Ok, I will keep it straight. I ought to. Yesterday, I told a brief story of The standoff on the river Ugra between the Great Duke of Moscow Ivan the third and the Mongol Khan Akhmat, but I didn't finish it since the allotted five minutes ended. But since at least one person appeared the interest in that story, I'll keep it straight.
I stopped at the point when Akhmat was threatening the Russians to cross Ugra once it froze, but he was a bit bluffing. Although Mongol's cavalry was still a very formidable force, in the 15th century their bows and arrows conceded in power to guns and cannons that Mongols didn't have. Therefore, Akhmat was waiting for Lithuanian king Casimir, who promised to invade Moscow lands from the West.
However, Ivan the Third anticipated this maneuver and having bribed the Crimea's khan Mehgley Girey, convinced him to do the raid to Lithvenia. So, while Akhmat was waiting for the arrival of the Lithuanian army to take the Moscowitz in pincers, Casimir had his hands full dealing with the invasion of the Crimeans.
Another decisive moment was that Akhmat experienced huge problems with supplies. Mongols army had to be on the move all the time since each Mongol had three horses. So during the standoff on the river Ugra, Mongols and their horses ate everything that was possible to eat and started dying from starvation.
Thus instead of crossing the river Ugra, Akhmat was forced to call it off. Well, technically speaking, he didn't return home but went around the Russian lands and attacked Lithavenians lands, calling Casimir a traitor.
When later he returned from Lithavenians lands back home with big booty and dismissed the army, other Mongol princes took away his booty and chopped his head off.
As to Ivan the Third, he returned to Moscow as a winner, without winning the battle and since that time Russia didn't pay taxes to the Golden Horde anymore.
It is noteworthy to say that all this happened at the same time as the french king Luis the XI similarly unified French lands. Famous Scottish writer Walter Scott wrote a famous novel about this time called "Quentin Dorward".
By the way, I found this French movie with English subtitles about Luis the XI on Youtube. I enjoyed it.
