READERS NOTE: This large post will be broken down into five parts which will set the stage for the final round in the Revolutionary Wars. The four parts will detail-in no real order-the Russian Siege of Ankara, the Russo-Mongol War, the Russian Siege of Novgorod, the Zulu Civil War (this war will install Shaka as king and enable him to promote himself to King of Kings or Kosi AmaKosi which could also be translated as emperor, and the First Spanish-American War. Happy reading!
The Siege of Ankara
In mid-July of 1801, as the various European nations were meeting in Paris to outline their offensive and defensive plans, Selim III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire had been fighting a war against Russia since their initial invasion of the eastern Balkans in the 1790s. The Turks had already been driven from Constantinople and Baghdad by the time he assumed the throne, and with no allies to stand with his empire against the combined Russian and Hungarian onslaught, it was all he could do to retain control even over the areas not directly close to the frontlines. It had only been the treaty with the Order of Malta-now the Imperial Order of Malta, that saved his rule over Northern Africa even at the cost of major coastal cities such as Benghazi, Algiers and Tunis. Hungary had stopped their advance only after they inflicted a defeat on the Turkish garrison trying to hold Athens, then pulled out of Greece altogether, leaving an uncertain Turkish administration in Bulgaria and Macedonia between the Hungarian and Russian empires. Their former rival-turned-ally Persia had been forced to yield the former Uzbek cities of Bukhara, Merv, and Samarkand to Russia, and forced to accept the creation of Sumeria. With their Persian front closed, the Russians could transfer their forces to the Caucasus and Bosporus fronts against the Turks.
General Matvey Anatolievich commanded an army of 350,000 Russian, Sumerian (consisting of Kurdish, Assyrian, and Iraqi Shi'ite) and Cossack troops stationed in Tbilisi, in Armenia. His was the army responsible for raiding Erzurum, Antioch, Serres, and Icel. It was these successful raids that earned him the name Anatolievich* and garnered him a large following even in the Imperial Court. But this popularity had a dark side as well, for Anatolievich had begun to attrach the attention of the Golitsyn family, one of the most powerful in Russia, and it was this family who shaped the military policies of Tsar-Emperor Konstantin**. Anatolievich was already being courted by the Golitsyn as a potential husband for their daughters, which would put him in a position to rival the Tsar-Emperor and potentially even challenge him for the Russian throne. Konstantin I, fully awake to the threat this represented and above all else eager to bring the Ottoman Empire to an end once and for all, now placed that task on Anatolievich. Sending additional Circassian and Mingrelian irregulars south to join his army (bringing the total to 650,000 total), he issued the directive to Anatolievich to take Ankara at any cost and place the Sultan in irons, to be brought to Novgorod to witness the siege there and face the Tsar-Emperor before his execution. An additional army of 220,000 conscripted from the puppet-kingdom of Byzantium would be held in reserve not only to prevent a possible Turkish diversionary offensive but also prevent the Sultan's escape (having been foiled in the capture of him during the Conquest of Constantinople a decade earlier). Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador in Madrid now urged Charles IV to attack Turkish North Africa and persuade the Imperial Order of Malta again to join the Dresden Pact. Charles IV, however, had concerns in Spanish America and southern Africa and already had his own plans to invade Wallonia, thus could offer no assistance. Nor did the Imperial Order of Malta move from its neutral position despite Russian promises to restore Rhodes and the Holy Land to Maltese rule.
By late August, Anatolievich had gathered sufficient supplies, munitions, and manpower with the arrival of the Circassian and Mingrelian irregulars to begin his offensive. On the Turkish side, Selim III found that he had lost his best generals either in combat or due to old age. He would have to appoint new commanders if he was to have a chance at stopping the Russian advance. He soon found one in a 27-year-old former Ukrainian house-slave who had studied the military tactics of Suleiman the Magnificent, Frederick the Great, General Turenne, and even Peter the Great. His name was Bohdan Vasylovych Kosenko, but his name was Turkisized as Bogdan Kosenko and he would be appointed pasha as Bogdan Pasha. Selim III soon learned that Bogdan's family had been brutalized under the Russians when they had invaded the Ukrainian hetmanate as part of the War of the Holy League, then found themselves captured as slaves by the Crimean Tartars. Selim III ordered that any surviving family members be located and brought to Ankara where they would be allowed to live as free people exempt from the jizya or religious poll tax normally imposed on non-Muslims. This had the effect of assuring the loyalty of Bogdan Pasha. Selim III offered him some 40,000 gold ducats with the command to recruit troops to serve as the defending force in the coming siege. Within two weeks, Bogdan Pasha had recruited some 75,000 soldiers, students, farmers and even criminals. Bogdan Pasha was quick to point out that this force, though impressive, was still outnumbered by the Russian colossus and that at best they would hold be able to hold off the Russians for up to a month. Selim was counting on this as the autumn on the Anatolian plateau often proved unpredictable with shifts of temperature as well as sudden snow and ice storms which the Russians were not prepared for in the semi-arid climate of the Middle East. Meanwhile gangs of criminals were put to work in digging trenches and building bastions and embankments (they were afterwards freed, and nearly all of them joined Bogdan Pasha's army, bringing the number to 84,000). At the beginning of October there were some 120 miles of earthen obstructions and shelters in place.
On 5 October, Anatolievich marched his 650,000 troops into Anatolia, breaking off smaller cavalry forces of 1,200 to burn the farmlands and ranches in a scorched earth opening to the offensive. Local Turkish sipahis and bashi-bazouks blunted many of these raids, but nonetheless much of the countryside was laid waste and hundreds of civilians slaughtered. On 8 October, the main Russian army reached the vicinity of Ankara, where he soon found that his cavalry advantage had been blunted thanks to wood stakes and trenches . Setting up his artillery and mortar emplacements, he sent a soldier to offer fair terms if the city surrendered. Girding the Sword of Osman and joining those manning the walls, Selim III rejected the offer coldly, pointing to the green flag of the Prophet Mohammad and declaring that he would surrender only when a Cossack earned the right to cut down the flag. Enraged by the reply he received, Anatolievich ordered a bombardment of the city. To his surprise, his batteres came under fire from several regiments of Topijis armed with the latest rifles bought from Britain. Unable to bring the gunners to their equipment while under fire, he ordered the Mingrelian horse-archers to charge into the trenches and clear them of the enemy infantry. In 40 minutes of intense fighting, the Mingrelians were forced to retreat with some losses, though the Turks lost 2,000 in the skirmish. This was enough, however to allow the gunners to reach their batteries and the remaining Turkish troops were subjected to intense cannon bombardment and forced to fall back, losing an additional 900 in the process. Anatolievich sent his Iraqi troops Sumeria contributed into the now empty trenches, bringing the siege line closer to the city.
