The Great Invasion

An invasion of Liotain by Selim Dey of Anitkabir. The invasion caused mass panic in Liotain, but ended in the dramatic Liotainian victory at the Battle of Rudeksna (29 to 31 May, 1629).

## The Battle of Rudeksna

In early 1629, a significant Kabirite army led by **Selim Dey**, numbering between thirty and thirty-five thousand men, crossed the Liotainian border and launched an aggressive surprise invasion of Liotain. Moving fast, the Dey's force brushed aside three much smaller Liotainian armies, and advanced along the Gulf coast. Rokantiskes surrendered in late April, and reached the Breizhoned Gulf in early May, plundering smaller villages and cities as they went. Selim Dey appeared fairly confident that his army could capture the Liotainian capital city of Neris before the end of summer, thus subduing all of Liotain under his heel.

So rapid was the Kabirite army's approach that King Markas II, and his professional army including cavalry and artillery, fell behind the swiftly-moving Kabirite columns. It appeared that there would be little to stop Selim Dey's army from sacking Neris and conquering the nation outright.

Selim's advance would be roughly checked as he attempted to cross the Rudeksna River. A mere ten thousand Liotainian militia, hastily gathered from the northwestern towns, drew up on the northern bank of the river. They elected their own tercio commanders, with no single commander over the entire force. The bridges over the river were burned, which forced the invaders to cross using three fords, separated by about two kilometers. Selim Dey spent two days attempting to find another route past the river, but this was not available. On May 29th, Selim Dey decided to attack across the fords, with every expectation of crushing the outnumbered Liotainian militia.

The five militia tercios, armed with pikes and a pitiful few matchlock muskets, stoically resisted every Kabirite assault. There was no room on the battlefield for art or stratagems, and the contest came down to a ferocious clash for control of the fords. In spite of every expectation, the Liotainian pike-squares held their ground. Both sides took appalling casualties over the course of a three-day slugging match. At the close of battle on the 31st, the surviving Liotainian captains estimated eight thousand killed or severely wounded, with most of the remainder having wounds but remaining in the battle. No accurate count was ever made of Kabirite dead, but even the most conservative accounts imply that they had over fifteen thousand killed, with some estimates ranging as high as twenty thousand. Many of the Kabirite wounded drowned while trying to drag themselves back across the fords in the aftermath of a failed attack.

On the afternoon of the 31st, Selim Dey called a halt to all further attacks. King Markas and the better-equipped Liotainian army (some eighteen thousand strong) were still in pursuit and rapidly approaching his rear; and Selim Dey fled the field with approximately ten thousand of his remaining able-bodied men, abandoning his wounded and his supplies, and racing back to Anitkabir. Although Selim himself evaded Markas and returned to Anitkabir with two thousand men, the remainder were lost to the Liotainians in sharp cavalry actions along the way.

The battle on the fords of the Rudeksna would become part of the Liotainian national mythology: an outnumbered army making a heroic last stand against an overwhelming foe, stubbornly refusing to concede defeat. The result was met with widespread rejoicing across the country as "the miracle on the Rudeksna" with the basilicas ringing their bells, and both King Markas II and the church patriarchs declaring a national day of thanksgiving. In the cities which had raised the five tercios, however, the victory was instead marked as a disaster, as the overwhelming majority of men who marched to battle were buried on the hills overlooking the ford.