Hello everyone! I don't actually have much to say this week so let's jump right in - Romans chapter 23, picking up with Helena after The Battle of Tskhumi.
The Legacy of The Romans.
Act II.
The Russo-Ottoman War.
Chapter XXIII.
The Siege of Erivan.
We had been devastated.
We were defeated in every way possible - our cavalry had been pushed back, our infantry had been outmatched, and our entire force had been outflanked and forced into the mountains. Our options were limited to say the least. Part of my wanted to cross these mountains onto the Russian side and attack them, but we didn't have the numbers left for it. That also ruled out an offensive into Georgia, in fact, considering that the Russians and Georgians had good terrain on their journey to Tiflis, they would beat us there and they'd probably beat us to Rustavi too. In retrospect, fortifying those cities would have bought us time now, but I'm not sure that fortifying them would slow down the Russian army now as much as it would have slowed us down then. Our best option, it seemed, was to retreat all the way to Erivan, however, doing so meant that we had to cross over half of the horizontal expanse of the Caucasus Mountains in order to reach Turkish land on the other side, land where we could find a road that ultimately leads to the city I used as my staging ground. The march would be long, difficult, and cost many, many lives, unfortunately, we didn't exactly have a better option. Tsarina Anastasia had managed to beat me as well.
"I fear this front may be lost already, perhaps it would be better to march all the way to Baku and fight the least reinforced Russian army - after all, they have the Georgians here, the Poles in Moldavia, and the Cossacks in Crimea, but no one beyond these mountains." Fatimah proposed. We could leave the mountains in the same spot and follow the roads to Baku rather than Erivan, once there, we reinforce the garrison, take command, and repel the Russians. That was certainly an option, but I didn't know if it was the right option, we lost a major battle on this front and I fear that it cannot be undone by a minor victory on another front, rather, I think that we should halt the Russian offensive. I am not opposed to stopping the Russian advance towards Baku but I feel like halting Tsarina Anastasia herself is the key to turning this war around, plus the combined effect of halting her and pushing back the Russians along the Caspian would undo the embarrassment of Tskhumi, however, managing to do both was stretching the very reduced abilities of my defeated army. The fact that my army lies in ruin and we haven't yet suffered the attrition of retreating through snow-covered mountains is not making me confident in my ambitions.
"Perhaps, but I do not like the idea of letting Anastasia run wild across our land. I think we should stop her at Erivan." I voiced my opinion to my Grand Vizier as we marched with the army up the mountains as a show of support - well, we also got off to make it easier for our carriage to make it way up the slopes, however, I did want to show my support for the soldiers and I hoped that Fatimah and I marching with them, even for just a couple hours at a time, would inspire some sort of morale in them. After all, if pampered royals were marching, surely the professional soldiers of the most powerful Empire in the world should be able to march that much and far, far more. Fatimah and I were taking the opportunity to discuss how to proceed, after all, the sooner we know what we were doing, the sooner we could present a united front and rally the troops to our cause.
"I'm not sure if we will be enough to halt Anastasia between the losses we've sustained and...well...those that are yet to come." We both know well that the losses in these mountains would be immense and I feared that the chances that Fatimah or I, despite layers upon layers of coats and harm clothes, could suffer as well, however, neither of us wanted to really face the realities of that. We preferred to keep ourselves numb by only referring to our reduced numbers, not the death and suffering that resulted in those reduced numbers.
"You may be right," I admitted, with those losses, there was a high chance that our role in The Siege of Erivan would be minimal, there is only so much that extra defenders could accomplish, sure we could stall Anastasia, but I don't think that a little bit of stalling will change the fate of Erivan. The city will either stand or fall depending on the Russians' ability to take the city. Nevertheless, I also recognized that our hands would tie and that abandoning Erivan to the Russians would only hurt our cause rather than helping it "But, at this point, what other choice do we have? We can't let Anastasia take Erivan and then expect that we can still fight this war the way we initially thought. If we fail at Erivan, we have some major planning to do."