From his vantage point at the top of the gatehouse, Selim III shouted a mix of curses, remonstrances, and encouragements at his men as they pushed back against the Russian advance. Turkish cannon now began to reply to the Russian bombardment with their own fire and for miles in every direction, the clashing sounds of cannon fire could be both heard and felt. An Egyptian regiment commanded by Kasto Haik Bey gained a notable victory when they routed a slightly larger battalion of Kurdish irregulars led by Hatin Coban, who was wounded in the ankle by a bullet which had killed a Kurdish soldier who was following him. Forced to limp back to the Russian lines, Coban was stripped of his commendations by Anatolievich for 'cowardice' in the face of the enemy. He would spend only one day in triage before returning to the battle, where he would be killed. Haik Bey led his victorious Egyptians forward to take the battle to the Russians and broke the spirit of a regiment of Assyrian infantry, sending them routing. By the end of the first day of the siege, The Russians had lost 1,150 killed and 288 captured, while the Turks lost 3,200 killed and 300 captured. Anatolievich settled his troops into the lands and trenches they had seized and continued a bombardment of the city and its defenders on the hour in durations of 15 minutes, every hour. No one on either side slept. At 3 am on the 6th skirmishers from both sides attempted to attack the artillery emplacements of the other, only to be repulsed with significant losses (Russians losing 1,700 and the Ottomans losing 1,850). Attrition and starvation began to set in within the capital, to the point where bread became the most fought-over item among those who were not on the frontlines. Selim III, in order to prevent a breakdown in morale that would result, now decreed that any able-bodied city resident, male or female, who contributed to the defense of the city would be exempt from taxation for a ten-year period and receive government assistance in the form of funds, grain, livestock, clothing, and medicines. To further incentivize the townspeople, he even ordered that his privy purse be opened and gold distributed as far as it could go with the pledge that those who did not receive payment would be compensated. This had the desired effect as soon the number of defenders rose to 282,000 (from 80,800). By contrast, deep in the heart of Anatolia, Anatolievich could not expect any reinforcements for seven days, either from the Sumerian puppet-state to the east, or the Byzantine vassal-kingdom to the northwest, and while he still held the numerical advantage over his foe, his enemy's ability to replenish his numbers almost immediately left him at a slight-yet-significant disadvantage.
Using this advantage in logisstics, Selim ordered his army to press forward and push the Russians back. Bogdan Pasha, personally leading a group of sipahis and topijis with Greek and Bulgar auxiliaries, managed to isolate the Kurds on the Russian side. With Coban at their lead, the Kurds offered an intense resistance to the Turkish advance, and in the process the wounded and barely-recovered Coban was shot in the chest by a Greek soldier, dead before he hit the ground. The loss of their chieftain was enough to break the spirit of the Kurds, who fled from the field. Bogdan chose not to pursue and crush them, knowing as he did that Anatolievich would do that work for him. Sure enough, a force of Cossack horse had been ordered to pursue the surviving Kurds, where all but 200 were slaughtered in cold-blood. Anatolievich had lost his most powerful cavalry advantage by sending the Cossacks to hunt down the fleeing Kurds, and Selim III saw his chance. Unleashing the feared akinjis on the now exposed Iraqi Christian and Shi'ite brigades, the Turks broke their resistance quickly, then pursued the survivors as they fled. Those who weren't killed immediately surrendered to the akinjis rather than allow Anatolievich to murder them as he had the Kurds. But meanwhile in the city, starvation was taking its toll as the elderly left to care for the children were becoming so desperate that they were even willing to commit murder and cannibalism just to stay alive. As news of the murders soon spread, Selim III became enraged at the blatant discord andpanic among those families who were contributing to the defense of the city, knowing the elderly were likely killing their children. He imposed a strict curfew on the city, then ordered soldiers to gather the children and take them to the several mosques in the city center to protect them both from the Russian artillery fire and the starving elders. On the Russian side, the coming winter with its cold and often blizzard-like conditions on the plateau forced Anatolievich into a desperate decision. He sent out two riders to travel to Byzantium and Sumeria, requesting immediate reinforcement so they could take the city before 30 October, while they could still pillage the few farmlands not burned to the ground in their advance. Only one of those riders reached his destination as the one bound for Byzantium was captured and executed by Bulgarian irregulars as he tried to slip past the Turkish garrisons on the walls.
Seven days later, Anatolievich finally received his answer when his sentries reported that an army of 15,000 was marching in from Sumeria. He had expected larger troop numbers, but as Sumeria was constantly under attack from the Persians, who were preparing to reenter the war thanks to Russian distractions in eastern Europe and the Far East, these fresh troops were the most that could be spared. Embittered by this, Anatolievich ordered another rider to travel toByzantium and demand additional troops (this rider did make it past the Turkish sentries) while he tried to make the best of the situation with the reinforcements he now had. Selim III knew that with the second dispatch on its way to Constantinople, he would soon face a force of Russian, Cossack and loyalist Greek-Byzantine troops attacking his rear. In his own desperation, he ordered Haik Bey to take his Egyptians, augmented by Greek, Kurdish, and Armenian troops and march toward Constantinople and attempt to slow the approach of the enemy, vowing to him that he'd "either return to a city where the Ottoman flag and Banner of the Prophet still flew, or a ruined city filled with the fire-charred bodies of the fallen, on their way to Paradise". On the Russian side, Anatolievich revealed the plans Russia had made with Hungary and Spain on division of what remained of the Ottoman Empire should they be successful in capturing the city and its sultan. He further pledged that all Russian soldiers who fought would be granted estates in Anatolia and that any who captured the Sultan would be guaranteed a title in addition. Spurred by these promises, the Russians opened the mid-morning of the 13th with a great offensive push that took Selim III by surprise. In three hours of heavy fighting, the Russian advance closed to within 8,000 yards of the city walls. Here the distance was so close that every mortar shot struck the target, and Selim III soon had to find shelter to escape being shot at by Russian sharpshooters. Their advantaged negated by the sudden Russian push, the Turks could only hope that Haik Bey's force had intercepted the reinforcing army.
Near the old Ottoman capital of Bursa, Haik Bey came upon the force of 60,000 troops from their vantage point on the heights outside the city. Led by a Greek loyalist of Konstantin I ironically named Leonidas Spatkos, this Byzantine Greek-Russian-Cossack army had just crossed the Bosporus from Constantinople and had made their way to Nicaea, and from there to Bursa. Testament to their determination to rid Anatolia of the Ottomans was the smoke rising from within the distant city. His men now enraged by the sight, Haik Bey ordered an immediate attack. Spatkos was unprepared when the Ottoman army of Haik Bey descended from the heights at full gallop, infantry running hard on their heels trying to keep up. Plunging into the valley, the Armenian and Kurdish horsemen, wielding rifles, pistols, scimitars and bows rode straight into the Cossacks, under fire from the Byzantine Greek and Russian infantry who barely managed to form into defensive lines before the enemy broke into them. They came under attack in turn from the Turkish and Egyptian infantry attacking them from the heights. Spatkos tried to rally the Cossacks, but as he knew very little Russian he was unable to prevent them breaking and taking flight. Fearing for his remaining army and his own life, Spatkos ordered a retreat for Smyrna (Izmir OTL) in the hope of pulling his enemy away from the critical battlefield of Ankara. Haik Bey pursued his enemy to Smyrna, inflicting another crushing defeat on him yet never able to destroy his army. For the remainder of the siege and battle of Ankara, these two commanders would continue to chase each other across western Anatolia.
