Chapter 83: The Dawn (II)

The first piece of news that the scout brought back was the approximate situation in the core area of the Great Eclipse.

This core area refers to the areas conquered by Muhammad, Abu Burk, and 'Umar, including the Arabian Peninsula, Syria, most of Iraq, Libya, and Egypt. Da Shi has been operating here for a long time, and it belongs to the root of Da Shiren. It occupies less than half of the current Great Eclipse territory. Later Ottomans, Ali and Avia conquered the Berbers, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Fars, Khorasan, Sestan, Makran, Sindh, and Lower Tocharian and Khorezm.

These areas are subject to occasional uprisings, and are areas where the Great Eclipse can be shaken.

The strength of the core area of the Great Food determines the true strength of the Great Food.

It turned out that I had also asked in Luoyang, and the explanations were different. After arriving at the broken leaves, he asked the envoys of the countries in the river. The countries in the river are loose alliances, and their relations are not very bad, but they are destined to be shallow-minded. Most of them only know how the Great Cannibals invaded, and the governor of Khorasan was insatiable. I didn't pay much attention to the situation of the big food.

The scouts went to Khorasan, disguised themselves as merchants, brought some gold, silver and jewelry, and befriended the magnates of the Great Eaters, and got a good deal out of them.

The big cannibal didn't think about it, maybe he heard that the Tang Dynasty army was stationed in Broken Leaf City, which was to quell the rebellion, Broken Leaf City was not far from the Hezhong region, but it was still far from Khorasan. Moreover, in the past few decades, the Tang Dynasty has not negotiated with Da Shi, and the scout is a Hu person, and he did not expect that under the climbing, the scout learned a lot of useful information.

The process is very simple, and many thrilling deeds actually happened in the middle.

The first news is not very good.

Speaking of big food, Li Wei stayed in the impression of his previous life, in the vast golden desert, an Arab wearing a scarf and a robe, leading a camel, facing the scorching sun, while walking on one sand dune after another, while wiping his sweat with a scarf.

But not so.

The core area, as in later generations, was dry and hot, and the Sahora Desert began to spread. However, as in the Transoxiana region, the drought was severe, but it was better than later generations, with many rivers that created a large number of oases, and even the former capital Medina (present-day Yatrib) was often plagued by storms and flash floods. And it's not as hot as Li Wei thinks, because the desertification is not severe, the water in Sana'a freezes in winter, the Hadur Mountains snow almost every year, and frosts are common (both in Yemen). This climate makes many oases suitable for growing rice and wheat. Other areas with dry weather and saline soil are also suitable for growing dates and barley. Because there was no shortage of grain, barley was used to feed horses, which was more luxurious than many areas in the Tang Dynasty, and in places such as Xiangshan South Road, barley was still the staple food of farmers.

In addition to the common trees, there are also ** trees, tamarix, which produces charcoal in the desert, a kind of Saimuha tree that can be ground and cooked porridge, wheat mushroom (precious truffle fungus), fruits such as grapes, olives, pomegranates, apples, apricots, almonds, oranges, lemons, sugar cane, watermelons, and bananas. It is not a harsh environment, and there are many animals, such as cheetahs, leopards, coyotes, jackals, foxes, lizards, crocodile lizards, lions, apes, eagles, bustards, falcons, kites, owls, crows, hoopoes, larks, nightingales, pigeons, and sandgrouse. The household savings are not much different from those of the Tang Dynasty, camels, donkeys, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, and mules. Some are native and some are imported from other places, such as mules and horses. The horses were introduced by the Quesai and Hites, probably due to the climate, but they produced one of the best warhorses in the world.

In addition, locusts also occur in the desert, and locust plagues occur every few years. Many big cannibals think that locusts are delicious, and barbecue with a little salt is the most delicious food. Because the people liked to eat it, the locust population was always under control, and the locust plague could not spread.

Speaking of this, the scout looked at Li Wei with some strange eyes.

In the eyes of the people of the Central Plains, the locusts are sacred objects, and they are the curse of heaven descending from heaven, and every time they encounter a locust plague, the people burn incense and offer Buddha-like prayers.

Li Wei said: "General Guo, you write down this paragraph and present it to Luoyang." ”

It is very useful for reference, the Tang Dynasty was also plagued by locust plagues from time to time, but what I said did not count, look at the people's big cannibalism, one meal is hundreds of years, and the more you eat, the stronger the country becomes.

It is this unique environment that makes the Great Cannibal gradually stronger. The historians of the Tang Dynasty recorded in the history books that the Great Food defeated 400,000 soldiers, and Li Wei also believed it a little, after all, it was all a desert, and it was not wrong to have 400,000 soldiers.

