After Zanji's envoy left, Li Sihai continued to discuss with his generals about marching into Baghdad.

In the homeland of the Baiyi Dynasty, two wars were fought at the same time, one was the war between the Xia Kingdom and the Rom Turks, and the other was the war between Li Sihai and the Rom Sultan Mesud for legitimacy. When the news of the Xia army's victory in the Battle of Khan City came, Li Sihai immediately quickened the pace of contacting the princes of Dashi. The King of Kings put forward the goal of "marching to Baghdad", on the one hand, to boost morale, and on the other hand, to reflect his inner thoughts, to get rid of the puppet status, there is nothing more convincing than to personally regain the glorious city of Baghdad. Li Sihai knew Xu Wenhu's style of using troops, and he would not act rashly until he was fully prepared, especially when the army of the Xia Kingdom had penetrated deep into the territory of the Baiyi Dynasty and was surrounded by enemies on all sides. Xu Wenhu is good at delaying time and creating a situation of total victory, which gives Li Sihai the opportunity to strike first.

Surrounded by generals, he wrote and drew on the map of the march, drawing out the route and meeting point for the allied armies.

Like a wolf hiding beside two tigers, he inhales the cold air and stares at his opponent with a wary gaze, and once the prey of Messud reveals a fatal flaw, he will try to pounce on the other tiger and bite its throat before it can react, and use the death of the old king to announce the arrival of the new one. Under the nose of Messud, with the remnants of the Baiyi Dynasty and the support of the Xia Kingdom, the new King of Kings secretly continued to accumulate power. This is very encouraging. Every day during the military discussions, the general Sanji would whisper regretfully: "Don't wait any longer, now we can enter Baghdad and hang that damned Messud up and whip his back." His words drew a burst of laughter without question.

Sanji was a slave bought by the Li family from Cairo, but if it wasn't for the Li family's shopkeeper, Sanji, who was still a boy at the time, was likely to be castrated and resold, and he received a perfect upbringing, so he didn't hate the Li family, but hated the Turkic merchants who captured him from his hometown to Cairo to sell, and he still remembers that on the way from his inland hometown to Cairo, many black slaves captured by slave traders were hung up and sucked their backs, and he always wanted to repay this punishment to those Turkic nobles.

"Soon, soon," Li Sihai casually patted Sanji's shoulder and said with a smile, "I promise you." ”

"Once you've caught Mesud, you'll be the first to whip him in the back." The other general laughed.

"Demonstrate from the tower of Baghdad!" Sanji shouted.

"Okay, just show the crowd on the tower of Baghdad." Li Sihai stood up, stretched, and staggered towards the back tent.

Although he has gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, there is still a gap between his strength and Mesud, and now Mesud is like a lion surrounded by hunters, whoever rushes up first may be bitten and killed by a lion. And he, Li Sihai, and many enemies, the emperor of the Lumei Kingdom, and the ambitious Zangji, are all staring at the new master of Baghdad, if he still has to rely on the army of the Xia State to fight the war at that time, what else do you want he, the king of kings, to do? Just as the generals were about to leave, the door of the big tent was opened, and another messenger hurriedly walked in, knelt down on one knee, and presented a secret letter from the country of Lumei to Li Sihai. Li Sihai opened the secret letter in front of the generals, frowned slightly while reading it, and said in a low voice: "This Emperor John is really strange." ”

"God's favor John," Li Sihai said with a sarcastic tone, smiling left and right, "What is he going to do if he doesn't keep that poor family business?" Inviting the Western princes to attack Baghdad together, just with the foundation of the Lumei country, the main body is weak and the guest is strong, does he want to find death? Attack Baghdad, this God's Grace John, he can't even find where my Baghdad gates open, plus a group of men who want to get rich like blind men, I want to see if they trample on each other, or go their separate ways, or go around before the gates of hell...... Zangi is the closest to them, and if they really want to enter Baghdad, they must pass Zangi's pass first. But John, the little little cleverness that he liked to play with him the most, thought that no one else knew what he was thinking, but this boy knew neither his subordinates nor his enemies, he was a ridiculous glass bottle, which looked shiny on the outside, empty on the inside, and very fragile, and if it weren't for that, my good brother would not have stepped on him so easily to become famous. ”

He stood up, handed the secret letter to the guard, and waited to leave, thought for a while, and said, "Inform the military government of the news." ”

"Yes." The guards retreated into the darkness in a low voice, and Li Sihai waved his hand, signaling the generals to return to the camp.

............

The sea breeze blows, the leaves rustle, and the ears of rice sway.

The hills form a circle around the fields like a wall, and in the terraced fields on the inner side of the hills, some fields have been harvested, while in others, ploughing oxen are ploughing, and the warm monsoon brings abundant rainfall, and every evening, it rains heavily on Longzhu Island, and the excess rainwater flows into the fish ponds along the ditches between the ridges and finally to the sea. Under the dazzling sun, the natural scenery of the island seems so peaceful and tranquil. Not far away, on the hill above the port of Longmen Port, Longmen City, a city built completely according to Zhao Xingde's drawings has been standing majestically.

