Khorezm is a regional name, equivalent to what the Chinese call the Jianghuai region and the Central Plains, and its exact location is near the later northern Turkmen city of Urgenchi, which is known in ancient Chinese texts as the Jade Dragon Chijie.

This country has existed for a long time in history, but most of the time it has been dependent on the surrounding powers, a bit like the Goryeo Kingdom in East Asia, whoever is strong it will follow whoever is the younger brother. It was not until the end of the Seljuk Empire, taking advantage of the endless wars between the Western Liao Kingdom and the Seljuk Empire, that it suddenly rose.

The collapse of the Seljuk Empire was a bit like the Great War I in later generations, caused by a young assassin. At that time, in the mountains of Alpur, in the northern part of the Iranian plateau, there was a small country that believed in Shiism, called Muthornyi.

This country is not very large, and it is not very rich, so in order to fight against the surrounding powers, they built castles in the mountains, relying on natural dangers to defend, and their king was called "the old man of the mountain" by outsiders. It is important to note here that the old man in the mountain is not a person, but a group of people, and all the kings of the Wood Thorn have this nickname.

The country is very poor, do you think, the mountains of northern Iran are also poor now, could they have been rich hundreds of years ago? But the poorer the person, the more they want to earn money, and what can they earn? It will definitely not be possible to do business, there is no specialty; It's no fun to fight and plunder, it's okay to rely on mountains and mountains to defend, it's a dream to send troops to fight, and a small country doesn't have so many troops.

In the end, the Wood Thorns came up with a way to make money, which was to be an assassin for others, as long as you gave money, you would kill whoever you wanted. These Wood Thorn Assassins were not only athletic, but also particularly loyal to the king. Because this country is a theocratic/religious regime. One says Allah bless you. Everyone is not afraid of death, much like those black widows and outlaws in Chechnya in later generations.

In 1092 A.D., the last caliph of the Seljuk Empire, Malikshah, had a conflict with the prime minister, and within a few months, the important minister of the two dynasties was stabbed to death by a young man from the Wood Thorn, causing chaos within the Empire, and many people speculated that the assassin was hired by Maliksha from the Wood Thorn Country. Even more unlucky. Within two months, Maliksha also died, and there are different opinions about how he died.

Since Malikshah did not appoint an heir before his death, in fact, most of the Is-Ran countries did not have the habit of appointing an heir, because the Prophet Muhammad did not appoint an heir, and the caliphs were all chosen. Now the Seljuk Empire is in chaos, and the absence of a legitimate successor means that many people have the opportunity to be this caliph, so what are you waiting for, put your arms on your sleeves. If you have a relationship, you should quickly pull the relationship to create a momentum, and if it is okay, you should quickly train your own army. I can't beat you, I can't beat you!

As a result, the vast Seljuk Empire fell apart in an instant, and the four sons of Malikshah fought against those who thought they had a chance to be caliphate. Beat the empire into a pot of porridge.

As the saying goes, blessings and disasters do not go alone, but at this time, the first crusade of the crusaders came again, and Syria bore the brunt. Originally, Syria was a small Seljuk country with great strength, but now it has fallen into a warlord melee and has been wiped out by the Crusaders one by one.

At this time, the country of Khorezm has begun to can't help it, and it looks like it's about to rise, just when the rulers of the Seljuk Empire want to exterminate this little fart country, big trouble has appeared in the east, and a country called Western Liao has come.

This Western Liao is the remnants of the Liao State defeated by the Jin State, led by Yelu Dashi, the eighth grandson of the Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji, and ran all the way to the border of the Seljuk Empire. When the Seljuk Empire gathered forces to fight the Western Liao Kingdom, it was defeated by the Western Liao army again, and chased its ass until it rushed to the vicinity of Afghanistan. At this time, the Khorezm Kingdom began to play the old trick again, and hurriedly surrendered to the new strong Western Liao Great Khan, promising to pay an annual tribute of 30,000 dinars.

But soon after, Yelu Dashi fell ill and died, and his son was too young, so he was regent by the queen, stopped his westward march, and began to cultivate and recuperate behind closed doors. At this time, the country of Khorezm couldn't help it again, and began to slowly encroach on the tribes of the Seljuk Empire around it, taking a bite today and gnawing a piece tomorrow, its own strength is getting stronger and stronger.

In this way, he endured for more than a hundred years, and finally consumed the Seljuk Empire and the Western Liao Empire to death, and finally raised his eyebrows at the beginning of the thirteenth century, swept away the remnants of the Seljuk Empire, and defeated the Western Liao Empire, which was exhausted because of the fierce internal power struggle, and established a huge caliphate empire, the Khorezm State.

