Drevstranese Civil War
| Drevstranese Civil War | |||||||||
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 A Bolsarist patrol monitoring the advance of a "band of brigands". | |||||||||
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TES and affiliated
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Socialist Forces
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Lushyodor Republic
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Royalists forces | ||||||
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The Drevstranese Civil War was an early 20th century conflict in Drevstran that lasted from 1913 to 1919. It was mostly fought at first between the regime created by Hortankh Bolsar and his partisans, against Insurgencies and Warlords of various allegiance, and then between Vilvo Orbraggar and the very same insurgents following the former's victory over Abemus Kumar and absorption of the Bolsarist faction into his forces.
The conflict started when Hortankh Bolsar, in a bid to strengthen the country's conservatives and traditionalists forces agaisnt the rising popularity of socialism and liberalism, led a coup against the ruling monarch Ansmar II that successfully ended the Triple Monarchy. Bolsar's violent takeover proved extremely unpopular and led to the immediate insurrection of many forces thourough the country, be they monarchists, socialists, or even republicans. Portions of the armies that Bolsar proved unable to control fell into warlordism, either paying lip-services to the Bolsarist regime or pursuing their own agenda such as Vilvo Orbraggar whom started as a neutral force before he created an independent Lushyodor Republic once he was forced by the royalists to pick a side and chose to not support Prince Farza of Kaposlovar's bid to restore the monarchy.
Ultimately, the Lushyodor Republic took the upper-hand in the conflict once internal turmoil inside the Bolsarists after the assassination of their leader led to their absorption into the Orbraggists ranks. It would nonetheless take another three years of intermittent conflicts for Orbraggar to gain control over all of the country against rivals such as the self-proclaimed Marquis of the Yug, Srav Krann and the "Twin Warlords of the East", Ognen and Bolisar Gnewilko. The end of the conflict is generally dated to the proclamation of the First Mervoshia the 11th of May 1919 by the Committee for a Peaceful Transition and the Redaction of a New Constitution that had been assembled by Orbraggar in late 1918, officially ending the Triple Crown and the Drevstranese Monarchy.
Background
The Crimson Revolution of Ostrozava in 1909 massively affected Drevstran. Grand Duke Borek I Vykopal became a Martyr for the Drevstranese nobility and upper class, helped by the stories spread by the Ostrozavan Nobles who fled the country and found refuge on the other side of Lake Kulpanitsa to the point the Vykopal became known as the Dramatic Dynasty.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, both side of lake Kulpanitsa went through a similar development, with their respective dynasties and aristocracies struggling to modernize in face of increased socialist and populist pressure. Peasants Revolts were common in both nation but Drevstran, lagging behind in its industrial development compared to its neighbors, proved to be "dreaded soils" for the Wernerists and Aklian socialists. Anarchists and Communalists however gained a certain popularity in the countryside, notably in the form of Hártatázok, of combined peer-to-peer banking and peer-to-peer lending associations that evolved into militant organisation capable of controlling multiple villages without the involvment of the legal authorities.
Drevstran had "missed the industrialization" for its most part and its economy remained rural and agricultural and, like in Ostrozava before the Revolution, society was an uncomfortable balance between local powers representative of an ill-defined "People" (the Three Parliaments), and authoritarianism with a Monarchy stuck in what was called passive conservatism where they did nothing to either liberalize the economy (as demanded by the country' upper class) or the society (as demanded by the local Parliaments and the Hártatázok).
In this unstable balance, Ansmar II, the Triple-Monarch, relied more and more on his military to counteract his growing impopularity. Certain Officers became known as the "King's Executors", being sent in the countryside to crush uprisings and in the cities to limit protests or arrest people deemed to be threats to the state using the heavily criticized system of the Letters patent. since the late 19th century, the Drevstranese military' loyalty had remained unwavering, its officers attached to the Triple-Monarchy and its fragile balance of duties, rights, and privileges. But as the country moved within the 20th century, the army began steered more and more to the side of the Industrialists and Economic Liberals.
While at first this faction of the Officer Corps was sidelined by Ansmar II, the latter was scared by the arrival of the Ostrozavan Nobles Refugees who began frequenting the same saloon as the Drevstranese upper-class, spreading with them the same absolute hatred of Socialism and Reformists movements, as well as calling for more immediate actions against them. For the ruler of Drevstran these abrasive refugees were as dangerous as the Hártatázok, and by meddling and fraternizing with them the conservative and reactionary factions in and outside the court were compromised in the eyes of their ruler.
As a result in 1911, Ansmar II made Hortankh Bolsar, the then-General of the Second Army, his main Enforcer. Bolsar may have shared the same fear of a second Crimson Revoluion as other officers and nobles, and he became infamous for his brutality when sent to crush protests, he was nonetheless an ardent promoter of Drevstran' Industrialisation and agreed Drevstran desperately needed modernization. In that regard, he was the unofficial president of the Kopony Clique, a circle of military officers who shared his opinions and ideals and whom for the most part were all formed and trained in the same academy.
