"The three sieges we had underway in Gdańsk, Preußen and Memel were making some progress. The King was doing a fine job of inspiring the troops in Gdańsk - reminding them of their forefathers' foundation of the city, and its capture by the ruthless Germans. Elsewhere, the winter was mild, so our troops were not suffering too much from hunger and cold. The same could not be said for the Lithuanians, whose forces were severely depleted outside the walls of Riga, in Kurland. But you will realise from what I said earlier that their lack of progress was a little in our favour, as it would enable us to make a separate peace with Prussia, and thus continue the war with the Orden as co-belligerents.
"While the sieges continued, I decided that it was time to undertake a diplomatic offensive. Even though the King was still holed up at Gdańsk, his reputation was so great that our diplomats were given warm welcomes at every court they attended. My first move was to expand our alliance. Brandenburg had become allied with Sachsen, and thus no longer amenable to our advances. I therefore swallowed my pride and - after a heated debate in the Senate, it has to be said - secured agreement to send an emissary to Böhmen. The emissary was well-received by the Hussites - who were short of friends, for obvious reasons - and they were only too pleased to join both our alliance and our war.
"We tried to expand our alliance yet further to include Bayern, but that approach was rejected. With a few diplomatic resources left, I decided to try and marry off some minor royals, with the intention that they would act as a cover for some of my operatives abroad.
"England's natural sympathies for the Germans at that time meant that they were not very well-disposed towards us. A royal marriage improved that poisition somewhat, although they could still not be called our friends.
"Pskov shunned any thought of a royal marraige with us, and I decided to keep our other diplomats in reserve for war negotations.
"The Kalmar Union (Sverige, Norge and Danmark) declared war on Novgorod at the start of 1421, and the Orden and Preußen joined in as their alliance demanded, although neither had any armies left. At the same time, a minor war broke out in the Balkans as Srbija declared war on Bosnia.
"Towards the end of the month, Kalinowski - the new commander of the 2nd Army - arrived in Mazowsze after his defeat at rebel hands in Podlasie. He was ordered to turn around and march with new reinforcements to the battle. As February began, he met the rebels before the walls of Lublin and crushed them utterly, with few losses on his side. He was then sent to assist the Lithuanians' depleted force at Riga.
"In March, the nation recovered its stability following my earlier changes to serfdom laws, and I started to roll out the new tax collection programme. First city to receive the benefit of the new system was, of course, the Royal Capital of Kraków.
"In the east, Moskva went to war with Tver in April - a reminder of the problems that a unified eastern power would cause. Kalinowski arrived in Riga the day after it fell to Litwa and - being too weak to take on a new 14,000-man Orden army in Livland - turned round and marched home again. The capture of Riga gave us concern that Litwa would make peace with the Orden before we could make a separate peace with Preußen, and that all our labour would be in vain.
"Kalinowski arrived in Preußen in May, on his way home, but was asked by the commander there to assist with the siege, which he was happy to do. He was then joined - unhelpfully - by the Lithuanian main force, which did little but eat the food supplies and use up valuable shelter. Deaths from hunger and exposure increased markedly. The breakthrough came on the second of September in that year, 1421, when the walls of Gdańsk finally fell to our conquering king.
"The King moved on at speed to take on the Orden's army in Livland. However, intelligence reports reached him that the Orden had moved to Riga, to try and recapture it from Litwa. He therefore agreed rights of passage with the Lithuanian generals, and set off on a route through Polotsk to reach the German capital by a back way.
"In the same month, the Byzantines (or Basileion Rhomaion as they called themselves) underwent some political turmoil. I did not know the details at the time - they are in most good history books, so I shall not repeat them here - but the upshot was that the Byzantines went to war with the Osmans. I could not but feel that this was the end of the road for the once-great empire.
"Winter was approaching, and the King cut short his march to Livland in Mazowsze to wait out the coldest months, and recruited 9,000 troops while he was there.
"As winter began, we captured Memel from Preußen - an unexpected gain, achieved through treachery on the part of the garrison - and the army that had been stationed there marched to join the King in Mazowsze before moving to the Orden's lands once the campaigning season began again. At the same time the military devised a clever new way of manoeuvring, which would increase our efficiency in combat. [Land 1]
"Right at the end of the year, Tver was annexed by Moskva, in a move that surprised no-one.
"1421 ended, then, with one army in the field in Preußen, another encamped at Mazowsze raising recruits, and a third on its way to Mazowsze for a military assembly. We held Gdańsk and Memel, while our Lithuanian brothers held Kurland - currently under siege by the Orden.
"I thought the new year should herald another diplomatic move, so I secured royal marriages with Pommern and Castilla, but was rebuffed by the embattled France. Pommern, I noticed, had joined a large north-German alliance of statelets, which - given the petty ambitions of these princelings - could mean a German-German war at some point soon, perhaps involving us through our Bohemian allies.
"Right at the start of year, our final victory over Preußen was assured, as last resistance crumbled in Królowiec. It was a great pleasure to me to secure this victory, which would enable us to take on the Orden at our own pace. A herald was sent to the Prussian court - we demanded Memel, 500 ducats and permanent right of military access over their land. The Prussians protested that they only had 80 gold to offer, so we relieved them of that, and Memel, and brought our armies back to Mazowsze to regroup.