However, the news brought back by the scouts overturned Li Wei's views and the records of the history books, the Great Food Environment was far less bad than Li Wei thought, and because of his military system, only all the reinforcements in the core area could dispatch 400,000 male divisions.

The most terrifying thing is that they not only have an ambition to expand, but also an open mind.

At the beginning, the Great Food was very backward, in addition to religion becoming their magic weapon, which was sacrosanct, they absorbed foreign culture very quickly, such as after conquering Persia, they burned and looted all the way, but they did one thing, and all the craftsmen and scholars in Persia were carefully welcomed to the Great Food as treasures. This has led to the rapid improvement of various processes of the Great Eater, such as the Great Eating Knife, which is the first material, and must use Uzzi iron in the Sindh region. But there is not enough good iron, and there are countless smelting and forging processes. This does not need to be introduced by scouts, Li Wei has known it for a long time, and it is said that some people in later generations imitated the big food process to create a big food knife, and the cost reached tens of thousands of dollars.

Not only that, but there are many examples of the absorption of foreign technology, such as Greek fire, if history does not change, the great cannibalism will be obtained a few decades later. There is also paper, the big cannibal originally used animal skin paper, and then I don't know where to start making straw paper. After Gao Xianzhi's defeat, it turned out that the Great Cannibal was able to make excellent paper. It was not through the Tang Dynasty prisoners of war who knew about papermaking, but it was the prisoners of war under Gao Xianzhi who improved the paper-making technology for them. There is also culture, when the Byzantines put the books of Aristotle and others in the papal curia, the great cannibals translated them as treasures and awarded them to scholars for study.

"Write it down again," Mr. Li said.

I had also heard about this matter in Luoyang, and the envoys did not speak very clearly and were not convincing.

But the news that the scout got from the mouths of the Great Food Nobles can be used as evidence. And this evidence can be marked with a title, how a small country became a superpower!

Not only that, but there were also measures to maintain the expansion of the emperor and generals, and to encourage commercial development. Write out these measures of cannibalism and bring them back, so that the domestic ministers and Confucians can have a deep reflection.

This piece of news is not very good, but the following news is good news.

Twenty-one years ago, the Saint Ali, in the eyes of Shiite followers, annihilated the rebels on the banks of the Nai Hai Raiwang Canal and returned to the mosque in Kufa. Along the way, there were people and parishioners who worshipped and flowers sprinkled all over the ground. At this time, in a humble hut, a man named Abdul. Lai Haman. Ibn . With fighting spirit burning in his eyes, Mueller's young man said to his three companions: "We will get rid of the three worst sinful people for the Muslims, Ali!" Mu'awiyah! Amur! ”

Then he said a lot of passionate words.

The Muslim was fanatical, and his three friends finally got their hearts set and agreed. Then he bought the poison, applied it to the dagger, and quietly sandwiched it into the welcoming crowd of people. Among the caliphs of the Great Eclipse, Ali's talents are not necessarily so great, and the honor is given by the Shiites after death. But he also has many good qualities, such as being brave on the battlefield, eloquent on the podium, sincere to his friends, and open-minded to his enemies. Therefore, along the way, I talked to the people all the way, and even took the initiative to pull the people up.

When he was about to reach the tail of the people who were being caught in the middle of him, four men rushed out, and Ali was unguarded, allowing Muller to run behind him, and the short knife stabbed him in the head. All four were killed on the spot. In fact, Mueller could not be considered a terrorist, and his wife was innocently killed in the war of eradication in Naihai. If this incident was in China, maybe it would be recorded in history as a successful ranger. As for his three friends, they were even more innocent, and they were bewitched by his friend and became accomplices in the killing of the "saints".

But hearing this, it gave the guards around Li Wei a strong warning. The same is true of the emperor, who often talks to the people and is approachable, and if there is a muller, this kind of thing can happen to the emperor.

Li Wei didn't care, the truth completely overturned what the messenger in the river described. But it's been twenty-one years, why does the Scout say bring an important piece of good news? I continued listening.

Upon learning of Ali's death, Aviyah immediately proclaimed himself caliph in Al Elijah (Jerusalem), turning Damascus into the new capital of the Great Eclipse. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was going all out to deal with ***, otherwise it would be a good opportunity to send troops at that time, and it was very likely to regain Persia in one fell swoop.

