Every time he sees Princess Nasid Mirza, it makes Li Yanliang feel a kind of beauty that makes people's hearts palpitate. Picturesque eyebrows, red lips and teeth, delicate and three-dimensional facial features, and big green eyes like cat's eyes, make her whole person seem to exude colorful light. After being stunned for a moment, he quickly shifted his gaze to other places and took a deep breath.

"I heard Rahimi say that today you have denied another group of refugees access to the trading station."

Looking at the tall and slightly shy oriental man in front of her, Princess Nasid had an inexplicable closeness. I heard my father mention that the people who guarded their safety in the courtyard were all regular soldiers of the Qi State. During more than a month of contact, although they sometimes peeked at themselves, they did not behave in a manner that was as rude and rude as that of the Persian soldiers. What surprised her even more was that the young Qi officer in front of her could read and write, and occasionally held a book and read it carefully in the gap between duties.

Although, with great embarrassment, the officer explained that the books he was reading were only novels for leisure and entertainment, and not esoteric books, just to pass the time of leisure and boredom.

But this still surprised Princess Nasid very much, and it was even more incomprehensible. You know, within the empire, knowledgeable clergy and scholars agree that the profession of soldier is both dirty and brutal, and that after countless bloody killings, they simply do not deserve knowledge and writing. Naturally, in the imperial army, from the generals who led tens of thousands of soldiers, to the ordinary soldiers at the grassroots level, the vast majority did not have any education. They are rude, greedy and brutal, and they understand nothing but war. Even combat orders need to be repeatedly emphasized by officers and generals, or take the lead in demonstration, so that they know how to conduct the battle.

The Qi officer also told her that in Qi State, when the vast majority of citizens reach the age of six, they will receive the state's free eight-year compulsory education, and they will master basic reading, literacy, calculation, and writing skills in school, as well as some simple scientific knowledge. Those who have a certain talent for reading, or who are interested in further education, will pass the exam to advance to a higher level of school to continue their studies. In the dozens of universities in the territory of Qi State, the best and hardest working students in the country have been accumulated, and they will receive the world's most advanced and cutting-edge scientific and cultural knowledge, and eventually become elite talents who promote the development and progress of Qi State.

There is no doubt that Qi is not only a secular and tolerant country, but also a country with advanced civilization and splendid culture. In order to free the people from ignorance and ignorance, we will not hesitate to use the power of the state to implement education for all free of charge.

However, why did they, the Qi people who claimed to be from a civilized country, watch the poor and helpless Persian refugees outside the barracks exposed to the unprotected countryside, allowing the brutal Afghans to loot and slaughter, instead of promptly admitting them into the barracks with certain defensive capabilities?

"Because, we don't know if there are any Afghan spies among those refugees." Li Yanliang dodged Princess Nasid's pleading gaze and said softly, "We can't take the risk of putting the entire trading station in danger in order to save those poor refugees. ”

In fact, the refusal of the merchant post to accept Persian refugees was due to the fear that the increase in the number of refugees would over-consume the accumulated food and other daily necessities. After all, in the current situation of fierce warfare, the first thing is to ensure one's own safety, right?

Well, the so-called dead friends, immortal poor friends!

When Princess Nasid heard Rahimi's translation, she bit her lip tightly and had a sad look on her face.

Now, the empire is facing a great catastrophe, and a group of savage and ignorant tribe forces from the east have invaded the imperial capital. They defeated the Imperial army, which had high hopes, and laid siege to Isfahan. All were intimidated by the brutality and savagery of the Afghans, and the Imperial Shah hid in fear in the Ali Kapu Palace, and the Imperial troops trembled in terror and gathered within the tall and fortified walls. They watched in fear and powerlessness as the Afghans slaughtered civilians and looted their property outside the city.

And in the entire Qi State Commercial Station, all the guards and young men together were less than four hundred. Their power is too small to ensure the safety of the trading station, and it is indeed impossible to provide shelter for more fleeing people.

"Dut...... Honk...... Toot ......"

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of a warning horn outside, urgent and urgent.

Enemies are coming!

Li Yanliang took a deep look at Princess Nasid, then turned around and ran towards the outside of the courtyard.

"Rahimi, they're going to keep us all safe, aren't they?" Princess Nasid asked softly as she watched the young Qi officer leave the courtyard.

"Yes, Your Highness Princess." Rahimi nodded and said affirmatively, "The soldiers of our Qi Kingdom will always be trustworthy, and they will definitely protect the safety of all of us. ”

Rahimi is a Qibo half-blood, only thirteen years old this year, his mother is Persian, his father is from Qi, and he is also a master of the trading station. In addition to being fluent in Persian, she can also communicate with Qi people normally in Chinese. In order to take care of Princess Nasid, she was assigned by the merchant station to act as her temporary maid and interpreter.

Rahimi also has a Qi country name, called Xia Yunzhu. She was also topped by two older brothers, who worked in the Qi State Trading Station in Bandar Abbas and Bushehr respectively.

At home, I often heard my father proudly proclaim that Qi was the richest and most powerful country in the world. The territory of Qi is all over the world, the warships of Qi are swimming in the depths of the ocean, the army of Qi is invincible, the goods produced by Qi are rich and diverse, and the people of Qi are happy and peaceful.

Under the influence of her family and years of exposure to her family, Rahimi naturally has a certain sense of belonging to half of her mother country, Qi, and at the same time, she also has a trace of inexplicable pride.

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Abdul Hakim rode on his horse, looked at the fortress-like Qi State Commercial Station in front of him, and suddenly felt his scalp tingle.

Careless!

He should not have boasted to Mahmud before leaving, and broke through the Qi State Commercial Station in two days and captured all the Qi people.

Such a small fortified fortress with such a strong defense, if it did not have heavy siege weapons, let alone two days, even if it was given twenty days, it might not be able to take it.

"Inayatollah, how many defenders are there in this trading station?" Abdul turned to look at Inayatollah Havarrazami.

"I don't know." Inayatollah Havarazami shook his head and said, "A few days ago, we were suddenly attacked by them when we led our cavalry to the front of the merchant station and ordered them to go out of the city and surrender. With only two rounds of musket fire, we broke more than thirty tribal warriors. I estimate that there are at least two or three hundred defenders in the caravan. …… Well, it's also possible that there will be more of them. ”

"Without siege artillery, I'm afraid we won't be able to break this trading station." Abdul pursed his lips and said with regret: "We need to report the true situation here to His Highness Mahmoud and ask him to send troops to support." ”

"As I said a long time ago, without siege equipment, without more than 2,000 soldiers, and at the cost of huge casualties, it would be impossible to breach this trading post." Inayatullah glanced at Abdul with disdain.

Hmph, this horse bandit leader in Sistan heard that there was a Qi State Merchant Station here, so he ran over to take advantage of it. He also brazenly declared that he would break through this trading post in two days and capture all the Qi people in front of Mahmud. Now that he saw the situation on the ground, he immediately confessed and became a turtle with a shrunken head, not daring to launch the tribal warriors under his command to attack the city with ants.

"Shall we persuade them to surrender?" Abdul asked: "When he came, the great chief asked that their lives not be harmed. We will use this as a condition to make them open the door and surrender. The tens of thousands of Persian armies were crushed by us, and they only dared to cower in Isfahan and watch us block all access to and from the city. You say, such a small trading station won't have to resist and stick to the end, right? ”

"The people of Qi will not surrender." "A few days ago, in the face of our threat of force, in addition to launching a counterattack, they also declared that they would rather break the precious jade artifacts in their homes than keep the tiles safe. ”

"What do you mean?"

"Probably ...... I'd rather die than surrender! ”