Khalid was frightened by Prince Mahdi's words, knowing that after all these years of hard work, Caliph al-Mansur has established absolute authority among the government and the opposition of the Great Food Country and among the tribes of the people, and he, the caliph, is no longer the agent of the Prophet, but the representative of Allah Allah in the world, so his authority is no less than that of the Prophet. Now the thought that Mahdi wants to support a new caliph despite the life and death of his father al-Mansur has struck Khaled's heart hard.

Khalid looked at Mahdi with a pale face and asked with difficulty, "Your Royal Highness······ How can you have such an idea? Do you know how serious the consequences of this are? Once we support the new caliphate, the prefect of the believers will no longer be useful in the hands of the Western Qin, what will they do to him? I can't imagine how he will be treated, and as the most faithful servant and courtier of the prefects of the believers, I ······ Can't do it! ”

Mahdi slapped the table and shouted: "Lord Khalid, I want you to understand your identity, you are the vizier of the Abbasid dynasty, you should put the future of all the subjects and believers of the Abbasid dynasty first, at this time anyone can be confused, but you can't, because you are the vizier, when the caliph cannot exercise power normally, you, the vizier, must keep yourself clear-headed and lead all the subjects and believers of the Abbasid dynasty to choose a right path forward!" It is true that my father is Allah's representative on earth, but now that he is a captive of the Western Qin, his mission has been accomplished, and the Abbasids need a new caliph to lead all their subjects and followers against the infidels! ”

Khalid trembled, he couldn't speak, Mahdi's words had hit him so hard that his mind hadn't turned a corner.

Seeing this, Mahdi continued: "My lord, if we do not immediately support a new caliphate, the consequences will be unimaginable. First of all, on the Baghdad side, several of our brothers will definitely fight for the position of caliph, and it is very likely that the whole dynasty will be torn apart, even if the dynasty is not torn apart because of their fighting, you should know that each of my brothers is dissatisfied with the Persians becoming the core group of the dynasty and holding the power of the dynasty's top leaders, once any of them ascend the throne as the new caliphate, the top power of the dynasty will be reshuffled, and the lord and those Persian executives will first become the targets of purge; Second, without a new caliphate, the opinions of those ministers and generals in the hall cannot be unified, because no one has absolute authority to decide anything, and only the new caliph can use his own power to unify the thoughts and opinions of all; Thirdly, I, you, my lord, and those adult generals in the hall, the situation of our people will soon become extremely dangerous, because from now on our enemies are not only the Western Qin people, but also my brothers in Baghdad, although I will not be able to escape death, can you and all the other adult generals be spared? Fourthly, none of the above is the most terrible, the most terrible thing is that the great enemy is now, and we Abbasids are killing each other and fighting among themselves, once our enemies take advantage of this time to launch a full-scale attack on us, we will definitely not be able to resist, when the country will be ruined, and the subjects and believers will be slaughtered and enslaved by the infidels, and the world ruled by Allah will collapse completely, have you ever thought about the consequences? ”

"So, no matter what, we should immediately support a new caliph on the throne, so that everything can be settled!"

Khalid asked in a bloodless and trembling voice: "I understand what His Royal Highness said the prince, but doing so will make the caliph's situation extremely dangerous, if he loses his caliph status, the Western Qin people will definitely not be polite to him anymore······"

Mahdi comforted: "My lord, you are wrong, I think that without that identity, my father will be safer!" Think about it, if my father was still a caliph, the Western relatives would definitely try their best to force him to write a letter of surrender for us to surrender to the Abbasids, but if he was not a caliph, the Western Qin people would know that it was useless to persecute him again, and if they dared to disagree with him, wouldn't they be worried that our Abbasids would not die with them? Therefore, the loss of my husband and wife's rights and the status of caliph will make the people of Western Qin even more jealous, and adults don't have to worry about my father's safety at all! ”

Khalid obviously hadn't fully digested Mahdi's words, he forced himself to calm down, and said to Mahdi: "Your Royal Highness, this matter is too important, I need to think about it, Your Highness, rest assured, I will give His Highness an answer as soon as possible!" ”

Mahdi was a little disappointed, but he also knew that the impact of supporting the new caliphate on Khalid was too great, and he had to give him some time to digest and buffer, so he agreed: "Okay, my lord will go back and think about it, but I hope that my lord will make a decision as soon as possible, we can wait, the people of Western Qin will not wait for us to make a decision!" ”

Khalid went back and thought about it for a whole afternoon and the first half of the night, everything he had, his family was able to become one of the top families of the Abbasid dynasty because of al-Mansur's favor to him, so his loyalty to al-Mansur was not inferior to anyone's, but after this afternoon of thinking and weighing, he had to admit that Prince Mahdi's decision to propose a new caliph was right, which was a more important matter than rescuing al-al-Mansour.

