The Sun and the Lion

Wearing the new dresses given out at the New Year's banquet, Assad and Turgut walked into the study together with Abdul and Gaolaberi, and bowed to Ibrahim who was looking at the map: "Your Majesty, are you summoning me?"

Ibrahim raised his head and said to him: "Well, come and take a look at this map."

The table was covered with maps of Central Asia and Iran, but the section on the political situation was out of date. Everyone looked at the largest piece marked on it - Timur, and they understood who Ibrahim's next target was.

The regime established by the lame Timur was very prosperous for a time. Its scope of rule included Transoxiana and Iran, and it attacked from all sides. The Ottomans, Mamluks and Delhi were all attacked by him.

But the unstable political system soon tore it apart. After Lame's death, Shaharul and Busain unified the country, but the stability they brought was very short-lived, and every time they split, turbulence would come. Surrounding hostile forces encroached on its territory. By the time Busain was killed, Timur's only remaining territories were Transoxiana, Fergana, Afghanistanstan and eastern Iran. But the most deadly thing is that Timur is now deeply divided. Herat and Samarkand each have a court. Princes and warlords who are nominally loyal to Timur have separated themselves and are fighting with surrounding forces.

A map drawn this year with the various separatist forces marked may be abandoned next year. This is the chaos in Central Asia.

Such Timur is also easy to deal with, and Ibrahim has decided to bring order and stability to the area. But before going eastward, he needed to understand the local conditions.

"I summoned you here just for this one thing - to end Timur's tyranny, to restore order to Khorasan and the river is our historical mission, to make Samarkand and Herat belong to me. The current Timur Mur has been in chaos for decades, and it's a great time for us to do something, but the chaos there has made all the maps and information I can get obsolete, and we can't mobilize tens of thousands of people without knowing anything. Run to the grassland." Ibrahim said to the four servants in front of him. They were the first batch of senior officials to know the focus of the work in the next few years.

"This is not only done by force. My spy chief, Turgut, and my foreign vizier, Assad, you work together to collect information about Timur, both overtly and covertly. and other forces on the grassland." Ibrahim thought for a moment and continued to order: "Assad, you can send a team of envoys to Herat to visit Hussin Baihara - if I remember correctly words—to convey to him the message that the two parties could live in harmony, and that the Iranian caravans could safely pass through his territory to trade in Hindustan.”

Hussin Baihara, the Timurid emir of Herat, also had the most extensive territory among all the separatist powers - he controlled Khorasan and Makran, and the lords of Sistan were also said to be under his protection. His rule can be said to be the most stable among the Timurids.

And Ibrahim planned to test his true strength first. If even he could be easily attacked, then Timur would have no power to stop the rolling Safavid army. Khorasan can be easily captured, and the ownership of the river may have to fight with the Shabani who are still entrenched in Turkestan to the Aral Sea coast.

"Yes, Your Majesty." They both saluted Ibrahim.

Next it was the turn of the officers: "Emil Golabery, I order you to mobilize five regiments from each tribe to assemble in Tehran with the order I issued. However, large troops are not allowed to cross the border, and only small teams are allowed to be sent to investigate and infiltrate calls. Regarding the situation in the Luoshan area, you can also try to use horse bandits to explore the reality of the garrison. But don’t reveal your identity, and don’t let the other party get a handle on it.”

"Emir Abdul, you mobilize the same troops to gather in Kerman, and then go straight into Sistan and force the local rulers - whether it is the Sultan or the Emir - to surrender to me. After that, you You can move your army to Sistan and perform the same tasks as Golaberi on the border."

At this time, Sistan was ruled by a small local dynasty, the Mihrabanids. They were first vassals of the Mongol Ilkhan, and became independent after the collapse of the Ilkhanate, but half a century later Timur the Lame ravaged Sistan, and they became his vassals to this day.

For this small dynasty that had no choice but to surrender when it encountered strong power, Abdul believed that it would not be difficult to launch a military operation against her. As long as Hussin Baihara did not send out his main army to rush here, he was confident that he could repel all attacks.

After hearing this order, Assad dissuaded: "Your Majesty, you cannot send envoys to say hello to him and at the same time send troops to encroach on his territory!"

"Vizir, look for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com. You don't really think that His Majesty sent envoys to make friends with Timur's bastard, do you?" Abdul retorted.

"Emir, and Your Majesty." Assad first looked at Abdul, and then bowed to Ibrahim: "I believe that these two contradictory activities cannot be carried out at the same time. It would not be too late to return with the good intentions of Hussin Baihara and conduct other temptations. If when the envoy was on a mission to Herat, he received news that his vassal was attacked, and this army and the troops he entertained When an envoy belongs to the same master, it is self-evident what he will do - our envoy will be killed or imprisoned, our intentions will be immediately exposed, and our diplomatic reputation will be damaged."

Abdul looked displeased, but Turgut successfully silenced him: "Dear Emir, it is already the end of March. By the time you have assembled your troops and arrived in Kerman, it will be the time when you are preparing to invade Sistan. Summer. But it seems that you are not familiar with the geographical environment of Sistan. The 120-day wind prevails every summer and autumn (roughly May to October). This wind is hot, dry, and carries a lot of dust. It is highly corrosive and can even damage buildings. If you think of sending troops immediately, then you and your troops will have to face a harsh environment and cause a lot of avoidable losses. Moreover, because of this strong wind, local conditions in summer and autumn There is no agricultural production, unless you can take over the granaries in various places as soon as possible, otherwise even the food will need to be transported from the rear."

"In this case, Abdul's troops will stay put for now and wait until winter before attacking. By then, the warehouses in Kerman City will have stocked up the military supplies needed for the army's operations. It will not be too late to go." Finally, Ibrahim also Convinced and decided to change the plan, Abdul had no choice but to obey.