Mahmud, the leader of the Gilzai tribe in Afghanistan who invaded the Persian hinterland, unsurprisingly hit another nail under the city of Yazd, besieged the city for more than ten days, but failed to capture the city, and on February 15, he withdrew from the siege.

However, the stubborn Afghans still had no intention of leaving the Persian hinterland and returning to Kandahar, but made a surprising move, turning their whole army and driving directly to Isfahan, the capital of the empire.

Suddenly, the whole of Isfahan fell into a "panic" again. You must know that Yazd is less than 300 kilometers away from Isfahan, and if the cavalry attacks with all their strength, it can be killed in five or six days.

However, until this time, the debate in the court on how to respond to the invasion of the Afghans was not over. Half a month ago, the imperial Shah Surtan Hussein, who had been unable to make a decision, simply moved out of the city of Isfahan and hid in the palace of Farahabat a few kilometers southwest of the city, where he continued to live his absurd life of drunken dreams.

After receiving the news of the attack of the Afghans, the Shah hurried back to the Ali Kapu Palace in Isfahan with a rouge and a little drunk, and gathered his ministers to discuss how to deal with it.

Just when everyone's attention in the empire turned to the attacking Afghans, Prince Abbas Mirza, who had been placed under house arrest by the Shah, quietly boarded an ordinary carriage, and under the cover of the black guards of the Qi State and the Persian trading company, he sneaked out of Isfahan City and entered the trading post of the Qi State.

As early as more than half a month ago, Prince Abbas's princess and several children had been transferred out of the city by the black-clothed guards one after another, and placed in this huge trading station, waiting to meet him.

In contrast to his brother, Shah Sudan Hussein of the Empire, who was weak and fickle, Prince Abbas had a tenacious, courageous and decisive character. At a very young age, following the example of the Empire's greatest king, Abbas the Great, he was determined to rebuild the Empire's glory and restore the glory of the Safavid dynasty, hoping to become the Abbas III who would be praised by future generations.

However, his father, Suleiman I, on his deathbed, did not appoint a clear heir, so much so that his aunt Mariam Begmu, together with the eunuchs in the court, collectively installed his brother to succeed the Shah, who believed that a prince with a gentle nature, weak heart, and weak heart would enable them to continue to control the court.

For more than two decades, the fickleness and weakness of the imperial Shah Sudan Hussein in the face of stubborn religious currents inexorably hastened the decline of the dynasty. Moreover, the Shahs were alcoholics, fond of beauty, indulged in pleasure, and, like their father Suleiman I, had little interest in state affairs, and all government affairs were taken over by their great aunt, Mariam Begmu, harem eunuchs, and several Grand Vizis.

Under the Shah's rule, the people revolted frequently because of their poverty, and rebelled against the ruthless oppression of corrupt officials and local lords. I still remember that sixteen years ago (1706), during the Shah's pilgrimage to the holy city of Mashgabat (Shia holy city), tens of thousands of people in Isfahan, fed up with the food shortage caused by the collusion of officials with grain merchants, launched a riot, besieged the Ali Kapu Palace, and demanded a positive response from Prince Abbas.

Although the riot was forcibly suppressed by Kai Khosru, the commander of the Praetorian Guard sent back by the Shah, the incident had a profound impact on the entire empire. It is hard to imagine that a civilian uprising of this magnitude could take place in the capital of the Empire. In Prince Abbas's view, no Shah would allow such a severe food crisis to be artificially created.

The siege of Ali Kap's palace by the people of the capital with stones and sticks meant that not only Shah Sudan Hussein's personal prestige but also the prestige of the empire had fallen to the brink of danger.

The Safavid court was already corrupt, and religious tensions in the country were intensifying. The Lezkins in the northwest began to invade the south in retaliation for the Safavids' continued persecution of the Sunnis. The rebellious Kurdish tribes in the west invaded Hamadan and at one point approached the outskirts of Isfahan. The Omanis across the sea to the south have become a new threat, gradually encroaching on the empire's islands and coastal territories in the Gulf. The Baluchis in the southeast sacked Bam and Kerman, and the governor of Kandahar was completely powerless to stop it. At this time, the Safavid dynasty could not cope with such a situation at all, and the whole country was on the verge of collapse.

To add insult to injury, the Afghan tribes on the eastern border of the Safavid dynasty began to become increasingly difficult to control, with the Abu Dali tribes in Herat and the Gilzai tribes in Kandahar being the most powerful, and these two tribes defected from the empire a few years ago.

