Heaven On Earth: Part One
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Congratulations robou! I was beginning to wonder when we would see another glorification. 
~Lord Valentine~
~Lord Valentine~
Lord Valentine said:Congratulations robou! I was beginning to wonder when we would see another glorification.
~Lord Valentine~
A saint will be glorified at the beginning of every month...
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I've tied for the win of Best CK History-Book with IamWhoa's, thanks for voting for me, I'm honored!
asd
asd21593 said:A saint will be glorified at the beginning of every month...
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I've tied for the win of Best CK History-Book with IamWhoa's, thanks for voting for me, I'm honored!
Well done and congratulations!
The Mongols approached Kiev on April 14th 1238. Over 50,000 Mongols troops were at the great gates of the old Russian trading center. While, in the city itself, only 10,000 Orthodox troops were able to defend the city. The strategy of hording the defenders into the central citadel could not work in Kiev. There was no escape route, and there were too many civilians. The Orthodox troops would have to man the walls and defend the city itself.
As the Mongols descended upon the city and the siege weapons fired their first shots, all the church bells of the city rang and the people rushed themselves into the churches. The noise of people screaming and church bells ringing was so loud and terrifying that even the Mongol army stopped actions for a few moments before they figured out what was going on.
A depiction of Mongol siege weapons
Finally, the Mongol siege weapons fired their second shots. Still no visible damage had been done to the Kievan walls. So the Mongol generals sent forth their troops with ladders to scale the great walls. When they reached the top, they were greeted by Orthodox soldiers fighting them back. The scene was intense as ladders were pushed back from the walls and Mongol bodies flew through the air. Blood ran down from the walls as the battle on the ramparts grew more brutal.
But the most horrifying episode of the siege was when the Mongols fired in the corpses of those massacred in Chersonesos. The terrible scene of heads and limbs flying over the walls and splattering across buildings sent fear down the spines of the Orthodox. However, it also sent anger and this would be their folly. The enraged Orthodox noble cavalry sallied forth from the gates and engaged the Mongols on open ground. This was disastrous and they were all killed by Mongol arrows. Left without leadership and cavalry, and with the gates half open, the city was now doomed.
The Mongols moved into the city, killing everyone in their path, effectively repeating the events in Chersonesos. Much of the city was burned to the ground and once again, shock and fear spread throughout the world. The populace fought valiantly, but in the end, they were massacred. Baghdad and the Middle East would be the next to fall.
YEAH! Go Mongol horde!
I like that you didn't leave it at a ho-hum they-tossed-body-parts scene, and instead made it provoke a more interesting scene in which the nobles screwed up. I like.
I like that you didn't leave it at a ho-hum they-tossed-body-parts scene, and instead made it provoke a more interesting scene in which the nobles screwed up. I like.
yeah yeah yeah!
Btw, gratz on victories on the aarländische front!
No mongols there, only phargle.
Btw, gratz on victories on the aarländische front!
No mongols there, only phargle.
Wow! Southern and Northern Russia are lost, and from the sounds of it the Middle-Eastern parts of the Empire will be lost as well! This is going to get very interesting...
Congrats on your ACA victory!
Congrats on your ACA victory!
Congratulations on the award!
The Mongol invasion is turning out nice! I wonder where Manuel will plan his first counter-attack. The Near East or Russia?
~Lord Valentine~
The Mongol invasion is turning out nice! I wonder where Manuel will plan his first counter-attack. The Near East or Russia?
~Lord Valentine~
The trumpets were as loud as possible as the Mongol hordes laid siege on Baghdad. In the preceding months, they had conquered all of Persia. They laid waste to the land, destroying the ancient irrigation systems of Persia. They killed thousands of people, decimating the population of Persia. And finally, the three Mongol groups of 50,000 converged into one 150,000 man force to siege Baghdad.
Mongol invasion of the Middle East
Baghdad had spent many years as the center of the Muslim world, before being conquered by the Orthodox. Due to this, the Muslims made sure to give it ample defenses. Outer walls and moats surrounded the city. They proved assailable to the Orthodox, whose heavy army tactics were able to conquer the city. But for the Mongols, who use nomadic horsemen tactics, sieging Baghdad would prove difficult.
During the spring months of 1238, the Mongols had set up a perimeter around Baghdad. But they didn’t make an official attack upon the city itself until May 3rd 1238. The Mongol catapults started their barrage upon the outer walls. When the walls fell, they moved towards the moat. Under archer fire, which they suffered many casualties from; they used their makeshift bridges to cross it.
All this was accomplished by the early morning of May 4th 1238. The Mongols were restless and continued to assail the walls. They approached with ladders, while the catapults fired on the walls and the battering rams smashed against the gates. The sheer number of Mongol soldiers allowed them to make an all-out assault.
