of Poltava of 1709). Battle Once the two armies met, Temur Qutlugh proposed a three-day ceasefire to allow both sides to prepare their forces. It was a trick to win time while Edigu's reinforcements arrived. Vytautas planned to build a great wagon-fort, to stop charging horsemen, and then to destroy them with cannons and artillery. Vytautas' army was well equipped, but smaller in number. However, Temur Qutlugh feigned a retreat (a tried and tested Tatar tactic) and Vytautas left his wagon fort to pursue him. Once Lithuanian forces were suitably far away from the wagon fort, the units of Edigu appeared from behind and surrounded the Lithuanian army. At this point Tokhtamysh decided the battle was lost and fled the battle with his men. The Tatars then used their own artillery to destroy the Lithuanian cavalry whilst simultaneously capturing the Lithuanians' wagon fort. Aftermath Vytautas barely escaped alive, but many princes of his kin (including his cousins Demetrius I Starszy and Andrei of Polotsk) and allies (as for example, Stephen I of Moldavia and two of his brothers) died in the battle. It is estimated that some 50 princes fought under Vytautas' banners and about 20 of them were killed. The victorious Tatars besieged Kiev, but it paid a ransom. The Tatars pillaged as far west as Lutsk, in pursuit of Tokhtamysh, who spent the next seven or eight years in hiding and was assassinated in 1407 or 1408. Vytautas' defeat at the Vorskla effectively blocked Lithuanian expansion to southern Ruthenia. His state also lost access to the Black Sea as the Tatars reconquered the southern steppe all the way to the borders of Moldavia; lands that was reclaimed by the Golden Horde until the Crimean Khanate broke away from its rule some forty-two years later. After the battle, Yury of Smolensk revolted against Lithuania and Smolensk was not recaptured for five years. Veliky Novgorod and Pskov also rebelled against Lithuanian rule, drawing Vytautas into a war with the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Vytautas was forced to abandon his plans to break the Union of Kreva and to ally himself once again with his cousin and King of Poland Jogaila. The Polish–Lithuanian union was reaffirmed in the Union of Vilnius and Radom. Vytautas also turned his plans from expansion southwards to east (against Moscow) and west (against the Teutonic Knights). It has been suggested that Vytautas learned the staged retreat