Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Zùùtowi quoted the orders of Alááfin Bona Sanòwá:

"Zùùtowi, Commander of Victory, now your old sparring partner has defied my throne, it is time for you to take away his ability to bother the Alááshu forever. I want you to take the Hellenes, the Orange Banner, and an entirely new army to replace the Yellow Banner. Train cavalry, bring half a hundred elephants, take whatever you need in my name, I do not care, as long as you also take Tazaraga, Nijaay and the smug grin that's probably on that traitor's face right now."

"Those were her words. Zùùtowi said. "So I did almost exactly what she asked me too. I drove your soldiers from Tazaraga once more and now we are sitting in Nijaay, your throne room, but the throne is yours no more, great Burouma. However" - Zùùtowi could not help but smile -"your smug grin is not mine to take. Revel in it."

Burouma grinned smugly.

"Will the Alááfin demand my life?" He asked.

Zùùtowi shook his head. "She has pardoned a thousand and one criminals to repent for the sin of sororicide. You were the seventh person on her list, pardoned for all your sins against the Alááfin."

"I'm afraid I may have committed some acts of treason after that pardon, cunning Zùùtowi." Burouma admitted.

"You need not worry, she will truly pardon you as soon as my pigeon, which I have already sent underway, reaches Uwára with news of Nijaay's fall." Zùùtowi said. "So all that remains for you is for me to tell me your side of the second war between you and I."

Burouma nodded. "Very well. I will continue my story.

When I heard the news of your arrival in Tazaraga, I could not abandon the province, people would feed me to the hyenas if I surrendered it again. However, I had severely underestimated the size of your forces, you truly went all out, so I had to find new allies. The Berbers of the Desert and their kin in Ataram will have to enter Nijaay over my dead body ere they can sack the city again, so I went to the Soninke in the north. Together with their army, I thought, we could surely stand a chance against you, especially since I now thought I understood your tactics. You had brought cavalry, which was an innovation for Tozàn, but your new army consisted of fresh recruits, whereas I only commanded hardened veterans. The Soninke became a critical factor in the victory that I imagined.

I sent a cousin of mine north to meet with them and their king appointed a skilled general by the name of Manetseh, a man of royal status, to command the Soninke army. They were, I assume, afraid of the expansion-driven Ataram to the south and the encroaching influence of Sus to the north, and saw me as a reliable ally if they could win me my war. With the news of their army's coming, I began to prepare for a battle near the walls of Nijaay.

As we waited for the Soninke, I sent spies to observe your army. They saw King Peridoros of the Hellenes along with his tall regiment of pale men, the Tágwá Bòráò. They were dressed in heavy mail, somehow withstanding the sun of Nijaay, carrying man-sized wooden shields, tall pikes and curved swords. They saw the Orange Banner commanded by Princess Ejù-Òla, who went barechested even at the height of the day, carrying smaller shields and spears, but three assegai each, one hurled standing still, one hurled charging and a third used to stab whatever enemy was lucky enough to have survived the first two spears yet also foolish enough to not already have run away.

They saw your new army, made up of longbowmen, spearmen and horsemen. They saw no distinction between companies of the nobility and companies of the commoners. The longbowmen were commoners too, unlike any other Obibo army before, and though they seemed undertrained, perhaps your way of teaching commoners the way of the bow as well is a way to success. The spearmen were like the Orange Banner, but properly clothed and less disciplined. I believe they only carried two assegai as well, but I cannot assume my reports to be infallible. The horsemen were the first to serve Obibo in ages, riding on smaller horses than we do, but carrying spear and scimitar in much the same fashion. It would not be hard to guess where you got the idea, cunning Zùùtowi.

My spies also saw your elephants, forty of them. Each of them seemed to carry a number of archers and they were painted and dressed in such an extravagant manner that every single one of them seemed as expensive as a palace. I had never seen such a number of elephants marching together and never with an army, so when the spies told me, I was terrified.

But I did not just send spies, I also sent raiding parties. You had cavalry now, yes, but you were in foreign territory and as my father Tobunjo had once done to your father Fáwá, I had my own cavalry raid your supplies and your camp at night without mercy. Your responses were just too slow, since my men could hide everywhere in the country, but I am sure that we both knew that the raids were not going to be decisive. It was just the nature of warfare.

When the day of battle came, I placed my inferior infantry at the front, facing east. The Soninke would come from the north and fly around your flank with their cavalry, while my own cavalry would deal with your south. In the south, you had placed the Orange Banner and the Hellenes, which I wished to pin down to give the Soninke all the space they needed. Your main army and elephants would have to be held by my infantry, but if General Manetseh could surround your new army, the day was won.

I could not not fight, so I mounted my horse and rode with my cavalry to the southern flank. With ferocity we crashed into the Orange Banner before they could even hurl their second spear, we met the Hellenes so up close that their pikes were no use. It was a slaughter on both sides, since we were facing the strongest warriors of Tozàn, held at bay only by my bravest of the brave. My part of the plan was working, so the Soninke needed to play out theirs. However, I could not see them and as the battle stretched into its third hour, I learned instead that my infantry was falling apart and routing towards the gates of Nijaay. As they collapsed north of me, I knew that I would be surrounded, so I called for the strongest soldiers still in the saddle and we mounted a charge away from the fight. We broke through your enveloping lines and made it back behind Nijaay's square walls, but all I could see from there was defeat and all I could smell was death.

You surrounded the city, cunning Zùùtowi, but not to exhaust me. The battle was one week ago, today you broke through the walls of the city and of the palace. Tell me, Zùùtowi, how did the Soninke lose? How did you beat them?"

Zùùtowi grimaced with the words that he spoke.

"They didn't. I didn't. You were not the only side with spies, great Burouma, and there was an envoy of the Alááfin in Wagadu, land of the Soninke. He knew of their fears as much as you did: Ataram to the south, Sus to the north, but it was naive of you both to assume that Nijaay and Wagadu together could withstand them as well as the Alááshu of Tozàn. Two little kingdoms cannot stand against three ambitious states. The Soninke King realised this soon enough, as did Manetseh. The General met with our envoy while he was already underway and he changed his allegiance. The Soninke would become allies of the Alááfin, allies free of any tribute, if they would turn on you. I have to be honest and say that without the Soninke I was not sure of victory. Besides, the Alááfin told me to take all the soldiers I could to defeat you, so I counted the Soninke among them.

Instead of going around my flank, they attack your infantry. Instead of you breaking through a weak place in my new army, you attacked my strongest soldiers, so your cavalry had zero tactical use in the battle itself. Your plan was not cunning, Burouma, though it was daring, so your defeat was inevitable as soon as you charged. However, you have been pardoned, you are not a traitor, but you are no longer king of Nijaay."

Burouma was silent for a moment. Then he said:

"If not king, what will I be?"

"Go to Uwára." Zùùtowi said. "The Alááfin is forgiving, as I said. Beg for an appointment. Serve as a magistrate or an inspector, great Burouma. You are not old yet and you are an Obibo. The Alááshu always needs good men."p

"And what will happen to Nijaay?"

"Nijaay will be a province. The Alááfin will appoint a governor, but not me. I am done with leading and commanding. It is time for my wife and I to travel to the Isle of Yaya, the furthest away from Nijaay. I have spent my whole life fighting my father's war, Burouma, as have you, and now it is time for us to take life in a new direction. Our war is over.

"That it is, cunning Zùùtowi."

Expansion Map

This was the final part of the Story of Burouma.