June of the 8th year of the Great Tomorrow Road, Basra City, Emir Province, Pigeon Tower.

A black eunuch who was in charge of carrier pigeons flew down from a high tower that smelled of bird droppings, holding a small wooden box containing a small piece of parchment rolled into the shape of a small stick. This is top-secret information brought by carrier pigeons flying from Muscat!

The technique of using carrier pigeons to deliver messages was present in many parts of the Middle Ages, but only the Arabs were the most adept at it. The Fathem dynasty, whose capital was in Cairo, also established pedigree tables for carrier pigeons, which were used as a basis for breeding carrier pigeons. By the time of the Mamluk dynasty, the carrier pigeon mail service in Egypt was very well developed, and pigeon stations were established between the major cities of the dynasty. After the Mamluks had expanded into the Persian Gulf, the emir of Basra, Karawin, quickly established a carrier pigeon post between Muscat, Cape Hamaii and Basra. In this way, he can understand his opponent's every move in the shortest possible time.

It's a pity that superiority in the transmission of intelligence did not mean much to this emir. Because the contrast in strength between the two sides is too great!

The black eunuch galloped all the way to Callawin's palace - no matter what Callawin was doing, the black eunuch in charge of the pigeon tower could break in without informing.

This time, when the black eunuch entered the palace, singing and dancing were being staged inside the palace, and the beautiful white slave girl was wearing a costume that exposed her navel, twisting her waist vigorously to the accompaniment of music, trying to attract the attention of the audience. So no one noticed that a black eunuch had crept up to Calavin's side.

"Your Highness the Emir, news from Muscat." The black eunuch whispered, and handed the wooden box to Callawin with both hands.

"Muscat......" Calavin frowned slightly. During this time, there was news from Muscat, an important trading port on the Arabian Peninsula and a base for collecting information on Tianzhu. So the bad news from Tianzhu was transmitted to Basra with carrier pigeons!

The news coming out these days is, of course, very bad! And in all the bad news. The worst is undoubtedly the imperial conquest of Emperor Chen Dexing of the Ming Dynasty!

Emperor Daming, King of the World. The King of Heaven ...... Such a demigod who ruled the world now personally brought troops to the Indian Ocean. The target is obviously not India, because India has basically been conquered by the Ming. The king of the world seems to have targeted the Mongols, who ruled most of Europe. And the Mamluks are unfortunate enough to be in the way of the king of the world on the way westward!

I don't know what bad news is coming out today? Calavin sighed, and glanced with the rest of his eyes at one of the guests who had visited today, Balleban, who was drowning his sorrows with wine...... That's that Giastine. Balban, the fallen king of the Delhi Sultanate! His life was not taken by Shi Tianze's cavalry, and he fled to Lahore safely. Later, some resistance was organized, and the troops of Chen Defang and Li Tingzhi continued to entangle. Just a few months ago. The Ming Emperor sent powerful reinforcements, which were the regular army of the Ming Army, including an infantry division and a cavalry division. They soon crushed the army that had been cobbled together by Palepan, and when Balban saw that the situation was not good, he fled in disarray, and finally fled to Basra, where he attached himself to the Karawin. Addicted to alcohol all day long, he looks like he is completely defeated.

Caravin wondered if his future would be the same as his? Hiding in a corner that the king of the world can't take care of for the time being, borrowing wine to drown his sorrows? Or was captured by the army of the kings of the world. And then a tragic death?

With a sigh, he opened the wooden box, took out the parchment note inside, and unfolded it to look at it. His face suddenly became cloudy.

Mahir, who served as the military advisor of Calavin, that is, Ma Shoushan, the in-law of Pu Shougeng who escaped from Quanzhou, had noticed that the black eunuch in charge of the pigeon tower had arrived. Immediately got up and walked to the master's side.

"His Highness the Emir ......"

Caravin looked up and saw Maher. So he whispered: "News from Muscat, Isfahan. You Sufu said in the letter. The king of the world wants us to submit and cede the land! ”

"That seems like good news......" Maher asked, looking at Calavin's face and with some hesitation.

"Good news indeed. If he doesn't want Baghdad and Basra! Calavin frowned.

Baghdad and Basra were originally part of the Ilkhanate, but in order to win over the Mamluks, Kublai Khan asked Abha to divide the city of Baghdad (an empty city, not including the outskirts of the city) and Basra (including the Shire. The land on both sides of the Tiber River) was successively returned to the Mamluks. Baghdad was naturally given back to the caliphate, and Basra became the territory of Emir Karavin!

