The Sun and the Lion

With the advent of famine, Sana'a, which is located inland, does not have the favorable conditions of the Port of Aden. Faced with the impact, Bashar, the 500-man captain who commanded the castle garrison and served as the castle master, could not even raise the food and grass needed by himself and his subordinates. Is there any way to alleviate the disaster in the surrounding area?

As an officer who knew nothing about administrative affairs, he did not know how to deal with this crisis. He could only find public opinion leaders within the city walls to figure out how to tide over the crisis. If it hadn't been for the sharp decline in population caused by several wars, even local citizens would have had to flee north.

In order to maintain control of the city, and also out of submission to the current situation of food shortage, the naval infantry followed the popular sentiment and maintained a tough attitude towards the refugees gathered from the surrounding areas. Iranian matchlocks cooperated with armed citizens who refused to help outsiders to expel and even massacre these refugees. "Stinky people from out of town begging for food."

Even so, Bashar still viewed the locals cautiously, believing that the relationship between the garrison and the citizens of Sana'a was still very fragile. He did not know whether the Zayedi Imam could order the citizens in the city to rebel and attack the castle. We can only bet on how much respect these heretics still have for the governor in Aden.

All he can do is to shrink his strength as much as possible to ensure that the sparse naval infantry will not suffer serious losses due to possible sudden attacks due to scattered deployment. It is safest to huddle all the troops in the castle. In addition, he only sends Human hands are needed to guard the city gates.

However, how could this weak and lonely army not be targeted by hostile forces?

After the winter of 1512 passed, Imam Yahya's operations continued as usual. The food shortage failed to stop the expansion of the Zaid sect. On the one hand, Hussein provided food relief to ensure that military operations would not be unable to proceed due to food shortage. . At the same time, it is also because the imam is not a soft-hearted person. As a temporary leader who took over during the war, Yahya is more like a warlord. The food and clothing of the people under his rule are not as good as the rice bowls of the soldiers.

He even believed that the hungry people replenished his manpower reserves. Once the enemy's castle was broken and the grain stored in it was plundered, all difficulties would be solved. If the peasants could not eat grain, it meant that everything was in the master's warehouse.

Zaid sent soldiers to disguise themselves as a caravan transporting food as planned to deceive the trust of Sana'a guards. Since Bashar wanted to increase the castle's food reserves as much as possible, he wanted to withhold as much food as possible. Move it to your own account.

The desire to monopolize scarce resources became the trigger for the collapse of relations. The mullahs who sneaked into the city made propaganda, incited people's emotions, and lobbied the leading figures in each community.

Without Bashar's knowledge, the Imam's forces successfully infiltrated into Sana'a through sympathizers and arbitrarily probed the situation of the castle garrison.

"Master Bashar, the owner of the fort, the citizens are now gathering in the square with great anger, and collectively petitioning the ulema to send all the food from the caravan to the Bazaar to stabilize food prices, claiming that ensuring adequate supply of daily necessities is Muslim rule. The adjutant reported to him what had happened so far, hoping that the commander could come up with effective ideas to settle the matter.

As a mid-level officer, Bashar's rank is not high enough to support his staff. All he can gather for discussion are other officers within the establishment. The centurions under his command said that the situation is not optimistic: "Sir, there are already mobs in the neighborhood who are openly hostile. Our soldiers gathered together and called the soldiers guarding the city gate heretics, but they have not taken violent action yet, but they cannot sit still and wait for death. This is no longer an ordinary mob, and they must be punished. "

The quartermaster responsible for guarding the treasury added fuel to the fire and said: "Just now, the guards of the warehouse captured a group of agents who intended to explore our army's reserves. Without exception, they were all local people employed in the castle to serve our army. Laborers, they share a lot of necessary chores, but for the sake of safety, I still recommend that all locals be kicked out of the castle and rely on soldiers and followers instead.”

After listening to the report from his subordinates, the current situation seems to be on the verge of breaking out. There is still a need to hesitate to violently suppress the people, but the possible details of garrison employment must not be taken lightly.

"Expelled? It can't be dealt with so easily. You can find an excuse to gather them all and control them, and then interrogate them separately. No one suspected of collaborating with the enemy can be let go." Bashar ordered the "detailed operation" resolutely.

While he continued to hesitate, the protesting crowd still did not disperse, but the situation did not continue to escalate. Both the citizens and the foreign garrison were very restrained.

"The Shah is an irresponsible ruler, he wanted to own this city, the governor only sent a bunch of rude and greedy qhubas to oppress us and really don't care about the people on it, no khadi, no officials, should govern it There is no yamen for various affairs..."

The men sent by the Imam mingled with the crowd and continued to preach that the Safavid heretics were not worthy of ruling Yemen, and continued to incite the citizens' rebellious sentiments.

Time dragged on until the preliminary results of the interrogation were obtained. After being beaten, many people hurriedly admitted that they were sent as agents, but they could not even tell who they were loyal to. Only one or two people had their mouths opened by torture tools: "Imam Ghazi will be here soon to launch a jihad against all heretics in Yemen."

Realizing that there were foreign forces fanning the flames after realizing the abnormal behavior, Bashar changed his gentle attitude and angrily ordered the centurions under his command: "Use lead bullets to disperse the crowd, strengthen the defense of the city gate, and let the remaining people The men went to the streets to hunt down all suspects.”

As soon as the guns were fired, someone was killed immediately. The heavily armed naval infantry poured out from the open castle gate and slaughtered the citizens. The unarmed crowd was just a lamb to be slaughtered. Many people were killed in a short time.

Due to limited manpower, Bashar was not stupid enough to ask his men to search every house. Instead, he marked the key points and asked them to give priority to controlling foreign business travelers and mosques, and to control foreigners and religious authorities.

Thanks to the sharp decline in population and commercial depression, this task was barely beyond the capabilities of the garrison. Most of the caravan members were caught off guard and were arrested, along with the imams, dervishes and ulama who were taken away with dignity. He was detained and interrogated in the castle.

This move angered a group of devout believers, who spontaneously picked up anything that could be used as a weapon to attack any Safavid soldiers walking on the street, and conflicts ensued.

Things are gradually getting out of Bashar's control. The militiamen who had previously maintained a cooperative relationship with the garrison began to refuse to cooperate with his orders. Riots broke out one after another, and the naval infantry were tired of suppressing them.

Everyone is watching this urban riot with bated breath. When will Imam Yahya's troops come to respond? This is the most concerning issue.