The Arabian Peninsula, where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, form the Xiatai. On the west bank of the Shatt al-Arab, just a hundred miles from the Persian Gulf, lies the ancient and bustling port city of Basra, founded 636 years before the birth of Jesus. A group of Mamluk knights carrying black caliph flags marched along the summer platform. The Shatt al-Arab is galloping.

The Arabian Peninsula is arid and rainless, and most of the land is covered by desert, except for the Tigris and Euphrates river basins, which are mostly rich farmland and full of towns. But that was before the Mongols washed the land with butcher's knives and iron hooves more than a decade ago. Today, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are empty wilderness as far as the eye can see, and countless towns and villages that have been burned, deserted, and swept by war.

Although more than ten years have passed since the massacre, many of the horrific scenes of that time are still preserved. Most of the houses are in ruins, and scenes of burning are everywhere. From time to time, human bones can be seen......

Mamluk Sultan's general Merek. Mansour. Saifudin. Gallavin led his men and rode through this ghostly place, his heart full of apprehension. He was now under the orders of Sultan Baibers and led an army to Basra to join the Celestial Cult Combined Fleet, which was being formed, and served as Admiral of the fleet and emir of the city of Basra.

The so-called Combined Fleet of the Celestial Cult was cobbled together from the new fleet of the Mamluk Sultanate in Basra, the navies of the Sultans of several small coastal states on the Arabian Peninsula, and the private ships of some Celestial Sect merchants and pirates (there was not much difference between the two). The purpose of this fleet was to resist another enemy as terrible as the Mongols, the expeditionary force of the Ming Empire!

On his way out of Egypt, Bybers told Admiral Gaerawin that the fleet to be under his command was very large, with more than 1,000 ships of all kinds and more than 100,000 officers and men!

Sounds powerful!

But the barren scene of the Tigris and Euphrates river basins. But it gave the Mamluk general a very bad premonition. The world of the Heavenly Sect is far from recovering from the catastrophe of more than a decade ago. As he travelled through Baghdad, he found that the city, once home to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people was in ruins. The former capital of the Caliphate, the center of the Celestial Sect world, is only a ruin, and the population is only more than 10,000 at most, all gathered in a corner of the city. Tormented by poverty, despair, and hatred to the point of numbness, even when the caliph gave the order of holy war. None of them were willing to come forward - and their reason was simple: all their hatred was given to the same enemy, so that they could no longer have the slightest hatred for anyone.

And the enemy they hated was the Great Mongolia! Destroy the city, ruin the prosperous Mongol devils in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

What if those Kafil of the Heavenly Daoist Sect even break into Baghdad? Slaughter again? Did anyone kill them? If they could go north and set foot on Tabriz, the capital of the Ilkhanate, who would care about their infidels?

The Arabs of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers probably thought the same thing, right? Admiral Gaerawin sighed in his heart, although he understood the strategy of the Sultan of Baibers to fight against the Ming. But who cares more about the Arabs who hate the Mongols - for those who have lost everything in the Mongol massacre, as long as the enemy can be killed, who cares what god the attacker believes!

Gallavin's lips were pursed tightly, his face was like a piece of granite that had been eroded by the wind and sand of the Arabian Peninsula for an unknown number of thousands of years, and his eyes were as cold as ice. His master gave him an errand that even Allah would frown at his sight. It's not just hard to finish. And he was especially hated. Beginning in Damascus, the tribal leaders and religious leaders he met along the way, all those who knew what he was going to do, did not give him a good look. In fact, he himself hated himself a little......

How could there be such a hated errand in the world, and it was my turn? Gallavin sighed on his horse's back, and continued to ride on.

Though he hated his mission, Gaerawin knew that his master had made the right decision - if Bibers was going to send troops to help the Mongols attack Italy, he Gaeravin would stop even if he staged a mutiny. Those Christians on the northern shore of the Mediterranean can't go to Hell now! There are no them in the way. It won't be long before the Mongols reach Egypt.

