The Sun and the Lion

The review ended successfully. Ibrahim ordered to reward the soldiers present and accepted their thanks. After leaving the school grounds, he finally went to inspect the military supplies and the royal stables before returning to the palace.

The capital's reserves are very rich. Thousands of fabrics, leathers, iron armors and nearly a thousand horse armors are scattered and stored in warehouses such as the royal palace, the castle in the old city and military camps on the outskirts of the city. Spare swords, spears, bowstrings and arrows are also available. The number of knives, guns, hammers, bows, etc. is also concentrated in these warehouses. There are tens of thousands of them each, and more than a million arrows. If they are well maintained, they are enough to arm an army of over ten thousand people from scratch. .

The royal stables in Isfahan received a batch of fine horses moved from Tabriz when the capital was moved. The military horses here alone are almost enough to supply the guard cavalry stationed in the capital. The horses used in the palace and the official horses used in local government offices also come from here.

After the official duties were over, Ismail, who accompanied him on the inspection, did not say goodbye and leave, but followed him back to the palace. Upon seeing this, Ibrahim thought that his younger brother was taking the initiative to invite him to go hunting with him or there was something urgent. But this time He guessed wrong.

In the corridor of the Grand Palace, Ismail said: "Brother, Dulqadir Bey has a young daughter who has reached marriageable age but has not yet been married. I heard that this rose is extremely beautiful..."

At first, Ibrahim thought that his younger brother saw that his harem was empty and wanted to introduce someone to help solve the issue of heirs. However, the map was too short, and Ismail ran out of ideas before he could even organize the vocabulary for rejection. See you.

Ismail, who had already understood his second brother's thoughts and knew that he did not want to marry more, did not hide anything and asked directly: "I want to marry this beauty into the palace. If you don't object, can you give me the order?" Wan sent an envoy to Elbistan to discuss the marriage with Bey?”

Ibrahim did not nod or shake his head immediately: "There is still a lot of time today, so let's do this. I will summon Assad to discuss it together." Then he led him back to the study to wait, drink and chat.

Not long after, the foreign vizier stepped into the room and saluted the two of them respectively: "Your Majesty, Mirza, why have you summoned this minister?"

"Sit down." Ibrahim turned to look at Ismail, and then continued: "I wonder if you have heard that Bey Bozkurt of Durkadir has an unmarried daughter?"

"Your Majesty, the rumors are true. I also heard that she has no suitable marriage partner. Do you want to marry this lady into the harem?" Assad, who thought that the King of Kings planned to marry Durkadir, asked.

Ibrahim once again turned his gaze to Mirza's side, and this time it was Ismail who spoke: "Vizir, it is not the royal brother who wants to marry her, but me, and I came here to discuss with you. The matter of sending an envoy to Elbistan.”

Seeing the King of Kings nodding, Assad reminded: "Your Majesty, Your Highness, marrying Durkadir will also marry Sultan Bayezid of Roma, which will easily lead to some diplomatic consequences."

Caught between major powers, Durkadir has established complex marriage relationships with its powerful neighbors for its own interests. The current Bey Bozkurt is currently dancing on two eggs. His daughter Aisha married Bayezid II. She was also the niece of Muhammad II's concubine Sitisha. Two generations of Osman Padishahs were married to Durkadir.

However, Bozkurt had some objections to the marriage with Osman - his daughter Ashe was not favored in Bayezid's harem, and none of the surviving Ottoman princes is his grandson. In addition, his sister Sitisha was also not favored by Fatih Sultan before, and it is absolutely impossible for an Uthman Padishah to be related to Durgadir in the future.

As for the other concubine, also named Aishe, who was given to Gulbaha and was born in Pontus or Albania, she gave birth to Prince Selim, who now guards Trabzon, in Amasya. The two concubines were also confused by some historians of later generations as the same person.

Compared with the Ottomans, Durkadir's marriage to the south is even weaker. The power system of the Mamluk Sultanate is not a typical monarchy. What he can connect with is not the supreme power sitting in Cairo, but the power entrenched in Syria. Prominent families, the Mamluks in these places can only influence the political situation in Cairo and cannot provide security for Durkadir. Even so, he is closer to the Mamluks.

The rise of the Safavids gave Bozkurt a new option to cling to. Although he tried to profit from it when the Aries Dynasty collapsed, the Safavid army captured and pacified the two rivers while he was still waiting. In the river basin, he didn't catch any opportunities to take advantage of others, so naturally he didn't have any grudges.

After confirming that the emerging Iranian Shahr was a giant that neither Costantiniya nor Cairo wanted to provoke, Bozkurt finally took action. He bypassed the King of Kings, who had no intention of expanding the harem for the time being, and looked for Shuyuan. www.zhaoshuyuan. ｃcom secretly wrote to Mirza, hoping to establish relations with the Safavid royal family through him in order to seek further relations between the two countries.

"Isn't it right for a small country to pay tribute to please a big country?" With this thought in mind, Mirza, who was already curious about this famous princess, planned to accept her readily.

It wasn't until Ismail took out this letter that Ibrahim understood why the third brother was so sudden. Assad on the side was very wary of this "gift".

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, if we accept this foreign princess, what obligations will our country have towards Durkadir? Will the outside world misunderstand the relationship between our country and Roma?" Assad continued to remind him bluntly. The two brothers were not afraid of provoking foreign enemies, but were worried that the monarch would be blinded by beauty and unable to weigh the pros and cons rationally.

Ibrahim did not think for long, and directly said: "A Bey's daughter will marry as soon as she gets married. Is it possible that someone will go to war with me for her? If he is willing to provide convenience in affairs with Ottoman, then no fine?"

He had already thought about it. Since Bozkurt wanted to move closer to Safavid, he would have to sell more than just a daughter. Elbistan was closer to the hinterland of Asia Minor than Diyarbakir.

As for whether Safawi's intervention in Durkadir would cause dissatisfaction in Cairo, he was not worried. Although he could not guess the true thoughts of Kansu Ghauri or Aleppo Governor Hailbey, Durkadir is not its core interest. The addition of Safavid has instead formed a more stable triangle, making it more difficult to monopolize the buffer zone.

Seeing that the decision had been made, the Foreign Affairs Vizier bowed his head and accepted the order: "Your Majesty, I have gone to arrange for the envoy to reply to the other party."

"Okay, go." Ibrahim waved away Assad, leaving the happy Ismail to continue to be alone with him.