The Empire's central government's growing lack of effective oversight and control over local governments also raised a number of other problems. Under the Shah's rule, the safety of merchants and travellers on traditional trade routes deteriorated, and sometimes it was the local officials who were supposed to protect them, and bandits sprang up.

I heard that the caravan of Qi was attacked by a group of "bandits" with more than 1,000 people on the way to Isfahan, and the momentum was extremely amazing. Prince Abbas had reason to believe that this "bandit" must be inseparable from the local governor of Fars. Without his connivance and protection, how could this "bandit" gather such a large number of armed forces in the territory of the empire. Perhaps, after looting the caravan's vast belongings, they will also engage in a shameful and dirty division of the spoils with the local officials.

When it comes to the state of Qi, Prince Abbas's feelings are very complicated. This country located on the southeastern continent of Han was not only rich in products, bringing countless goods to the empire, but also possessing a strong military force and a naval fleet that surpassed the Indian Ocean region.

During the reign of his father, Suleiman I, the empire established formal diplomatic relations with them, sending ministers to each other. Subsequently, countless Qi goods poured into the empire's territory, such as porcelain, tea, coffee, rice, sugar, spices, timber, cotton fabrics (cotton cloth), steel, copper, tin, and other industrial manufactured goods, greatly enriching the domestic commodity market, and at the same time allowing the empire to obtain considerable transit trade profits. The trade volume between the two sides has grown from less than 100,000 tomans (equivalent to about 270,000 taels of silver) at the beginning to more than 15 million tomans (about 40 million taels of silver) at present, accounting for more than 60% of the empire's trade share.

A few months ago, the death of his aunt, Mariam, who held power in the court, instantly upset the balance of power in the court. In the past 20 years, perhaps as a kind of political compensation for not handing over the Shah to him back then, Maryam has taken care of Prince Abbas in many ways and granted him all-round political asylum, so that he can live peacefully and happily until now.

But with the death of Mariam, the eunuchs of the harem, several princes of the Shah, and the ministers of the court began to prepare for the liquidation and persecution of him, trying to physically remove him from the royal family and divide the wealth he possessed.

Under these circumstances, he immediately sought out the envoy of Qi in Isfahan and asked for help to take him and his family out of the capital of intrigue and crime.

The people of Qi only hesitated for a moment, then gladly agreed to his request for help, and began to carefully plan how to bring him and his family out of Isfahan.

When he came into contact with the Qi people, they seemed to inadvertently hint to him that in the current chaotic and complicated situation of the Safavid Dynasty, it was not wise to take refuge in the Mughal Empire. As the prince of the same name as Abbas the Great, he should stand up to save the Safavid dynasty with his courage and tenacity when the empire is in trouble.

Prince Abbas suddenly realized that the Qi people were preparing to make a political investment, using him as a pawn that could be used, or a backhand, and when the empire collapsed, he could be pushed out to stabilize the situation in the empire.

Of course, he also understands that the investment of Qi people is not gratuitous, and in the end it is to get a good return from it.

However, Prince Abbas, who was full of endless ambition in his heart, decided to fight once, prepared to cooperate with the Qi people, and listened to their arrangement. Back then, Humayun, the second emperor of the Mughal Empire, was defeated by the Sher Shah of the Sur Dynasty at the Battle of Qunucheng, which temporarily interrupted the rule of the Mughal Dynasty in India. In desperation, he fled west to Persia, endured humiliation, and became a guest in the imperial court, which was more than ten years. After Shershah died of old age, Humayun borrowed troops from the imperial Shah Takahmasp I and recaptured the Indian plains in one fell swoop, capturing Delhi and Agra, and restoring Mughal rule in India.

If Prince Abbas could get the support and assistance of the Qi State and attack Isfahan when the empire was in a great disaster, it might not be impossible to replicate Humayun's great feat and recreate the glory of the empire.

He had a strong premonition that Afghan Mahmoud might cause unimaginable damage to the empire by leading his troops to attack Isfahan this time. The chaos in the imperial court, the intriguing of the ministers, the passive fear of the imperial army, and the indifference of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city could well plunge the entire Safavid dynasty into a great crisis in the face of an attack by the Afghans.

In the midst of crisis and danger, there is also a glimmer of life. What the people of Qi said is full of oriental wisdom.