“He’s a fool, my brother is.” Kázmér Plater chuckled as he watched Ferenc shuffle across the palace floor with an army of aides, clerks, and petitioners close in tow, begging attention from the rotund emperor.
“So why did you let him take the throne?” Kázmér’s companion asked. He was a tall man, wearing the uniform of a captain of Banat’s 1st Regiment, the Bloodied Bastards of Banat.
“You know as well as I do why I didn’t stab the buffoon between the eyes, Levi.” Kázmér spoke just a tad too loudly, and one of the palace’s servants quickened her pace to get away from the men who spoke so openly of murder.
“I doubt the nobility would hold true to the blood oaths their fathers had given, besides, you’re of the Plater line as well, so technically they wouldn’t be breaking their oath if they chose not to assist your 'buffoon' of a brother.” Levi Dinófs responded as the pair turned the corner down to the kitchens.
Kázmér suddenly stopped and turned, bring him face to face with Captain Dinófs, “The last two men who tried to seize the throne of Transylvania died bloody deaths at the hands of my forefathers, and their names are still cursed to this day. I doubt even the fact that I am a Plater would spare me such a shamed fate,” Kázmér held up his hand as Levi moved to respond, “I will not shame my family, and I will definitely not have my legacy be that of a traitor.”
“Your choice,
Captain.” Levi stressed the rank, alluding to what he could be addressing Kázmér as instead - Emperor.
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Ferenc
was a fool; a very large one, no less. Within the first few months of his reign he set about adopting the policy of fielding a ‘Grand Army’, “Like the French!” he exclaimed with glee. He couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that an army required money to field, supply, and arm, and ran the treasury dry funding new regiments, forcing him to take out a loan from a rather rich trading guild in the Hansetic Republic.
However, his stupidity would actually fuel one of Transylvania’s most shining hours, as Ferenc was quite easily manipulated by men more intelligent than himself – men who had grand dreams which thankfully coincided with Transylvania’s growth as an empire. Men who wanted new lands for themselves would convince Emperor Ferenc of the evil of Persia, or that the Mamluks were preparing to attack, and Ferenc would march his soldiers dutifully away, and reward such stout intelligence with newly conquered lands. But that was later, once the full extent of his idiocy was finally revealed.
Emperor Ferenc’s first official action as ruler of the Transylvanian Empire, aside from the usual marriages and dull parts of being a monarch, was to order the invasion of far off Ceylon, a small island off the coast of India. The French had taken over the northern part of the island, and Ferenc had an unhealthy fascination with all things French. So, on August 2nd of 1460 the declaration of war was sent while Transylvania’s navy, transporting 6,000 soldiers that undoubtedly had all numbers of diseases from their trip across the entire breadth of the known world, began unloading. The battle was bitter, as the troops of Ceylon had all the advantages, but Transylvania’s soldiers pushed through their spears and blades and drove them back to their cities.
But there were developments closer to home as well. Sweden, now having united the lands of Scandinavia under a new banner, had annexed the small country of Mazovia, but nobody really cared aside from the Mazovians. No, the development was another Transylvanian crusade against Persia, this time fueled by Captain Dinófs’ clever manipulation of Emperor Ferenc, whom he had been granted an audience with by the influence of Ferenc’s brother Kázmér in January of 1561. Captain Dinófs’ cleverly chosen words had convinced Emperor Ferenc that the Persians were planning to assassinate Ferenc and replace him with someone more amiable to Persia. It was a preposterous ploy, but Dinófs was a clever man, and had pulled all the right strings, and so in June of 1561, Transylvania crossed into Persia again to drive them further East.
The 2nd Transylvanian Crusade against Persia, June 5th, 1561
The Persians had been prepared for an attack from Transylvania, but their ruler had been stubborn, refusing to adapt to a fighting style suited to dealing with disciplined European armies. While the Empire was led by a buffoon, Transylvania’s armies were far from that fate. A man could purchase his ranks within the army of Transylvania, but he could go no further than a Major, a position that only led a regiment in the direst of circumstances (when all the senior Colonels and Generals had been killed). Promotions above the rank of major were earned solely through merit, and so Transylvania’s regiments were all led by capable officers with battlefield experience (of which there was no shortage in Transylvania). Persia, by contrast, had a very decentralized army structure. Men were not organized into battalions or regiments, but simply moved as a giant mob, with very little cohesion. The army was usually led by the country’s leader, or a notable warrior, but against the clockwork efficiency of Transylvania they were like a glass of water thrown against a brick wall.
The first engagement took place on the 27th of June as the Army de Koloszvár crossed into the Persian province of Sharizhor, under the command of now General Kázmér Plater (the restrictions on promotions were loosened quite a bit for members of the royal family – though Kázmér was a capable enough commander). 20,000 men, mostly Bulgarian and Romanian in the Army de Koloszvár, swept aside the 8,000 leaderless border advance guard the Persians had had camped in the province, at the cost of less than 200 Transylvanians. The siege of the province’s main city was over just as quickly, as Transylvanian cannon reduced the walls to rubble, and the garrison quickly surrendered rather than have the wild eyed Bulgarians slaughter their way through the city’s streets.
The inexorable advance of Transylvania continued on that high point. The Georgians crossed over, demolishing the puny army of Qara Koyunlu and besieging their capital city. Another Persian army, this time numbering ten thousand strong, met the same fate as the first in Hamadan, and finally in far off Ceylon their city fell and the small island nation was annexed into the Transylvanian Empire on September 14th, 1561. A wealthy merchant also convinced Emperor Ferenc to fund a trading company that could span the East Indes, and though Ferenc balked at the price it would take, he none the less agreed.
The Transylvanian East India Trading Company is founded, September 15th, 1561
The Transylvanian army continued its advance, and Persian provinces fell like straw in their wake, until finally the Persians tried one last effort to push back the armies of Transylvania. A force of 15,000 Persians ambushed the main Transylvanian army in Ajam, and at first it looked like they would succeed and push back the Army de Koloszvár which had been weakened by attrition and long sieges, but as the battle turned against the Transylvanians a force of 4,000 cavalry flying the banners of the Kingdom of Serbia hit the Persian army from behind, crumpling the line and turning the Muslim army into a full rout. With their last hope of resistance destroyed, the Persians finally bowed to the pressures of their public and signed the Treaty of Fars on October 7th of 1562, ceding a huge swath of Persia’s core lands to the Empire.
Serbian Hussars charge the Persian line at the Battle of Ajam, September 20th, 1562
The Treaty of Fars, October 7th, 1562
The side effect of Emperor Ferenc’s terrible administrative skills
The Transylvanian Empire following the Treaty of Fars in 1562
(
To be honest I have no idea when I got Damascus – I lost 2 years of screenshots somehow)