The Golden Empire. Part 3 The Iberian Menace

After 4 years of regency following Mansa Wali's father's premature death, Wali Keita finally mounted the throne and wore the imperial crown. He was not the brightest of the siblings, but he was one to inspire the realms troops when engaging in battle. Something he would have to do a lot of during his reign, fore the northeners were approaching...

Corruption had ran rampant during the regency's rule and Walis first order was to employ beurocrats to root out the bad hombres in court.

Like his father before him, Wali was of Mandinka culture. His cultural lands were occupied by the iberians and therefore most people didnt see him fit to rule.

But the tax collectors had not been sitting idle whilst Wali waited for his place upon the throne. A large pile of cash was waiting for him once he entered the throne room and he was ready to spend it all quickly.

He started laying the foundations for regional capitals were the farmers could travel to sell their goods and were slave could be bought instead of having to travel to Niani or Timbuktu

Sailors are captured and employed as teachers for the imperial marine school of Mali. Many questioned the decision of having such a school when the realm had no ports, but no one mentioned it to Mansa Wali whom'st continued thinking the ports were under mali rule.

Like his Father and grandfather he decided to cash in on the religious minorities.

And with that cash he could buy the #1 voted householdproduct of 1548, slaves.

Realizing the weakness of our previous vassals, Wali draws up plans for a coming invasion.

Wali's advisors convince him to open an academy in Timbuktu to attract artists from across the sahara, hoping they will spread their instututions to Mali.

More and more people convert to other religions, but as long as they pay their taxes Wali is contempt.

In the baltic trade city of Lübeck a new machine has been invented making it possible to print hundreds of books each day. Wali, not being able to read, forbids the intellectuals of the realm from studying the invention, claiming reading makes the soul weak.

As our population grows, far away from the plagues of the middle east and europe, the Maninka people are beginning to migrate to new lands to set up their homes. These migrations are supported by the state. Less minorities, less unrest.

The Danish king has invented a smoking piece of metal. Wali invited him to his court. Rumors spread that Wali begged Bjorn in the bathroom for just one hit on the smoking metal before class started.

Furious over not getting his daily nicotine he decides to plunder Gonja and seize their Juuls.

The lands are quivkly seiged down and the gonja king is forced to swear fealty to the Keita dynasty.

Wali continues to invest research into his fathers project

The Maluks agree to marry us but they still refuse our alliance offers.

Wali catches some songhaians using the same type of smoke metal as the danish king. He dewclare them rebels and attach them. He just needs one hit then he will stop he says to his generals.

A royal marriage is planned to convince then saharan tribe to aggre to serar fealty

But just as things are starting to look good for the Malians the iberian decides to visit again.

Wali quickly asks the nobles fot support, but it would be a costly action. They demanded nothing less than all of his juul pods in exchange for manpower and troops. Wali furiously agreed.

% techs behind will make the war very challenging.

Although Wali have almost double the iberian number of troops he orders his generals to wait for a favourable oppurtunity to strike.

General Ligbi intercepts the troops in kassonke forcing them to cross a river to attack the Malians.

The war starts of badly. The africans are terrified by the magic boom sticks wielded by the iberians.

But there is one advantage with spears, they dont need to be reloaded.

The malian slave hoard manages to defeat the northernes

Ligbi follows the retreating iberians to finnish them of, hoping to expel them from africa once and for all.

Every soldier is either captured or killed. The survivors are forced to replace the fallen Malians and join the ranks of the slave army.

Ligbi splits up the army to reclaim the occupied terretories.

More northeners are spreading in from the south.

Ligbi manages to catch some of them off guard.

He tries to strike a decisive blow against the aragonese

He did not strike a decisive blow against the aragonese

Mercenaries are drafted

The cities of the south are now getting sieged down

B I G B A T T L E

The Bretons retreat before the Aragonese arrive

The Aragones arrived too late.

More reinforcements are defeated by the grand slave army.

Ligbi now focuses on reclaiming lost territory

The bretons cant break the might walls of Niami. They had been rebuilt after the civil war to deterr any enemies from ever laying siege to the grand city, and now the walls are proving their worth

The population of Kabu rise up to join the Mali empire

The last breton forces are soundly defeated

After almost a year of sieging the Gonja capital of Gonja is sieged down. It only took the iberieans one month to do the same job. Wali is starting to grow a distaste for the gonja people. They seem to never perform on any other level than the worst level.

No more iberians are in our realm. All nations involvolved are getting tired of this constant warfare. Over 50.000 people has died so far, most being Malian

The five year conflict finally ends. Wali meets one of the Castillian generals and sends him a message home. Give up the Mandinka land or all non blacks will be slaughtered.

Finally the Mandinka dynasty owns the Mandinka land. All is good in the nation. If you dont count the thousands of families mourning their dead sons and husbands that is. Wali is satisfied.

The coastal region of Kombo is quickly invested in. Building forts and roads to connect it to the capital. To gain acces to the trae market of the guinea coast, Wali would need to build a lucrative trade port to attract traders.

More and more people are happy with the new dynasty after hearing about the defeat of the iberians. Even conquered tribes are beggining to feel as it might be better to stay under mali rule for protection.

The population of kombo had decreased by 80.000 inhabitans during the constant sieges of the land. Wali ordered his beurocrats to make it prosper. They were a bit confused with the order but began working nonetheless

Canals are built to help the farmers supply the region with food.

Advisors are hired to make Wali smarter. Although they disagree on many things, the advisors all agree on one thing. It's impossible to make Wali smarter, not because he is already to samrt, because he is to gosh darn didely stoopid

Seeing ourp B I G P O W E R Khel Ahaggar swears fealty to us.

We will now rescue people who are not dead. Seems like a great deal when u are a soldier.

More forts

The population has already increaed by 20.000 under Mali administration

Under Wali's reign the Iberians would attack him once more. This time Wali personally led the troops in to battle which led to great victories for the Mali empire. But to do so he had to sacrifice his life to the cause. He died a honorable death on the battlefield having ridden the now elderly Babar while breaking the siege of Kombo.

Although he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, he didn't let the world roll him. He left the empire one step closer to the once golden empire. Having aquired vassals in the south and north and reconquered the west coast, Wali would go down in history as the Crusher of Castille