After Apos had executed six maids, a new one was quickly replaced, and he served him with all his might for fear that one of them would lose his life if he was not careful.

After deciding to support his younger brother Mansour, Apos had to consider two things, one was to find a way to increase Mansur's strength and weaken Abdullah's strength, and the other was to find a way to prolong his life as much as possible.

Adjusting the power structure of the empire is not an easy thing, if it is not done well, it can easily cause serious consequences, or even mutiny, so it is a very brain-consuming activity that requires a lot of experience and means, however, Apos is a veteran, and he is fully capable of doing it without leakage, leaving everyone speechless.

And it is even more difficult to extend his lifespan, the best Lang Zhong of the Apos Dynasty has seen it, and there is no way to deal with Apos's condition, however, Apos still has a fluke mentality, he knows that the Tang Empire has developed rapidly over the years, and the medical level is much higher than that of the Apos Dynasty.

Apos personally explained to his cronies and asked them to go to Datang to find a famous doctor, as long as it was a famous doctor, they would have to invite it as much as it cost.

In the Arabian Sea, Ang Lee's fleet was still moving slowly, and from time to time he could get news from the direction of Aden City, but most of it was less important news.

In his spare time, he organizes fishing competitions on the sea, and those who win will be given certain rewards, and those who fail will have a chance next time, which has won a lot of praise.

"Li Shilang, twenty miles ahead, I found pirates robbing merchant ships."

A soldier in charge of observation put down the telescope in his hand and opened his mouth to report the situation.

"After walking for so many days, this is the first time you've encountered pirates? This official must take a look. ”

Li An suddenly got excited in his heart, hurriedly climbed to the command platform, and carefully observed it with a telescope.

Because if you are close to the naked eye, you can only see two ships in the distance, and as for what happened, there is no way to judge at all.

"There are really pirates robbing, these damn pirates, don't they want to live?"

Li An was greatly surprised, and immediately ordered: "Send three steam cannon ships to move forward at full speed, you must catch the pirates, and you can't let them escape." ”

Soon, three steamships emitted even thicker black smoke and accelerated towards the pirate-infested place, and with the strength of these three steamboats, it was easy to destroy the few pirate ships that were doing bad things.

Li An didn't need to continue to ask, he just needed to wait for the result, walked off the command platform, continued to play cards with several subordinates, and won a lot of money by the way.

The pirate's small ship could not be compared with the giant ship of the Tang Dynasty at all, and soon the sound of shelling was heard, and then several pirate ships rose into smoke and raised a white flag, because if they needed to fight urgently, these pirates would only end up with the ship being destroyed and killed.

"Li Shilang, we haven't met pirates for a long time, but we didn't expect to meet them here."

One of his subordinates looked a little excited, it was time for the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses to behave again, how could they not be excited.

"This is the Gulf of Aden, and of course there are pirates."

Ang Lee blurted out.

In later generations, this is the area where pirates frequently operate, of course, in later generations, there were much more merchant ships in this area than now, because the Suez Canal was opened, the number of merchant ships was doubled, and now the Gulf of Aden is also a very important trade route, but the role is smaller than that of later generations, as long as the canal is opened, the merchant ships here will increase exponentially.

"There should be pirates in the Gulf of Aden?"

The subordinates were very puzzled, and this theory was very unreasonable.

Li An knew that he had missed his mouth, and hurriedly explained: "Because there are many merchant ships passing through here, the sea route is relatively narrow, and there is the soil for pirates to survive, so there will naturally be pirates, I thought there would be pirates before I came, but I can't be sure to encounter them, because the merchants say that there are very few pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and most of the pirates go to Aden City as mercenaries, and there are only a small number of pirates, and they are very gentle, only robbing part of the merchants' property, and not too much, probably because they are afraid of blows and want to leave a way back for themselves." ”

In fact, these pirates who do not kill them all are the smartest pirates, they understand that killing chickens and eggs is not long, only a long stream of water is the right way, grabbing a little at a time is enough to spend for themselves, why rob so much?