On the afternoon of the 22nd, nine days past the expected arrival time for the reinforcememts from Byzantium, Anatolievich was under considerable pressure to press his siege into an all-out assault. He was aware that starvation and cannibalism were already rampant in the city and that in trying to stave off complete civil breakdown, Selim III had been forced to pull more troops off the walls to quell the discontent, even resorting to executions of the elderly in order to extend the food supplies a few more days. For his own part, Anatolievich was also running low on food, having pillaged the surviving farms and ranches to depletion (and in so doing starving their residents to death). Furthermore, there was now news that Sumeria and Persia were in a full-scale war which Russia was now having to join in. Meanwhile Konstantin I had suffered his first major setback when after a series of early victories against the Mongols, the Manchu Chinese had joined in the war and already inflicted the first defeat on the Russians in that theater. With no further prospects for reinforcements from Sumeria or Russia and any expectation of help from Byzantium now a pipe dream, he was left with no alternative. He gathered his commanders that night and extolled the glories of Peter the Great, Ivan the Terrible and even the founder of Russia, Rurik in an effort to boost the morale of his men. Then on the morning of the 23rd, with a cannon shot to signal it, the final assault on Ankara began. Wave after wave of Cossack, Iraqi Christian, Byzantine Greek, Mingrelian and Circassian troops were thrown against the defenses of the Turks while mortar began punching holes in the walls. Each new hole opened allowed a major push of the Russian forces into the suburban areas of the city, where they were soon met by soldiers, imams, even ordinary townsfolk in pitched battles which nonetheless pushed the Turks back and opened more ground for the Russians. Selim III, in an act of bravado which could've been suicidal had it not turned the tide, rode out on his Arabian charger, scimitar in one hand, the Banner of the Prophet in the other, challenging any Russian who thought himself brave enough to attempt to take the banner by force. Many Russians who were willing to take up the challenge threw down their rifles, drawing their sabers instead. At several moments it looked as though the Russians would be successful, but the bravery of Selim III had the effect of convincing many of his soldiers of their desire to sacrifice all in glorious battle and soon the defense gained the upper hand, slowly pushing the Russians back toward the breached walls. One more surprise awaited them as Kurdish horsemen and Arab cavalry, riding on camels and armed with scimitars, pikes and rifles, charged at the Russians from the rear. Surrounded by his reserve force and viewing the scene from the heights outside the city, Anatolievich ordered his men into battle to beat back the Kurds and Arabs, silently vowing to himself to lay waste to Arabia after his victory. But by 4 pm that afternoon, even the addition of the reserves did little to improve the situation for Russia. In fact, several hundred Russian soldiers had already broke and were fleeing even as Anatolievich shouted curses at them. Unable to stop them and aware that his own position was now dangerously exposed to sipahis, Anatolievich had no choice but to order a retreat which had already degenerated into a rout, withdrawing to Batum. It would be four days later that he'd learn that the reinforcing army from Byzantium, which could've gave him the victory he sought for himself and the Tsar-Emperor, had been finally destroyed just opposite the island of Rhodes, blockaded by a fleet of Turkish and -much to his outrage-Maltese ships. In that same moment he learned the fate oif Spatkos's army, Selim III was receiving Haik Bey, fresh from his victory. Among the trophies he brought back with him was the head of Leonidas Spatkos, preserved in honey. It was cleansed in a stream, then mounted on a pike in the city square as a symbol of a victory nobody could've forseen days ago. In 18 days of siege and battle, the Russians lost 470,000 of their original 650,000 plus the 60,000 reinforcements from Byzantium that never arrived at Ankara. an additional 60,000 had become POWs of the Ottomans. On their side, the Turks lost 92,000 of the original 282,000 killed (not counting the civilian deaths due to starvation and cannibalism). While this still left the Russians with a sizeable army and an opportunity to attack Ankara again, the discontent of the Armenians and outrage of the Kurdish tribes who had learned of the massacre of their number by Russian hands insured that Russia could never again mount an effective attack against the Ottomans. As one final insult to his reputation, Anatolievich was recalled to Moscow, where he suffered the wrath of Konstantin I before being sent to the Far Eastern front. He would be killed by a Mongol infantryman just days before the Truce of Beshbalik brought a temporary end to the fighting in that theater. For Selim III, there was now hope that the City of the World's Desire would be restored to the House of Osman once again.
Zulu Civil War and the Rise of the Zulu Empire
Since 1781, Senzangakona had ruled the Zulus. When he disinherited Sigujama in favor of his som Shaka and sent him to Madagascar to carve out a Zulu colony (and in so doing keep him safe), he had created a tense situation within the Royal Kraal. His uncle and chief minister, Mudhli, his iNduna M'Bopa, his sister Mkabayi and Mhlangana had suspected that the First Wife, Nandi, had somehow bewitched Senzangakona. Fearing for their own safety if they tried to eliminate Nandi, they chose instead to assassinate Senzangakona. Using a mixture of poisonous plants, fecal material from hyenas and fungi, the iSangomas had concocted a poison which was easily slipped into the fermented goat milk Senzangakona often drank. For the next several years, he continued his daily routines unaware that he was slowly killing himself. It was believed they had the time to formulate their plans for Shaka once his father was dead, but then they received news of Shaka's attack on a white colony northeast of the Zulu kingdom. The unexpected invasion of Mozambique and its incorporation into the Zulu patrimony alarmed Sigujana and his conspirators. As a result, they were forced to speed up their timetable. By 1799, Senzangakona was clearly becoming weaker. He finally died on 9 May 1800 at a moment when, next-door in Dutch Suid-Afrika, the news of the fall of Amsterdam had just arrived, and there were signs that the Spanish were set to impose their colonial government on the Dutch colony. Sigujana now had his chance. Assuming the throne, Sigujana knew he would have to act to prevent Shaka from using his new conquest as a base to rally support. Unfortunately, Shaka already had support from within the Royal Kraal. Sigujana gathered impis from the Zulu, Qwabe, Ndwandwe, and Buthelezi numbering 400,000 in total, placing them under the command of M'bopa (also spelled Mbopha) and commanding him to advance into Mozambique (eMozambique) with the goal of capturing Shaka. He commanded his father's childhood friend and induna Gazi to raise a second army of 100,000 impi using any means necessary.
On 17 May, Shaka learned of Sigujana's seizure of the Zulu throne and the murder of his father. Though Shaka felt some resentment toward Senzangakona for sending him to Madagascar, he also knew that by doing so, he had been given the time to mature and hone his military skills against the native peoples of the island as well as the Kilwan and Ottoman colonizers. Using these skills, Shaka had went on to conquer the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, adding it to his personal dominion and leaving it under the capable hands of his brother Ngwadi. With his half-brother Dingane, Shaka was able to raise a large mixed force of Zulu, Portuguese, Mutapan, Kilwan, and Ottoman troops numbering 800,000 in total. He was also able to gain the assistance of a local ally, the paramount chief of the Mtetwa Federation, Dingiswayo, who provided an additional 50,000 impi. Marching south to Port Natal, the British enclave which had served as a Zulu port that allowed Shaka to land his impi for the conquest of Mozambique. Meeting with the Company administration, Shaka was able to purchase 3 6-pound cannon and additional rifles. Four days later, near the rise of Isandhlwana his impi met the force under Mbopha. The two opposing forces drew up, but whereas Mbopha formed his regiments into squares, Shaka adapted the bull' formation, taking Mbopha by complete surprise. Mbopha lost 40,000 in this first battle and was forced to retreat, with Shaka in hot pursuit. Four days later, Mbopha made a stand in a dense jungle and large stream which would forever be remembered as 'Blood Ravine' or Umhosha Wegazi. Thinking he had the advantage of the high ground, Mbopha held his ground and even taunted Shaka. Shaka answered by having his Portuguese and Ottoman Zulus bring their artillery forward. The cannon blasts frightened Mbopha's impis, many of whom simply fled. Mbopha himself was frightened by the 'fire-spitting logs' but remained determined to hold the high ground. But as his impi continued to lose the will to fight, he was forced to engage Shaka's force. In the four hours that followed, Shaka's impis overwhelmed the remaining impis under Mbopha's leadership. Mbopha himself, after nearly losing his life to Kilwan spearmen, lost the will to fight and tried to escape once more, but three of his impis who had become disillusioned with his leadership captured him. Expecting leniency from Shaka, they brought Mbopha before the victorious prince. Mbopha was said to have loudly denounced Shaka as nothing more than "a tyrant who drank the blood of children and mingled with the pale demons". Though Shaka was suitably impressed by the courage of the men who had brought their fallen induna before him, the very fact they had turned on Mbopha was considered by Shaka to be a betrayal and as such could not go unanswered. He gave them enough leniency to allow them to watch as Mbopha was beheaded by an Ottoman scimitar and his head affixed to a pike (his body was left unburied, to be food for the scavengers), but then as punishment for their betrayal the three were impaled.
