The Sun and the Lion

"One hundred pounds of gold?" Lord Padra of Gabala opened his eyes in disbelief, and the beard on his chin trembled along with his master.

After repeating the amount of city redemption fee requested by Ibrahim, Padella opened her mouth and wanted to say something else, but she still didn't say it and closed it. There was a dead silence in the hall, and the courtiers present also lowered their heads. The attendants even exited the hall and waited outside the door.

After a while, Padra spoke, but not about the city redemption fee. Instead, she asked: "The messenger going to Telavi, please go out." As he said this, he was stroking his beard.

"My lord, when the messenger left the city, the Turkmen horse bandits had not blocked the roads to the west and south." The military commander stepped forward and answered.

"Yeah." Padella's face softened a little, and her brows were less frowned.

Although the city of Gabala is strong, no matter how magnificent the city fortifications are, they still need people to defend them, otherwise even Constantinople will not be able to defend it. The long-term economic depression has naturally seriously affected the military strength of various lords. Many lords and kings guard the dilapidated historical cities, but do not have many soldiers at hand.

Fortunately, the behemoths around them have their own affairs and have no time to take care of the Caucasus. Otherwise, how can they maintain such an independent status?

"Then, let's test the strength of these Turkmens." Padella clenched her fists, and then ordered the military chief: "Go down and arrange the city defense."

"As commanded."

The Lord Privy Seal also knew Padella's attitude and retreated together.

At the same time, within the territory of the Principality of Samhertz, in the flat land between the capital Akhaltsikhe and the Kura River, two groups of cavalry were fighting.

Havachi Oglu led a total of four thousand tribal cavalry northward, invaded Samhertz, bypassed the fortress, and crisscrossed the valleys dotted with countryside. This move quickly alarmed Duke Kvakvare II of Samhertz. This veteran who had ruled the duchy for forty-four years and fought alongside Bagrat in Chakari because of his firm opposition to centralization was determined to personally lead the attack. The army repulsed the invading enemy. He was accompanied by his eldest son Chaihoro, his second son Mzachabu, as well as a number of cavalry equal to that of Red Head and more levies.

However, Kwakvare, who had a numerical advantage, did not want to fight directly with Havac at first. Instead, he used Fabian tactics. He sent his two sons to lead a small force to clear the walls and fields, and constantly harassed the looting people everywhere. The red heads, and he personally led the main force to follow Hawaqi, making Hawaqi dare not divide his troops.

This was also the time when Kwakvare heard about the fiasco on the banks of the Pirsat River. After learning that Shirwanshah, who was more powerful than him, was destroyed by the religious order with inferior forces, he immediately killed these red-hatted soldiers. Turkmen horse bandits are distinguished from ordinary Turkmen horse bandits.

Now, the Fabian tactics seem to be having an effect. Havac Oglu, who did not dare to divide his troops to plunder, was disgusted because he did not let the red heads go out to loot. He kept complaining and even publicly accused Havac of cowardice. Behavior.

But he was not confident about letting Havac lead 4,000 men to fight against an enemy force at least three times his own. However, facing the declining support rate and the increasingly out-of-control military morale, he had no choice but to bite the bullet.

Under the constant pull of the troops from both sides, the narrow flat land separated from the opposite bank by the Kura River and its tributaries to the east and north, the city to the west, and the hilly areas to the south became the battlefield where the main forces of the two sides fought.

Kwakware believed that this small flat land was not conducive to his numerical advantage, but this time the opponent took the initiative to attack. If he took the initiative to retreat, his prestige would definitely be greatly damaged, and his restraint on the lower-level vassals would be loosened.

The main members of the Samhertz Army are still poor people who are unable to become cavalry. If they are abandoned by the masters, they will only surrender and defect, and they will not play any role in the rear. This will also aggravate the blow to his prestige, and will not be able to do so. Shao led the people to the opposite side.

Although Kvakvare's army is large in number, the number of cavalry as the core is only slightly more than that of Red Head. There are both Turkic-style light cavalry and Roman-style heavy cavalry. Compared with their counterparts, the only thing that red-headed people have more than the hats on their heads is their fanatical worship of the Lord in their hearts.

In the battle on the flat ground, Havac could not think of any brilliant tactics. After testing the enemy with light cavalry, he gathered the entire army and followed him to directly attack the military formation of Samhertz - wild boar charge. This is The only strategy Havac could come up with.

Facing the wild boar attack of the red heads, Kwakvare, who could not trust the infantry, ordered his two sons to lead the cavalry to confront the enemy. After the cavalry battle, the infantry was moved to the enemy's side to assist the cavalry in combat.

The cavalry quickly collided with each other, swords clashed, bows and arrows flew, the red-headed attacks were fierce, but the Georgian cavalry was not to be outdone. Compared with these Turkmen who had just entered the Caucasus, the cavalry of Duke Samhertz The equipment is more sophisticated, and the cavalry led by Khawaqi has different levels of equipment. The Afshar tribe is slightly better, and the motley Turkmen from Asia Minor and Syria are the worst, but they are not as good as the red heads under Ibrahim-Al The arsenals of Dabil and Shirwan are not spectacular, but they are considerable.

Havaci felt like he had jumped into a swamp. Once he got in, it would not be easy to get out.

Suddenly, the Georgian cavalry fell into chaos. Havaci didn't know what happened, but he realized that this was a good opportunity to escape. He quickly ordered the trumpeter who followed him to pass the order to break out to the north. After the trumpet sounded, he didn't care. Whether the red heads received the order or were unable to carry out the order, they began to lead their soldiers out.

Along with the sound of Havaci's trumpet, some red heads looked around, and then found in horror that they had fallen into death, but no one had the idea of ​​surrender - everyone knew that these wise men on the opposite side would not Those who allow themselves to survive will become slaves if they are lucky enough to survive, with no possibility of regaining their freedom.

Putting themselves to death and surviving, taking advantage of the chaos on Samhertz's side and the red-heads' fear of their own situation, the Turkmens tore open several holes of varying sizes and swarmed out crazily. But the Georgians' chaos only lasted for a while, and order was soon restored. The mouths were closed, and those unlucky ones who didn't escape had no chance.

And Havaci was one of the lucky few. After standing out from the siege, he and a few soldiers waded through a ford immediately, then gathered some other lucky people, and then found an abandoned village to hide.

Soon, the battle was over.

Under Kvakvare's offensive, although the mount of the second son Mzachabu who led the cavalry charge was hacked to death by the Turkmen, and his left arm was trampled by a horse's hoof, causing the cavalry to fall into chaos, but fortunately the cavalry unit was still alive. There was a commander, Chaihoro, who quickly stabilized the troops and completed the encirclement and suppression of these Turkmen horse bandits.

According to post-war statistics, the Safavid order lost at least 3,000 people, and the Duke of Samherz paid a comparable price.

After spending the night, Havaci boldly went to collect more broken troops. Many people fled in a different direction from Havaci, and some tribal cavalry refused to accept Havaci's leadership. In the end, he could only take more than 300 broken troops north to try to join Ibrahim, avoiding the pursuit of the lords. Facing the hostile locals, this journey would be extremely difficult.