However, it was still necessary to come to India's aid to the Delhi Sultanate. They are the shield that protects the Arabian Peninsula. Once the Arabian Peninsula was under the control of the Ming Dynasty, then the good days of the Mamluks in Egypt would come to an end.

And the more direct reason for sending troops is also commercial interests. India - Arabian Peninsula - Egypt - Italy. This trade route was the source of wealth for the Mamluk Sultan. Once India was under the control of the Ming Dynasty, they were able to cut off the trade route from the territory of the Mamluk Sultanate and bypass Africa and ship their goods directly to their colony of Macau in the Iberian Peninsula.

I'm afraid that's why Bibers had to send troops!

Of course, Baibers was not a fool and would not fold the old roots of the Mamluks into it for the benefit of commercial taxes. As long as the rich Egypt and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean are in hand. Even without the profits of the Eastern Trade Route, the Mamluks would still be able to survive. If you fight all the 30,000 Mamluk warriors, you will really lose everything. This time, Bibers only sent a few Celestial North African pirates (who rode to Basra, of course) to support the Holy War in the East. At the same time, the Arab maritime merchants in the Indian Ocean and the sultans of the coastal states of the Arabian Peninsula were asked to contribute money to organize a fleet to fight off the surging Chinese with North African pirates.

And. Baibers also played a trick by calling for holy war in the name of the Sultan, but by making the al-Hakim Caliph the villain. If India's Delhi Sultanate is still unsafe in the end, the Mamluks will not have no room for reconciliation with the Ming Dynasty, and at most replace one more caliphate.

It's really exhaustive!

The once-glorious city of Basra, which was also slaughtered in the terrible catastrophe of more than a decade ago, is just around the corner. However, fate seemed to be better than Baghdad, and most of the inhabitants fled before the butcher's knife was cut. Unlike Baghdad, the religious capital of the Celestial world, Basra has always been a commercial city, and the merchants have always been more flexible than the clergy. They don't do unnecessary resistance. When the Mongol army attacked, those who could escape fled to Muscat by boat. The trade routes between the East and the West also moved southward.

During this time, due to the rapprochement between the Celestial Sect and the Mongols, and the activities of the Ming navy and privateers in the waters around India became more and more rampant. Many of the merchants who had lived in Muscat moved back to Basra, recovering the city somewhat.

Before Gelaween and his party had even entered the city, they already felt that Basra was now somewhat deformed and prosperous. The land outside the city is still barren, but many of the villages that were originally deserted have received new owners. A number of black slaves were working on the construction work under the supervision of the overseers, as if they were building castles. They didn't take a second look at the vast group of people and horses, and they didn't seem to be surprised.

As the emir of Basra, Gaerawin knew that the villages would be converted into slave plantations with castles. Part of it belonged to the Mamluk knights and North African pirate leaders who followed him to the Persian Gulf; the other part belonged to certain tribal leaders in Aden, Muscat, etc.; There are also some merchants and pirates who have great maritime power. On the way to Basra, Al Qawin allotted the fertile land around the city of Basra. Baibers had his own plans, and the Emir of Gelavin had his own plans - the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were a "royal house" that surpassed Egypt. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers were rich enough to feed huge cities like Baghdad and Basra. Xiatai connected to the Persian Gulf. The Shatt al-Arab also brought countless goods from the East to Baghdad and Basra, which have long been the junction of Eastern and Western trade.

It is better to resist the invasion of the Ming Dynasty to the west, and gather people who are interested in the holy war around the city of Basra and settle them in Xiatai. North and south of the Arabian River. Just like the Crusaders did on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Build a new country in Basra!

Of course, this bold plan can only be buried in the bottom of my heart now.

"Admiral of the Combined Fleet of the Celestial Cult, His Highness the Emir of Basra, welcome to the ancient city of Basra, where the city's greatest glory will usher in the city's history, where the warriors of the Celestial Cult from all over the world will gather under your command to fight for the true God. The number has exceeded 100,000 ......"

