Lords of the Earth Campaign 42, Turn 2

Lords of the Earth Campaign 42

Turn 2 Newsfax 1106-1110 AD

GM Note: Where nations have not submitted orders or are unplayed, I have simply marked them "Slept". There's not much else I can do since I can't play them myself and can't devote time to providing write-ups for playerless positions. If a player attacks a country which is unplayed, I will usually browbeat a friend who is unaffiliated with Lords of the Earth into giving me a sketch of some orders for the unplayed position - this can work out well for the NPN (consider turn 2 Paramaras) or very, very badly (turn 1 Khwarizim). It is not an ideal solution but it is far better than putting the GM in the position of conducting wars against players.

Nomenclature:

1 I/C/S: 200 men

1 FF: 2 strongholds

1 W: 2 ships

1NFP: 200 men

Armenian Orthodox Church: The Armenian Monophysites are not represented as a separate religion in the standard LOTE model. This is something I should have remedied before but did not so I have done so now. The Armenian Orthodox Church (ARM on your stat sheets) is identical to the Coptic Church and is represented by the anchor symbol on the map.

General Points

_ Submissions by players are welcome (encouraged, actually) though I reserve the right to alter them to fit more precisely with the outcome of events during the course of the turn.

_ Name your cities. No name = no city.

_ Feel free to name your fortresses.

Rule-Related Points

_ I gave a certain amount of leeway on turn 1 (no DF's and such) now on the gloves are off - CCR and PRA control webs will be enforced.

_ King Auto Admin is very much OFF.

_ In a slight modification to the Political Rules, it will be possible for two players with a Non-Aggression Treaty to have their forces fight alongside each other (as allies). However, a negative modifier will be applied to such a coalition force in combat. If the countries have a Mutual Defence Treaty or higher, the modifier will be reduced (the higher the degree of trust between the two countries, the lower the modifier will be to simulate the increased familiarity between the commanders).

_ It is possible to colonise a 1gpv Cultivated region to 2gpv but nothing beyond that. Anything worth more than 1gpv cannot be colonised to a greater value.

_ It is possible to recover some casualties lost in battle - see the variant combat rules for details. This is a cheap way to ensure that you don't lose your entire army in a single campaign.

_ Please do not forget that Heavy Warships (HW) cannot enter rivers because their keels run too deep.

Fees Policy Notes

_ If a player has zero or negative balance and does not submit orders, the player will be assumed to have dropped and the position will be made available for play.

_ If a player has a positive balance and does not submit orders, it will be assumed that the player wishes to retain the position and the standard fee will be debited.

_ If a player has a positive balance and does not submit order for two consecutive turns, it will be assumed that the player has dropped and the balance of the player's account will be refunded.

_ If a player's account falls below -$5, no orders will be processed until credit is received.

_ Players in the UK who intend to pay by cheque should please inform the GM in advance.

_ Exceptions to the policy on fees can be made if the GM is kept informed of the situation. I am not an ogre and, as a UK-based player, a lot of GM's have been patient in awaiting my fees. I can extend the same patience if you tell me about it.

_ US-based players can avoid any international currency conversion fees by remitting a US currency check to Thomas Harlan (address below) who will then forward it to Lorne.

General Game Notes

_ Anonymous play is allowed but any attempt by a player to conceal his or her identity from the GM results in the loss of the position.

_ To keep the game flowing, it will be possible for existing players to "adopt" an unplayed country and submit orders for it (so long as the adopted position is in no way connected with the player's primary positions - think Old World/ New World) with the proviso that, if/ when a regular players requests the "adopted" position, the "adoptive" player gives it up. Contact the GM for details.

_ GM contact details are given below. Enquiries specific to your positions, stat sheets or vacancies should be addressed to Leslie. Enquiries relating to the website, maps, PayPal payments or general advice (for players new to the game) should be directed to Lorne.

_ The URL of the game's Yahoo list is given below. It is strongly advised that you enrol (if you cannot enrol, please inform the GM) as the list will be the main forum for announcing deadlines, rule tweaks, new players and so on. This information may or may not be duplicated on the website.

_ The most important thing about any Lords campaign: it's a game. Do not take events in the game personally. Actions which take place within the context of the game should not be interpreted as a personal insult or attack on you as a person. If you wish to retaliate for something another player has done to you (i.e. invasion or assassination), retaliation should take place within the context of the game. It is in no way acceptable to indulge in personal attacks on other players nor to spread rumours, lies, innuendo or baseless accusations of cheating for the purpose of damaging the player's standing or reputation in the wider community. Such behaviour is heavily out-of-line and is grounds for losing your position.

GM Contact Details:

Leslie Dodd,

101, McCulloch St.,

Pollokshields,

Glasgow,

United Kingom.

G41 1NT

lords42gm@throneworld.com

Co-GM, Cartographer, Accountant, General Queries

Lorne Colmar

50, Promenade Court

Regent Walk

Aberdeen

United Kingdom.

AB24 1RF

lorne@lordsoftheearth.co.uk

US Address for payments by check/ cheque

Thomas Harlan

4858 East Second Street

Tucson

Arizona 85711-1207

USA

thomash@throneworld.com

Lords of the Earth, Campaign 42 Historia Calamitatum List: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lords42/

Lords of the Earth, Campaign 42 Historia Calamitatum Website: http://www.lordsoftheearth.co.uk/lote42/

Fees and Levies per turn: $5.00 US currency

£3.50 UK currency

Next Turn Due: Wednesday, 20th February 2002

JAPAN

The Insei Government of Japan

Ruler: Go-Shirikawa, In No Cho

Capital: Heian

Religion: Shinto/Buddhist

The In No Cho was most pleased when his ministers reported that all the major Japanese clans had paid the teikoku no zeikin in its entirety, each contributing one-twentieth of their total income (or so the clans claimed and Insei had, as yet, no way of ensuring that these claims were veracious). Devoted to his religion and monkly calling, Shirikawa ploughed most of the revenue he had raised into Buddhist monasteries and shrines, turning them into centres of excellence in any number of fields. Many new scholars, Buddhist and Shinto alike, were taken into the service of the Insei government and soon increasing numbers of noblemen were allowing their sons to receive part of their schooling in Buddhist temples loyal to the In No Cho. On a less pleasant note, many visitors to Heian commented on the sheer number of unruly monks hanging around the capital.

In workaday matters, Shirikawa continued to take a personal hand in expanding the Minamoto capital/port of Sakata. Many scores of monks were sent, in addition to those already present in the nascent city, and more than a few centres of Buddhist worship were established; too, more artisans, craftsmen and retainers who owed service to the In No Cho went to settle in Sakata. Perhaps they foresaw that the port would become a centre for trade with Korea and that a prosperous living might be made there.

The Fujiwara Kampaku

Ruler: Fujiwara Morimichi, Imperial Kampaku, Daimyo of the Fujiwara Clan

Capital: Heian

Religion: Shinto

Morimichi was determined to reclaim his precedence in Japan. To the island of Kyushu, he sent his loyal emissaries Ichiro and Nakamori both of whom had spent altogether too much time hanging around the capital and too little time serving the interests of the Kampaku. The clans in Saga and Kagoshima were most hospitable to the Fujiwara emissaries but they were cautious about making any formal commitment - the minor clans of Kyushu had managed to avoid being absorbed by the great warrior clans and they were fearful of compromising their independence. Too, they feared for their future if they became actively involved in Imperial politics. Some daimyos believed that, with civil war a distinct possibility, any closer alignment with the Fujiwara would amount to an invitation to the Taira to invade. They imagined the losses they could incur and how their ancestral estates might even be lost and handed out to Taira retainers... At the same time, the former authority of the Fujiwara was not completely forgotten and the office of the Kampaku still commanded some respect in the land so, after many seasons of negotiating, the diplomats were able to send messages to Heian reporting that the majority of the clans on Kyushu were willing to become clients of the Fujiwara.

Politically, then, things were going swimmingly and Morimichi had much to be pleased about. In domestic matters, things went much less well... At first, 1108 seemed like a good year for the Fujiwara; the Imperial Princess Masako was pregnant and the doctors happily predicted that this would be a healthy pregnancy; from the north, news came that Minamoto Yoshiie, an ally but a potential rival, was dead at the age of 28. A pregnant wife, the prospect of a child carrying Imperial blood and a dead rival - life just didn't get any better than that! But then things started to go wrong... Yoshiie's dour uncle, Yoshichika, became Daimyo of the clan and soon demonstrated an admirable ability to hold the clan and their territories together; worse, Yoshichika seemed, if anything, even more zealous than his late nephew to commit the Minamoto the cause of the Cloistered Emperor.

Nor was the birth of a healthy son from Masako attended by much joy. Morimichi's son and heir, Tadzane, displayed a deal of bitterness, fearing that the new son, having sprung from an Imperial broodmare, would undoubtedly be groomed to assume control of the clan. As if the threat to his political position were not enough, young Tadzane found that the birth of his own son in the same year was treated as an event of little import - all eyes were turned to his newborn half-brother, with one parent a full-blooded member of the Imperial Household and the other the Kampaku and Daimyo of the Fujiwara Clan...

And while Tadzane kicked around in a bad mood, feeling that his many achievements on the Kampaku's behalf had been forgotten, the beautiful and delicate Masako sickened and very quickly died. She had been too fragile for the ordeal of childbirth and, though she had been proud to have given her lord and husband a healthy son, the effort had left her physically broken. Morimichi, then, sank into a very real depression. His young wife had been a constant source of joy to him, so pretty was she and clever with it. His grief was not extravagant - he did not rend his clothes or cry or scream - yet all the pleasure went out of his life with Masako's passing. He paid little heed to other women or to his innumerable concubines and actively eschewed the gay and frivolous courtly life into which he had always thrown himself with such glee and obvious enjoyment. Throughout 1109 and 1110, Morimichi thought of little but work, the governance of the clan's lands and political manoeuvrings. The only other thing which truly drew his attention was his new son; he looked on the infant not merely as a political pawn but as his sole remaining link to that charming young girl with the lucent skin who had given him such joy for seven wonderful years.