For the next two years, Bolsar was proactive in his "peacekeeping mission", sending his troops against anything resembling a "red" protest while also targetting the potentially reactionary nobility and upper classes through his burgeoning Secret police headed by his right-hand man : Abemus Kumar. It seemed as if Ansmar II was ready to align himself with the "Blue Reformists" and announce Reforms. But as months passed it became clear the King had no wish to do so and was content to remain a passive conservator.
This placed Bolsar in a dangerous situation; his apparent status as the King' favorite had been a powerful shield against his opponents and he was now at risk of being himself purged. Disillusioned, Bolsar began organizing the future with his partisans and the small bourgeoisie of Drevstran who saw in him a potential strongman sympathetic to their cause. Finally, in 1913, after Ansmar II once more publicly refused a reform proposition made by the three parliaments, Bolsar and his troops entered Angrast and stormed the royal palace. The 15th of February 1913, three days after the Bolsarist Coup, King Ansmar II of the Drev officially signed his abdication and dissolved the Monarchy, letting Hortanhk Bolsar establish his Transitory Emergency State.
Warfare
Royalist Uprising
The 12th February coup, while it did successfully led to the abolition of the Triple-Crown, dit not however crush the Royalists. Prince Farza of Kaposlovar, the prince-inheritor of Drevstran, escaped the putschists and fled to the northwest of the country, in the Azdrheg mountains where he linked up with the 6th Army whose general, Yerebrim Yakov, was completely won over to the cause of the Prince. Farza and Jerebrim tried to convince the local authorities, from mayors to prefects, religious leaders, and provincial magistrates, to join their cause. They managed to form a strong core of both supporters and de-facto vassals who only agreed because of the fear of the two men' troops. They failed however to convince the Metrohegumen of Barbellon and thus vast sways of lands both in the Azdrheg and the Mrenzentag geographic regions instead fell under the control of Prefect Sullivan Taoh and his militias. The Transitory Emergency State immediately recognized the authority of Taoh as legal and decided to support him, although the Prefect-warlord remained undecided. This decision would have drastic consequences on the fall of the Emergency State into Warlordism.
On the other side of the country the General of the Third Army, Srav Kann, was openly critical of the Coup and questioned the legality of the King' abdication. relationship between him and Hortankh Bolsar soured immediately and the latter ordered the demission of the former. Kann simply refused and, to made explicit his separation from the Emergency State, proclaimed himself "Marquis of Yugstran" as "Since it has become clear to us, and to all our fellow crown subjects, creating new governments has become triviallly easy and no longer require the respect of Laws, let alone of Decency." These words, published in the local press, led to the unexpected recognition of Srav Kann new title by Prince Farza and the de-facto alliance between the two groups even though contacts would remain limited, if not inexistant, thorough the war.
Red and Grey Uprisings
While Hortankh Bolsar credibility with the Liberal-Reformists was high, the Drevstranese Socialists' opinion on the new State Chairman was far from auspicious. When the Emergency State refused to even consider the Reforms' offered by the remaining "left branch" of the three Parliaments after their first session, combined with the emission of a Draft, many Hártatázok mobilized, refusing to pay taxes or send men to the Bolsarist Army. These Associations, led by charismatic community leaders, would greatly disrupt the logistic of the Emergency State which had a limited capacity of action against them as it was already caught fighting a war on two fronts against the Royalists. The isolated and agrarian Sevromark in northern Drevstran especially became an hotbed of anarchist or communalist leaning pockets of resistance. Villages in rebellion waging wars against military troops and officials trying to enter their territories, and living off their own production plus raids against either other communities or the army. In that regard, these pockets acted much more like tribal militias than as legitimate attempt to change the country' government.
Beside these rural pockets, bands of deserters became a common occurence during the civil war. While most of these were completely apolitics and were only motivated by their survival, some did during the early stage of the war claim to fight for a Revolution against both the Royalists and the Bolsarists. The most famous of these was the Farkas Band which terrorized western Drevstran between 1913 and 1915, especially the area between the northern Furodommark and the Mren River Valley. This troop was an eclectic mix of rebels, bandits, deserters, and socialists revolutionaries funded by the Socialist Party of Ostrozava.
Later during the year, the eastern third of the Drevstran rose up against Hortankh Bolsar' regime because of frustration with the Chairman' refusal to implement a number of reforms demanded by the Parliament of Yugstran. The latter would then ally with the bandit leaders Iker and Grushna Larkos, known as the Twin Warlords of the East. Their armies of bandits, deserters, and local militias would prove a lasting threat during the civil war.
Black Forces
The creation of the Transitory Emergency State was first received positively by most of Drevstran and by the international community at the time, being seen as a strong and willful enough form of government capable of restoring order while kickstarting the modernisation the country so desperately needed. But quickly, and despite the early rallying of the Three Parliaments' to the Bolsarists, it became appearant that the Emergency State had only the form and none of the institutions of an actual state, being unable to prevent the collapse of the administration in the wake of the Monarchy' abolition.
