The Mucovite-Lithuanian War continues, just not as successfully for Muscovy.
As Lithuanian forces arrive to the region, the Muscovite forces have to move slowly.
Additionally, the Livonian Order, led by Wolter von Plettenberg, has joined the war as an ally of Lithuania.
In August 1501, von Plettenberg leads a Livonian army, reinforced with three thousand mercenaries from Lübeck, towards Pskov.
The armies meet on August 27 on the Siritsa River, ten kilometers south of Izborsk, on the western approaches to Pskov.
The Pskovian regiment attacks the Livonians first but is thrown back.
The Livonian artillery then destroys the remainder of the Muscovite army despite a Russian attempt to reply with their own, insufficient, artillery force.
In the battle, the smaller Livonian army defeats the Muscovite army (drawn from the cities of Moscow, Novgorod and Tver as well as from Pskov—which will not formally be part of Muscovy until 1510) in large part due to the Order’s formidable artillery park and the Russians' significant shortage of guns of any kind.
The defeat prompts Moscow to modernize its army, by creating standing infantry units armed with arquebuses.
