The Sun and the Lion

On the road to the Kingdom of Georgia, a caravan composed of Muslims was traveling westward.

Turgut, who was appointed spymaster not long ago, was riding a horse. The hoofs of the horses stepped on the bumpy roads due to neglect. It was very painful to drive a carriage on such roads. Most of the people traveling with him chose to ride horses. After experiencing the experience of riding a shock-absorbing carriage on uneven roads for a while, the coachman who drove the carriage was determined by drawing lots.

The few pedestrians and caravans on the road, nearly a hundred bandits killed by red-headed swords and the dilapidated settlements made Turgut see the depression in Georgia. Seeing this, he couldn't help but worry about Ibrahim leading his troops into Georgia. Can you plunder enough supplies to maintain the army?

The Kingdom of Georgia has been continuously invaded by foreign enemies in the past two centuries. Beginning with the Mongols and more recently Uzun Hassan, the ravages of the invaders have continuously hit Georgia's economy and royal power. The strength and authority of the Georgian kings have continued to decline. The war between various feudal lords in the country became more and more intense as the power gradually decreased with one blow after another.

When Bagrat VI of Imereti defeated King George VIII at Chakari in western Georgia in 1463, the lords' arrogance became even more unscrupulous. In the end, the current king, Constantine II, could only watch the kingdom disintegrate into five major countries and a number of smaller countries dependent on the main countries. But he could only guard the dilapidated city of Tbilisi and call himself the King of Kartli.

After the disintegration of Georgia, the situation in Georgia was chaotic. The roads were unmaintained and banditry was not cleared. The wars between the lords and the wars between the lords and outsiders never stopped. Under the disaster of war, banditry and heavy war taxes, the countryside The farmers were overwhelmed. Business also fell into a depression, and Tbilisi, which had been damaged by several invasions, was no longer an important town in the eyes of businessmen.

After Ibrahim made the decision to conquer Georgia to strengthen the sect, the sect began to send people to collect intelligence about the Georgia region. Caravans were undoubtedly the best way to enter Georgia. Although the lords could not reach an agreement politically, they were very unified in religion - almost all lords did not allow heretics and pagan missionaries to operate in their territories.

But the Order was also poor. The economies of Ardabil and Shirvan were severely hit by the war, and their inventories and output were barely enough to cover the Order's various expenses. In the end, Ali Mirza transported a batch of silk, grain, salt, iron products and other supplies through the Caspian Sea. These supplies were originally funded by Lord Gilan to the religious order. The timely arrival of these supplies solved Ibrahim's problem. Urgent need.

In this way, a caravan loaded with goods set out from Baku and shuttled through southern Georgia, passing through the three kingdoms of Katli, Kakheti and Samkhets, and then headed south to rest in the territory of the Afshar tribe. The information about these three kingdoms was quickly sent back to Ibrahim by Turgut and a few cronies.

Of course, spymaster Turgut's mission is not just to find out what's true in Georgia. There are some red heads from Anatolia and Syria stranded in Afshar's territory, and Turgut is here to take them in. , and Hawachi Oglu came together to collect them.

Among the Turkmen tribes that follow the Order, the Afshar tribe has the most delicate relationship with the Order. Unlike other tribes, the Afshar tribe owns a territory on the border of Georgia and Armenia. Although the territory of Beg of the Afshar tribe is smaller and the land he is sitting on is not an anointed land, he is still a lord. In fact, he is equal to the Sheikh of the Order in terms of status, just like Ali of Lahijan. Mirza, more akin to an allyship of equals.

After Ibrahim issued a jihad call to all ministries, Afshar Beyqahoubad, who owned the territory, immediately sent some of the young men in the ministries to participate in the battle, under the command of his cronies. And he had more important things to do - to receive the red-headed tribes from Syria and Asia Minor and temporarily settle them in his territory until Ibrahim needed them.

In the past few months since the launch of the army, Kehobad has received several tribes and thousands of tribal cavalry of varying quality. This is a huge burden on the finances of the Afshar Ministry. In order to support them, Kehobad Bud had to let them go out to rob.

These Turkmens went to the north to rob Georgian lords and to the south to rob Armenian settlements. Some Turkmens who hated the Ottomans even wanted to go west and return to Ottoman territory to rob. In the end, Kayhobart personally led his troops to persuade these whimsical Annas. Tolya Turkmen.

Now that Havaci Oglu has come to take away these red heads on the order of Ibrahim, Kehobad can be considered relieved.

After gathering the red heads, Havachi Oglu counted the number of people. There were nearly two thousand non-Afshar red heads. If it were not for the losses caused by Ottoman obstruction and robbery, find Shuyuan www.zhaoshｕyuan． com this number will be larger.

The handover went smoothly, and with the cooperation of Kehobad, Havaqi was able to command these Qizilbash smoothly and cooperate with Afshar's troops.

A few days later, the meeting hall of Gulustan Castle

In order to prepare for the war against Georgia, Ibrahim moved the main force westward to Shamakhi after arranging the administrative matters for Shirvan. Baku on the Caspian Sea was obviously too far away from Georgia.

Turgut, who returned successfully, brought the latest news from Georgia to the senior leaders of the order. In addition to drawing the roads, the map of Georgia on the table also updated the settlement information in detail. The report attached next to the map described the general situation of each settlement. The settlements that were abandoned or on the verge of being abandoned were marked with another color. , due to time constraints, Turgut was unable to collect more information, and without the permission of the local lord, he could not conduct detailed statistics on the local population and warehouses.

As for city defense, Turgut was not an engineer and had no in-depth knowledge of the local garrison, so he had to briefly mention it and then apologize to Ibrahim.

"This is enough, you can go down." Ibrahim nodded to Turgut with satisfaction. This newly promoted spy chief has proven his ability to work.

Turgut took a few steps back and entered the crowd.

Looking at the map on the table, the staff and leaders kept pointing at various roads, and some of the excited ones argued and almost started fighting. But no matter what, the Kingdom of Kakheti was the first unlucky one.

Seeing that his staff and generals could not unify their opinions, Ibrahim had no choice but to order the meeting to be dismissed. After drinking a few glasses of fermented grape juice, he simply gave up thinking, ordered his attendants to pack up the documents, and then returned to the bedroom to rest.