Deliverance of the District of Moorland
The Deliverance of the District of Moorland was a campaign of the Hurmu Peace Corps to rescue the 29th Port and Maritime Regiment, along with collaborating members of the native population, from the colonial settlement of Newhaven in Moorland following the loss of the territory to the Confederacy of the Dispossessed in 1717 AN. Initially intended as an evacuation of the population, it became plain that the Hurmu Peace Corps lacked the wherewithal, and the supporting political will amongst the increasingly fractious ruling class of Hurmu, to effect a competent evacuation. As such the deliverance of the district was instead to be at the hands of the Kingdom of Moorland and Keltia Command of the Raspur Pact, which would organise the integration of the District of Moorland into the Kingdom as part of a wider campaign against Ostland and the Confederacy of the Dispossessed, known as the Wars of the Disinherited.
Background
In the face of an active campaign of native subversion, and in view of the geographical distance of the district from the mother country, the difficult decision was made by the Cabinet of Jamshid-e Osman to order the evacuation of Moorland.
Before the Evacuation could commence however, the HPC garrison would be required to reassert control, to take the Commissioner appointed by Temüjin into custody, and to expel the Green Einhorns from the territory.
Initial skirmishes
The 29th Port and Maritime Regiment, upon being ordered to arrest Mantric, found themselves under a sustained and withering fire from concealed tribal fighters from the moment a squadron contingent had formed up to leave the cantonments on the outskirts of Newhaven for the government residency. Of the lead troop to exit the cantonment gates, nineteen perished immediately to the deadly fire of the unseen marksmen, whilst every other man in the vanguard troop sustained a wound. The squadron detachment has effectively been ambushed and is obliged to retire within the gates.
Buoyed by their initial success, the tribal fighters attempted to rush the gates. Fortunately the rebel attack failed abysmally. The entire garrison of the Cantonment has been roused by fusillade at the gate, and the defences there, as well as along the perimeter, had swiftly been fully manned. The reckless charge had seen the rebel tribesmen run headlong into withering rifle, carbine, and sub-machine gun fire. Of the two hundred rebels in the rush on the gate, one hundred and sixty would perish.
Hurmu responds
In response to the emerging crisis, the Hurmu Executive formed a special cabinet committee to oversee the former functions of the Minister for Moorland. Contracts were awarded to the Nova English Salvage Company and the Maritime Support Group to organise chartered vessels for the relief and then the evacuation of the garrison at Newhaven as well as any dependents and emigres who requested resettlement.
Negotiations for the chartering of requisite shipping for relief and evacuation missions between Port Esther and Newhaven proved to be rather protracted. Whilst the Honourable Company had been distracted by questions of the succession to Daniyal al-Osman to the directorship of the ESB Group in Apollonia it was difficult for Hurmu to leverage its former influence, and as as such the preferred regional partners for the Hurmu Peace Corps in the Warring Isles provided quotes that were triple the customary rate charged during the period of Hurmudan administration in the Warring Islands. Whilst the evacuation of Moorland, and the rescue of the poor souls stranded there, remained a priority, the Cabinet of Jamshid-e Osman felt that it was equally important to secure best value for money when contracting services.
Instead suggestion was made that the prices would be lowered considerably if the Salvage Company and the Sea Reavers were to receive a licence to "decommission" the territory once the Hurmudan garrison and those who want to depart with them were evacuated. The advantages of allowing the Sea Reavers to scour Moorland upon the departure of the HPC was that it would be removed from contention as a base from where the Confederacy of the Dispossessed could menace Normark or Anahuaco in the same manner that they were discovered to have overwhelmed Ostland.
The line of enquiry seemed promising, but the distractions of the 1718 Hurmu general elections and the subsequent termination of the tenure of Jamshid as Prime Minister brought the discussions to a close before a firm resolution on the matter could be made.
1718 Truce
To the incredulity of some, but following legal advice received by the Order of the Holy Lakes concerning its obligations to the membership of the order under international humanitarian law, a truce was unilaterally declared in the first weeks of 1718 AN to allow for registered members of the Green Einhorn families to participate in the 1718 Hurmu general elections.
The Great Siege
Relief fails to materialise
The Cabinet of Annika Raudsepp, sworn in on 8.III.1719 AN, was one driven by reforming zeal, and one which immediately came to be at odds with the Senate of the Lakes. The fate of the District of Moorland became an object of contention between the two factions within the government, and it rapidly ceased to enjoy any measure of prominence at all as the various institutions of the state turned inwards and at variance towards one-another.
The siege commenced
Following the end of the truce, attacks upon the cantonments at Newhaven resumed. The Green Einhorns aligned to the rebel cause resorted to using conscripted levies taken from tottering Ostland to mount a series of grotesque human wave assaults against the HPC garrison whilst preparing a flotilla of captured small craft and merchant vessels with which to enforce a blockade of the port.