As such, Bolsar' authority proved to be very limited and based on a network of relationship with local warlords and charismatic strongmen who rallied themselves to his cause, or at least did not oppose him, for various reasons. At the start of the war, the most powerfuls of these warlords were obviously Hortanhk Bolsar himself at the head of his Second Army but also ex-members of the Kopony Clique such as Gyorgy Mazravem, leader of the Fifth Army, who controlled most of the northern border earning him the nickname of "Duke of the Sevrommark". A convinced Bolsarist, Mazravem would proved to be highly unpopular in his controlled territories because of his brutal application of the Draft and collection of arbitrary War Taxes. Thus, Hártatázok would be especially active in his area and he would spend most of his time during the war trying to repress and crush them. This seriously impeded his capability to oppose Prince Farza of Kaposlovar and his Golden Columns.
Another important leader in the early days of the war was Sullivan Taoh. Contrary to other warlords, Taoh was only a police Prefect at the time of the coup but had long since been the leader of various far-right militia groups who helped his police maintain order in an area far larger than his official prefectory. A situation further helped by his good, if unequal, relationship with other police forces across the west of the country. As a result when the Golden Columns began threatening Barbellon he entered an alliance with the Metrohegumen of the city and leader of the Drevstraneses Albans, Vazhilly II, becoming its unofficial protector. While Taoh was never stricto-sensu a Bolsarist, he was still in favour of maintaining order and protecting the "State" and was given extraordinary power by the Emergency State to do so, once again highlighting Bolsar' dependency on local warlords.
Finally, another actor that would prove critical as the war unfolded but was relatively unknown at the beginning of it was the Major-General Vilvo Orbraggar. Another member of the Kopony Clique, Orbraggar was appointed General of the First Army by his long-time friend Bolsar, keeping the border with Garima. Despite these close ties to the Emergency State, Orbraggar appears to have been rather critical of the Coup, and his promotion was as much as a way for Bolsar to place one of his friend in a strategic position as it was a way to evacuate Orbraggar far away from Angrast.
Foreign Involvment
Support to the Royalists
Support to the Bolsarists
Support to the Socialists
Course of the War
First Pacification of the South
By May, the lines had been drawn and most of the factions had materialized themselves (with a few exceptions such as Iker and Grushna Larkos who were still only leaders of a larger-than-most bandit group). As the political situation in Angrast worsened, Hortankh Bolsar decided to launch what would end up being known as the First Pacification of the South ("Del Elza Rentremenes") against Srav Kann' Marquisate of Yugstran. While the First Pacification would be often criticized and mocked as a poorly planned out gut reaction to Srav Kann' insults to the Bolsarist regime, the obvious goal of the campaign was to crush the rebellious Third Army early, and prevent the emergence of a second front.
For this campaign, Bolsar tried to free as much as his loyalist and experimented Second Army as possible. On paper, the Second Army represented 216,000 well trained and equipped men, but because of desertions and other situations provoked by the chaos of the Coup, the number of soldiers at Bolsar' direct disposition fell under 200,000. They were divided into three Corps: two would take direct part into the Campaign, one as the "Shock" force and the other as the "Fire" force, while the last one would stay in reserve to man the other fronts and continue to maintain order within the territories held by Bolsar. In total, it is estimated that Bolsar had gathered between 64,000 and 140,000 men for the operation.
Srav Kann on the other hand had the same theoretical numbers of men under his order at the start of the war : 216,000. But because of his status as a pariah and open secession from Drevstran as a whole, his Third Army was much more impacted by desertions and mutinies, leaving him with maybe 100,000 men by May to oppose to Bolsar. This was compensated only slightly by Kann' constitutions of the Margravate Troopers, volunteer militias who joined Kann either because of their Royalists convictions or because they were promised they could return to their farms once it was time for the harvest, meaning the Troopers represented an easy and welcome extra to their revenues. However, these Troopers had yet to be trained, equipped, and both their numbers and morales were dramatically low since Kann had yet to solidify his name. Even though they were consigned to "law enforcement" duties, these militias still helped free more experienced troops for the fight to come and the more galvanized units were used to plug the gaps in the formations.
Another massive difficulty faced by Srav Kann was his supplies. Even though Bolsar aimed for a quick war, he had at his disposition the industrial centers around Angrast to maintain his war effort if need be. Meanwhile, Kann controlled no such thing and had to rely on his pre-war reserves. Even his efforts to build smuggling networks were still unripe, greatly limiting his capacity to plan his defense on the long term. In that regard both Warlords agreed : their confrontation would've to be quick.
Bolsar' plan was simple : the river Viz link almost directly Angrast to the most important city under Kann' domination : Vizerad which control the fertile Viztran Valley. as such, Bolsar' "Shock Force" would push right through the center of the front, follow the river Viz upstream, until they reached Vizerad. Meanwhile, the "Fire Force" was to cover their advance and secure the frontline as it grew. Any loss or weakness was to be compensated by reinforcement from Angrast and its region.
