The business of Aden City is becoming more and more prosperous, the population is also increasing, and the process of its prosperity has not been interrupted by the internal change of dynasty and war in the Great Food Country, and the fastest development era of Aden City, that is, in recent years, with the development of the Tang Empire and the great development of maritime trade, the city of Aden ushered in the spring breeze of development, and the influx of Tang merchants in an endless stream has made the small city of Aden an important port city in the south of the Great Food Country.

Just because the Suez Canal does not yet exist, so the strategic value of the Red Sea is greatly reduced, if this famous canal can be opened in the future, whether it is the Red Sea, or the city of Aden, its strategic value will be greatly increased, and the city of Aden will become a very important city, more than a hundred times more important than now.

At this moment, the merchants in the city of Aden are busy doing business, and the common people are also leisurely shopping, there is no tension before the war, and the soldiers and horses defending the city are not much different from usual, at most, the soldiers and horses stationed on the city wall have become twice as many as before, and the defensive materials on the city wall are just a little more, and there is not much change in the city.

This is the cleverness of the city lord Artik, he knows very well in his heart that whether it is the Ottomans in the northwest or Ziyad in the northeast, they will not stupidly attack the city of Aden, because the strength of their two sides is not much different, whoever strikes first to attack the city will force the forces of the city of Aden into the camp of the other party, which is very unfavorable to himself, and the battle of this city, there are also merchants who represent the interests of both of them, once the war starts, these people will also suffer.

Moreover, Artik values commerce the most, if the whole city is full of people, it will create a tense atmosphere of war, so that the atmosphere of commerce will be diluted, many merchants may choose to leave Aden City, if there is not enough population, the business of Aden City will be depressed, and their life will be difficult, so he must create a strong commercial atmosphere, so that the common people and merchants can stay in Aden City with peace of mind.

In addition, although the city of Aden does not have the atmosphere before the war on the surface, this does not mean that Artik is not prepared, he obviously did not deploy much defense, but secretly stationed eyeliners and plainclothes soldiers in all the traffic arteries in the city, a seemingly inconspicuous street house, there may be a hundred elite soldiers stationed in it, once someone makes trouble nearby, these hundred soldiers can immediately rush out to maintain order and prevent turmoil in the city.

And near the city wall and the port, there are also a lot of secret preparations, a warship that seems to have only three or five soldiers, there may be fifty or sixty levels hidden in the cabin, and the soldiers on the city wall seem to be no more than usual, but there are more soldiers resting and chatting on the women's wall, once there is an enemy surprise attack, they can be put into battle at any time, and there are also many soldiers and horses stationed in the warehouse under the city.

In short, the seemingly unfortified city of Aden is actually already fortified, and the fortification is relatively tight, no weaker than the fortified city full of soldiers.

The lord of the city, Artik, was an old man of about fifty years old, with a standard Arab face, and there was nothing special about it, and if he was allowed to change his clothes and enter the common people, he would soon be overwhelmed by the crowd.

However, Artik's clothing is noble, different from the clothing of ordinary merchants and ordinary people, and his noble status can be seen at a glance.

To the left and right of Artik are his right-hand men, most of whom are Shiites, with only a few minor leaders of other sects.

They stood on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city, which was usually guarded by soldiers to observe the city's every move and ensure the safety of the city, and at the same time, because the buildings were so tall that they could even see the situation outside the city.

In peacetime, such a tall building can be used for sightseeing, and every visitor can bring income to the tower.

However, during this period, such a high tower was a guarantee of the safety of the city, and could not be used for tourists, in case the tourist was a spy of the enemy, after entering the observation tower, wouldn't it be possible to see all the conditions of the entire city, so that it would be a great disadvantage to the defenders.

As the lord of Aden City, Artik is naturally qualified to go to the observation tower, especially in recent months, he has often brought his right-hand men to the observation tower.

Artik went to the observation tower, not to enjoy the scenery, he has long passed the age of enjoying the scenery, and the purpose of his visit to the observation tower is to observe the dynamics of the entire city of Aden in order to make his own judgment.

"Do you see that? Some merchant ships came in and out, but there was neither unloading nor loading on the ship, and the people on these merchant ships were certainly not merchants, I don't know whose people were! ”

The merchant ship that Artik saw was the advance ship of the Tang Dynasty.

"City Lord, do you want to detain it for inspection?"

One of the subordinates asked.

Artik shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, "Forget it!" Since they have been able to confirm that they are not normal merchants, what can they do, it is not good for us to tear our faces, they want to plant eyeliner in the city, there are a hundred feasible ways, let them go! ”

The treacherous Artik had long been aware of everything, and although he was very angry at the Apos dynasty's rebellion, and he wholeheartedly supported Ali's descendants as caliphs, his Shiites and many small factions could control very few cities, and their strength was far inferior to that of the Apos dynasty, and it was difficult to win a hard battle.

Although Osman, the general of the Umayyad expedition, recently extended an olive branch to him and expressed his willingness to fight together against the nascent Apos dynasty, in the eyes of Artik, the Umayyad and the Abbasid dynasty were one and the same, both usurpers and rebels, and were not trustworthy.

It's just that in view of the current situation, Artik did not dare to anger the Osman too much, but made false promises with the Ottomans, and even provoked the confrontation between the Ottoman and Ziyad in order to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

Artik is cunning enough, but Ziyad and Osman are also battle-hardened old foxes, and they have long passed the age of impulsiveness, so no matter how Artik provokes and expresses his position, they just don't do anything between them, and Artik is not in a hurry, it's a big deal that everyone is slowly consuming, anyway, he has time, and he can slowly play with these two.

