On the dry Gobi, a few knights on Arabian horses galloped quickly, waiting for clouds of smoke and dust on the ground.

The knights were tightly wrapped, and a face covered with a turban showed a hawk's sharp gaze.

The knights had oval shields in their saddles on one side and several half-length spears in leather slots on the other.

They ran quickly across the Gobi, looking behind them from time to time, as if to see if someone was following them.

The hills on the horizon cast a shadow at the end of the Gobi, and in such a hot weather, that shadow seemed to be a paradise on earth.

They ran as fast as they could, but when they finally approached the foot of the mountain, they let out a cry of joy at the small patches of lush green in the col.

An oasis is paradise in such a place, and sometimes a small oasis in the depths of the Gobi is like a miracle that saves people from hell.

These tendencies have made their mouths dry and their bodies tired, and they are exhausted from running along the way, and at this time they just want to drink enough water and then lie down in the shade and get a good night's sleep.

Centuries ago, this was not the case, and legend has it that there was once a very large city in this dry Gobi.

There are several man-made rivers that surround the city, making it a blessed gateway to the depths of the interior.

It's just that with the erosion of wind and sand, the change of climate, and the scourge of man-made war, the city has now disappeared under the sand, except for the occasional lucky person who can occasionally pass by and find some ruins, so that the original glory can be speculated, and there is no trace of the past.

However, this does not mean that this land is not patronized, on the contrary, not long ago, in the depths of this Gobi, a huge and extremely fierce battle broke out.

These knights were scouts for one of the two warring sides, and although a few days had passed since the battle, both sides were still scouting for each other's traces and trying to fight to the death again.

The winner wants to take this opportunity to eliminate his opponent once and for all, while the loser is not reluctant to be defeated in an attempt to regain his military power and reverse the defeat.

Both sides set up positions in the Gobi, far from the southeastern part of the Ottoman Empire, and both sides were ready to complete the battle and completely remove the threat from the other side of the border.

Although the scale of the battle was large, it was the first time that the two sides had officially met each other, so although the victory was temporarily achieved, the winner did not take it lightly.

The battle was won by the young Ismaili, whose enemy was a governor from the southeastern Ottoman frontier.

The governor was trusted and respected by Selim, who was far away in Tancienburg, because of his large military presence in the hands of high powers, and most importantly, he was clearly on the side of Selim in the struggle for the throne with his brother Mehmet.

This moved Selim very much, and even called him "the highest of the pashas", a title that cannot but be said to be a show of Selim's favor to him.

However, the governor was not so easily deceived, although he was very simply on the side of Selim, but he did not leave his territory easily, and there were faint signs of self-government, for which he even asked for the title of "Mujirutu" for his son.

Mujirutu has many interpretations in Ottoman and can be considered both as a deputy to a person in high position or as someone's heir.

Such a title undoubtedly reveals the governor's thoughts, but Selim was in the middle of a battle with Mehmet at this time, and he couldn't spare time to deal with this unscrupulous minister.

However, upon hearing that the Persians on the southeastern frontier were showing signs of an attempt to invade the Ottoman frontier, Selim immediately ordered the governor to crusade against the daring Persian tribes.

At the same time, Selim also gave orders to the tribes in some nearby places to guard their territories against possible Persian attacks.

The tribes, of course, were glad to obey this order, and they restrained the populace of their own realms while carefully guarding against possible Persians, while watching the battle between the Persians and the governor with a cold eye.

The war began in a situation where the troubles outside the battlefield were often more complicated than on the battlefield, or that Selim did not take the little boy who is said to be 15 years old in the first place.

Letting the Safavid Persians and the Doge consume each other was a good thing for Selim, and he didn't believe that the Safavid posed any real threat to him.

He figured out that when he had freed up his hands against Forgotten Mehmed, he would be able to simply catch both prey once and for all.

Wimpy children are sometimes well-behaved children, but most of them are bear children, and a little kid with money in his hands, people around him, and a large number of the latest firearms and weapons may toss an earth-shattering event.

Ismaili is such a little kid.

Just half a year ago, after he completely defeated the Turkmen of his mother's homeland, the Aries Dynasty, after half a year of division and annexation, he has mastered a large part of the Turkmen tribes.

So after feeling full-fledged, Ismaili began to seriously consider whether they should challenge the Ottomans for the first time.

This was obviously a very risky move, and many people were not optimistic about him taking on the huge giant, even though it was said that he had received a lot of sharp advanced weapons from some Europeans, but challenging the Ottoman Empire was still seen as a crazy move.