"I see, however, even if it is a gentle pirate, since our Tang soldiers and horses are here, we must not let it go easily, and we must completely eliminate these pirates to increase the prestige of the Tang Empire."

One of the subordinates said.

"This is natural, if Datang wants to build the Belt and Road Initiative, how can it allow pirates to run rampant in the Gulf of Aden, and exterminate nearby pirates can be regarded as a gift to the people of Aden."

Li An opened his mouth and said, paused, and then said: "By the way, the few pirate ships in front of you are definitely not the main force of pirates, they must still have a lair, and they must catch more pirates, so that when they are escorted to Aden City, they will have enough face to immediately give the order, and the two steam gunboats will be a group, plus a supply ship, wandering around the Gulf of Aden, and if they find pirates, they will be eliminated immediately, and they will be captured as much as possible." ”

"Yes, Li Shilang, my subordinates will arrange it."

Soon, multiple groups of Datang detachments began to travel in different directions to discover more pirate ships, ensure the safety of merchant ships, and increase the number of pirates to show off after the Datang fleet entered Aden City.

The robbed merchant ship soon arrived, and several pirate ships with smoke and fire were also not far ahead, and the pirates on the ship all raised their hands in surrender, and some of the Tang Dynasty soldiers entered the pirate ship and controlled the pirate ship.

The merchants on the merchant ship all stood at the bow of the ship and saluted the Tang Dynasty soldiers respectfully, obviously very grateful.

Several businessmen who took the lead got on Ang Lee's boat and expressed their gratitude to the Tang Dynasty soldiers.

"You are a businessman of Datang, what a coincidence! Everywhere you go, you can meet the merchants of Datang. ”

Li An could see at a glance that the other party was a businessman from Datang, and he could determine it by looking at his clothes and face.

"Thank you Li Shilang for the rescue, otherwise our losses would have been great."

The merchant thanked.

"Where did you come from and where are you going?"

Ang Lee asked bluntly.

"Li Shilang, we came from Aden City, we want to go to Anzhu City to have a look, then we have to go to the ports of West Tianzhu, and finally we have to return to Aden City, most of our industries are in Aden City."

The merchant replied truthfully.

"Anzhu City, haha! That's a city with a lot of potential! You might as well go for a walk, you will definitely make a lot of money. ”

Ang Lee opened his mouth to suggest.

"Yes, the villain understands."

The merchant answered.

"By the way, what is the situation in Aden City, is the business good?"

Ang Lee continued to ask.

The merchant replied, "Okay?" Business is not bad, it is also safe, it is a good place. ”

Li An asked: "I heard that there are 10,000 soldiers and horses in the northwest and northeast of Aden City, will they attack Aden City!" ”

The merchant thought for a moment and said, "I did hear about this, but it's been a few months, and if you want to fight, you will already fight, so you shouldn't be able to fight!" ”

Li An nodded and said, "I hope it won't start, if there is a war, you business people will be miserable, hahaha!" ”

The merchant chatted casually with Li An for a while, while the Tang soldiers and some sailors carried the goods looted by the pirates back to the merchant's merchant ship, and after all the robbed goods were loaded onto the ship, the merchant left happily and bowed respectfully to Li An's ship.

"Li Shilang, we are here, and the merchants of Aden City will be very happy, because we will destroy all the pirates, so that the merchants do not have to live in fear."

The subordinate said proudly.

Li An looked at the distant merchant ships and said: "We use force to eliminate pirates, this can only be a symptom but not a cure, the real ability to eliminate all pirates, only the local economic development is good, the people's living standards have improved, if the people are not well fed and clothed, pirates will never be completely eradicated, fortunately, we open up the Maritime Silk Road, relying not only on force, common prosperity is our goal, as long as the people on this road are rich, naturally no one is willing to be pirates." ”

"Yes, we will do our best to open up the Maritime Silk Road."