"I am confident in our abilities against the Russian armies now that we know what we're up against, we must simply understand that, when fighting a power as major as Russia, we're not going to win every battle on every front so easily. Perhaps we let Erivan fall, defeat Russia anywhere and everywhere we can, then gather our armies together to defeat Anastasia and recapture whatever she manages to take." Fatimah proposed, again, I did trust her strategy and I thought that, if anyone could pull it off, it was her, however, I did not like the idea of losing Erivan. Reconquering the city will be difficult, especially since Anastasia seems to be leaving garrisons and rebuilding fortifications in her reoccupied cities. Losing Erivan seems like it would shatter Ottoman morale, so, if Russia is going to try and take Erivan, we must do anything we can to preserve our reign over the city.
"I fear letting Erivan fall will give the Russians too much momentum, as well as depriving us of the city we're using as our staging ground." I argued in turn, Erivan was our central staging ground for this front of the war and losing it would change our entire dynamic in the region. We would likely have to retreat to the coastal fortress city of Trabzon, an old Byzantine holdout state. In Trabzon, we would pretty much be dependent on that Black Sea supply chain Fatimah envisioned - I had faith in that plan, but in Erivan, we could at least dependent on local production as well as supplies, in Trabzon, we didn't have that. I loved Fatimah and I had faith in her plan, but I've seen enough between the war in Arabia and the beginning of this war to question if being dependent on one plan was enough. After all, the Portuguese were dependent on their ships safeguarding Bahrain, so we stopped them by sending our navy all the way around Africa. In this war, we were dependent on surprising Russia and defeating Georgia before Tsarina Anastasia and her forces could arrive, but our plan failed thanks to two elements - King Constantine IV delaying my army and then Anastasia arriving before we finished off the Georgians.
Depending on one plan and one plan allow is what got us into this situation to begin with, we needed to have plans and backup plans and contingencies. Our army should reinforce the garrison of Erivan to ensure the survival of the Armenian fortress town. We could use the food supplies within the city as our main plan, the supply line from the Black Sea to Trabzon as a backup, and, if that fails, retreat to Trabzon itself and be supplied by the Black Sea supply line directly. I understood where Fatimah was coming from, we did need a victory right now, but we needed the right victory - defeating a minor Russian army in Baku while letting Anastasia take Erivan was an overall defeat, but halting Anastasia and potentially turning the tide of this war...that was the right victory.
I sighed, this was incredibly complicated, Tsarina Anastasia created a war on many, many fronts - Moldavia, Crimea, the Caucasus, and the Caspian coast - we had only truly been prepared to fight in Crimea and the Caucasus, sure we had a defensive army in the Balkans - leaving our core territory undefended was always a bad idea - and our vassals in Moldavia and Wallachia had their own armies, but I doubted that the armies of two Romanian Principalities merged with our Balkan Ordusu would be able to combat the forces in Moldavia. Initial reports indicate that a combined force from The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, The Principality of Transylvania, a Portuguese expeditionary force - I cursed at that Teresa Hungara, signing a ceasefire rather than a truce, she no doubt intended to use this Russian war to regain Portuguese holdings along the coast - as well as foreign mercenaries. The army in Moldavia was formidable and we would struggle against them, just as we had struggled against Anastasia herself in Tskhumi, our Kirim Ordusu would most likely lose the steppe to Russia before being able to somewhat more effectively resist them on the peninsula itself, finally, we were unprepared for a fight along the Caspian coast. All in all, it wasn't just the Anadolu Ordusu that was outmaneuvered, The Tsardom of Russia outmaneuvered the entire Ottoman Empire.
