11. November 1444, George Skanderbeg stands atop his castle walls and despairs at the sight. Thousands of Ottomans are getting ready to lay waste to his known world.
He knows, capture will result in a long painfull death, seeing he was the one uniting the local warlords together against the Ottoman oppression.
His valiant army standing bravely manning the walls that keeps the Ottomans away from slaughtering a whole province.
Skanderbeg had foreseen this turn of events and had already sent out a few trusted men with torches that put the countryside ablaze to stop the onslaught for now.
But siege towers where already slowly being pulled from nabouring Ottoman provinces. Skanderbeg quessed he had about a month before the siege would surround the city and with food already being scarce he
found himself now in the sacred temple asking for divine favour. He prayed for just about anything. But alas to no avail it seemed.
Skanderbeg stepped out of the temple and into the sunlight. A strong beam of light blinded him for a second, when he could see again, a black eagle sat atop the castle wall. Skanderbeg smiled, but then the
eagle dropped something out of its claws, it slowly fell toward the ground, some kind of cloth it seemed. Skanderbeg plucked it out of the air before it reached the ground, the eagle had been carrying some torn banner.
Blue in color with some kind of tree on it. It was clear, that was the rest of an Urbino city banner.
Skanderbegs mind was suddenly galloping. He rushed back to the war room and his council. This would be no last stand after all. Glory had to wait!
The few ships at his disposal was now of vital importance. It was to be a complete evacuation. 2 diplomats was first out the door, heading out on 2 surprisingly fast fishing ships. One going to the kingdom of Naples with a plea for basing rights for Skanderbegs ships. The other diplomat was going to Urbino.
Skanderbeg had to split his army into 3 regiments to ferry them all out in time. The last of them out the door, one day before the Ottoman siege would commence.
Meanwhile in Urbino, the young Urbino King Da Montefeltro the third was still laughing, some hill tribe had declared war on him. His agents had scoured the countryside for any sight of an actual invasion. But he was pretty sure the only Albanian in his lands, was the one 12 feet underground now slowly decaying with his severed head. Suddenly the church bells from the harbour was clamoring, those crazy bastards where attacking from the sea, but they where outnumbered 3-1.
The king was at ease, of course his coffers where a little short on coin, so the army was not fully on alert, but he did like those numbers. The first day of fighting went well for the young king, but the day after that eastern tribe had matched his army in numbers and where outmaneuvering and out killing his army. Not a week passed by and the fight was over, Da Montefeltro was now a prisoner in his own castle.
Skanderbeg rushed his men, he knew he would stand stronger in a coming peace talk with the Ottomans, if he could conquer the Urbino lands before his ancestral lands where vanquished.
But Skanderbeg was already ahead of himself, 2 more diplomats where out the door. The eagle never did drop any flags of Mantua, but sometimes you make your own fate.
Mantua was well protected, not by the paltry Mantuan forces, but by alliances and with the mighty Austria keeping close eyes on its Holy Roman lands. But Skanderbeg was not only known for his leadership and tactical prowess.
But also for his cunning, the same cunning that convinced the Ottomans to make him governor 4 years earlier at the Sanjak of Debar.
Ragusa was a little noble republic, well known to Skanderbeg, it was rich in gold and poor in military prowess and it was allied to Mantua.
Same day as the young Urbino King was shackled and tossed into a tower, the march of the black eagle was in a straight line towards Mantua foolishly standing by the little republic when war broke out.
The Mantuan king Gonzaga and his army resisted to no avail, and was now sieged.
Meanwhile news of the capture of the Albanian province reached Skanderbegs ears. Some day he would return and on that day he vowed to take his familys lands back and put an end to the Ottoman Empire.
Even more troubling was the news that the pround Albanian navy/fishing fleet was suddenly engulfed in a fight with the entire Ottoman navy. And to make matters worse, now the newly claimed province of Urbino was sieged by the Ottomans.
Next on Skanderbeg, we see a new capital founded, peace with the Ottomans and alot of angry Italians!
Chapter 2: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?712910-Albania-11.-November-1444.-In-Skanderbeg-we-trust!&p=15996283&viewfull=1#post15996283
Chapter 3: http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?712910-Albania-11.-November-1444.-In-Skanderbeg-we-trust!&p=16012628&viewfull=1#post16012628
Skanderbeg and the battle of Mantua:
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