Let's move the timeline back three days, to the evening of the fourth day after the Battle of Giresun.
At this time, nearly six thousand Ottoman soldiers, detached by their Sultan, were besieging the Amasya fortress as they had been for days, allowing not even a fly to pass through. They continuously attempted to breach the outer walls with their highly proficient siege engines, aiming to wear down the defenders' will to resist.
The defenders' reactions during this period also met the Ottoman's expectations: from initially showing tenacious spirit to now passively defending. It could be said that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, this strategically vital fortress would change hands within half a month to a month.
Fortunately, an unexpected event occurred despite no expectation of it.
As a side note, due to the Battle of Giresun being only four days prior, this Ottoman unit was unaware that their Sultan had already been defeated and retreated.
That evening, after completing their routine daily attack, the Ottoman, under the command of their General, Bayezid Pasha, prepared to beat the drums for retreat, return to camp, and rest up for the next day's assault.
Just then, several scouts burst into the camp, reporting intelligence to the Pasha that he had not anticipated.
"Unidentified troops are rushing towards us from the direction of the Four Towns in the east?" the middle-aged Greek Pasha asked in confusion, sitting on a wooden chair, seemingly questioning the veracity of the report.
"Yes, Pasha," the scout replied.
"Then are they friend or foe? Tell me all the specific details," Bayezid Pasha asked again, cautiously tapping his staff with his left index finger.
Facing the Pasha's question, the scout did not dare to hesitate, speaking out all the intelligence he had gathered at his fastest pace, "This unknown number of troops comes from the east. Their specific identity is temporarily unknown because their attire seems to have been deliberately concealed. Furthermore, they are marching exceptionally fast; in the short fifteen minutes we were scouting, they had already covered nearly 4000 cubits ①."
At these words, the Pasha first stood up in surprise, then calmly sat back down. "I see, then there's no need to worry too much." He smiled and waved his hand, indicating that there was no need to be overly concerned.
"Pasha, do you mean..." his adjutant, standing beside him, looked utterly bewildered.
"It's a simple fact: increasing marching speed must come at the cost of combat effectiveness," the Pasha explained. "Therefore, regardless of their stance, they cannot cause any adverse effects to our army, which is waiting in strength. Just set up a routine defensive formation."
Then, half an hour later, they were bombarded by the Bosporus Army with artillery.
Watching the enemy troops scatter under the hot weapons fire, Manuel, who was at the front, felt black lines appear on his forehead. "Do these infidels think only they can use firearms? They are mostly siege engineers, so why are they putting on airs like the Janissaries and Sipahi?"
After this exclamation, he seized the opportunity and ordered the rested cavalry to charge into the chaos, directly routing this Ottoman unit. Even Bayezid Pasha was riddled with spears by the pikemen who arrived last on the battlefield, and his head was sent to Caesar.
What happened next was simple: after annihilating eighty percent of the enemy and replenishing the Amasya garrison, Manuel dispatched several units to execute his plan. A small contingent of these units was stationed outside Amasya, disguised as an Ottoman unit still besieging the city, waiting for the unsuspecting routed troops to stumble upon them.
This was the prelude.
And now, in fact, Manuel was somewhat surprised to see these enemy troops directly heading into his pre-arranged ambush. He had thought the enemy would be more cautious, fleeing when they were about thirty or forty pule rong from the battlefield.
"I even prepared to pursue the enemy at night, but this... did they lose so unexpectedly that their morale broke, leading them to be desperate?" Caesar thought to himself as he ordered the ambushers to attack. As he shouted to the enemy, "This place is already full!" the ready Bosporus ambushers also received the order and charged out, directly attacking the disorganized enemy troops without hesitation.
The intensity of this ambush was not great, as the roles of offense and defense were completely reversed this time, so the outcome was decided by dawn. The Ottoman, in an absolute disadvantage, were defeated again, and Murad II, after abandoning over a thousand dead and wounded, as well as the lives of two great Generals led by Rom Pasha, fled westward in a hurry at midnight, protected by the remaining nearly one thousand Kapikulu Corps soldiers.
The next morning, after receiving the battle report from his subordinates and confirming that his side had captured and beheaded about a thousand people with less than five hundred casualties, Manuel couldn't help but inquire about the enemy Sultan's whereabouts in his joy. Upon learning that he had escaped again, he couldn't help but shake his head and frown, "How did he escape again? Can't he learn from Nikephoros I or his grandfather, Sultan Bayezid?"
"So, Caesar, should we continue the pursuit?" asked his Army Commander, Tukharovsky.
"Of course," Caesar immediately replied. "Even if we can't capture the Sultan, we must take out these one or two legions the Ottoman have deployed. Speaking of which, how are things in Ordu and Samsun?"
"Reporting to Caesar, General Dungar, who was responsible for retaking the area, has completed his task," Badars reported, bowing his head.
"Good, good, good. Continue the pursuit later and give the Ottoman another surprise. I want to see if they can escape unscathed after being locked down by fortresses," Manuel said with a laughing curse, issuing the military order.
Three days later, in the afternoon, on Christmas Day, below Ordu, Murad couldn't help but break into a sweat in the biting cold winter as he looked at the city, which had returned to Bosporus Army control. And when dust rose behind him, accompanied by loud shouts of "Merry Christmas," Sultan shivered on the spot.
What followed was simple: the already few remaining Ottoman troops lost another half under the pincer attack. And Murad once again managed to escape relatively unscathed under the protection of the Janissaries and Sipahi, but this time, fewer than five hundred guards remained by his side.
After this battle, Manuel, outside Ordu, was inevitably a little depressed upon learning that Murad had still not been captured or killed, because he knew that Murad, having suffered repeated setbacks along the coastline, would certainly not flee towards Samsun again, but would instead cross mountains and valleys, bypassing the Bosporus's surveillance.
Although Murad II was ultimately not captured alive or killed, in the end, the Bosporus Army still achieved considerable results: the so-called twenty-thousand-strong army personally led by Murad was almost completely annihilated, at the cost of nearly ten thousand casualties for the Bosporus.
"Next, it's up to Karaman and the Mamluk to perform. I've worked so hard; don't disappoint me," Manuel said, looking towards the central part of Asia Minor, smiling wearily after putting a decent end to this series of campaigns.