Slavonia 920-928 : The Bans Alliance

April 920.

The Khanate of Hrvastka has fallen under the blows of the Magyars, leaving behind it the Banates of Slavonia, Hrvatska and Bosna, and a streak of smaller polities : Gyòr and Somogy in the North, Knin, Cetina, Omis and Hvar in the South. It made little doubt that the territories in the North would soon fall to the Magyars. The question was, to each of us Bans, how to escape their fate ?

The alternatives were either to go on on one's own, trying to grab territories in the process, submitting to the Kíraly before being invaded, or swearing fealty to a powerful neighbour. To the West, the Kingdoms of Burgundy, Lotharingia, Bavaria and Germany were good candidates, but their incessant rivalries made their help uncertain. To the East, the Roman Empire was the strongest of the candidates, but they were far away, and Orthodox. To the North, the Czechs had a powerful Tribe, and they were Slavs, but I doubted their capacity to face the Horde.
I decided to temporize before deciding.

In April 921, I had subdued Kadram of Gyòr, an old rival from the Khanate's time, plundered his lands, vainquished his troops, emprisonned his family. In May 922, I had given back to my former liege, Bihor who now styled himself King, a tribe of the Avar in the Somogy plains.
By that time, the Czechs had lost a war against the Magyars and Gyòr was a new addition to Bavaria. My options grew fewer.

Natalija was sent to the Eastern King of the Khazars, the bane that had made the Magyars invade the Pannonian Plain in the first place, and secured an alliance from them, at the expense of her wedding to a yil-tawar of his, Barjik.
I also sent my little brother Dujam, who was meek and a bit clueless, to meet the daughter of my good friend Domagoj of Bosna. Promises of a future mareiage were made. Same with Ulfo, one of the twins, sent to my cousin Zvonimir to get to know his eldest daughter Antonija, 9.

I secured the whole of Somogy as vassal the next Autumn with the help of Zvonimir of Croatia, killing the old Count Zavis in battle.
I also installed an old woman from the Somogy at the head of the County of Cetina for the sole purpose of depriving the family of Besar Hrvatinic, who had ordered the murder of my father.

In 925, a small war I had started against an offshoot of the Magyarország degenerated when the Kíraly died, which made the child I had been attacking the new Kíraly of all the Magyars. They'd been brothers and I had overlooked that fact. In front of the Horde, i had to demand a shaming peace and to send my allies back home.

Back at home, my friend Domagoj had died eating too much, leaving his banate parted between Branimir II, with most of it, and Ljudevit, with the richer country of the Rama river. I immediately declared war on Ljudevit, to install my brother Dujam on the throne of Bosna, through his wife, big sister to the two brothers. Instead of calling my allies, this time i hired the Rus' Band. I also formed an alliance with Branimir II and helped Zvonimir of Croatia subdue Knin and Bribir.
I was still allied to Zvonimir when he had to defend Usora from the Strategos of the Serbs. In 927, we finally managed to beat the Greeks around Srebnik, and again in 928 in Usora and Debrc. There were many dead soldiers from Ionia, from Athens and Serbia on the field, and all were put to flight in front of me.