Lesson 19: The 3rd War of Polish Aggression
Lesson 19: The 3rd War of Polish Aggression
With the rise of Sultan Abdul-Karim I, the Golden Horde was once again able to engage in interstate activity. That is, go to war.
The Sultan's first action was to ready the army.
The second was to declare war upon Kilwa, in pursuit of gold. Ajuuraan somehow made the mistake of allying with Kilwa and agreeing to enter the war. As far as the Horde was concerned, that was perfect.
The first victory for the new Sultan was the destruction of Ajuuraan's military forces.
Followed by destroying the Kilwa..Kilwaen? army.
Armenia was attacked and put under siege when their army was also destroyed in a single engagement.
Three battles, three complete victories, it is said that Sultan Abdul-Karim was quickly getting cocky.
The option for some easy cash did not tempt Abdul-Karim I and the nation responded to his firm decisions about what was right.
With 200,000 men waiting to join the army, manpower was no longer an issue for the Golden Horde. In addition, Sultan Abdul-Karim was known to be of a far more pious bent then any of his predecessors.
He would engage in a conversion spree throughout the Golden Horde, bringing the Sunni faith to millions, or so it is said.
With two wars under control, the Golden Army rushed to central Asia and war against what was left of Yarkland and Baluchistan was begun.
It didn't take long for Armenia to be absorbed back into the Golden Horde, Sultan Abdul-Karim I's first new province of many.
With one war completed and the army already in place, Afghanistan was the next target.
Peace with Yarkland left them only a province within the Oirat's lands.
The dominoes were falling, peace with Ajuuraan brought more of east Africa under Golden Horde control.
Kilwa land's were brought into the Horde as well, but the Horde did not manage to gain control of the Gold Mine - turned out to be the capital city and Kilwa was reluctant to part with the province at this time.
This spat of peace deals led to some problems - the Horde had vast new lands to administer and simply wasn't prepared for more. Additional peace deals were slowed down to enable the Sultan's government more time.
Meanwhile, the Sultan cast his eyes upon the power politics of the region. The top armies were all involved in one way or another in the local face off between Russia (with Britian's PU), the Commonwealth (with the Venetian alliance),
and the Horde/Orrisa/Mamluk trible Alliance. Austria hated the Commonwealth, and the Catholic Defender of the Realm was either Portugal or Castile (it bounced between them fairly often). Only France, of the top 10 armies in the world didn't care about the region.
If one uses the arbitrary 'national scoring system' developed by the Swedes and applies it to this time period, the Golden Horde was the 11th most prestigious power at that time.
We could argue with the facts, but the merchant class of the Horde was still deplorable and there wasn't much history to back up our recent power.
Afghanistan was given a peace. Kazakh picked up a province they'd never be able to administer but the Horde couldn't afford to integrate it at the time.
Then, in a diplomatic coup, the Sultan traveled to Venice itself and spoke with the Doge at St Mark's Cathedral and convinced the Venetians that they could trust us to defend them.
Afterwards, he toured the Arsenal and watched some of Venice's famous bridge wars and was said to have lost 1000 ducats in the betting.
When Sultan Abdul-Karim I returned home he was greeted with panicked news: The Commonwealth had declared war again.
... But Venice honored the new alliance over the old. With the Venetian fleets the straights could be shut down. With their high-tech armies and the numbers from Orissa...well, this time perhaps things would be different.
A single Commonwealth army invaded Anatolia before the straights were closed. Two armies moved to intercept and keep it from swinging around the Black Sea to reunite with the other Polish armies in Crimea.
That didn't happen. Indeed, the initial engagements showed that the Polish army was simply to advanced, to disciplined and had too much morale for the Golden Army to break without vast numbers.
Well, vast numbers was something we had in spades and so did our allies. A battle plan was formed - Venice would provide a backbone, everyone else would just rush the Commonwealth from every direction.
It wasn't really a good plan, but Orissa and the Mamluks had their own ideas about combat.
The Commonwealth very quickly occupied their purported goal of the war.
That, plus the initial series of military losses in the opening phases of the war while troops were brought to the front lines from distant corners of the Horde (and Orissa), caused many to wonder if the war could actually be won.
Religious ideas were advanced again, tolerance, in recognition of the valiant Venetians who won a major engagement in Kosovo, for the first Allied victory.
Followed by the clipping of a Polish division outside of occupied Crimea and another Golden Army victory in Anatolia. They could be beaten.
This lead to a great bout of patriotism within the Golden Horde and, according to reports, a sudden desertion of the front ranks by the Commonwealth soldiers.
The Golden Army - and it's allies, had the Commonwealth on the run, Constantinople fell, the Crimea was being retaken. Horde armies were operating on Commonwealth soil. Looters even found their way into Warsaw.
The Venetians broke the back of another Commonwealth army, everything was turning. Reports of riots breaking out in Commonwealth cities were growing common.
And then Venice accepted a horrible peace. The Sultan was disturbed - he had wanted the Venetians to take land, or break out a vassal, or something more then a few years of income.
And the Commonwealth proved they still had plenty of fight in their armed forces.
The Commonwealth, war exhaustion high, requested a white peace. As if we could forget.
The Sultan demanded that the war be fought - with Defender of the Realm and the government's use of massive internal programs, the Horde was still united in its desire to humble the Commonwealth.
For another two years the war raged, but the initial loses and shattering defeats of our major armies had created a lack of depth - the Golden Horde was winning the war, but could not force a peace wherein they claimed anything of value.
The Sultan finally agreed to a white peace. The Golden Horde was doing fine, but:
Scenes like this were common throughout the allied and vassaled home countries. The will to war was no longer there.
Next class we'll talk about the later years of Sultan Abdul-Karim I leading up to the First War of Revenge.
Thanks for reading....
So, I only just realized that I had to take Russian lands for the other achievement I wanted out of this along with the Chinese and other Horde provinces.
I had thought was back on track, but I wasn't really prepping for destroying the Russian/British. Guess things are going to have to get interesting.
Hope to get the next lesson published soon, would love some advice on the peace deal I'm about to push.