But Kann made his own preparations. Knowing that he could not hold against Bolsar in a direct confrontation, he adopted an elastic approach to his defense. Men in the hills surrounding the Vez rivers and protecting An-Lushem, Srav Kann' de-facto capital, were expected to hold their ground. Meanwhile, troops in the center were to slowly but surely retreat, from one line of defense to the next, as the Bolsarists pushed in. Finally, once they were overextended, Kann would order the wings to fall on the Viz river and destroy there the Bolsarists forced trapped by the manoeuver.
Bolsar launched the campaign the third of May 1913, attacking from both the north and the west. On the latter front, the hilly and foresty topography turned to be a terrible danger for the attackers, the light artillery still in Kann's possession being capable of rapidly moving from highpoint to highpoint, supporting the defenders in the vales. Nonetheless, The Second Army still pushed through and closed in on the Viz Valley.
Northward, Kann' planning bore its fruits. The wings held, and the center folded. A week after the start of the hostilities, the Second Army was in view of Vizerad. On the eight' day, the Marquisate' reserve, made up mostly of the most well-equipped Margravate Troopers Kann could gather and supervised by veterans of the Third Army, fell on the Bolsarists logistical lines and reinforcements running through the Viz Valley. Caught in the pocket, it would take another week for the Bolsarist force to get out and link back with the rest of the Army. Meanwhile, it's Kann' men who were now in view of Angrast, triggering panicks in the capital. But in front of the heavy resistance organizing itself before the city and because of his own precarious position, Kann ordered his men to fall back on more easily defensible positions.
The Campaign would drag on for the rest of the summer. While Kann had successfuly repelled the Bolsarists, he failed to recover any of the western hills he had abandoned to the advancing Second Army and lost many men in fruitless assaults. Autumn 1913 and winter 1914 saw the fightings halt, because of dwindling reserves, situations elsewhere, and the weather. But by spring 1914, it became clear that the Margravate could no longer feasibly hold the Viz valley as the Bolsarists had secured their position on the western hill. The Second Pacification of the South launched from said hills by the Bolsarists would prove it. By june, Srav Kann ordered his troops to withdraw and abandon Vizerad.
Still, Hortankh Bolsar was the one who came out of this Campaign defeated. His credibility was shattered while Kann position was secured. The Second Army lost 24,000 men in a month, the equivalent of an entire pre-war division. In total, the Bolsarists would lose 35,000 men in the year 1913 on the southern front, while the Margravate would lose 28,000 on the same period, a number inflated by Kann' growing reliance on the Margravate Troopers and their inexperience. Nonetheless he did manage to preserve his core troops of veterans, while Bolsar had lost some of his best regiments in the Campaign.
Zod Constituent Assembly
Before the war, the Triple Crown had three parliaments, each representing one of the "nation" tied by the Monarchy : Lushyodorstag, Drevstran, and Yugstran. Winning over these three parliaments had been central to Hortankh Bolsar rise. Unfortunately, the failed Pacification of the South scared the Parliaments which, for the most part, lost their faith in the Chairman and his Emergency State. The Parliament of Yugstran notably (representing Pristlav and the eastern coast, and had nothing to do with Sevro Kann' Marquisate) which had already tenuous relations with the military strongman, cut all ties with the Emergency State. Not only because of the failure, but also because Bolsar had decided to launch the campaign in the first place.
Indeed, the eastern third of the country, with its regional hub in Pristlav, was in an especially chaotic situation since September and the Coup. Many officers in the Fourth Army, including its General, abandoned their post and fled to join Prince Farza of Kaposlovar in his revolt. Leaderless, the fourth army melted away under desertion, creating roaming bands of bandits and rebels terrorizing the countryside. The few units who did not abandon their post soon became undistinguishable from those who had as they begun a Protection racket, offering their services to cities and villages under the threat of banditry. Especially when said units were themselves the threatening bandits.
And so, despite the Parliament of Yugstran' plea toward Bolsar to intervene, the latter had instead decided to send his forces against Sevro Kann and had almost lost Angrast to the self-proclaimed Marquis. Back in Pristlav, the Parliament therefore decided to stop dealing with the Emergency State. Their representatives had abandoned Angrast since Kann had pushed back the Bolsarists to the city' edges and did not return when he left.
Instead, the Parliament began negotiations with the most successful warband plaguing the eastern coastline. Its leaders, the twin brothers Iker and Grushna Larkos, agreed to cooperate and handle the security and military forces of the new state. They began actively purging the countryside of its bandits, deserters, and "Degenerated Soldiery" (Losh:Elkroskolat Katontzag; Ludz: Degenerovan Voraki). Survivors of defeated bands or bands that submitted were incorporated into the Grushna' military. By July 1913, the Parliament of Yugstran and its new warlords felt secure enough in their position to officially proclaimed themselves unilatteraly to be "Drevstran' much needed Constituent Assembly", with its "war capital" in Zod.
