The Sun and the Lion

By sunrise the next day, the fighting in Hisar finally ceased. Ibrahim once again captured nearly two thousand prisoners of war, thousands of horses and mules, tens of thousands of gold and silver coins, and countless armor and weapons.

All the senior officers who were still alive were now kneeling in front of Ibrahim's horse. The heads of other senior officers who could be found were piled beside him. Ibrahim glanced at it and saw that all the leaders of Hisar were on his horse. Before.

The captured Huslaw had completely collapsed. He begged Ibrahim for mercy in the most respectful and flattering manner, and knelt down to him repeatedly in full view of the public. Ibrahim did not stop him, but secretly counted how many times he could kneel.

After kneeling for more than twenty times in a row, Hus Lao's legs became weak and he could not get up. Ibrahim suddenly spoke: "I just counted, you kneeled twenty-four times in one go. This kind of submission is enough to convince all the kings in the world."

The King of Kings took the lead in mocking, causing the surrounding Safavid officers to burst into laughter. They all pointed at Huslao's funny behavior.

When Huslao heard this, he thought Ibrahim was going to let him go, so he uttered compliments to Ibrahim, but he was too flustered and spoke incoherently and without logic. It is hard to imagine that a month ago, he was a warlord with an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people, so domineering that he murdered two descendants of Timur.

For such a despicable person, Ibrahim naturally did not intend to surrender. He still ordered Huslao to be executed and his head to be embalmed with quicklime.

The winter war was generally over, and Ibrahim planned to stop and digest the newly conquered territory and deal with the aftermath.

The first step was to collect the surrendered troops. After the previous four major battles, the Safavid army captured nearly 10,000 prisoners. They were either captured through fighting or surrendered on their own initiative. But now, in order to survive, most of them expressed their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the King of Kings.

For Ibrahim, he was unwilling to divide his troops and station them in various places at this juncture. These surrendered troops seemed to be a good choice. It's just that only the companions are worthy of being included. Except for these personal servants supported by Burke and Emir with a lot of money, everyone else in the army is just a make-up.

The part that has been incorporated is stationed in various places under Piri Bey to protect the safety of roads and countryside. If nothing else happens, the part that has been incorporated in Hisar should also be incorporated into local troops to maintain Safavid control of the local area. control.

Before that, Ibrahim must first carry out a large-scale purge of the surrendered troops. He will not accept any of the original mid-level and senior officers, and he will not kill them. He will just let them go to the river or Feier. Gan Na chose another Ming master.

Khahobard and Abdul, along with other senior officers, thought it would be better to kill them instead, claiming that doing so would increase the strength of potential enemies.

Ibrahim disagreed: "They are all alone now. It is hard to say whether they can reach Samarkand or Andiyan safely. A military leader without troops will inevitably be looked down upon, unless he has a reputation for being good at fighting before or has a Personal friendship, otherwise it will not be reused. And not having soldiers and horses means that it will not increase its strength, and one more Burke means one more fiefdom, which is a burden. "

This is also good for his reputation. The incident of a large number of Burkes escaping north itself is promoting his martial arts. No matter how powerful the information is, it still needs to be spread. There are dozens of free publicists.

But no matter what, everyone still thought it would be better to kill him. However, seeing that Ibrahim was not convinced, the order was still issued unchanged.

The Burkes, who originally thought they could find a good position with their new master, were very surprised after hearing this arrangement - how can anyone in this world kick off all the military leaders when recruiting troops? Aren't they afraid of mutiny among the soldiers?

"There is something wrong with this arrangement. You miscommunicated the order. Aren't you afraid of being held accountable by your master?" The Burkes first questioned the bow holders who came to convey the order, expressing their disbelief in this fact.

Seeing that the prisoners of war did not cooperate, the bow holders were not polite and directly drew their weapons and threatened: "You are just prisoners now. How dare you disobey the order of the King of Kings? We will use our swords to fight you here." There will be no punishment if you kill him. If you don’t want to end up with this fate, then just do what I tell you!”

How dare the Burkes resist? Those who are really brave will either die on the battlefield or escape successfully and will not appear in the castle dungeon. Being isolated, they could not see their respective tribesmen, so there was no way to incite dissatisfaction.

On the school grounds of the camp outside the city, look for the bookstore www.zhaoshuyuan.com. The disarmed surrendered troops are being gathered to listen to orders about their recruitment. The military judge read out the order and first assured the prisoners below that they would follow the principle of voluntariness, but this was nonsense. How could a companion who was used to plundering and fighting endure the life of plowing and grazing cattle and horses for the master?

Then they learned that the Burke men they were originally loyal to would no longer lead and own them. The surrendered troops would be completely disrupted and mixed with Afghan soldiers. Afghan soldiers of all ethnic groups who had pledged their allegiance to the King of Kings earlier than them There is no doubt that they occupy most of the officer positions.

Finally, their treatment was announced. As local troops, the pay they received every quarter was undoubtedly much less than that of red-headed field troops, and they had almost no chance of making a fortune by grabbing trophies.

Hearing this news, everyone felt relieved, for them. Being turned into a slave or being dismissed is the most terrible thing. Being able to continue to be a superior military commander is considered a mercy of God.

After all the orders were read out, the companions, who were no longer prisoners of war, regained some of their energy and participated in the subsequent reorganization.

After the prisoner issue was properly dealt with, the most urgent issue for Ibrahim was not the disposal of the loot. In addition to Balkh, Kunduz and Hisar, which the Safavid army had captured, Khosrow's territory also included Badakhshan in the mountains to the east. As one of the famous gem distribution centers and business nodes, Ibrahim could not let go of this source of wealth.

He didn't know whether Burke, who was stationed in Badakhshan, would accept the fact that Huslao was defeated, and he was somewhat unsure of the candidates and the number of troops.

In the end, he decided to hand over the job of recruiting and surrendering Badakhshan to Romulukhan, and at the same time seconded Salman and some artillery to him to ensure the smooth reception of the work.