"What we discussed earlier assumed their entire army as the enemy. But what if we narrow our target? If we isolate one large unit from the main body, wouldn't we be able to use our numerical and qualitative superiority to eliminate that isolated unit?" Manuel grew a little excited as he spoke.
"But Your Highness, how do we separate one of their units from the rest of their main force?" Tukharovsky asked abruptly.
"Ah, this…" Manuel was momentarily stunned.
Facing the growing suspicion on the faces of his generals, he calmly explained, "What I proposed is a strategic direction. As for how to implement it specifically, that is a tactical arrangement. And the details of these arrangements still need to be discussed with me by all of you."
Manuel's attitude truly allowed his generals to breathe a sigh of relief: it seemed their respected Highness would not be staging another meaningless military drill like last time.
After confirming this, the generals cast aside their various other thoughts and earnestly began discussing with their Highness how to ambush the Crimean Army that was about to withdraw.
Two more days passed—
In the dead of night on the thirtieth day of the Crimean Army's offensive against the Tatar Isthmus, the Crimean Tatars finally packed up their military equipment and bags, preparing to withdraw from this region where they had achieved nothing.
To ensure an orderly retreat, Giray adopted a long snake formation. At the very front of the formation were naturally the Khanate's nobles. To rush to Karcher to deal with the Golden Horde's invasion as soon as possible, neither Giray nor his personal guards lagged behind; following them were the elites of the Khanate's three major tribes. As the backbone of the Khanate, they would naturally not be overlooked by the Khanate's high command, and besides, Giray would not dare to overlook them. Next, and probably last, were the various smaller tribes under the Khanate's rule and the unit of Janissaries led by Klier, whose Janissaries primarily served as an oversight and defensive force, rather than truly bringing up the rear.
To be fair, if one only looked at the beginning, the Crimean Army's retreat was quite smooth. Until the third day of the withdrawal, the Theodoro defenders on the Isthmus defense line showed no signs of attempting an attack, which even led some reckless and foolhardy individuals in the army to suggest seizing the opportunity to return and catch the Christians off guard. Of course, such an unrealistic proposal was easily and unanimously rejected by the Khanate's high command.
However, one thing puzzled Klier, who was bringing up the rear: on the second day of the retreat, although the distance was not close, he still noticed that the Theodoro navy in the direction of the Sea of Azov seemed to be increasing, and many oar-sail warships suitable for river and estuary combat also appeared. "Does Theodoro want to attack us with their navy? But their range doesn't seem to be enough, does it?" Yet for three consecutive days, these ships did not attack them, seeming only to monitor them. This left him completely bewildered by the enemy's deployment and he couldn't help but lower his guard.
In the dead of night on the third day of their retreat, the Crimean Army finally arrived at an estuary about 675 pule rong (approximately 20 kilometers) northeast of Henichesk. Beside this estuary was a small settlement, unnamed by the Tatars, but called Kirilivka by the fleeing heretic Rus serfs. The estuary east of Kirilivka, according to local custom, is commonly known as the "Milk River Estuary" (Молочний лиман).
Crossing the "Milk River Estuary" meant leaving the Yedishkul region, and the army would be able to return to their homeland with ample supplies, which made Giray breathe a sigh of relief. Although Yedishkul was currently also part of the Khanate's territory, the many days of harassment and incursions by Theodoro had turned large areas of its steppe into scorched earth, almost uninhabited. This posed a severe challenge to the Khanate's supply lines and was a major reason that forced the Crimean Army to retreat.
"Good, as long as we leave here, those damned Christians will be far away from us!" Giray finally cheered that night, waving his right arm from horseback in celebration. And with the Khan like this, everyone else naturally celebrated happily as well.
Unfortunately, he celebrated too soon.
At midnight, the vast majority of the Crimean Army had safely crossed the river on temporary fortifications built by engineers, leaving nearly two thousand soldiers from smaller tribes and about 50 Janissaries still on the Hesi side preparing to cross.
"Is it too quiet? Has this place been scorched by infidels?" Klier, who had just crossed the estuary, rode on his horse, pondering in confusion. And as he pondered, he was surprised to see more than a dozen coastal oar-sail warships rapidly approaching from the direction of the Sea of Azov.
"No good, it's an enemy attack, prepare quickly, it must be Theodoro's warships. Also, send the message to Khan, be quick!" Klier quickly prepared for the situation and directed his taxi soldiers to form a battle array, standing ready.
However, these oar-sail ships seemed to ignore them. After about half an hour, these arriving oar-sail ships first used their mounted cannons to destroy the temporary fortifications the Tatars had laid across the estuary, cutting off communication between the eastern and Hesi armies at the estuary.
"No good, their target is the Hesi forces! Damn it, the Hesi forces don't have a high enough-ranking commander!" The experienced Klier seemed to have figured out the enemy's objective. "But how can they take on the Hesi army? We still have over two thousand men there, and a dozen or so oar-sails can at most carry nearly five hundred. Even if those five hundred were all elites, with the bravery and agility of our Tatars, the situation couldn't possibly be them overwhelming us. At the very least, we could hold them off for a night. A night is enough for the forces on the east bank to come to our aid." Thinking this, Klier relaxed considerably, while instructing his archers to prepare, and preparing to watch Theodoro's folly with interest.
Unfortunately, he apparently hadn't considered that Theodoro might have other preparations.
Less than a quarter of an hour after these dozen or so oar-sail ships burst into the "Milk River Estuary" and cut off communication between the eastern and Hesi armies at the estuary, a unit quickly appeared north of the Hesi side of the estuary. Judging by the number of torches they carried, even with the most optimistic estimate, their numbers would not be less than a thousand.
"Ah, ah, ah?!" Klier on the east bank was utterly dumbfounded when he saw them, "Allah above, what a joke?! An ambush isn't impossible, but why are there so many people? It's impossible to ambush, no matter how you think about it, it's impossible to ambush that many people, right?! And to ambush so many people, how did they quickly mobilize military transport ships? From the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, it's impossible to transfer so many at once?!"
If Manuel had heard his question, he would probably have smiled mysteriously and said, "Sailing on dry land, my boy."