The Sun and the Lion

Ibrahim led his army to the city of Tbilisi, something that none of the Georgian lords present expected. It can be considered a big gamble to go deep into the enemy's territory alone without removing some strongholds to clear a smooth retreat for yourself.

However, the appearance of Ibrahim gave Kwakware a headache. He did not have sufficient troops, but he had to deal with two enemies. After thinking about it for a while, he withdrew and retreated to the southwest. After several kilometers, they found a favorable terrain to camp, and then sent a small force to monitor the city of Tbilisi and the red heads, and wait and see what would happen.

When the Samkhets Army retreated, no one in Tbilisi came out to pursue them.

Seeing that both sides were avoiding fighting, Ibrahim simply camped near Tbilisi, and then sent envoys to Tbilisi for negotiations.

The surveillance force in Kvakvare did not intercept the Turkmen envoys who asked to enter the city. They only passed the news to the Duke, and the Duke of Samhertz instructed not to act rashly and to continue monitoring. And he wrote another letter to the Duke of Abkhazia. In addition to the original statement of analyzing the interests, this letter also added the content that Alexander colluded with the heretics to try to eliminate everyone, hoping to induce the Duke of Abkhazia to send troops. .

Tbilisi city, palace inside Narikala Fortress

"Dear King of Georgia." The envoy said some polite words when he came up. His tone was calm, neither humble nor overbearing. He only bowed to Alexander, but did not kneel down.

Alexander II didn't care about these etiquettes, and just asked bluntly: "What did your monarch ask you to talk about? If you want to persuade me to give up my interests, then please go back."

Faced with Alexander's question, the envoy just explained to Alexander with a polite smile: "The Sultan has no interest in becoming your enemy. He fully agrees with the conditions you proposed in your letter. His Majesty the Sultan is only leading the army to fulfill your promise." power. To show his sincerity, the Sultan has prepared a beautiful gift for you, please accept it."

After speaking, the envoy took the silver cross from the attendants and showed it to Alexander. The attendants carried up exquisite boxes containing various silverwares and then opened them. In addition to the silverwares, the attachés also brought silk.

Then the envoy handed the gift to the guard who came forward to receive the gift for the king. The envoy took the opportunity to observe the courtiers around him, but he didn't see anything.

After the guards collected the gifts, Alexander opened his mouth and asked: "Please convey my gratitude to your monarch for me, but you must not be here just to give me gifts. You want Alexander of Kakheti?" ?”

"That's natural. Since you have acknowledged the Order's ownership of Kakheti with your promise, it is not too much to ask for the former monarch and his family members who may cause a lot of trouble to be handed over to us."

"Ownership of Kakheti? However, what I wrote in the letter was to acknowledge existing interests, and want to use such a low-level trick to obtain more benefits?"

With this thought in his mind, Alexander did not immediately refute, and only tampered with his answer: "In order to show sincerity, I agree to hand over Alexander of Kakheti to you to protect the order of your existing territory."

Hearing this answer, the envoy felt a little disdainful, thinking that Alexander would only fight for benefits with words. Anyway, I just came to talk about Alexander of Kakheti and jointly dealing with the Duke of Samkhets. As for the messenger's slip of the tongue, the whole church has unanimously regarded the entire Georgia region as one that is about to be eaten. On the negotiation table What cannot be obtained can be obtained with the sword.

The messenger quickly skipped the topic and started talking about what to do with Kwakvare.

But Alexander wanted to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf. Faced with the envoy's proposal to fight together, he repeatedly declined and only said that he would allow Ibrahim to purchase some grain and grass.

After understanding Alexander's attitude, the envoy stopped pestering him, bowed again, and left with the envoy.

After the mission returned, the first thing Ibrahim had to do was to execute Alexander I. Soon, the Kakheti king was beheaded and his body was thrown into the river.

Later, through the messenger's report, Ibrahim also figured out Alexander's attitude.

"It's a good plan to drive away tigers and devour wolves. However, whether you go out of the city or sit back and watch, I can defeat them one by one. If the Duke of Samhertz, the nearest life-saving straw, doesn't grab it, but wants me to cut it, then I I accepted it." After all, Ibrahim was satisfied with the current situation in Georgia: after King Imereti's operation, he directly eliminated two opponents for himself, and approached Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com while Alexander was more willing to negotiate. The attitude of the Duke of Abkhazia is unknown. Currently, the only one who firmly opposes him is Kvakvare, but he is unable to survive alone. Alexander also claimed to be the king of Georgia and insisted that other lords were his subordinates, which aroused the hostility of Kvakvare and Solomon, and alliance seemed impossible.

"Okay, let's get rid of Kwakware first."

Ibrahim immediately ordered to break camp, advance westward, attack the Samkhets cavalry near Tbilisi, and send out a large number of scouts to the west and southwest. In order to prevent Alexander from reneging on his promise, Ibrahim also detached a regiment of cavalry to monitor the gates of Tbilisi.

Within a day, Kwakvare found that he could no longer contact the troops near the city, and the scouts sent to check the situation were just meat buns beating dogs. The loss of contact was coupled with the fact that more and more enemies appeared nearby. Scout Fang appears nearby, making Kwakvare feel that a battle is coming.

The Duke didn't know what had happened until a bloodstained scout managed to run back to the camp.

None of the scouts and cavalry survived, and a huge Turkmen-Georgian joint force was advancing here.

When he learned that there were indeed Georgians in that team, Kvakvare finally couldn't help but cursed: "That bastard who made a deal with the devil!" Alexander's deal with the Turkmen was originally just his guess, but he didn't expect it. It was confirmed so quickly.

"If Alexander unites with the devil's brothers, we, who have suffered such huge losses, will never be able to compete. Without reinforcements, we will lose this battle." Although he was thinking very pessimistically, Kvakvare did not show his emotions and infect him. An entire army.

"Go down with the order and reinforce the camp. We will meet the enemy here."

"Yes, Your Majesty the Duke."