The caliphate was elected by various nobles, and Aviyah's self-imposed ascension to the throne caused many opposition voices within the Great Eclipse. As a result, his territory has shrunk dramatically. But Avier is a very capable person. After some patient mediation, the Ali faction of Egypt put aside their prejudices and sent their general Amr . Imu. Asui seized Egypt. However, Iraq declared Ali's eldest son, Hassan, Ali's rightful successor. Aviye's name is not right, his words are not good, and the Ali faction has many troops and territories in their hands, and the situation is similar to that of Li Wei and Li Zhi, who dare not use force if they want to, and the situation will deteriorate if they continue to suppress it.

But Hassan is not Li Zhi and Wu Zetian, he has no ambitions, and even thinks that the boudoir is more comfortable than the throne, which makes Aviya seize the opportunity and send someone to lobby again, promising to give him a large and generous annuity, including five million dirkhans of Kufa's public funds, plus the income of a county in Persia, which he will enjoy for life. Harry reluctantly stepped aside. Only then did Aviye truly control the entire Great Food. However, eight years later, he was reluctant to give Hassan so much annuity, so he poisoned him to death.

Once again, it caused the dissatisfaction of many nobles within the Great Food.

However, Aviye is very talented, and has done many great things that have contributed to the big food in recent years. For example, the expansion of the Eastern Front took Sindh and the whole of Sestan. The northern front twice reached the gates of Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. On the Western Front, the Great Cannibals also achieved brilliant results. During the Ottoman period, the Egyptian governor Usman had conquered Tripoli, but the governor of Aviya launched an attack on the *** followers in the west, all the way from Tripoli to Gabèz, Kairouan, and from Kairouan to Sicily. Then to Ogba, the nephew of the Egyptian conqueror Amr, who conquered Balkha. And divided the Berbers, so that some Berbers joined forces with him, and destroyed the *** religious rule in North Africa. When Hu Ying went to the Berber tribe, it was the time of war, and if he went a year or two later, he would become a world of great cannibals. These two attacks brought all of North Africa into the hands of the Great Cannibals.

In the face of such an emperor, even if he was dissatisfied, he did not dare to openly oppose it.

But in his later years, little progress was made on the main battlefield. In order to attack the castle of Junlitanburg, countless troops were sent to attack by land and water. But in the face of the fortifications of Constantinople and the Greek fire on the sea, there was no effective means, and the war lasted for seven or eight years, and two years ago, when Li Wei returned from Qinghai, he concluded a peace treaty with Byzantium. Soon after, he died of illness. But it left a mess for the big cannibals. Not only that, but he did another thing that displeased the nobles of the Great Food - to make his son Yazid the new caliph.

Aviye also thought of the consequences, before he died, let the nobles swear an oath, for the big cannibals, the oath is an extremely heavy thing, once the Koran is in his hand, after taking the oath, he will not dare to disobey it for the rest of his life. But the head of the Great Food Nobles, the second son of Ali and the younger brother of Hassan, Hussein Umar and Abdullah, the son of Abu Berk, and Abdullah, the son of Zoubar, refused to take the oath. When Yazid succeeded to the throne, he forced Abu Burk's son to take the oath, but Husayn and Abdullah the Younger fled to Mecca.

The Great Eclipse split began.

The Kufa immediately asked Hussein to come to their place as caliph. Hussein, on the other hand, pinned his hopes on the Iraqis, and he was disappointed. Seeing Kufa's repeated pleas, he finally decided to go to Kufa (southern Iraq, the Irlanks refer to Iraqis in northern Baghdad). But the perfect opportunity was missed, and the son of Ziyad (who had made Avier his younger brother) the son of the governor Oberdulla. Ziyad put an outpost on his way from Hijaz to Kufa. In the winter of the previous year, Umar, the son of the famous food general Said, led 4,000 sentinels to besiege Hussein and his relatives and guards 200 men, and did not even give him a drop of water to drink, forcing him to submit, but Hussein still refused to surrender. He was eventually killed in Karbala.

Although Yezid returned the head of Umar to Karbala and took some pacification measures, Hussein's killing aroused the displeasure of more of the Great Eater nobles. It has even led to the intensification of a series of problems and contradictions left by Ali as caliph, and has led to a more serious split in Islam. Sects in Iraq and Egypt believe that a descendant of Muhammad, or Shia, must serve as caliphs. Others believe in electing a capable Muslim to serve as caliph, or Sunni. Not only in the choice of the caliphate, but also in doctrine. But it wasn't until Hussein's sacrifice that Islam was truly divided. It was on the 10th day of the first month of the Hijri calendar that the Shiites were born (October 10, 680 AD) and even shouted the slogan of revenge for Hussein, while the Sunnis believed that Yazid was the de facto ruler, and whoever asked him where his rights came from would be put to death.

