Mursian Unification War

The Mursian Union War, also known as The Great Union War in Mursian, was a war between the Bond of the Murisk Countries and the Princedom of Nai from 1820 to 1824.

Prelude
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Fall offensive
As the bond raised in power, the Princedom of Nai feared losing its hegemony in the region, as it was cornered and beaten in the past century. Their new young king, Alexis VI of Nai, saw this as his last chance to regain control of the region. He rallied his forces and surprised attacked the bond through the open fields of Lotana and through Thisova in November 1820. The idea of the timing was to besiege the important cities in the north before winter set in, to either capture them or destroy their grain reserves as to cause a famine. They had managed to capture the cities of Demoselo, Mopene, Pristaniselo, and Thunone in January 1821 and had set Zémperk on fire. The Bond forces struggled to fight back, as armies often arrived in small groups, who would be outnumbered locally by the Nai forces.

As winter passed, the bonds position did not improve. Although their forces had now congregated, their command was very divided. The commanders of the various states could not agree on whether to focus their forces on the east or west front. In the west of the peninsula, Pristanivesnis was the last holding able to hold the Nai army there. The forts in the area would prevent them from pushing through to the Kamuk bay. Besides it enabling them to push southwards to capture the cities of Krynatoch and Zalpristis and push all the way to the south most tip without much opposition, it would also threaten the west side of the peninsula via a mountain pass. A potential of encirclement in Thiselo was a major risk. Meanwhile in the east there were two fronts: southward there are the small fortified cities of Thiselo and Polnikolf preventing a march on Brixivo, while Stratonpolis was isolated with a large Nai force on its west. Many troops were stuck in the latter pocket, as city guards of Pristaniselo were unable to disable all canons during the capture, which guarded the inlet from ships entering and leaving Stratonpolis.

Battle of Pristanivesnis
As spring started, Nai forces moved out of Mopene towards Pristanivesnis. With the troops drawing closer, it became evident that the time frame for moving troops was gone, as late snow had damaged the mountain passages, which would severely slow down any reinforcements from the east. All troops in the west would have to fight. However, unbeknownst to the Bond commanders, the Nai forces had not wintered well. Burgers in Demoselo had ravaged the lands under occupation, while the cities of Thonone and Mopene managed to successfully block incoming merchant ships to stop foreign grain supply in the cities. With very few food supply in the northwest of the County of Bonamech, their army would have to march on half full stomages.

The Nai army decided to concentrate its forces and take the city by force. On the 4th of April 1822, the army set camp just outside the city to prepare the siege, and the attack started on the 11th. A fierce battle was fought in the trenches surrounding the kreposts, and by the 16th the main city wall was reached. However, at this point the Nai forces were getting exhausted. Murisk commanders had seen that the Nai attempted to cut food supplies and had organized that food would be supplied per meal to their forces. This meant that barely any food was available in the kreposts they captures. Their assault halted to a stop as they waited for supplies from the homeland.

Since the Mursian army was also spread towards fortifications in the hills to prevent encirclement, not all troops were engaged. The bond made good use of that fact and hatched a plan. As the Nai forces were attempting to dig in waiting for their supplies, Mursian forces pulled around and quickly took positions behind the main army, which allowed them to harass the camp and intercept supplies to the army. Soon panic broke out, as reports of an encirclement spread around. The Bond commanders came to an agreement and used the opportunity to assault. Although they feared a, they hoped the battle would increase morale and undertake future operations with more success.

The counterattack started on the 19th and quickly recovered lost ground. This tipped the scale for the Nai, whose troops started to route on certain parts. This would prove to be a major issue for the Nai commanders, as they had not build proper fortifications beside some simple battlements around their camp. They would have to catch their forces and rally them there to prevent them moving back to Mopene. The Mursians knew this and the partisan forces they had send behind the enemy camp would move in to fire potshots at the troops arriving at the camp, creating the illusion of a force attacking. This would cause a panic to spread like wildfire in the camp and soon an uncontrolled retreat was started. The attack was a large success and many forces were captured.

Battle from Stratonpolis
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Recovery of Mopene
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Battle of Woinjagowo
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Surprise attack of Papratliwa
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Peace negotiations
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As a recontribution, the bond reclaimed a price of XX kilos of gold or equivalent goods for repairs to Zémperk and compensation of Mopene traders. A buffer was also established in the west, with much of Nai-Lotana added to the County of Lotana. This greatly increased defendability of the bond and would ensure that the Princedom of Nai would not have the chance to declare again.

Aftermath
The war is very significant to Mursian history; it was a catalyst for the unification of the bond into a single nation. It caused an integration of an unified army, and created a national identity of the peoples in the region.

The Princedom of Nai would end up crippled, as they would have to repay a large amount of debt to the bond. Additionally, the army was heavily reduced and many soldiers would return wounded to their homes. This created great unrest in the nation. King-Prince Alexis VI would very quickly disposed off and succeeded by his nephew Theophilus II of Nai. However, he would not serve adequate to solve the tensions, and he would have to beat down a revolution before being assassinated and be succeeded by his brother Alexis VII, who would only serve very shortly. The nation would be attacked by the new Mursland Confederation in 1858, and would soon be annexed.

Beside territorial and political changes, the war also affected society. Nationalism within the union was on the rise. Looking for heroic characters to rally under, various generals and veterans were popularized among the peoples. The most notable of these was Danica the Mursian, a female fighter from Platparia who died defending the retreat of Union forces near Zémperk. She would soon become an icon for Mursians and has seen popular use to this day.