The Khan's Gambit

In the late 19th C. in one of those small states of Central Asia that have been subsumed by border changes in the century plus since, a Khan, having grown tired of watching the intrigues and incursions of both England and Russia in neighboring states, proposed to allow either to claim his kingdom as their protectorate and establish forts and garrisons without interference. His only condition was that  they must win it from the other. His own people were not to be involved in any way and the Khan himself would dictate the strategic objectives to be won.

That Whitehall and Saint Petersburg accepted this proposal might surprise the reader, and indeed it wasn't entirely the case. Commanders on the ground, eager for glory and fearful their opposites would claim victory before word had even reached their governments, acted largely on their own initiative. Even as word of the events moved up through the chains in the respective governments, officials on both sides were willing to wait and see how things played out: if victory, accolades would be awarded, if defeat, local commanders would be called out as renegades, their actions denied as representing their country. 

It should be noted, as was realized far too late by both sides, this is precisely as the Khan had planned.

But that is getting ahead of the story. For now, what matters is that soldiers of the Queen and the Czar met in battle for control of a bridge crossing the river Blast: 

On the matter of the bridge, the English were forced to concede.

*** I apologize for the excessive photos, but I couldn't choose ***