Eagle Byzantium

The mountains where the Ghurs lived were rich in precious turquoise, but they were exploited by the Ghaznavid court. The two sides had long-standing resentment. Just about ten years ago, the Ghur king Qutb Aladdin Hassan received an order from the Ghaznavid court to go to Kandahar to help them quell the rebellion, but he died on the battlefield inexplicably. Therefore, Qutb's son and the current Ghur king Izz Aladdin Hussein have been extremely wary and hateful of the suzerain state. Sometimes he would send secret envoys to complain to the Seljuks and said that if Isfahan gave him the right conditions, he would be willing to rebel against Ghaznavid.

But later, because the Seljuk Sultan was assassinated and now was invaded by the Eastern Scourge, the Ghurs' demands were never taken seriously.

"Very good, Gur is the key to reversing the situation. You couldn't pay attention to it before, but now I will!" Gawain said majestically, and then he pointed to the location of Herat on the map board, "Look, everyone, how are the Gur tribe and Herat located?"

"Not much difference." Everyone saw it clearly.

"What about Herat and Ghazni?" Gawain pointed to the map board again, and everyone saw that if Herat was not safe, the cavalry only needed to gallop for two or three days and nights to drive directly to the capital of Ghazni.

Tabo and Kobha immediately realized something. Tabo immediately expressed his willingness to grant the title of "Emir" to Gur King Iz, while Kobha took the opportunity to add the titles of "Atabeg" and "Governor of Herat".

Just as the two men were arguing again, Gawain stood up and took two steps to interrupt them: "No, that King Gong of Song was able to incite hundreds of thousands of barbarians and even the Ghazni Khan to follow him with his empty titles and promises. If the enemy can do this, we will give him a taste of his own medicine - request the Baghdad Caliph and your Sultan to grant King Gur the great title of 'Emir. Seljuk Atabeg. Governor of Herat. Right arm of the Caliph. Chief of Faith in the Land of Ghazni'! Either don't incite rebellion, or you must spare no expense to incite rebellion, and let the Baghdad court send envoys to do such a thing as soon as possible. And I..." Gawain pointed his finger at the map board again, "We must consider the plans of Tabor and Kobha together, first assemble all the expeditionary brigades, artillery, and cavalry, and rush to the city of Nishapur to defeat the advance troops of the Eastern Scourge, and force the other side to turn back to Mofu and other places with our backs to the Oxus River. The two sides are in a stalemate. Then I will select elite troops, seize the gap, and go directly to the territory of the Ghurs, asking them to surrender to us and open the passage so that I can attack Herat freely. As long as we besiege Herat, Ghazni Khan Israel, who has received the news, will definitely abandon the attack on Kerman Pass and come to support. At that time, the initiative will be completely in my hands. If Herat is not taken by then, I will capture Ghazni's field troops in the wilderness outside and defeat them in one fell swoop; and if Herat is taken by then, I will have no worries and will follow the Herat River as a supply line and directly attack eastward. The target is Ghazni City. In this way, Israel will be more exhausted to rescue his own capital and will be more likely to be defeated by me when the opportunity arises. "

"But in this way, your Majesty's marching route is also completely surrounded by the enemy, which is very dangerous. "Several Roman generals reminded.

"It doesn't matter. Everything is for the sake of dominance. At the same time, it just happens to be a chance to find out the true strength of the Great Fair King. If the Great Fair King dares to cross the Oxus River, I just happened to find an opportunity to fight him. However, the primary goal of this battle is not to fight a decisive battle with the Great Fair King, but to make Ghazni Khan's troops collapse first. As long as we can eat up his troops, the whole situation will change!" After Gawain finished his deployment, he waved his fist and said to the Roman and Seljuk generals, atabegs, and ghazis, "The key to fighting is to constantly play games, explore, and capture the decisive battle. The key to the tactics of the New Roman Legion is to actively and decisively launch attacks while constantly defending, to remove the enemy's fortresses, to annihilate the enemy's field corps, and to sweep away the enemy's economic foundation. And you Seljuk warriors must also awaken the Ghazi spirit in your body, ride on your warhorse and swing your saber, and ruthlessly chop the enemy into pieces. "

"Never forgive the apostate Ghaznavid dogs!" The Seljuks present responded to Gawain fiercely, and they had regarded all the Ghaznavids as "non-humans".

After the plan was established, the emperor's army was assembled. The Seljuks prepared food and grass for them, and sent Tabo and Kobha to lead 5,000 elite soldiers each to serve as one wing. Then Gawain led an unprecedented grand army, including the Red Hand Brigade, the Gimges Brigade, the Guardian Brigade, the Philomelon Brigade, the Midgard Brigade, the Alemanni Brigade, the Yefanduni Brigade, the Bulgarian Brigade, the Mosiah Brigade, the Serbian Brigade, the Epirus Brigade, and 10,000 border troops, 5,000 Jerusalem troops, 5,000 Paulicians, four field cavalry regiments, and all the imperial guards, engineering regiments, and artillery regiments around the emperor, totaling 110,000 elite troops, and quickly advanced along the Iraqi Azmith Province northeast of Isfahan to reinforce the city of Nishapur.

The geographical features of the eastern part of the Persian Plateau are peculiar. Isfahan, Shiraz and Nishapur form a huge triangle, and the interior of the triangle is a vast desert that is difficult to march across. Several winding and steep snow-covered roads crisscross the desert. All the marching Roman soldiers see prosperous cities and towns when they look north, but endless wilderness and gravel when they look south.

Five days later, the battle flag flying on the black fortress of Ala at the top of the peak, Nishapur, the hub fortress on the north side of the big triangle, appeared in the eyes of the emperor's outpost cavalry.

The rich Greater Khorasan is divided into four large county cities, namely Nishapur, Merv, Herat and Balakt. Among them, Merv, also known as Maru, is closest to the west bank of the Oxus River, with the most developed farming and water conservancy. It is also the early fiefdom of the assassinated Sultan Sanjad in the past; Herat is located at the junction of Ghazni and Persia, and is also a huge fortress and a prosperous city; Balakt is on the south bank of the Oxus River, in the north of Ghazni, and was once the capital of the Kingdom of Bactria (Bactria); finally, Nishapur is the key to the Persian Plateau and a must-go place for Central Asian traffic. It was the capital of the Sassanid Persian Empire in ancient times. After the Crescent Conquest, it was called the "City of Porcelain", which was named because it provided countless exquisite porcelains to the court of Baghdad in the past years.

Now, three of the four counties of Greater Khorasan have been captured by the Eastern Scourge, leaving only Nishapur struggling to hold on!

Gawain's army arrived in Nishapur, full of energy, eager to give the arrogant Scourge vanguard a fatal lesson.