The Sun and the Lion

"Uh..." Assad opened his eyes, held his head with his left hand, and supported the bed with his right hand to sit up.

Although Anasir has no intention of forming an alliance with Ibrahim, he currently does not want to antagonize Safavid either. After rejecting Assad's alliance request and asking the Safavid side to stop the persecution of Sunnis, he prepared a banquet and some gifts to entertain the envoys so that they would not return home full of ill will towards Cairo.

After the banquet, Assad, like other Mamluk dignitaries, chose a beautiful dancer to spend the night.

After getting dressed, he paid no attention to the dancer who was still wrapped in the blanket.

He pulled out a document. Before Ibrahim went on the mission, he told him to give this order only after Malik agreed to grant Safawi free passage except for the army and to station diplomats in Aleppo. Take effect. Assad is so loyal that until now he has not opened it and read its contents.

The first line of the order was to grant Assad the position of "foreign vizier", marking his rise to the highest levels of government.

Ibrahim specially established a new department to oversee the country's foreign affairs and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Grand Vizier.

With the continuous development of international exchanges, it is reasonable to set up special departments to manage increasingly complex foreign affairs. Assad, who has experience in serving foreign missions, became the first choice of the foreign affairs vizier. Whether he was a frustrated scholar who had previously devoted himself to Ibrahim or a professional bureaucrat who surrendered and retained his official position, most of them were unable to take both "sufficient ability to handle" Foreign Affairs of the Palace" and "Extreme Loyalty to the Safavid Family".

Assad has no reason to betray Ibrahim, and there is no harm in betraying him.

He calmed down his mood and continued reading.

After becoming the Foreign Vizier, he had enough power to complete the following tasks.

The first step is to select a consul abroad. Iranian merchants are very active in Aleppo and Bursa. A large number of caravans bring raw silk, carpets, wool and raw materials or other handicraft products from the plateau in exchange for textiles, glass products, precious metals and other commodities.

The existence of the Iranian community provides the ground for the establishment of consuls. Consuls and attachés will carry out diplomatic activities in the city where they are located, protect the local interests of their own businessmen, and also use businessmen to collect information about the host country.

According to Ibrahim's vision, the consulate in the Iranian community should have one consul and one or two deputy consuls - and a secret agent would be dispatched to act as the deputy consul to sort out and send back information. The presence or absence of another vice-consul depends on the complexity of the local religion. If the city has believers from multiple sects, one more vice-consul will need to be dispatched.

Assad looked back at the bed: "Place her properly." Then he walked to the dining room provided for the mission.

As the leader of the mission, he could enjoy attentive service from the servants in the castle.

In the restaurant, Assad only saw a few attendants who were still here to cook because he missed the meal. When they saw their superiors approaching, they hurriedly stood up and saluted.

"Where are Yusuf and Salman?" Assad asked.

"Sir, they are resting in their room."

"Yeah." Assad nodded, but he didn't intend to go to the room to look for it. He planned to announce Ibrahim's order in the presence of everyone, letting them know that he was now a vizier.

By the time it was time to eat, Assad saw that almost everyone had arrived. Under the complicated eyes of everyone, he took out and ordered to read out Ibrahim's order, including the establishment of the foreign affairs department and related personnel appointments.

"Foreign Affairs Staff, Ambassador and Leader of the Mission - Assad. I hereby appoint you as the Foreign Vizier, in charge of all foreign affairs." The attendant in charge of reading the document increased his voice here, attracting everyone's attention.

After reading it, the attendant held the document aloft and showed the monogram beneath the text to certify the authenticity of the document.

Everyone stood up and congratulated Assad, who had reached the sky in one step: "I wish you good luck in your official career, Your Excellency. May Huda protect you and be favored by the King of Kings forever."

In addition to Assad, the list also includes other members of the mission, who hold higher and lower positions in the foreign ministry. But no matter what, they are no longer Ibrahim's personal staff, but state officials who draw their salaries from the treasury.

Assad then began appointing two consuls in Aleppo and Bursa.

"Foreign Staff, Attaché of the Mission - Yusuf. In the name of the Foreign Vizier, I have ordered that you be appointed consul in Aleppo." After Assad arranged for the consul, he added: "Consuls always have a fixed number of consuls. The deputy is appointed by the spymaster, and the other attachés are selected by the consul himself. The list can be found at Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com and submitted to me for review."

"Yes, Vizier."

Salman was later appointed consul in Bursa in the same manner.

After completing his appointment, Assad left the hall, leaving members of the mission still talking.

The new consuls were very efficient. In the evening, Assad received the names reported by the two. He immediately approved the appointment of these people, and then asked his servants to call them.

"Your Excellency, did you call me here because of the selection?" Yusuf and Salman asked.

"No problem, I approved it. Tomorrow you can take your attachés and belongings to take office. The location of the consulate should not be too remote or too small." Assad returned the list of written instructions to the two.

Then he handed another letter to the messenger who came with them: "Send this letter back to Tabriz, in the hands of the King of Kings."

After arranging the task, the two consuls and the messenger immediately exited the room, leaving Assad alone.

There was a sudden knock on the door, and the servant opened the door. It was Malik's servant. He asked politely: "Malik sent me to ask you, when will your mission plan to return to the country? So that we can make arrangements."

"Tomorrow, tell your master that we will leave Cairo tomorrow." Assad knew that the Mamluks did not welcome them very much, and the two sides did not reach a substantive agreement, and the relationship did not improve.

The mission had been staying in the castle since entering Cairo, enjoying the food and lodging provided by Anansir and waiting to be summoned. The castle guards had been preventing members of the mission from going out on security grounds, as if they were Italian traders in the port of Iscandaria.

This kind of treatment made him quite uncomfortable. Since Saladin Castle did not intend to entertain him anymore, he did not want to stay any longer.