The subordinates hurriedly said.

The fire of the three pirate ships was quickly extinguished, and the dead pirates were thrown directly into the sea, and the injured pirates were naturally treated by the Great Tang Langzhong, and the rest were all handcuffed and handcuffed to prevent them from resisting.

Since these three ships have been captured, they are the trophies of the Datang fleet, and all the resources of the entire ship belong to the Datang fleet, however, because these three pirate ships are ordinary sailing ships, the speed is not fast enough, and the pressure of operating alone is relatively large, so Li An decided to tie them to the back of the steamship and drag them directly, which will save a lot of trouble, anyway, there is no hurry to go to Aden City, just walk slowly.

In the northwest of the city of Aden, Osman and his soldiers are still celebrating, since they learned the news that Apos is seriously ill, they have been celebrating, almost every day there will be celebrations, however, the celebration is not very large, they are all scattered celebrations, that is, each time the people who participate in the celebration are only part of the soldiers, the rest are in a state of preparation, so that in the event of any unexpected event, such as a large-scale enemy attack, they can also deal with it well, without very serious consequences.

But the Uthmans seemed to be in a bad mood, because the Umayyad monarch Abdar sent envoys from Spain to the vicinity of the city of Aden, and wanted to go to the Osmans to take the city of Aden as soon as possible, taking advantage of the serious illness of Apos, to speed up the Aposian dynasty in one fell swoop, and restore the Umayyad dynasty, which was about to be destroyed.

For Abdar's order, Osman was very disgusted, because this Abdar was a coward who could only escape, when the Umayyad Dynasty was facing a huge crisis, Osman was able to lead the expeditionary force to come back, and Abdar took his cronies to Spain to establish a small court, which made Osman very disdainful, and never obeyed Abdar, but because the royal family of the Umayyad Dynasty was almost dead, only this Abdar was left, which was ostensibly a vassal, He expressed his allegiance to the small court and the restoration of the former Umayyad dynasty, but he was not willing to lead the army to Spain, but ran all the way from Egypt to the northwest of the city of Aden, far away from the small court.

However, Abdar did not seem to realize the Osmans' disdain for him, and actually issued an order to the Ottomans very unceremoniously, without understanding the situation near the city of Aden, he actually went to the Osmans to take the city of Aden as soon as possible, and even counterattacked the powerful Apos dynasty.

In this way, Osman was naturally very angry, he didn't look down on this timid master, and now the master dared to dictate to him, let him complete tasks that he couldn't play at all, which was simply mediocre.

"General, is Abdar crazy, actually let us take the city of Aden in a few days, this is forcing the soldiers to death!"

"The city of Aden is a rabble, and as long as we suddenly attack, we may not be able to take the city."

Two ministers gave different opinions.

"The rabble has the walls to rely on, and it is not to be underestimated, besides, Ziyad has been watching our every move, and if we suddenly attack the city of Aden, he will definitely attack our army from behind, in that case it will be very bad, we will be completely annihilated."

The general said.

"But this is the Sultan's order, do we really have to disobey?"

Osman said impatiently: "Okay, don't quarrel, this order cannot be carried out, as for the sultan's blame, let him blame it, he is a coward, but he wants us to die, although I, Osman, am not afraid of death, but I will not die in vain, there is no point in vain death, I will not do it." ”

Obviously, the Ottoman would not carry out the wrong orders, and as for Abdar's reproaches, he did not take them to heart at all, what was the big deal, if he was forced to hurry, he could have left the small court in the direction of Spain, become sultan himself, or surrender to the Aposian dynasty, as long as it was beneficial to himself, he could do whatever he wanted.

The reason why Osman can be so awesome is also a demonstration of strength, more than 10,000 soldiers and horses under his command are his capital, in addition, the small court in the direction of Spain can not provide him with the slightest supply and support, all the resources needed by the army are brought by him and raised along the road, so Ottoman is fully equipped with the conditions to break away from the small Spanish court.