At the ruined gates of Basra, a few had white beards. Religious leaders dressed in black robes and wrapped in black turbans led a welcoming procession of nobles, warriors, merchants, and scholars who had arrived in Basra. An old man at the head was smiling all over his face and talking worthless sycophants.

"Where's Maher?" Instead of being interested in talking nonsense with the old man, Gaerawin called out another man's name. This is no longer the time when the black robes of the religious leaders of the Celestial Sect shine. The Mongols trampled a caliph to death with the hooves of a horse, and Baibers also used the Mongol sword to get rid of a caliph (the caliph Mustan Sur himself proclaimed by Baibers) and used another caliph as a puppet. Even the caliph is like that. What is an ordinary religious leader?

"Your Highness the Emir, Maher is here waiting for your orders." This Maher is Ma Shoushan, Pu Shougeng's in-laws. In the past few years, he has been living in Muscat with his people to engage in shipbuilding and commerce - the Ma family opened a shipyard when they were in Quanzhou, mastered the most advanced shipbuilding technology of the Great Song Dynasty, and was able to build a fortune ship with a load of 4,000 stones.

Upon arrival in Muscat, the center of shipbuilding on the Arabian Peninsula. The shipyard he ran absorbed the shipbuilding technology of the Arabs and integrated it with the shipbuilding technology of the Great Song Dynasty. The Vostok was built a large galleys that could fly both a hard sail and a soft spinnaker, and also had forty long oars. The trial voyage caused a sensation among the Arab maritime merchants, and even Baybers, who was far away in Egypt, heard about it. The craftsmen in charge of shipbuilding were sent to learn from Maher and wanted to build the same large ships in the Mediterranean.

Before he had even set out from Cairo, Gaylavin signed an order appointing Maher as the shipbuilding director and fleet staff officer of Basra.

Maher walked up to Gaylavin and bowed deeply, but his heart was full of helplessness and fear. As an expert in shipbuilding, he was well aware of the huge gap between his "Oriental" class and the "New World" class of the Ming Dynasty.

"Vostok" is the best product that a shipbuilding family can come up with. And the "New World" class is the main ship type of the navy of a world empire...... Just look at the exaggerated sails, towering masts, and subversive hulls of the New World-class, as well as dozens of guns on board. One can imagine how much time, effort and money the Chinese spent to build this ship. Just to verify some advanced design of the test ship, I am afraid I don't know how many have been built!

A "New World" class represents the overall large lead of the Ming shipbuilding industry over the West, and there is a generation gap between the two sides in technology! If the Heavenly Sect countries want to confront the Ming Dynasty at sea for a long time, they must spend a lot of money on shipbuilding technology and build a new type of gunboat that can be comparable to the "New World" class.

However, the countries of the Heavenly Fang Sect are all backward in terms of financial, manpower, and material resources, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the fire is better than the bright moon.

It is precisely because of the huge gap in strength between the two sides that the Celestial Sect maritime merchants, who once dominated the Indian Ocean, were oppressed to the seas west of India. Now even the sea at the doorstep of this house is about to be lost. In particular, the discovery of new routes around Africa made the Arabs feel a great threat.

At this time, the Heavenly Sect nations woke up from a dream and knew that the catastrophe was imminent, so they hurriedly united and prepared to fight against the mighty Ming fleet on the sea west of India. It also gathered a large fleet. But can the huge disadvantage in technology really be compensated for by the numerical advantage?

Can you concentrate hundreds or thousands of galleys and 100,000 soldiers to defeat the Ming gunboats by hand-to-hand combat?

Filled with doubts, Maher moved his family and shipbuilding business from the coastal city of Muscat to Basra, a hundred miles from the sea, and invested a considerable part of his fortune in Xiatai. Slave-growing estates and paper industry on the south bank of the Arabian River. (To be continued......)