Prelude
After the death of Inquisitor Rhys at the hands of Pompeia Khan and the breaking of the Tangolian siege of Nicopolis, the Tangolian Khan Qajeer has returned to his capital at Tengribalik, deep in the arid center of the rebelling province, to lick his wounds. Meanwhile, the Aurean Dominate's best general, Taftenkhamun (better known to Aureans as Taftus) began a long campaign to subdue the cool and fertile west coast of Tangolia to both deny the rebelling Qajeer access to the Tethys Ocean and use the area as a supply base. While Pompeia Khan initially planned to participate in the campaign, the distant province of Terra Centralis was soon invaded by Spjot Ragnarsson and his band of mercenaries and space pirates, demanding her attention for the time being. To begin his campaign, Taftus, commanding the Field Army of the Lurias Valley, returned to his base at Bayahong, which he had captured from the Tangolians a few weeks earlier at the conclusion of the Border Campaign, and marched southwest towards the coast.
Unknown to Taftus, however, the Tangolians had already sent a force, the Field Army of Haegeup commanded by a minor Khan named Fiyanggu Wilan, to shore up their defenses along the coast and retake Bayahong. Moving quickly up the coast by rail, this force strengthened and resupplied the garrisons in the many cities and towns along the seaboard before turning inland towards Bayahong.
About a week and a half into Taftus's march, his scouts, having interrogated a Tangolian foraging party they captured, reported the presence of a Tangolian field army encamped at Arslan's Ford, the last rail station on Tangolia's southwestern line before Bayahong. Taftus, knowing he had to move quickly to prevent Wilan from figuring out he was there and fortifying the hills near the town and that his infantry would never make it in time, led a cavalry-only surprise attack on Wilan's positions near the town.
Despite being outnumbered 3-to-1, Taftus managed to dislodge Wilan from his position, catching him completely unprepared for battle, and force him to retreat to the southeast. However, Taftus's cavalry had sustained massive casualties during the encounter and he decided to hunker down in Arslan's Ford, wait for the rest of his army to arrive, and call in cavalry reinforcements by railroad. Once his army had caught up and he received his reinforcements, Taftus began the long march southwest to the port of Zhaoramay. Realizing Zhaoramay would be heavily garrisoned, Tatfus sent for reinforcements from the province of Tiorangi, about a month's sail across the Tethys Ocean from Zhaoramay. However, Zhaoramay was around two months' march southwest from Taftus, giving Wilan ample time to recover.
Wilan, meanwhile, had retreated southeast to Khotgol, where Qajeer had been raising another field army in preparation for Taftus's assault on the coast. However, this new Field Army of the Southern Tangolian Desert would not be ready for another month and a half, so Qajeer sent orders to Wilan to remain in Khotgol until the new field army was ready so they could link up and relieve Zhaoramay once Taftus besieged it. Additionally, as the field army was being raised, tens of thousands of irregular nomadic horse archers from the surrounding desert joined them in Khotgol, bolstering their numbers even further.
As Taftus moved through the fertile farmland of western Tangolia, he was able to live off the land fairly easily, as the minor Khans who controlled the farm estates could not go scorched-earth in fear of inspiring their servi agri (serfs whose status Tangolia had revolted over in the first place) to revolt. Although Pompeia Khan was still busy fighting a losing war against Ragnarsson far to the northwest, she still was able to pass a law that allowed Aurean forces in Tangolian territory to seize servi agri they encountered as "rebel contraband" and put them to paid work for the army, and as Taftus marched further into Tangolian territory, many of these servi agri joined him as laborers, teamsters, cooks, and other workers.
