Murtada's Reign : Part 1
The Horde were pleased to see the back of Sayyid Ahmad II. He had shown all the signs of being a weak and cowardly ruler. Had he not fled for his life it would have been unlikely the army would have spared him.
Murtada was a much more suitable candidate to lead. He was strong and ruthless, just what the Horde needed to show the Muscovites their place.
He renewed the attack on Muscowy sending three armies in an attempt to overrun the whole country.
The offensive was successful by May Vorones had fallen and been sacked.
As winter arrived in November the war quietened down. Murtada finally had time to step back and look at the war. He was an ambitious ruler but not a stupid one. He wanted to see Muscowy join Sibir and Uzbek as a broken vassal no longer a challenge to the Horde. However he appreciated that Muscowy was strong and would probably take more than this war to bring down. What then offered the best return now? He decided to aim for Nizhgorod with it's factories and some of the northern provinces in a continuation of the expansion already having occured in Arkhangelsk and Vladimir. Novgorod too was to be a target, it was a centre of trade and as such offered large wealth in taxes on merchants.
Until 100 years ago the people of the Horde had not followed the true faith but their own pagan one. The religion was still strong in the east and every so often there would be a resurgence in it. Early 1483 was one such year and Murtada crushed the heretics mercilessly. But since the reprisals were carried out on Tatar bretheren many across the country were angered and the nation became less stable.
The rest of 1483 progressed routinely as Ryazan, Nizhgorod and Olonets were besieged, Ryazan falling in August. Then in October Muscowy was dealt a further blow. Lithuania and Poland declared war and invaded with their massive armies. Muscowy now stood alone against an overwhelming tide of enemies on all sides.
In 1484 merchants fearful of the approaching Horde troops fled Novgorod in favour of what they saw as a safer place to trade in Moscow. Nonetheless Murtada ordered Novgorod to be taken and it was besieged shortly after Olonets defences collapsed.
By mid 1485 Muscowy was doomed before the Polish, Tatar and Scandinavian attack. Nizhgorod and Novgorod were Horde controlled and Moscow was completely surrounded by a Horde force. Even Crimea had declared war on them thoguh how they hoped to get their troops there was entirely beyond Murtada, they certainly weren't going to go through Horde land.
Murtada had decided he would take Nizhgorod, Olonets, Karelia and Kexholm. The far north of Muscowy, the Kola peninsula was unfortunately in Norwegian hands so would have to join the Horde some other time.
Over the next two years sieges progressed well until all but Muscowy's Baltic provinces were in enemy hands. In November 1488 Murtada made peace for the four provinces he wanted.
Plenty more room for northern expansion, the new provinces are highlighted in blue
Muscowy would probably rise again, Murtada knew this, but he doubted they would ever be a real threat again. It was time to look for bigger targets.
He sent an ambassador to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Bayezid II with a proposal. Bayezid gladly accepted. The Golden Horde and the Ottoman Empire were now allies. The storm was about to begin for Christendom.