"City Lord, the soldiers and horses outside the city have not moved, but they have been stationed in the north, and they are really fucking uncomfortable."

A mercenary general was upset.

Regular soldiers all have a sense of mission and fight to defend the motherland, but mercenaries are different, mercenaries come to serve as soldiers for money, and they have only one purpose for joining the army, that is, to obtain military salaries, so that they can live a little nourishing.

Therefore, mercenaries don't like to fight, because whether they are fighting or not, as mercenaries, they are paid, and fighting means dying, and if you don't fight, you can comfortably receive money all the time, how good is that!

The city of Aden originally had an army, the Umayyad army, but in order to fight against the nascent Aposian dynasty, most of the defenders here were withdrawn, leaving only a few dozen troops, and Artik gathered a few hundred Shiite armed forces to annihilate all these small defenders.

After becoming the lord of the city, Artik faced a big problem, that is, the Shiite armed forces under his command were too weak, only a few hundred people, and later, the nearby Shiite armed forces also rushed to hear the news, but even so, there were only more than 1,000 horses, and the strength was still not enough to defend the rich city of Aden.

In order to solve this problem, Artik had to spend money to hire troops, whether it was a bandit group in the mountains, a pirate army at sea, an anti-court army in the surrounding countries, or even a brave and ruthless idle person in society, as long as he was willing to defend the city of Aden, Artik took all the orders and sent generals to train and educate them, so as to prevent these mercenaries from doing things.

The reason why Artik can think of the mercenary road is naturally because there are a lot of merchants in Aden City, and there are many rich people, and the richer the people, the more afraid they are of death, so let each of them pay some money to hire troops to protect Aden City, these guys are naturally willing to pay money, so there is no pressure on the funding problem of the mercenary army, as for discipline, as long as the military salary is paid in time, there should be no problem.

The city of Aden is an open city, with countless restaurants and green houses, and there are enough places for mercenaries to vent their emotions, and as long as all kinds of needs can be satisfied, all kinds of bad emotions can be vented well, and the mercenaries have no reason to make trouble.

"Apos has been seriously ill recently, and the news has spread throughout Khorasan, and even the people and merchants of Aden City know about it, there should be no fake for such a big thing!"

"Probably not, earlier today, our soldiers came back to report that a hundred elite cavalry in the Qiyad military camp left the camp and went straight to Khorasan, I think it should be related to Apos's serious illness, so many days, it is the first time that so many elite cavalry have left the Qiyad camp, very unusual."

"There is a saying in the Tang Dynasty, called evil retribution, I don't know if you have heard of it, Apos is a man without faith, he once promised us that he would support Ali's descendants to ascend the throne, but in the end he ascended to the position of caliph on the grounds of everyone's support, which is really hateful."

"This damn big devil is finally dying, and such a cruel and unfaithful person should die sooner."

One by one, the crowd said.

Artik nodded, looked in the direction of the city in the distance, and said: "Our people in Khorasan have just returned, and it is already certain that Apos is indeed seriously ill, and it is a very serious emergency, and it is estimated that he will not live for half a month." ”

"Oh, that's great news! Apos is finally going to die, he is finally going to die. ”

"This is great news to celebrate."

"The moment the news of Apos's death comes, we must celebrate."

"Yes, yes, it has to be celebrated."

And they were all happy.

Artik's expression was not so optimistic, he couldn't figure out whether Apos's serious illness was a good thing or a bad thing, in his opinion, even if Apos died, there would be a new heir to the Apos dynasty, if the new heir was a straw bag, it would be fine, but if the new heir was more insidious and cunning than Apos, then it would be even more difficult for them to support Ali's descendants on the throne.

In the eyes of the cunning Artic, although Apos was quite fierce and brutal, killing those who opposed him everywhere, the consequence of the tyranny was to provoke the struggle of all other factions, and if the struggle continued, the Apos dynasty would be doomed sooner or later.

Since ancient times, no dynasty has been able to rely entirely on tyranny to stabilize the country, and the Great Qin Empire in China is a good example, and the second generation has already perished.

Artik's greatest fear is a softer heir than Apos, who will have a harder and softer appearance, which will make it more difficult for their Shiites to support Ali's descendants.

The Umayyad dynasty has been usurping the throne for hundreds of years, and if the Apos dynasty is allowed to continue to usurp the throne for a few hundred years, when will it be Ali's turn to ascend the throne?

The Shiites united many factions against the tyrannical Umayyad dynasty in order to overthrow the usurpers and install the descendants of Ali, who should really inherit the caliphate, to come to power.

In ancient and modern times, military power has always been the most important and decisive force, and it is because the Aposians have the most military power that they have succeeded in usurping the throne.

This is somewhat similar to Zhao Kuangyin of the Great Song Dynasty in China, Lao Zhao said that he would assist the little emperor, but he played a trick of adding a yellow robe, and on the grounds that his subordinates forced him to be the emperor, he became the emperor so shamelessly.

At the beginning of the rebellion against the Umayyad Dynasty, the Shiites naturally had many generals and certain military power, but Apos knew the importance of military power, so when fighting against the Umayyad Dynasty, he always promoted more generals of his own faction and suppressed the generals of the rest of the factions, which eventually led to almost all the generals of the Aposian faction in the upper echelons of the army, thus laying the conditions for Apos to ascend to the position of caliph.

After spending an hour at the Tower, Artik and his excited men slowly left.

Unlike Artik's gains and losses, Osman was in a very good mood, he was many years younger than Artik, and he didn't think about the problem so carefully, he just felt that Apos's death was a good thing, a great thing.