Update 17 - 600 BCE
Uzbekistan has agreed to peace with the Afridi Pashtun Empire, with the Amur Darya River as the border. This quick peace has not halted, however, the militarization of that country, as few believe that the peace will last long.
The Afridi armies have in the meanwhile went on further west after destroying Kabul. The Afridis easily overwhelmed the very tiny Pakistani army. It didnt help the Pakistanis that the Travancore armies invaded also from the east. Effectively, Pakistan has been partitioned between a barbaric and a civilized empire. Will Travancore and the Pashtun Empire cooperate together, or will they fight each other?
Within the Pashtun Empire, the Zoroastrian administrations that have been set up in each region have begun to impose taxes on residents of non-Zoroastrian belief systems. The extent of the laws provisions vary from district to district, though the taxes are definitely higher in the cities Pashtunia, Persepolis, and Babylon. Quite quickly, it seems, the barbaric empire will evolve into a more organized administrative empire. The Persians, it seems, are the most-adept administrators, disseminated in governing posts in regions across the empire. This hardly means, of course, that the people of the empire all live in total unison and solidarity, of course. The common religion alone cannot and has not displaced whatever reservations each group of people may have against another.
A revolution has broken out in the Roman Empire!
The seething anger of the Roman people and the Patricians has completely boiled over as the Patricians led mobs in cities across the Empire to overthrow members of the imperial family and their friends. In Rome itself the Emperors loyalist personal guard was overwhelmed and the Emperor executed upon capture. None of his sons survived the attack.
Immediately, the Patricians met in the capital, declared themselves the Roman Senate, and proclaimed the formation of the Roman Republic. The first resolution of this Senate was giving independence to and military withdrawal from the Zagreb Republic.
In the north, small loyalist battalions remained, but they were taken care of by the Austrian Army, which crossed the border to help the Patricians. The Austrian Army has promised to withdraw from the northern territories it occupies once the Republic is firmly in place and the Roman Senates control extends across all of Rome.
In the south, in Malta and Sicily, Israelite armies have landed to help crush whatever loyalist opposition may exist in the south. The Israelites have occupied all of Malta and have a beachhead in eastern Sicily.
It is in the areas south of Rome that anti-Republican sentiment is particularly strong. The Southern Patricians oppose the idea of Republicanism, unlike their counterparts in Rome and the north. They hated the dynasty equally, but thought that a new family be placed on the throne, rather than sweeping away the throne altogether. It because of this conviction that the Southern Patricians have declared that they and the rest of Southern Rome do not recognize the authority of the Senate, and have vowed to restore the imperial system. They have already asserted themselves over South Italy and Sicily from their base of power in Neapolis. The first engagements between the Roman and Neapolitan troops have occurred in multiple locations. The Republicans have numerical superiority, however, and the fact that Israel is helping them could mean that the Imperialists will not be able to restore the Empire.
It should be noted, however, that while politically, the Roman and Neapolitan Patricians disagree, their foreign policies are identical, so a political compromise could be brokered.
In eastern Israel, mysterious bandits have been raiding on the local peasants. Locals are in a state of perpetual fear now, and demand that the government do something about this, as their money and possession are being stolen, and they don't want to live in fear all the time.
ISRAEL: -1 Confidence
Jewish missionaries the Kohanes have been withdrawn from Greater Armenia on account of the restrictions imposed by the government there upon non-Zoroastrians. The Israelite government had decided to allocate the Kohanes instead to preaching in Austria and Dubrovnik. However, the Kohanes refused to go any further north than Dubrovnik, because of the fear of the invading Bulgars. Not all Bulgars, they argue, are the same as those of Khazaria, and thus its quite likely that these battle-hardened western Bulgars the forefront of the Bulgar invasions would not be as welcoming to missionaries.
The Bulgars faced off against two united Slavo-Germanic grand armies the first at Breslau and the second at Bratislava. The two battles seemed almost cataclysmic: the armies of Brandenburg, Slovakia, Silesia, and Austria came together to try and push back the assault of the Bulgar hordes and the armies of Hungary, apparently a Bulgar ally. For months the fates of the two capitals were uncertain as the armies battled literally to the death.
