The Sun and the Lion

"His Majesty the Shah not only prepared a large and elite cavalry team just like the kings of the past, but also had countless artillery pieces with him. There are no less than a hundred snake cannons that need to be dragged by mules and horses to move..."

"The news that the Persian army is about to set off is exciting. The historic event of the newly rising great conqueror ending the Turkish threat once and for all happened right in front of my eyes! May God bless these Muslims who are practicing justice, even if they were Christians Enemy of the traitors." Franco, the Venetian ambassador who accompanied the army, wrote in his diary.

At this time, Nur Ali Khalifa Bey, the deputy recommended by Ustaji Khan, had already led a thousand Kurdish cavalry to carry out armed reconnaissance in Ottoman territory. The main body of the army soon departed from Diyarbakır and planned to attack directly via Erbistan. Kayseri.

The messenger to Tbilisi passed the order to Heraclius, the commander of the partial division, and the Caucasus Christians would advance westward along the Black Sea coast to destroy the Ottoman rule on the Black Sea coast.

The reply from Cairo arrived when the army was crossing the Taurus Mountains. Ibrahim's polite inquiry received a friendly response from Cansu Ghauri, stating that Iran's military actions did not cause misunderstandings on the Egyptian side. At least the Safavid army was much more civilized than Timur and did not first go to Syria under the Mamluks to burn, kill and plunder.

In the letter, the Mamluk Sultan only briefly supported Ibrahim verbally, and did not promise to personally join the war. He even religiously hoped that Safavid would publicly convince all Ukraine in the name of the Abbasid Caliphate before the war. Madu was convinced of the reason for the war. If there was a lack of legitimacy, he said that he would not be able to convince the inside at the right moment to cooperate with the heretics to attack the Ottomans, and could only provide all support except help. He hoped that Ibrahim would consider it carefully.

In fact, Kansu Ghauri had ordered an army to be assembled on standby. Aleppo Governor Hail Bey personally led an army stationed on the border of Mamluks and Ramazan, with a size of less than 10,000.

This frontier official who had been bribed by the Ottomans passed the diplomatic information between the two countries to the high gate through secret channels: "Cairo has reached some kind of agreement with the heretics, but it is only a symbolic gesture at the moment, and other possibilities are not ruled out."

But Hail's attitude is similar to Kansu Gauri's - just wait and see. If Osman was defeated and could not fulfill his promise, he would immediately destroy all stored letters and tokens and cut off contact.

"As I expected, the Mamluks chose to stay out of it." Egypt's neutrality was the best-case scenario for Ibrahim. He did not need an "ally" who was not under his control to share the victory. He only needed everyone to watch how he beat the world-famous Ghazi Osman to death.

During the march, the scribes helped Ibrahim prepare a message before arriving in Elbistan. He first denied it at the religious level, accusing the current Ottomans of being a hopelessly degenerate country morally and religiously. After accusing Sunnis of their fallacies and emphasizing the correctness of Shias, he used reality as an example to explain: "What is happening in Roma right now between brothers and fathers killing each other for some worldly gain is enough to make the world aware of their depravity and sin. No human being with conscience should allow cancer to survive in the world. The sword of truth will definitely remove everything in the world. Religious error, moral decadence and political corruption!”

At the end of the message, he strongly endorsed Murad's righteous act of turning from darkness to light and converting to true faith, and praised: "If you ask who the legal ruler of Roma should be, I think the answer should be self-evident in the hearts of true Muslims. I Follow the guidance of the Imam and act out of noble moral obligation to correct the righteous order in the world on behalf of Huda and protect the fundamental interests of the entire Ummah.”

Attacking the Ottomans on the grounds of exterminating heretics is undoubtedly a bad move in diplomacy, not to mention that the staff responsible for writing the article used the sharpest possible words to attack the sect at the request of Ibrahim. This legitimacy will certainly not win the support of Sunnis. recognized. However, this factor was secondary, and Ibrahim did not take it to heart.

The journey from Diyarbakir to Erbistan took the army 12 days. Bozkurt received the King of Kings and the Mirza brothers with fear, and offered to provide supplies for the army coming over the mountains. Military supplies - Previously, he only knew that the Safavids were gathering an army in Diyarbakır to prepare for the westward expedition to Roma, but Ibrahim never knew that the iron hooves of the Iranian army would step through Durkadir.

In order to appease Dulqadir Bey, Ibrahim, who showed off his powerful military power, assured him that the Safavid army was a righteous force with strict military discipline and noble principles, and would not bully weak friends wantonly. Ismail, who brought his wife and concubines with the army, also sent Old Bey's daughter to the court, allowing her to chat with her father and brother about their daily life and their experiences in Isfahan in peace. Looking for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com, he believed that his daughter had not fallen out of favor. Bozkurt felt a little confident.

Even so, the development of the situation so far has not required the use of force. Simply allowing the army to transit and proactively providing supplies is enough to comply. As for officially honoring Safavid as the suzerain, Bozkurt still had to wait until after the war. Ibrahim also wanted to resolve the main contradiction before dealing with these trivial matters that would not have much impact on the war situation.

The King of Kings, who had no intention of conquering Guo on false terms, did not instruct any small moves against Durkadir. He continued to coordinate the main army divided into several parts to march to the target as planned, and to deal with the reconnaissance brought back by the scouts. intelligence.

The first enemy who stood in front of the army was Ahmed, the self-proclaimed sultan of Konya. After occupying Karaman, he not only regarded this act as a political statement, but also truly managed the separated land as his own kingdom. . Unable to cross the strait temporarily, he tried to launch an attack on Korkut to expand his territory. After the attack failed, he retreated.

According to Nur Ali's report, today's defense in the Karaman region is extremely chaotic - many Sipaxi who refuse to recognize Ahmed's legitimacy have been deprived of their Timar fiefs and given to loyalists, elite soldiers, and even everything they can. The resources used to strengthen the military were all amassed by Ahmed greedily, leaving the power left for local defense extremely empty.

It can be said that there is almost no resistance to the current march to Kayseri and the capture of surrounding towns.

The forward troops led by Ustaji Khan quickly advanced to Kayseri. Local citizens discovered that nearly 10,000 unknown cavalrymen suddenly appeared under the city wall from the east, and they urgently prepared to defend the city under the organization of local officials. After the messenger who went to Konya to ask for help left, the city fell into disagreements and remained undecided on the issue of whether to send a messenger to contact this group of people.