Sigujana received the news of the death of Mbopha only four days after the Battle of Umhosha Wegazi. Fully alarmed, he ordered Gazi to march north to intercept Shaka. Instead, Gazi tried to switch sides. He did inform Shaka of the role Sigujana, Mkabayi and Mudhli played in the death of Senzangakona. He pleaded for mercy in admitting his own role in the murder. Shaka, enraged by this, stabbed Gazi with his Ikwa and commanded that the impi he had led submit to him. This force was combined with Dingiswayo's impis, raising his total force to 150,000. Dingiswayo used this enlarged army to put the Buthelezi impi (numbering 45,000) to flight before they could reach the Zulu Royal Kraal. Deprived of these impis, Sigujana marched the rest of his force under the command of Mhlangana north to intercept Dingiswayo before he could move against the eLangeni (who belatedly sided with Sigujana out of fear of Shaka). At the First Battle of Goqkli Hill (29 May) Dingiswayo pushed Mhlangana's force into a ravine, where their lack of mobility in the tight spaces made it easy for Dingiswayo's impis to pick them off. Those who were able to escape fled back to Sigujana. Mhlangana himself also escaped, into Ndwandwe territory, where he was welcomed by their chief Zwide. Zwide offered 6,000 of his warriors to strike at Dingiswayo again, but Mhlangana was unwilling to challenge the Mtetwa chief without a larger force. Meanwhile, Sigujana lost another ally in the Qwabes when Gendeyana, a some-time surrogate father of the young Shaka (before he was welcomed back into the Zulu kraal as successor of his father) overthrew the Qwabe chief, Sotubo, and assumed the throne. While it took time to recall the Qwabe impis from Sigujana's army, nonetheless, the defection of the Qwabes was another blow to Sigujana's determination to hold onto power.
But while Shaka gained one ally, he would lose another. Zwide's iSangoma mother had managed to hypnotize a virgin maiden at Dingiswayo's court to assassinate him by beheading him as he was ritually washing his hands. News of the assassination reached Shaka, who had to leave his army in the command of his brother Ngwadi and travel with a small force of uFaSimba (bodyguard) to the Mtetwa capital. Here he not only killed the hapless maiden but the guards assigned to protect the king as punishment for failing in their duties. He then had their corpses impaled*** as a warning to anyone who thought to try to assert their own claim. Then using his own prior relationship to the great chief and the fact that Dingiswayo had no heirs, Shaka formally integrated the Mtetwa paramountcy into the Zulu Kingdom, which brought it to the rank of empire. Combining the Mtetwa impis to his own, Shaka returned to command his overwhelmingly large force. Seeing what had happened to the Mtetwa, King Makedama of the eLangeni chieftaincy immediately withdrew his impis from Sigujana's army and declared himself neutral. Sigujana, furious at the eLangeni, intended to force them back into line, but on his way to the Zulu capital of Dukuza, Shaka visited the eLangeni and ordered all the men over 25 to be put to death, while the women and children were simply rounded up. Makedama himself was later impaled alive by Shaka, and forced in his death agonies to watch his village burn to the ground. Faced with the prospect of losing his village to Shaka's wrath, Sigujana marched north with the impis still remaining to him and on 18 June at the Second Battle of Goqkli Hill, Shaka inflicted the most crushing defeat on Sigujana yet. Though he escaped, he had committed the ultimate blunder in that he had lost 19,000 of his impis in the battle, while Shaka lost only 7,000. Sigujana fled to the Royal Kraal, with Shaka now in pursuit from the north and Ngwadi marching from the south. Shaka arrived at Dukuza on 22 June to confront a militarily weakened Sigujana. Learning of the role both Mudhli (also Shaka's great-uncle) and Mkabayi (Shaka's aunt) played in the conspiracy to replace Senzangakona with Sigujana before Shaka could assert his legal rights, Shaka had them bound at their wrists**** and forced to watch as he stabbed Sigujana with the royal spear. Mhlangana arrived alone at the Royal Kraal and confessed his own role in the conspiracy, throwing himself on Shaka's feet in an effort to plead for mercy. Ngwadi stabbed him with his assegai, killing him as well. Shaka ordered his uFaSimba to seek out any who were loyal to Sigujana and execute them where they stood. In so doing, Shaka purged the nascent Zulu Empire of 11,000 who had been loyal to the late boy-king. But he saved his most brutal punishment for his kin. It was said that Nandi tore off the breasts of Mkabayi with her own hands, stripping her of everything that made her a woman. Regardless of whether this is true or not, Shaka did inflict horrors on them the likes of which had never been seen in African history before finally having them both impaled alive. Mudhli died first, his old, withered body unable to bear the pain of the stake slowly working through his body. Mkabayi, chest opened up, lived long enough for the scavenging birds to begin feasting off the juicy flesh before expiring herself. Their bodies were left on the pikes for several weeks.
In the days that followed, Shaka did indeed raze the Royal Kraal, choosing to build a larger village complex and Imperial kraal 20 miles away. He named this new capital Kwa Bulawayo, which translated as "the place of the killing" for indeed the new African Caesar continued to seek out and execute those holdouts who either remained loyal to the late Sigujana or were too slow to show their fealty to Shaka. In the next three months, no less than 25,000 people were executed. Shaka, in establishing the empire, allocated eMozambique to his brother Ngwadi and IIsi-Malagasy to his half-brother, the loyal Dingane. With this one action and a series of small skirmishes and two major battles, Shaka had created the largest empire in southern Africa, with more room for expansion, and a future opportunity to do so.
Siege of Novgorod (concurrent with the simultaneous siege of Ankara)
From the late 1790s, when Konstantin the Tsar-Emperor of Russia initiated the war against the Grand Republic of Novgorod ruled by Grand Prince Yuri I Dolgurukov, the Novgorodians had been fighting a losing war against the colossal Russian advance. Cut off from potential allies in Poland-Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire and Sweden, the Novgorodians fought fiercely, making the Russians pay in blood for every mile of territory taken. But the odds were stacked against Yuri, who was increasingly constrained to flee his capital and attempt to rally support. By 1800, Novgorod itself was surrounded by a massive Russian army and put under siege. Yuri managed to get his family to Swedish safety, but chose to remain with his people.
Konstantin I himself was in overall command of the siege, feeling the need to personally see the fall of the city and claim his victory of reunification. The new Grand Prince of Novgorod, Vasily I Dolgurukov had succeeded his father, who died of illness in 1798. He spent the period in exile gathering resources and forging alliances with the goal of breaking the siege of his capital and liberating his nation from the Russian yoke. In charge of the defense of the city was a veteran general, Rusya Aleskeevich with a force of only 30,000 professional soldiers as well as 30,000 town militia and a body of some 190,000 civilian men armed with muskets. Opposing this was Konstantin's army of 180,000 men which at the end of 1800 was swelled to some 260,000 in total (many of these were conscripted from the Novgorodian villages conquered by the Russians forcefully). So certain was Konstantin I of final victory that he had not only announced that Russia was one imperial nation again, but he even met with the Hungarian ambassador to partition the Ottoman Empire, which he was also on the verge of invading. He had already crushed the military power of Persia and stripped them of the Central Asian trade hubs of Bukhara and Samarkand and with the creation of the puppet-state of Sumeria had gained access for Russian ships to the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. General Alekseevich was fully aware that while the Novgorodians had made preparations in the event of a Russian siege by stocking up on supplies of medicine, food, water, charcoal and munitions, the fact that the siege had lasted as long as it had meant that all but the munitions would soon start to run low. In fact they had already used up medical supplies thanks to an outbreak of cholera among the townsfolk who were often huddling in cramped conditions thanks to near-daily bombardment from the Russian cannons designed primarily to weaken their will to resist.
