The Sun and the Lion

While the bureaucrats in Baghdad were still immersed in the joy of promotion, the King of Kings had been stationed here for more than a week and traveled south along the river to Basra. During this part of the journey, Ibrahim did not choose to take the land route. Instead, he experienced inland shipping. He quickly arrived at his destination by boat through natural rivers and canals. At the same time, this was the first time he took a boat since he came to this world.

At the lowest reaches of the Mesopotamia, the Euphrates, Tigris and Karon rivers from Khuzestan merge into the same river course, the Shatt al-Arab, connecting the ports of Baghdad, Ahvaz and Basra.

When I first left Baghdad, the scenery on both sides of the river was pretty much the same, with irrigated farms, pastures, and wastelands that had not been utilized for various reasons intertwined. Later, these scenes were replaced by patches of reeds, rice fields, fishing boats, and buffaloes in the wetlands.

The river warship that was temporarily requisitioned as the royal vehicle docked at the river port outside the city of Basra. This is the headquarters of the river fleet. The person who led the team to greet them on the shore was the admiral of this force.

Mainly stationed in the suburbs of Basra, the River Fleet further upstream of the city was also established by taking advantage of Ibrahim's investment in building a navy. Their jurisdiction mainly includes all navigable waters in the two river basins, and the wetlands in the lower reaches are very suitable for hiding. Water bandits, and the existence of the river fleet is completely necessary to eliminate such hidden dangers.

"Dear Your Majesty, it is our honor to have you come to Basra and the fleet station. The general will pay tribute to you on behalf of all our colleagues."

Under the recommendation of the admiral, Ibrahim briefly inspected this small army. Since the river fleet is also affiliated with the navy, the equipment and training level of the sailors are no different from those of their colleagues deployed on sea ships and fortresses. How can the water bandits be their opponents?

But there are not only water bandits hiding in the swamp who hijack ships just for money. Since the Safavid Order forced the Musasha Order to surrender and annexed it, some members who refused to accept the status quo have fled abroad, that is, Hiding in the reeds somewhere and passively resisting the rule of the King of Kings, there are people who join forces with the water bandits.

In addition to the die-hard members of the Musa Shah Order, members of other Sufi orders that suffered from Safavid suppression also fled into hiding in areas where government control was weak. These members of the cult who are trying to hide are the key targets of the river fleet's encirclement and suppression.

The suppression of water bandits and the pursuit of dissidents also demonstrated the power of the new regime to the local people. The Marsh Arabs were originally Shia Muslims, while the Mandaeans and other minority groups who were mainly engaged in shipbuilding handicrafts There is no motive for shielding. The change of political power did not force them into a situation where they had to raise troops to resist. Under the soft and hard tactics of the Safavid government, most of the clan leaders and elders actively cooperated with the new masters in managing the grassroots, which in turn further reduced the living space of political opponents.

In this way, even if the river fleet and spies cannot accurately attack all the remnants of the illegal Sufi order, under the surrender of the clans, they can no longer pose any threat to the Safavids among the majority of the obedient people. Can continue to live in anonymity and fear for the rest of his life.

"You all have contributed greatly to the fact that the rivers in Iraq can maintain peace and stability." After verbal praise, Ibrahim planned to reward the sailors additionally.

Seeing that there was a promising future, the admiral immediately knelt down and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward."

After Ibrahim asked the admiral to stand up, the guard came and reported: "Your Majesty, the commander of Basra is waiting outside the camp, requesting an audience."

He waved the admiral back to continue working, and led a group of followers out of the camp. He rode on a horse to receive a group of Basra officials and dignitaries who came to meet them, and followed them into the city.

Although Basra's population is smaller than that of Baghdad, its economic activities are equally developed. The surrounding fertile land and abundant water resources allow it to have rich products, abundant grain storage, and it is an exporter of agricultural products. At the same time, it is located on the banks of the Shatt al-Arab River and is the only seaport in the two river basins. All goods from the sea must pass through here. This concentration not only supports a group of citizens who make a living by trade, but also makes it easier for tax collectors to collect trade goods. levy taxes and reduce administrative costs.

Although the war in the Indian Ocean is raging, there are still more than a hundred merchant ships of various sizes parked in the port. Indian merchants who venture across the ocean rely on translators or accented Arabic to introduce goods to local merchants.

In order to provide protection for the commercial port, several forts are under construction on the shore. However, since it is located deep in the hinterland, it is currently facing almost no threats. The specifications of the forts are not comparable to those of Hormuz, Muscat or Gogo. Ah.

At the same time, these Indian businessmen came into contact with new things at the port of Basra - merchant ships from Yemen brought simply processed coffee beans. com is processed by a local cafe and turned into a drink.

The promotion of coffee in the country is entirely due to Ibrahim's personal hobby. Under the operation of a mature business network, coffee shops have the conditions to appear in major cities in Iran. After spreading over the past few years, the new beverage has been widely recognized by religious circles and citizens. Yemen, which happened to be the origin of coffee, was included in the rule. Seeing this, Dewan, who monopolized the coffee trade, ordered to continue to expand planting to obtain more monopoly income.

After trying it, a wealthy Indian businessman decided to bring coffee beans back to the subcontinent, just like the Syrian and Ottoman traders who happened upon these "Iranian" specialties in the Iranian communities of Aleppo and Bursa.

Naturally, Ibrahim had no way of knowing exactly how these foreign businessmen became obsessed with this new addictive drug, but the increase in monopoly revenue on the bills and statistics from customs tax collectors clearly allowed him to see that sales were broadening.

For Indian businessmen, the changes in the Iranian market are not just that. The total trade volume between Iran and various parts of India is increasing, but the import volume of some goods has declined instead of advancing - such as cane sugar.

With the revival of plantations in Iraq's swamps and Khuzestan, the rebound in sugarcane production has led to the revival of the local sugar industry. It was precisely because of this gap that Indian cane sugar became popular in Iran.

Although today's Iran still needs to import a large amount of cane sugar from India to meet its own needs, some well-informed businessmen have discovered that the sugar cane plantations are expanding around Basra, and more slaves from East Africa have been sold to work. Today's Zhijin owners The job is not to drain the soil of salt, but to tend the sugar cane fields or perform the most strenuous physical work in the sugar factory.

Coffee and cane sugar are just the tip of the iceberg of trade in Basra Port, and Ibrahim's profits from local guilds are far more than that.