Maher whispered, "Actually...... There is nothing in Basra. ”

There is really nothing, oil has not yet been discovered, and even if it is found, it is not worth much. And now Basra's role as a trading port is gone, and the Persian Gulf is firmly blocked by the Ming fleet!

The only value of this Basra is the Shire. Fertile land on both sides of the Tiber River. But due to the lack of labor, not much land has actually been reclaimed - thanks to the Mongol massacre, the once densely populated cities of Baghdad and Basra have become barren. Far less than Syria on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. Therefore, Abaha also regarded this territory as chicken ribs and lost it to Caravin casually, and at the same time used Caravin as a meat shield to resist the invasion of the Ming army.

But now, the meat shield of Calavin is not finished, but the Ilkhanate has been captured by the Ming army's western expeditionary army!

Now, the Ming army's western expeditionary army is in the north, and the Ming army's Nanyang Fleet and the Great Food Army and the army led by Chen Dexing are in the south. Calavin is caught in the middle, and no matter how you look at it, there is only a dead end.

Maher pondered, "If Basra can be exchanged for Antioch and Edessa, it would be a way out. ”

The Duchy of Antioch was destroyed by Baibers five years ago and is now the territory of the Mamluk Sultan. Edessa, east of Antioch, is now also the territory of the Sultan of Mamluk. But one of these two territories was ravaged by the Mongols, and the other was ravaged by Baibers himself - the inhabitants of the Duchy of Antioch were captured by Baibers and sold in Egypt!

Therefore, these two sites are not very important to Baibers. If Callawin could get the support of the Ming Emperor, it should not be difficult to claim the two places from Baibers.

"That's it. To the north is the Qing Kingdom, and to the east is Baghdad under the control of the Ming Dynasty. Maher analyzed. To the west is the Mediterranean Sea, and to the south is Syria and Egypt...... If you can maintain harmony with all sides. There will be great benefits on the business side. ”

Now the trade routes between the East and the West have been transferred to the African routes, and the trade routes that originally passed through Dashi and Persia were basically interrupted due to the war. However, this route is not impossible to recover. After all, the cost of the route around Africa is not low, if the situation on the Dashi Peninsula can be restored to stability. As long as the tariffs are reasonable, the merchants are still willing to come. This will bring a lot of benefits to Calavin's territory.

Calavin nodded, this result was not too bad.

"But will the king of the world abide by the peace treaty?" Calavin asked hesitantly.

"Yes!" Maher thought for a moment and nodded heavily, "If he wants to establish direct rule over the entire Mediterranean coast, then he doesn't have to negotiate with us at all!" Right now. No force could stop his navy and army...... We, plus the Christians, and even the Mongols, are not enough to resist the invasion of the Ming Dynasty! They are so powerful! ”

"Then why didn't they destroy us all? In this way, the Chinese emperor is the true king of the world! ”

Maher shook his head, "Because they can destroy us, but they can't rule a land so complicated and so far away from the Ming mainland. Even if we are eliminated, others will rise up and continue to fight against the rulers of the Ming Empire.

Rather than that, it is better to maintain the existence of people like us, so that the situation in Dashi and Persia can be more stable. The colony of the Ming Dynasty here can develop steadily. ”

Maher's analysis makes sense. If all powerful rulers such as Calvain and Bibers fell, then the Ming would have to establish rule in the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt, and even in all of North Africa. Otherwise, there will be a power vacuum and a situation of constant chaos and instability, which will not benefit the interests of the Ming Empire around the Mediterranean.

In fact, for the Ming Dynasty, "big warlords" like Biebers and Callawin are compared with a bunch of unknown small warlords. Or is the former easier to deal with - at least you can find someone! Just like dictators like Silly Damu and Kadazo, the US imperialists can at least coerce and induce them. If you replace it with a bunch of terrorists who come out of nowhere, you can't find a match for the big stick and carrot in your hand......