On 20 July a cannon fusillade opened up on Novgorod as it had been doing for several months past. Every two days a nonstop barrage of cannon fire kept the civilians pinned down. But this cannonade was different in that Konstantin I was now determined to punch holes in the walls and push his army in to take the city. Alekseevich ordered the garrisons along the walls to prepare for breaches, and at the same time moved cannon into the areas where those breaches were likely to happen, loaded with canister shot. This was done because he knew that the Tsar-Emperor would be eager to rush into the breaches before they could be closed off. At 11:30 am, the first breach occured and true to form, Konstantin I ordered his Chechen irregulars to push in and establish a portal through which the rest of the Russian army could enter. As the Chechens advanced into range, the Novgorodians opened fire with the canister shot, inflicting massive casualties on the Chechens and forcing the survivors to fall back. Angered at this first blunt of his advance, Konstantin I ordered a second breach to be opened in the walls and this time the irregulars would be assisted by a wing of Tartar cavalry. When the second breach was opened, the Chechens were reinforced and sent into the breaches, backed by the Tartars. Again, canister shot was deployed to devastating effect and the Chechens were again forced to fall back, with nearly all the Tartar horse killed. The attempts continued into the late evening with the result that 3,000 Chechens and 850 Tartar horsemen were killed. As night fell, the Russian cannon resumed its psychological assault as Konstantin I mused over his options. He couldn't call up another army as he had sent the bulk of his reserves south to deal with the Ottomans. He was also receiving news of trouble between Sumeria and Persia which could at any time flare into open war. He also knew from spies playing the role of merchants that the provisions within the city were beginning to dwindle and that medical supplies were spent. He called forth his commanders with a brilliant idea.
The first recorded use of biological warfare occured in the late 1340s when the Tartars besieged the Genoese trading-post of Kaffa, The siege had lasted longer than the Tartar commander had planned for, as the Genoese were constantly supplied by sea (an area which the land-based Tartars had no experience in). Wishing to take the port quickly, he came upon an idea inspired by an outbreak of a devastating disease among his soldiers. Utilizing the plague outbreak to his advantage, he ordered that plague-riddled corpses be loaded onto trebuchets and catapults and flung over the walls into the city. In the end, his own losses to the outbreak were too great for him to capitalize on this biological offensive, but the results were just as he hoped. Within days, the people of Kaffa began to come down with the illness and while many hundreds died, the rest fled onto ships bound for the Mediterranean Seaports (hence the Black Death of 1349-51). Using this as his guide, Konstantin I now proposed to take the bodies of those in the Russian army who died as a result of a smaller plague outbreak, and fling them over the walls to infect the population and weaken their defenses to the point the Russians would be welcomed. His commanders were horrified by the idea and voiced their objections, which the Tsar-Emperor refused to entertain, making clear that any commander who failed to obey the decree of the Tsar-Autocrat would be executed and his family estates seized. Cowed by this direct threat, the commanders reluctantly consented to the plan.
In Novgorod itself, General Alekseevich, though heartened by the bold and successful defense of the walls, knew that he was still outnumbered nearly 3 to 1. As the townspeople began to plug the breaches using barrels of earth, planks of wood and stones, no one was aware of the horrible plan being hatched across the 2,000 kilometer gap. It was only in the pre-dawn hours that the screams of the women alerted the garrisons to the sickening sight of corpses landing among the buildings, riddled with the telltale signs of cholera, plague and smallpox. Despite his warnings not to go near the bodies and burn them where they lay, many of the townspeople gathered them up for the burial pits, and thus became infected. Alekseevich drafted a letter for Grand Prince Vasily urging him to bring a relieving army south as there was now an epidemic happening in the city and it was more than ever likely the Russians were about to launch their assault. He then gaves orders for those townsfolk who had become infected to quarantine themselves and the burial pits set alight to burn the corpses. By taking these actions, Alekseevich had defeated a biological attack from his opponent (though at the time he was unaware of this). Days passed as the siege tightened with new attempts to wreak biological havoc on the helpless defenders. Each attempt was blunted, but the psychological toll it was taking on many cause some to wonder if surrender was a preferred option to living under the threat of either cannonballs or corpses raining down upon them. Alekseevich was also growing wary of the siege, having yet received a reply from Grand Prince Vasily. Unknown to Alekseevich was the fact that the assault on Ankara, in the Ottoman Empire, was turning in favor of the Turks.
Meanwhile, in Petersborg (OTL St Petersburg), in the Swedish Baltic, Vasily I had just joined an alliance with Sweden and Poland-Lithuania (which would be further expanded with the addition of Prussia). At the same time a British ambassador who had been meeting with Sweden's King Gustav III also pledged subsidies to Vasily amounting to some $2 million. Utilizing these subsidies, Vasily began to assemble an army comprised mainly of mercenaries and Novgorodian expats. By the 24th of August, he had an army of 550,000 made up of Hanoverian, Hessian, Brunswicker, Danish, British, Prussian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Swedish mercenaries and even Russian defectors and Novogorodian expats. He sent a force of 400 Polish hussars commanded by Aleksy Barna to ride south, reconnoiter the area around Novgorod and make contact with General Alekseevich. Three weeks later, Barna and his hussars arrived at Novgorod. Posing as Russian dragoons, they made their way through the Russian lines (aided by their knowledge of the Russian language) and slipped into the city. After getting the status of the city's defenses, the attempts to use plague by the Russians and the condition of the Russian forces from Alekseevich (and getting their horses fed in the meantime) Barna passed a message from Vasily I that help was coming, but it would take four weeks to arrive, and thus they would have to hold the Russians at bay for that length of time. Alekseevich's reply was foreboding:
"The Grand Prince must get here with all haste, as our people are on the verge of surrendering this city to the Muscovites and there's nothing short of a massacre that can prevent this from happening"
Barna pledged to pass the message along and with his hussars, took leave of the city. Unfortunately, a Russian patrol caught sight of the Poles and, taking no chances that it coukd be Novgorodian civilians trying to flee, opened fire. Barna lost 80 of his best riders but took the rest back to Petersborg. Konstantin I was awakened from his sleep with the report of the Polish escape. He now realized that he needed to take the city quickly if he was to gain a surefire bastion to withstand the counterattack he knew was coming.
