The Sun and the Lion

As soon as Ibrahim arrived at the camp selected by the forward troops for the army, Abdul came to greet him with good news: "Your Majesty, I just defeated the enemy's surprise attack not long ago and beat them to the ground. Their commanders were captured.”

After saying that, Ahmed Burke was dragged up by two soldiers and showed to Ibrahim.

"Is he the commander of the assault force?" Ibrahim looked at Burke, who had obviously been tortured, with some disdain, but he expected to get specific information about the city defense from him.

Seeing Ibrahim's impatient expression, Abdul directly played his trump card: "Your Majesty, you have misunderstood. He is not only the commander of the assault force, but also the city defense commander of Balkh. He was designated by Hus to station in Balkh." Heddy Burke!”

This immediately shocked Ibrahim: "What are you talking about? You captured the commander-in-chief of the garrison?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Abdul responded.

Ibrahim looked at Ahmed Bek and said in disbelief: "Since you have captured the leader of the enemy army, why not make good use of it. The enemy army must have been frightened at that time."

At this point, Abdul knelt down directly: "All victories are given to Your Majesty by Huda. All I do is to offer victory to you."

Ibrahim also heard that using prisoners to open the city was full of uncertainty. For Abdul, rather than using one victory to win a bigger victory, it is better to be safe. Capturing the enemy commander is already very difficult. Big credit.

"Have you interrogated this prisoner of war?" Ibrahim raised his hand to signal Abdul to stand up and asked again.

"I had my soldiers interrogate him, and he cooperated. After being sentenced, he revealed everything he knew."

Ibrahim took the interrogation report and began to read it carefully. According to Ahmed Bek's confession, he first introduced his origin, rank and position, and then began to describe the strength of the garrison in the city under questioning from his own soldiers.

"When the Emir appointed me to garrison Balkh, he stationed three thousand companions here. These are the core of the city's defense force, and they are also the troops that the Emir will definitely draw when he gathers troops. In addition, there are about six hundred Bandang belongs to me and another Burke, and they are also in Balkh City, but most of them have been killed here. Except for Bandang, the only ones who can fight in the city are the broken troops that I tried to gather together, and the town militia. I have not yet I don’t have time to count how many people there are, but there should still be six or seven thousand of them all.”

After talking about the number of defenders in the city, Ahmed Bek then talked about the reserves in the city, mentioning that they had sufficient food and grass and excellent ordnance: "Huss always saw the world in turmoil, and he knew that force was the only way to protect everything. , he plundered people's wealth more brutally than usual to hoard military supplies, all of which were his preparations for military expansion."

Finally, he said that the city had sent a distress message to Kunduz, and even if it were to send troops to intercept and kill them now, it was already too late.

After reading the interrogation report, Ibrahim asked Ahmed Burke: "Do you dare to guarantee the authenticity of everything described in this confession?"

Ahmed Burke raised his head in horror, and then began to nod desperately, his voice trembling obviously: "Sir, master, I swear in the name of Allah, if I dare to deceive you, I will let Allah use the most cruel means. Punish me for my dishonesty.”

Ibrahim, who only wanted to frighten the captives, was immediately amused by Ahmed Bek's flattering gesture. Abdul on the side also interjected: "I still like the way you look unruly in front of the torture instruments. ."

"I need you to do something. If you do it well, I will restore your freedom, and it is not impossible to grant you an official title." Ibrahim bewitched Ahmed Burke like a devil, and even held his hand. On his shoulder, it seemed that the two of them were very close.

"As you wish, Master." He didn't care what he wanted to do, so he agreed first and then talked about it.

"Okay." Ibrahim took away the hand on his shoulder and resumed his condescending posture: "Aren't you Burke from Balkh City? You must still have authority over the defenders. Now I want to You go to the gate of the city to persuade them to surrender, and look for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com You don’t want the lives in the city to be in ruins, right?”

After hearing Ibrahim's request, Ahmed Burke smiled bitterly and said: "Master, I don't know what kind of soldiers you are."

This made Ibrahim happy again. Now the defenders of Balkh still don't know who the enemy is.

"Then I tell you now, I am the King of Kings of Iran, and this army is the army of truth protected by Huda to reshape the world order."

Ahmed Burke said that he understood, and was dragged out, accompanied by several red heads, to call the door.

Salman came in and reported: "Your Majesty, our army's mortars and snake cannons have been deployed, and the artillery is ready to fire. With only your order, the city walls and towers will be fired." Collapse immediately."

"Fire a few rounds first to show them the power of our army."

The artillerymen who received the order immediately fired. While Ahmed Bek was still trying to talk to the defenders on the top of the city, the sound of artillery suddenly sounded, interrupting the conversation between the two sides.

Thanks to accurate ranging, most of the artillery shells landed on the city defenses that were supposed to be hit. Several of the walls that were hit have been severely cracked, showing signs of possible collapse. One of the towers erected in it was not only severely damaged, but was directly knocked down and broken by the cannonball.

"What...what is going on?" The Guregani army at the top of the city panicked. They then turned their attention to Ahmed Bek below the city: "These crimes are all caused by you, because of your incompetence. and disloyalty, Burke!”

Ahmed Bek saw that he was inexplicably targeted by the garrison soldiers on the city wall. He wanted to refute at first, but when it came to his mouth, he only had trash talk to express his emotions.

Well, the persuasion to surrender failed, so we can only prepare for a strong attack.