If Hong Tao had not crossed, then this newly formed great empire would not have been wiped out by another more powerful new force, the Mongol Empire, in less than fifty years. In fact, before the Naval War of the Three Kingdoms, whether it was Genghis Khan's personal expedition or the eldest son's western expedition launched by Ogedai Khan, they all choked the country of Khorezm enough, and even lost the country, and the remnants of the forces retreated in the two river valleys of Iraq and parts of western Iran.

However, like Goryeo, Khorezm was able to resurrect from a near-death state every time, and once the Mongol army withdrew, they came back and took back the land they had occupied. In addition to the places in the north occupied by the Kipchak Khanate, they did not dare to go, and the entire Iranian plateau, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and part of India, became their territory. And this time they didn't have to worry too much about the Mongol army going west again, the news of the civil strife in the Mongol Empire was not only known to the Southern Song Dynasty and Hong Tao, but also spread in Central Asia.

From this point of view, in that era, the armies of the East significantly surpassed those of Central Asia, the Middle East and the West. The remnants of the Liao State, who had fled in the east, were invincible in Central Asia, and when the Mongol army passed, they were not alone. This was mainly due to the fact that the population size was different at that time, and after being accustomed to fighting a big war with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops, the East Asian armies had a great psychological advantage over the miscellaneous armies in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, which were temporarily assembled by many countries, and at the same time they were more skilled in tactics and strategies.

However, as soon as a country like the Mongol Empire, which had expanded rapidly by plunder, stopped expanding, the contradictions that had accumulated before would immediately erupt. This chaos can be cheaper than the Khorezm country, they can't defeat the Mongol army, but they still have an advantage against other countries in this region, which has a lot to do with the composition of their country.

Generally speaking, there were three major powers in the country of Khorezm, one was the Turks, or the Ser masters, and the Turkmens were also successful. These people were relatively strong, the military workhorses of the country, and proclaimed themselves sultans, ruling the entire country.

Some of them are Persians, who can't defeat the Turks in war, but the Turks who play with the pen are no opponents. So the Persians were in charge of the administration of the state, including taxes. But this right is not innate, but contracted to them by the Sultan, and they are equivalent to the tax package group, and they also have a name, called vizier, which probably means the same as the prime minister.

In fact, this thing should not be too strange to Chinese, and during the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols adopted such a policy. They put the economy in charge of the Semu, and these Semu were the Vizier clique, and they were not Jews, nor Arabs, but Persians.

The rest are Arabs, who do not care about military power or internal affairs, they are in charge of religion, which is the spiritual belief of the country.

Generally speaking, Khorezm is a country that commands the party with a gun, although it is also a Mus-Lin, but because there are too many ethnic groups in the country, it covers almost all races in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, and its centripetal force is insufficient. It is enough to bully and bully the weak, and when you encounter a hard stubble like the Western Liao and Mongolian armies, you have no power to fight back.

That is, due to the large number of ethnic groups, the religious rules of Khorezm are not as strict as those in the Arabian Peninsula, and many people's living habits are not the same, and the original beliefs are not the same, most of them were converted later, and fundamentally speaking, they are not so pure.

First of all, alcohol is not forbidden here, not forbidden, but ostensibly forbidden, but many people will drink secretly behind closed doors when they go home.

Secondly, the rich people here have the custom of raising female slaves, that is, the famous Persian dancers, or belly dancers, which all mean the same thing anyway.

Then there is the diversity of clothing, here it is not a uniform white and black robe, but everything is worn, and what nationality is often distinguished from the clothing.

Finally, there is the human race, and before Hong Tao's ship entered the port, he had already seen several different faces with a telescope. Some are more like East Asians, some like Indians, some are well-dressed Arabs, and there are blue-eyed, yellow-haired Caucasians and black-eyed, brown-haired Southern Europeans, it's a hodgepodge.

"This is a city suitable for people to live in, and it is somewhat human." Looking at the messy port area, Hong Tao was happy. Since the beginning of this voyage, he has been in a strong religious atmosphere, monotonous and boring, and now that he finally sees the layman, he is naturally happy to be a fighter among the layman.

Without the traitors of Said and Alin, Hong Tao was still not worried, the maritime merchants were more thoughtful than he thought, and each merchant ship had at least one interpreter who was familiar with Arabic. Most of them are young people from Puerto Kalamba, who attended the Chinese language school founded by Bo Jiao, and are fluent in both Chinese and Arabic, but they are not as clear as Saeed and Alin in terms of Arab culture and history. But it doesn't matter, Hong Tao doesn't plan to go ashore, as long as the maritime merchants can sell the goods smoothly.

(To be continued.) )