We set camp for the night, Fatimah and I gathered with our commanders around a fire. There wasn't much to discuss, we all knew that we failed in Tskhumi and by now we had agreed in majority to retreat to Erivan and fortify the city. We valued the warmth instead, the air up here was far, far colder than the air along the Black Sea and our army was struggling through the snow. We had not made it as far as we had wanted today and the mountain range seemed endless. We had hoped to avoid this by waging war in the spring, but it seems that we attacked too early - it is clear that Tsarina Anastasia had intended to attack later in the spring, after all, her army was still all the way in Tsaritsyn when we struck. I was glad to get the element of surprise, but, in retrospect, if we had used some more of the time we apparently had, we wouldn't be stuck in so much snow and cold. Of course, we couldn't have known where Tsarina Anastasia was and, even now, we're only assuming that she's currently heading to Tiflis to reclaim the city, but, we did know that the start of this war has been far from ideal for The Ottoman Empire.
"How are you holding up?" Fatimah asked, worried about me. She scooted closer to me and wrapped an arm around me - the cold and snow meant that we could disguise intimacy as the pursuit of warmth. I do admit that cuddling towards her did make me feel better, she was an Arab and I was a Greek, neither of us were accustomed to the cold - Theodoro was the warmest part of Crimea while the coast of North Africa was far warmer than ever Crimea. I remember not too long ago when Fatimah and I were at General Abdul's estate in Tunis, that warmth under the mediterranean sun was a far cry from the cold of these remote Caucasus mountains, but at least I had Fatimah with me, together, we could face the horrors of warfare and attrition.
"Better with you," I said as we stood up and retreated to our tent, both of us were well aware that tomorrow would be another day of long and brutal marching and we would again do our part, we would show the soldiers that we weren't making them do anything that we weren't doing by marching as much as we can. War really was horrible, the war in Arabia had introduced me to the horrors of bloodshed and this war was introducing me to the slow agony of attrition. Cold, disease, and starvation was going to ravage our army through these mountains as the Russians and Georgians cut us off from our supply lines on the Black Sea. We would have plenty of warmth, medicine, and food in Erivan, but how many of us would actually live for long enough to get there? Our losses were going to be immense and that came after sustaining heavy losses in Tskhumi. We had to follow this plan at this point because we took too many losses that we would only be defeated once again if we tried to challenge the Russian advance at Baku, in fact, challenging them might even lead to Fatimah and I getting captured. Halting Anastasia at Erivan by making a siege untenable is our one and only option with what remains of the Anadolu Ordusu.
"Sultana!" A soldier shouted as Fatimah and I fell over in the snow. that soldier and his squadron - or what was left of it helped the two of us up. They guided us back to the wagon and insisted that we ride, rather than walk. The horses were suffering, the men were suffering, we were suffering. The further we got from the warm, regulating waters of the Black Sea, the colder and more miserable the trip became. We were now trudging through a foot of heavy snow while still heading up the slopes of mountains. This was absolutely exhausting for the soldiers in their armor and coats, lugging around pikes or guns, not to mention the horses that were carrying carriages and supply wagons - at least the wagons were getting lighter as our journey went on, however, the problem is that the supplies seemed to be dwindling faster than we expected. If we are delayed in this mountains, we may be forced to start eating our own horses.
Of course, slaughtering our own horses would make moving the wagons more difficult, however, considering that we won't be doing that until our supply wagons our depleted, the obvious answer seems to be to take the horses pulling our supply wagons and slaughter them if it comes to them, though obviously I hope that it doesn't come to that. I don't want to kill horses, I don't want to leave behind supply wagons, even if they're depleted, and I certainly didn't want to watch my own soldiers starve and die. My distaste for war developed because I watched innocent men - farmers, artisans, and traders - drafted into war and forced to kill their fellow man for reasons foreign to them over land far, far away from their homes. Watching these men, some of the same men in fact, having to starve to death was even worse. Death in war was at least supposed to be a death of glory and honor, starving to death was not. It was a slow and terrible death. Tsarina Anastasia forced my army into suffering, perhaps she intends to break us and force a surrender, perhaps she just wants attrition to go ahead and remove the Anadolu Ordusu as a threat, perhaps she simply wants to see her enemies suffer. Regardless of her reasons and regardless of the miserable conditions, I was determined to not give the ruler of Russia what she wants. It is possible that we lost this war already, but I certainly won't make it easy on her.
