East-1641 & 1642: The Realm of Mesopotamia
1641 continued: There is a hiatus after the fall of Mosul. Despite the substantial stockpiling of supplies during the truce, the sheer amount of material needed to reduce the city had exceeded even the Romans’ most pessimistic projections. There is a forced lull as materials are brought forward, the Romans not advancing until mid-November, a month after the fall of Mosul. Odysseus intends to campaign without any stint in winter quarters, firstly to keep the pressure up on Ibrahim and also to make up for the extended stall at Mosul.
The advance is slow but steady. The various towns and cities of northern Mesopotamia are mostly fortified, but none nearly to the size and extent of Mosul. However even a small fortified town can tie up a tagma for at least a week in a regular siege; things could be sped up through more aggressive tactics, but that trades time for blood, a lot of blood, and Odysseus is not willing to make that exchange.
The goal is to get as many of these minor-but-cannot-be-ignored strongholds to surrender quickly, and to that end Odysseus employs what is now called a ‘chocolate cake or chainsaw’ approach, essentially a carrot and stick approach but more extreme. Those places that surrender promptly are treated extremely leniently while those that resist receive absolutely no mercy. The effectiveness of the strategy is questionable. Many of the townspeople are divided in how to respond, but when they debate, the delay is often long enough that it is viewed as resistance, meaning it’s the chainsaw, and so the townspeople resist to the bitter end. It is estimated that at least a fifth, and likely more, of the population of northern Mesopotamia, is killed, either directly or indirectly, by the Romans over the course of 1641. While Roman offensives into the region have always been devastating, the scale is unprecedented.
Iskandar is there very publicly trying to encourage the locals to surrender promptly, but with little success. Most of his new followers remain around Mosul, although in nicer lodgings with some of them practicing their peacetime trades for the time-being. Because they won’t fight in Mesopotamia, marching them alongside the Roman army would be a very large logistical burden to an already-strained system, for no tactical purpose. Furthermore their non-fighting while the Romans are right there bleeding would certainly spark resentment among the Roman soldiers, which Odysseus and Iskandar really don’t want.
The downside is that during this stage of the war, Iskandar is accompanied only by a bodyguard and senior retainers and entourage. The size disparity between the large Roman army and Iskandar’s small train means the ‘I am not a Roman puppet’ is a hard sell, while Iskandar’s retainers are Persians, lacking the personal contacts with the local Mesopotamians that might be able to overcome that obstacle.
The responses thus vary wildly. Some do come over to join Iskandar’s service, but under the same terms as those of the captives from Qara Tappa. Others take the chocolate cake. But many choose, or are forced to resist. One garrison commander who certainly knows his audience retorts that he will surrender to Roman rule when the Romans accept a German Catholic as their Emperor.
Over in Syria the Egyptians are making good progress, with Jerusalem falling with relatively little bloodshed while the Romans were stalled at Mosul. The Egyptian leadership held a public service of thanksgiving in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Orthodox clergy giving way with extremely obvious bad grace. At the same time delegates from the Coptic Patriarch, the Ethiopian Abun, and the Armenian Katholikos are in Constantinople for negotiations regarding the settlement of religious properties in the Holy Land.
The Roman advance, while successful, is slowly whittling away at the Roman army. Garrisons need to be manned and extending supply and communication lines need to be guarded. Even in the absence of major battles or sieges, the steady wastage from disease, accidents, and skirmishes are ever constant. Reinforcements come in from Anatolia but since the initial army was specifically composed of the elite, even very good replacements mark a net loss in quality.
Furthermore the reinforcements don’t quite make up for all the various elements that are siphoning strength away from the field army. The harvest in both Roman Europe and Anatolia in 1641 is bad, ruined by poor weather, with only Thrace and Bithynia performing better in the sense that their harvests are rated as mediocre. While harvest failures are a regular occurrence, usually they do not affect more than 2-3 themes; a shortfall on this level is much rarer and lacks the leeway in the more typical harvest failure. This is always a precarious moment in pre-industrial societies, with bread prices climbing rapidly to be followed by the inevitable bread riots.