And Ismaili wanted to shake the giant Osman with his own ideas.

He knew that he was still young, even if he had annexed the territory of the Aries dynasty of the entire Turkmen, but if he was found to be a threat, perhaps the Ottomans would nip him in the bud.

So he decided to strike first, and before the Ottomans had even taken it seriously, he bit off a piece of flesh from the giant.

In this way, even if the Ottomans might retaliate in the future, he only had to spit out the territory he had swallowed and bargain with the Ottomans.

Ismaili was a little kid who thought he was going to do it, and when he heard that there was a war for the throne in the Ottoman Empire, he saw it as an opportunity and immediately implemented it.

What Ismaili didn't expect was that the enemy he faced wasn't as strong as he thought, or rather, the Ottomans didn't start with enough force to put him under enough pressure.

The victory in a large-scale battle gave Ismaili enough confidence that he began to send scouts frequently to actively seek out the enemy, and he thought that it was obviously a good opportunity to strike at this opponent before the Ottomans realized his strength.

To Ismaili's surprise, the firearms were sent to him by the woman named O'Connie.

The sharp muskets and powerful artillery opened Ismaili's eyes, and he immediately assigned them to his cronies, and soon a firearms force of his Safavid redheads was active in the land.

Although they were too tired, the knights insisted on drinking water and resting for a while, and then hurriedly mounted their horses and continued on their way.

It was only when they crossed the hilly terrain and entered the mountains that they breathed a sigh of relief.

These men were scouts sent by Ismaili to inquire about the news, and they encountered the Ottomans in the depths of the Gobi, and after finally getting rid of their pursuers, they hurried all night to report the news to the Shah.

Ismaili was now in the mountains, and he had an army of about 7,000 men, the vast majority of whom were followers of his Safavid order, which ensured his loyalty, while the rest of the less than 2,000 men were from the tribes he had conquered.

Ismaili knew that the tribes clearly had their own intentions for him, and they might want to bet on him, but they wanted to see how good he was, so this war was of paramount importance to him.

Having defeated the Ottoman governor, Ismaili was not carried away by the victory, and he rejected the advice of his generals to launch a new attack immediately, instead bringing his army back into hiding in the mountains, and then waiting for an opportunity to teach the Ottomans a hard lesson.

The arrival of the scouts made Ismaili think that maybe his chance had come, so he made an exception to let the concubine who was already preparing to go to bed leave, and then immediately summoned the scouts.

But what those people brought to Ismaili was good news that surprised him and didn't know what to do for a while.

Bayezid II, the son of Mehmed II the Conqueror and the Righteous Sultan, died in Constantinople.

By the time the news reached the southeastern frontier, nearly two months had passed since the death of Bayezid II.

In addition to the long distance and inconvenient transportation, most of the time it was because Selly had been tightly guarding the news of Bayezid II's death.

Had it not been for the proximity of Eid al-Adha, and the growing call for the Sultan to participate in the ceremony, which could no longer be concealed, Selim's news of Bayezid II's death might have remained blocked.

As soon as the news spread, there was an uproar within the Ottoman Empire.

At the same time as announcing the death of Bayezid II, Selim declared himself his father's designated heir, ordered all local governors and tribal chiefs to gather in Constantinople for his grand enthronement ceremony, and ordered the pardon of his brother Mehmet, and even generously named Mehmet the Grand Vizier of Egypt.

Mehmed, of course, will not accept this so-called title, let alone recognize Selim's status.

Not only did he deny Selim his right to inheritance, but he also openly questioned whether the death of their father, Bayezid II, was related to Selim.

With the announcement of Bayezid II's death, the already divided situation finally turned into a real civil war.

Ismaili did not expect such news to come, and he began to suspect that it might be a disinformation created by the Ottomans in order to confuse him.

But then he realized that the Ottomans couldn't have used such a thing to trick him, so was all this true?

The civil war in the Ottoman Empire made Ismaili feel for a moment that his daily prayers had finally been answered, and he left the messenger scouts, ran outside the tent and knelt in the direction of the Kaaba, and then, after a complicated prayer ceremony, he ordered all the generals to be summoned overnight.

Ismaili thought it was a revelation to him that he would be punished if he ignored it.

Ismaili's resoluteness and determination created a miracle for himself that he had never imagined afterwards.