By the time Taftus reached Zhaoramay in mid-May, the city had already been under siege for some time by the Field Army of Motaciora Nova, which had arrived a few weeks earlier from Tiorangi. Knowing that Wilan would likely reappear before long to relieve the city, possibly with reinforcements, Taftus made sure to seize all of the rail stations in the towns in roughly a 100-mile radius surrounding the city to force the Tangolians to march through at least that much territory before arriving to relieve the city. When the Tangolians did arrive and attacked Taftus from the east, they fought him in a brutal seven-day slog known as the Battle of Zhaoramay. Taftus won and forced them to retreat, but took casualties almost as heavy as the Tangolians'.
While Taftus was able to capture Zhaoramay, the Tangolians were forced to retreat southeast to the rail hub of Sunhung to think up a new strategy. Despite having chased Wilan and Kipchak off, Taftus still took another eight weeks to capture the city, as Zhaoramay had started stockpiling food and water all the way back during the Border Campaign to prepare for an eventual siege, and as a result, their supplies took months to run out. On August 6th, the city finally fell and Taftus spent the next few days stocking up on supplies before continuing south.
However, this second march south was not as easy for Taftus, as the lush farmlands further north he had been able to live off of slowly began to turn to forest. Additionally, the Tangolian irregular horse archers which had accompanied Wilan and Kipchak to Zhaoramay had been sent to roam the vast area south of the city and harass Taftus as he traveled through it, wreaking havoc on his supply lines. Despite making numerous attempts to lure them into open battle, these irregulars refused, acting as guerillas who kept appearing out of nowhere and causing as much annoyance to Taftus as possible before disappearing back into the woods. In response, Taftus traveled exclusively along the coast for the next few weeks of his march, in one instance having his troops cut down trees from the forests to build an artificial harbor from which he was resupplied via Tiorangi.
Shortly after this, Taftus learned from a few horse archers he managed to capture that Wilan and Kipchak were encamped at Sunhung, had replenished all of their losses from the Battle of Zhaoramay, and were counting on him to march through the Sunhung Valley, a rare area of fertile farmland in these dense southern forests, where they would ambush him on his way south. Seeing this as an opportunity to deal with them once and for all, Taftus moved southeast towards the valley. While the Tangolian horse archers were able to both harass Taftus and report his movements to Wilan and Kipchak, they were still none the wiser that Taftus knew about their plan. To prevent his knowledge of this from leaking to the enemy, Taftus even went as far as to not tell any of his troops he knew what was waiting for them in the valley in case any were captured.
Knowing Taftus would likely seek to take the critical rail junction there first, Wilan and Kipchak laid their trap just north of the town of Jamukha's Ford. As the name implies, the town was located at a shallow point on the northern bank of the Sunhung River, with a band of flat farmland around two miles thick to the north. Beyond that, the terrain turned to wooded hills. Of particular note were Hulun Hill, a gentle slope whose summit was around 200 feet above the valley to the south, and Qitahe Ridge, sloping gently down to the north and forming a sharp, 350-foot bluff facing south. Between Qitahe Ridge in the east and Hulun Hill in the west was the main road to Jamukha's Ford, which Wilan and Kipchak knew Taftus would take. This would serve as the funnel for their trap, with half of their crossbowmen positioned in the woods on each side of the road to pepper the Aureans as they passed through. Once the Aureans marched out of the forest and into the open farmland, Wilan and Kipchak's horse archers, half of which were positioned just out of sight on each side of the road, would charge up to them, rain arrows down on them, and run off before the slow Aurean legionnaires could catch up to them. Then, they would repeat the process, pinning the Aureans and gradually thinning out their numbers. Positioned just south of this, forming the bottom of the horseshoe shape of the Tangolian lines, were the Tangolian Asker heavy infantry, who would hem the Aureans in from the south. Finally, once the Aureans were surrounded on three sides, the Spahi (elite heavy cavalry comprised of Tangolian nobles), positioned just to the northeast of the eastern half of the horse archers, would run around behind Qitaihe Ridge and charge the Aureans in the rear, completing the box and surrounding them. Kipchak would lead the Spahi charge, Wilan commanded the Askers, and a lesser Khan named Khosbayar Arslan led the horse archers.
