Chapter Ninety-Nine: The Mighty Food Empire (2)

However, just when everyone wanted to see which country the Great Food Empire was going to choose as an opponent, the Great Food Empire made a move that shocked everyone's eyes - the Great Food Empire actually chose to start a war with the two empires at the same time.

In 635, the Caliphate's army launched an attack on both Byzantium and Sassanid Persia. Known as the "Sword of Allah", General Khalid ibn Welid, led the Arabs through the inaccessible Syrian desert, annihilated 50,000 Byzantine troops on the banks of the Yarmouk River, and captured the Syrian capital Damascus. The successive victories of the caliphate's army forced Jerusalem, which had been besieged for two years, to surrender in 638. In the face of the fierce attack of the Arabs, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire said sadly: "Syria, such beautiful rivers and mountains, still belong to the enemy!" ”

The Arabs rose to prominence on the southern frontiers of Byzantium and Persia at an astonishing rate. They advanced, they fought, they conquered, and through blood and fire he built a vast empire spanning Asia, Europe, and Africa, bordering the Tang Dynasty from Central Asia to West Africa, all of which were their territories. At its peak, the territory reached 13.39 million square kilometers. It is the empire with the longest east-west span in human history, second only to the Mongol Empire.

Of course, this is the future of the Great Food Empire, and now the Great Food is still opening a station with the two empires, although it has achieved partial victories, but there has been no overwhelming situation, everyone still has contacts and contacts, and there are winners and losers for each other, and no one can help anyone.

This would continue until about 651 C.E., eight years later.

In this year, Sassanid Persia will be completely wiped out by the Great Food Empire (in fact, there has been controversy about when the Persian Empire was destroyed, some say 637, some say 641, and some say 651, let's count according to the last one) The Great Food Empire captured Khorasan, Armenia and Azerbaijan and other places, bordering the Tang Dynasty, and the East has been completely stable since then.

It was only at this time that the Great Food Empire had the energy to look westward, but as the saying goes, blessings and misfortunes depend, and misfortunes and blessings lurked, which is too good, and the next fate of the Great Food Empire is a good confirmation of this sentence.

Just when the Great Food Empire was about to continue to expand and destroy the Byzantine Empire, there was a split within the Great Food Empire. Led by Ali ibn Abi Talib, some pro-Ali members of the Hashemite family questioned the legitimacy of the Umayyad Umayyad as caliph and formed the Shiite sect to oppose the Sunni sect who generally accepted the Osman succession, *** The first internal schism began and was never reunited again - until the twenty-first century, the struggle between Shiites and Sunnis remained the mainstream of the Arab world, and until the two factions did not distinguish a winner or loser, There will no longer be the possibility of unification in the Arab world.

In 656, with the tragic assassination of Uthman (before that, his previous caliph, the father of Bakr in this book, and the last caliph of the four caliphs, were also assassinated, and three of the four caliphs were assassinated), it seems that this democracy is not something that ordinary people can complete), Ali ibn Abi Talib succeeded him as caliph. But at this time, the Umayyad family, led by the Syrian governor Muawiyah, refused to recognize the Ali regime. The two sides fought several times, but there was no winner and no victory, and there was a stalemate. Soon, there was a split within the Shiites, and some of the radicals who were dissatisfied with Ali's performance formed a "military democrat" (both the Hawari and the faction), and in 661, the faction assassinated Ali, and the orthodox caliphate period (also known as the theocratic republican era, because the first four caliphs were elected by the *** commune through consultation and election) ended, and the Great Food Empire entered the reign of the Umayyad Dynasty (that is, the White Clothed Great Food), which was also one of the most powerful dynasties in history. It's a little stronger than the big food in black.

But the fragmentation of the Great Eclipse was a good thing for another country – the Byzantine Empire escaped as a result......

In any case, the Great Food Empire at this time was a small pepper in West Asia, fighting Persia in the east and Rome in the west, and it was a tough mess.

Of course, in the face of the Great Food, the Tang Dynasty will not be afraid, whether it is now or in history, the Great Food Empire will not be the opponent of the Tang Dynasty in terms of national strength, and the reason why the Battle of Talas will be lost is due to many reasons, and the situation is very complicated.

First of all, the number of people, the Great Food Army has 70,000, and the Tang Dynasty Expeditionary Force has only 18,000 people, only a quarter of the former, the data gap between the two sides is too big, not to mention that the Great Food Empire is not easy to mess with, at this time, the black-clothed Great Food has just replaced the white-clothed Great Food Not long ago, it is the time when morale is the strongest, and the combat effectiveness will definitely not be inferior to the Tang Dynasty. With less than 20,000 troops, it is inextricable to fight with an enemy four times its size, and there are contacts and contacts, which is amazing enough.

Secondly, it lies in the betrayal of friendly forces. According to historical records, at the beginning, Gao Xianzhi was fighting with the big cannibals, and the battle lasted for five days, and on the evening of the fifth day, the Qarlu mercenaries he hired suddenly rebelled, surrounded the Tang infantry from behind, and cut off their contact with the cavalry. Taking advantage of the chaos in the Tang army, the Abbasid coalition sent the main force of heavy cavalry to assault the Tang infantry. Gao Xianzhi was attacked from both sides by the Arabs and the Qarluq tribe, and was unable to support it, and finally collapsed.

In such a situation, it would be good to be able to keep the Western Regions (the Western Regions were lost after 790 and had nothing to do with the Battle of Talas), and the outcome of the war no longer mattered.

After this battle, the Great Food Empire was also frightened by the powerful combat power of the Tang Dynasty, so although it won the Battle of Talas, it never waved its troops eastward again.

Of course, no matter how you explain it, it is an indisputable fact that Datang was defeated by the Great Food Empire, and no matter how many reasons you find, it is useless.

What's more, this is just the result of the war in history, and now it is an alternate time and space, in this world, there is a variable of Li Zhen, and it is naturally impossible for him to watch the Tang Dynasty lose again at the hands of the same enemy.

He has already decided that once he takes power, he will immediately wave his troops westward and wrestle with the Great Food Empire to see whether the believers who have been brainwashed by religion are powerful, or the Tang Empire is stronger.

And this day will not be too far away, because Datang only needs to conquer Tianzhu, and Tianzhu is already bordering the Great Food Empire, which means that if Datang still wants to continue to expand, it will be a matter of time before he starts a war with the Great Food Empire.

But that's all for later, and now it's top priority to sacrifice the prisoners.

(End of chapter)