Conrad farewelled Manuel I and advanced to Nikomedeia, then on the shortest route to Ikonion. Mas'ud, sultan of Ikonion, had sent emergency demands for help all over the east, and assembled an army at Ikonion with which he could face the crusaders. As he left, Conrad asked Manuel for expert guides, but they proved untrustworthy. They suggested that the army use a short cut through country offering no food, carrying provisions with them for a fixed number of days, and the Germans complied. But whether on Manuel's orders or bribed by the Turks, they led the Germans not towards the fertile area of Ikonion, but into a wilderness exposed to Turkish attack. After the set number of days, food was scarce and they had not reached their goal. Conrad interrogated the guides before his nobles. They lied that they would arrive in three days; Conrad believed them. Next morning, the guides had vanished, thus openly confessing guilt. They went to tell the French army nearby that Conrad had been successful, either wanting to stop the French coming to help him, or to save themselves from punishment for misleading him. When Conrad realised he no longer had guides, there was dissension whether to go forward or back. They had no more food or fodder, and a large Turkish army appeared, as planned, it was said, by Manuel I, who distrusted all westerners, especially Germans, for usurping the imperial title. Conrad's army was hungry, lost, exhausted, on difficult roads, with few fit horses and heavy baggage. The Turks, with none of these problems, won a great victory. Though the Germans were better man-for-man, they were crushed by Turkish mobility, killed or captured, and only a tenth of the army escaped to Nicaea with Conrad. It was not Mas'ud, but Paramuni, another general, who won this victory. The Turks, having destroyed the larger crusading army, now waited for the smaller, that of Louis VII