At the Battle of Breslau, the Bulgar-Hungarian army won decisively, however, sealing the fate of Silesia and Brandenburg, both of which were severely weakened militarily and became easy pickings for the Asiatic hordes.
The Battle of Bratislava ended with Bulgar-Hungarian victory as well, but the barbarians suffered tremendous losses. Their campaign into Slovakia lost much of its drive because of this. Though they managed to occupy the country, their army was too weak to continue assault further, into Austria, or to make it across the Danube to grab the small southern province, in which the Slovakian dynasty got refuge. The Slovak Emperor agreed with the Zagreb Republic that that province would be joined with the Zagreb Republic in exchange for sanctuary as long as the Bulgars remained in Bratislava.
Though the Bulgars still took all of Silesia, Slovakia, and Brandenburg, it is clear that they are not invincible. The warlords decided not to cross the French, Belgian, Zagreb, or Austrian borders. After all, they now had to deal with angry local populations who were all to either to burn their crops and themselves starve to death so long as the occupying troops were also dying of hunger. In Silesia, which had a developed road system between its cities, the population took it upon itself to destroy the connections to make supply lines weaker.
The Bulgar campaign, however, in the south was not halted at all by the losses at Breslau and Bratislava. The Dacian population was not particularly rebellious, having never truly recovered from its loss of power to the Slavic rebellions, and in fact many Dacian aristocrats saw the Bulgars as people who could help restore the old Dacian Empire. Thus, the Bulgar armies swelled with Dacian volunteers on the eve of their campaign into the Byzantine Empire. With almost animal-like ferocity, the Bulgar armies swarmed into the Byzantine lands. The Dalmatians were ecstatic that they could maybe be free again, until they heard some of the warriors and generals speaking the Dacian tongue. Byzantium itself is far from the front, and its possible that the Byzantine Army will succeed in repelling the invasion. However, the northern and northwestern areas are occupied.
AUSTRIA: -100 Horsemen, -500 Swordsmen, -150 Spearmen
BYZANTIUM: -330 Spearmen, -400 Horse-Archers, -1,000 Swordsmen, -200 Horsemen
Beijing has been occupied by the Nihonese offensive. The Chinese-Choson Army attempting to push back the invasion was crushed, and a mass withdrawal was ordered to regroup south of the Huang River, where fortifications were set up. Thus far, this front line has remained firm, but if the Nihonese manage to land an invasion force on the coasts behind the forts, it will mean that a major member of the coalition will be taken out of the war by the Nihonese.
The Nihonese quickly sent an aristocrat to Beijing, who proclaimed an independent Choson Empire, encompassing Korea and the areas north of the Huang. Almost instantly the new Emperor allied to Nihon and declared war on the Chinese-Choson, Vietnamese, and Malaysian Empires. The bulk of the army of this new entity comes from Korea, since few in the western half of this Empire would even think about collaborating with Nihon.
No battles engaged near Sakhalin.
A hurricane, meanwhile, has wrecked Okinawa, Taiwan, and the southernmost Nihonese core island of Kyushu. Many of the ships that were hit by the cataclysm were flying the Nihonese banner. Okinawa was hardest-hit. After the storm, coalition fleets attacked the devastated island and found most of the population dead. In retaliation for their revolt, the coalition troops murdered the survivors and retook control of the island, now devoid of civilian life but full of civilian corpses.
The situation of corpses laying everywhere is the same on Taiwan and Kyushu. Because of the amount of deaths, and the failure to get all the corpses cleared out, disease is everywhere on the three islands.
In war, armies may kill only certain people; but cataclysm and disease dont have any such standards.
The Vietnamese have left the Philippine Islands, and the Philippine Republic has pledged upon its unification of its people that it will not enter the war.
The Malaysians retake the islands that the GDC occupied, but come short of their goal of landing on the GDCs homeland itself.
In Western Papua, the locals pelt the GDC troops with anything they can find, and have attacked Eastern Papua administrators that were allocated to that area. Clearly they do not want to be ruled by anyone other than Nihon. Such sentiment was strong even before the GDC invasion, but the Malaysians never really sent their own administrators into the land, so the Western Papuan anger was somewhat subdued due to the level of autonomy. They were nevertheless angry, but after so long being occupied by foreigners, now their fury has reached the boiling point.
