Murtada II : Part 6
They say you should always deal with the most uncertain element first. Certainly when a Manchu army turns up in Persia the uncertainty is fairly high. Murtada therefore left with a large detachment from his army in Syria, to meet them.
One would expect that for the Manchu to go to the effort of transporting an army from their home to the lands of the Horde then the army would either be of considerable size to be able to capture much land or be small and fast for the purposes of raiding and scouting.
But there's also a saying about war along the lines of do what your enemy does not expect. The Manchu were clearly strict adherents to this principle for their army was composed of nothing other than 150 cannons as Murtada shortly discovered. Resistance was minimal.
Following this spectacular display of uzbekidity the Manchu were added to the list of the worlds stupid races by the Horde's officials.
Efforts were then focussed back upon the Horde's perhaps one worthy foe. The offensive into the Levant was the main objective for the present.
With Ottoman armies tiring progress is good
Sensing it time to cut losses the Ottomans gave into a humiliating peace with the Austrian alliance, giving Bosnia, Kosovo and Bulgaria to Austria while Spain received holdings in Macedonia. The Ottoman foothold in Europe was shattered. Many therefore predicted they would fight with a renewed fervour against the Horde to keep what remained theirs.
The new improved Ottoman lands
Meanwhile back in the Hordes land Murtada, tiring of the peaceful conversion tactics being used on the pagans opted for a more Horde-esque method, violence. It was successful in Tobolsk where the pagans were soon flocking back to the mosques. In Jalutovorsk it failed and the traditional method of waving books and sticks in the air continued.
Still the Danish and uzbek war dragged on. Happily though the tide had turned as a Danish counter offensive successfully pushed the parasites back to their own lands.
By 1714 the entire Levant was held by the Holy Golden Alliance. From there it was time to march on the capital itself in order to force the Ottomans to peace on the most favourable terms possible.
Heading for the main prize
But the Ottomans were by no means a spent force. There army numbered close to one hundred thousand men and the walls of Constantinople were formidable.
These two factors combined against the Horde well. Firstly the siege of Constantinople was very slow. Several attempts to lift the siege were repelled but with heavy losses. Secondly two armies sent to strengthen and hasten the siege were ambushed and broken virtually completely. Support for the war began to wane amongst almost all levels of Horde society. Murtada knew that a bloody end so often awaited Khan's who ignored this therefore he concluded a peace deal with the sultan in which much of the Levant switched to it's lawful owners.
The Holy land of the infidel is taken
But good news is always balanced by bad. The uzbeks had once again taken much lands from the Danish.
Bad news again, will another war be needed to distract attentions?