Let's look inside the Tbilisi fortress and find out what is going on.The commander-in-chief of the stronghold-Mehmed pasha is devastated and decides to send a letter to the grand vizier of the Ottoman empire-Lala pasha,who was also the commander-in-chief of the entire Ottoman military forces.Mehmed pasha looked around and saw how helpless were his soldiers.The starving janissaries were sitting on the floor and were staring at the stolen food that was left:50 apples,40 pears,20 boiled chickens and 10 slices of braised beef.This amount of food was not enough for 700 men.
-Hey,soldiers!Get up!Bring me paper,inkpot and feather.I urgently need to send a letter to our commander-in-chief!
There were many rooms inside the fortress and where Mehmed pasha was,there were 30 janissaries.Only one of them could get up and carry out the order without making a sound.Mehmed pasha was sitting at the table and pondering about how to explain the devastating situation to Lala pasha.Quite soon,he came up with some ideas and immediately started writing:
"Your excellency,
There is extremely desperate circumstance where I and my soldiers are.We are running out of our supplies.Only 700 janissaries are left.Simon,the former king of Kartli who has recently came back from 8 years of captivity in Safavid Persia snatched us away every village in Kartli.Tbilisi and Gori are still ours.It seems,that Simon aims to conquer both of these cities and drive us out.My scouts told me,that he has 5600 soldiers.His army that is now sieging us from every corner and doesn't let any of the janissaries to come out,includes 5000 Iranians and 600 Georgians.He and his soldiers practically destroyed our army in the battles in which he managed to take the villages away from us.Please,offer the sultan to postpone our upcoming onslaught towards Tavriz and send the janissaries towards Tbilisi.We are looking forward to see you with thousands of janissaries here.
The commander-in-chief of Tbilisi garrison-Mehmed pasha"