At last
Attacking Moldavia seems to have become a Polish tradition; a few months after the last war against the Habsburgs, Poland asked us to help them in their new war against the Romanians. Bogusław, just as the last time, decided not to interfere in the conflict. All he did was bribing some people to inform him of Polish and Teutonic achievements in the south. Again, what he wanted was some money in 'indemnities' from the poor Moldavians, and this is just what he achieved. Just after hearing of the Polish capturing of the Moldavian capital - Suceava, and of the near capture of other important cities, Bogusław received a messenger from the hospodar Stefan III, asking for peace. The Romanians would pay 158'000 ducats, which seemed almost all of their treasury - they really must have been desperate.
The one-third of this money that went to Pomeranian treasury proved to be very useful - monopoly for trade with skins, wax and fish (the main wares imported from the Northeast Europe) was achieved again in Praha.
Bogusław concentrated on the stability and welfare of his Duchy, but never forgot about the international politics, and his spies reported to him masses of Brandenburgian troops readying for the war they were waging against Sweden. It was with much grief that Bogusław heard of his southern neighbours' inclusion into the alliance with Denmark, Norway and Lithuania. He hoped to be able to attack Brandenburg shortly, but this event was delaying the eventual war even further... Anyway, the outcome of the conflict in the north was at least... Surprising. The Swedish city of Älvsborg was handed to the Germans in the peace deal.
More disturbing news came from the North: during a meeting in some faraway town the Norwegians accepted for their country to be incorporated into Denmark. Therefore, its powers grew greater and greater...
After some years though, Bogusław faced a situation where he could choose between a bad and a worse alternative. One of Brandenburg's barons from one of the counties on the Pomeranian border had been making incursions into Pomeranian soil, burning villages and taking prisoners from Bogusław's personal estates! There was no reaction to the Duke's numerous appeals to the Brandenburgian Elector for the suppression of the impudent magnate, and with time even more German nobles started committing similar crimes against Pomerania's lands. Therefore, the only thing left for Bogusław to do, was to issue an ultimatum for Brandenburg: no more incursions or war. As there again was no response from Berlin, Bogusław had to declare war against his former allies.
Without much hope of success, Bogusław took command of his army (about 20'000 men strong), splitting it into two halves. The first was ordered it to besiege Rostock in the province of Güstrow, and the other - with Bogusław at the head - against Lübeck (Schwerin). The units were reinforced so that each consisted of ca. 15'000 troops. One of such detachments, while on its way to Berlin (the previous two cities fell quite quickly) was intercepted by an overwhelming Danish force, which the Pomeranian troops surprisingly defeated.
Bogusław's astonishment rose with each day, hearing of such victories, and of the almost lack of Lithuanian resistance to Teutonic and Polish agression. This was probably because of the internal troubles Lithuania faced at this time - the state was unstable again, because of the power of its magnates, and in the east some of them were revolting from Lithuania pledging allegiance to the Grand Duke of Moskva. The huge Brandenburgian armies, so feared before, seemed to have vanished as well - Pomeranian forces were unopposed while the German cities fell, one by one.
After taking the capital in Berlin, Bogusław split his troops again, commanding the smaller part of them, consisting mostly of cavalry, to attack the Brandenburgian army they had amassed in Magdeburg. Bogusław's own force was to cross the Elbe and to reinforce the attack after the initial cavalry charge. The battle proved to be a big success for Pomerania, despite her adversary's superiority in numbers. The Brandenburgians were forced to flee east, and Bogusław could concentrate on taking Magdeburg and Stendal (Altmark province), which he achieved shortly, thanks to his sieging talent. Two days after the victory near Magdeburg an emissary from the Elector of Brandenburg approached him, asking for peace in return for the three provinces north of Brandenburg already occupied by the Pomeranians. Bogusław declined this offer - his ambitions and confidence had risen since the beginning of the war, and he wanted to deal the Germans an ultimate defeat before making peace with them.
By spring of 1500, both cities were taken. Bogusław hoped that the same tactic he used two years ago would give him success against another army, this time against the 22'000 Germans in Dresden (Sachsen province). The Pomeranian treasury was running low by this time, and Bolesław was forced to start a new emission of coin to be able to recruit more soldiers. After some money was collected in the treasury at last, Bogusław ordered for new regiments to be built. He took control of the provinces of Sachsen and Niederlausitz and rejected several more desperate pleas for peace from Brandenburg, promising to gice us as many as six provinces. He refused them, because what he wanted was vassalisation of Brandenburg, as well as the provinces giving her access to sea. This would assure Bogusław's position as the most powerful ruler in the region...
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. My relations with everyone, at least before the war in the last update, were quite warm, but Poland has quite a few enemies...