"When the armies had all arrived in Mazowsze, a review showed the extent of our forces after our Prussian victory. There were 18,718 infantrymen and 25,971 cavalrymen. We decided to march in full force against the Orden forces encamped outside Riga in Kurland, and - dependent on the result of that battle - to split our forces into more manageable units for the siege of the remaining Orden provinces.
"Moskva was at war again by the spring. The arrival of the campaigning season brought a declaration of war from Suzdal, which the Muscovites answered in kind.
"The King arrived in Riga at the end of March, but was knocked back by a superior German force. More recruits were ordered from Mazowsze as he returned to Memel to recuperate. At about that time, Wielkopolska became the second province to benefit from my new tax changes.
"War broke out to our east after Easter, when Pskov declared war on Novgorod (whose allies Preußen and the Orden supported her), and Ryazan declared war on Moskva - who were, of course, still fighting Suzdal. This war would clearly have a decisive effect on the developments to our east.
"Little time passed before another large war broke out, this time to our south. Magyarország (with Erdély, Hrvatska, Österreich and - strangely - Luxembourg) declared war on Srbija, who was supported by a range of orthodox Balkan statelets - Tara Romaneascä, Moldavia and Kypros.
"Meanwhile, the Orden had given up on the capture of Kurland and were marching back to Dorpat. Our King, his morale restored, gave chase. There were reports of unrest among the peasants at the length of the war, and he wished to finish it quickly and successfully with the cession of Gdańsk. To prevent starvation on the march, he left much of his cavalry in Memel under the command of Płk Piaseczyński. As June became July, the armies of Poland routed the last Orden troops, and laid siege to Dorpat. Płk Piaseczyński was sent to Estland to lay siege to Reval and prevent the Germans from recruiting more troops.
"Another diplomatic initiative in July saw a royal bride and accompanying spy sent to Pskov
"Luxembourg realised the folly of her alliance in the summer of 1422, as Brabant declared war on her. All her allies joined in - but none could reach Luxembourg territory.
"Płk Piaseczyński arrived in Estland as the leaves started to turn. My concern at the possible losses his men would face over the winter were alleviated somewhat by a series of good governmental decisions that saw our trade and infrastructure work leap forward. As October arrived, I sent 5,000 infantry from the new recruits in Mazowsze up to Estland, to support the force there, which had been reduced almost entirely to cavalry. 5,000 remained on standby in Mazowsze.
"Winter came early and harshly to Estland, so the detachment under Płk Getkant was told to wait in Memel until the Spring - a decision they rejoiced at heartily, as I am sure you can imagine.
"The army in Livland was joined by a force of some 9,000 Lithuanians just as the year turned, but thankfully the winter was mild and we did not lose too many men to attrition. Peace returned to Bosna, as they paid 7 ducats to Srbija to end their war. The war between the Orden (with Preußen and Novgorod) and the Kalmar Union, however, was still going on, and a force of Danish soldiers arrived in Preußen at the start of the year and laid siege to it.
"In February, the 5,000 men of Płk Getkant's unit were sent, with 2,000 new recruits from Memel, up to Estland to help the poor remnants of the army there.
"On May 17, 1423, the independence of Preußen came to an end as it was annexed by Denmark. We were not too upset - its existence was a worry to us, and we much preferred a detached province of a minor nation on our borders. At about the same time, Ryazan paid a small amount to Moskva for peace.
"As the summer reached its height, the remnants of the Novgorod empire were divided among the Kalmar Union. Sverige took Karelia and Ingermanland, while Norge took Kola. Novgorod itself was left only with the city and the poor province of Kexholm. This worried us considerably, as the rich city was now ripe to fall under the baneful sway of Moskva. We determined to consider what could be done after the war with the Orden was over.
"The Roman Empire made peace with the Osmans in August that year, giving up control of the Peloponnisos to them, and ensuring - I thought at the time - their future annexation.
"Another nation ceased to exist later that year, as Austria annexed Tara Romaneascä. This was sure to be a problem territory for Austria in the future, lying as it did across so many miles of Hungarian land.
"Płk Piaseczyński made up for that longest winter of torment by the triumphant capture of Reval in September, and he was instantly ordered back to Memel to spend the next winter in the warm.
"In the same month, we secured royal marriages with Danmark and the Helvetian Confederation, but were sent away empty-handed by Bourgogne and Milano.
"The end of the war came just before winter set in. Dorpat fell to the King's final assault on 5 November, and the following day the Lithuanians were granted Kurland in perpetuity. There was a debate in the Senate as to what terms we should offer the Orden. Should we demand vassalisation (and thus a share of all their monthly incomes), or should we take all their provinces outside Dorpat and a large amount of cash now.
"With the uncertainty as to how much money they really had, as well as concerns about the defensibility of a small province full of hostile people, we eventually decided to make them our vassal, and relieve them of Gdańsk. The King and his army made their way back to Memel, and we took formal possession of Gdańsk (which, I was pleased to see, already had a modern tax system in place). And so our war ended with great success for the Kingdom."
good stuff btw. A friend of mine is polish - he too, drinks like a fish - but doesn't know a word of Polish. I continually chide him with my greater knowledge 