In the middle of the night, Khalid came to the door of the residence of Artis, the commander of the Guards, and the soldiers standing guard at the door saw that it was Khalid, and immediately stepped forward and saluted: "My lord, why are you here so late?" ”

Khalid said: "I have something extremely important to discuss with General Artis, you go and report it!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

Khalid was quickly invited in, and after taking a seat in the antechamber, the waiter brought him a pot of tea. Artis came over in his underwear with sleepy eyes, sat down across from him, yawned and asked, "Khalid, why did you come to me so late?" Is there anything urgent? ”

Khalid didn't answer, but asked, "Attis, I'm not here this afternoon, have the other adults and generals discussed the results?" ”

Artis shook his head: "Where did you negotiate what the result?" Everyone thinks that they have a point, they all insist on their own opinions, everyone quarrels, in my opinion, if they continue to argue like this, even if they quarrel for another year, it may not be fruitful! ”

Khalid took a sip of tea, looked at Artis and asked solemnly: "Atis, we can quarrel here, but do you think the Western Qin people and those princes in Baghdad will give us time to continue arguing?" ”

Sooner or later, the Western Qin people would attack the castle of Behedashir, which Artis had known for a long time, so it was not surprising, but how could it involve those princes of Baghdad? He wondered, "Lord Khalid, what does this have to do with the princes of Baghdad?" ”

"It's okay? Ha ·······" Khalid laughed out loud, "General, now that the caliph has been taken captive by the Western Qin, and our Abbasid dynasty has lost its supreme ruler, the news will soon reach Baghdad, and once those princes learn of the news, they will immediately compete for power, and the winner will have the opportunity to ascend the throne as the new caliph······"

Artis glared angrily, slapped the case, and shouted: "The caliph was only taken captive, and he was not summoned back to heaven by Allah, he will return sooner or later, how dare they?" ”

Khalid shook his head: "General, you are too naïve, let's not talk about whether the Western Qin people will easily release the caliphate, do you think those princes and highnesses are all good boys?" The throne of the caliphate, what a existence, whoever sits on it can dominate the world and dominate all life and death! In the face of such temptation, who can remain indifferent to a qualified prince? If the new caliph ascends the throne in Baghdad, what will you and I do? You and I are both Persians, and the princes of Baghdad have always been dissatisfied with our Persians' occupation of high-ranking positions of power in the dynasty, and you and I and other high-ranking Persian officials are afraid that they will soon be exiled or arrested and imprisoned for various reasons, and then killed in prison? If there is no great threat to us from the Western Qin army outside, we can still find a way to deal with those princes, but now that the Western Qin army may kill us at any time, we must not only deal with the Western Qin people, but also guard against hidden arrows that may come from Baghdad! General, we are now in the most dangerous moment! ”

Etis's sleepiness was completely lost in this moment, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and he asked anxiously, "My lord, what should we do then?" ”

"We must find a way to save ourselves, not only ourselves, but also the entire Abbasid dynasty and the caliph!"

"How can I save it?"

Khalid looked at Artis with a deep gaze and said, "General, I think we must establish a new caliph to dominate all the forces inside and around this citadel as soon as possible before the Western Qin people use the chief of the believers to threaten us, this is the only feasible way at present!" ”

"Shhh

Khalid had to give him an analysis of the current situation and why he had to do it, and Asti was finally convinced, but he finally asked: "My lord, if we have a new caliphate, who will we support?" In what capacity, then, will the rulers of the believers deal with themselves when they return? The Abbasids couldn't have two caliphs, right? ”

Khalid shook his head and said, "We only have one prince here, Mahdi, and we have no other choice. Compared to the princes of Baghdad, Prince Mahdi is relatively close to us Persians, and if he ascends the throne as caliph, our Persian status will not change. As for what kind of identity the believers will be with when they return, I don't know, but this matter can only be left to them to decide, and we can only take care of the present, and who can predict what will happen in the future? Whether the chief of the believers can come back in the end, I'm afraid that only the king of Western Qin can decide, right? Who can rule his will? ”

After a long time, Artis nodded, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I support your lord!" ”