This caught Bolsar completely off-guard who nonetheless manage to send Second Army' reserve troops to secure important border position or wrestle them away from the Grushna' Brothers if necessary. From August to November 1913, Angrast and Zod would thus send expeditions, raids, and small-scale assaults against one another, depending on the opportunity, the need , and the capacity of each to do so. The mud of Autumn would slow down these efforts until the cold winter of 1914 finally force a de-facto truce. In these six months of fighting it is estimated both side lost a similar number of men: around 10,000 each.
Azdrheg Front
As soon as he found refuge with the Sixth Army, Prince Farza of Kaposlovar began a large-scale campaign of propaganda and military demonstration to gather the loyalty of local leaders and officials in the region of the Azdrheg Mountains, in the north west of Drevstran. The region was especially receptive to his message, having always harbored royalists tendencies, and soon those who opposed or distrusted the Prince had to leave the Azdrheg or face the early white terror performed by the militias organized by General Yerebrim Yakov and Prince Farza: the Golden Columns.
However, outside of the Azdrheg mountains Prince Farza' movement quickly found a strong opposition: Vazhilly II the |Metrohegumen of Barbellon and de-facto leader of the city in this time of crisis, refused to side with Prince Farza and decided instead to place Barbellon under the protection of Sullivan Taoh, the most Bolsar-alligned warlord of the region. Vazhilly was convinced of the drastic need of a deep "Reformation" of Drevstran to avoid the more radical fate of Ostrozava, something Barbelloneses in general have been sensibilized toward by the influx of Ostrozavans refugees who fled the country in the wake of the Crimson Revolution. Fighting between Royalist and Bolsarist militias would slowly define a de-facto border south of the Azdrheg Mountains.
The Sixth Army however would not be able to position troops on that border to any meaningful extent before Autumn 1913. Before that, they had to face Gyorgy Mazravem, Bolsarist General of the 5th Army and de-facto military governor of the Sevromark, quick campaign against the Royalists' position. This campaign, decided without the direct approval of Angrast, was bloodbath for both side but succeeded in disturbing the constitution of a royalist' base in northern Drevstran. It would be followed by a second campaign during the winder of 1914, an even more destructive bloodbath for even less gains, which finally showed the limits of Mazravem' strategy. These two campaigns are generally known as the Northern Offensives ("of 1913" and "of 1914" respectively).
It's during this same winter that Sullivan Taoh would launch his own campaign to push back the Royalists as far away from the Kulpanitsan coast and Barbellon as possible. This unexpected assault in the middle of winter by policemen and civilian recruits gathered in various paramillitaries successfully pushed back the royalist opposition, made up of troops of equal quality. To be able to amass enough troops to man these assaults, Taoh had been forced to disregard the southern "homefront", which allowed various bands of deserters and criminals to profit from the situation. Among these, Fehrer Farkas, an ex-soldier of the Fourth Army who just arrived in the region with his band of deserters and sympathized with local socialists militias and warbands. Some of these "red bands" Farkas made were also in contact with the young Prime Republic of Ostrozava, though direct foreign intervention on their behalf remained off the table. Sensing an opportunity to gain more funds and supplies, Farkas united all these heterogeneous units of "Reds and Greys" and took over the small port city of Kiröt in January 1914. Ostrozavan coastal vessels would occasionally resupply this position.
But this was not the end of Ostrozavan involvement. Vazhilly II' preach and public sermons in favor of Sullivan Taoh' Winter Offensive animated many of the militias with a profound religious fervor. Ostrozavan refugees in particular would be especially in tune with Vazhilly II's mission of preventing a second Crimson Revolution. Koloman Lenved, founder of the Rytieriroz, left Ostrozava for Barbellon with a small troop of his "Bisected Knights", ready to join the "Holy Mission" of Vazhilly II, his support in southeastern Ostrozava sufficiently entrenched to supply his expedition with both ex-Karminian arms and radicalized manpower.
Mrengrave double front
Despite Sullivan Taoh' winter campaign apparent success, the failure of the parallel Northern Expedition of Gyorgy Mazravem meant that the Royalists Golden Columns were now free to shift their attention back to the Prefect' front. In the meantime, Taoh forces continued to be spread thin, as the Farkas Band, now backed by Ostrozava, enjoyed the snow melts of early spring to launch a campaign of razzias deep into the Mrengrave (Taoh's de-facto province), using their mostly horse-mounted force to bypass roads and make their own paths through the muddy countryside of March and May 1914.
Left on his own by both Mazravem (left too weakened by his Northern Expeditions and himself destabilized by red uprisings in his backyard) and Bolsar (busy planning his Second Pacification of the South) Sullivan Taoh ended up having to face a double war, an asymmetrical one against Farkas and a classical one against Prince Farza. The latter launched Operation Nagy Saul the 4th of May 1914, using his elite units from the 6th Army as the spearhead of the attack, piercing through Taoh' line and desorganizing his front into a giant route. A week later, the Golden Columns had completely encircled the Alban Pentapolis.
