Chapter IV — War
As the Army was shipping down the Bakoye [1], more and more petty chiefs saw its strength and decided to join ranks in order to prevent any later repercussion. Soon Oualis scouts returned and reported that Musa's troops were marching up the same river – right towards the royal army. Around 50,000 men, predominatly infantry, they estimated.
This army was no match for what Ouali had. While his footmen numbered around the same, they generally had better training. And – he controlled the Imperial Mandekalu Cavalry. Ten thousand men with lance, sword and many even with armor [2]. South of the desert, these horsemen had no one to fear in open terrain.
“They can not win” Ouali said to Mukhtar and Salif after hearing the news, “their troops are not organized, they are tired from marching and they have nothing to counter our cavalry”.
“They will scatter like chicken” Salif agreed.
Musa Keita, as a surviving officer of his’ later told Mukhtar, knew where his opponents were, but yet marched straight for them. Mukhtar theorized that the rebellion was primarily led by group of tribal leaders from the west and that Musa only was their puppet.
The battle itself, on a plain near the Bakoye, went as expected. The cavalry made quick work of the unorganized rebel army. Without any resources left, the remaining renegade nobles including Musa were fleeing west.
***
With the Civil War ended before it really began, Ouali could deal with the real danger to the realm. Messengers had been coming from Timbuktu for quite a while. Mossi Bands kept crossing into the Malian territory. They were assaulting caravans, burning down villages and abducting the inhabitants. While the big cities like Gao or Timbuktu were well protected by their garrisons, smaller places were under serious threat. The garrisons could not do a lot to defend them, it was a cat-and mouse game the Mande generally lost. When the garrisons arrived at the place of a raid., the Mossi already were gone again.
If that was not enough, the Songhai in the Bend [4] were close to rebellion, supported by groups further from the East. Apparently, these foreign rulers were not even able to protect their people. So why should they live under the Mande's rule?
When Ouali arrived in Gao with his cavalry, the first thing he did was to call a meeting with the leading Songhai nobles. Since he still enjoyed a certain degree of respect among them due to his just and merciful rule, when he was Governor of Gao back then, they actually came.
“You believe in God – and we do. The Mossi do not. We have to stand together against the pagans”, was his core argument. The leader of the Songhai, Sunni Ali Kolun, still wanted his own kingdom, but realized that he could not compete against the garrisons still present and the royal cavalry. So the meeting fulfilled its purpose to calm the Songhai.
When the infantry finally arrived, the momentum changed. The Ouali the Mossi were about to face different than the Ouali the West had seen. Too long the Mossi chiefs had haunted the royal caravans. Trade was the fabric the empire was built on, and everyone endangering it would find no mercy. Ouali took his massed forces, a little above 60.000 infantry and close to 10.000 horsemen south into their territory. Thee Mossi were not a unified state, rather their petty kingdoms were squabbling among themselves. Split into several columns the Mande forces passed the borderlands and systematically annihilated every village and every town they came across. Everything that moved was either killed or captured and enslaved. On some occasions local Mossi coalitions tried to make a stand. Fighting was fierce, but not even once they came close to being a danger. Ouali quickly figured out how to counter their cavalry with disciplined spear formations.
When the Mansa personally left command by the end of 1313 many Mossi groups had fled far to the east to evade the Mansa’s bloody wrath. Those who were foolish enough to stay would soon follow their brethren into slavery.
***
As Mukhtar and Salif arrived in Tekrur, there was little to do except mopping up a few local rebel strongholds left, assuming control over a few major villages and searching for the fugitive Musa. The latter was rather easy though. Soon after they arrived in the region, most of Musa's remaining officers approached the army and handed Salif – the official commander – a blood soaked bag. Inside, there was Musa's severed head. The men knew everything was lost and tried to save their life, Salif concluded.
Unfortunately for them, he was a soldier through and through and despised nothing more than disloyalty: They were executed for treason. With these officers, the last influential members of the Keita clan had died.
The remaining campaign went swift and in the summer of 1313 the army took the last settlement and afterwards many of the army's soldiers where settled in Tekrur, both to strengthen the royal influence and to promote Islam in the majority pagan province. Mukhtar also decided to send some of his best students there in order to help with the conversion of the locals. All these steps led to a closer oversight of the region by the mansa.
With the provinces directly under the control of Ouali and his loyalists, he and Mukhtar finally could implement all their reforms.
*****
[1] Senegal River, gonna use Manding names from now on when appropriate.
[2] Around the town of Bakel IoTL
[4]Niger Bend
[5] Niger River. Again in Manding
I still really don't like writing about war. 