The GDC continues to be divided and the Senate sessions more often disintegrate into chaos and bickering.
Revolts break out against Malaysia in Eastern Borneo.
NIHON: -400 Spearmen; -400 Archers; -60 Galleys, - 80 Triremes
VIETNAM: -400 Spearmen
MALAYSIA: -140 Spearmen; -10 Galleys, -20 Triremes
CHINESE-CHOSON EMPIRE: -150 Swordsmen, -400 Spearmen, -100 Archers
GREATER DEMOCRATIC COMMONWEALTH: -150 Swordsmen, -100 Archers; -1 confidence
The Aztecs have managed to push back the Maya to the original border and went no further, the series of battles overwhelmingly in favor of them because of their firmer organizational skill. Polytheists have been deported to the capital as slaves, where many were promptly sacrificed to Quetzalcoatl. The Southern Province is still very volatile, even with the Mayas apparently pushed out. Even if the Mayas never re-enter and many Polytheist leaders are killed at sacrifices, the South and the government may never truly reconcile.
Military losses were quite few this time, almost negligible.
Inquiries in the Aztec ports are widespread now as the government tries to discover how its navy attacked some country that was not heard of before the incident, and to find out who ordered it.
The New Illini have no scruples. After taking the 1 economy point compensation from the Caribbean Empire, they fake-withdrew only to suddenly attack once again the Iroquois. The Iroquois army was much more unprepared, and the entire army was devastated at every battlefield. All of the Iroquois Confederacy has been taken. The lightning speed with which the New Illini attacked meant that the battles that occurred were totally one-sided, and it seemed that everywhere the Iroquois tried to flee but were stabbed, shot, or trampled from the back, and thus the New Illini suffered minimal losses.
The army of Malagasy invaded their ex-ally, Lesotho. Northern Lesotho and Lesothese Zambia have been occupied, but the capital of Lesotho and land south of it are still unoccupied. The Lesotho authorities are beginning military upgrades, but they might not be finished in time.
The Zambians are revolting in several regions, as the Iubabarises are being prepared to crush their new insurgencies.
MALAGASY: -300 Swordsmen, -250 Horsemen
LESOTHO: -100 Swordsmen, -200 Spearmen
Ships flying the Pakistani flags have raided numerous small Israelite ships and taken loot. It is a peculiar thing, however: Pakistan is no longer independent, and even when it was, it never had a navy. Who is it thats raiding Israelite ships?
NPC Diplomacy
From Nihon and Choson Empire
To Malaysia, Vietnam, Chinese-Choson Empire, Philippine Republic:
These are our terms for peace:
1. Sovereignty adjustments:
1a. The Philippine Republic is recognized as an independent country.
1b. Korea and the areas north of the Huang are united and recognized as the Choson Empire. Thus, the Chinese-Choson Empire must change its name to simply the Chinese Empire to accommodate the reality of the situation.
1c. The government of the restored Beijing Empire becomes an Imperial Democracy.
2. Territorial adjustments:
2a. Sakhalin, Eastern Borneo, the Celebes Islands (islands between Borneo and Papua), and Western Papua return to Nihon.
2b. The Philippine Islands are ceded by the Vietnamese Empire to the Philippine Republic.
2c. The Chinese-Choson (soon to be Chinese) Empire cedes the island of Taiwan to Nihon.
3. Reparations:
3a. The Chinese and Vietnamese Empires each pay Nihon 1 spending point per turn until Nihon decides they have compensated the full costs of the war inflicted upon Nihon.
3b. Malaysia pays Nihon 5 spending points within 2 turns as reparations.
4. Alliances:
4a. The Philippine Republic signs a renewable 10-turn Military Alliance with Nihon but is forbidden to do with either of the nations of the anti-Nihonese coalition so for the duration of this first 10-turn agreement.
4b. Malaysia, China, and Vietnam sign renewable NAPs with Philippine Republic and Nihon.
From Roman Empire and Roman Republic (separately, of course)
To Israel, Austria, Byzantium:
The pretenders to Roman power are illegitimate! Support us in our struggle to unite Rome, our allies!
From Roman Empire and Roman Republic (separately, of course)
To Zagreb Republic:
We recognize your full independence.
OOC
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