The Minamoto Clan

Ruler: Minamoto Yoshichika, Daimyo of the Minamoto

Capital: Sakata

Religion: Shinto

Yoshiie arranged that several chests of silver be transported from the northern fastness of the Minamoto to Heian and the treasuries of the In No Cho. With that done, his main concern became the continued growth of the town of Sakata. At his urging, more and more villagers from nearby were forced into a sort of synoikism, effectively uprooting from their old homes and moving to the new centre of government. Many scholars came to be centred in the city as the Daimyo showed himself a most generous patron of such endeavours particularly those of a literary nature - the poets and writers of Sakata began to collect tales, even those which were popular in origin, and set them in a formal compilation. But it was a long task which would not be completed for many years yet.

For all that, it was political matters which dominated most people's minds. Yoshiie, whose wife had died only a short while before, married a local girl who bore him two sons in as many years. Unlike his eldest son, Inichi, who was virtually a cripple and could never lead the clan, the two new sons were strapping lads. Yoshiie breathed a palpable sigh of relief at the appearance of these children - they assured that his line would continue. As it turned out, fate had a trick to play on the Minamoto Daimyo...

One drizzly day, during the Autumn of 1108, Yoshiie, with only a few of his closest retainers as guards, went to visit a courtesan who happened to be a particular favourite. After arriving at the young lady's rather sumptuous residence, which he himself had ordered built within his new city of Sakata, Yoshiie became a little unwell. By nightfall, he felt no better and had developed a fever so a doctor was summoned who prescribed some herbal medicines. Yoshiie remained at the courtesan's home that night in the hope that, by the time morning came, he might be well enough to be moved back to his own residence. In fact, as dawn broke, it was clear that the Daimyo was much worse. More doctors were summoned and Minamoto officials and representative of allied and subsidiary clans came rushing to the courtesan's house to see what might be done. Lamentably, Minamoto Yoshiie died that afternoon of an illness which was never identified.

The Daimyo's demise left a real problem, namely that his heir was a five year old boy with a withered hand who could hardly stand upright unaided. Into the breach stepped Yoshiie's uncle, Yoshichika, who laid immediate claim to leadership of the clan. He was not met with universal acclaim for Yoshiie's closest friend and advisor, Hida Norikage (who also happened to be in command of almost all the clan's military forces), upheld the right of the boy Inichi, sickly though he may be. Norikage agreed that Yoshichika should become Regent (with the assistance of a Council of Advisors, including elements from the Imperial Court, in order to prevent the abuse of such a sensitive position) but he refused ever to countenance the idea that Yoshichika should become Daimyo in his own right. For a few weeks it was unclear who would prevail - Yoshichika was not a man to compromise but Norikage was widely respected by the clan's samurai and bushi and, most importantly, could claim to be upholding the right of the late Yoshiie's bloodline to lead the clan. War was avoided when Norikage miraculously died within a month of Yoshiie (and from very similar symptoms). Obviously some terrible illness was sweeping the Minamoto... It was peculiar that none of Yoshichika's supporters were afflicted by it.

The Taira Clan

Ruler: Taira Mosimori, Daimyo of the Taira

Capital: none

Religion: Shinto

Slept (and paid their Imperial Tax!).

THE FAR EAST

The Sung Empire

Ruler: Hui Tsung Chao Chi, Divine Emperor of China, The Son of Heaven

Capital: Kaifeng

Religion: Buddhist

With a huge swathe of Northern China occupied by the Manchurian invader, one might reasonably have expected the Emperor to take a full role in prosecuting the war but the Son of Heaven was happy to leave such workaday business in the hands of his able generals, Yue Fei and Di Qing. Indeed, the two generals had become veritable heroes throughout the Empire - in every village and town, patriotic posters and paintings depicted the courageous deeds of these two great warriors and the base atrocities committed by the Liao dogs. Ballads were sung in wineshops and taverns the length and breadth of China telling of Yue's bravery in battle (a quality matched only by his cunning in constantly outsmarting the boneheaded Khitans) and exhorting all Chinese to emulate him.

Soon, many thousands of new soldiers were being mustered throughout the Empire and a steady stream of boats brought money, weapons and recruits to the Imperial Capital, Kai-Feng. Although the soldiers were often poorly trained, their morale seemed, for the moment, to be good. All of China was behind the magnificent effort to drive the invader out and, at the urging of the Emperor, women were contributing their jewellery to help pay for the war effort while Imperial officials stalked villages and towns gathering woks and other iron objects to be melted down and cast again as swords. In truth, the iron was not needed and the jewellery did very little to help meet the endless expense of the war but it was very good for the morale of the Chinese people to feel that, by contributing just a little, they were helping in the defence of their Motherland. Remarkably, about a dozen pirate junks, which would normally have been exterminated on sight, sailed boldly into Chang-Ning-Fu where their chief met with officers of the Imperial Fleet. It is a strange time indeed when Emperors and common brigands can find common cause in the salvation of their country...

His Imperial Majesty realised that in such troubled times as these, even the help of foreigners might be useful and, so, he sent forth an emissary to the King of Nan-Chao, an ancient ally of China. In short order, the emissary returned with a promise that the Thais would send an expeditionary force to aid their ancient friends, the Chinese. Apart from this, the most significant activities undertaken by His Majesty were artistic in nature - Hui Tsung's goose paintings were particularly well-received and his poem Ode to the Moon of Middle-Fall was greatly acclaimed. When a ruler is a man of such rare artistic talent, what does it matter if he is not a great general?

Actually, some people thought it did matter. Although the Neo-Confucianists were still in disgrace and enjoyed neither popular support nor official influence, there were still some who muttered that all this bloodshed could have been avoided had the policy of appeasement been maintained. Most Neo-Confucianists had been dismissed from the service of the Emperor or had quietly recanted their pacifism but a very small number remained and pressed for a settlement; indeed, in their efforts to convince Hui Tsung of the need for peace, they even couched their arguments in patriotic terms - how, they asked, could those who love China wish to see her racked by war? How could a true patriot ever take joy in seeing tens of thousands of bold Chinese youths pressed into the army to die in some muddy field at the hands of foul-smelling barbarians?

The Emperor paid them little attention and retorted: "Are we not the descendants of the Yellow Emperor? Do we not rule by the Mandate of Heaven? Just as Huang Di beheaded Chi You, so we will behead the Liao beast. They shall soon learn that they have awakened the Dragon." Then he returned to his poetry and painting...

The Manchurian War 1101-????

The Chinese and Khitan armies met within a couple of days of this discussion. All the skirmishing they had hitherto engaged upon had achieved nothing of arch significance - this battle would be the one to determine the outcome of the campaign. The Liao deployed everything they had - 2500 armoured horsemen backed by a similar number of magnificent horse archers all from the Emperor's own clan; 5,000 steppe cavalry, bearing lance and bow; a mixture of several thousands of Han foot soldiers and sappers. The Sung had 4000 cavalry, and a thousand each of regular horse archers and light horse from the Imperial Guard. Mostly, though, they deployed infantry - 25,000 regular footsoldiers, mostly spearmen but with a few thousand archers in support, and a brigade of 3500 very heavily armed and armoured infantry.

Numbers were obviously on the Chinese side but their troops were unsteady. They were patriotic and, of course, were inspired to fight merely by looking around them at the ruined villages, burnt farms and mobs of grubby peasants wandering hither and yon seeking refuge of some kind. If this devastation was not to be visited on all of China, the soldiers understood that they would need to stand and fight until victory was theirs... And, yet, as they watched the battle-hardened barbarian army drawing up opposite, even patriots felt fear and uncertainty. How could the Chinese infantry, inexperienced and inexpertly trained, ever withstand a determined Khitan charge?

As it turned out, the Liao did not charge the Chinese infantry. Instead, the Liao Emperor opened the battle by personally leading a few squadrons of his household cavalry against the Chinese cavalry. Typically, the Sung horsemen turned tail and fled before ever coming into contact with the barbarians. The only Sung cavalry to remain were Di Qing's elite pickets and they, though they fought admirably, were never a genuine threat to Khitan dominance on the field. With his horsemen fleeing at high speed, Yue could do nothing except try to hold his ground and it is to the credit of the Chinese infantry that they stood firm on the battlefield for several hours under the rain of arrows the barbarians poured upon them. The Liao general, Boon Min, tried to break the deadlock by leading his steppe cavalry against the Sung left flank. Faced with a real charge, some of the Chinese broke and ran but most stayed and fought. Unfortunately, the lack of sufficient subordinate commanders hampered the Chinese considerably - Yue was the sole commander (with the exception of General Di who led the cavalry) but he could not direct every aspect of the defence. In practice, this meant that individual regimental commanders were taking decisions which were quite contrary to the Marshal's wishes - one or two less of the less confident officers would order their men to fall back effectively abandoning their bolders comrades who had held their positions.

What followed, then, was a very gradual breakdown of the Sung line. Boon Min lost many hundreds or even thousands of horsemen in his attacks and was forced to commit all the remaining Han auxiliary infantry (though they didn't last long for they had no stomach for this war). The breakdown became a rout. Thousands of Sung soldiers simply fled the field seeking either the shelter of distant Kai-Feng or, in many cases, a return to their homes and families far far away in other parts of China. Mostly, though, they simply sought to escape the death which they felt certain the Khitan would visit upon them. Yue kept a fair proportion of the army together and led it off the field in good order while Di dissuaded any pursuit by a series of bold charges. The Khitan dissolved, as they usually did when they won, into an undisciplined mob and pursued Sung stragglers this way and that all over the battlefield. The Liao Emperor and his heir, together with Boon Min, tried to gather enough men to attack the retreating Sung and destroy them but they were unsuccessful and Yue managed to reach the safety of Kai-Feng with about 15,000 men and there he was forced to report a second defeat.

The Liao, in the aftermath of their victory, continued to blockade the capital from the landward side.

Away from Kai-Feng, down in Chang-Ning-Fu, the Minister Su Sung arrived and assumed command of a naval force of 60 war junks, about a dozen pirates flying Sung colours and, most peculiarly, 2,000 fearsome Imperial Guardsmen. They sailed off up the Grand Canal to goodness-knows-where...

