After all, the Safavid Dynasty was also a powerful centralized dynasty, and although it was attacked by the two major Chinese and Ottoman empires, it still had 100,000 remaining troops in the country.

However, most of the men were besieged by the Ottomans in Baghdad, and the Safid Emperor himself was able to gather only about 30,000 troops in Abadan and Basra.

At this time, he knew very well that China and the Ottoman Empire must have formed an offensive and defensive alliance to carve up the Persian Empire.

Now that the power of the British East India Company had been expelled from the Persian Gulf by the Chinese, it was impossible for the Safavid dynasty to deal with two huge empires at the same time without foreign aid.

Safi must find a way to stabilize one of them before he can defeat the other.

After conquering Isfahan, the main force of Huaxia did not chase and attack themselves, which gave Safi a glimmer of hope.

Of course, the Chinese people are not so kind.

Safi did not know that the division of the Persian Empire between the two countries was bounded by Isfahan, and he felt that the Chinese should want to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight at this time, so as to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

So he sent an envoy to Isfahan to ask for a truce with the Chinese Empire.

This request was naturally rejected by Li Shizu, and there was no benefit, why did he want to let the Persian Empire go?

As for Safi's proposal to cede eastern Persia to the Chinese Empire, these territories are already meat in their mouths.

Why would Safi trade with what was already his own?

At this time, the Persian envoys also knew very well that if they did not show a little practical benefit, the Chinese would probably not let them go.

In the end, he offered to exchange the treasures of the Persian Empire for the Chinese army.

Safi fled Isfahan in such a hurry that it was impossible to take all the treasures from the treasury with him.

He hid a large amount of gold and jewelry in the secret rooms of the palace.

Originally, this wealth was the capital for its restoration, but now it can only be used to buy the Chinese.

This collection of gold jewelry has been treasured by the Persian royal family for generations, and even contains a large number of ancient Persian Dariuk gold coins.

Zheng Sen said excitedly: "I didn't expect the legendary treasure of the Persian king to fall into our hands, these ancient Persian gold coins have a history of two thousand years, the value of these gold and silver artifacts far exceeds itself, if you look at the value of gold and silver alone, this treasure is estimated at about 4 million Chinese silver coins; If it is regarded as a work of art, its value is no less than 10 million silver coins. ”

Li Shizu didn't expect Safi to leave such a big treasure, and now that Lu Xiangsheng is also in Isfahan, this news must not be hidden from the imperial court.

In the end, this money had to be obediently handed over to the state treasury.

It's a pity that his father-in-law, Shah Jahan, is a lover and uses all the wealth of the Mughal Empire to build the Taj Mahal.

Otherwise, I wouldn't be so strapped for money.

With an alliance between China and the Ottomans, it was naturally impossible for Li Shizu to sign a "non-aggression pact" with the Persians.

However, in line with the principle of collecting money to do things, he still verbally promised not to continue to attack the Persians to the west.

After all, according to the signed alliance, it was indeed not suitable for the Chinese army to cross Isfahan to the west at this time, and the remaining Persian territory was Ottoman.

So it's not a breach of contract.

If Murad IV wanted to eat these territories, he still had to rely on the Ottomans to defeat them.

On July 30, 762, the Caliph al-Mansur of the Arab Empire ordered the construction of the city of Baghdad to begin as the new capital of the Abbasid dynasty.

The new capital, located on the right bank of the Tigris River, is known as the "City of Peace".

It is a circular city, with both the inner and outer walls made of bricks.

There is a deep moat in the outer city, and a forbidden city has been built in the inner city, which is 30 meters high.

Each of the three walls had four gates at equal distances, and four avenues radiated from the central area, shooting like the spokes of a wheel, to all corners of the empire.

The three walls are like three concentric circles, and their centers are the palace of the caliphate.

One-third of the city of Baghdad is more than 24 meters high, making it an exceptionally fortified city.

The Persians in Baghdad were armed with a large number of Western artillery supplied by the British East India Company, including 18-pounder heavy cannons in addition to ordinary 24-pounder guns.

Although the Ottomans were likewise armed with a large number of artillery.

However, hundreds of advanced Western artillery, combined with the tall walls of Baghdad, made the Ottomans look at the city and sigh.

After more than two months of fierce fighting, although it also caused a lot of damage to the outer city of Baghdad, the main body of the city wall was not destroyed.

The Persians simply beat the Ottoman Star and Moon Legion with muskets and artillery.

So angry, the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV ordered the "urban cannon" to be transferred from Istanbul.

