The Sun and the Lion

After receiving the notice, the Khans entered Ibrahim's tent one after another. After the Khans took their seats, the attendants served drinks to everyone present.

Ibrahim picked up the letter on the table. The red liquid on the paper had already solidified. "I think you all don't know yet. Just now, our brave scouts captured a prisoner of war from the enemy's camp. This is from him." According to the identification of the letters found on his body, the monogram on them does not belong to Ahmed."

After all, he was an old client who had been doing business for a long time, and Ibrahim could still recognize Ahmed’s handwriting and monogram. However, identifying the identity of the letter writer has become a big problem. After all, Mihad is not a famous person. Although he is from the Mosilu tribe, he is not a very important member. Although the captured messenger kept insisting that he was a member of the military commander Mihad and did not change his story even after being tortured several times, there was no stronger evidence.

However, this news was enough for Ibrahim to conclude that Ahmed's army was unstable and someone wanted to cause trouble.

"There are really too many places where this letter can be sent, including Murad in Baghdad, the people of Diyarbakır, Syria and Karaman. The most unlikely place is to be sent to our military camp. ." After Ibrahim roughly told the information he knew, he exported his own views. In his opinion, he has nothing to do with other large tribes. The most obvious one is the ideological conflict. Both Shia and Sufism are minorities in the Tianfang world. They are incompatible with the mainstream and hostile. Basically heretical.

There is also the issue of distribution of benefits after the war. No matter how much pressure he exerted, Ibrahim had no choice but to grant fiefdoms, but the resources of the King of Kings were limited, and the fiefs and official positions granted were naturally limited - the real estate previously divided by Ibrahim did not belong to In fiefs, he just turned the tribal warriors from the lower class into ordinary small and medium-sized landowners and let them break away from the tribe. The size of the cake is fixed and cannot get bigger, and the tribe will not take the initiative to make the cake smaller, so the only thing that can change is the number of people eating the cake.

There are at least eight large tribes under Ibrahim. If a few more like Mosilu are squeezed in, the resources will be even tighter. Even if those who surrender make meritorious service later, they will be ostracized by their followers. Ibrahim was of course happy to see the situation where the two factions were fighting and he was the arbiter, but from the perspective of the tribal leader, unless he reached a situation where he could not survive without surrendering, he would follow the original owner's path to black or white. Wouldn't it be more profitable to be independent?

Most of the Khans present agreed, but a few cautious leaders - such as Romlu Khan and Wasak Khan - thought that this might be a trap, and that Ahmed deliberately forged letters from his subordinates to communicate. If the enemy takes the bait, he will be severely beaten. If he doesn't take the bait, he can also target a certain tribe with letters.

The internal opinions of the Khans who speculated that Ahmed's army was unstable were not unanimous. For example, they had not yet received news of the enemy's internal strife. Some people thought it was the calm before the sandstorm, while others thought it was just a small disturbance.

A violent knock on the table startled everyone present, and Ibrahim almost spilled the wine in the glass on himself. Then, everyone's eyes were focused on Kajia Khan who stood up.

Qajar Khan glanced at the other Khan kings. When facing Ibrahim, he lowered his head and did not look at Ibrahim to show respect. When Qajar Khan was about to raise his head and speak to the Khan kings, Ibrahim cleared his throat and interrupted him proactively: "Great Khan of the Qajar tribe, I know you have an idea, and I've had enough. The incompetence of my colleagues, but—this is the court of the King of Kings.”

The gazes of the other Khan kings looking at Kajia Khan changed slightly, but the rude and bellicose Kajia Khan did not pay attention, but continued: "Your Majesty is right, this is the tent of the King of Kings, and It’s not the bazaar of Tabriz, you are the Khan, not the Jews who can argue with others for a long time in the bazaar over a piece of copper. No matter how we argue, we can’t change the reality. The reality is that we must attack, Fighting the enemy is the only way out at the moment, and we cannot place our hopes on the enemy’s internal problems. The war is won by the Lord and ourselves, not by the enemy’s charity.”

These words made the Khan kings who had just been obsessed with deducing the situation react. Ibrahim did not want his subordinates to become Showa staff members, so he stepped forward to affirm Kaiga Khan.

At this moment, a messenger entered the big tent with the battle report, "My lords, Your Majesty, this is the battle report sent by the vanguard."