The army continued to advance despite the terrible conditions, however, we were passing the base of a tall mountain covered in snow and, between the commotion of our still rather large army and the panicking of our increasingly agitated forces - both horses and men alike were growing uncomfortable given the attrition that is sure to come soon. The noise of all that managed to disturb the snow that was precariously gathered on a slope on of the many Caucasian mountains surrounding us. The avalanche came quickly and brutally. Four pike squares of men and a carriage belonging to one of our commanders were swept away. This also had the arguably worse effect of splitting our army in two. Our advance was halted for hours as the half of the army caught behind the avalanche had to scale a pile of snow and corpses. Delays like this, deaths like this, and the frostbite that is sure to strike to soldiers who had to claw their way over the snowy pile, this is truly going to be a war of attrition and we shall suffer great attrition here in these mountains. The avalanche may be the most violent episode, but it is by no means the most deadly. In the next few days soldiers will freeze and die, littering our war camps with death and rot, death and rot which will become the ideal breeding ground for disease, disease which will cause more death and more rot in a vicious and seemingly endless cycle of slow and miserable death.
The worst part is that there is no way to stop this vicious cycle of death - I wanted to get out of the mountains now even though we would only just emerge in Georgia, where King Constantine IV and his army would come and attack us. Of course, we would be in no shape to fight and the Anadolu Ordusu would once again be devastated by our enemies. I couldn't do that, we had to emerge on Ottoman soil and, even when we did, we had to hope that the Russians or the Georgians wouldn't decide to attack to the east and cut us off. I had to assume that they would reclaim their cities and move on Erivan, I had to hope that we would be able to get out of these mountains and join with our forces and our supply lines in the Armenian fortress, because, if we can't, then their truly is no hope for us. I will surrender and give up Crimea and Caucasia if the choice is between that and risking Fatimah and I dying in the mountains. I know that Spartak Pasha and his traditionalists would never accept that, but losing Fatimah is a far worse fate than having Spartak Pasha and his allies rise up.
"How much farther do you think we have to go?" Fatimah asked as we buried ourselves in our tent for the tight, wrapped in coats, blankets, and each other - anything and everything that could give us warmth.
"I wish I knew." I replied, I didn't have an answer. Maybe if there was less snow we could use some landmarks to place ourselves, but between the snow covered mountains and the clouds over head, we couldn't tell. It was spring but it certainly didn't feel like it up here, if I didn't know when it was, I would have guessed this was the middle of winter and our attrition agrees with that. Losses peaked after the avalanche, though fortunately, so did the mountains as our path seems to be more level now, though even then, with the whiteness blinding everything, there's no telling how long the path will stay level. It is entirely possible, as dreadful as it is to admit, that we'll still have to deal with slopes going retrospect, it is easy to say we should have had some of our ships disconnected from the fleet ready to transport us from the coast if anything went wrong, but, that's the thing with war - it is impossible to predict how they will go. We were expecting to shatter the Georgians and instead, King Constantine IV escaped. We were expecting to catch the Russians by surprise before they reached Georgia, but, despite being all the way in Tsaritsyn, the Russians managed to get all the way to Tskhumi faster than we thought possible. There are a thousand different ways that the start of this war could have gone, but none of those really matter anymore, what matters is the mess we have found ourselves in now.