When Taftus arrived in the area the evening before battle, he was handed a crudely drawn map of the area by a former servus agri his army had taken in from a nearby farmer as "rebel contraband", and deduced from the layout of the terrain that the Tangolian attack would surely come from the sides of the road as his army emerged from the road. He knew that Wilan and Kipchak would use the cover of the woods to hide either his crossbowmen or infantry, but could not decide which. He set up camp for the night just north of Qitaihe Ridge, and finally informed his subordinates of what they were marching into. They were enraged that he hid this from them, although most calmed down after he told them that he did this because he did not want to risk the fact that the enemy had lost the element of surprise ending up in their hands. However, Andreas Pavlou, Crysanthe Exarchopoulos, and Antonia Virginia, political rivals of his, all demanded that he turn back north and think of a new plan while they still could, not trusting Taftus's judgement. Particularly livid was Pavlou, who by the time they all went to bed that night, had already begun scribbling scathing new editorials about Taftus's generalship for his newspaper, The Free Aurean. Despite their protests, however, they were overruled and the plan was to go ahead.
Early the following morning, before dawn and before any of the other units had been awoken, Taftus woke Pavlou, his crossbowmen, and the few Tangolian horse archers that had defected to their side among the servi agri. Correctly guessing that Wilan and Kipchak would attempt to seal off their escape by wheeling either their Spahi or a portion of their horse archers around Qitaihe Ridge, Taftus ordered them to immediately march up and fortify Qitaihe Ridge. Thinking this was Taftus's way of removing him from the main battle to get back at him for doubting his plan, Pavlou, against orders, woke the limitanei (light infantry) and took them up the ridge with him.
Around the same time, Taftus woke his Victores (retinue heavy cavalry), around 10,000 in number, and ordered them to split into two groups of around 5,000 each. The western group was ordered to hide in the woods of Hulun Hill and await further orders, while the eastern group was ordered to hide in the woods east of Qitaihe Ridge and await further orders, but also to stop any Tangolian force that tried to move north or east of the ridge. However, he also ordered them to stay put and let them pass if they alone were not enough to deter them, as he would need them for another maneuver and could not afford to waste them on a pursuit.
As everyone awoke the following morning, Taftus was greatly unnerved by the sudden disappearance of the limitanei, thinking they had either deserted or been taken in the night by Wilan and Kipchak, but when he took a ride to Pavlou's position to inform him of the situation, he realized they were with him. While he chastized Pavlou for insubordination and threatened to remove him from command, he realized these limitanei would be of use in stopping a cavalry charge up the ridge and allowed Pavlou to keep them for the time being.
Battle
The battle began that morning after the troops were fed a hearty meal. Taftus, not wanting all of his heavy infantry to be caught in the trap at once, sent his Aurean Legionnaires onto the road in basic marching pattern in small formations to give the illusion of his entire army falling for the trap, but in small groups. As soon as they cleared the trough between Qitaihe Ridge and Hulun Hill, the Tangolian crossbowmen opened fire from the surrounding woods. In accordance with Taftus's instructions, Antonia Virginia, who commanded the first of the legions to enter the trap, ordered her troops to slowly march in testudo formation with raised shields. This did its job and kept casualties to a minimum, and the slow speed of the advance gave Pavlou ample time to fortify the ridge.
