The Battle of the Brod Ford (May 18–20, 1921) was the final major military engagement of the Kresimirian Unification War. Fought on the banks of the Brod River in the southern district of Moraviskameja, it pitted the advancing Centralist Faction army against an expeditionary force from the neighboring state of Boskenmark.
The battle was a tactical masterstroke by General Dominik Loncar, who utilized superior artillery and local intelligence to repulse a foreign invasion force attempting to annex the Bosken-majority south. The victory secured the territorial integrity of the Divine Republic, established the modern southern border, and forced the capitulation of the Eastern Pravoslavic Confederacy, leading directly to the Treaty of Sinj.
Background
The Collapse of the South
Following the decisive Centralist victory at the Siege of Ravna Skrad in February 1921, the organized resistance of the Eastern Pravoslavic Confederacy began to crumble. Centralist forces pushed rapidly south, seizing the plains of Pologradska and advancing into Moraviskameja.
Facing annihilation, the Confederate leadership invoked a secret defense pact with Boskenmark. In March 1921, Boskenmark deployed 20,000 regular troops across the border, ostensibly to “protect the Bosken minority,” but effectively to annex the territory before Kresimiria could consolidate control.
The Strategic Situation
By May 1921, the Boskenmark expeditionary force, supported by Confederate irregulars under Lev Ruka, had dug in around the city of Brod Moravice. Their goal was to hold the line at the Brod River, a wide and fast-flowing waterway that marked the natural boundary of the district. Control of the “Great Ford”—the only point shallow enough for heavy equipment to cross—was the key to the entire southern theater.
The Battle
Intelligence Breakthrough
General Loncar arrived at the northern bank on May 15. He was outnumbered by the combined Boskenmark-Confederate force holding the southern bank and the city. A direct assault across the main ford was deemed suicidal.
However, Loncar received critical intelligence from local Kresimirian sympathisers living in Brod Moravice. The community provided detailed hydrological maps revealing a secondary, seasonal ford three kilometers downstream that had been left unguarded by the Boskenmark commander, General Meik Rinder, who believed it was impassable due to spring rains.
The Flanking Maneuver (May 18)
Under the cover of a heavy artillery barrage from the new “Loncar Guns”, a Kresimirian elite infantry division silently crossed the secondary ford at night. By dawn on May 19, they had established a bridgehead on the southern bank, outflanking the Boskenmark defensive lines.
The Rout (May 19–20)
Realizing they were being encircled, the Boskenmark forces panicked. Loncar launched a simultaneous frontal assault across the main ford. Caught between the Kresimirian artillery to the north and the flanking infantry to the east, the Boskenmark lines collapsed.
General Rinder ordered a general retreat back across the international border into Boskenmark proper. Lev Ruka and his “Black Brigades” fought a desperate rearguard action in the streets of Brod Moravice to allow civilians and the shattered Confederate government to escape, but the conventional war was over.
Aftermath
The Treaty of Sinj
The defeat of its army humiliated the government of Boskenmark. Fearing a Kresimirian counter-invasion, they sued for peace. On May 27, 1921, the Treaty of Sinj was signed. Boskenmark formally renounced its claim to Moraviskameja, recognizing the Brod River as the international border.
The Birth of the Insurgency
While the Kresimirian Army secured the territory, they failed to capture the Confederate leadership. Lev Ruka vanished into the southern hills, taking his surviving fighters underground. The battle marked the end of the war but the beginning of the BRC-21 insurgency.
Legacy
The Battle of the Brod Ford is celebrated in Kresimiria as the “Victory of Sovereignty.”
- Military: It validated the transition from revolutionary militias to a professional army.
- Politics: It cemented the “Moraviskameja Question.” By securing the land by force rather than diplomacy, the battle ensured that the Bosken population would view the Kresimirian government as an occupying power, a sentiment that fueled the conflict for the next forty years.