At 3 am on the 26th of August, a cannon, mortar, and rocket bombardment the likes of which had never been seen before was unleashed on the city. Russian regulars, Chechen irregulars eager to redeem themselves, Tartar horse equally eager for revenge, and Bashkir archers were formed into regiments and made ready for the all-out assault. Alekseevich called upon all able-bodied men and even the teenaged boys to come to the defense of the capital and the 'Novgorodian motherland' Wave after wave of Russian troops threw themselves at the defenders, and though they suffered casualties, the siege-fatigue, food shortages and constant threat of disease had worn down the defenders. Alekseevich made every effort to rally the troops, even coming close to being shot by a sharpshooter at certain moments. As several breaches were opened in the walls, the townspeople sallied forth to fight the charging Russians, using muskets, bayonets, even rakes and hoes as weapons in their desperation. After four hours of intense fighting, the Russians had barely penetrated past the walls and the frustration was becoming apparent on the Tsar-Emperor's face as he mounted his horse and rode forward shouting praise and threats in alteration. A possible threat to the defense of the city arose when the food shortage precipitated a riot among those who were still in quarantine. Violence erupted between the quarantined and soon it spread out into the streets, which caused panic among the healthy at the prospects of coming down with plague at a moment of peril. For them, killing the infected was the only solution and thus, against the orders of Alekseevich, small groups actually broke formation to attack the rioters, killing hundreds. He finally managed to quell the violence but by then the Russians had made some slight but still significant progress into the city and more were coming through the wall breaches. Alekseevich ordered a rolling volley in order to keep up a constant rate of fire and slow the Russian advance. This had the effect of not only slowing them, but even forcing them back. Nonetheless Alekseevich had lost 86,000 to a combination of Russian bullets, disease, food shortage and rioting. By comparison, Konstantin I lost 92,000 to disease and Novgorodian defense. He still had the numerical edge in that he could conscript more troops for his army, whereas Alekseevich could not. Each new day for a week brought the Russians a bit closer to the city square and at the same time depleted more of Alekseevich's force in their stout resistance. As Alekseevich prepared to make his final stand, relief finally arrived when elements of Vasily's multinational army appeared in the distance. Cavalry from Poland and Hanover charged into the Russians from the rear, which caused panic in the entire force. Alekseevich used the momentum of Vasily's arrival to rally the surviving troops and begin pressing the Russians. Hemmed in between the cavalry and the garrison, the Russians began to panic and shoot wildly, killing each other more often than their enemies. Konstantin I used his saber to hack his way through friend and foe alike in a desperate bid to escape. Panic set in as soon as it became apparent that the Tsar-Emperor had retreated. Konstantin had rejoined his reserve force, but it was now too late to reinforce the army still in the city and soon Russian soldiers were routing. He had no option now but to call a retreat-though only half the surviving army did so in an orderly manner. The rest had been broken and were simply running. It was on the march back to Moscow that Konstantin learned of the disaster at Ankara and the withdrawal of Anatolievich's battered army into Armenia. This news likewise reached Vasily as his army marched into Novgorod and cleared the streets of stragglers from the Russian army
In all, Konstantin I lost 153,000 out of 260,000 to enemy action, disease and in the end, friendly-fire. He was left with only 107,000 troops who were now desperate to return home. Alekseevich had lost an additional 53,000 troops and militia to disease and enemy combat, but thanks to the arrival of Vasily I with his army, Novgorod had been saved. For Konstantin, failure at Ankara could, on its own, be viewed as a setback that could be as much attributed to the brewing Sumeria-Persia conflict as to the determination of the Turks not to fall. But coupled with the failure before the walls of Novgorod, the failure at Ankara had seriously damaged the Tsar-Emperor's prestige. He would go on to commit the biggest blunder of his reign in an effort to rebuild his shattered image and preserve his autocratic rule. Novgorod's larger territory remained under Russian occupation, but thanks to the rescue of the capital by the Grand Prince and his numerous allies, there was now, at least, hope that the day would come when Novgorod's republic would be liberated
The Russo-Mongol War
Even before his second disaster before the walls of Novgorod, Konstantin I had already set into motion the avalanche that would lead to war in the Far East. This conflict could be broken down in its reasons to an ancient origin, an intermediate cause, and a trigger.
The Russians had been ruled for a time by the Mongols and their descendants the Tartars until the fateful Battle of Kulikovo in 1380 put an end to the so-called 'Tartar Yoke'. From that day onwards, the steady expansion of the Muscovite state into the Russian Empire had involved clashes with the Tartars who had clung to the Crimea, Astrakhan, Kazan, Nogai and Sibir. As the Russian state expanded east, they either destroyed or displaced the Tartar hordes that stood in their path. Its ofren considered the Russian version of the Reconquista. Nonetheless, Russian settlement in the Siberia region was sparse at best due to the lack of arable land and the harsh winters. At the same time, The Mongol heartland, reduced in size since the collapse of Genghisid power, faced the prospect of being swallowed by either the Russian or Chinese empires. Tseveendorj had managed to forge an 'everlasting alliance' with the Manchu which allowed a joint condominium over Manchuria itself a free hand in Korea and military support for both nations against the rising challenges of both Russia and Japan. His conquest of Korea and the greater part of the Japanese home islands allowed for the Mongol Khanate to elevate itself to 'khaganate'. The absorption of the remnants of the Uzbek Khaganate had opened Central Asia to the Persian frontier to Mongol expansion. For the Manchus, the expansion of Mongol power to the north, northeast, and west had afforded them a barriier against Russian encroachment. Both empires benefitted from the increase in trade between them.
Mahashiri, who became Great Khagan in 1800, engaged in a brief war with the Nihonese/Nipponese (free Japanese) Shogunate which had extended Mongol control over the rest of the island of Honshu and confined the Shogunate to the remaining islands of Shikoku and Kyushu (as well as imposing an annual tribute, and tieing the Nipponese into near-vassal status). This now opened for the Mongols the prospects of expansion and colonialism in the Pacific region-colonialism which was not seen in Beijing as a threat as it meant that China's barrier would be expanded cheaply. Mahashiri had even lent a force of 8,000 keshik cavalry to the Manchu expedition to Taiwan to defeat Nipponese attempts at settlement and blunt the efforts of newcomers from the West at the same. In May, Mahashiri authorized the establishment of 'land colonies' in the regions of Siberia, Irkutsk and Yakutsk with an eye toward eventually conquering Kamchatka. Unknown to the Khagan was the fact these regions were already claimed by Russia. As Mongol, Manchu, Japanese and Chinese settlers began to move into the provinces, they increasingly came into conflict with the Russian prospectors, fur trappers and colonists coming from the west. Skirmishing erupted which soon brought a Mongol army of 30,000 into the Siberian Far East in an effort to neutralize the Russian threat-this at a time where Russian forces were close to achieving their objectives in Novgorod and Ankara. Mahashiri cautioned against continued fighting as his khaganate was not yet ready to challenge Russia, but with the Russian defeats in Novgorod and Anatolia, Russian attention was soon turning east, with Konstantin I eager to vindicate Russian arms once and for all.
On 15 September, following a period in which the battered remnants of the Grand Army of Russia (as the main army which had failed before Novgorod was named) was rebuilt and reinforced with the addition of 10,000 Kazakh, 6,000 Chechen, and 3,000 Kyrgiz irregulars, Konstantin I placed the army under the command of his companion and formerly generalissimus of the Byzantine-Russian Army, Ivan Papilovich*****. Papilovich marched from Niznhy Novgorod on the 18th, where he had conscripted an additional 24,000 Daghestani irregulars. They had hoped to reach Yekaterinburg by the 27th, and catch the Mongols by surprise. Unfortunately, by the time the 140,000 strong army left Niznhy Novgorod, news of their movements had reached Mahashiri. Wasting no time, he bolstered the Mongol army in Siberia to 139,000 and sent an ultimatum to Konstantin I to cede Siberia, Irkutsk, Yakutsk and Kamchatka to the Mongol Khaganate. At the same time the envoy set off for Tsaritsyn, the Mongol army set off for Yekaterinburg, arriving outside the city on the 22nd. Brushing aside the meager garrison, the Mongols captured the city and began to fortify it against the expected Russian counterattack. Three days later, the Russian army of Papilovich arrived to find the Mongols entrenched within the city and a formidable series of defensive works facing them. Papilovich, with only 25 cannon, launched an all-out assault on the city hoping to breach the defenses. Each breach was followed by attempts by the Chechens, Daghestanis and Kazakhs to rush the Mongols, with each attempt costing both sides but ending with the Mongols holding the breach. After the seventh such attempt failed, Papilovich berated the Kazakh commander, Yerzhan Kenesov so brutally that during the night Kenesov and the remaining 7,000 Kazakh horse and light troops slipped out of the Russian camp and submitted to the Mongol commander, Bashimur. Bashimur agreed to hold the Kazahks in reserve to surprise Papilovich. On the morning of the 16th, Russian artillery resumed their bombardment of the city. Bashimur used their focus on the defensive works to his advantage, sending Kenesov at the head of a combined Kazakh-Mongol cavalry force to harry the Russians. They charged into the Russian lines under heavy fire and of the 20,000 that went in, 13,000 Mongol and 2,000 Kazahk horsemen were killed. Nonetheless they inflicted heavier losses on the Russians, killing 1,700 and surprising Papilovich. Seeing his momentum slipping, Papilovich ordered the Russian infantry, with their Chechen and Cossack auxiliaries to charge into the Mongol formations. At least seven times in four hours, the Russians made their push, gaining a little ground but ultimately failing to break the Mongol resistance. Papilovich realized he needed a larger force in order to retake Yekaterinburg and on 7 October, he ordered a withdrawal back to the eastern frontier of the Ural Mountains while he presented his case to the Tsar-Emperor back in Moscow.