July 1106: From the western marches of the Empire, dire rumours filtered into Kai-Feng... The Uighurs had crossed the frontier in Kansu with 15,000 steppe cavalry and a small Tangut auxiliary force; they had immediately set about subduing the undefended region. The jackals, foolishly believing that the Sung were beaten, had decided to join their Khitan rivals in feasting on China's corpse.

Too, news of other raids came but this time from the east - the Liao had sent some of their nomadic steppe allies, about 2,000 strong, into the region. The wild barbarian fiends stole anything that could be carried and randomly slew locals for sport - the took great pleasure in spearing fleeing peasants or shooting them down with their bows. Most troublingly, the nomadic raiders took their time and showed great care in their depredations, rooting out anything that might have value; the homes of wealthy Shangtung nobles and merchants were targetted with especial zeal and no person of taste would ever dwell on the torments the Khitan barbarians inflicted on their victims to force them to reveal the whereabouts of their valuables.

In Shensi, which had been subjugated by the Khitan, the Sung soldiers manning Ch'ang-An's formidable walls noted that the occupying forces were leaving the region very quickly... Quick enough, in fact, that one might call it a rout. The officers of the garrison wondered about this for many days and some speculated that, perhaps, a relief force had arrived from Nan Chao - the Thais, after all, were fierce warriors and staunch allies of the Son of Heaven... Needless to say, they were most disappointed when the Uighur army arrived outside their city. Benighted Shensi had exchanged one set of invaders for another.

Under a flag of truce, Uighur heralds went forth and gave the city a chance to surrender. The Khagan, Temu-Lin, Conqueror of the Tanguts and Emperor of Hsi-Hsia, would spare their lives in return for their surrender and an oath of immediate and complete obeisance. The Governor of Ch'ang-An thought long and hard. From the walls of his city, he surveyed the mounted horde (completely sans siege trayne of any kind). He contemplated the size and width of his walls. He thought awhiles on the great river whence supplies and fresh troops could be drawn in the event of a determined siege. He then declined the Uighur offer (and not in a very polite way either, it must be said, even though the Chinese are famed for their impeccable manners). Temu-Lin kicked around in the province dreaming about all the horrors he wanted to unleash on the city's denizens but he could do nothing without sappers and siege engines. So it goes.

March 1106: The Uighurs broke camp outside Ch'ang-An and began to move off towards Shentung. News of their advance was greeted with dismay throughout the still-free cities and provinces along the Huang Ho. The Chinese had earnestly hoped that the barbarians could be contained north of the great river.

April 1007: Events now shifted to the lands of the Liao. Other than the small Han revolt in Lu'an, there had been no exciting happenings in the traditional domain of the Khitan overlords during this war. All the men and boys were gone from their homes to fight in China and, as usual, it fell to the womenfolk, Han and Khitan alike, to keep their families fed and farms running in these hard times. News came regularly of victories in China though, no matter how many times they heard of the Sung being vanquished, their husbands seemed no closer to coming back home...

Such, in any case, was the prevailing mood in the Liao Empire when suddenly a Sung fleet of about 70 junks were spotted off the coast of Liao-Tung. A few marines were put ashore and began scouting around for Liao military detachments; of course, the region was poorly defended because all the soldiers were off fighting in China. When this news was carried back to the fleet, its commander, a certain Su Sung who also happened to be the Imperial Minister of Personnel at Kai-Feng, ordered that the crews of the ships disembark along with 2,000 soldiers of Hui Tsung's Imperial Guard. Fearful lest garrisons from Shen Yang should come sallying forth, Su Sung kept his operations limited. He did not attempt to conquer the region but satisfied himself with looting it quite effectively - it was the most sublime irony that, just as the Liao were robbing and raiding in China, now the Chinese were inflicting this very same punishment on the Liao. Too, the Chinese (who included a fair number of pirates hired for the mission), as they stormed and looted one settlement after another, came across large amounts of booty - silver, jewellery, quantities of silk, porcelain and even fine paintings - which had obviously been stolen from China in the first place! What an act of justice and of poetry that they now reclaimed it from the very people who had stolen it.

By the time the Sung had returned to their ships, the region was devastated and little of value remained. The people were tough and, as always, they put a brave face on their sufferings but the damage was real - towns, farms, villages had been burnt; mills, dams and irrigation systems wrecked; all the wealth of the region stolen.

May 1107: After the raid in Liao-Tung, the Sung landed in Lu'an. Some of the local Han hoped that this would mark their liberation but it was not to be - here too Su Sung oversaw more brigandage and depredations. Many of the soldiers and sailors who took part did not care whether they stole from Khitan overlords or Chinese peasants - loot was loot and it mattered not whence it was acquired - but Su Sung felt some regret at having to inflict such terrible suffering on his own people. When this war was successfully prosecuted, Lu'an would be reincorporated into the Empire and these people, the victims of this raid, would be His Imperial Majesty's subjects once more. To the Minister of Personnel, it felt distinctly unpleasant that they should suffer the twin injustices - first, of foreign occupation and, second, of suffering at the hands of those sworn to liberate them. But war is a harsh thing and people will always suffer and die in such troubled times...

In Shentung, the Uighurs had completed their move into the region and now it was the turn of these people to suffer and die. Throughout China, news of their appearance caused terror. Barbarians were now in the heart of Northern China - past the Great Wall, past the Huang Ho, past the Imperial Army. Nothing stood between them and the rich centre of the Empire. It was now that the despised, almost traitorous doctrine of Neo-Confucianism began to enjoy something of a revival...

But not all news was bad in the west. Prince Fa of Nan Chao was, if rumour was true, already present in Chinling with an army of his doughty Thai warriors who would prove more than a match for the barbarians whether Uighur or Liao.

June 1107: The Uighur subjugation of Shentung was completed without much ado. No soldiers opposed them and a fair number of corpulent local grandees proved less than patriotic in their willingness to accommodate the unwashed tribesmen from the distant north.

Further to the east, the Khitan raiders swept northwards along the banks of the Grand Canal and into Tsainan. Plenty of loot was taken and fully one-third of the province's population was driven off, slain or simply left without a home. Worse than the theft and robbery was the wanton destruction - the casual firing of penniless villages and storehouses of food served no other purpose than to increase hardship on an already oppressed group of people.

July 1107: A Thai army, numbering 5,000 solid-looking and well-disciplined spearmen and 2,000 lance-armed cavalry all under the command of Prince Fa, stormed into the province of Shensi having crossed from Chinling. Temu-Lin, in neighbouring Shentung, immediately wheeled around to teach these interlopers a lesson they wouldn't soon forget! 15,000 Uighur cavalry charged back the way they had come to seek battle with the Thais and the glory of victory!

August 1107: The Uighur horde managed to reach the outskirts of Ch'ang-An ahead of the smaller Thai force; thus, Prince Fa was left with two choices - face the Uighurs in battle or fall back into Chinling. But Fa had not come here to retreat; he was as keen to fight the Uighurs as the Uighurs were to fight him but he knew that the enemy's mobility left the warriors from Nan Chao at a significant disadvantage. With the assistance of some local Chinese peasants, who were delighted to see the Thai liberators, Fa soon found a fairly defensible ridge with plenty of paddies and and farmhouses cluttering up the vicinity (and, thus, reducing the mobility of the Uighur steppe cavalry). He then sat back on the defensive and waited...

Temu-Lin had wanted to catch the Thais in open ground where he could easily exterminate them. Mostly, he had hoped to avoid a situation where his lightly-armed and swift-mounted steppe tribesmen would have to fight head-to-head in open combat. But now his hand was forced and there was nothing for it but to fight! So it was that Temu-Lin and his son, Borat Bear-Killer, led 13,000 Uighur lighthorsemen against the smaller Thai army.

All through the day, the Uighurs made regular charges against the Thai line, always unleashing their arrows and wheeling away at the last moment. The Thai infantry took heavy losses but held firm all the same; the Thai cavalry, meanwhile, under Fa's brilliant command, managed to catch and destroy a few detachments of Uighur light horse. As dusk approached, it was plain that the Thais had suffered by far the heavier losses but their spirit was unbowed and they held, stoically, refusing to retreat. The Uighurs, on the othet hand, had lost about a thousand men during the day's fighting but they were erratic - when they saw that the Thais were not fleeing, the Uighurs themselves began to trickle off the field. Thus, the battle ended rather ignominiously for the Uighurs. Fa unleashed his remaining cavalry against the Uighurs and was pleased to see them skewer many hundreds of the tribesmen. With the darkness of night now descending over all, Fa marched off the field where he had inflicted such humiliation on the Uighurs and made for Ch'ang-An. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave most of the wounded behind; some Thais were rescued by patriotic locals who hid these valiant allies from the murderous barbarians but most of the wounded were butchered out of hand on the following day when mobs of Uighur horsemen began returning to the scene of their defeat.

At Ch'ang-An, the Thai army was welcomed as a force of liberation. Many people, however, commented on the small size of the army; others pointed out that, in spite of its size, Fa had managed to give the barbarians a bloody nose and should not be underestimated.

September 1107: Temu-Lin led his depressed Uighur army into Shentung. Further to the east, meanwhile, the Liao set about acquiring boats and ferries with which to cross the Grand Canal into Honan which became the latest region to suffer raids at the hands of the Khitan interlopers. Thousands of refugees had crowded the province believing, foolishly as it turned out, that the horse tribes would not cross the Grand Canal. It was pitiable to behold. At the first approach of the raiders, they tried to find sanctuary within Pien-Chinh but most failed to reach its walls and, so, fell victim to the Khitan robbers - their property was stolen, women raped, children butchered without conscience. Nor did the native inhabitants of Honan undergo an easier experience than the refugees - by the end of the month, half the province's population had fled their homes to seek somewhere they might be safe.

October 1107: The Uighurs began pouring into Tangchou while the Liao kept their attention on Honan and began to move their entire army into the province. As if the raids of the preceeding month had not been bad enough, it now seemed that the Khitan barbarians wanted to conquer the region!