Minimal assistance from the Benacian Union garrison in the Warring Islands is limited to a monthly supply ship, escorted by the Maritime Support Group, carrying a barely adequate volume of ammunition, food, and fuel with which to sustain the defenders, and the evacuation of the wounded on the return journey to Port Esther. Reinforcements, who arrived at Port Esther in small contingents via the Gate Network, also began to be delivered to Newhaven via a charted merchant vessel from the Nova English Salvage Company. However these numbers were not sufficient to replace the mounting casualties, as volunteers for the evidently doomed Moorland posting were few and far between.
The Green Einhorns meanwhile continued to wreak havoc. Mantric's men managed to overrun two of the outworks on the perimeter of the HPC cantonment, they were eventually driven from those positions by the use of demolition charges hurled into the midst of the enemy warriors as they exulted in their seeming victory. As the scene of carnage was examined in the aftermath of the fight, it became apparent that eight of the defenders had been seized and carried off by the Einhorns. These captives had promptly been marched off into Ostland where their fate was unknown. Delighted by his success in seizing those men, Mantric launched a spectacular new wave of attacks and captured a further seventy-three Hurmudan servicemen. These, too, were promptly led off in chains, this time across the Green to the Strait of Haifa where boats conveyed them north to Dalen. A delighted Knotaric had these captives sacrificed and offered up their burnt entrails as a dedication to the gods and a proof of his inevitable triumph in the ongoing wars.
Indeed, Mantric's warriors showed such resolution that there was a very real fear amongst the surviving Hurmudan that the entire garrison would be overwhelmed and taken into slavery - or worse. In the end the fortuitous arrival of a raiding squadron of Sea-Reavers, fresh from pillaging the Ostlandic coast, thwarted the storming of the cantonments. Mantric's horde was beaten back by gunnery from the armed trawlers off-shore for which he had no answer. The Green Einhorns were subsequently obliged to withdraw in considerable disorder.
The Hurmudan peacekeepers were elated by their deliverance, and in the midst of this, the reavers came ashore to plunder Newhaven, "evacuating" a goodly number of the inhabitants before firing the town. Whilst dismayed at this act, the peacekeepers were at least able to reoccupy the harbour area and the burnout shell of the governor's residence without any sign of trouble from those chastened inhabitants who had survived the sudden razzia. The Green Einhorns had left one-hundred and seventy-four of their followers slain over the course of the three attacks. Amongst these was Ecgmund, son of Oswyn. The first notable whom the Green Einhorns had occasion to mourn during these wars. Accordingly they were slow to make their reappearance.
The peacekeepers and the survivors of Newhaven used this time to their advantage. Considering themselves marooned, and abandoned by the world, they made common cause and pledged to the defence of the town whilst the terms of their evacuation could be negotiated with whomsoever would agree to take them without depriving them of liberty. In the meantime, the peacekeepers withdrew from their cantonments into the town, whilst the populace there organised a fyrd from amongst the able-bodied men and boys. Half to work on the digging of entrenchments and earthworks around the town, the other half to train under the supervision of the peacekeepers, with the roles of the two halves to swap on every fortnight.
Oswyn meanwhile, performed a human sacrifice, having purchased one of the eight surviving Hurmudan captives, and, in the act of devouring the man's roasted liver, pledged that no living creature would be left alive in Newhaven after his vengeance for his son had been wrought.
Deliverance
Towards the end of 1719 AN the news grew more dire. It was plainly obvious to everyone that the Assembly of Representatives and the Senate of the Lakes were drifting inevitably towards open warfare.
During the first month of 1720 AN, someone in Keltia Command apparently woke up. Instead of sending supply ships from Port Esther, the Maritime Support Group was instead directed to deploy a squadron to Aldama, in the state of Pavón, a port situated on the opposite side of the bay to Newhaven and controlled by Anahuaco. The Grand Commissariat of Keltia, supported by local forces, was to ensure that the Hurmudan garrison received the provisions that it required, and that any women or children would be evacuated to a place of greater safety.
A supply convoy sailed from Aldama (Anahuaco) to Newhaven (Moorland) on III.1720. Formed of the Fire Squadron of the Maritime Support Group and three armed merchantmen organised by the Imperial Naval Corps of Anahuaco. Stores and munitions provided by the Grand Commissariat of Keltia are stored aboard the armed merchantmen. The pirate fleet of the Disinherited and the Green Einhorns attempt to intercept.
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The scattering of the Corsair Fleet in Taylor's Bay represented a decisive naval victory, and an unexpectedly auspicious debut for the Imperial Navy Corps of Anahuaco. The full consignment of supplies reached Newhaven and we're unloaded unopposed.
Keen to follow up the success of the Imperial Naval Corps, the Imperial Army sought to claim a measure of credit by sending an overland relief column, formed of 15,600 men, bringing further supplies to Newhaven. This however entailed crossing the camp, and stirred up the Green Einhorns to interdict the relief force.
(Again, narrative fluff to follow)
Whilst the outcome of the pitched battle was not decisive, the relief column was deterred, for the moment, from advancing any further towards Newhaven.
