Rusana: Difference between revisions

Wali Musa Al Ghanim took command of all Oduniyyad forces and began the campaign with roughly 36,000 troops although he left behind around five thousand under Khamis Muminir to suppress a pagan uprising in Lakdu. Marching north he defeated several forces of Rungseras, amounting to merely a few mid sized warbands. As he marched around the countryside he found no large army to fight but was instead constantly being ambushed and harassed by small groups. Getting word that local monks reported on the movements of his army to his enemies, Al Ghanim directed his force to the White Peak Monastery, which was rumored to house several holy relics revered by the Rungseras people. Al Ghanim approached on the monastery and after finding its gates closed to him, laid siege to it. Ibn Ghanim ordered the setting of mangonels on a nearby hilltop and commenced a bombardment that lasted for three days. Two direct attacks on the gates were repulsed by the monks. A week into the siege the muslims were informed that a large force of at least forty thousand warriors was quickly marching on White Peak and would upon the besiegers within days.

Following the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Horoz plain in 860, the kingdom of Ghanim fell into the sphere of the [[Corumm|Chen]] dynasty. Emboldened by the victory at Horoz, the Chen dynasty initiated an invasion of Barpubad intending to gain the southern shore of lake Doyeon. As the Chen marched south in the direction of Barpubad's heartland, their enemy divided its forces into three separate armies, refusing to engage general Qu Hou's larger army in the open. After reducing several fortresses in late 861, Qu Hou marched on the Barpubad capital. The main Barpubadid army finally stood in his way to give battle at the village of Pasdar but unbeknownst to Qu Hou his army was being flanked from the east and the west by the other two formations. The initial battle went in favor of the larger Chen army but as it was close to overwhelming the Barpudadid infantry the auxiliary armies initiated their attack from the rear and eastern flank. The morale of the Chen collapsed upon being close to encirclement and a rout soon initiated. Qu Hou broke free of the trap with a few hundred horsemen and fled north while the bulk of the Chen infantry tried to flee west, only to get bogged down and picked off in the marshes. The defeat at the battle of Pasdar ended the Barpubad expedition and dented Chen military prestige altough Ghanim's own weakened position at the time precluded it taking advantage to throw off its vassal status.