The Sun and the Lion

After returning from the Indus, Ibrahim and his army stayed in Kandahar for a week before moving to Herat. He had enough time to avoid risking the mountainous route.

All looted loot was deposited in Herat's treasury and prepared for transfer to Tabriz in batches. Only part of it was intercepted and used to purchase military supplies in Bazaar.

After some recruitment and expansion, the composition of the army stationed in Herat at this time was very complex. In addition to the red-headed and standing troops, there were also recruited Afghan fighters and soldiers and horses provided by the two vassals of Sistan and Merv. .

According to statistics, the Red Heads still maintain the size of thirty regiments, and the shortfalls originally caused by combat have been replenished to an acceptable level. Each regiment in the standing army has vacancies to varying degrees, but the arquebusiers are not as easy to replace as the red heads.

The Afghan soldiers who came to work with their own equipment were organized into 10 regiments. They were mainly light infantry and light cavalry, and their combat qualities varied. Ibrahim planned to wait until after the war to select a group of outstanding performers and train them carefully to become the core of the local garrison.

As for what the two vassals could provide, it was very pitiful. The two of them combined could only manage less than 3,000 cavalry.

Facing the two men who personally led the troops to express their loyalty, Ibrahim pretended to be angry and immediately called them into the tent: "I said to you, are you too perfunctory? You think I recruited you here? Are you here to be a hostage in my army?"

Mahmoud and Mohammad Musin did not dare to refute, and could only lament silently: "It is too difficult. Now they think that a vassal that cannot provide troops is worthless, but when the troops are strong, they will change their faces of fear."

"Please forgive me, Your Majesty. I didn't hide it on purpose. The military strength of your Majesty and others is not comparable to that of Your Majesty. These are all we have."

"Hmph." Ibrahim looked at Mahmoud who was bending his head and thought: "If it was Muhammad Mohsin who said this, then I would believe it."

Then he said: "You guessed it right, but not completely. I didn't expect your troops to deal with the enemy. I just wanted you to be an audience and watch carefully how the Iranian army conquered the world." "

After saying that, Ibrahim waved his hand impatiently: "Okay, you can go out now."

The two people who left felt that Ibrahim's move was superfluous. They were unable to resist, so what difference did it make if they were hostages or not? unless……

Ibrahim, who didn't know what they were thinking, was preparing for the next combat meeting and waiting for the senior officers to gather in the big tent.

"Everyone, the happy time on the west bank of the Indus River has passed. Now we must re-energize and prepare to continue to expand our territory." When everyone arrived, Ibrahim first gave a reminder.

Unknowingly, the army spent five weeks in Herat, and everyone was immersed in joy. In order to prevent the army from becoming too lax, Ibrahim specifically ordered the restoration of weekly training during the garrison. Drilling, coupled with the supervision of military judges, the things that worried him did not happen.

As an example, he did not hunt or feast with the senior officers during this period. He was involved in military affairs in the big tent every day, and inspected various parts of the military camp or the city of Herat every day.

He also received the messages sent from Tabriz and Hormuz and responded. As long as there were no accidents, nothing would happen to Ibrahim's backyard.

"Your Majesty, you ordered the troops not to disband in the winter. You must have ordered our troops to attack in the winter."

The combat season is common sense to officers. The half-year period from the spring equinox to October is the most suitable period for combat. Winter combat losses are high, logistics is difficult to do, and accidents are more likely to occur during combat.

But Ibrahim chose to fight northward in winter, just to catch him by surprise.

"Yes, I plan to wait until the end of the combat season to send troops immediately, and this time the target is here." Ibrahim pointed to northern Afghanistan marked on the map.

The three largest cities in Afghanistan—Herat, Kandahar, and Kabul—had been captured by Ibrahim, but there were still areas in the flat area north of the Hindu Kush that had not yet surrendered to Ibrahim. power.

The target that Ibrahim wanted to deal with this time was Huslaw, who occupied Balkh and Kunduz - this notorious warlord in Guligani.

Although Huslao showed goodwill to him after the capture of Kabul, Ibrahim did not sign any non-aggression agreement with Huslao specifically to gain trust. He took advantage of Huslao's fearful period and obtained a lot of information about him through the caravan.

The spy chief who accompanied the army briefly introduced Hu Si Lao to everyone: "Hu Si Lao was said to be from the Kipchak. He was just a companion at first. Later, when Bu Sain and his three sons were conspiring to gain power, he became his confidant and looked for books. Yuan www.ｽhaoshuyuａ.com With this, he became prosperous and acquired a large fiefdom between the Amu Darya River and the Hindu Kush Mountains."

From then on, he became domineering. In 1495, when Ma Hemou died of illness, he still wanted to go to Beijing to exercise power. However, he was driven out by the forces in Samarkand who supported his second son, Song Huoer. Only then did he contact his eldest son. Masud, his third son Ali and his cousin Babur jointly attacked Samarkand.

Later, Song Huo'er was captured, and he clashed with Masud again. He simply made Song Huo'er his puppet and confronted him. It wasn't until this summer that he captured Hisar, and then he directly strangled Baisong Huo'er to death with a bowstring, and blinded Masud with an iron stick.

This abominable act of killing the benefactor's two sons in one breath made Babur, who was watching, exclaim: "Those who plan and do such evil things should be cursed by millions of people until the day of resurrection. Let everyone listen Anyone who speaks of such atrocities as Hussein curses him, and whoever hears of such atrocities and does not curse him should also be cursed.”

Crushing such a notorious warlord can also gain a moral advantage. For ordinary soldiers and junior officers, thinking that they are an army of justice can be very helpful in boosting morale.

Although this seems to the fanatical redheads, attacking heretics, infidels and the Shaykh's designated public enemies has natural legitimacy and does not need to be icing on the cake.

"This is the enemy we have to deal with this winter and even next year. Although the area is not as vast as the emir of Hussin Baihara, he is still a warlord with tens of thousands of troops. However, he just captured Hisar not long ago , the soldiers were tired, and he took advantage of him to attack Balkh after disbanding his troops. He could only give up his territory to me before struggling to regroup his troops."

Ibrahim finished speaking about his idea, and then looked at the senior officers.