The Sun and the Lion

Ibrahim rode his horse to the gate of Tbilisi, looked up at the archers, catapults and trebuchets waiting on the city wall, and said to King Imereti in front of him: "Alexander, this is what you will be waiting for." Is this the guest's way?"

Alexander, who went out with a large number of cavalry, looked at the many red heads behind Ibrahim and responded with a smile: "It's not that I don't want to invite you into my palace, it's just that you brought too many people."

After saying that, both of them laughed.

"Okay, Alexander." After laughing, Ibrahim's face darkened and he began to threaten: "But I think this dilapidated wall can really prevent guests from entering?"

"Sheikh of the Safavid Order, I want to remind you that even the Mongols failed to destroy the Bagrationi family." Alexander responded to Ibrahim's threat.

"Then maybe today, I will make history, and Bagration will end not only the royal power." After Ibrahim said a harsh word, he turned around and returned to the camp.

"Then I will wait here for you to fulfill your promise." Alexander just replied.

In this way, both parties went back to prepare, and the first day was uneventful.

Tbilisi is also a city built along a river. The Kura River serves as a barrier to the northeast and east, while to the west and south there are hills, but the slopes are not steep. The villages and villagers on the hillsides are just surrounded by Safa. The Uyghur Mission requisitioned. After the red head and the bow-wielders swept the church, the largest public building in the village became the meeting room for Ibrahim and the chiefs.

As a pure cavalry unit, Qizilbash is very powerful in field battles, but the horses under the Turkmen's crotches cannot fly up the city wall. The previous ability to capture the city of Gabala was purely due to the failure of the defenders. Neither their own quality nor the preparations for defending the city were well prepared. However, the casualties of the religious group's storm attack were still greater than those of the defenders.

Take a look at the city of Tbilisi not far away. Although the city walls and towers are somewhat dilapidated, and some areas are obviously rebuilt. Due to financial constraints, the quality is obviously not as good as the old city walls, but they can't be knocked down by a kick. Moreover, the city gates are locked, and the back is probably blocked with sand and earth bricks. Looking at the archers and defensive equipment waiting on the city head, if Alexander could mobilize the citizens to defend the city together, then Ibrahim would never be able to capture Tbilisi with the eight thousand cavalry in his hand.

Ibrahim felt very distressed when he thought of the losses caused by the storm. Although these red heads would be suppressed in the future, at least they were still the backbone of the army for now.

"Your Majesty." Mustafa interrupted the meeting with the report just sent by the military judge. "We have just gathered a group of red heads. They claim to have been commanded by Havaci Oglu. According to them, Havaci was defeated by Kvakvare in Akhaltsikhe and his whereabouts are unknown."

"How many surviving siblings have we gathered?" Ibrahim leaned forward a little.

"Less than a hundred." Mustafa said calmly.

Ibrahim said no more, but stretched out his hand and asked Mustafa to hand him the report.

After reading the report, Ibrahim did not yell about giving back our army. At least according to the report, Khawaqi was defeated in a fierce battle, rather than escaping from the battlefield. Ibrahim could not sentence him to death based on this alone.

After reading the report, the report was placed on the table. Ibrahim just held his forehead with his hands and rested his elbows on the table, looking helpless. The Bergs present looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

"Forget it, this incident is over. Our brothers and sisters who have ascended to heaven can no longer help us complete the Lord's cause. Even if we pray or do something else, the Lord will not send them down again."

The Bergs present nodded and dismissed the topic.

"Everyone, I don't plan to storm the city of Tbilisi, but all ministries and regiments must do a good job of bullying and exhausting the enemy." Ibrahim thought for a while and came up with a new plan.

"Bullying the enemy? Do you want to pretend to be defeated and retreat, luring the pseudo-Georgian king out of the city to fight in the field?" Mustafa, Golaberry and Turgut responded in unison.

"Yes."

"So what are you going to do?"

"If you want to attack a city, you must build siege equipment, right?" Ibrahim first asked a mentally retarded question.

"Yes." The Bergs all responded.

"Then we need to collect materials. We need the red heads to drive the prisoners of war to work, right." Ibrahim asked another question.

"And Alexander, who has sufficient troops, will definitely send a small force out of the city to harass our team collecting materials to delay our progress, and eventually force us to retreat when we run out of food." Turgut deduced a little.

"But this is our real situation. The eight thousand cavalry and the food and drink of the slaves cannot rely on a stable rear output to be transported to the army through a safe channel. The continuous operation based solely on looting cannot last long. On this point, Alexander I must have wanted to get it." Mustafa took over the conversation and continued.

"So we need to strengthen Alexander's nerve, that is, get him a string of wins."