April - May 1108: In a desperate attempt to acquire some money, the Uighur Khagan led his band of locusts into Funiu. Large quantities of booty were extracted from the unfortunate inhabitants of the region and many farms and villages were burnt down.

June 1108: The Khitan raiders struck in Anhui, a rich and heavily populated province which, like Honan, had thought itself immune from the depredations of the invader. Even outside Anhui, the emotional impact on the Chinese, when they heard that the northerners were watering their horses in the Yangtze, was immense.

July-September 1108: From Funiu, the Uighurs launched endless raids into Chinling. Great trains of loot - silver and jade along with other more prosaic treasures - were soon following the Uighur horde as were a great many captives - women and children, for the most part, taken to serve either as slaves for the tribe or as entertainment for the brutal steppe warriors.

September also saw the Khitan, who were now blockading Chang-Ning-Fu, launch renewed raids into Kiangsu - the second time in as many years. Anything that had escaped the barbarians' attention first time 'round was taken now and new scars were added to those left by the first set of raids.

June 1109-End of 1110: June 1109 saw Tsainan once more under attack by Khitan raiders followed by Shangtung in September of that year. By April of 1110, the Khitan raiders were heading back to their home on the steps but they found time to stop off in Bao Ding where not even the multitude of forts and castles could prevent their raids and banditry.

In the northwest, Temu-Lin led his army back to Shensi, the region which he had decided would become the centre of his rule in China.

In Kai-Feng, at the Court of the Son of Heaven, Marshal Yue Fei, on whose shoulder all the duties of organising the war against the northern invaders had been laid, grew ill. His usual vigour and energy seemed slowly to drain away until, by the beginning of 1109, he was a shadow of his old self - he was thin and seemed permanently in pain though he bore it stoically. In August of 1109, Marshal Yue Fei died from a cancer of the stomach at the age of 39 though he looked considerably older than that during his last few months. His death was not on the battlefield as he would undoubtedly have wished but it was widely agreed that his devotion to the service of the Motherland, his constant fretting over resources, defences, manpower and training, shortened his life considerably. He laid his life on the altar of China no less than the warriors who fell in battle against the Khitan tribesmen.

His place, as General of the Armies, was taken over by Di Qing (at least until His Majesty made a final decision). Di was a career solider from Shanxi and a keen believer in the Qin and Han methods of warfare. In his earlier days, during the interminable wars against the Hsi-Hsia, Di had fought 25 battles in 4 years. Yet, his origins were base - he had born into a family of low status and had been conscripted into the army but he literally fought his way through the ranks, earning a commission through his bravery and quick thinking. Unfortunately, as a conscript his face had been tattooed to prevent him from deserting; this tattoo, the veritable badge of low birth, low status and incompatability with high office, haunted General Di so that he habitually wore a Japanese-style silver face mask. For the Neo-Confucianist, of course, it was a source of amusement that the man who was now the prime exponent of resisting the Liao should be of ignoble origins.

The Great King was a man of vision - this was, perhaps, one of the reasons why he intimidated his courtiers so. To his great palace in Sri Vijaya, Nyalatengorak summoned his brother, the Great Prince Hukumantaring, War Chief of the Malayu. In closed session, the two brother and a handful of trusted officers spent many hours in consultation before announcing, with much enthusiasm, that the Hukumantaring, the Doom Fang, would once more lead the War Fleet forth to fight and conquer! The last campaign Sri Vijaya had launched had been in the worthless province of Aceh, in the north of Sumatra, so most people expected that the war would be directed westward into Atjeh, an equally irrelevant region. They were most surprised, therefore, when His Majesty revealed that he had set his eyes on no less a target than distant Taiwan! Once more, the fleets of Sri Vijaya would plough the China Seas and all would acknowledge their supremacy or suffer!

Over 100 ships, each sailing with a full complement, and about 4,000 foot soldiers slipped sedately out of the harbour of Sri Vijaya early in 1106. There was little fanfare and, from the general lack of attention paid, one could scarcely have imagined that this powerful fleet was going to subdue new lands for incorporation into the Empire. At all events, the fleet arrived off the Taiwanese coast at the height of Summer. The process of disembarking the troops and ships' crews took an inordinate amount of time and gave the Sri Vijayans time to survey the newest addition to their little Empire. The land was not particularly rugged - the population was small and most of the island was undeveloped but it was far from inhospitable and certainly more welcoming than the jungles of the southern islands. Too, all were pleased to take note of the number and types of flowers which thrived on this little island.

However, the natives of Taiwan had something to say about this invasion and, through the Autumn and Winter of 1106, they rallied such forces as they could manage (numbering only about 1500) and began preparations for resistance. And resist they did! As the Sri Vijayans began to move into the interior, they met with week after week of skirmish and ambush; by the Summer of 1107, though, their superior numbers had brought things to a conclusion and most of the native resistance had been destroyed though, to make up for what he saw as a severe shortage of regular soldiers, Hukumantaring was forced to deploy his sailors in combat roles (they acquitted themselves well, as it happened). A garrison of about a thousand men was set in place and Doom Fang sailed off, pleased at having made yet another acquisition for his younger brother. Those who thought the Doom Fang would return home soon were shown to have erred - flying the terrifying Fanged Skull banner overhead, the Sri Vijayans made straight for the great Viet Kingdom of Annam! Swiftly, without any issuing any warning or receiving any provocation, the Malay fleet, which would soon become known as the Skull Pirates of Sri Vijaya, descended first on Annam. Surprise was total and they managed to steal goodly quantities of loot and carried off many women (even Doom Fang, though he had a wife at home, claimed a couple of local Annamese beauties as his own and named them his concubines). In their eagerness to steal, the Sri Vijayans spared not a thought for religious scruples - temples were attacked and even a gold statue of Buddha, fully two and a half feet in height, which had been the pride of one small village, was carried off by the pirates. In the fullness of time, the statue would decorate some niche in Nayalatengorak's palace. As the raiders sailed off, the Annamese army began to appear but found they were too late to respond. The only comfort the Viet could draw from the depredations they had suffered was that Thang Long was untouched (though it was not for a dearth of effort - the Sri Vijayans had made a beeline for the fabulously rich city but they had been thwarted by the walls and approach forts and, so, had turned their efforts back to the hinterland). After sailing out again into the Gulf of Tonkin, the Sri Vijayans attacked the region of Dai Viet performing much the same activities as they had in the north - slaves, treasure and tradeable commodities were all loaded onto the boats for transport home. And it was homeward that the Skull Pirates now turned arriving there, at least, around the beginning 1108.

If war was one arm of Malayu policy, diplomacy was the other. The Buddhist Princes of Kedah once more met with the Great King's emissary, Ikanbayang, who was, for all practical purposes, His Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary to the Peninsula. Ikanbayang (Shadow Shark) was accomapanied by the loyal Hindu Raja Darul Takzim of Johor and added his weight to the convincing arguments for closer relations between the Peninsular States and Sri Vijaya. His presence caused some concern - the Kedah nobles were Buddhist (as were the Sri Vijayans) but the presence of the Hindu Raja suggested that he and his co-religionists were being welcomed into the Imperial fold. There was some concern about what the future might bring for Kedah if they stood apart from the Great King and allowed the Hindus to influence events... Painful as it might be, there was but one course of action - total integration into the Sri Vijayan Empire. The Princes of Kedah formally signed the agreements which placed their demesnes under Nyalatengorak's beneficent rule and promptly sailed off for the capital to ensure that they, and not the Hindus, should be the influential voices at Court.

The Paramara clan had expected that war would come to their lands sooner rather than later (though they had expected their foe to be the Islamic Ghaznavids rather than their Hindu neighbours) and considerable efforts had been expended to raise new troops. Munja of Alwa, leader of the Paramaras, could field a force of some 7,000 spearmen and swordsmen, 2,000 skirmisher and slingers and 4,000 cavalry (all lancers and including some 800 heavy cavalry mounted whose horses even wore barding). At the head of his army, he immediately moved to counter the invader's advance as soon as they had emerged from the mountain passes leading from Satava.

The armies clashed close by the town of Pandakharwada, just north of the Penganga River. They seemed fairly evenly-matched and, in fact, Vikram's agents had gone far-and-wide in their efforts to secure the services of almost every available mercenary to for this war against the Paramaras. Unfortunately (though not for the Paramaras!), the Chalukyan agents had only a partial success as the Chauhan Raja of Ajmer had been offering much higher wages and had attracted the cream of India's mercenaries to his service.

In any case, battle was quickly joined. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Vikramaditya was a better general than Munja and handled an army with infinitely more skill but many things militated against him: the long trek over the mountains had left the invading army tired; the unbearably hot weather on the day of the battle favoured the defenders (who had access to a large number of nearby wells while, for the Chalukyans, the closest source of potable water was half-a-dozen miles away); the terrain, which saw the Paramaras occupying a slight slope ahead of a wide expanse of flat sorghum fields and farms, gave Munja a good defensive position with plenty of room in which his heavier cavalry could operate; perhaps most importantly, the Paramara force was determined not to give an inch before the attacker. So, for all his superior ability, Vikramaditya had to watch with increasing despondency as the battle swung to-and-fro with neither side able to gain the upper hand and, more importantly, the Paramaras showing no sign of withdrawing or weakening. The only bright spot (for Vikram) came in the mid-afternoon, after many hours of combat - yet another Chalukyan attack on the Paramara position had just been beaten back when Munja of Alwa personally led a couple of cavalry regiments in a charge against the retreating infantry. Seeing that a successful enemy charge could easily break the will of the army, Prince Someshwara personally rallied a small band of horse archers and boldly rode off determined to thwart Munja! His archers rode in close to the heavier enemy cavalry, unleashed their arrows and pulled back then to repeat the performance. After two or three such efforts, Someshwara was gratified to see the Paramara charge peter out and their cavalry begin falling back to their own lines... More importantly, he saw that the banner of Raja Munja had fallen and that the saddle of his splendidly bejewelled (and rather ostentatious) charger was empty! The rumour that Munja was dead swept through the Chalukyan army and Vikramaditya began organising his exhausted men for another, more concerted, attack on an enemy he now believed to be leaderless...

