First Ctesh War

The **First Ctesh War** was a war between the State of Jadmazar and the Lanodolan Empire fought in 1877.

## Background

The Kingdom of Ctesh was geographically situated between the Empires of Jadmazar and Lanodola. Jadmazar had become a rival to the Lanodolans in the west and both powers began seeking influence over Ctesh. In the 1860s, Jadmazar began a joint project with Ctesh to expand the Jadmazar railroad network into Ctesh and connect their capital, Barrah. The first rails were laid in 1865 connecting the Jadmazar cities of Ismur and Saruz to Jadmazar's network to begin building a connection to Cteshi cities. After a rail connecting the Jadmazar city of Onauri and the Cteshi city of Kobuli was laid in 1869, Lanodola began their own rail project in the east of the country. Unlike Jadmazar, Lanodola had a rather small rail network in the Karmine Desert, only connecting a few cities in Bosania. The first Lanodolan connection with Ctesh was laid between the cities of Lerasan in Bosania and Pavana in Ctesh, however took nearly 5 years to lay the relatively short railway between 1871-1876. The project was plagued with poor management that caused several accidents and left 86 workers dead. The construction was delayed a total of six times due to shortages of supplies from Lanodola.

The difficult process of building the Lanodolan railway pushed the Cteshi government to prefer business with Jadmazar instead of Lanodola. While the Lanodolans had already spent 5 years laying rail with the hope of connecting the Cteshi capital of Barrah to their network first, they ignored Ctesh's rejections. On December 21st, 1876, a rail between Pavana and Kokarkand began being constructed by Lanodolan workers who arrived unannounced. While the local and national governments protested and police attempted to prevent the construction, the Lanodolan Army was sent to Pavana to protect the workers a few days later and crossed the Cteshi border on December 24th. This was the first time where the Lanodolan Army was deployed instead of any of the primary armies of Lanodola. Cteshi border police attempted to peacefully stop the Lanodolans, but were ignored. Once they arrived in Pavana to protect the workers, the police called in the military. While the Cteshi King, Mahdi II Kamran, wanted to avoid conflict, but after being pressured by the Pro-Jadmazar members of the Cteshi army staff, Madhi ordered several regiments to Kokarkand along with the roads that crossed the Lanodolan-Cteshi border near Kobuli and Barrah. In response, the Lanodolan embassy in Barrah was closed by the Lanodolan government, effectively ending communication with the Cteshi government.

After 4 months of laying rail, the Lanodolan workers arrived near Kokarkand to start construction of a train station to the city. On April 16th, 1877, Xinyue Liao, was given full control over the Cteshi railroad project by the Lanodolan State Railroad Company. Liao was far more ambitious than the former board who had been in charge and began his tenure as director by ordering the construction of a train station outside Kokarkand to circumvent the Cteshi Army's occupation of the city. Along with the train station, a planned town would be built to accommodate the expected traffic to the station. Liao planned to forcefully keep expanding the railway to the capital Barrah and further in the coming years. The Lanodolan State Rail Company's special army deployed around 500 soldiers at the site of the train station to ensure it was built and that the workers kept to pace with the harsh schedule. Construction began on the new railroad town, humbly named "Liao City", in May of 1887.

The Cteshi were aware of what the Lanodolans were doing, but allowed construction to continue through the months of May and June. While they were building, the Cteshi army made public statements in Kokarkand, informing the locals to not travel to or move into the Lanodolan town being built. The locals began protesting and showing resistance, having wanted a train station in the city for some time, but were put down by the Cteshi Army. Two months later, on the 3rd of June, 1887, the Cteshi Army sent an envoy to the Lanodolans in Liao City, demanding that they leave by the next week. The demand was rejected and on the 10th of June, the Cteshi Army arrived outside of the town planning to send a clear and direct message that Ctesh would resist Lanodolan expansion. Old 18th century black powder cannons were brought up on the hills overlooking Liao City and began indiscriminately firing on the buildings of the town early in the morning. The bombardment lasted a whole of 3 hours while the army in Liao City was awaiting orders from the Rail Company's headquarters in Lerasan. Liao ordered the army in Liao City to hold out until reinforcements could arrive via the railway. An emergency unit of a further 1,000 men was formed and loaded onto several trains in Lerasan and disembarked for Liao City around 4pm. The Lanodolans hadn't expected the Cteshi to respond militarily to the construction of Liao City and hadn't truly prepared for the possibility, being caught off guard by the artillery.