"Your Majesty, we don't know how many victories Alexander had before he had the courage to go out of the city to pursue him. What if he loses more than half and still fails to lure him to the bait? Or, he doesn't go out of the city at all and just waits for death in the city." Gaolabei Li poured cold water on it and raised objections.

"I don't know either." Ibrahim shook his head, and then changed the topic: "But this is the only way. If we attack by force, even if our hands and feet dye the Kula River red, and our corpses block the river until it stops flowing, We can’t even take down the city of Tbilisi.”

Seeing Ibrahim's insistence, Gaolaberi also became silent and stopped expressing his opinion.

After deciding on the battle plan, Ibrahim and the leaders left the church to prepare for the day's battle. As usual, the guards did not extinguish all the lights in Ibrahim's residence. The dim light in the room seemed to tell people passing by the window that the owner of the dark room, which was not clearly visible from the outside, was still working.

On the city wall of Tbilisi, the number of guards was much smaller than when the two met during the day. The number of torches moving along fixed routes on the city wall could be counted on one hand. Most of them were supported by women. Wall, staring nervously at the wild fields outside the city, or sleeping against it.

Suddenly, an arrow flew up to the top of the city and flew towards the torch. Fortunately, the patrolling guard was agile and avoided the arrow. The Georgians on top of the city were naturally alarmed.

"Enemy attack!"

But it was not yet dawn, and the moonlight was blocked by clouds. The guards could only see the darkness outside the city, and some with good eyesight could only see what seemed to be an unknown number of figures in the distance.

"Don't fire arrows! Find cover!" The officer whose sleep was disturbed was very angry, but he quickly issued the order to prevent the defenders from wasting arrows and energy. Then send messengers to report tonight's events to their superiors.

The dozens of red heads responsible for the harassment galloped forward on their horses and returned to the camp to rest within a few minutes. At dawn, Ibrahim arranged another harassment, but thinking that the enemy would be on guard, hundreds of people were dispatched this time.

However, Alexander was more prepared. The red heads who went to harass this time were repulsed and brought back more than twenty corpses.

During the day, Ibrahim sent men to the surrounding areas to collect materials to build siege equipment. The cavalry of the Order originally thought that Alexander would send men to harass and attack in order to delay the siege's preparations. They were all prepared and planned to defeat them. As a result, the gate of Tbilisi City was closed tightly, and no one came out. The crossbowmen on the towers and walls just looked at the red heads running back and forth in the distance, and they didn't shoot, they just watched.

Seeing that Alexander was determined to defend the city wall until his death, Ibrahim was not in a hurry and just waited for the siege equipment to be built.

Tbilisi, Narikala Fortress, Alexander overlooked the city of Tbilisi from the tower of the fortress, watching the Kura River flowing slowly along the base of the Tbilisi city wall, but it was unable to be navigable from Imereti. More supplies came, and Alexander felt pity. Turning around, he looked at the camp on the hillside in the distance, and at the red heads running like ants in the distance, he felt disdain in his heart.

"I have no confidence in defeating these Turkmens in a field battle, but if they insist on crashing into the city wall to death, then I will defend the city wall until I die of old age."

When Alexander was about to leave the tower, he saw some siege engines slowly approaching.

"Huh? The Turkmen horse bandits came to die so soon?" Alexander decided not to leave the tower for the time being and observe the battle situation here.

"Prepare the ballista!" The officer looked at the approaching ladders and siege towers and ordered quickly. Under the officer's order, the soldiers returned to their posts at an extremely fast speed. Soon, the first round of stones was fired, but because of the distance, none of the stones hit the target.

The distance was getting closer, and the ballista fired a second round of stones, but it still missed the siege tower, but hit a few slaves.

The slaves who pushed the siege tower with the dead fell into panic. When they saw their dead companions, they shouted, cried, and tried to escape, and they all stopped what they were doing.

With one blow, a slave who tried to escape clutched his cut carotid artery and fell down. The blood spurting out could not be stopped, and soon the ground was dyed red.

"Pigs." Several red heads supervising the battle spat on a slave, and then they and other red heads pushed the slaves with the backs of their knives or whipped them with whips. "Pigs, push quickly!" The red heads saw their progress. Slower than others, his movements began to become more rough.

The remaining slaves continued to push the siege tower with sad faces or with numb expressions.

Suddenly, the red heads heard a loud noise not far away. A siege tower was penetrated by stones and the main structure began to collapse. The red heads and the slaves fled in all directions, while cheers of victory came from the top of the city.

