Ziyad hurried all the way to Khorasan, and after arriving in Khorasan, he hurried to see his boss Abu *** without even breathing.

At this moment, Abu ***, escorted by a hundred elite soldiers, was returning from al-Mansour's quarters, and met Ziyad who had hurried in halfway down the road.

"Sir."

When Ziyad saw Abu ***, he stepped forward very excitedly.

Abu *** was riding on a big horse, and when he saw Ziyad appear in front of him, he was very surprised, because he did not recruit Ziyad to return, which belonged to Ziyad returning privately.

"Ziyad, why did you come back, who asked you to come back, the situation in Aden City is solved?"

Abu *** asked three questions in one breath.

Ziyad frowned, looked at his superior, and said, "Sir, the situation in Aden City has always been like that, and no one can change the status quo, but the situation in Khorasan doesn't seem to be very good!" Harry is seriously ill and the government is unstable! ”

"Ziyad, this is not something you should care about, you just need to do your part."

Abu *** was a little unhappy, because Ziyad had always been obedient, but this time he suddenly returned without an order, which made people quite dissatisfied, and even, he suspected that Mansour had overstepped, so wouldn't he be overstepped.

Qi Yad was very anxious, and he didn't care about the many people around Aibu ***, and said bluntly: "Sir, due to the tense situation in Khorasan, the food, grass and military salaries required by my front-line soldiers and horses have been greatly affected, if this situation continues to deteriorate, it is estimated that my 10,000 cavalry will run out of food and salary, the situation in the court is unstable, where do I still have the heart to lead the troops, so I must come back." ”

Abu sighed, looked around, and nodded, "Okay! Let's go back and say that this is the street, not the place to talk. ”

After saying that, he rode back to his lodgings with Ziyad.

As a heavyweight of the Apo Dynasty, Abu ***'s every move is naturally watched by someone, especially when the dynasty is turbulent, Abu ***'s opinion can often influence the direction of the Apo Dynasty.

Both Mansour and Abdullah are quietly monitoring Abu ***, monitoring who this person usually contacts with to guess what Abu *** is doing and thinking, so as to make corresponding countermeasures.

Mansour was worried that Abu *** would be bought by Abdullah, so he would oppose him, while Abdullah was very afraid of the elite Khorasan cavalry under Abu ***.

There are also some other factions in the DPRK and China, which are also monitoring Abu ***, of course, in the same way, Abu *** will also monitor the rest of the people, everyone is in the process of monitoring and testing each other, and no one wants to lose their lives in the turmoil of the dynasty.

Al-Mansur was drinking tea in his own home, and the conversation with Abu *** just now gave him greater confidence in his heart, as long as Abu *** can firmly support himself, then the second caliph of the Abbasid dynasty will definitely be in his pocket.

And he also had a greater ideal, that is, after ascending to the position of caliph, he would continue to expand outward, first to take all the lands conquered by the Umayyad dynasty, and then continue to expand outward to obtain greater land resources.

And Abu *** also reassured him, at least, as far as the current situation is concerned, all the actions of Abu *** are under his control, and this generation of famous generals has nothing to hide from him.

Since ancient times, all the real power of the people like the favorite is the loyal minion, no matter how strong your ability is, only loyal to the master, in order to make the master satisfied, if you dare to have a little disloyalty, it is heinous, it is to be suspected and eliminated.

In ancient and modern times, at home and abroad, the founding heroes who were eliminated because of suspicion were a very large group, and many dynasties had to do the work of getting rid of the heroes after the regime was stabilized, as long as the heroes showed signs of pride and disobedience, they would be eliminated.

Mansour is clearly one of these ruthless people, and historically, he finally executed his right-hand men Abu *** and Ziyad because of his high merits, which shows what kind of person he is.

At this time, it is the time when Abu *** needs to work for him, and he will naturally not get rid of his right-hand man, but if this right-hand man has a disobedient heart, he will have to think about it.

"Master, Ziyad is back."

An inferior man dressed in black, covering himself tightly and showing only two eyes, walked up to Mansour and spoke.

"What, Ziyad is back, when did it happen?"

Mansour frowned suddenly.

When I talked to Abu *** just now, Abu *** said very clearly that Ziyad contained Osman and Artik near the city of Aden, and there would be no problem in the south for the time being, so that he could devote himself to dealing with the affairs of the imperial court.

But his eyeliner said that he saw Ziyad come back, which was not a trivial matter.

And Ziyad's return, there are several possibilities that can be thought of, first, it may be that Abu *** deceived himself and secretly transferred Ziyad back, in that case, it will be a big trouble, which is enough to show that Abu *** is not so loyal to himself, if he is loyal, how can he deceive himself?

The second possibility is that Ziyad disobeyed and returned to Khorasan, in that case, there would be nothing to do with Abu ***, but Ziyad is old and serious, and he is a very obedient general, how could he throw away the troops without an order and run back by himself? This is very abnormal, how credible can it be?

If Ziyad really disobeyed the order to return to Khorasan, then what was Qiyad's purpose? Did you come back to help Abu ***, or did you hear some rumors in the court, and ran back to see the excitement, or was bought by someone.

In the third case, which was worse, Ziyad was defeated by the Ottomans or Artik or the two alliances, and Ziyad had to return to Khorasan with the remnants of his defeated army.

If such a thing happens, it will be terrible, the court is now in chaos, and if the Ziyad army in the south is defeated, it will be a major threat to the entire Apos dynasty, and he will even have to consider reconciliation with Abdullah to deal with the threat from the south.