What followed was a three months-long siege trench war. Most of the able population of Barbellon was then levied as exceptional "urban militias" to support what was left of Taoh' paramilitary. The desperate situation rekindled religious fervor among the militias, helped with the regular sermons of Vazhilly II and his monks. It's during this Siege of Barbellon that Koloman Lenved and his Bisected Knights became reknowned for their bravery, zeal, and fervor among the general population. In fact, the Alban Pentapolis, and especially its Ostrozavan Emigration would remain an important recruitment pool for the Rytieriroz post-war.
Ultimately Prince Farza was unable to go through the Pentapolis' desperate defense despite his best attempts, having to deal with the exponential growth of Fehrer Farkas' men to his south, now that the Socialist Rebel was unchallenged by the Prefect troops, and being concerned by a potential Third Northern Offensive by the 5th Army, the Golden Columns slowly but surely abandoned the siege, retreating to the territories they held before winter 1914. The power vaccum left by Operation Nagy Saul would prove to be extremely beneficial to Fehrer Farkas. By August 1914 the latter was virtually unchallenged.
Battle of Furodommark
Since Fehrer Farkas installation in Kiröt, the mountaineous region of southwest Drevstran known as the Furodommark has been under the constant threat of the Socialist Warlord' raiding parties. Many towns and villages formied inter-villages militias and built retreat points and reserves up in the mountains in these time of civil strife. The First Army, stationed in the region, was tasked with defending the border and to remain ready for a potential Gariman involvement in the war in favour of the Royalists. The army new leader, Vilvo Orbraggar, appointed by his long-time friend Hortankh Bolsar himself, was unwilling to abandon his positions on the border, even as Fehrer Farkas penetrated further and further to the south. This was both because he was still unsure about Garima' true stance on the civil war, and also because his grasp on his newly granted army was tenuous at best. Ultimately, after the catastrophic summer of 1914 during which Fehrer Farkas became the de-facto ruler of the Mrengrave, Orbraggar made the decision to send troops northward, to reinforce local militias and create a system of defense capable of resisting Farkas' columns.
From there on, Orbraggar and Farkas would end up both engaging in guerilla and counter-guerilla warfare, with no real front to speak of as troops found themselves dilluted in a large space. The first army copied Farkas' tactics and developed entirely mounted columns of "military police forces" capable of riding deep into the Mrengrave to attack the structure of the socialist army. Meanwhile, the loose defensive system was assured by local mountain-based militias, supported by small teams of soldiers dispatched by the First Army to live and fight with them. On the opposite side, Farkas' Band was organized in sensibly the same manner.
However, after months of low-intensity but permanent conflict made of raids and counter-raids, it became clear that Farkas' columns assaults were dulled by the mountaineous geography of the Furodommark and the strong implementation of the Firt Army among the population. Orbraggar even managed to convince the Lushyodorstag Parliament to slowly return to Pyrovegy, its original seat and to publicly support him, boosting his image among the population, already slowly won over by the Dispatched troops. This loose but solid network where every village, every town was turned into a fortified position manned by motivated and relatively well-equiped troops only got stronger with time as Farkas' columns' edge became duller and duller.
Meanwhile, Farkas' defense was just as much based on local militarized bands, but of bandits, deserters, and only a few true believers in the Revolution. Ostrozavans advisors and specialists also served the same role as Orbraggar' dispatched teams, helping strengthen a system, but otherwise Farkas lacked a strong implantation within the population itself as the mercy of bandit warlord' exactions. Worse stil, whereas the Furodommark was mountaineous, the Mrengrave was a large expanse of flatlands with a few rolling hills. Slowly but surely, Farkas and his Ostrazavans advisors were forced to contract their operative system, until they were clearly on the defensive by the middle of summer 1915. It's then that Orbraggar finally agreed to fully deploy three of his divisions to the Mrengrave. The large scale assault, which saw the combined used of horse-drawn light artillery and machine-gun supported cavalry. It culminated with the open-field Battle of Ryprudy which saw the destruction of the last coherent army under Farkas. The "White Wolf" himself would die due to his wounds in he days after the battle. Abandoned by its defenders, Kiröt would be taken by Orbraggar in October 1915, marking the end of the Farkas Band as a political force.