As it happens, Munja was not dead but had taken an arrow in his shoulder and, more importantly, had fractured his collarbone as he fell from his horse. So, he was carried back to his pavilion to spend the rest of the battle being tended to by doctors while his cousin, Prince Naravarman Paramara, assumed command of the army for the duration of the battle. As it turned out, Naravarman was a rather more effective general than the Raja. He saw, a mile southwards across the field of glory, that the Chalukyan army was regrouping for a new and final offensive. Instead of being worried, the newly-promoted Prince smiled at Vikram's arrogance and began reorganising the battered Paramara line to resist the next enemy assault.

It was late afternoon before the attack came. The entire Chalukyan army, exhausted by a day of hard fighting and harder weather, marched forth across the field with Vikram and Someshwara at its head for what they hoped would be the final act of this affair. The Paramaras merely waited. And waited. The Chalukyas knew that they were coming into ranger of the Paramara archers who had been pouring their quivers into the attacking ranks all day long and they gritted their teeth and wondered how many of them would die before they even got close enough to the enemy to strike a blow with sword or spear... Yet, instead of the intense bombardment of arrows to which the earlier attacks had been subject, there was nothing. The Paramara archers held their fire. And, as Vikram's warriors came to within 50 yards of the Paramara line, Naravarman released his entire army in a ferocious charge! This had not been expected. All day long, Munja had held his men back on the defensive (and it had been an effective tactic, it must be said). Vikram had not expected a counterattack and especially not one as fierce as this! The melee was bloody, surpassingly bloody, and the invading army was driven back but the retreat was becoming increasingly disordered. Vikramaditya tried to rally his army but only his personal guards retained any sense of discipline so he gave up and concentrated on extricating as many men as possible from the disaster.

Apart from these preparations, life in Kanauj was quiet and uneventful - exactly how the people there liked it. A certain habit began to grow up amongst the people whereby they nicknamed their Raja "The Enlightened" in deference to his wisdom in avoiding entanglements in bloody and pointless war while actively preparing to protect his lands and people from the depredations of foreign interlopers. Curiously, the Raja was rarely seen during this time - his brother, the Prince Dalavaya (you remember - the one with the cleft palate and the fat wife), took over the job of running the government which was not a particularly trying job as the civil service was really very effective in Kanauj. Being a pious, modest and respectable man, Dalavaya did not spend his free time chasing comely dancing girls and dark-eyed courtesans; instead, he was a dutiful (and faithful) husband to his one wife - Rani - and their marriage, despite their unattractive appearance, bore fruit: in 1107, twin sons were born to the couple and what fine sons they were! Strong, healthy and keen-eyed - and there was much rejoicing that the flaws which had afflicted the Gahadwala bloodline in the form of Dalavaya were not repeated in his sons. In 1109, an equally healthy daughter was born. And the wags began to comment that the bedchamber of Dalavaya and Rani must contain a copious supply of blindfolds.

CENTRAL ASIA

The Sultanate of Ghazna

Ruler: Masud III, Sultan of Ghazna, Scourge of Allah

Capital: Lahore (was Ghazna)

Religion: Sunni Islam

Masud III was doing very little that would justify the soubriquet in which he revelled - The Scourge of Allah. Far from scourging anyone, the Sultan spent most of his time firmly ensconced in his opulent palace in the capital of Lahore with his favourite wife. And when palace life became cloying, there were the grand hunting estates close to Lahore where the Sultan might indulge his love of tiger hunting; this was not even to mention the endless miles of pleasure gardens which made the city the Jewel of the Punjab. Truly, the Sultan was finding life most satisfactory.... until his favourite wife died in childbirth towards the end of 1106 (the child, too, was stillborn). This threw Masud off his stride a little but he was made of strong stuff and was not about to let something like that interfere with his ability to enjoy himself. Over the next couple of years, the Sultan was a permanent fixture in his seraglio and impregnated an inordinate number of girls. Unfortunately, not a single child lived to be more than a few weeks old and, in more than a couple of cases, the mother was lost as well during the hardships of childbirth.

Away from the Royal Seraglio, there was bad news in the form of the death of His Majesty's cousin, the widely-feared Arslan al-Lahore, who was killed in 1107 at the age of 33. Arslan was, to say the least, an unpopular and fiercely violent man who had gained a reputation as someone to be avoided at all costs - he paid respect to neither age nor rank and even the Sultan himself could scarcely keep him under control. The final straw came when he beat the teenaged son of a certain clan chieftain half-to-death after the youth's horse had outstripped Arslan's own in a race. Barely a month later, on a scorchingly hot Summer's day, a few prominent young noblemen invited the Prince to a small tiger hunt some twenty miles from Lahore; Arslan, always fond of the hunt, eagerly attended and was never seen alive again. His fellow huntsmen returned to the capital and reported that they had lost sight of the Prince, that he was now missing and that they had no idea where he could have gone. A day later, his body, hacked and mutilated in the most brutal fashion, was found in a copse several miles distant from the place where the huntsmen had last seen him. Investigations turned up nothing and the affair was allowed to drop quietly. Few mourned for Arslan although Masud was unhappy at losing his cousin's considerable martial talents.

On a more positive note, Edrosia was fully integrated into the Empire by the sterling efforts of the diplomats Quttabadin and Artaq. It was their pleasure to report to His Majesty that the southernmost boundary of Ghaznavid rule was now marked by the boundless waters of the Indian Ocean.

All this, though, was unimportant to Masud. He had sworn, several years before, to conquer Ajmer and now he felt the time to strike was close at hand. He had watched affairs in India carefully and retained very cordial relations with the Tamils in the south. He knew that the rise of the distant power of Buddhist Bengal would threaten the cowardly Hindu states and keep their attention fixed eastwards. He knew that the avaricious Chalukyas could be counted on to keep the fires of war stoked and ensure that Hindus were forever divided and incapable of unified reaction. He knew that, if he could bide his time, there would soon be an opportunity for him to conquer the Chauhans and perhaps even extend his Empire to the shores of the Ganges. He was not disappointed. News came from the south of another war being waged by Vikramaditya this time against the Paramaras. Masud decided: now, while the Hindus warred on each other, would be the ideal time to strike. And so in August of 1108, he marched forth from his capital at the head of a grand army of some 13,000 mixed infantry, a thousand mercenary infantry hired from the warlike tribes of Afghanistan, seven thousand mounted troops of all kinds, two thousand sappers and a further 4,000 mercenary horsemen hired from the steppe or from Persia. Their target: Tarain.

And one other significant event took place in May of 1109 - Ajaipal was touring a few fortifications to be sure that all would be ready for the coming struggle when his entourage passed by a group of four travellers on the road who appeared to be heading in the direction from which Ajaipal had just come. These travellers, all on foot, wore dust-coloured robes that might have been white once and they didn't so much walk as trudge across the scorching hot landscape, leaning on thick staffs all the while, as though fatigue were in every bone of their bodies. The transients hailed the great man (it seemed they did not recognise him as their Raja but saw that he was plainly a great nobleman) and begged him to spare them a little water for the nearest well was still many hours walk away. A generous man, Ajaipal did not refuse their request but, as his chief bodyguard was handing a flask of water to the leader of the walkers, a dagger flashed in the man's hand and was plunged, up to its hilt, in the bodyguard's chest. The other travellers likewise produce weapons, all hint of tiredness now having vanished, and made straight for Ajaipal. The other members of the royal retinue were able to recover enough to hack down one of the attackers almost immediately but the other two were too close to the Raja (and too far from the bodyguards) for anything to be done... Ajaipal, though, saw that discretion was the better part of valour and kicked his horses sides, prompting it to charge off at a high speed, making a beeline away from the would-be regicides. At a distance of fifty yards, the Raja stopped his horse and turned to see what was happening. His guards had begun to form a kind of circle around the attackers and were slowly closing on them; a fight would ensure and the guards would try to take the miscrents alive for interrogation but, in all likelihood, Ajaipal expected the fiends to be slain. Nor was he disappointed as, a half-minute later, his guardsmen rushed the remaining pair. For a few seconds, steel blades flashed under the harsh desert sun and then the killers lay dead. Their blood stained the sand, spreading further and further from the bodies (five in all - the four attackers and the dead bodyguard); soon, all evidence of the blood would vanish in the harsh light, unbearable heat and dessicated air. Ajaipal smiled. He knew that this would not be the last Muslim blood to be soaked up by the sands of his homeland.

June 1109: Masud wanted to finish the campaign against the Chauhans as soon as possible. That meant one thing - the capture of the Chauhan capital, that dusty little city of Ajmer perched in the middle of the northern Thar desert. It was here he would find the Chauhan army concentrated (and, though he didn't know it, their Paramara allies); if he could crush them in combat and take their capital, he was certain that the rest of the Chauhan realm would fall into his hands. June, therefore, saw the large (and highly confident) Ghaznavid army begin the process of advancing on the city of Ajmer.

Outside Delhi, Vizier Mehmet had the city pretty well blockaded and was now simply waiting... He was disappointed that there was no sign of the defenders' resolve weakening. They remained behind their walls and, though they began to ration food, they were far from the point of starvation (in fact, they were far from the point of hunger).

August 1109: The blockade of Delhi continued with the defenders still maintaining some reserves of food. In Ajmer, the invading Ghaznavid army spent the remainder of the month crossing over into the desert homeland of the Chauhans. Masud's scouts, haring off ahead of the main body of the army, reported that the provincee was far better defended than he (or anyone) had expected - every strategic point in the region had a stronghold guarding it, every major watering hole was defended and the whole place crawled with Chauhan agents who would watch the Mahometan interlopers and report on their activities.