The man in black said, "Master, Ziyad has just arrived in Khorasan and met Lord Abu *** on the street, and went to Abu ***'s residence together. ”

When Mansour heard this, he frowned and asked, "Have you looked carefully, is it Ziyad himself?" Also, after Abu *** saw Ziyad, did he behave abnormally? ”

"Master, I can see very clearly, it is indeed Ziyad himself, this is absolutely wrong, however, Lord Abu *** didn't seem to expect Ziyad to come back, he looked at Ziyad with very surprised eyes."

The man in black replied respectfully.

When Mansour heard this, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, which is enough to show that Abu *** did not deceive himself and was still loyal to himself.

"By the way, how many people did Ziyad bring back?"

Mansour asked.

"A hundred elite cavalry, two hundred war horses, is Ziyad's escort."

The man in black replied earnestly.

"Alright, you go back!"

Mansur was completely relieved, Ziyad only returned with his own escort, and each guard was equipped with two horses, which shows that he left calmly, and did not flee after defeat, otherwise, it would not have been exactly a hundred guards, let alone spare horses.

But the main question now is why did Ziyad return? What he did when he came back and what purpose he had, and that had to be figured out.

If you send someone to ask Ziyad directly, it is obviously inappropriate, and it is not okay to ask Abu ***, that will expose the fact that he is spying on Ab ***, which is equivalent to tearing his face and making Ab *** feel uncomfortable.

And the best result is that Abu *** can take the initiative to tell him the reason why Ziyad returned to Khorasan, and he believes that as long as Abu *** is still loyal to him, he will definitely take the initiative to say it.

Ziyad's sudden return not only alarmed Mansour, but also alarmed Mansour's opponent Abdullah, as Mansour's uncle, Abdullah has higher qualifications, and he is still an elder, when looking at Mansour, many times he looks down, feeling that Mansur grew up watching him, he is his junior, and the credit is not more than himself, so why fight with himself.

"Master, Ziyad, the number one fierce general under the command of Abu ***, has returned, I saw it with my own eyes on the street, and he followed Abu *** back to his residence."

The same man in black, reporting to his master.

Abdullah was quite surprised when he heard this, and hurriedly asked some detailed questions, and after listening to them, he fell into deep thought.

"Why did Ziyad suddenly return to Khorasan, could it be that Mansur was going to make a move?"

Abdullah looked nervously at his brainchild, Nasser.

Nasser was also a general, a very powerful general of the Apos Dynasty, and his level was not inferior to Ziyad, but because Ziyad's Mansur group had more military power, the army he led was eventually defeated by Ziyad, leading to the destruction of the Abdullah group.

However, Nasser was not a man who threw in the towel, he never showed cowardice, and he was devoted to Abdullah, who would not have been able to do so much without his help.

Nasser thought for a moment and said: "It is impossible to do it for the time being, the caliph is just seriously ill and did not go to Allah, if Mansur does it at this time, it is ill-intentioned, there will be many people against him, that way, it is very bad for him, besides, we are not vegetarians, our 100,000 army is nearby, really move our hands, we are not afraid." ”

Obviously, now that Apos is still alive, their struggle can only be secret, and it must be peaceful on the surface, and whoever takes the lead in the infighting will be opposed by the neutral forces, and thus make himself unjust.

In addition, what they value very much now is who the seriously ill Apos wants to pass on the position of caliph, because Apos is the caliph, so whoever he passes the position of caliph to will have a legal advantage, and will be supported by many people, so that it will be easier to ascend to the throne.

For example, in history, Apos passed his caliphate position to his younger brother al-Mansur, thus giving al-Mansur a legal status, and after that, although Abdullah gathered heavy troops to confront al-Mansour, because Al-Mansur had a sufficient legal foundation, most of the *** eventually supported al-Mansur, which was also a reason for Abdullah's final defeat.

Abdullah nodded and said, "Since Mansur can transfer Ziyad back, shouldn't we also transfer a few generals and some soldiers and horses from the north and east?" ”

Nasser thought for a moment and objected: "This is not suitable, the north and the east are the places that we have managed to control with great difficulty, if the army retreats, these places will be lost, in this way, the area we control is too small, once a long-term confrontation with Mansur is formed, it will be very unfavorable to us." ”

Obviously, Nasser was very thoughtful, and the confrontation between the two forces was not only about soldiers and equipment, but also about logistics and food.

The more area Abdullah can control, the easier it will be to recruit soldiers and food and grass, and the easier it will be to achieve the final success, if he easily gives up the surrounding land that he has managed to control, then even if he can kill Mansur, the strength of the Apos dynasty will be greatly damaged, and there will be more messes in the future.

"Well, what you said is also very reasonable, these lands were taken from the hands of the Umayyad Dynasty little by little with the blood of our warriors, and they must not be given up easily, the population and food of these lands are the most important things of our dynasty, and we cannot give them up lightly."

Abdullah agreed with Nasser's opinion, and he himself was very reluctant to give up large tracts of land easily, which were obtained with the blood of warriors, and must not be given up lightly.

Nasser thought for a moment and spoke: "The most important thing now is the opinion of the caliph, he is now seriously ill, it is estimated that he will not last long, and it is time to decide the next heir, we don't know who he will pass on the position of the caliph to, but we can make a fuss about the issue of Ziyad, expose al-Mansour's conspiracy, and win sympathy for us, so that you may become the next caliph." ”