"What are you running for?" The Gulams, who were responsible for intercepting escaped slaves, intercepted more than a dozen slaves, and the leading slaves also recognized them. "Apostates!" A hard-headed slave yelled angrily on the spot. As soon as he finished speaking, there was a whip on the face. Officer Gulam just replied: "I only serve a monarch worthy of loyalty." Without waiting for a rebuttal, the man's throat was slit.

"Slaves should behave like slaves. You have no right to be afraid and tired." After saying that, the slaves in armor escorted the ragged slaves back to the camp.

Arrows poured down on the heads of the siege troops like raindrops. The red heads abandoned the injured slaves and drove the remaining slaves to complete the final journey. Then they drove the slaves to lead the battle, because the red heads saw the top of their heads. Hot oil, golden juice and rolling wood.

Sure enough, the slaves who were caught up quickly fell down, and some of the ladders were also damaged by rolling logs. The red heads also retreated back, raising their shields above their heads to protect themselves from arrows.

The bed crossbow on the tower fired a crossbow arrow with a rope, piercing the siege tower covered with mud to prevent fire attacks without any obstacles, embedded inside, and tightly hooked the siege device. Then the Georgians pushed the counterweight attached to the other end of the rope off the tower. The rope was tight and pulled the crossbow arrow to the side. The siege tower could not resist this force and gradually fell to the side.

The two surviving siege towers were quickly destroyed in this way, and many slaves were taken away.

Seeing that it was impossible to attack the city, the red heads retreated.

Alexander watched the whole process from the commanding heights of the castle and was very satisfied with the performance of the defenders: "Give bounties to all the soldiers defending the city and give them one month's military pay."

"Yes." After the clerk wrote it down, he carried out the order.

And Ibrahim also received today's battle report. Most of the losses today were slaves. Red Head's casualties were only over a hundred. All ladders and siege towers were lost, the trebuchets had no chance to appear, and the tunnels were not completed.

Alexander must have been inspired by his victory in the first battle and began to try to send out agents to collect intelligence. The red heads intercepted and killed many scouts and prepared to throw their heads back the next day.

The next day, the tunnels and new siege towers were not yet completed, so Ibrahim had to send trebuchets to throw heads and stones to the city of Tbilisi, while more ballistas and trebuchets were mounted on the walls and towers. They launched a powerful counterattack, and most of the order's trebuchets were forced to be abandoned, while the damage to the city walls was negligible.

On the third day, the tunnels and siege towers were not yet completed, so Ibrahim had to disperse the idle red heads and let them go further to collect food and grass. This was also noticed by Alexander.

On the fourth day, the tunnel was discovered by the defenders. The two sides fought like mice underground, and finally ended in victory for the defenders.

On the fifth day, a new batch of siege towers and ladders were completed, and Ibrahim gathered all his troops to prepare for a massive attack.

Looking at the wave-like red in the distance, the defenders felt the pressure, but they did not panic and still worked at their posts. There was still a lot of hot oil, rolling logs and stones in stock. There were obviously more siege engines approaching in front of them than a few days ago. The Georgian engineers did not panic, but silently controlled the ballistae and trebuchets, preparing Give Turkmen people an unforgettable memory.

Ibrahim looked at the city head with a calm face as he watched the red heads go to their deaths. He knew very well that this was not enough to conquer the city of Tbilisi. Not only would it not be possible to conquer the city by force, it would also pay a huge price.

"So many red heads are enough to seduce Alexander." Ibrahim silently sentenced everyone involved in the siege to death.

"Your Majesty, it has begun." Hashayar saw that the ballista at the city head had started firing the first round, and quickly reported to Ibrahim.

"I hope our brothers and sisters can overcome the difficulties, ascend to heaven, and successfully receive the Lord's rewards." After giving a false blessing, Ibrahim watched these "dead soldiers", these "dead soldiers" There are also many slave soldiers who are willing to fight for freedom.

Perhaps because there were so many people this time, the first round of shooting caused losses to the Order. Many teams paused before moving forward, giving the defenders valuable time.

Repeating the same trick, the bed crossbow on the tower fired the weighted crossbow arrow after the siege tower got close enough, knocking down many siege towers. One or two unlucky ones were smashed by stones, but half of the siege towers got close to the city wall, lowered the drawbridge, and built a road between the city wall and the tower, while the archers on the top of the tower were throwing insignificant cannons. Arrows were fired in an attempt to suppress the city defenders.

"For the Lord! For the Prophet! The Lord is Great!" After shouting the slogan, the officer took the lead in rushing out of the siege tower. The siege tower where he was located had a drawbridge built on the parapet, and he jumped in.

