The Sun and the Lion

Before Shabani Khan arrived in Samarkand, the courier responsible for delivering the letter for help had already arrived in Bukhara. After that, the Safavid post system took more than a week to deliver the letter to Tabriz.

Ibrahim was very unhappy when he saw this letter. He originally thought that the special military operation against Uzbekistan would start as early as next year, but this disrupted his plan.

"Huh, Muhammad Shaibani, are you really good at picking your time? You think I need to focus on Afghanistan and want to take the opportunity to capture Samarkand?" Ibrahim planned to let the Uzbek Khan feel what physical fitness is. Quantity advantage.

He immediately convened a meeting. None of the viziers of Diwan objected to the war against the Uzbek Khan. The financial vizier first showed him and other viziers the recent financial surplus and the years of production of salt, silk, pearl fishing, The savings accumulated from the intervention in spices, mining and other industries indicated that there was enough to supply the army for the expedition, eliminating a major concern for everyone.

The great emir listed to Ibrahim the military forces that could be mobilized at present, including all standing armies and tribal cavalry that would take time to assemble. In any case, the scale was larger than the estimated Uzbek army.

Ibrahim made some predictions and then issued an order: "I require twenty regiments of Qizilbash to go to Herat to assemble, and the military vizier must provide protection for the army. They were originally sent to Buha The military supplies from Ra will be transferred to Herat first.”

Since the Afghan rebellion has been basically wiped out, the original reinforcements to Kabul will also be assembled in Herat. In addition, the Model Army and Friends of the Shah who will be taken away from Tabriz will gather in Herat in the winter. The military strength is as high as 41,000 people.

He then turned to the foreign vizier and spymaster: "Do you know if Mohammed Shaibani has any other enemies, or if he has any internal opposition."

"Your Majesty, as far as I know, Shaibani Khan has a stable position among the tribes of Uzbekistan. Every sultan with a fiefdom and population is very supportive of this Khan's leadership, and no one is willing to betray him yet."

However, the Uzbek Khan's internal position was stable, but external enemies were indispensable. Next, the contradiction between the Uzbek Khan and the Kazakh Khan was revealed to Ibrahim.

Shabani's main method has always been to expand the nomadic population and military strength by accepting the grassland people from the Kipchak grassland. To this end, Shabani took the initiative to provoke disputes with Kazakhs to obtain more nomadic populations.

At present, the two parties are still in friction and have not yet entered the stage of fighting, but Ibrahim feels that he can provoke the conflict between the two. When the two parties attack, it will be like the "immortal soul" uniting with the Turks to completely eliminate the Gyda people. Also ending the Uzbek threat.

"Assad, I need you to select diplomats with enough courage to enter the grassland through Astrakhan and go to the Kazakh Khanate to join them in destroying the Uzbeks." Ibrahim, who had just learned this information, thought of this logically. As soon as he made a plan, he planned to let his subordinates implement this idea.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The foreign affairs vizier agreed on the spot, and after the meeting, he arranged for a subordinate to go to the grassland.

After confirming that there were no other problems, the meeting came to an end, and Diwan's Gang department immediately began to operate for the war.

News of the return of war spread quickly. Ordinary citizens continued their lives. The river was too far away from them. Their main concern was how long it would take for the King of Kings to go on an expedition before he could return for the victory celebration and whether there would be any consequences. Exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were temporarily imposed due to war.

Francesco, who was in the embassy, ​​wanted to send representatives to accompany the army. He had only heard about various victories before, but knew nothing about the Safavid army. All he saw were honor guards and palace guards. What could be more revealing of the true state of an army than a war?

As for whether it would arouse Ibrahim's resentment, he didn't think so. After all, such an expedition could well demonstrate strength to the allies. How could he refuse such an extra prestige at no cost?

But in this way, the King of Kings will be busy with the war in Central Asia in a short period of time, and intervention in the situation in the Indian Ocean will have to be postponed. This is what worries him the most.

In addition to the Venetian ambassador, other foreigners in Tabriz were also very concerned about the war, such as Ottoman spies. The royal merchants loyal to Selim were released after the border conflict and continued to operate in Tabriz. Although he could not find out sensitive information, he could still clearly understand the actions of preparing for war, which could not be concealed at all. Know.

When Selim learned that Shaibani Khan had the courage to challenge Ibrahim, he was so happy that he forgot Bayezid's restrictions and planned to give them some support through the Astrakhan trade route.

These undercurrents did not affect Ibrahim for the time being. Before he officially led the army to leave Tabriz, he came to the harem and told Shahbanu, who was still resting, that he was going to conquer the river himself. Find bookstore www.zhaoshuyuan.com

Despite the foreshadowing of many previous victories and the impression that the Safavid army was strong, Mila was still worried about Ibrahim going to fight in person again, and reluctantly hoped that Ibrahim would be victorious and return safely.

After he felt that he had arranged everything that needed to be explained, he officially moved to the military camp and prepared to set off.

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At the same time, on the city walls of Bukhara, the town guards were somewhat clumsily operating the firearms that had been transported not long ago, including a batch of matchlocks and breech-loading swivel guns as well as the corresponding gunpowder and lead bullets.

A group of Uzbek soldiers crawled across the ditch outside the city. The defenders aimed at these enemies, letting hot lead bullets hit their bodies, and then used crossbows to suppress them. Dozens of Uzbeks died here.

"This Bukhara city is still difficult to fight." Su Yunchi observed the battle situation, and after discovering that the attack was frustrated, he ordered the siege troops to retreat.

If Ibrahim knew that an Uzbek army appeared here, he would be very surprised. After all, according to outside knowledge, Shaibani Khan gathered all his strength to capture Samarkand.

In fact, these Uzbek troops attacking the city of Bukhara come from several sultans with fiefdoms in Khwarezm. The goal is to ensure that Shaibani Khan's rule will not be blocked throughout the Amu Darya and Syr Darya river basins. break.

For this reason, he sent his uncle Suyunchi to command the battle to coordinate the troops belonging to several sultans to prevent them from falling into failure because they fought independently. However, Shaibani Khan did not place high hopes on this force and did not force them to conquer the city.

"If you can't take the city wall, then destroy the surrounding villages first and slowly trap them to death." After some thinking, the besiegers changed their strategy and planned to compete with the defenders for endurance.