The Sultan contemplated his options and decided they weren't very good. He had planned to have his cousin, the murdered Arslan, take a major role in this campaign but that was not going to happen now and he was sure the army would suffer because of it. At a push, he had even thought of allowing Mehmet to command an element of the offensive but that couldn't happen because Mehmet was tied up at Delhi. It all fell to Masud's shoulders and he was not at all confident but there was little to be done. He had come too far to give up now. He summmoned his senior officers to discuss the plan of attack....

September 1109: Masud began his assault on the Hindu forts and castles! It was bloody and dirty work for the Ajmeris were masterful engineers and had been placed every castle in an easily defensible position (usually one that couldn't be bypassed by an invader). The Ghaznavids were hampered by a shortage of trained artificers and, perhaps even more importantly, a shortage of water. The heavier elements of the army (including His Majesty's personal regiment of guardsmen where each man was clad in good steel armour and a stout helmet and bearing a heavy spear, a thick shield, a broad-bladed sword and even a hatchet) suffered particularly as they trudged their way across the land and fought their way over castle walls for many hours at a time in the pitiless heat of an Indian sun.

Losses to attrition were high and seldom could enough water be found - it was no rare occurrence for different regiments or tribal levies to fight each other for control of watering holes and wells (which were never large enough for everyone to drink). More than once, blood was shed and lives lost in such disputes. There were, as it happens, certain large watering points and great stone cisterns where enough water could be drawn to slake the thirst of a very large contingent of men but the Chauhans, whether from cunning or cruelty, had ensured that their finest efforts at fortification guarded these vital resources. Often, great wells and cisterns stood perhaps fifty or a hundred yards beneath the walls of some hill fort - easily within bowshot. Plenty of stout Afghans and doughty Turks from the steppe perished at the end of a Hindu arrow in an attempt to draw this water. As the weeks rolled by and the end of the month approached, most of Masud's mercenary contingent lay dead along with most of his engineering corps and fully three-quarters of his light horsemen. He had succeeded in reducing a dozen Hindu castles but he hadn't managed to get within even a week's march of the Chauhan-Paramara army nor, it seemed to him, was he at all likely to.

On one of those cold nights you can only get in the desert, Masud sat in his pavilion surrounded by his senior officers and tribal commanders. Masud liked sitting in his tent - during battle, he liked to give orders to his officers and watch as they scampered off to carry out his will; he wasn't used to this kind of situation where he had to lead from the front. He toyed with some very skillfully-carved chess pieces (for chess was another of his passions and he'd been having a hard time, on this campaign, finding anyone to play against) and wondered whether he'd have been better off staying in Lahore where he could always find a decent opponent.]

"The men are on the verge of leaving," said one of the Afghan nobles, breaking Masud's reverie.

"Correct me but I do not recall giving an order to leave," replied the Sultan. "And I think, though again you must correct me if I have erred, that I am the one responsible for issuing such orders... Am I not?"

"Indeed," conceded the noble. "But the morale of the men is poor. They have suffered much in this infernal desert and want to return either to Tarain or to Lahore."

"I see," was all that Masud said. He contemplated his army - it was a polyglot affair with members of dozens of tribes speaking perhaps half-a-dozen major languages (not counting the local dialects). It was a difficult thing to manage at the best of times because, inevitably, the members of this tribal contingent would want to pursue some generations-old grudge against the members of that tribal contingent but to handle the army when things were going badly (as they plainly were)... That was far beyond Masud's ability. Perhaps it was far beyond anyone's ability. Arslan, as Masud recalled, had always been good at handling troublesome internecine grudges though usually only because fear of what Arslan would do eclipsed the resentment provoked by ancient slights and insults.

"Our losses have been high," the nobleman went on. "The mercenaries are gone - either dead or deserted - and the army is in no condition to assault many more of these forts. They're too well-defended, Majesty. As if that were not bad enough, I don't even know where most of the men of my regiment are! They're scattered all over the place! At any given time, I can guarantee that at least a third of my men are off foraging for water and Allah only knows how many of them are ambushed by the Cow-Worshippers or just get lost in this God-forsaken desert."

"Your point is made," the Sultan barked. "We cannot fight. Your men will not fight. You will not fight. I understand what you have said now, prithee, be quiet and let me think." After an interminable silence he continued quietly: "We will begin withdrawing to Tarain but rest assured - I'll be back."

So it was said and so it was done! Masud surveyed his army's withdrawal (or "cowardly retreat" as he was sure his opponents would call it). It was said that the Sultan never forgave his troops for letting him down and refusing to press on against the Hindus. Whatever the truth, they left Ajmer (and the bones of many of their fellows) without even having fought a battle against the enemy army.

1110: As his army began flooding back into Tarain, the Sultan found himself once more contemplating what to do. Having failed to take the dustbowl of Ajmer, he could, perhaps, still grab Chitor and press on down even to the banks of the Ganges... Yet, his scouts informed him that the Paramaras had moved down into Chitor and Masud fancied that his army was not yet in a condition to risk an open battle. He remained quietly in Tarain and spent the rest of the year trying to regroup and recover as many stragglers and deserters as possible; his officers scoured the province hunting down anyone who might have been a soldier and they succeeded in no small way - hundreds of men, whether they had simply been unable to keep up with the main army or had deliberately deserted, were caught and dragged back to their regiments.

"It does not escape my attention that you were swift to accept my rule over Khwarizim. Your willingness to serve the Sultanate shall not go unrewarded," and here he paused as the green-eyed girl pushed some more sweet dates into his mouth. Berk shooed her away. To be sure, she was an exquisite creature but one couldn't conduct the business of government while a girl, however charming, was pushing fruit down your throat.

"Yes, you will be rewarded. Let there be no mistake that I have conquered your land. I am your lord and master now by right of conquest and the power of my blade, my lance and my strong right arm. Recognise these most salient of facts and you need have no fear for your future. I shall allow you, so long as you prove yourself loyal, to govern yourselves within reasonable boundaries." His tone took on a darker edge: " Understand, you men of Khiva, that I shall place no garrisons upon you and shall not make your people slaves. I shall not drive you from your homes nor shall I take what is yours. But this generosity will hold true only so long as you pay me all proper loyalty. Let but one of you take up the bow or the spear against me and I shall visit upon you a retribution ten thousand times worse than that which the Turkmen met."

At once, the clan chieftains, noblemen and bureaucrats swore or renewed their oaths and set about creating a quasi-autonomous administration for the region of Khwarizim and city of Khiva. Professional bureaucrats, men who had no loyalty to this khan or that sultan but who existed only to serve whichever potentate was on the throne at any given time, were appointed to high posts in this the most distant of the Empire's provinces. Once Berk Yaruk was satisfied, he made ready to depart, taking with him every single slavegirl and eunuch from the captured Khivan harem plus a goodly number of poets and courtly scholars who happened to have been employed in Khiva at the time of the conquest. Before he could leave he set his sappers to demolish Khiva's strong walls for the Great Sultan reasoned that, without these powerful defences, the Khivans would be much less likely to revolt. But the loss of the walls terrified all the people of Khiva for they were deeply fearful of what would happen should raiders from the steppe come or, perhaps worse, the vengeful young Ala al-Din Aziz who was gone but had sworn to return to reclaim his lands. As if the loss of the fortifications were not bad enough, the Sultan's kinsman, Jamuka, Qhan of Khurasan, gathered every last Seljuk soldier from the region leaving the place utterly undefended. Never before, not even when they had faced the threat of Berk Yaruk's invasion a few years earlier, had the Khivans felt so vulnerable. But that was not the Sultan's concern and so he set off with Jamuka and the army arriving in beautiful Isfahan, his wonder-filled golden capital, before the end of 1106.

Once in the capital, some things of real importance happened to the Great Sultan. Berk Yaruk was not a well-liked man but one of the few people he considered a true friend was has kinsman - Qhan Jamuka of Khurasan - and, not unnaturally, Jamuka spent a considerable amount of time in the Sultan's palace whether to discuss the business of government and warfare or simply to talk, drink and dine. During one of these visits, Jamuka brought his young sister, the Qhanum Anahid, with him. The Great Sultan had last met Anahid seven years before - he remembered her as a gangly little child of ten years, perpetually getting underfoot. She was presented to him as a striking girl of 17, tall, confident, intelligent and, above all, wonderously pretty - her mother had been a Circassian slave, favoured by her master for her looks, and Anahid had inherited her blue eyes, pearlescent skin and delicate features. Truly, the little girl had blossomed into a great beauty. Berk was, simply, very taken with young Anahid and quickly made up his mind that she would be an ideal bride but a marriage would require the blessing of Jamuka...

The first step the Sultan took was to reward Jamuka for his outstanding services in the recent Khwarizimi war. Without any warning, the Sultan dispatched slaves leading a strings of the finest horses, taken as war booty from the stables of the Shah at Khiva, to Jamuka's palace outside Isfahan. Qhan Jamuka was somewhat taken aback - to be sure, he knew that he deserved fine rewards but he hadn't expected actually to receive them! When Jamuka remarked, in an offhand way, that the silverwork on the Sultan's saddle was the finest he could remember seeing, His Majesty actually ordered slaves to fetch the saddle, then and there, and give it to his loyal servant Jamuka. For the greater part of the Winter of 1106-07, Jamuka received gifts and rewards on a daily basis - the Sultan's agents attended the slave markets and bought the most fetching girls and strongest eunuchs for Jamuka's seraglio while a train of servants tripped back-and-forth between the royal treasure houses and Jamuka's estate fetching ornaments of silver and gold as marks of the Great Sultan's esteem. And were material benefits not sufficient, the Qhan of Khurasan also received high political honours - at a grand council of all the greatest Seljuk nobles, Berk Yaruk announced that he was naming Jamuka as Atabeg of Persia, virtually regent, chief minister and heir combined! In riches and power, Jamuka had been made second to none in all Persia...

During this period of stalemate, both the Fatimids and Burids poured considerable efforts into espionage. Fatimid spies and scouts roamed around seeking out details of Burid defensive positions while Bedouin tribesmen took Burid gold to feed false information to the Heretics. The spies, though universally despised for the slinking creatures they were, proved vital to the campaign's outcome for agents in Yusuf's pay managed to deceive the Fatimids brilliantly and led them into a bloody ambush.