Once Antonia cleared the woods, she found herself on an open wheat field with 15,000 horse archers barreling towards her on each flank. She had orders from Taftus to arrange her legionnaires in a hollow square to avoid being outflanked, similar to the maneuver that led to disaster at the Battle of Ascrus the previous year, but had doubts as to whether or not it would work this time. Instead, she opted for a horseshoe-shaped line, facing the enemy to her south, east, and west, but with the north side, anchored by Hulun Hill to the northwest and Qitaihe Ridge to the northeast, left open to both allow fresh troops to trickle in more easily and pull troops from the south to reinforce the flanks, where the pressure was greatest. Like at the Battle of Ascrus, the Tangolians attempted to intimidate the Aureans by beating hollow drums, engaging in traditional Tangolian throat singing, and blaring trumpets, but by this point in the war, the Aureans were used to this and it had little effect. Like at the Battle of Ascrus, the horse archers charged the Aurean left and right, releasing hail after hail of arrows at them. While the Aureans were able to protect themselves by raising their shields in the testudo formation, many arrows found their way through the cracks and hit the Aurean troops underneath. Many arrows were even able to penetrate shields, resulting in many Aurean legionnaires essentially having their shields and arms nailed together, and their feet nailed to the wheat and dirt below. While the Aureans tried to engage the horse archers in melee combat, the archers were too quick for them, always retreating just out of reach and unleashing parting shots as they withdrew.
Thus far, Wilan and Kipchak had thought their plan was going perfectly, completely none the wiser to the fact Taftus had known about and planned for their trap. The horse archers were making mincemeat of the Aurean legionnaires that emerged from the forest, and they then set the next piece of their plan in motion by having their Askers charge the Aureans from the south. As they crashed into the thin and weak Aurean south, they removed Antonia's ability to reinforce her east and west, putting her lines under immense stress. During the slaughter, Virginia herself was mortally wounded by an arrow to the face.
Laying down the final piece of the puzzle, Kipchak then attempted to lead his Spahi around Qitaihe Ridge to hem the Aureans in from the rear and surround them. However, on their way, they encountered resistance in the form of the 5,000 Victores Taftus had stationed just east of the ridge, who ambushed them by charging out from behind it. While they were able to inflict some casualties on the Victores and the latter did not attempt to pursue the Spahi, the force was mauled by the incident, suffering around 1,500 casualties to the Victores' ~500. Unnerved by the presence of Taftus's cavalry here, as well as the fact they seemed to be expecting an attack, Kipchak completed his move around Qitaihe Ridge slowly and cautiously, giving Pavlou and his force critical time to finish digging in.
By the time Kipchak knew what he was charging into, his Spahi were already being blindsided with arrows from Pavlou's crossbowmen, entrenched at the top of the hill. Knowing that if Taftus managed to get ballistae, catapults, or any other artillery up there he would be able to dominate the battlefield and force the Tangolians to abandon Jamukha's Ford and likely the entire Sunhung Valley, Kipchak panicked and attempted to charge up the hill, being bloodily repulsed when Pavlou ordered his crossbowmen to fire nonstop volleys and his Tangolian defectors to dismount and fire from the trenches with their bows. However, he knew that the Aureans had limited ammunition and that if he managed to exhaust this, they would be defenseless, and so tried again.
Meanwhile in the wheat field, just as the Aureans' infantry lines were about to break, Taftus ordered both of his groups of Victores to emerge from their hiding places and charge each group of Tangolian horse archers in the flank. Taken completely by surprise, the horse archers panicked and attempted to flee the field, but the vast majority were trapped between the Aurean legionnaires, whose morale had rebounded seeing the cavalry charge, and said cavalry charge, and were cut down by the thousands. Khosbayar Arslan, the commander of the horse archers, was impaled by a spear during the charge and killed instantly.
Back at Qitaihe Ridge, things were going slightly better for the Tangolians, as after three failed Spahi charges up the hill, the Aureans were out of arrows for their crossbows. Realizing they had no other way of repelling a cavalry charge, Pavlou gave the order that likely decided the entire battle: the Aurean crossbowmen would discard their crossbows, pick up polearms and swords from dead Spahi, and join the limitanei and Tangolian defectors, who wheeled around like a hinge to flank the Spahi from the left, in a melee charge down the hill. This simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver, led personally by Pavlou, caught the Tangolians by complete surprise, resulting in the annihilation of Kipchak's Spahi as a force. Kipchak was killed during the charge, which Pavlou claimed after the battle in The Free Aurean to have done personally, although many dispute this, claiming a Tangolian defector named Nurhaci Jurchen did it instead. What is known, however, is that Pavlou suffered a serious leg wound leading the charge, only surviving after a limitaneus rescued him. Almost all the Spahi not killed during this surrendered or were taken prisoner, and only around a hundred or so Spahi managed to flee the battle.
