottoman Sultan Murad II, who was leading his army to Eskisehir, was in an excellent mood. According to military intelligence provided to him by the opposition within the Karaman Beylik, today the Karaman "fake" Bey Suleiman would deliberately shake off the Mamluks and personally lead his loyal Armenian Imperial Guard to this place for an unexpected raid. Unfortunately, this young Bey was still unaware that his intelligence system was like a sieve, and some Karaman high-ranking officials, not daring to offend the Ottoman, easily provided Murad with the intelligence he wanted in real-time, hoping to leave themselves a way out and avoid being purged by the Ottoman, who they believed were sure to win.
Murad was also happy to see this. What reason did he have not to accept accurate intelligence that was beneficial to the war and delivered right to his doorstep? Therefore, after deducing that this information should be true, he immediately set off with an army of seven thousand to arrive as soon as possible, in order to capture or kill the Karaman nobles, led by Suleiman Karamanoglu, who dared to offend the Ottoman, and end this war, which he felt was consuming too much energy.
Although he held this thought, Murad maintained due caution during the march. After arriving at a woodland near Eskisehir, the Sultan immediately dispatched scouts for reconnaissance. The subsequent reconnaissance results were exactly as he considered best: there were indeed one or two thousand Karaman troops nearby, and although their numbers were not large, they were sufficiently well-equipped. The only thing worth noting was that their direction of march seemed rather chaotic for some unknown reason.
This last point, on the contrary, put Murad at ease. Although not fully confirmed, the enemy's small numbers and excellent equipment were enough to show that the Ottoman had not made a mistake this time: clearly, these must be the elite troops of Karaman, and as long as they were defeated, victory would be in his grasp.
Even with things at this point, he still did not order the troops to advance recklessly, but patiently commanded them to silently outflank the enemy, waiting until nightfall. It was not until the woodland was almost covered by night that the Sultan issued the order for the army to advance and besiege.
What happened next was still within Murad's expectations. After half a night of fierce fighting, the Ottoman army successfully defeated the Karaman troops that had invaded the area, and at the same time achieved inspiring results: nearly ninety percent of the enemy forces were annihilated in the darkness, and the rest were all captured. Most of the captives were high-ranking nobles who appeared to be influential in Karaman, but unfortunately, their specific faces could not be clearly seen in the darkness.
Murad felt nothing for these high-ranking individuals and immediately had them taken for interrogation. But after interrogating them, Murad's originally joyful expression suddenly darkened, "Karaman's new Bey, you utter scoundrel!"
Why did Murad show such an expression? It was simple, because according to his interrogation results, the Karaman troops he had utterly defeated tonight were led by pro-Ottoman nobles.
As for why such a strange result occurred, it must be traced back to when Rutaoglu returned to the Karaman-controlled Hamid region with Bosporus Caesar Manuel's reply about three or four days ago—
That night, after learning of his old friend's response and analysis from his loyal servant, Suleiman, who was then wearing armor, couldn't help but smile bitterly, "Manuel, you fellow, you saw through my situation so quickly? Well, I'll bet you'll keep your word and fulfill your promise. Did Manuel say anything else?"
"Reporting to Caesar, Manuel also offered us a strategy to eliminate internal opposition." At this point, Rutaoglu immediately conveyed the most essential sentence from the message entrusted by the other party to his master—
"Wouldn't it be enough to get rid of everyone who doesn't listen to you?"
After hearing the vicious plan Manuel delivered through Rutaoglu, Suleiman fell into silent contemplation. After a long while, he gritted his teeth and whispered, "Forget it, Allah is above! Anyway, these insects can only play a negative role under me, so if they're gone, they're gone!"
For the next three days, Suleiman followed this strategy, secretly and continuously contacting key officials and generals of the Mamluks and his own faction, creating the illusion that he would lead his personal guards to raid Eskisehir, preparing a carefully arranged sugar-coated bullet for the opposition and the Ottoman. The former completely lived up to his expectations; as soon as they discovered this huge trap, after a brief discussion in the shadows, they gleefully fell into it and, as usual, reported the information to the Ottoman Sultanate.
Then, that morning, Suleiman, backed by Mamluk Heavy Cavalry, issued mobilization orders to these opposition members, forcibly making them wear armor and mount horses, and through the coercion of the Armenian Imperial Guard, pulling them up without leaving any reaction time. After a forced march during the day to Eskisehir, Suleiman then fabricated military intelligence to help him escape with his personal guards, while leaving a warning that the Mamluks would arrive with a large army to support them from dusk to night, and that they should not move around to avoid being mistaken for enemy forces.
The opposition forces, confused by the Bey, could only stop as he said, remaining chaotically in place, waiting for the Ottoman or Mamluk army to arrive and rescue them. But due to Murad's caution and their hesitation, they ultimately completely missed contact with the Ottoman, until they were all annihilated that night.
After hearing the interrogation of the captives, Murad felt utterly bewildered:
"It can be like this!?" Murad muttered to himself, "And this doesn't seem like the faction-clearing method commonly used by the Turks; it's more like… the Romans."
Just as Murad was immersed in his thoughts, as if misfortunes never come singly, a messenger from Ankara arrived before him at this very moment, reporting an even more troublesome matter to the Sultan—
"Our army's granary in northeastern Anatolia was burned!?" Murad repeated the message with a look of disbelief.