The Fatimids were fed false information to the effect that Yusuf had concentrated his little army near the village of Taba on the border with Petra. The quickest route to this place, where they could force the enemy either to fight a decisive battle or to withdraw from the region once and for all, would take the Fatimids across the Al' Tin Plateau and down to the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba whence they could march across the desert and close on the Syrian army. The path to the Plateau, though, was treacherous - rocky hills and many narrow ravines with only a single point, near Abu Rodeis, where mounted men could ascend the plateau... Yet, the Fatimids judged, the risk was worth taking because speed was of the essence.

But Al' Hafiz, the Fatimid general was not to be cozened easily - he sent a few contingents of mounted scouts far ahead, across the route he planned on taking; they returned and confirmed that they had seen Burid mercenary contingents deployed in the general direction of Taba... They had been chased off quickly, though, and had been unable to confirm precise numbers. It mattered not - Al' Hafiz was now convinced of the veracity of the reports he had received. Had he been more wary, the Egyptians might have avoided the trap but they were supassingly keen to push through this worthless desert land and into the rich regions beyond. They certainly were not going to be held up by some pathetic band of swords-for-hire.

Entering the vicinity of Abu Rodeis, outriders and pickets began to notice the presence of small numbers of Burid troops scattered around the region but their reports were dismissed as unimportant - after all, was it so unnatural that the Damascenes should deploy a few scouting posts in this area? It signified nothing. Pushing deeper and deeper into the ravines, the Shi'ites found themselves coming under attack - not a major assault on the main body of the advancing host but smaller hit-and-run attacks on pickets, outriders and the supply trayne. Annoying though these were, Hafiz was not perturbed. The handful of Burid hirelings in this area were obviously trying to earn their wages by making these brave, bothersome but utterly pointless attacks. Hafiz, a man whose very name in Cairo was a byword for honour, approved of the tenacity of the raiders but could not comprehend that their activities were in any way serious.

The gallant Fatimid general was to be proved mistaken. Almost the whole of the Burid army was secreted around the Egyptian route-of-march (the troops deployed around Taba had been placed there as a deliberate ruse - and it had worked!). For the remainder of the day, the hit-and-run attacks came faster and more furiously until four or five parts of the line might be under attack at any given time - attempts to counterattack came to nothing and a sense of panic began to set in. Egyptian losses were real but not huge - the real blow was to the army's morale. The Fatimid forces were not renowned for their steadiness at the best of times and here, attacked without warning by a foe they could not see, they began to panic. Night fell and every Egyptian campfire became subject to attacks by hidden archers who had crept within range and then snuck off leaving one or two unfortunates with arrows in their backs or chests. Morning came and so did the inevitable, despite Hafiz's best efforts to regain control over the situation. The advancing Egyptians turned tail and began flooding down, back along their route of march, to safety. The Burids followed, harrying them for some days, and giving them no rest until they had left the Sinai.

The defence of the Sinai was a great victory for the Burids and celebrations would have been held in Damascus but for the regrettable fact that yet another of her neighbours had invaded.

June-July 1107: The army of the Atabegs of Mosul, with Mahmud Nur himself at their head, finally began rolling into Syria. After the excitement of the preceeding year, Mahmud disposed of almost six thousand ahdath infantry, four thousand light horsemen - a mixture of Turks bearing their composite bows and Bedu tribesmen armed with cane bows - along with two thousand askari lancers, a moderately sized siege trayne and a couple of regiments of armoured Saracen infantry equipped with spears, swords and large round shields. It was formidable armament...

The Damascenes had fewer men - just over three thousand ahdath spearmen of their own, two thousand horse archers and a little over a thousand askari. What they had aplenty of was castles - perhaps twenty of them sitting astride most of the main routes to Damascus and the region's more important strategic points.

July was all but over by the time the invader had finished crossing over into Syria. In Damascus, news of the imminent approach of an invasion force caused panic! At first, the inhabitants thought that the invaders were Christian! They wailed at the descent of the barbaric Franks and foresaw a bloody and brutal end for themselves and their families for all had heard tell of the Christian atrocities at Al-Quds a decade earlier. Their spirits were only a little improved when they heard it was an army from Mosul that was advancing on them.

August 1107-May 1108: With his finest general (al-Findalawi) still off in the Sinai, Emir Tughtigin had no option but to lead the Damascene army himself. He was an able-enough tactician but he lacked flair or the hint of genius which makes a truly great commander (which was not to say that Mahmud was by any means an Alexander!).

Tughtigin elected not to fight a pitched battle with the odds as they were. Instead, realising that the Atabegs would have to subdue Syria's many castles before they could conquer the region, he decided that he would wait until the invading forces had moved to besiege or assault a position and then move to threaten them. This strategy was successful enough - Mahmud was forced to divide his army while attacking castles, always keeping a strong force to screen the besiegers - and the Damascenes won a number of small-scale skirmishes during the Autumn of 1107.

The first real battle of the campaign came in late September near the Syrian castle of Ash Shadadah. While the Atabeg siege engineers and most of the infantry regiments were bent on the task of reducing the fortress walls, Tughtigin began advancing from the north (from the direction of At Hasakah). Mahmud at once moved with the more mobile elements of his army and deployed for battle a few miles north of the besieged castle. When Tughtigin arrived, he showed no disinclination for combat and battle commenced...

The battle began as a cavalry melee. Atabeg and Syrian ashkari charged and countercharged one another for most of the afternoon while the horse archers on either side did their best to make life difficult for their opponents. The Syrian horse regiments acquitted themselves better than the Iraqis but there were somewhat fewer of them and the weight of the Atabeg cavalry was soon pushing them back. At this point, Tughtigin committed his well-drilled infantry to the fray, fighting as a virtual spear-block. The tired Syrian cavalry reformed behind the infantry while the overconfident Atabeg horsemen massed together for a single decisive charge which, Mahmud Nur was certain, would rout the Damascene infantry. The charge, though it shook the very earth, could not disconcert the Syrian infantry and the Atabeg mounted regiments broke all round the phalanx like the tide around a rock. At this point, the battle was effectively won. The Atabegs withdrew southwards, lifted the siege and withdrew to a more defensible positions; the Syrians, meanwhile, were disinclined to pursue but were satisfied with their achievements that day.

Both armies paused in their campaign and waited for Winter to pass them by - the Atabegs rested in Busayrah while the Syrians passed the Winter in Dayr az Zawr not far to the northwest. Spring came and the war restarted. This time, Mahmud was quicker off the mark and managed to reduce a couple of Syrian forts before Tughtigin had broken his Winter camp but such successes were not without a cost - more than third of Mahmud's engineers and artificers were lost in the effort and many hundreds of his best infantrymen died as they swept over the ramparts of Syrian castles. Nor did things improve when the Damascenes began moving against the rear and flanks of the Atabeg army. The castles of Tadmur and Dayr Atiyah on the line of advance to Damascus were stormed but the assaults were staged with much haste because the Atabegs did not wish to be caught by the approaching Syrians while they were committed to a siege; at least five hundred men fell at each castle though losses could have been much lighter had the Atabegs had more leisure to operate.

At last, with morale plummeting and losses mounting, Mahmud Nur, Atabeg of the Seljuk Emirate of Mosul, stopped at the town of Ma'lula, not far north of Damascus, and signalled the retreat. The withdrawing force was harassed by the Damascenes but to little effect. By June of 1108, the Atabegs were back in Palmyra to lick their wounds.

The Abassid Sultanate of Baghdad

Ruler: Al'Mustahazir Sultan, Commander of Commanders, the Caliph

Capital: Baghdad

Religion: Sunni Islam

Al'Mustahazir observed the chaos ripping loose around with a mixture of horror and bemusement. Muslim fought Muslim; Christian fought Muslim; Shi'a fought Sunni... There was no doubt about it - this was an interesting time to be alive. Still, so long as the princelings of the world - Infidel, Heretic and even those infernal Turks - fought amongst themselves, the Abassids in Baghdad could sit quietly and gather power into their hands.

To that end, the Abassids did little but sit back and watch the world go by - in matter diplomatic, the tribes in Seleucia were visited by emissaries from Baghdad and agreed to give free passage to Abassid forces. In Mesopotamia itself, great areas of fallow land were brought into use and the irrigation systems were extended as unprecedented amounts of money poured out of Abassid coffers. As the years rolled by, the region began to look more like the limitlessly rich paradise it had once been decades ago before the endless wars and invading armies from Egypt and Persia had trampled back-and-forth across it.

Back in the city, the Sultan began rearranging the affairs of the Court and State. The Abassid polity, ever since the liberation by the Turks, had been feudalistic by nature. The military and governmental systems had long been based on the ikta system by which military officers and governmental officials received allotments of land in lieu of payment and were obliged to raise troops from these estates to serve the Abassid overlord. Given the hard decades of war and occupation to which the Abassid domains had been subject, it was perfectly natural that such a system should have evolved but now things were different - now Al'Mustahazir was certain that peace and stability were on the horizon. The professional class of jurists, bureaucrats, scholars and clerics who had formed the ruling class of the Abassid state since time beyond memory were re-introduced to the offices from which the military aristocracy had displaced them. These nobles, with the military at their command, were not very happy to be brushed aside and stripped of authority in favour of the weak-kneed quill-pushers who had failed to defend Baghdad against the Heretic Fatimids but they were bought off or, at least, mollified when their ownership of their allotments (the source of their financial wellbeing) was confirmed in perpetuity and their supremacy in matters of military policy was guaranteed. So it was that Al'Mustahazir could look with some satisfaction at a military and bureaucracy organised in careful strata; peasants, nobles, scholars all working together like cogs on a giant mill.

The Azeri Emirate

Ruler: Eldigiz, Yazdid of Shirvan

Capital: Tabriz

Religion: Sunni Islam

Slept.