"We'll be okay Helena...we have to be making progress." Fatimah assured me but we were both well aware that we didn't actually know how much farther we had to go. Nevertheless, hearing Fatimah say that made me feel more comfortable, after all, she has already made my life so much better, she has already made ruling The Ottoman Empire far easier, if she could do all that, surely she could ensure that the both of us survive this...somehow. I admit that, at least in this case, the faith I put in her was irrational but people tend to not make rational decisions when faced with the possibility of death. We have already lost much of our army and we both knew neither of us were accustomed to these conditions - we could barely even march today and had to be ushered to our carriage - but we haven't died yet, we don't even seem to be sick yet. The fact that the blankets, coats, and especially Fatimah's body heat were pressed against my body at every possible opportunity is certainly what is keeping the two of us alive and well, without each other...I don't think that we could last nearly as long in the bitter conditions of the Caucasus Mountains in the spring. Fatimah and I fell asleep in each other's arms, love and warmth protecting us from the biting cold and death lying just outside our tent.
Conditions finally started to improve as we started to make our way down the mountains, emerging back within The Ottoman Empire. The snow began melting, the biting cold lessened, and our journey became much, much easier. Not a moment too soon, given that we were on the last of our supplies. Conditions had not gotten as desperate as we had feared - we did not end up having to eat our own horses or anything like that, but we had suffered massive losses nonetheless. The Battle of Tskhumi was a devastating loss for us and the attrition in the Caucasus Mountains had only compounded that loss. We had traveled so far through terrible conditions, we faced death, and we even had to survive an avalanche, but after all that, our march wasn't over yet. Now we had to march through the Caucasian countryside, through the lands of Azeris and Armenians all the way to Erivan. We would take shelter in the fortified city and join with the garrison, with any luck, our resistance shall be strong enough that the siege becomes untenable for the Russians.
We still had a far way to go, but progress came far faster once we were out of the mountains and in their shadow, we made our way through the still hilly terrain in a fraction of the time that it took us to get through the mountains and thus, we were able to beat the Russians to Erivan. The soldiers were relieved, not only did we no longer have to march, but we were reconnected with our supply lines and we drafted in reinforcements from Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Anadolu Ordusu was not back to its full strength, not even close, but we were stronger than we had been, and that is crucial. Any reinforcements and any supplies were an absolute godsend as we took control of the defense of Erivan.
"How are our forces looking?" I asked Fatimah, once we had arrived in Erivan we spent a few hours resting, after that, I had tasked with her taking notes of our forces, seeing what remained of our original troops, how are reinforcements were looking, and how many men were in the garrison that now serves as a wing of the Anadolu Ordusu. We knew by now that the Russians were coming, we had received news that both Tiflis and Rustavi are back in Georgian hands with the combined forces of King Constantine IV and Tsarina Anastasia heading our way, seeking to take Erivan. They knew that, by eliminating my staging ground and the most important fortress in this area, our ability to wage war in Armenia and against The Kingdom of Georgia would be diminished.
"We have about twelve thousand men for the defense of the city, between the artillery we managed to get through the mountains and the cannons here on the bastions, we have thirty-seven cannons that can be moved, another twenty-three more powerful but immobile guns, and four mortars." Fatimah explained, we lost many cannons up in the snow, they were difficult enough to move in good conditions, let alone in terrible mountain terrain. Thirty-seven mobile cannons was good considering that, though admittedly, many of those guns were in Erivan before hand anyway. The immobile guns and mortars would be crucial in defending the city, but once the city fell, they were absolutely useless to us. The massive defensive cannons and mortars in Erivan are impossible to move and are really only used in Sieges. Now, mortars could also be used to take cities, but siege mortars were often scrapped and abandoned once the city fell. We have yet to create a mortar that is large enough to be effective but small enough to be easily transported - fortunately, that worked in our favor against the Russians. Perhaps with this heavy defense arsenal, twelve thousand Ottoman soldiers can survive the almost fifty thousand strong combined Russian-Georgian force.