Farza Ultimatum
Despite Farkas defeat, many bandit bands continued to plague the Mrengrave. To secure the province, Orbraggar moved its Dispatched troops northward and applied to the Mrengrave the true-and-tested tactics developed against the Farkas' raids. First Army' soldiers also joined Sullivan Taoh' remaining police forces and militias as the Prefect, the General, and Vazhilly II built up their own alliance with the formal approval of the Lushyodorstag Parliament that had now representatives both in Angrast seating in Hortankh Bolsar' Constituent Assembly and "in mission" back in Pyrovegy under Orbraggar' protection. Seeing his old friend sudden growth in the west and feeling that the Lushyodorstag Parliament might try to do just like its Yugstranese Counterpart and abandon the Provisory State to create their own faction under Orbraggar protection, Bolsar desperately tried to convince the First Army' General to send reinforcements and funds to help fight both the Twin Warlords of the East and Sevro Kann. Demands which Orbraggar politely tempered or declined, justifying it with the need to guard the border with Garima and restore order to the Mrengrave and the west coast in general.
But the Lushyodorstag Parliament was not the only institution interested in winning the inexplicably neutral Orbraggar to their side. Prince Farza of Kaposlovar also saw in the General a potential ally. It had indeed become known that Orbraggar did not support nor participate in the September Coup. He also knew of Orbraggar personal ties with Garima and distrust towad republicanism. From this, he extrapolated that Orbraggar' "promotion" to the head of the First Army and his refusal to send troops to Bolsar was a sign the two men had a fall-off and that Orbraggar would still be loyal enough to Ansmar II of the Drev to side with the Prince' Golden Columns if demanded.
Prince Farza' conclusions proved very wrong however, as his gestures toward Orbraggar were met with the same polite decline as Bolsar' demands had been. Feeling insulted and fearful that Orbraggar might become a threat if left to his own device, Farza ended up sending an Ultimatum in which he demanded that the neutral general finally openly pick a side in the next thirty days, or face the Golden Columns anyway.
Under this threat, Orbraggar did not wait. Consulting with his officers and allies, Prefect Taoh and Metrohegumen Vazhilly II included, he waited two weeks before finally declaring that the Drevstranese Triple Crown had lost all legitimacy since its failure to even tackle the structural problems faced by its subjects, a failure which had led to the Coup and the Civil War. He also proclaimed that now, only the Parliaments were the legitimate representent of their Nations. Worded as such, Orbraggar openly rejected the Monarchists without entirely cutting himself off from Bolsar even though he walked a dangerous line between the Parliaments and the Emergency State.
Battle of the Mrengrave
Prince Farza had given a month for Orbraggar to answer his ultimatum because it was the time he estimated necessary to redeploy troops on the southern front without giving Orbraggar enough leeway to organize his own defense. In that regard, Orbraggar and his HQ agreed. What Prince Farza ignored however was the offensive capability of Orbraggar.
Having successfully negociated in secret the support of Ostrozava, Orbraggar had now access to more ressources than what his potential adversaries estimated. Already stationed around the Mrengrave and the Alban Pentapolis, his mounted columns of "Military Polices" were dispatched to the border with the Azdrheg mountains and by the 18th of February 1916, Orbraggar' main offensive forces were ready to be deployed long before either his or prince Farza' defenses were viable. And so, to disrupt his new enemy and to give himself time, Orbraggar launched his columns into the Azdrheg foothills and valleys, going up the shores of the Mren River or following the coastline.
These Infernal columns took Prince Farza and his officers completely by surprise, as they had bet on Orbraggar supposed indecisiveness. The Golden Columns' military system was disturbed in depth : supply lines were raided, military camps attacked, moving troops harassed, and depots plundered.
Despite their effectiveness in slowing down the royalist' war machine, by April 1916 the Golden Columns had densified their presence on the, now loose, frontline to prevent further Orbraggists insertions. Nonetheless, Prince Farza had now missed the snowmelts of March and was a month late on his schedule with a fragilized structure to support his effort. The Golden Columns still launched their assault on April 28th.
While the Golden Columns penetrated deeply into the Mrengrave, they were met with Orbraggar "loose defense" : villages, towns, and cities held by militias supported and led by dispatched military forces in reinforced positions while "flying brigades" of mounted troops and converted carts quickly jumped from place to place to either harass marching Golden Columns or reinforce a position under assault. "The success of Orbraggar was the success of his Couriers" would so resume Yerebrim Yakov after the war. Orbraggar had indeed, since the defense of the Furodommark, developed a "postal office" capable of spread the information horizontally between highly-independent officers who did not have to wait for the greenlight of their superior before launching operations or movements at their level of the war.
Entangled in this cobweb, the Golden Columns fortified the positions they held, keeping some important battles like the Second Siege of Barbelon going but even there they mostly fell back to a defensive war. By July 1916, the royalists were completely immobilized even though keeping them pinned costed the life of many cavaliers and militias in seemingly fruitless assaults. But in the meantime, Orbraggar and his HQ had finished mobilizing and moving northward their best divisions of infantry and artillery. In August 15th 1916, at 5:00 am, the Orbraggist counter-offensive began with the meticulous shelling of every royalist position along the frontline. At 6:00 am, the last rain of shells was screening the infantry charge which fell in the still stuned trenches, opening the way for the cavalry to follow up and penetrate deeply the royalist network. Lacking a real second line of defense, let alone a third, the Golden Columns were forced to retreat which the Orbraggist Cavalry turned into a route. A week later, the Orbraggist were once again free to launch assaults deep into the Azdrheg mountains. By September, they had pushed the Royalists away from the central Azdraï valley, taking control of the entire course of the Mren river, up to its source.