A Mongol depiction of the Siege Of Baghdad
As stated previously, the Mongols blew their trumpets and beat the drums as loud as possible. The noises combined with screams of the Baghdadi populace to create a horrifying cacophony. It served as accompaniment for the chaos above. The scene was very much like Kiev, with ladders flying off the walls and body parts splattering against stone as they were flung from catapults. But during this siege, the Mongols even used human shields. This horrified the Orthodox soldiers and some even retreated off the walls to the town center in fear.
By mid-day of May 4th, the Mongols were inside the city and initiated their customary slaughter of the city. The battle raged throughout the city as the Mongols drew ever closer to the town square. Finally, as the sun set, the Mongols were battling with the last few Orthodox soldiers. The Orthodox men made makeshift barricades and formed a square formation. But the Mongols eventually overpowered the Orthodox defenders and massacred the city. Over 50,000 people died and Baghdad lost all its glory as the Mongols set fire to the old city.
So the Mongols continue to steamroll everything in their track. Poor Baghdad! What a terrible fate being sacked and destroyed so totally twice in such a short time!
~Lord Valentine~
~Lord Valentine~
On the way to face the enemy, methinks, although that's no the best tactic I would suggest...
Kurt_Steiner said:
Don't be negative, it will make excellent massacre
And what do you propose to do ? Proud orthodox soldiers will not use cheap tricks or partisan warfare, there is only one glory at war and it is glory of two armies smashing against each other.
Edzako said:Don't be negative, it will make excellent massacre
Sometimes going directly for the source of troubles is the best of solutions, they say
The Siege of Baghdad has cost the Mongols 30,000 men. Thus it stopped their advance in the Middle East, if only for a short while. Manuel II remained apprehensive about sending his troops out of the walled cities. So the majority of the armies remained in Constantinople, Greece, and Anatolia, while the regions around them were allowed to fall, much to the dismay of the populace. Yet the Imperial population knew that such actions were necessary for the Empire to survive, and sending out armies in the open field would mean certain death for thousands of men, and possibly, the entire Empire.
An unusually hot summer struck the Middle East in 1239. This extreme weather stopped all Mongol operations for the summer. Yet, in the north, the Mongols continued to ravage Russia. They sieged, massacred, and burned cities in the same fashion as Chersonesos, Baghdad, and Kiev. Moscow and Novgorod fell in the fall of 1239, with little resistance. The far north of Russia, and even the now stoutly Orthodox Finland collapsed in disarray without any order. Nobles divided up those lands and proclaimed their independence from the Empire. This did not come as a surprise, considering they were completely separated from Constantinople by the Mongol Empire.
Finally, as the winter of 1239 passed and the world entered the spring of 1240, the Mongols finally resumed operations in the Middle East. Some thousands of men came down from Russia into the Caucasus, meeting much resistance along the mountains. It was here that the Mongols were first turned back and that force of about 5,000 Mongol men was massacred along the Caucasian Mountain range by many Armenian and Georgian militias and partisans.
Farther to the south, the Mongols were poised to invade the Holy Land. This was the action that the world had feared the most, since the Mongols had arrived. But it was inevitable. Cities to the north of the Levant like Antioch, Aleppo, Damascus, etc fell to the Mongols with thousands dying on both sides. By the time the Mongols reached the walls of Jerusalem, they were down to 100,000 men. Still, 100,000 men heavily outnumbered the 10,000 Orthodox defenders of the city. For awhile, the commanders of Jerusalem considered resisting the Mongols but they could not bring themselves to it. In any other city, it would be easy to make the decision to defend it, but Jerusalem was different. Visions of all the Holy Sites being burned were too much to them. So the city of Jerusalem surrendered to the Mongols without a fight. The Mongols slowly marched in, announced their subjugation of the Levant, and left, without burning a single building or killing a single person.
A Mongol leader peacefully subjugating the populace of Jerusalem
Then, the Mongols moved farther to south with the goal of conquering Egypt. At the Sinai, the total forces of the Orthodox Empire in Egypt were waiting for them. Egypt was too rich a land to abandon. Over 75,000 heavily-armored Orthodox soldiers were waiting for 100,000 Mongol soldiers on horseback. But the Orthodox forces did not engage the Mongols on open ground. Instead, they spread themselves throughout the peninsula constantly harassing the Mongols forces. From canyons and mountains and hills, they fired upon the Mongols, unseen. Small Mongol parties that were detached from the main group were ambushed and massacred. Scouts were captured, tortured until they gave information, and sent back to the Mongol camp with one eye put out and their tongue and hands gone. Their appearance gave the Mongols all the information they needed to know; the Orthodox army was ready to use the Mongol tactics of fear against them.
Mongols being held back at the Sinai
Finally, whittled down to 70,000 men, while the Orthodox had only lost a few hundred, the Mongols left the Sinai and started their march to Anatolia. It was the greatest Orthodox victory so far, 30,000 Mongols dead while only a few hundred Orthodox soldiers had been killed. Egypt was saved. Meanwhile, the Mongols were ready to invade both Poland and Anatolia.