Horns signaled the start of The Siege of Erivan. Fatimah and I took a position on top of one of the bastions. Our fears proved correct, there were indeed about fifty thousand enemy troops around us, armed with over a hundred cannons, and, on top of that, they were already constructing siege engines. The Russians unleashed their first bombardment. All around us the bastion was engulfed in orange-red fire, the walls shook as Erivan was battered from virtually all sides by the Russian cannons. The walls would withstand this and much more, but we didn't feel safe up here. Fatimah and I retreated from the walls as our cannons and mortars responded. White hot missiles filled the skies as the four massive mortars fired at the Russian ranks. Even from below the walls, I could tell that the fire show was impressive, but as another Russian barrage followed a moment later, I questioned how effective our mortars actually were.
It seems that, somehow, the Russians were aware of our mortars because they were positioned in two groups: an inner group too close for our mortars to hit them without risking damaging our own defenses and an outer group just out of range of our mortars. This was not ideal, but we still had the psychological effect of our mortars, an effect which would surely at least have an effect on the Russians and Georgians besieging this city. Our cannons were more effective, but we were decisively outnumbered in that respect. The mortars had scorched the earth between the Russian ranks, but their losses from that had been negligible at best. They had managed to outmaneuver the key to our defense of Erivan.
Another problem with the mortars is that their massive size and massive destructive ability was hampered by the fact that it took ages to load them in order to be able to fire again. The mortars were built by the Persians during their rule over the Caucasus, a rule which my husband had ended. Perhaps a Persian agent was with Tsarina Anastasia - that could compromise our ability to wage war in the region - the roads, fortifications, and defenses all came about under Persian rule - we haven't ruled the region for long enough to change that. I sighed, it made too much sense, the Persians are bound from declaring war on us by a treaty, but nothing is stopping them from influencing the course of other wars. Sure the Russians will take Caucasia all for themselves, but the Qara Qoyunlu rulers of Persia could see a massive defeat on our Empire as an opportunity for them to regain their ancestral lands in Iraq and Al-Jazira. As the Russian cannons shook Erivan to its core once more, I knew that, if we lost this war, the same kind of brutal sieges would erupt at every corner of The Ottoman Empire. We had to do everything we could to defend against Tsarina Anastasia, because a victory, particularly an easy one, can lead to pain and suffering for all of my subjects. The walls would shake, the people would starve, and disease would threaten to consume us, but we cannot let Erivan fall. This is more than a Siege over the Caucasian front of The Russo-Ottoman War, this is a struggle over the future of The Ottoman Empire. Will the eastern power remain with Konstantiniyye or shall it shift to Moscow? I will do anything and everything to ensure that the Turks remain the dominant power in eastern Europe, I will fight as long as my Empire as a whole is able to sustain it.
"Is there any way that we can hit the Russian rear positions with our mortars?" I asked Fatimah, the young Arab thought about if for a moment before turning to one of the mortars itself. Both of us saw it, theoretically, we could angle the mortar down to travel farther but lower, however, if we angled the mortars down any more, the bottom of the chamber is against the edge of our walls. We cannot hit a position any further without blowing our own walls to pieces and endangering our men - something that would only help the Russian and Georgian besiegers that outclass us in every way. We rushed around the city, finding a similar situation at all three mortars - in fact, the Russian positions varied ever so slightly in accordance to the position of each mortar. They knew exactly where each mortar was and they knew exactly where the mortars could hit. This only furthered my suspicions that the Persians had managed to get involved. I sighed, first the Transylvanians had broken their pledge of loyalty to us and joined the Russian alliance, but now the Persians were interfering in this war despite the treaty. All of the Kazakh horsemen had either died or scattered by now. We were truly alone in Caucasia and, if Moldavia and Wallachia weren't the ones being invaded by the Polish-led forces in Europe, I bet all three of our Romanian vassals would have forsaken us in Europe.