While Romans with some resources can eke through one bad harvest, those already on the margins cannot. It is estimated that around 1% of the Roman heartland’s population, about 150,000, perish as a result, primarily in the countryside that lacks the bulk import structure for foodstuffs, and mainly the very old and very young. (Such crises and demographic blows are common in pre-industrial societies where food scarcity is rampant to a degree people in modern developed societies can barely imagine.) Athena, who is concerned about maintaining security and stability in the provinces, is reluctant to part with too many soldiers.
1642: Odysseus’ feelings on his sister’s actions are unknown but he continues the offensive, the Roman army of some 55000 soldiers setting up their first trenches around Baghdad in February. Baghdad does not have the sheer quality of Mosul’s fortifications but it does have modern defenses and is much bigger than Mosul. With its population swelled by refugees from the north, the inhabitants number at over 400,000, making Baghdad bigger than Constantinople.
That is a weakness, not a strength. In terms of fighting ability, many of the four hundred thousand are useless, but they all have mouths and bellies, and supplies are limited. The Romans prosecute an active siege rather just a blockade, but it seems quite likely that hunger, not cannonades, will force Baghdad to surrender.
Ibrahim is active in the area with a rebuilt field army which is comparable in size to the Romans. He is suffering from manpower issues the same as the Romans, although his combat losses have been heavier, but that is compensated by his home field advantage. The basic setup is similar to Mosul, but Ibrahim’s strategy has changed. Baghdad can’t hold out like extensively prepared Mosul had, and given Qara Tappa Ibrahim is less confident in field fortifications. With the Ottoman troops demoralized by the reverses of 1641, he needs a win to boost their fighting spirits, and with the Romans spread out having to cover all of Baghdad’s massive circuit of defenses, a fight in the open is more appealing.
In a turnabout from Qara Tappa, night marches and vigorous Ottoman scout work keep the Romans from discovering the main Ottoman army until it is close. Surprise is not total, but due to the sheer size of Baghdad’s siege lines with a river bisecting them, Roman reserves are minimal and cannot move very quickly to where they are needed.
The Ottoman attack bites deep into the Roman outer defenses but doesn’t break them; fortunately for the Romans the Ottoman artillery train is not recovered from Qara Tappa and relatively weak, a factor that likely makes the difference. The fighting is intense and bloody, fought mostly hand to hand in a tangle of Roman trenches and tents. Meanwhile a sally of the Ottoman garrison piles into the Roman lines in the attacked sector, and likewise initial success is unable to be decisive due to the poor equipment of the garrison.
Meanwhile Roman reserves have finally worked their way across the river but rather than feeding them into the abattoir Odysseus masses them on the Ottoman right flank, using the clouds of dust and powder thrown up by the battle to hide them. Once he has enough, he lets fly. The Roman counterattack crashes into the Ottoman flank, shattering it and sending the fragments fleeing in rout. Ottoman reserves check the rout for a time and keep the Romans from rolling up the rest of their line until brought-up Roman artillery, mainly those Triune field guns, bash them enough that an ambrolar charge breaks them.
The battle of Baghdad is like a second Qara Tappa. Roman losses are around six thousand, a heavy proportion since not all of the Roman army was engaged. Ottoman casualties, including prisoners, are sixteen thousand, mostly from the elements that had been in the initial attack and thus were unable to retreat. In terms of manpower, it is a hard but not crippling blow to Ibrahim. However he has lost much of the army’s equipment, artillery, and baggage, not to the extent of Qara Tappa, but still a great deal and the loss made even worse by it compounding the earlier. Furthermore Ibrahim no longer has the Baghdad arsenal for resupply. And lost morale is even harder to replace than lost equipment. After the battle, aside from cavalry harassment Ibrahim gives up the fight for Mesopotamia, retreating to the east side of the Zagros to lick his wounds.
That does not end the siege of Baghdad though, which despite the retreat of the Shah refuses to surrender. There was a second garrison sally during the battle, this one attacking directly opposite from the Ottoman attack. It had been comprised of a mix of refugees from the north and madrasa students from the city, poorly-equipped and badly-trained, yet highly enthusiastic and very importantly enjoying a massive local superiority in numbers. The Roman lines had been stripped of many troops to meet Ibrahim. This attack had been very successful, spiking nineteen Roman cannon and wrecking many siege works. One contingent, making it further than others, fights its way to a hospital behind the lines where they kill over two hundred inmates and medical staff before they are driven back.