Meanwhile on the wheatfield, the situation had devolved into a slaughter, with the Tangolian horse archers reduced to essentially a non-entity at this point and their Askers then being cut to pieces by the Aurean legionnaires from the north and the Victores on their flanks, with some of the latter starting to break off and hit them in the rear. Seeking to prevent any large number of Tangolians from escaping across the river to fight another day, Taftus, who by this time was on the wheatfield leading his troops on horseback, ordered a few hundred Victores to secure the town of Jamukha's Ford itself, as well as the bridges across the Sunhung River and the fordable spot on said river near the town to cut off any potential retreat. Wilan, who by this point was the only Tangolian commander left on the field, gave the order to surrender upon seeing those routes blocked.
Aftermath
While the Tangolians suffered far fewer killed in this battle than the Aureans did at Ascrus the previous year, the entrapment and surrender of a force this massive was nevertheless a far bigger blow to them than that had been for the Aureans, as some Aureans had managed to escape Ascrus alive, while almost all Tangolians who survived Jamukha's Ford were made prisoner. This battle marked the end of organized Tangolian resistance on the province's west coast, with Taftus spending the rest of the year mostly mopping up garrisons further down the coast and wintering in the port of Haegeup, where he was resupplied and his losses replenished. In total, the Tangolians suffered around 35,000 killed or wounded at Jamukha's Ford, with another 40,000 being made POWs.
Although Jamukha's Ford was a complete victory for the Aureans, it was far from a bloodless one, with several legions being utterly mauled by the horse archers early on in the battle. Particularly devastated was Legio XXIII Malleo, of which only around half a cohort remained in fighting shape. Antonia Virginia and Bruccius Armiger, two of Taftus's best legion commanders, were dead. In total, the Aureans suffered around 15,000 killed or wounded at Jamukha's Ford, with the first few legions sent into battle being hit the hardest. Additionally, Pavlou would be out of the war for a while due to his leg wound and was able to spend much of his medical leave writing editorials and doing interviews in which he greatly exaggerated his role in holding Qitaihe Ridge and milking it for all the political points he could squeeze out of it, much to Taftus's annoyance. Due to his anti-Tangolian racism, he also attempted to downplay the role of Tangolian defectors in holding the ridge, much to Pompeia Khan's annoyance as she was half-Tangolian.
Combined with Pompeia Khan having annihilated Spjot Ragnarsson's forces at the Battle of Lisissa a couple months earlier and driven him from the planet, the victory at Jamukha's Ford caused Aurean morale to rebound, as the people realized these wars could be won. Riding this wave of public support for the war, Pompeia, only two weeks after the victory at Jamukha's Ford, narrowly passed a law called the Tangolian Freedom Act, which declared all servi agri to be free in the eyes of the Aurean Government, allowing all armies in Tangolian territory to free any servi agri they encountered, and even begin enlisting and training any who volunteered to do so into the Aurean Military.
As time went on, this bolstered the Aurean war effort immeasurably, allowed Aurean forces to replenish their losses even deep in enemy territory, and spelled the end of the last traces of slavery in the Aurean Dominate. Already reeling from losing two field armies, two of his best commanders being killed and a third captured, and losing control of the entire Tangolian west coast, Qajeer spiraled into an escalating state of madness that would persist for the rest of the war. His son, Hulegu, although never officially replacing him as Khagan, would begin making most of the important decisions of the war on the Tangolian side from this point forward.
After Taftus's winter in Haegeup, he sailed with his forces north to Dorirna, from where he would begin the River Campaign, the six-month-long bloody slog into the Tangolian interior that would bring the Aureans to eventual victory in the war.