The battle report was first sent to Ibrahim. After a cursory look, Heraclius said that he used the hilly terrain to ambush the Turkmen who came to pursue them, and defeated them. The number of prisoners and heads was nearly a thousand. He believed that the Turkmens would send a large army after they returned and reported the message. To this end, he asked Ibrahim to send a large army for reinforcements. If the enemy did not come, he would take the initiative to lure the enemy and let Ibrahim, who came for reinforcements, give him a severe blow.

"There is no need to discuss it any more. You all go back and prepare your troops and set off."

In the trail northwest of Mosul, Heraclius, who was waiting for a reply from the rear and a report from the scouts ahead, was resting on the bank of the Tigris River wrapped in a blanket. The cavalry were divided into two groups. One group patrolled the road and the other The group was free to move along the river bank.

Heraclius only felt that the waiting time was long and painful. Almost every once in a while he would get up and ask if there was any new news, but the soldiers' answers disappointed him every time.

Unable to fall asleep, Heraclius stood up, threw the blanket casually on the ground, and walked aimlessly along the river bank.

It's almost dawn.

Heraclius took out the beans in the bag and drank the water in the bag to satisfy his hunger. They had no conditions to make a fire to cook, so Heraclius's cavalry could only enjoy breakfast like this, but the soldiers still had some meat on hand.

"Captain, your order." While Heraclius was having breakfast on the bank of the river, a messenger from the rear brought Ibrahim's order.

"I understand." After receiving the reply, the messenger mounted his horse and returned to the army.

"Trumpers, rally the troops!"

In the siege camp, Mihad, who could no longer wait any longer, issued a secret order to his cronies. Suddenly, commotion spread in the northern part of the camp.

Mihad relied on his surprise advantage to be able to block and kill everyone in the camp, but he soon lost control of the troops. The hands of the riders of the Mosilu tribe were stained with the blood of other tribes, and they were so ruthless that they looted the belongings of other tribes wantonly.

Ahmed had just finished playing with a dancer and was planning to smoke a pack of cigarettes and go to bed when he suddenly received news of a riot in the camp. Abandoning the beauty who was still undressed, Ahmed took his smoking device and ran away under the escort of the soldiers.

Soon, Mihad and the guards arrived at the big tent. The remaining guards fought desperately with the invading enemies, and were eventually outnumbered. Excited, Mihad rushed into the tent, only to find a man and a woman in the dark depths of the tent, who seemed to be naked. He walked over and found that the man was not Ahmed. The man was frightened when he saw the soldiers who suddenly broke in, and his body suddenly jumped up.

The guards stepped forward and pulled the man away, while the woman underneath covered her body with a blanket and looked at Mihad in panic.

Mihad put the knife against the man's neck, looked at his face, searched his memory, and asked: "Where is your master?"

"Crossed... crossed the river..." The man stuttered.

"What are you doing here?"

"The Sultan...let me pretend that he is enjoying himself...in order to buy time to escape."

"Then what's going on with this dancer?"

"The Sultan gave it to me."

Mihad removed the blade and stabbed it hard on the ground, piercing the expensive carpet on the ground. The secretary, who was kneeling on the ground and shivering, felt distressed. The Sultan had promised him that if he could survive, he would be rewarded with all the property in the tent.

"Has Ahmed's harem escaped?" Mihad asked the surrounding cronies.

"Some of them ran away, but they escaped in such a hurry that they didn't have time to take away their jewelry and daily necessities."

"I'll reward you for those who didn't run away." Then Mihad pointed the knife at the dancer lying on the ground, "You can also take this and share it." After saying that, several soldiers took the dancer and the blanket. They dragged out the big tent together.

After walking out of the big tent, Mihad rode around the camp and found that things were completely out of his control. Not only did Ahmed run away, but he also became enemies with other tribesmen.

Ahmed, who had received the troops on the east coast, decided not to fight Mihad head-on, but to return to Diyarbakır.

"The Mosilu tribe not only rebelled with ambition, but also isolated itself from other tribes. I want to see who will be the hunter in Diyarbakır!"

Sending harsh words to the other side of the Tigris River, Ahmed led the remaining soldiers to evacuate northward at sunrise. The siege camp that fell into chaos was obviously unable to continue the siege of Mosul, and the siege ended inexplicably.