The Crusader States of Outremer

Ruler: Baldwin I, Latin King of Jerusalem, Defender of the Holy Places of Christendom

Capital: Jerusalem

Religion: Roman Catholic

Representatives of the Greek Emperor were in Latin Jerusalem, closeted away with Baldwin in closed session discussing God knows what... And that could not be a good sign. To the mind of the average Crusader, whether Frankish, Norman or German, the damnable Greeks were the epitome of dishonesty, with their slick silver-tongued lies and constant politicking. The Latin knights who had come east in the service of Christ knew exactly what they had fought for - their Faith, their Church, their God - simple concepts which anyone could understand. With those effete Greeks, though, there was no telling what was in their crafty minds - they would play the left hand against the right, manoeuvre others into doing their fighting for them... Hadn't the ungrateful wretches begged the Holy Father to send warriors east to shore up an ailing Byzantium? And had they not then spurned the very hand of aid and friendship as soon as the Knights of Christ extended it? Pah! A pox on the slinking, slimy Greeks and their cowardly lies!

As it turned out, most of the Latin East's inhabitants were about to get a severe shock... After the departure of his Byzantine visitors, Baldwin summoned the few dozen important Latin nobles and clerics of the High Court to Jerusalem to hear a proclamation. Usually, when a proclamation was made, its contents would be known some time in advance for it was not the King's habit to issue a decree or take an important decision without prior discussions with Outremer's upper echelons - the Haute Cour. This time it was different. This time only Baldwin and Bishop Hugh of Jerusalem knew what he would announce...

From the Counties of Tripoli and Edessa, from the allied Kingdom of Armenia, from the great fiefs surrounding the Holy City they came - knights from every corner of the Christian world who had given up their homelands and ancestral fiefs to come here and defend the Holy Land, where the feet of Christ had trodden, against the depredations of the Infidel. There were men of all kinds - a couple of Spaniards whose fief lay around the hill of Montjoie not far from Jerusalem; many Franks, some from Crown France, others from Burgundy; a goodly number of Occitans who had come out with their Duke, William the Troubador, and had opted to remain when he returned home; Normans, most from Southern Italy but others from Northern France and not a few from England; there was even a single English Saxon, barely out of his teens, who ranked high enough in Baldwin's eyes to sit in the councils of the Haute Cour. So many men from so many lands but one was missing - alone of all the great Crusader nobles, Bohemond of Taranto and Antioch was absent. Why, wondered the members of the Court, had he not been invited?

"Brothers-in-Christ," began the King to the throng of knights and counts. "Comrades-in-Arms. Loyal subjects."

Baldwin paused and there were several unhappy looks from around the table. The King of Jerusalem's supremacy over all the Princes of the Latin East was never in question but there were some who did not take kindly to the kind of centralised government which Baldwin, backed by the Count of Edessa, strove for. There were some, most notably Bohemond of Antioch, who saw the States of Outremer as a loose alliance rather than a hierarchy. Here and now, though, at this convocation of the Haute Cour, Baldwin was leaving no doubt that these men were his subjects, his inferiors. Some guessed that whatever announcement he was about to make would prove less than popular with the Crusading nobles and that he wanted to make clear, from the start, that obedience to his will was not optional but obligatory.

"It is Our pleasure, with the full support of God's Most Holy and Catholic Church as represented by His Grace, the Lord Bishop of Jerusalem, that the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and all its attendant and allied fiefs should forthwith enter into a solemn pact and covenant of alliance with our Christian brethren in Constantinople."

The statement was made in flat and formal tones and was met with a gasp from those around the table. The objections were immediately raised :

"The Greeks are heretics!" shouted more than a few.

"Antioch!" decried another. "They continue to lay claim to a city for which we spilt our blood!"

"They cannot be trusted," declared most. "The Greeks are as treacherous as snakes. They'll betray us to the Musselmen as soon as it suits their purposes."

Baldwin allowed them to bluster and shout and sat, quietly, steepling his fingers and waiting for his High Councillors to tire themselves out with their exasperation. By and by, the raised voices and protests subsided and things grew a little calmer as the Haute Cour looked to him to say something...

"His Imperial Majesty, the Roman Emperor Alexius, has sent a number documents to me, marked with his personal seal. While I comprehend your distrust of the Romans and, indeed, share your disquiet at the many insults to which the Knights of Christ have been subjected at the hands of the Romans of Constantinople, I am convinced of Alexius' good intentions.

"Now, truly, it has been said that the Roman Empire of the East is heretical and that they are not to be trusted and have wronged us in the past. None of this can be denied. No man of honour could overlook their many transgressions and yet no man of good conscience would spurn an apology for past wrongs and that is what Alexius offers us. As an earnest of his goodwill and his keen desire that all Christian men might unite in the service of God's Holy Plan, he has offered me the hand of his daughter, the Princess Maria, in marriage. And I have accepted. I might add that certain other matters have been agreed upon between the Romans and myself, matters which I choose not to reveal at the moment."

The meeting of the High Court broke up in disquiet. No wonder Bohemond hadn't been invited - he would have exploded with rage! And doubtless he would explode whenever he happened to hear of the underhanded deal between Baldwin and the Greekling for a rumour began to sweep the Latin East that the price of the Byzantine alliance and this dynastic marriage had been Antioch. Those who looked at the matter pragmatically could see the many tangible advantages which this alliance might grant to Outremer - Byzantine aid, military or financial, could easily prove vital in holding back the Saracen horde. And, from a personal perspective too, it was widely seen as advantageous for Baldwin to wed Maria Comnena for his own wife, Godvere of Tosni, had died in 1097 and the girl, Maria, was known to be a remarkable beauty. Others, though, were unlikely to be so pragmatic about the Byzantine treaty....

The footsteps could be heard far down the corridor. Baldwin slouched wearily on his chair and folded his arms, all the better to convey an impression of calm indifference to the storm about to break. The quick and steady pace of the footfalls could only belong to one man - Bohemond of Taranto, sometime Prince of Antioch. How the king wished his nominal subject would go to his lands and attend to matters there rather than stalking the corridors of Baldwin’s palace.

The sturdy door to the room flew open with such force that it creaked and sagged on its heavy hinges. To a ruler accustomed to respect, especially in his own chambers, this would have been a most serious breach of etiquette but the king had known his fellow Crusader for long enough now. Such formalities as awaiting formal invitation into the king’s presence meant nothing to the headstrong Bohemond. The Norman Count scowled at the chamberlain and functionaries in the room and, with a contemptous nod of his head, indicated their continued presence was not required.

As the king’s servants scurried from the chamber, Baldwin steeled himself for the coming tirade. A most valiant knight and true Christian warrior though Bohemond was, he was equally possessed of a headstrong - even rash - nature. He revelled in the clash of combat and had scant patience with the subtleties of diplomacy and sound governance. Baldwin let an inaudible sigh escape his lips as the door was closed behind the last of the retreating servants.

This was Bohemond’s cue. His eyes ablaze, he fixed Baldwin with an almost scornful stare. "Well?" he exploded. “What is to be done?

“By your counsel do we turn the other cheek to the insults of the effete Greeks. We are told that God’s will would not be served by laying low the proud Alexius and his gaggle of cowardly lackeys. And what purpose has been served by this, if not to encourage the foul Turk to descend upon our lands? Were it not for the mighty deeds of Thosos the Armenian, surely the heathen would even now be at the gates of Jerusalem! Is this insult, too, to pass without redress?”

Baldwin returned Bohemond’s stare with a steely countenance of his own. Though he declined to admit it, he also harboured suspicions that the Turk had seized upon the impassive relations with the Empire as a sign of weakness. It was a feeling shared by many of the Haute Cour. Whether this was, indeed, the impetus for the northern raids, though, mattered little. Bohemond had a point. In his direct manner he was doing no more than voicing the concerns of many throughout the kingdom.

Though the cries had been for revenge in the immediate aftermath of the attack, Baldwin had, again, first trusted to an exchange of despatches with the Sultan Kilij Arslen. Beyond any doubt these had shown the Rum leader to be a man ill-disposed towards negotiation and possessed of limitless arrogance. That his armies had been sorely routed by the Crusaders on their initial advance into the Holy Land had not dismayed him. His intemperance and insults demonstrated his overweening confidence and ambition. He remained defiant of the will of God and no-one in Outremer - nor Christendom - could let that pass.

“No. It will not”, replied the king. “While we will not agree about the wisdom of bearing arms against Christians - though they be Greeks and heretics - in redress to the insults rendered Our Lord, with the Mahometan it is another matter. They have sought to despoil our lands and carry away our people into bondage. It would be well that they be punished for their transgressions.”

Baldwin allowed a wry smile to cross his face as he regarded Bohemond’s reaction to his words. Conflicting emotions were visible in his face as the momentum of anger fought with the joy at the prospect of action. With the wind momentarily taken from his sails, Baldwin capitalised on the opportunity.

“And I would have you to come with me into the land of the Turk that we may benefit from your skill-at-arms.”

Would it not have been below his station to do so, Bohemond would have let out a cry of celebration. Yet his obvious delight was discerned in the change of his tone.

“Indeed, sire. That would be my wish.”

Sire?, thought Baldwin. And not a hint of sarcasm? How easy it was to manipulate the respect of this princeling. His joy at the prospect of warring against the Turk had effectively buried the protests, complaints and threats about the Byzantine alliance and marriage with which Baldwin had been expecting to be deluged.

Over the weeks that followed, Baldwin and Bohemond worked side by side planning the forthcoming expedition. While Baldwin prepared the route of march to be taken, the Prince of Antioch set to summoning the lords of Outremer, their households, retainers and levies. The mighty force that assembled in Jerusalem in early 1106 demonstrated the differences already manifesting themselves in the composition of the Christian armies of the East. While many Frankish lords arrived leading contingents recognisable to Western eyes - armoured knights, spearmen and crossbowmen - others brought with them troops reflecting the varied nature of the peoples now under Christian rule: archers from the Maronite community, spear-armed hillmen from the Lebanese Druze and even Christianised Arabs equipped in their native manner - the Turcopouli. The Latin host was further swelled by the engagement of many Moslem mercenaries. Such religious differences as may have existed between the hirers and the hired were of little account - to the Syrian swords-for-hire, Christian gold was as good as any in such circumstances.