In this way, several fulcrums were formed. A steady stream of red heads poured into the fulcrums, and the gap became wider and wider. Even on a certain section of the city wall, the defenders responsible for that section were defeated by the formation. Several red heads took Ibrahim's green lion and sun flag and rushed into a tower. After clearing the enemies inside, the flag of the Safavid Order fluttered impressively above the city head, dealing a heavy blow to the defenders. The morale of the city was already low, and Ibrahim was shocked when he saw someone successfully planting the flag on the city. He was hesitant to change the battle plan.

"Your Majesty, don't worry about the plan. It's better to change the plan." Mustafa, who was watching the battle together, seemed to see the inner struggle of Ibrahim and hurriedly advised him.

Ibrahim turned his head and looked at Golaberi, Turgut and Hashayar in turn, and all three of them nodded, expressing their support for Mustafa's suggestion.

Seeing the situation develop to this point, Ibrahim was a little bit dumbfounded. Every plan he made would eventually be invalidated. Although the result was beneficial in the end, the process was very different from what he had imagined.

"Okay, then put all the remaining troops up."

Although Ibrahim accepted the suggestion, everyone saw that Ibrahim looked a little strange and thought that he had offended the Sultan somewhere. Those who could escape left to carry out the order. Only Turgut was left behind. In the big account.

Towers of Narikala fortress

"Your Majesty..." The guard's voice was trembling. Alexander followed his trembling fingers and found more red heads appearing in the distance.

"Lord! How many people are they?" Alexander exclaimed. After realizing that he was a little out of control, he cleared his throat and then forced himself to observe the battle situation calmly.

Immediately afterwards, Alexander's body shook again because another flag was planted on the tower.

"Quick! Throw the reserve team up!" Alexander ordered hurriedly. Because the city could not deploy all the troops, many people did not participate in the battle.

As the reserves were thrown into the battlefield, the offensive of the Order also slowed down a lot. There was even a Georgian warrior who cleared a tower under the cover of his comrades, then kicked the last enemy on the roof off the wall and pulled out the flag. , tore into two pieces, and then threw them down, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders.

Alexander shouted excitedly: "Tell me the name of this warrior, and I will give him the most generous reward after the war!" But not long after he finished saying this, the man was targeted, and the two of them came back together. The red head on the top of the building killed him after a brief fencing, and the flag of the Safavid Order flew on the tower again. The morale of the Georgian side could be said to have gone up and down.

Suddenly, there was a bang, and a small section of the city wall collapsed. Fortunately, there were only some Georgians on it who were killed by arrows. In order to speed up the siege, Ibrahim took out all the gunpowder he had packed at the bottom of the box. When everyone's attention was attracted by the meat grinder, the bow holders sneaked to an unnoticed place to dig. Tunneling, burying gunpowder, laying out fuses, and no one knew what happened here until the final ignition.

Alexander didn't say anything anymore, but faced the gap with a pale face - the gap where the bow-holders poured in.

"It's over... it's over..." Several pessimistic courtiers were muttering to themselves, but Alexander no longer had the energy to hold them accountable for spreading panic. Find bookstore www.zhaoshuyuan.com

Under the cheers of the red heads, the Georgian defense finally collapsed, and the city ushered in another conqueror after Uzun Hassan, and this conqueror also had his blood flowing through him.

The Narikala Fortress is not far from the city wall, and can even be said to be part of the city's fortifications. Therefore, the red heads do not need to take risks through the complex terrain of the city to destroy the political center of Georgia.

Alexander couldn't do anything and committed suicide.

Ibrahim then held a grand entrance ceremony. After declaring himself the new master of Georgia, Ibrahim began the aftermath. Christianity was allowed to remain, but small local lords remained, and vacant estates were awarded to the red heads, the Turkmen landowners and governors in Tbilisi who represented the rule of the order.

The provinces were also redivided, with Sheki and Gabala being merged into Shamakhi Province, and then the provincial center was moved to Sheki and renamed Sheki Province. Georgia is divided into three provinces: Katli-Kakheti, Samkhets and Imereti, but still retains its feudal system. Lords who are willing to be loyal to Ibrahim can not only preserve their real estate, but also Retain local administrative, judicial and tax collection powers.

The Duke of Abkhazia, who had not yet been defeated, took the initiative to contact the Order after hearing the news that Tbilisi had fallen and Ibrahim had taken over Georgia. However, Ibrahim had no intention of launching troops against distant Abkhazia. In the end, Yi Brahim recognized Abkhazia's independent status, while Solomon recognized the legitimacy of Ibrahim's rule over Georgia.

When the final aftermath work that required Ibrahim's personal attention was completed, time had advanced to April, and the latest report on the situation in the Aries Dynasty was also sent to Ibrahim.