The Sun and the Lion

That evening, the village of Baidush on the west bank of the Tigris River

"Your Majesty is fine, just rest for a while." The army doctor who was standing in front of the camp tent was a little nervous as he was surrounded by Khans and Bergs of all sizes. Romlu Khan and Ustaji Khan, who were standing at the front, first looked at each other and then asked to go in to see Ibrahim.

"Let them come in." Ibrahim gave an order and made way for the bow holder guarding the door. Then Romlu Khan, Ustaji Khan and Afshar Khan followed the imperial doctor and entered. People were standing at the door waiting.

Ibrahim was not seriously injured in the first place. The cushioning inside the armor and his young body would not allow him to break a few bones or become dementia after a fall.

"Your Majesty, I am relieved to see that you are safe. Thank you to the Almighty Lord." After Ibrahim fell off his horse, the initial rumors were not outrageous, but the news that spread to other troops during the retreat was It was exaggerated a lot. There were rumors that Ibrahim was seriously injured that was difficult to heal. Some said that Ibrahim had lost the ability to fight and govern.

The most serious one is that he died. According to different rumors, the circumstances of Ibrahim's death are different. Some say his head was cut off and presented to Ahmed, and then the skull was made into a wine bowl. Some say he was trampled by horse hooves. Meaty, etc.

Didn't Ibrahim put his flag in the center? But the officers all knew that it was not Ibrahim who was actually in the Chinese army, and the soldiers knew about it. This trick did not fool their own people.

When they first heard these rumors, the Khans did not believe them and punished some unlucky ones for disturbing the morale of the army. However, this failed to stop the spread of the messages. The more they heard, although the Khans still The disbelief was written on their faces, but they were still a little shaken in their hearts, especially during the retreat, when they were unable to determine the authenticity of the news.

"I'm fine. The key is the troops. How are the troops doing now?"

"Your Majesty, the enemy did not pursue a large-scale pursuit of our troops when they retreated. This provided great convenience for the officers to maintain order in the troops. Therefore, this time it did not turn into a rout, and there were still very few soldiers who failed to gather back." The person in charge of the rear of the palace Afshar Khan answered first.

Romulukhan took out the statistics jointly given by the quartermaster and military judge and handed them to Ibrahim, "Your Majesty, this is the loss of our army during the daytime battle."

First of all, Ibrahim lost a number roughly equivalent to five regiments of cavalry in the day's battle, the majority of which were Armenians and Georgians who followed Ibrahim directly into the enemy's lines. Then came the number of missing soldiers and soldiers executed according to military law. The two categories combined only numbered more than a hundred people.

Then there is the logistics situation of the army. The pack animals transporting supplies and the supplies on them have been lost. The soldiers only have arrows in their quivers. There is no condition to maintain their swords and armor for the time being because there is a lack of medical treatment and there are no wounded soldiers. Got well taken care of, just food and water not too much to worry about.

"I know." Although the loss of personnel was not much, the supplies were almost lost. Ibrahim believed that the troops would not be able to fight Ahmed again before returning to Erbil for supplies.

"Your Majesty, there is a wise man who wants to see you." A guard came in to announce.

"Who?" The Khans and Ibrahim asked together.

"It doesn't hurt to meet." Ibrahim thought for a moment and agreed to the request.

After meeting this man and seeing his appearance clearly, Afshar Khan said: "Heraclius, why are you here?"

The Georgian officer known as Heraclius just smiled and nodded to Afshar Khan, then stepped forward to salute Ibrahim and said: "Your loyal servant, Heraclius from the Bagrationi family. , I send you my most sincere blessings. With the blessing of the Lord, you will surely be able to destroy all enemies safely."

"Heraclius, the Bagrationi family is a bit interesting." Ibrahim thought silently in his heart.

Afshar Khan stepped forward and said to Ibrahim: "Your Majesty, please allow me to introduce to you this heroic man of scripture. He led his troops to join my rear troops during the retreat. You know, There were very few volunteers who were willing to take the rear. He also heroically defeated the small group of enemies who came to pursue him with lance and sword - I saw this with my own eyes. His other achievements are written in the battle report."

"Your Majesty, this is just my duty as an officer." Heraclius said humbly, with a tone and expression so sincere that others could think that these battle results were not really his.

Looking at Heraclius's face, Ibrahim felt a little familiar.

"Your unit is the fastest and most violent of all the Georgian cavalry regiments?" Ibrahim swallowed the most desperate thing.

"yes."

Curious Romruhan asked: "You are from the Bagrationi royal family, why are you just a captain of thousands? Isn't the rank of a Georgian officer determined by his birth?"

"Dear Romruhan, I am just an inconspicuous branch member of the Bagrationi family..." Heraclius told everyone present his experience.

To sum up, this small lord in charge of a village left the chaotic and unfriendly Georgia with his family for his own selfish desires, and went to join the Afshar tribe, the Turkmen tribe that most often dealt with Georgians.

This defection incident made most of the audience feel disgust and disdain in their hearts, but no one directly pointed out Heraclius.

The Afshar tribe believed that Heraclius was very valuable and had good abilities, so Afshar Khan made him his personal guard. Heraclius invaded Georgia with Afshar Khan many times and achieved some military exploits. He was gradually promoted and rewarded some herdsmen, cattle and sheep to him. However, due to religious reasons, he was always rejected by other tribal nobles, and Afshar Khan did not dare to ignore these nobles, which caused Heraclius' career to encounter another bottleneck.

It was at this time that Ibrahim raised his army and continued to follow Afshar Khan during the order's conquest of Georgia, but this time he was defeated. On the way to escape, Heraclius was always at the rear, thus preserving the remaining strength of Afshar's tribe.

Although Heraclius helped the Turkmens invade their hometown and harmed the interests of his family, which was very disdainful, the record certified by Afshar Khan still made everyone slowly put aside their prejudice against Heraclius.

After Ibrahim took control of Tabriz, with the permission of Kayhobad, he led some of his cronies and recruited Georgians to apply for the army. Under Ibrahim's command, he took advantage of the Battle of Uyan. With his military exploits, he became a captain of thousands.

At this point, the only thing everyone criticizes about Heraclius is religion. He was unwilling to give up Orthodox Christianity from beginning to end.

"To Georgian Christians, especially to the Bagrationi family, this is a scum and a gangster, but to me he is a competent subordinate." Ibrahim silently evaluated Heraclius in his heart.

"So, Captain Heraclius, you came to my tent not just to introduce yourself, right?" Ibrahim asked Heraclius in front of him, and the crowd's discussion became much quieter for a while. .