"Maybe we're thinking about this wrong, instead of focusing on the Russians that are out of our range, let's focus on the ones that are too close for the mortars to hit. I bet that if we can get some sharpshooters on our bastions, we can harass their ranks and make them think twice about their positions so close. Maybe, just maybe, we could drive them back where our heavy cannons or even the mortars could hit them." Fatimah proposed. Firearms weren't very accurate at range, but the fact that the bastion would give us a position above our enemies meant that, perhaps, they could at least hit close enough to the Russian ranks to make the enemy fear that they can be hit. Some us of our mobile cannons also harassing them may just be enough to convince the Russians that their forward position is untenable. At that point, our heavy guns or our mortars could inflict real damage on their forward units. We had no guarantee if this would work, but it was at least an idea, that was a significant improvement over how we've been doing thus far.
We put the plan into action, sending groups of our best shooters forward to the tips of the triangular bastions positioned around the walls of Erivan. From up there, the sharpshooters could see everything. They could see the Russian men arranged on the outer fortifications, they could see their cannons placed on the tops of free floating outer bastions, they could see the charred, fire hellscape that was produced by our mortars, and, beyond that, the Russian outer positions in the hills. The sharpshooters began firing along with our right guns, the Russian infantry responded with their own firearms fire but guns were poor enough when firing down from above, firing above from below...that was practically impossible with firearms. They were deadly, they were extremely effective in most scenarios, but, in some ways, modern firearms did have some shortcomings that even crossbows could do better than - accuracy, repetition, and range being the key weaknesses, though even then, every generation of firearm improves massively in these capacities. It may not be too long until the pike is reduced to a relic of a bygone age, yet for now, it was still the main weapon of war due to its simplicity and usefulness at close range.
Our sharpshooters, unfortunately, proved less useful in the long term as an unceremonious barrage of cannon fire from the Russian side but an end to our plan before it even began. The perfect triangular tips of our bastions were reduced to rubble and the sharpshooters that survived had to either flee or face the Russian and Georgian forces without the protection of a perfect bastion around them. Our cannons themselves continued to do their job but their low numbers were showing, especially when compared to the truly massive amounts of cannons that the Russians had with them. Erivan was being battered relentlessly by the Russians and there was little that we could do.
The first assaults began in the next few days, bold Russian soldiers attempting to scale the rubble of our bastions. These attacks were unsuccessful, but the Russians had enough men to take losses and we did not. Every Russian soldier that died was replaced by reinforcements the next time that their supplies involved, every one of our twelve thousand soldiers was the last man we had to defend the city. As the siege wore on and on, more and more of the walls were reduced to rubble and our soldiers were unable to resist their greater numbers. The Russians were beginning to capture our cannons on the walls and we were forced to put up palisades on our own bastions and barricades around the steps from the walls into the city. A week after the struggle on the walls began the Russians even managed to isolate some of the bastions. We had men fighting the Russians on both sides as they were assaulted from the walls on one end and from the rubble on the other. The fall of Erivan was inevitable and if Fatimah and I stayed here any longer, we risked capture.
The start of The Russo-Ottoman War was humiliating for the Anadolu Ordusu, defeat after defeat culminating here in The Siege of Erivan. Now the army was going to fall with the city and Fatimah and I would too if we didn't make our escape now.
We gathered at the southwestern gates of Erivan with five of our cannons, six hundred of our best men, and the fastest carriage with the fastest horses that we could find. The plan was rather simple. The six hundred men and their cannons would sacrifice themselves to punch a hole in the Russian ranks for just long enough for our carriage to slip through and make it to Trabzon. Fatimah and I knew that the Byzantine fortress was surely Tsarina Anastasia's next target, but that didn't matter much, we shall retreat there and then we shall figure out what we're going to do next. We had no better option at this point. The Anadolu Ordusu was done for, the defenses of Erivan were done for, and, if we didn't move now, we were done for.