Those who sallied are exultant at their accomplishments but more sober Baghdadi are horrified. Roman and Ottoman regulars don’t have formally agreed rules of war, but there are unspoken ones. On the battlefield, a wounded soldier is still a soldier and thus all bets are off. However medical locations, including field hospitals, are supposed to be captured, not attacked (unless they’re actively defended, in which cases all bets are again off). The captured inmates are not guaranteed proper medical care and attention, difficult to guarantee in the 1600s generally, but they can at least expect not to be beaten to death with a musket butt on their cot. The Roman soldiers are utterly seething when they hear of this. While the regulars captured from Ibrahim’s field army are treated as per the unspoken rules (they can be identified by their blue uniforms), all captives from the garrison sallies, both of them, are executed in full sight of the Baghdadi.
The Baghdadi argue but end up choosing to continue fighting. Some are buoyed by the success of the sally. The city had supported Osman, not Ibrahim, when the two brothers fought and the inhabitants have little love for their Shah, while still hating the Romans. Many argue that they don’t need Ibrahim. From their minarets they can see practically everything that goes on in the Roman camp and they can see that their numbers, compared to the metropolis, are small. The spring rains will soon swell the river, making the siege even harder to prosecute. Feeding the massive Baghdadi population is a serious problem, but the Romans have supply issues too. Finally, and this is likely the clincher, the Baghdadi have already crossed the Rubicon and forfeited their opportunity for mercy.
The siege of Mosul had been brutal and harsh, but it doesn’t match the ugliness of Baghdad. Prisoners on both sides are lucky if they are killed on the spot, since otherwise they can expect to be tortured to death or strapped to embankments to be killed by their own side’s fire. The level of sadism and humanity’s ingenuity when it comes to inflicting suffering on other humans is on full display on both sides, and it is this psychopathy that manifests itself most clearly here that is often the reason the conflict is named the War of Wrath.
The swollen river hampers the Roman siege but does not stop it. Both sides suffer from inadequate supplies, but the heaviest blow by far falls on the Baghdadi poor who die by the thousands, then tens of thousands, from deprivation.
On May 6 practical breaches are smashed into the city’s defenses and notably Odysseus does not advance a last offer to surrender. Also notably Iskandar does not make any known efforts for clemency. Unlike Mosul, resistance largely collapses once the Romans are inside the city, but still four days pass before Odysseus declares Baghdad pacified and the customary three days of license commence, so Baghdad is given over to a week of horror.
Of the 400,000 Baghdadi in February, at least half died during the siege, mostly of starvation or disease. Exactly how many the Romans killed during the sack is unknown, but in 1645 the city is listed as only having 40,000 inhabitants, although many survivors may have emigrated before then and so are not counted.
After the horrors of Baghdad, southern Mesopotamia is an anti-climax. With Ibrahim beyond the Zagros the area capitulates with little fuss. The Arabs who dominate the area and have a large Shia percentage are much less anti-Roman than their northern neighbors. That is not to say that they would welcome a Roman overlord, but this far south the odds of Roman annexation look substantially unlikely. The attitude is a relief to Odysseus. The mountains of corpses at Baghdad are a smorgasbord of disease, badly affecting the Roman army and further depleting its ranks. Basra surrenders to a Roman cavalry column of 2000 men, which is excellent news since besieging it with 30000 is unlikely to have succeeded.
The fall of Basra marks a shift in the war. Mesopotamia has been conquered, even if most people are speculating, anticipating, or dreading its post-war status. Ibrahim’s might has been wounded but he is back in his Persian power base, which had backed him during the war with his brother Osman at the beginning of his reign. If Odysseus ceded Mesopotamia to Iskandar while Ibrahim still retains Persia and then stands aside, Iskandar is almost certain to suffer the same fate as Osman. Odysseus’ promise to his younger brother remains unfulfilled.
The army that marches forth towards the Zagros is different than that which marched down Mesopotamia. The Romans are now at 30,000 men available for continued offensive, but they are not alone. Iskandar’s forces are now present and armed, mostly with captured Ottoman weaponry, but with some surplus Roman gear when necessary, their kit including artillery. They will now clearly be fighting for Iskandar, not the Romans, and thus they are willing to fight. They number 22,000 strong. Together, the armies of Odysseus and Iskandar march east.