I like books
This time, I quote and/or use ideas from "the Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson- hope I won't spoil anything for someone reading the book
it brought home to them yet again how insane their opponents were.
Ignorant fanatical disciples of a cruel desert cult, promised eternity
in a paradise where sexual orgasm with beautiful houris lasted
ten thousand years, no surprise they were so often suicidically brave,
happy to die, reckless in frenzied opiated ways that were hard to counter.
Uniting the Deccan.
And so it was that Vijayanagar found itself having to confront both Hyderabad and Mysore, for diplomacy had failed.
And so it would be,
Bistami ordered the assault into Hyderabad almost immediately, and Hyderabad's cities swiftly fell to the well trained and motivated armies, led by Bistami himself.
All in all, it took under 10 months to occupy each and every city of importance ruled by Mahmûd Shâh II was occupied by Bistami's troops, and a treaty was signed.
In the meantime, after Hyderabad's main army had been routed,
Bistami had moved south, taking with him the elite core of the army.
In Vijayanagar, several thousand fresh recruits joined the army as it moved south, into Mysore. The walls of Mysore proved to be but a nuisance to
Bistami's troops, and soon all Mysoran cities were occupied aswell. However, the government proved elusive, angering
Bistami to no end. In his anger,
Bistami left north again, to subdue the last vestiges of Hyderabad's power. A small army was left behind Mysore to search for the hidden government.
Extra motivated due to
Bistami's anger, his army swiftly struck into Hyderabad, and so it was that in october, 1493 *, Hyderabad would only live on in history, if it would be allowed to live on even there. Finally, almost a year later, the Mysoran government was finally apprehended, and was quickly forced to swear fealthy to
Bistami although they still lost most of their land. Eventually,
Bistami tired of their constant twisting and turning, and demoted them all, incorporating their lands into great Vijayanagar.
The Bengali War
And so all seemed well, but it wasn't, the Bengals, led by
Bistami's brother Sui-cuf-noc, continued to antagonise Vijayanagar, first by attacking Odissa, the fair Hindu kingdom on the eastern coast, on the border between Deccan and the Ganges Plain, and secondly by building an outpost right on the border with Vijayanagar, claiming the land was theirs.
After hastened preparations, Bistami and a large force of the finest warriors of the Deccan crossed the border into Bengal.
Bistami had contacted his brother Qutb in Delhi, in hopes that he too would attack Sui, but despites Qutb's promises,
Bistami was wary. And rightly so, as when the Deccan army had occupied Patna, capital of Bengal, Delhi's troops flooded the border. In a giant pincer movement, Bistami and his crack troops, and an army of freshly recruited troops, led by a man of no particular interest, swept the Deccan clean of Delhi's troops, although Qutb got away with a small contigent. Qutb hastily withdrew, and signed peace.
Unfortunately, Sui had taken the opportunity to retake much of his territory, but
Bistami, even more angered when he heard that Alesso had been supplying Sui, struck back, and an alliance was quickly signed with BrotherX, who now styles himself Gothmog, the Bringer of Peace. Although his intervention was shortlived due to Alesso again intervening in affairs he should keep out of, it occupied some Bengali troops for a few precious months. And so it was that
Bistami found himself marching again on Patna. The city was yet again captured, but Qutb proved himself even more treacherous than he seemed, as he invaded again. This time,
Bistami determined that the loss of a few border towns was not worth abandoning the campaign in Bengal, and so he surrendered these towns to Qutb. Eventually, even Sui could see that he would not be able to keep up the struggle, and he surrendered the contested territories.
The Aftermath
After proving itself a force to be reckoned with, diplomacy for Vijayanagar proved a lot easier. Isam Chin-Qun,
Bistami's most trusted diplomat, was able to sign a treaty with Qutb, in which the disputed border region would be returned to Bistami, as soon as he could miss the needed garrison.
Isam Chin-Qun also managed to conclude a treaty Sui, but Sui treacherously came back on his word after consulting with his priests, and so it seems likely that Vijayanagar will have to march once again on Patna, despite Alesso once again siding with the oppressor Sui.
After consulting with his advisors, Bistami has also decided to build a few outposts along the coast and on the Island of Lanka, to ease the defense of the realm. He has sent out messages to the nearby kingdoms that builing an outpost on Lanka shall be treated like an invasion of the Deccan.
*in a calendar that
Bistami calls Kris-ti'un, although noone seems to know why.