Fatimah and I got on our carriage, closed the doors, and tearfully embraced each other. Six hundred men were going to die for us, the Russians did not have the time to take prisoners with the possibility of capturing us. The soldiers left in the city were also ordered to fight for the last man, fighting in the streets for every inch against the Russian forces. The Anadolu Ordusu would face a brutal and horrifying end and it was all our fault. I didn't know if things would have gone any better for us if we moved on Baku instead, I think that the army was as good as dead once we were forced into the mountains. It didn't really matter now though, we had to focus on getting out of here so that there will still be a war to win tomorrow. We had to ensure that the sacrifice of the Anadolu Ordusu would not be in vain. Fatimah and I broke off our embrace and we both solemnly faced forward as the southeastern gate was opened.
Tbe mortars fired another volley to disorient the Russians as our drive charged past them as fast and furiously as the carriage could possibly go. The Russians and Georgians recovered quickly and moved to surround our carriage before the six hundred brave men smashed into their ranks, five cannons firing as much as the physically could. The guns, cannons, and mortars filled the area with smoke but our driver stayed true, guiding the carriage exactly where he needed it to go. We passed the inner line of the Russians without incident and the bombed out ruins in between their ranks proved to be an ironic respite before we arrived in the Russian outer line. The outer line was more spread out and varied due to the geography of the hills, but the Russians and Georgians alike still tried all they could to box us in, this time we were without the benefit of the six hundred men. Nevertheless, we managed to get through their infantry and get out of sight before their cannons could be turned around. We had managed to escape The Siege of Erivan.
Those unfortunate enough to be stuck back in the city were not so lucky. Even all the way out here the Russian cannon barrage pierced our ears as the Russians finally pierced the walls. Battle cries filled the skies as Russians and Georgians slipped into the city, wreaking havoc on the Turks, Armenians, Azeris, Kurds, Pontic Greeks, and Arabs fighting for the Anadolu Ordusu. The Russian conquest of Erivan was inevitable, perhaps it always was, but the men inside the city understood their mission - they were to delay the Russians for as long as possible and to do it while inflicting as much damage as their ranks as possible - I did not want to arrive in Trabzon only for the Byzantine fortress on the northeastern fringe of Anatolia to be surrounded by the Russians just like Erivan was. We knew that Trabzon would fall, but neither of us intended to still be in Trabzon when the Russians reached the city and The Siege of Trabzon began. The only question is, what will we do? Shall we flee by land into the heart of Turkish territory and return to Konstantiniyye? Shall we take command of the navy and direct the war over the Black Sea, ensuring that Fatimah's plan can at least partially work? Or shall we merely use the navy to transport us to Crimea where we would take command of the Kirim Ordusu? I had to admit, I was biased towards the latter. Theodoro was my home and I wanted to avenge my losses in the Caucasus.
"What do you think we should do?" I asked Fatimah. I knew that she was well aware of my bias but I opted to ask the question in the most neutral way possible, I did not want her to agree with me now out of love, I wanted her actual opinion as my Grand Vizier.
"I actually think we should go to Crimea, Caucasia and Crimea are the Russian war goals, we've already lost one of those, we had to do whatever we can to keep the other one." Fatimah assured me. I was glad, not just because she agreed with me but because she brought logic to my emotional want. Now I had a justification to defend the city where I was born and raised in. We were going to Theodoro, a place where I haven't been ever since my husband Suleiman III stole me away, I sold away my future in exchange for my family's survival, now, I was returning with the love of my life and in control of The Ottoman Empire. My heart was racing as we arrived in Trabzon, where my Komnenos forebearers reigned before heading to the home of The House of Gothia, my home. i grabbed Fatimah's hand, the battles in Caucasia were over, but the war was not lost yet, the two of us would try and keep our chances alive in Crimea.
Alright everyone, this has been chapter twenty-three of Romans, a series of humiliations for The Ottoman Empire ending on a reminder that the war is not over yet. Next chapter we will follow Tsarina Anastasia and begin during The Siege of Yerevan.