Konstantin I received his general with barely concealed contempt on 11 October. Already the Tsar-Emperor was feeling the weight of the twin defeats in Novgorod and Ankara. His ambassadors in the Dresden Pact countries were already warning him of stirrings from the Grand Alliance. Determined to redeem Russia and make the Grand Alliance fear any future conflict, Konstantin I agreed to enlarge Papilovich's army using elements from the Byzantine State-Army, the Army of Anatolia and the Crimean Army. Konstantin himself pledged to lead the Second Army comprised of the various armies which had all but conquered the Grand Republic of Novgorod. He further informed Papilovich that failure to bring the Mongols to heel would likely result in his execution as Konstantin would no longer tolerate failure. To this end, and as one last chance at redemption, he recalled Anatolievich from Armenia, placing him in command of a smaller army comprised of Mingrelian, Circassian, Cossack and Armenian troops and cavalry with a battalion of 400 Russian artillery. Their main strategy would be to attack along the Mongol frontiers, diverting enough enemy troops to allow for a breakthrough. Upon achieving breakthrough, the Russian army was to move on Karakorum and take the capital, forcing the Khagan to sue for terms.
For the Mongols, the main objective was to hold Yekaterinburg and advance into Siberia, Yakutsk and Irkutsk, then make a push eastward for the Bering Strait. To this end, the Khagan ordered the conscription of two new armies, leaving their 1st army to hold Yekaterinburg. Additional troops could be called upon from Manchuria and Japan thanks to Mongol control. In addition, the Manchus had a mutual defense treaty with the Khaganate (which the Mongols demonstrated their adherence to with the dispatch of troops to Taiwan).
On 10 December, as the snow covers the ground, the three Russian armies advanced on Yekaterinburg from west, northwest and south. Against this overwhelming force, the Mongol defenses couldn't cope, allowing them to place the city under siege. After fourteen days, the defenders were starved into submission, though in the end they were slaughtered by the Russians anyway. It was four days after Christmas before the Russians first came up against the Mongols. Bashimur, forced to split his army and commit Kenesov to hit-and-run attacks on the Russian supply lines. A Russian cannon bombardment on the morning of the 11th marked the beginning of the siege. Kesenov and his cavalry force rode out into the countryside seeking the Russian supply wagons. At the same time, Bashimur countered with an offense which cost the Russians 37,000 and the Mongols 29,000. Bashimur ordered the implementation of the 'Kaffa Protocol' when a dozen soldiers began to die from an outbreak of plague. Catapulting their corpses over the walls, the plague soon began to spread through the Russian lines. Papilovich ordered that the bodies be burned rather than buried in order to mitigate the effects of the plague. By then 550 Russian soldiers had died while 490 others would be quarantined for the duration of the siege. Nonetheless, the siege intensified as the people of Yekaterinburg began to suffer from lack of food, disease and cold. 14 days in, Bashimur made the decision to slaughter the inhabitants and burn the city in withdrawal. As the Russian forces finally began to advance, they found that their prize was now ablaze, which aside from denying the city's resources to them, also provided cover for the Mongol withdrawal. Bashimur brought his armies to the border of the Khaganate, then sent a message to Mahashiri requesting additional troops as he knew the Russians-inflamed by the destruction of Yekaterinburg-would now settle for nothing less than total victory.
Four days later, on the evening of the 29th, an additional force of 90,000 arrived from the interior, bolstering Bashimur's total force to 200,000.
At Fort St Paul, a makeshift wooden bastion along the Ural road and main starting point for the supply wagons for the Russian armies, had been left with only a force of 2,500 as none were expecting an attack. Thus on the early morning of the 31st, Kenesov's cavalry arrived to find the garrison still sleeping. Opting not to engage the garrison, Kenesov had the idea of simply torching the bastion and both destroying the supplies and killing the garrison. In a lightning fast attack, the cavalry used the torches to put the supplies ablaze, but their hopes of not having to engage the garrison were dashed when a Russian soldier relieving himself spotted the Mongol keshiks and raised the alarm before being hit by four arrows and dying almost instantly. Nevertheless, the attack on the supply base was successful, and those in the garrison not killed immediately surrendered. These POWs were sent to the Circassian slave-markets and would never see their families again. Kesenov then ordered his cavalry to advance on the supply wagons themselves and destroy or loot as much as they could, in order to deny the Russians fresh munitions, medical supplies or food. Seven hours of looting and burning brought a small victory for the Mongols at a time when the Russians would soon begin to hammer at the Mongol outposts on the borders.
At the start of the new year of 1801, Papilovich (with Anatolievich as his second-in-command) reached the Mongol frontier in Tuva. With his two other armies already attacking the borders and drawing the Mongols in, Tuva had become less fortified. This gave Papilovich an opportunity and on 6 January at 7 am, he ordered an immediate attack, Anatolievich, taking command of an artillery battery (soon after known as the Turkey-Shooters in tribute), opened fire on the earthenworks, driving the Mongol defenders back. Bashimur directed the counterattack that gained back only a few kilometers of lost ground and still left his army out in the open, vulnerable to Russian cannon. Bashimur thus ordered new defensive works constructed and for his troops not to lose ground again. He said to them, as later recalled by a soldier:
"You men are the legacy of the Great Founder of Our Nation, Temujin Genghis Khan. He, his sons and grandsons had once spread fear among the peoples of Russia. Do not now lose that courage which had given us Moscow, Kiev, and Novgorod in older times and which if harnessed now will bring everlasting shame upon the Russian pretender to the Great Founder's legacy"
Mongol artillery countered the Russian artillery as the battle raged. Both sides, trying to silence their opposing guns, now threw their cavalry forces into the maelstrom. Meanwhile, Russian and Mongol infantry attempted to push each other back, and it soon became clear to Bashimur that he was losing substantial numbers of men in the battle. By evening, both sides were exhausted and a decision by both commanders was made to rest the troops. Papilovich ordered that artillery continue their bombardment of the Mongol lines in the hopes the explosions would keep their enemy from getting any rest. He wanted his opponent to come to battle the next day with little sleep. Bashimur, with the same idea in mind, also ordered his artillery to keep up their barrage. The end result was neither side got any sleep and by 2 am on the 7th, both sides were engaged once again. It was only after another four hours of strikes and counterstrikes in which an additional 70,000 Mongol troops (in addition to the previous day's losses of 1,200 cavalry) that Bashimur received news of the success of Kesenov's attack on the supply base and wagons. Kesenov himself, with his cavalry force arrived at 11:50 am. Kesenov brought his cavalry against Anatolievich's artillery battery and in a 30-minute, murderous encounter managed to disable the guns and kill 100 artillerymen at the cost of all but 300 of his own cavalry. Anatolievich himself managed to escape, but when he appealed to Konstantin I for a proper fighting force to avenge the loss of his men, the Tsar-Emperor, true to his vow of being unforgiving of defeat, had Anatolievich arrested, then during another lull in the battle, executed in front of the entire Russian army as both motivation and warning.