The iron-cast muzzles shone with a cold light, and the battlements occasionally showed the figures of the defenders armed with firearms or crossbows, and although the battle was thousands of miles away, they were still ready to protect this fertile land with their blood. Hundreds of ships, large and small, are moored in the harbor, sailors lie comfortably on the decks to bask in the sun, and merchants compete for every piece of land demarcated by the port chamber of commerce. This is still a newly reclaimed overseas desert island, but anyone who has seen the nautical chart will not underestimate its value, such as Fuhai Xing, Yajiao Xing and other large trading houses have already demarcated the warehouse wharf on Longzhu Island, and even sent the construction of the shopkeeper and apprentices, and the autonomous area of the Chamber of Commerce has also been demarcated.

Although the imperial court bought Longmen City, the autonomy of the Longzhu Island Chamber of Commerce still respects Li Yong's opinion.

Li Yong completely copied the autonomy of the chambers of commerce in Chang'an, Kangguo and Chengdu, however, he deliberately played some small tricks, he provided land to maritime merchants such as Yajiaohang and Fuhaixing at a low price, so as to ensure that these commercial houses would not open up another port and compete with Longzhu Island, and used most of the land of the current chamber of commerce autonomy as a "storage land" in the future, and now allowed to bid to build a warehouse shop The land location is excellent, but the area is very small, so that for small and medium-sized commercial banks, every inch of land in the chamber of commerce area near the wharf will be contested. The price of the shops also climbed steadily, almost catching up with the prices of the prosperous shops in Luoyang, and the money earned was not only enough to pay the military salaries of the defenders of Longzhu Island, but also enough to cover the cost of recruiting farmers and workers to reclaim the island in the next few years.

"This gale, the sailor's trip can be greatly delayed." Zhao Xingde looked at the sea in the west and said in a deep voice.

"The last general checked the wind and tide records of Longmen City, and in the next month or so, there should be no more strong winds like half a month ago." Shi Heng, the head of Sinan's gang, said cautiously, "Sailing from Longzhu Island to the Chola Kingdom, so Lingang, and then from Gulin to the port of the Great Food Princes, the sea route is also smoother than the previous half, and the Great Food Merchants can come in small boats, and our big ships are even more unhindered." In addition, more than half of the merchant ships of the fleet sailed only to the Chola country, and did not continue westward, and the rest were capable ships, and even if the fleet was blown away by a strong wind, it would be much faster to concentrate than this time. ”

"I hope so," Zhao Xingde said in a deep voice, "Hezhong has begun to besiege Khan City, and the sailors must at least be able to catch up with the last battle." ”

"I hope so." Shi Heng nodded, his expression was also very solemn.

The Military Intelligence Department spared no expense in building a pigeon road from Champa to Longzhu Island. After the Southwest Sea Division arrived at Longzhu Island, many rumors of the Xia and Song dynasties along the way were confirmed, Zhang Shanfu and Xu Wenhu sat in Tiemo Cliff after the division, Xu Wenhu commanded the army to the west to attack the Roman Turkic hinterland, and the Song State captured the important town of Hejian City, but because of the long distance, most of the areas passed through were not under the control of the Xia State, and the loss of carrier pigeons flying over was also very heavy. The siege of Khan City by the army in the river should have been more than a month ago, and no one knew the progress of the battle. In the past, if the army marched in Mobei to join the army, the late commander of the army would at least be demoted and punished. If after the end of the war between Hezhong and the Roma Turks, it took a huge amount of money for the Southwest Sea Division to reach the Great Food Realm, then Zhao Xingde would definitely become a joke in the Protectorate Mansion.

The voyage of the Southwest Sea Division encountered almost no strong resistance, and only had sporadic clashes with some pirates and earth kings, and the Navy Division almost effortlessly smashed these guys who were not high in the sky, if it were not for Zhao Xingde's strict prohibition of plundering coastal villages, even merchant ships could be rampant on the sea. The power of the Great Food melted like ice and snow, and the merchant fleets that followed the Southwest Sea Division landed in various parts of the Southwest Sea with exquisite goods and fair trade, and in addition to the tun land approved by the Song court, each merchant house also established some independent warehouses according to its own needs, and these warehouses and the tun land together weaved a huge net that enveloped the entire Southwest Sea.

In the evening, a cloud of soft cooking smoke rose in the village of Tunken on Longzhu Island, Zhao Xingde looked out from the ship's building, the willow trees transplanted in the Central Plains were faintly visible, the dazzling sunset dyed the smoky sky red, and countless seabirds spread their wings and flew in the sunset.