Then there was Yezid himself, who could not be said to be too mediocre, who also made some small reforms in financial management and built some water conservancy, but in general, indulged in music, wine, and entertainment, and did not pay attention to national affairs, and ended the war against Byzantium. Compared to the previous caliphs, it is too far behind.

This finally aroused the ambition of another person, Abdullah. Zobayr is Abdullah the Younger. He spoke out against the new caliphate and encouraged Hussein to go to Kufa to take over. Hussein's murder and Yazid's mediocrity caused the entire people of Mecca to show their support. Like his father who had tried to win over the Egyptians, he sent messengers to persuade the nobles of Mecca, but for more than a year it was in vain.

But Abdullah Jr. also has a shortcoming, strictly speaking he is a third party. He was the sister of Arishe, the holy wife of Islam, the stepwife of Muhammad and the most useful wife, who made outstanding contributions to the promotion of Islam. But according to the Shiite requirements, blood does not meet either.

However, according to the first four caliphs, that is, the orthodox caliphs of the Great Food, they can barely be justified. Because Muhammad had no children, only one of his daughters, Fathem (Ali's wife), was succeeded by his father-in-law, Abu Berk, and the other three were 'Umar, Uthman, and Ali, all of whom were Muhammad's comrades-in-arms and relatives.

Abdullah the Younger can also be said to be a relative of Muhammad, at least better than the father and son of Aviyah. This is another reason why he has the support of the people of the Holy Land.

Since those who can be sent to the Great Food to spy on the news, even if they are Hu people, every scout is not a simple person.

After hearing the news, he was overjoyed, and while leaving people to continue spying, he sent someone to rush back and deliver the news to Li Wei.

The only bad thing is that the successor Governor of Khorasan, Salem, is not only a close confidant of Yazid, but also a man with strong wrists and good warfare. He was a general to be reckoned with (two years later, he defeated a coalition of more than 100,000 troops in the river and the Turks).

After hearing what the scout said, Li Wei and Wang Fangyi all looked at each other and smiled.

It's not that I underestimate Salem, and I don't know his later achievements, but no matter how brave and good he is, look at the generals in the Tang Dynasty army, there are four people who can be handsome, whether it is Li Wei, or Wang Fangyi, Li Jinxing, or Qi Mingming.

There are also several talented generals, the first is Tang Xiujing, and then there are Xue Ne, Luo Wucheng, Guo Yuanzhen, and Xi Fenglei. Several other people, such as Xin Chengsi, Jiang Sijin, Liu Dezheng, He Changqi, Tuoba Po, and Yeci Mingchuan, can also be regarded as brave generals who can fight well. Several people brought from Luoyang, after the First Battle of Yilishui, are also growing rapidly.

It can be said that this almost concentrates one-third of the best generals of the Tang Dynasty now. If this is the case, it will be defeated by Salem, and the Tang Dynasty will simply give it to the river. It is not Salem who is cautious, but the big eater.

Li Wei immediately gave a heavy reward, let the scouts go down to rest, looked at the generals and said, "This is a rare opportunity." In Mecca it was Abdullah the Younger, not Hussein, and if Husayn had been better, his righteousness would not have been strong, and there would not have been many people who supported him. Once Yezid loses patience and sends heavy troops, it is estimated that it will be difficult to support it for a long time. The opportunity is lost. ”

There is nothing to say, Li Wei must not remember this period of history, but he knows that although the Great Eclipse was chaotic at the moment, it was still very strong later, not only annexing the entire Tocharian and Transoxiana regions, but also occupying Spain, defeating Byzantium, and occupying almost all Turkish territories.

How the Great Cannibal got out of this mess, Li Wei didn't know, but he knew that if he missed this opportunity, it would become very difficult to deal with the Great Eclipse in the future.

However, Da Shi himself sent a great opportunity to see the dawn of the decline of Da Shi.

"Yes," Li Jinxing immediately agreed.

Whether the country can afford to eat and the people's livelihood, Li Jinxing does not understand, but he understands the military. The opportunity was lost in a moment, and the Great Eclipse was disintegrated, and the Tang Dynasty might be able to justifiably take down Hezhong and Khorasan. I don't understand anything else, but I only know that a small Anguo can actually donate a million dilem a year, but I can imagine the wealth in the river, it seems that Khorasan is also very rich. This opportunity is tantamount to a gift from God, and if you give it up, you will be damned!

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