The situation in the Khorasan steppe changed dramatically, and the great cannibals fell to the ground from the ghostly figures of the past, and were frequently harassed by the Sogdians, who had been suppressed, and there was no solution.

Mahdi's distress was not limited to this, as he was about to go further north to the steppes to join the Khazars, whom the Empire regarded as barbaric and inferior.

Of course, it was mainly the Khazars who frequently sent people to deliver friendly messages and offered them asylum to him.

This is a great shame for Mahdi, who has always been arrogant.

It's just that since he has come to this point, even if he grits his teeth, he must insist on walking, otherwise how can the tens of thousands of soldiers who fled with him stay safe?

Mahdi still thought of defection as simple at first, without the strong support of the empire, no matter how fierce the army was, it would become a sick lion suffering from cold and hunger, and how could it fight after a long time without food and clothing?

Mahdi let out a long sigh, and for the past few days and nights, he had dreamed frequently, always imagining what he would be like now if he had not chosen to flee.

However, every now and then, my brother's blood-stained face immediately appeared in front of him.

Mahdi was not the best candidate for the caliphate, and he had a more intelligent brother, but because he lost the battle against the Romans in the west, he lost almost half of the elite of the western expedition and lost the face of the empire.

Even the most illustrious prince of the empire could not escape the blame for losing the war, and the caliph inflicted the most cruel punishment on Mahdi's brother.

A single sudden defeat turned a prince most likely to become a caliph into a puddle of rotten meat.

As long as he thinks of the scene he took many years ago, Mahdi can't help but tremble.

He prides himself on being a tough man, but for many years he still can't get around this mountain that weighs on his heart.

"Your Highness, the messenger of the Khazars is here again, do you see it?"

It was Ibn who spoke, and since Ali and the other big prizes died in Shirvan, Ibn had become Mahdi's most important confidant, and he had to ask his opinion on almost everything.

In fact, Ibn also trusted Mahdi, and even if he betrayed his family in Ctesiphon, he still followed His Royal Highness the prince without hesitation, and restrained the army to withdraw to the vast grasslands of the north.

At this time, the morale of the army was low, and the military discipline was further corrupted, and if it were not for Ibn to use his prestige in the army to restrain him, I am afraid that he would have fled long ago.

This was a far cry from Mahdi's original vision, which had hoped to rely on his elite army to advance north, defeat the Khazars entrenched there, and then gain a place there, and use this as a basis for a return to Ctesiphon.

However, the army burned and plundered all the way, and before it left the northern part of Khorasan, the morale and combat effectiveness of the army plummeted, and the most direct manifestation was that even the Sogdians, who had been following and harassing them, could not be eliminated or expelled.

In order to take care of Mahdi's emotions, Ibn did not tell all the actual situation.

So far, they have not even been able to catch the shadow of the Sogdians, so they can only passively accept the attack, although the daily losses are not large, but three or four percent of the rangers sent out to reconnoiter will not return, and after several days of repeating, it has caused a great psychological shadow to the rangers of the Great Eclipse.

Even today, there have been cases of some rangers refusing to leave large units.

If this situation is not contained, let alone fighting the Khazars in the north, I am afraid that even the Sogdians will be able to cause great trouble for their lost army.

"No, we're too positive, I'm afraid we'll make the Khazars think contemptively, tell them that we'll stay in Shannan for a while......"

"Your Highness......"

Ibn interrupted Mahdi's self-talk analysis and said thoughtfully:

"We have less than seven days to eat, and the Sogdians have been harassing us more and more recently, and I'm afraid we'll be in trouble if we stay......"

"What's the trouble? If we lack food, we have already grabbed it all the way from Sylvan to Shanbei, and we don't care about grabbing it all the way to the Khazarian steppe!"

Mahdi's voice was low, but his tone was slightly relaxed, and he clearly didn't think it was much of a problem.

At this point, Ibn told part of the truth.

"The army was snatched all the way from Shannan, and all the tribes along the way were already frightened, some fled to the Khazar steppe, some fled back to Shannan, we can't go back to Shannan, and when we reach the territory of the Khazars, I'm afraid it will ......."

He hesitated, not saying anything to embarrass Mahdi, but how could Mahdi not guess what the next sentence would be?

"All escaped?"

Mahdi asked in surprise, and then mumbled as a matter of course.

"The movement of the army is not small, and it is not strange that the Sogdians have fled, and we must not restrain our hands and feet when we reach the Khazar steppe, otherwise the khans of the Khazars will only look down on us even more! Don't look at the frequent overtures of the Khazars, in the final analysis, these envoys still have the intention of tempting us. ”

Ibn nodded approvingly.

"Your Highness's analysis is very reasonable, the Khazars are afraid that we are powerful, after all, the empire is powerful, if the army kills the past, ......"

"So, we can't fully reveal the real predicament of the moment, burning, killing and looting in Khorasan, and when we get to the Khazar steppe, we are bound and become law-abiding citizens, what will the Khazar people think?"

In fact, Ibn was in much agreement with Mahdi, but he paradoxically said that by this time the Great Eaters were overwhelmed and on the verge of collapse, and any kind of provocation against the Khazars was risky.

This kind of risk may not be something they can afford.

In order not to worry Mahdi too much, many of the actual situations were not told to him, so his judgment was skewed.

It's okay not to see the Khazar envoys, but when you go to the territory of the Khazars, you must not easily provoke their bottom line, especially those tribes who have long been attached to the Khazars.

These tribes have been fighting the Great Cannibal for hundreds of years, and which one does not hate the Great Cannibal?

Even if they didn't take the initiative to provoke the local tribes, it was difficult to guarantee that the barbarians would watch the enemy cross the border safely.

What's more, the Khazarians also have a small opponent of Mahdi, and that is Yusuf.

Yusuf had no actual conflict or conflict with Mahdi when he was in Ctesiphon, and his rank was not qualified, but he had a lot of trouble with Mahdi because of Abbas's relationship.

None of this is the point, and no one knows whether Yusuf is hostile to Mahdi or not.

If Yusuf creates some more trouble, it will undoubtedly make their current situation worse.

Soon, Ibn came up with an idea.

"We can send someone to pretend to make contact with Yusuf and kill him suddenly!"