In 1452, Urban oversaw the construction of an unprecedented cannon in Adrianople.

The thriving Ottoman Empire provided the engineer with all the raw materials he needed.

Workers dug huge purpose-built casting cellars, melted the bronze, and began pouring this unprecedented weapon.

When the mold is shattered, a "terrifying and extraordinary monster" Urban cannon appears in front of everyone.

The gun was 17 feet (5.2 m) long, weighed 17 tons, had a barrel up to 8 inches (20 cm) thick, and a caliber of up to 30 inches (762 mm), enough to hold an adult, and used granite shells weighing up to 1,500 pounds.

The "Urban Cannon" once helped the Ottomans break the thick walls of Constantinople.

Now Murad IV hopes to rely on this cannon to blast through the walls of Baghdad.

However, after more than a hundred years of wind and frost, the Urban cannon has rusted.

After a series of clean-up and maintenance, the cannon was re-ignited.

However, how to transport it to the front line in Baghdad is also a troublesome matter.

Thanks to the efforts of thousands of Ottoman laborers, the urban artillery finally arrived at the Baghdad front after more than two months.

His arrival also boosted the low morale of the Ottomans!

Soon the shells, weighing 1,500 pounds, were sent into the city of Baghdad by the Ottomans.

Just one shell fell, and a large part of Baghdad's towering walls collapsed.

At this time, the Ottomans had long been impatient, and with the order of Murad IV, tens of thousands of Ottoman soldiers poured into Baghdad like a tide.

"Bang, bang, bang"

At this time, the Persian defenders in the city continued to fire at the charging Ottomans.

Soon thousands of Ottoman soldiers were shot and fell to the ground.

Despite the enormous losses, the Ottomans have lost more than 20,000 men under the city of Baghdad in the past two months.

The red-eyed Murad IV shouted to his generals: "I don't need casualties, just take Baghdad!"

In addition to coercion, of course, there are also temptations!

The first soldiers to climb the walls of Baghdad or storm the city will receive a reward equivalent to 100 Chinese silver dollars.

The generals of the subordinate units will also be promoted by three levels in a row, and can even be knighted.

The so-called "there must be a brave man under the heavy reward", this trick works everywhere.

At this time, both the ordinary Ottoman soldiers and the generals who commanded the siege of the city rushed desperately towards Baghdad as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

After all, it is not yet a Huaxia rifle that has been completed and transformed.

Flintlock pistols, which require front-loading projectile gunpowder, still have a long reloading time.

This is also destined to prevent the firepower of the city from being able to continue.

Eventually, the Ottomans were able to attack Baghdad using several of the collapsed walls as a breach.

The Ottoman scimitars and the Persian spears were finally about to collide head-on.

At this time, Baghdad was already drowned out by the sound of fighting!

After the two sides entered the hand-to-hand encounter, the sound of artillery disappeared, replaced by the shouts of soldiers and the sound of metal clashing weapons!

From time to time, of course, there was the sound of musket firing.

Baghdad was like a mill of flesh and blood, with corpses piled up and the wails of wounded soldiers everywhere.

This beautiful city has become a purgatory on earth, and the drainage ditches in the city streets are even stained red with blood.

After paying heavy casualties, the Ottomans finally stormed the outer and inner cities of Baghdad.

However, the Persians still occupied the forbidden city at the heart of Baghdad.

They did not give up, because according to the intelligence, the Chinese had agreed to make peace between the two sides, and the Persian Empire finally did not have to fight on two fronts.

The Persian Emperor Safi was leading an army of 30,000 to support Baghdad.

His Majesty the Emperor personally drove the expedition, which greatly boosted the will of the Persian soldiers to resist, even though their situation was extremely dangerous, but they still did not give up resistance!

After several days and nights of bloody fighting, the Ottomans still did not completely conquer Baghdad.

But the arrival of Safi did not frighten the Turks, but gave them an inexplicable excitement.

On the one hand, the Sipashi heavy cavalry, which they relied on to become famous, finally came into play.

On the other hand, "capture the thief and capture the king first", as long as Safi is killed or captured, then the resistance of the Persians will be completely over.

Safi was not unaware of the risks of going north to support Baghdad, but by this time the two sides had entered the final decisive battle, and as emperor of the Persian Empire, he had to lead by example.

The imagination is beautiful, but the reality is cruel!

When tens of thousands of Ottoman Sipahi cavalry appeared in front of the Persians, the Persian emperor took the lead and fled.

This act of his directly threw the 30,000 Persian army into chaos.

