Chigakka : Part III
The Golden Horde was looking a sorry sight upon the map. The work of centuries of Khans to regain the lands rightfully Tatar had been swept away in less than a decade of chaos. Yet still Chigakka, the fool at the helm of the Horde, remained living and 'ruling'. Every day the rewards offered for his head grew and the odds offered by bookmakers on him seeing another Ramadan lengthened.
Chigakka's unexpected stay at the top was in no small part due his specially created Ministry of Longevity whose sole aim was to protect the Khan against the daily assassination attempts taking place.
The logo of the Ministry of Longevity. The symbol on the left is a person viewed from above with a dagger in their back (
reflecting what the Ministry guards against) the symbol on the right is a person pointing out the culprit (
representing the other side of the Ministries responsibilities). In recent times this symbol has been taken to represent male and female. Historians suspect it was chosen for the animosity and suspicion involved in the original's creation that adequately reflected much of the nature of male female interactions today.
So much time was spent in Chigakka's day dealing with assassination attempts that his rulings on other subjects became few and far between. The lack of central authority was costly. In Russia rebels were making good use of the chaos to defeat the army multiple times and capture several cities.
The situation in the north
Down south it wasn't much better as even the capital was plagued by rebels. Thankfully the rebellious and downright illegal nations having just gained independence were mostly busy with their own troubles. This one positive note among it all allowed those parts of the Horde's army not rebel quashing to gather on the borders in preparation for future offensives.
Fun and games in Astrakhan
As February 1529 arrived Chigakka would do one final thing to infuriate his enemies. He denied them all the pleasure of killing him and claiming the glory it would bring. Whilst descending a set of stairs in his palace he tripped on a shoelace and fell a total of 43 steps. Thus by dying in such a mundane manner he actually had the last laugh.