……

"Ras Al Khaimah, Qeshm Island, Socotra Island, Bahrain Island are all going to be won. It is considered an overseas territory of the Ming Dynasty. Muscat, Aden, Alexandria, Cairo and Damascus all had Ming concessions. All of the above territories are under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office...... Hmm, is there anything else for the South Sea Fleet to add? ”

At the same time. Chen Dexing is giving a face-to-face lecture to Chen Wang, an attendant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is about to leave Basra. Also present were Yan Jimin, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet (also one of the twenty-two brothers), Zhang Shijie, the governor of the Great Food Army, and Lu Hu, the general of the Great Food Army.

At this time, the Dashi Peninsula was not the oil kingdom where local tyrants roamed in later generations, and most of the land was very barren. It's Baghdad, around Basra and Syria that's slightly better.

Therefore, Chen Dexing is not interested in how much territory he occupies on the Dashi Peninsula - oil or something, maybe it will become black gold in four or five hundred years, but it has no value at all now. It is enough to seal Land Rover in Baghdad and Basra, and there is no need to lay out too much for four or five hundred years later.

In fact, even if it is barely laid out now, it is difficult to say how many years it can be maintained - how can a colony that has no profit and is all troublesome last for hundreds of years?

Therefore, in addition to the "oil state" of the Land Rover, the Ming only intends to occupy a few key points. For example, Ras Al Khaimah and Qeshm islands guard the exit from the Persian Gulf, Bahrain is located in the Persian Gulf, and there is an island of Socotra that guards the exit from the Red Sea. In addition, a few more concessions were used as the strongholds of Ming merchants, and this was basically the case.

Admiral Yan Jimin, who succeeded Wang Shuifei as Admiral of the Nanyang Fleet, naturally did not have any different opinions. For his Nanyang fleet, the sea area that needs to be responsible for it is already too large, including not only the Nanfan Islands, but also almost the entire small Western Ocean. The shipping routes that need to be defended by the fleet are tens of thousands of miles, and the ports and bases that need to be guarded by the fleet are more than a dozen. And the strength of the fleet is no more than a hundred combat ships.

"What about the Great Food Governor's Palace?" Chen Dexing asked Zhang Shijie again.

The Great Food Governor's Mansion is one of the eight Great Governors of the Ming Dynasty today - the other seven are the Atlantic Governor's Palace, the Strait Governor's Palace, the Northern Mingzhou Governor's Office, the Central Mingzhou Governor's Office, the Southern Mingzhou Governor's Office, the Oceania Governor's Office, and the Western Regions Governor's Office (responsible for military and political affairs west of Tianshan Province). However, although the name of the Governor's Office of the Great Food is crowned with the word "Great Food", the actual jurisdiction of the Governor's Office includes the western part of the Lesser West (west of the Indian subcontinent). The current Governor's Palace is located at Fort Sindu. According to the plan, once the Ming Dynasty took full control of the Persian Gulf, the Great Food Governor's Office would be moved to the island of Bahrain.

Zhang Shijie stroked the white beard on his chest, his eyes were half-narrowed, and he didn't know what he was thinking?

He is now the title of the prince of the county, and he also booked a thousand miles of land in the north of the west coast of Nanmingzhou for a son - that is, 1,000 miles of coastline, as for where he can develop inland, Chen Dexing does not care. Now the sub-seal of Nanmingzhou is to seal the coastline. But it's not all the coastline that can't be sealed out. Chen Dexing also got a piece of land for Daming in Nanmingzhou, that is, from the saltpeter desert south to the coast of Antarctic Island (Tierra del Fuego), which was about the territory of Chile in later generations. The Governor's Mansion of Nanmingzhou is now located in the Governor's Mansion of Nizhou (about the location of Santiago) south of the Saltpeter Desert. Just by looking at the name, you can see that the site is the main supplier of Daming saltpeter. Therefore, it can't be ruled by the feudal state, and the value of this saltpeter at the moment is far more than that of oil!

"Sage," Zhang Shijie pondered for a while before opening his mouth with a smile, "In the past few months, the old man has been reading through the historical materials of the Great Food and found that at the intersection of Egypt and Syria, there is a Suez Canal, which can communicate the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It seems to be very important, the former king of Egypt, the Roman emperor, has repaired the canal. It was not until the black-clothed dynasty of the Great Food Country that it was completely abandoned, and it has been abandoned for hundreds of years. A few days ago, the Governor's Office received a report from Zhu Sijiu, the general of the Western Expeditionary Army, that he hoped to dig the Suez Canal, and that we would invest money with the two small states of Genoa and Venice, and that people would come from Egypt. (To be continued.) )