The Sun and the Lion

When Samuel's good news in Genoa spread to Aleppo and even Tabriz, it was already several months later. Armenian businessmen with open ideas chartered ships in Antioch and Beirut and collected information about the geography of Western Europe. and business information to identify next trading partners.

Naturally, such a big move could not be hidden from Venice and the Ottomans. Bayezid II did not stop it. Instead, he ordered Kemal Reis to restrain the Turkic pirates and make way for the ships heading to Genoa.

Many goods that were originally shipped to Venice are now placed in Genoa's business stores. Such NTR behavior makes Venetians angry. Watching competitors make money is much more uncomfortable than losing money because of the war.

But the Senate remained calm. First, it had not yet reached an armistice with the Ottomans and had no energy to spend on negotiating with the Persians. Second, this is inconsistent with their past diplomatic policy.

For pagan trading partners like the Mamluks, Venice would not use force to make outright threats. It would be more effective to gain the favor and trust of the local rulers.

In order to achieve this goal, the Venetian government has stipulated many rules and regulations to restrict merchants who go to the Levant and Egypt to do business. Even if the local governor detains all the merchants because of the behavior of other Italians, there will only be envoys who patiently talk to the governor with gifts. Negotiate.

It was through economic and diplomatic means that Venice successfully squeezed Genoa out of Egypt and the Levant.

In this regard, the Senate temporarily only gave an order to Francesco, asking him to tactfully remind the King of Kings that there is still a treaty between Safavid and Venice, and these win-win clauses have not expired.

…………

A few months passed after the order from Venice reached Tabriz, and it was already in the autumn of 1501 when it reached Francesco. He had just been invited by the King of Kings to participate in the hunting activities in the next few weeks. As an envoy abroad, he gladly agreed, just in time to get to know the powerful people of Persia better.

In the past few months, Francesco has been actively participating in various social activities, which has made him familiar with the nobles and bureaucrats in the court, and everyone has a good attitude towards this Frankish pagan. A lot.

The frequent activities consumed so much of his energy that he did not read carefully the latest news delivered by the consul in Aleppo. He did not pay attention to it until the order from the mainland.

Previously, the Venetian consul in Aleppo took the initiative to negotiate with the Safavid consul after informing the ambassador of the matter. However, the Safavid consul did not take it seriously, and the negotiation went nowhere. He had to report the matter to the mainland to let others know. The Senate gave orders to the ambassador.

Francesco, who was completely unprepared for this matter, didn't know how to convince Ibrahim. Even so, he could only bite the bullet and go to see the King of Kings.

The Venetian envoy, who was led into the study by the eunuch, bowed and saluted Ibrahim: "The foreign minister has made an abrupt request to see Your Majesty because he has something important to report to you."

He immediately took out the letters sent from the mainland and the Aleppo consulate, explained what he understood to Ibrahim with the thoughts that he had roughly sorted out before, and said: "Dear King of Kings, the Republic and your The relationship is unbreakable and the Republic is very sincere in its dealings with you."

Regarding what Francesco mentioned, Ibrahim had previously received the consul's report through the foreign vizier. He did not comment on the royal merchants' behavior of choosing another way out. He only cared about whether they could make full profits on time. Turn it over.

Venice's diplomatic attitude was also within his expectations, and it was unable to be hostile to Ottoman during the war.

Ibrahim said deliberately: "Well, I think so too. The friendship and mutual benefit between the two countries will last until the Day of Judgment. But the ambassador came just for this? I thought you had prepared your luggage in advance and planned to Those who walk with me.”

When Francesco saw that Ibrahim did not respond directly to the question, he knew that something was going to be a big problem. It would be rude to continue to pester him like this. I had no choice but to follow his words and say: "Yes, it is an honor for the foreign minister to travel with you. This is the reason why I am requesting an audience."

"Okay, but according to my arrangement, you were originally going to go with my team. When you arrive at the hunting ground, your tent will also be arranged near the big tent." Ibrahim then waved his hand impatiently. Signaling Francesco to step back.

Seeing the sudden signal, the messenger had no choice but to swallow the rhetoric he had just thought of, bowed and left.

Francesco's arrival was unlucky. Just before he arrived, reports from Bukhara and Hormuz were delivered to his study. The King of Kings was actually more curious about the two reports, but by chance he bumped into the Venetian who came to see him.

Ibrahim immediately opened the report and read the official documents carefully. The first one was from Bukhara. Look for the book www.zhaoshuyuan.com. Since the withdrawal of troops from Bukhara, he has not heard any news in the river, whether it is the Uzbek Khan, Babur and both Chagatai Khans fell into rare silence.

In Samarkand, the reinforcements led by Gaurabeli had swelled to 4,000 cavalry by recruiting herdsmen, broken troops, and bandits, making them the most powerful troops in Babur's account.

In order to deceive Babur's trust, he spent a lot of effort to restrain the troops, and his behavior in the court was not domineering, at least he did not intimidate everyone to wear red hats and convert to Shia.

The Uzbek Khan, who had been silent for a long time, was not discouraged by the defeat. Shaibani knew that Bukhara and Samarkand were temporarily out of reach, so he changed the direction of his attack. He first marched north to the Kipchak grassland, attacked the Kazakh Khanate, and captured part of the grassland and the more important nomadic population.

Now he once again led his army across the river of medicine and attacked the unaccepted Khwarezm. It has been besieging the city for several months now, and cities including Khiva will soon surrender. Shabani, who owns Khwarezm, will have more solid financial resources.

"This is a problem..." Ibrahim put the report aside and looked through the battle reports from the Persian Gulf.

There was all good news here. The joint operations of Jacob and Ehsan were effective. The army of the Jabrid dynasty was successfully defeated. The old sultan was killed on the spot, and the prince and emir fled in all directions. All the settlements in the Hassa oasis were sacked and destroyed in flames.

The Battle of Hofuf completely established Safavid's dominance in the Persian Gulf. After that, the army successfully took over Qatar, and Muscat, as far away as the coast of Oman, also took the initiative to request protection. At this point, the port wealth will be directed to Tabriz.

"Very good, I don't need to go into battle myself." Seeing that none of his ministers had lost their temper, Ibrahim ended the day's work with satisfaction.