The Sun and the Lion

Customs officials from Basra boarded the large merchant ship with their entourage to register the crew, passengers and cargo as usual and to confiscate the sails and rudder. Ehsan, who came to Safavid territory as a maritime merchant, calmly received the tax collector and his entourage. The officials of the mission who were rescued by him while registering passengers made the tax collector realize that this was no ordinary merchant ship. He began to Then he asked Ehsan: "Is this merchant ship hired by the mission?"

Ahsan shook his head: "Dear Sir, your country's mission failed in diplomacy and was detained by the ruler of Hormuz. I redeemed it."

The tax collector who didn't know what happened finally reported the matter to the magistrate in Basra, and Ahsan was immediately summoned to be detained for questioning by the local magistrate.

When he arrived at the government office, Ahsan first revealed his identity to the county magistrate: "Master County Magistrate, I am Ahsan, a merchant from Qeshm Island and the captain of the soldiers."

"They are pirates." The Basra County Magistrate pierced this rhetoric in his heart. As the chief executive of a commercial hub, it is instinctive to dislike bandits who disrupt trade routes.

Ahsan processed the whole story from the failure of the Safavid mission to Hormuz to the surrender of Hormuz and then described it to the magistrate in detail. Mission officials and surviving red heads also corroborated Ahsan's statement.

The county magistrate understood what had happened, but all he could do was to settle the red head and the mission officials, and report the matter to Baghdad to let the senior official make the final decision.

At the same time, the red head and the rescued mission officials were placed by the county magistrate. The pirates unloaded the red head's body, which had been embalmed with salt, and handed it over to the officials in Basra. There were less than ten bodies, including fifty people in length. It is undoubtedly difficult to find relatively complete bodies that can be identified in the city of Hormuz that has experienced melee and arson. Ahsan did his best to search for these.

Told to wait for a reply from senior officials, Ahsan withdrew from the government office. He could wait here for a few weeks. In addition to selling loot and purchasing supplies, he also planned to repair his ships in Basra. The loot obtained by the pirates from Hormuz exceeded Qeshm Island's ability to digest it, and the prices of related goods plummeted. Many pirates had no choice but to go to other ports to sell their loot.

Ahsan, who had talked with the fifty commanders who died in the battle, was aroused by his words to be curious about the Safavid order. This was the motivation for his decision to rescue the red head and the mission officials from coming to Basra. Perhaps he not only Only one bounty can be obtained.

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The courier efficiently delivered the official document to the high official's residence in Baghdad.

The senior official read through the official document and believed that this matter involved the army and the palace, and that the mission officials and red heads should be prioritized and properly accommodated. He quickly made a plan, and the officials of the mission directly used the inn system to send them back to Tabriz. The red heads were handed over to the emir to handle the matter, and he was responsible for reporting this political achievement to the King of Kings.

As for Ahsan, he is just a pirate. Just give him some money to kill him. At most, he will be allowed to operate in the port as a maritime merchant.

With this idea in mind, he ordered the clerk to draft several official documents, signed them and sent them out.

The official document reported to the court was not sent to Tabriz. At this time, Ibrahim was on his first tour in his life. Due to various reasons, Ibrahim does not plan to tour the country. This time he only plans to visit Arab Iraq and Khuzestan. These two regions have always had the most developed agricultural economy in Iran.

At this time, Ibrahim had just crossed the Zagros Mountains a few days ago and had just left the city of Erbil, intending to go south to the provincial capital Baghdad.

The hunting tour in the city of Erbil did not leave a bad impression on Ibrahim. The city wall that was originally damaged by the Safavid army has been repaired, the post system is also functioning normally, and the town guards and road guards are also dutifully staying on site. Although they are useless at their posts, they can only deal with security incidents.

As the team marched along the main roads in the countryside, passing through settlements that had been depressed or even abandoned due to long-term wars, Ibrahim found that everywhere there were felt tents belonging to herdsmen.

As the greatest contributor to the founding of the Safavid dynasty, the King of Kings must reward the red-headed tribe, and because of the war, a large number of unowned properties appeared in various places. Driven by these two factors, a large number of tribesmen poured into these settlements, and the emirs and khans designated large areas of land as their own tribal territories, forming the scene that Ibrahim saw. Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Arab Iraq are their main settlements, with only a small number moving to Tabaristan and Iranian Iraq.

The tribal people are unable and unwilling to repair the damaged water conservancy facilities. They simply turn the abandoned fertile land into pastures to graze cattle, sheep, horses, camels and other livestock. Only a small number of tribal people will reuse the cultivated land near the river to carry out planting. Arab Iraq is not the focus of Ibrahim's investment at this time. Find Book Garden www.zhaｏshuyuan.com The local government's finances are limited and cannot start large-scale construction to repair the province's water conservancy. But at least these abandoned lands can be taxed again, right?

At this moment, the messenger carrying the official document found the tent of the King of Kings.

Ibrahim checked the official document. The content was that the senior official asked the clerk to directly copy the report reported by the county magistrate, and said that he had properly arranged the matter and did not need the King of Kings to bother with it anymore.

Hormuz's extravagant wealth and customs revenue have nothing to do with him. This was Ibrahim's first reaction after reading it. The mobilized red heads still have to spend money from the national treasury. But he saw an unexpected gain - the official document mentioned a pirate who participated in the Battle of Hormuz and might defect to the Safavid dynasty.

At present, Ibrahim still does not have a plank of wood at sea. In previous meetings, he also discussed naval issues with his ministers. The red heads were opposed, and the civil servants did not understand why Ibrahim threw money into the water. Although trade was a major financial pillar of the Safavids, the maritime trade routes in the Indian Ocean had nothing to do with Tabriz, only Tabriz. Wouldn't it be nice to just set up checkpoints and collect money from merchants? There are fewer things to do and you can receive money.

But even so, he still finalized the location of the shipyard and military port-Kuwait, which has an excellent natural deep-water port. The project here is already underway intensively, and Persian oak from the Zagros Mountains will be transported to this barren land through the water transport of the Karon River and the Shatt al-Arab River along with other materials.

The operation of the navy requires not only ships, but also people. Ibrahim originally planned to obtain ready-made captains by recruiting pirates. Now, someone came to the door.

He immediately wrote a brief edict: "Inform the maritime merchant Ahsan to go to Baghdad and wait for my summons." The messenger took the letter and returned to Baghdad.