In June 1502, the Safavid Persian Empire's army invaded the Ottoman frontier from the southeast, and after the first victory, Shah Ismaili I of Safavid Persia decisively led his army to attack the Ottomans, who had been defeated.

It was a war that was not fair to the Ottomans, or rather unfair to the governor of the southeastern border.

While he was independently supporting the war against the invading Persian army, the tribal nobles everywhere stood by and did not send reinforcements, but sometimes even cut off the logistics of military supplies that they should have shouldered, so that the satrap's army often fought the enemy hungry and fed.

At this time, the sad news of the death of Bayezid II came.

Everyone's hearts were stirring at this time, and countless pairs of eyes were fixed on Constantinople and Egypt, knowing that the two lions were about to engage in a brutal fight, and it seemed unknown who would emerge victorious.

This made most of the Ottoman tribal nobles decide to wait and see the situation for a while, and this was a disaster for the governor of the southeastern frontier who was at war with Safavid Persia.

The Governor had to choose between engaging the enemy or securing strength, and he knew that either choice would be a matter of uncertainty for him.

And after some consideration, the idea of finally defeating the enemy prevailed.

He would not choose to do so, not because of his loyalty to Selim, but because he regarded the entire southwestern frontier as his private property, and could not bear the encroachment of Safavid Persia on his territory, so the only thing he could do was to destroy or drive away the invading enemy.

It's just that the Governor still underestimated the little kid.

In early July 1502, on the Mulesh Plateau in the southeastern part of the Ottoman Empire, a major battle broke out between the two sides, which was crucial for both sides.

As a result of the Battle of Mullesh, the Ismaili paid the price of nearly 1,400 casualties and annihilated the army of the Ottoman governor on the southeastern frontier in one fell swoop.

In this battle, Ismaili's red-headed militiamen, armed with new muskets, played a huge role.

They used their powerful firepower to launch a slaughtering assault on the Ottomans.

The battle was at its most intense in the evening, and the Safavid soldiers found that there was no one alive in front of them, except for the bloody corpses, because they were so engrossed that they did not end with darkness until dawn the second day.

The Governor of the Southwestern Frontier disappeared in this battle, and no one found him even after cleaning the battlefield.

But now Ismaili no longer cared about the man's whereabouts, and while he asked the people around him to write to the woman named O'Connie, telling her that he needed her to send more firearms, he hurriedly sent emissaries to the surrounding tribes.

Then his gaze involuntarily cast towards the vast interior of the Ottoman Empire.

Not content with just biting a piece of flesh off the giant's body, this ambitious little kid has his eye on the Ottoman land, and he wants to overthrow the once-formidable giant.

Alexander received news of the death of Bayezid II at the end of August, when he also received a report of Ferdinand's whereabouts.

Ferdinand finally returned to Zaragoza with one of his grandsons.

But Alexander didn't think that could change anything.

It had been a few days since Ulius had quietly left Babiaridotus, and he had taken with him enough men to bring a letter to Tiego.

Pope Alexander VI remained in Seville, much to the discomfort of the churches in both Castile and Aragon.

There were enough miracles on the Iberian Peninsula that they didn't want to see Seville become a new holy place.

At the same time, all kinds of rumors from the Vatican have been spreading in the churches of the Iberian Peninsula.

Alexander VI also heard about these rumors, and he was furious, but there was no other way out of the time.

Now that he has been banished from the Vatican, he still has the title of Emperor, but everyone knows that he has been exiled and will probably never see the iconic Roman dome of the Sistine Chapel again.

The only thing that maintains his dignity now is that he still has that prominent status after all, and more importantly, he has a son-in-law whose will no one can ignore.

Many had wondered what Alexander would do with his old man, and even the Pope's retinue were secretly worried that they might have to wander around with the hapless Pope.

Until the arrival of Ulliu.

One day in early September, Alexander VI was standing idly under a kumquat tree, staring at the wind-blown fruit in a daze.

Suddenly, a retinue walked briskly and reported to him: "Your Highness's Imperial Commander is waiting outside for an audience. ”

At that moment, the old Pope moved slightly, already a little hunchbacked, and after waving his hand to signal his retinue to call Uliuu in, he raised his hand with some difficulty, and pulled down a red kumquat from the branch in front of him that had been dropped by the fruit in front of him.

After laboriously peeling the orange peel, taking the fruit out of it and stuffing it into his mouth and chewing it for a while, Alexander VI smiled at the Moorish man who had come to him and was quietly waiting for him to speak: "It's delicious, it's ripe." ”