The Sun and the Lion

At this time, Ibrahim, who was not aware of the latest developments in Venice, was still enjoying the spoils taken from Ulugh Beg in the palace of Kabul, not only the property, but also the surrender.

Just like when Herat was captured, the nearby mountain tribes heard that the city had changed its masters, and their leaders hurriedly came to express their obedience to the new masters of Kabul.

In the hall of the palace, a dozen tribal leaders sat on the carpet facing Ibrahim. They had just respectfully expressed their respect for the King of Kings as their suzerain.

Ibrahim also knew that Afghanistan was difficult to rule, but fortunately he was a feudal monarch, not the president of a modern country, and could only be satisfied with the tribe's loose attachment to the feudal state system.

In the agreement he presented, tribal leaders only need to pay a symbolic "tribute" to Afghanistanstan Province every year, cooperate in maintaining local order and allow Safavid officials to recruit troops.

These mountain tribes were already poor, and Babur lived like a savage when he fled into the mountains and received help from the tribes. From this, we can roughly see their financial resources. Ibrahim is out of his mind to really want to squeeze money from them.

These mountain people are also a major source of population. Every year, an uncertain number of mountain people are attracted by the wealth of the plains and valleys, adding labor to the settlements at the foot of the mountains. Many abandoned settlements in the Mesopotamia were redeveloped with the joint efforts of the Zagros mountain people and settled nomads who came down from the mountains.

For these conditions, the leaders readily accepted it. The best way to get along is for both parties to live in peace. Everyone understands that conquering impoverished mountainous areas is an almost impossible task, but no one is willing to become a victim of resistance.

After everything was settled, Ibrahim rewarded them with dresses, fine fabrics, and other luxuries that were difficult to obtain in the mountains.

Until the end of the visit, they were still flatteringly praising the wealth and mighty force of the King of Kings.

After all the tribal leaders exited the hall, the guards who had been waiting for a long time followed closely behind and entered the hall to report to him: "Your Majesty, a group of companions from Kunduz has arrived in Kabul. They are loyal to the warlord Huslao and are currently in the procession. The yard awaits your disposal.”

Ibrahim took a sip of rose water to moisten his dry throat and waved his hand: "Bring them in."

Several of the companions who had been disarmed walked up to Ibrahim, bowed and said, "Dear new master of Kabul, on the orders of my master Huslao, I form a friendship with you."

While the Safavid army was still resting in Ghazni, Burke fled north from Kabul to Khusrau's territory. News of the fall of Kandahar and the change of ownership of Kabul immediately spread to Kunduz and Badakhshan. It would take a few weeks for Samarkand and Andijan to know that another Guregani emir had been defeated.

Husrao had never fought against Ibrahim, but just from his successive attacks on Hussin Baihara and Ulugh Beg, we knew that this was a formidable enemy that was difficult to deal with.

He was able to have more than 30,000 troops and became the strongest among the forces of Cyril Gani. The warlord who was able to brutally kill the descendants of Timur benefited from the fall of Hussin Baihara. He himself faced off against Hera. Te Emir only deserves a beating.

As a result, the diplomatic document with the important mission of extending Khusi's political life was sent to Kabul.

In the letter, he expressed his hope to maintain peace with Ibrahim, and "if you think it is necessary, then I can follow your wishes and send all the Burkes who were loyal to Ulugh Beg back to Kabul for your disposal."

After handing the documents to the attendants, the attendants took half a step back and cast fearful glances. After realizing that these small movements were noticed by Ibrahim, they lowered their heads guiltily. This made Ibrahim quite puzzled. Not happy.

"Am I that terrible?"

Putting aside the doubts in his heart, Ibrahim read the diplomatic documents seriously.

"You can go back." Ibrahim's response surprised the companions. They didn't know what Ibrahim wanted. If you want to maintain peace, then say something nice. If there is a war, then use the envoy first. Wei, what are you doing by telling the envoy to go back without saying anything?

Ibrahim did not intend to ignore Kunduz. The initiative was now in his stronger hands. Only Huslao could speculate on Ibrahim's intentions.

When the companions were about to walk out of the hall, Ibrahim said again: "Wait a minute."

They thought they had reached a turning point, but Ibrahim said: "Prepare delicious food, drinks, music and dancing for these envoys who have come all the way from Kunduz to entertain them for one night, so that outsiders will not think that I do not entertain guests."

During the rest of 1499, he had no intention of continuing north to compress the living space of Gulegheni, nor did he plan to return to Tabriz. Looking at the map, he had a new combat goal.

After all the irrelevant personnel were dismissed, the guards hung up the maps of Afghanistan and Hindustan. Ibrahim brushed his fingers across the Indus River drawn on the map, from Lahore down to the sea.

At this time, on the other side of the Khyber Pass was Peshawar, an important trading town under the rule of the Lodi dynasty, where wealthy Indian merchants accumulated a lot of wealth.

Compared with Afghanistan, India's rural areas are more prosperous, densely populated and rich in products, while the poverty in the Afghan mountains is despairing.

This is also a major means for Ibrahim to win over Afghan tribes.

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Turning around, he ordered that the senior officers were already gathered, waiting for his orders.

Ibrahim nodded in response, then sat down and said, "Emirs, I am calling you here now to discuss the battle plan for the second half of the year."

He pulled out his whip and pointed at the map, clicking on Hindustan: "I plan to send troops here next."

For the red-heads from Azerbaijan, Hindustan is a completely unfamiliar land. They more or less only know that it is densely populated and prosperous. Businessmen can often be seen in bazaars selling Indian specialties.

But whatever the Sheikh said, they just followed it.

Kehobard asked worriedly: "Your Majesty, I have to remind you that our army is completely unfamiliar with Hindustan. It is unknown what kind of enemies our army will encounter, and how much supplies and trophies we can obtain from enemy territory. You know, fighting like this will make all the soldiers in the army very uneasy."

"Don't worry, this invasion is just a robbery, not a conquest. I have already planned the route, and I have sent people to find out the information. You just need to organize the army according to my orders."

Ibrahim had promised Ulugh Beg that he could go to Mecca to live in seclusion. After the city of Kabul was defeated, he put Kanbar in charge of the matter. He took a red head of a centurion and Ulugh Beg's family disguised as wealthy merchants along the way. Entering Hindustan along the trade route, then going south along the Indus River to the shore, and finally taking a boat to the holy land for pilgrimage.

Kanbar was not only responsible for escorting, but also for inquiring about all the news about Hindustan along the way and sending a courier back to Kabul.

Seeing that Ibrahim was so confident, the senior officers' confidence also returned, and they began to participate excitedly in the next decision-making.