The Sun and the Lion

The distance of more than 80 kilometers is less than a day's journey for the cavalry. Ahmed's army has been besieging Mosul for nearly four months. It is impossible for Ibrahim not to know Ahmed's location. This means that if Murad attempts to relieve the siege of Mosul, Ahmed will be under pressure from both sides and will either be defeated or take the initiative to withdraw his troops.

However, when the war reached this point, Ahmed was unwilling to take the initiative to withdraw from the siege. If he took the initiative to withdraw from the siege, not only would his food, grass and money be wasted, but his own prestige would also be hit, and he would oppress his vassals who continued to pay tribute. They may betray directly, and the Turkmen tribe leaders under their command may also become disloyal.

Looking at Mosul in the distance, under the sunlight, it can be clearly seen that the colors and materials of several sections of the city walls are different, indicating that the city has been violently attacked several times, but they were all blocked. , the gap that was opened was quickly filled by the residents of the city.

The Tigris River near the city is even more infuriating. Mosul relies on supplies transported through the river from Baghdad downstream to survive to this day. Ahmed did not have artillery, and the arrows fired by manpower could not damage the cargo ship at all. The accuracy of the stones shot without manpower was too poor, and whether they could hit it was purely luck. And the transport team is not a fool. Knowing that Ahmed will deploy siege engines to try to sink the ship, they often appear in the Mosul river section at night to provide supplies to the city. In this way, even if Ahmed has Knowing the news, the troops could only watch because they were unable to cause damage.

The more he thought about it, the more angry he became. Ahmed picked up the pipe again and took a few puffs to calm down.

In this case, we can only end it with Ibrahim before Murad comes. If we win, even if we withdraw from the siege in the end, our prestige will not be lost too much.

That's 50,000 Qizilbash.

Ahmed thought excitedly, and instead of reaching for the smoke, he ordered the waiter: "Call the leaders, and remember to put away all the smoking utensils."

After a while, the leaders saw Ahmed, who was very excited. They looked at each other first. If it weren't for etiquette, some leaders who thought the opening method was wrong would want to exit and then come in again. As soon as they sat down, the leaders began to discuss quietly.

"Everyone, prepare your tribes, the battle is about to begin!" These words could not be ignored by the leaders. Originally, the time for the attack was scheduled for today or tomorrow. The leaders were summoned to the big tent just to make another announcement. Order? As for mobilization, it is even more strange. Ahmed and his troops all live deep in the big tent and have basically no contact with ordinary soldiers. If they are free, they spend the whole night enjoying themselves with senior officers. Mobilization rallies are usually in front of of the soldiers is completely superfluous to the leaders.

The chatter became louder.

"I'm not calling everyone here to arrange a storm. We have already made this plan. What we want to discuss this time is to deal with the Safavid red head."

The discussion was much quieter.

Facing dozens of confused faces, Ahmed pointed to the city of Erbil east of Mosul on the map, his fingertips swept across two converging lines, and pressed on the black dots.

"According to the latest intelligence, the city of Erbil has changed hands and has become a military camp for Shiite hypocrites."

"Then what do you want? Your Majesty. The two armies are separated by the Dabuza River and the Tigris River. Although there are not many bridges, there are about six sandbars in the middle of the river from the city south to the intersection of the two rivers. Cross the river.”

A sandbank in the middle of the river? Ahmed was surprised, then annoyed.

"Why didn't you tell me such important information in advance? Why didn't you mark it on the map?"

The leaders and staff looked at each other, and no one was too embarrassed to break the window paper, so they said directly: It is you who hide in the big tent to enjoy yourself all day long, and also ordered not to talk about official business during entertainment time, and only come out to symbolically observe the battle situation after the storm. As for map information updates, how many times have you looked at the map carefully?

Ahmed rubbed his temples, and then began to improve his blockade, and at the same time used the sandbar to project troops to the east bank of the Tigris River to warn possible enemies.

Fifty kilometers south of Mosul, about fifteen kilometers south of the confluence of the Tigris River and the Great Zab River, Golaberi arrived here in advance with six regiments of cavalry. This place far exceeded Ahmed's The patrol range of the scouts.

In order to ensure the marching speed, this special force only brought the equipment they wore and enough food for seven days. When encountering rivers, they could only find shoals and wade directly across them.

But Gaolaberi was lucky. The crossing point he was looking for not only had many sandbars and a gentle flow, but also had villages on the opposite side. Compared with uninhabited areas or areas with few sandbars, the conditions here were undoubtedly much better.

In the north, if according to the plan, Ibrahim had already crossed the Great Zab River with a huge main force and began to approach the Tigris River.

As the first centurion crossed the Tigris River, the tragedy of this unknown village also unfolded.

It happened to be the harvest season, and the red heads plundered a lot of grain from large and small warehouses. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan． com However, Gaolaberi did not want to march with a cart, and wanted to exchange the excess food and grass for something more valuable.

As a result, under the organization of the officers, all the excess food reappeared in the bazaar, but the price was ridiculously high. Villagers who did not want to starve to death exhausted their wealth to buy food that could barely survive. The red heads also bought and sold by force, catching all the villagers who tried to escape, forcing them to hand over all their property, and then gave them a symbolic amount of rations that were not enough to eat.

In order to save time, the officers strictly restrained the soldiers, not to be burdensome and not to do things that waste time, such as rape. Soon, 6,000 cavalrymen headed north together with an unknown number of beasts of burden carrying grain, grass and property. These beasts of burden slightly slowed down the marching speed of the troops, but considering the emotions of the soldiers, it was impossible for Gaolaberi to give up these beasts of burden voluntarily, and he could also get more than a share of the spoils.

At the same time, on Ibrahim's side, the vanguard led by Mustafa crossed the plain between the two rivers and appeared in the sight of the Aries scouts. After Mustafa dispersed the scouts, he made contact with Ahmed's troops deployed on the east bank to consolidate the siege.

Mustafa did not want to rely on inferior troops to perform a wild boar charge. Although the red heads were very powerful, such a simple and crude mindless charge would throw everything out of control and possibly cause unnecessary losses.

So the cavalry simply harassed with arrows, hoping to lure the enemy away from the Tigris. However, the response to the harassment was a counterattack from the opposite side. The opposing commander was more cautious. In addition, he had a force mainly composed of cavalry. Shooting against an enemy with a numerical disadvantage was naturally the most stable method.

Seeing that the opponent did not take the bait, Mustafa had no choice but to wait for the main force to arrive. The other party's messenger also crossed the river and returned to the camp to report the news.