The Turkish army, divided into 20,000 troops, under the guidance of the surrendered Syrian servants, crossed the former Lebanon Mountains and reached Damascus, where they took control of the ancient city. Moreover, it went to take over the entire Syrian region...... "Kohler continued.

"Turkey controls all of Syria?" Marin's brow furrowed - this is not good news......

You must know that Syria is one of the few major agricultural countries in the Middle East, and in later generations, it was one of the few grain exporters in the entire Arab region.

Although Ottoman Turkey also occupied the grain-producing Balkan Peninsula, it was a Christian region. In the Green Religion region, on the peninsula of Asia Minor, there are still very few grain-producing areas. Mainly, the peninsula of Asia Minor is mostly mountainous. Moreover, there is no tradition of developing agriculture.

Syria is a region with a long history and was once the core of the Umayyad dynasty of the Arab Empire. Although the climate is not humid, the rivers are abundant and can be used for irrigation. As a result, the local agriculture was well developed and it was an important grain producing area for the Mamluk dynasty. Moreover, during the Mamluk period, Saladin also moved the capital to the historical city of Damascus in his later years.

And then, the world-famous Damascus scimitar, not to mention it, everyone has heard of it......

The occupation of Syria meant for Turkey a big granary. Moreover, although Damascus was not the capital of the Mamluks, it was one of the most prosperous commercial cities and was able to bring huge economic benefits to the Mamluks.

Moreover, after the Portuguese united with the Spanish to blockade the Arabian Sea, the Mamluks opened up land spice trade routes. And Damascus is precisely the main distribution center of the camel caravan on land.

Mamluk camel caravans carrying pepper-energy spices set out from the northern states of India and passed through Sindh. Then, enter the territory of the once hostile and now friendly Safavid dynasty of Persia, all the way to the northwest, and then into the two river basins in the Iraqi region.

The caravan then headed west along the valley of the two rivers into Syria and arrived at the city of Damascus, where it was again dispersed. It was then shipped by merchants from Syria, or from Lebanon, to places like the port of Beirut on the western coast, where they were resold to Venetian merchants who came to buy spices, and then shipped back to Italy......

Therefore, Turkey's capture of Damascus, a land-based spice transit point, did greatly hurt the economic interests of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt.

After the loss of Damascus, a thousand-year-old commercial city, the camel caravans of the spice trade could no longer take the Syrian route. Even if the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt adjusted the spice transportation route, it would definitely suffer huge losses. After all, changing trade routes easily is not something that can be achieved overnight. During this period, many problems will come to the fore. Until new trade routes were opened, the losses of the Mamluks would certainly be very large.

You know, further south of Damascus is the Kingdom of Jordan in the future. What is Jordan? It was a barren land where 80% of the territory was desert. The only place where there is a little water is the East Bank of the Jordan River, which borders the Palestinian territories. As well as some small rivers in the western mountains, the vast eastern region is completely barren desert areas.

Moreover, in the western part of the Jordan region, there are towering Ajloun mountain ranges, which are difficult to cross. Even if you come from the east, across the Ajloun Mountains, you will encounter the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.

Damascus, on the other hand, is an ancient city with mature commercial routes and trade routes to the Lebanese coast, so the overland spice trade route was set in Damascus.

But now that Syria has been lost, the old trade routes have been wiped out in an instant. And if you want to open up new trade routes, it will be very difficult. If nothing else, if it straddles the northeastern region of Jordan in later times, it will be more troublesome. Because, it's all desert, and there isn't a single oasis along the way.

In this era, it was not as convenient as satellite navigation in later generations, and in the vast sea of sand, people were also easy to lose their way. If the thousand-year-old road is fine, what I am most afraid of is the road that has never been opened, and it is easy for the caravan to lose its way.

North African traders crossed the Sahara Desert, and their families also traveled south along the oasis of wells along the way. If you really have to walk in the vast sea of sand for too long, the camels will not be able to bear it.

The desert in northeastern Jordan is not far away, only a few hundred kilometers. But no one has walked it. When you first open up a business route, someone will definitely have an accident. If a camel caravan loses spice, it will be fatal. After all, spices are so expensive these days......

In other words, because the eastern part of Jordan in later generations was a desert area, the Mamluk dynasty did not send people to control that there at all, but only sent people to control the mountains in western Jordan.

At this time, according to intelligence, the Turks had occupied most of Syria under the guidance of the original Syrian servant army. However, to the south, the mountainous region of Jordan, also under the jurisdiction of the Viceroyalty of Damascus, was not yet controlled by the Turks. The main thing is that the Turks are short of manpower, and they can't spare their hands to go south for the time being, and it is already good to be able to control the land in Syria in the future.

In addition, while leading his army to defend the narrow strip at the southern end of the Bekaa Valley, Adimir also sent troops to occupy the Golan Heights at the southern end of the former Lebanon Mountains, which was later fiercely contested between Syria and Israel.

The Golan Heights is known as the water tower of the Middle East and is the source of many rivers in the Middle East. In later generations, it was the source of 40% of Israel's fresh water. Therefore, Israel is desperate to be accused by the international community of occupying this place.

Moreover, the strategic position of this place is extremely important. The Golan Heights is located on the border between Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. As long as you occupy this place, you can attack four areas at any time. Therefore, until the crossing, Marin did not see that Israel was willing to return this place to Syria.

And Adimir did not deliberately occupy this vital place, he heard that the Turks had already occupied Damascus under the leadership of traitors. In order to prevent the Turks from sending troops from Damascus and going around behind him, they divided their troops into Quneitra with 5,000 troops and took control of the Golan Heights.

I didn't expect this to be a stroke of genius, because, after taking control of the Golan Heights, Adimir completely grasped the strategic initiative. Sixty kilometers down the eastern slope of the Golan Heights is Damascus, and after the Turks took control of Damascus, they also organized an offensive to seize the Golan Heights. First, to address the threat from Damascus; Second, it also opened the way to the west to outflank the defenders of Adimir, and was able to move south to control Jordan.

However, it was too difficult to attack from below the Golan Heights. And there were many musketeers in the Mamluk defenders, who easily repelled the attack of the Turkish army.

In this way, relying on the "stroke of genius" to control the Golan Heights and the topographical advantages of the Bekaa Valley, Adimir's more than 20,000 troops actually blocked the way of 60,000 Turkish troops to the south, forming a stalemate......