But the Tatars were not fools either.
After the initial panic, the remaining Tatar soldiers in the watchtowers largely understood the current situation and tried to notify the other unsuspecting Tatars in various ways, while also taking out their bows and arrows to shoot down the approaching enemies.
It must be said that the Tatars' archery skills were truly not weak; even in this sudden situation, most of the arrows shot by the remaining Tatar soldiers were still accurate and powerful, even managing to shoot down several overzealous Theodoro soldiers, rendering them unable to get back up.
What they did indeed had an effect; not only did they temporarily save their own lives, but they also, to a certain extent, slowed down the Theodoro Army's pace.
For example, the marching speed of the Theodoro soldiers heading to their camp was significantly reduced by the arrows shot by the Tatars in the watchtowers.
And influenced by the shouts of their comrades and the sounds of fighting outside, some Tatar soldiers who had been sound asleep had already woken up, picking up their weapons to counterattack the enemy.
This was within Manuel's expectations, or rather, he never placed all his hopes on a single, successful all-in surprise attack.
After receiving intelligence from the front line, he ordered his soldiers to temporarily stay away from those watchtowers and focus on attacking the Tatar soldiers' camp.
As for those watchtowers? Manuel's handling of them was very simple.
After most of his soldiers were a certain distance from those watchtowers, he had the army's artillerymen bring out several small cannons.
After adjusting the angles and positions, he pointed directly at the watchtowers and other fortifications and shouted, "Fire at those Tatar fortifications!"
As soon as he finished speaking, those watchtowers and other fortifications directly collapsed under the roar of cannon fire.
All the Tatar soldiers on them died on the spot, and the Tatars' few advantages in fortifications were thus broken by Theodoro.
"Cannons are so much more useful than ladders and trebuchets," Manuel thought to himself, laughing aloud as he watched the watchtowers collapse.
Of course, after these cannon shots, Theodoro's night raid could no longer be kept secret from the remaining Tatars.
But Manuel had never intended to keep it a secret indefinitely.
His current plan was simple: after dismantling the Crimean Tatars' few advantages in the night, he would directly bombard their military camp.
If the enemy had the fighting power of Janissaries, he might have been more cautious and employed more subtle tactics.
However, although the Tatars were brave, bravery does not directly translate into combat effectiveness, especially during the night when they were unprepared.
Since Theodoro had the advantage in numbers, quality, and preparation, why wait? He would simply crush them with a "brute force" tactic!
The facts were just as Manuel had expected; after the few defensive fortifications, led by the watchtowers, lost their intended function, the unprepared Tatars were largely unable to resist Theodoro's attack.
Seeing that his side had gained the advantage as expected, Manuel dispatched nearly a thousand troops, having Posadas lead them to coordinate with the recently landed forces to seize important strongholds in Henichesk.
As for military discipline, since Henichesk was currently just a village, he would not impose too many restrictions this time.
"Don't randomly smash or loot public buildings; anything else is fine."
After giving this instruction, he let the Theodoro taxi soldiers go and capture Henichesk.
Under Theodoro's thorough preparation, by around dawn, the camp of five hundred Crimean soldiers stationed in Henichesk was completely controlled by Theodoro, with even the mopping-up operations completed ahead of schedule.
In other words, these five hundred Tatar soldiers were either captured or killed and wounded, with their entire army wiped out.
"What about Henichesk itself?" Manuel frowned, thinking of this question after receiving the immediate battle report, which suggested all enemy soldiers had been eliminated.
Problems had to be solved immediately.
After ordering that all participating soldiers be credited with their deserved military achievements, Manuel immediately sent a messenger to inquire about the status of the unit that went to attack the village.
He didn't know until he asked, and when he asked, he was shocked.
After receiving the exact status of the unit led by Posadas from the messenger, Manuel almost fell off his warhorse in fright.
"Enough, enough! That's enough! I sent him to attack Henichesk to control this village, not to exterminate the local villagers and herders!"
What exactly happened? It's simple: not long after Theodoro completely wiped out Crimea's five hundred soldiers, the unit led by Posadas had fully controlled the key hubs and buildings of Henichesk.
However, he believed that this was still not enough to complete the "mission" entrusted to him by His Highness, and in order to satisfy the desires of the soldiers under his command, he indulged them in a massacre, even personally taking up a knife and joining the killing.
Later, as it was almost dawn, when they were in high spirits, Posadas even ordered, "Let there be no more Tatars in Henichesk!"
"Don't be too absurd," Manuel felt this was quite indescribable, and for a moment, he even wanted to slap his forehead.
However, he ultimately suppressed this urge and instead quickly sent Aidian to stop Posadas and his unit of taxi soldiers, telling him that the mission was complete, that he was very satisfied, and that it should stop there, with no more killing needed.
"At least by morning, I want to see you and your soldiers in neat uniforms and armor, ready to greet me," Manuel issued this strict order.
It must be said that Manuel himself held considerable prestige in the army, at least when he came to inspect Posadas's "results" in the morning, Posadas and his unit of soldiers were already neatly arranged, waiting for their Highness to review them.
After a brief tour, Manuel was quite satisfied with the results Posadas had achieved, apart from the sudden increase in corpses and collapsed houses due to the slaughter of the previous night and early morning.
"No, it seems I need to keep an eye on Posadas, otherwise, with his style, he will definitely go too extreme and too far every time.
Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that he's a true warrior and saved my life, I'd really want to send him to the rear to read more books.
"Hmm, I've decided, I'll find a day to talk to him privately sometime soon, I wonder if I can get him to rein it in."
Manuel thought helplessly to himself about this.
But regardless of the process, Theodoro successfully and secretly took Henichesk in less than half a day.