Under the onslaught of 10,000 Sipahi cavalry, they quickly collapsed, and the 30,000 Persian army was almost killed without a single piece of armor.

And Safi himself was directly taken prisoner of the Ottomans.

Then this "Persian God of War" and the "Ming God of War" Zhu Qizhen did a "call to the Son of Heaven".

Even their own emperor was captured by the Ottomans, and the remaining Persians lost the will to resist.

The remaining Persians in Baghdad eventually laid down their arms, and the cities of southwestern Persia, such as Basra and Abadan, gave up their resistance.

The Battle of Baghdad lasted more than three months, and the Ottomans lost more than 55,000 casualties, of which 20,000 were the most elite Star and Moon Legion.

In order to appease his anger, the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV slaughtered nearly 30,000 Persian troops, including Safi himself, in the city of Baghdad.

This did not completely submit the Persians to the Ottomans, but led to many uprisings in the western part of Persia.

The Persians were unwilling to submit to the brutal Ottomans, and they either rose up to join the rebels against the Ottomans; Or move their families to the former Persian region controlled by the Chinese in the east.

The Intelligence Department took the opportunity to recruit many Persians as its spies, and under the instigation of these Persian spies, more and more Persians stood up and took up arms to resist the brutal Ottomans.

This also made the two river valleys and the western part of Persia very unstable, and Murad IV had to send a large army to encircle and suppress it.

These Persians soon abandoned their uprisings in the big cities and moved into the remote mountains of Persia to escape the Ottomans.

As a result, the Ottomans did not have the energy to further compete with the Chinese for Persian territory.

The Ottomans were surprised to find that although they had taken Basra and other important ports in the Persian Gulf, Hormuz, the passage in and out of the Persian Gulf, had long been occupied by the Chinese.

As a result, they still had to pay taxes to the Chinese when they entered and exited the Persian Gulf.

However, Li Shizu did not want to turn against the Ottoman Empire, although the "Battle of Baghdad" caused heavy casualties to the Ottoman army, but its national strength was still at its peak.

Persia has always been a fierce people, and they will not easily submit to foreign forces.

It will take a long time to digest most of Persia on its own.

At this time, Wu Sangui led an army of 50,000 to finally pass the arduous trek along the way and came to Ili.

The so-called "skin does not exist, hair will be attached"?

Now that even the suzerainty of Persia has been tragically divided, how can the Bukhara Khanate, which is dependent on Persia, survive?

Xiong Tingbi, who is strong and strong, can finally make a difference.

In 1500, Shaybani led his troops into the Transoxiana region from the north, occupied Samarkand, overthrew the rule of Timur's descendants in Central Asia, and established the Shaybani dynasty.

In 1505, Shaybani captured Khorezm, and in 1507, he captured Herat and destroyed the Timurid Empire.

The dynasty was originally based in Samarkand, but in 1561 the capital was moved to Bukhara, which became known as the Bukhara Khanate.

However, the rise of the Bukhara Khanate soon aroused the vigilance of the surrounding powers.

The Safavid Persians, the Mughal Empire, and the Kazakh Khanate joined forces to teach the newly rising khanate a lesson.

Under the combined destruction of the three forces, the Bukhara Khanate directly lost a large part of its territory and eventually had to become a vassal state of the Persians.

Although the power of the Khanate of Bukhara was much less than it once was, they still controlled Bukhara and the same Tashkent in Samarkand.

After the Persian region of Khorasan was occupied by the Chinese, the Khanate of Bukhara became wary of the Chinese Empire.

The Chinese expanded so quickly that they deployed large numbers of troops in Tashkent, which borders Khorasan.

There are all indications that the main force of the Chinese is attacking Persia south of the khanate.

But the Bukhara Khanate never imagined that Huaxia would send troops from the Ili Valley.

The 50,000 Chinese army led by Wu Sangui was like a bamboo, and in one fell swoop captured the historical city of Samarkand in Central Asia.

Just as the Khanate was marching eastward to meet Wu Sangui, Li Yan led his army north from Khorasan to another important town, Tashkent.

The Bukhara Khanate knew that it would be difficult to fight the Chinese Empire alone, so they decided to join their former enemy, the Kazakh Khanate.

Unexpectedly, the life of the Kazakh Khanate was not much better than theirs at this time, and a group of Cossack cavalry from afar appeared in their country.

So the two khans discussed it and decided to "lead the water to the south" and use the Cossack cavalry to deal with the Chinese and let them fight each other!

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(End of chapter)