With a snowstorm raging on the morning of the 9th, Papilovich-desiring above all else to break through the Mongol defenses-ordered one last all-out assault. Bashimur, already aware of the motivation provided by the Tsar-Emperor's execution of Anatolievich two days earlier and their supplies starting to run short, had planned for the major assault, but nonetheless a sudden charge by Cossack cavalry and Chechen foot-soldiers surprised three of his artillery batteries, being caught unprepared as they were having breakfast at the time. With a gap in the artillery screen created by this surprise victory, Papilovich ordered an entire division of Mingrelian and Georgian infantry to rush the breach with a view to splitting the Mongol line in half. As they advanced, the Mongols indeed did split in half and attempted to surround the advancing Mingrelian and Georgian troops, opening a hole in the center. Papilovich ordered the Guards regiments into the breach, followed by cavalry. Bashimur saw the movements of the Russians and saw clearly that he had fallen into their trap. Unable to reunifiy his lines, the Mongol general ordered his reserves to battle in an attempt to crush the Mingrelian and Georgian forces before the Russian Guards regimemts and cavalry could press their advantage. These reserves, known as the Old Guard, pushed against the Mingrelians and Georgians finally breaking their will to fight. 15,000 Mingrelians and 7,000 Georgians were killed in this last major counteroffensive, but it little mattered as now the Russians were pressing into the gap in the defenses and making their way southward. Bashimur saw no other option but to order a withdrawal and it was only stopped from becoming a rout by the brilliant manuevers of Kesenov and his cavalry, who harried the disoriented Georgians. Of the 200,000 Mongols that fought in the two Battles of Tuva, Bashimur only had 129,500 remaining to him. Papilovich had only127,900 of his original 140,000 remaining, giving Bashimur a slight advantage, further bolstered by the losses of the supply wagons on the Russian side. But Konstantin I had recruited some 30,000 Finnish troops from Karelia which arrived five days after the battle, as Papilovich was gathering new supplies for the advance into the Khaganate.
On 20 January, taking advantage of a break in the wintry weather afforded by a high pressure area, Papilovich with his 157,900 troops (400 of these were artillery and 2,000 cavalry) advanced south, then east. Bashimur, falling back, arrived at the tomb of Genghis Khan (alleged), where he now ordered the Old Guards to take up defensive positions while he moved further east to Karakorum. As the capital called up the garrisons and prepared to engage, the Old Guards clashed with the advance units of the Chechen irregulars at 2 pm. The 45-minute battle went badly for the Old Guards, who were nearly swept aside. As the rest fled for Karakorum, news arrived at the capital that a substantial Chinese army was on their way. Bashimur and Mahashiri now entrenched themselves around and inside the capital, respectively.. Papilovich advanced to within 10 miles of the capital, where he called upon the Great Khan to surrender. When Mahashiri refused to even discuss terms, Papilovich readied to bombard the capital. Meanwhile, Kesenov set out with his cavalry force to attack the supply stores. This time the Russians had better guarded the stores and Kesenov barely kept his force together to set the supplies to the torch. Only 30 of the original 300 were able to make it back, with a wounded Kesenov at their head. He would later be given Mongolia's highest commendation posthumously. With their supplies once again destroyed and a snowstorm approaching, Papilovich faced the prospects of another, longer siege. Further, the other two armies had yet to break through the defensive lines and join him. Lastly, there was the prospects of facing the Chinese army advancing from the south to assist their Mongol ally. On the 21st at 3 am, Papilovich opened a cannon bombardment against the outerworks around the capital, hoping to breach the lines and frighten the townspeople into forcing the Great Khan to agree to terms. He was suddenly met with a rocket volley from the capital at the very moment when his recon scouts now informed him of the Chinese army entering the region. Though the number reported, 800,000, is now likely seen to be an exaggeration given the panicked state of the scout rider who reported, there is little doubt that the Chinese army now facing Papilovich outnumbered his army by nearly 4 to 1. Papilovich formed his troops into defensive posture as the Chinese cavalry, 200,000 strong, charged from the foothills near Karakorum, led by General Han Yun. Han Yun led his cavalry straight into the Russian lines before Papilovich could form them up, while the Chinese infantry descended from the hills in their wake. Cannon and rocket fire added to the confusion as the Russian troops wavered, then lost the will to fight and began to retreat. Papilovich managed to rally them and by noon they had finally formed their defensive line roughly two miles further from Karakorum. For the rest of the day, throughout the night, and into the next day, Russian and Chinese fought bitterly, relegating Bashimur's Mongol army to mere spectators. By nightfall on the 23rd, the Russians were running extremely low on supplies and food. A new winter storm was rolling in, and the Chinese, despite their own exhaustion, were still eager for battle. Papilovich had hoped that the new supply base in Almaty (recently captured from the Mongol Khaganate by a smaller Russian force of 25,000) would allow for fresh supplies to arrive. But an informant brought news of the capture of the town by a second Chinese army. Meanwhile one of the two remaining Russian armies on the border had been recalled by Konstantin I as tensions were rising back in Europe.
On the Siberian front, the Russians had managed to drive the Mongols back, but because of the serious need for troops in Europe and Alyeska (Alaska), the number of Russian troops was reduced. This had allowed the Mongols to retake parts of the southern areas of Siberia, Yakutsk and Irkutsk, aided by Chinese and Korean contingents. This now provided the Mongols with leverage as the time finally arrived for peace talks. Konstantin I needed a truce in order to confront the rising tide of war in Europe. The Mongols needed the truce to consolidate their hold on the southern lands. China needed the truce to address a growing economic crisis at home and the continued need for troops in Taiwan to counter the advances of both Japan and the European powers. Thus Papilovich-now granted diplomatic credentials by the Tsar-Emperor-was given authority to negotiate. But even as the Russian general-diplomat and the Mongol Khagan awaited the arrival of the Chinese emissary, the situation in Siberia and Central Asia shifted again. Almaty, which had been conquered by Russia from the Persians, now fell to a joint expedition from China and Mongolia using Kalmyk auxiliaries, and despite four Russian attempts to take back the city, the Chinese-Mongol forces held control, thus cutting off another source of supplies for the Russians and making it more unlikely they could maintain their momentum on so many fronts. In Siberia, the Mongols, taking advantage of the reduction of Russian troops, pushed back into the region, winning back 20 square miles of territory in the far south and holding it against determined Russian counterattacks. The situation in Alyeska, where a combined revolt against the autocratic government imposed by Konstantin I and increasing pressure from the Kingdom of America made the security of the colony a major priority. On 5 February, the Chinese ambassador, Shi Cai, arrived at Karakorum escorted by a formidable retinue of 20,000 infantry which seemed to impress the Great Khagan and gave unease to Papilovich.
After nine days of intense negotiation in which the Mongols refused to yield their conquests and the Russians refused to recognize the same conquests a solution was finally agreed. The Truce of Karakorum set the principle 'uti possedeitis' (what one holds, one controls) with some adjustments. The terms were as follows:
1) The Mongol Khaganate would retain their hold on the southernmost lands of Siberia, Yakutsk, and Irkutsk pending a later decision mediated by the Manchu Empire.
2) As insurance against any immediate Russian attempt to force revision of the Siberian settlement, China would occupy Almaty and the eastern Kazahk lands for a period of 6 months.
3) All Russian troops would evacuate the Mongol Khaganate within a week. Failure to comply would be viewed as an act of war. China and Mongolia reserved the right to respond to such failure as they saw fight.
4) While the southernmost lands of Siberia would be held by the Mongol Khaganate, the Russian Empire retained control over the remainder, with a demilitarized zone between them.
The truce was designed merely to buy time for both the Khaganate and the Russian Empire. Both sides knew this and would soon after begin building fortifications along their side of the DMZ. For Russia, this was a temporary halt on combat while they settled the Alyeska and Novgorod crises. For Mongolia, this was the start of a process of northward expansion into wilderness. For China, this would be the last gasp of a great power as soon after, increasing famine, economic distress and continued conflict over Taiwan would force the Manchu to pull their occupying forces from Almaty 4 months into the 6-month period and leave the Mongol occupation forces dangerously vulnerable. But as tensions in Europe and North America reached boiling point, it wouldn't be long before Mongolia would gain a new ally to replace their old ally.