The Battle of the Mren was a disaster for the Royalists who lost all credibility because of an operation in which they had sunk most of their ressources in both men, equipment, and money. Massive waves of desertions would follow with the fighters either returning home or going straight to Orbraggar. Desperate, left only with his most fanatized troops, Prince Farza would launch the ill-thought through Golden March where he gathered all his men in one giant column which he sent through the countryside southward, aiming for Angrast. The March would be stopped by the combined efforts of Hortankh Bolsar and Gyorgy Mazravem, leading to Farza' death. What remained of the Golden Columns disapeared into the countryside, to become either bandit bands or to continue their long and arduous march in the hope of joining the Marquisate of Yugstran.
As the Golden March failed, Orbraggar was free to occupy the entirety of northwestern Drevstran. Notably, Orbraggar himself entered the Palace of Amertajan where the ex-monarch, Ansmar II of the Drev, still resided, reputedly too disraught by his son's death to flee the Warlord' approach. Orbraggar would arrest Ansmar II and allow him to live the rest of his life between Amertajan and the Blue Residence of Barbelon.
Death of Bolsar
Despite his recent success against the royalists, Hortankh Bolsar situation was still at its worst. After the Golden March, he only held Angrast, the Drev Valley, and the Sevromark through his sympathizer General Gyorgy Mazravem, whom himself had been greatly weakened and his reputation greatly tarnished by the conflict with the Royalists and his violent repression of the Hártatázok Uprisings. Forced conscriptions and abritrary taxation and requisitions had become common practices for a Bolsarist Party desperate for ressources and supplies. It's thus at his lowest point that Bolsar, returning to Angrast after the complete destruction of the Golden March, was assassinated.
His death opened a period of harsh repression within the city itself during which the Bolsarists tried to track down the shooters while also preventing any more manifestation or crowd from forming, dispersing them violently if necessary. In the chaos and confusion it's Abemus Kumar, Bolsar' "Left-Hand Man", and his aptly nicknamed death squads who took over law enforcement in the city. From there on out, Kumar became the de-facto leader of the Bolsarist Party, to the absolute distress of the other Bolsarists Officers. Especially, the 2nd Army' High Command loathed Kumar. Meanwhile, Mazravem' 5th Army remained on Kumar' side as they and the Death Squads had plenty of opportunities to cooperate and build up strong ties.
Kumar thus tried to launch a purge of the 2nd Army' officer corps, to replace them with men from the Death Squads he could trust, and to rely more heavily on the 5th Army. While the Bolsarists opponents to Kumar tried to organize their own clique and conspiracy against him, the Death Squads proved faster and arrested many of the Officers judged dangerous. The "Blacklisted" thus had only one option remaining : fleeing.
Many of them found refuge with Vilvo Orbraggar whom many had known since before the war. Almost every surviving members of the Kopony Clique, with the singular but notable exception of Mazravem, thus found themselves within the Orbraggists' ranks at the beginning of 1917. Distraught by his old friend death, Orbraggar was put under pressure by these fleeing officers but also by many of his subordinates and allies such as Sullivan Taoh or Vazhilly II and the Lushyodorstag Parliament' Speaker, to claim for himself the leadership of the Transitory Emergency State.
Unsure, Orbraggar instead convinced the rest of the Lushyodorstag Parliament to abandon Angrast and to join him in Pyrovegy where he finally declared the formation of his own Constituent Assembly, tasked with giving Drevstran a new Constitution. Kumar tried to stop the Lushyod representatives from doing so, but his violent ways only accelerated the departure of the survivors.
It's this new wave of senseless violence from the Death Squads that provoked the last remaining Parliament, the Parliament of the Drev, to secretly invite Orbraggar to seize Angrast, announcing their wish to participate in his Constituent Assembly. As Orbraggar gathered his forces to do so, the plot became known, leading to Kumar proclaiming the dissolution of the Parliament of the Drev and trying to seize the Deputies while they were in session. Alerted, said Deputies, with the support of parts of the population and of the city' militias, barricaded themselves within the House of Parliament. What followed is often called the Barricades Days in Drevstran' historiography and saw intense and bloody street fighting between Kumar' Death squads and the urban militias plus mobs of citizens revolting against Kumar' oppressive ways.
As a result, Orbraggar met only the most nominal of opposition on his march to the capital. The Second Army was in open revolt against Kumar, often massacring the officers he had nominated, the Death Squads were too few in numbers and too dispersed, and the Fifth Army' HQ - after lengthy deliberations - did not move. A few days before Orbraggar and it was Kumar' turn to be assassinated. The 15th of March 1917, Vilvo Orbraggar entered Angrast as a hero despite having played a minimal role in Kumar' downfall.