East coast of the Mediterranean, Beirut.

Formerly known as Ashtrit, named after the goddess of love and beauty, the city was originally a barren land with a lack of water, and a large number of wells were dug here, so the city was called the city of many wells by the locals in Phoenician and Hebrew.

Not long after a large number of ships left the dock by the harbor, a large number of horses' hooves came from the distance on land, and the whole city trembled, and a stream of yellow sand and smoke moved rapidly from the east to the sea, and there was a burst of chickens and dogs jumping in the city.

The Arabs, Armenians, Jews, Byzantines, and Italians who lived in the city took refuge in their houses and closed their doors, lest they be sacked and killed by the sudden appearance of the army.

Surprisingly, the cavalry that suddenly appeared did not break into the city to kill and rob, they went straight to the harbor.

"Law-" Xuan 13 stopped at the seaside, and the two thousand cavalry behind him also stopped, densely occupying the entire harbor wharf, and the war horses snorted and kicked the horse's shoes from time to time.

Xuan 13 raised his eyes and looked at the sea in the distance, two nautical miles away, a large number of sea ships loaded with supplies and men and horses were heading northwest for Yang Fan, he instructed a captain beside him: "Send someone to report to the king, I will wait a step too late, Niserus has already left on a sea ship with men and horses and a large number of supplies!" ”

"Yes, General!"

The army returned to Beirut and stationed there, Xuan 13 summoned his generals and colonels, ordered the city to be taken under military control, took over the city lord's mansion and treasury, the garrison withdrew in a hurry, and left behind a large amount of supplies, all of which were hoarded in the treasury, but there was not a single copper plate left in the treasury, and they swept away all the money.

In order to raise military funds, Zhao Ziliang once ordered the cleaning up and elimination of all local evil forces in the occupied areas, raiding their homes, exterminating their clans, and confiscating all their property. In order to carry out this plan, the army had to gather local information wherever it passed, find out the rich merchants, nobles, and other evil forces that were entrenched in various places, and then hunt them down, confiscate their property, and distribute their fields to the common people.

This method is what Zhao Ziliang has always used to raise military expenditures, which can not only solve the problem of insufficient military spending in the war, but also win the favor and support of the local people. Of course, this method is extremely destructive to the local economy, but Zhao Ziliang does not care about so much, and after the destruction, he can find a way to improve, and if he does not use this method, using the money in the treasury to fight a war will cause the domestic economy to be affected, and this way of fighting to feed the war does not have to worry about the huge impact on the domestic economy.

When Zhao Ziliang led the army to Damascus, Damascus had become an empty city, and the empty city was not empty in the city, but there was no garrison to defend it, and the people in the city still existed.

The city of Damascus is inhabited by a large number of Arabs, Byzantines, Armenians, Kurds, and Persians, all of whom were left behind by the conquest of different civilizations in Damascus at various times, and these people actually lived well in the city without large-scale ethnic conflicts.

For thousands of years, Damascus has been both conqueror and conquered many times, and Eastern and Western civilizations have made it a center of strife, and there are monuments of civilization from all periods.

"King, this is where the Syrian governor's palace is located, after Niserus withdrew, this place was in a mess, many things were moved by the residents of the city, and some things were added after the ministers took over here, and the inside has been cleaned up, and the soldiers have been arranged to guard it!" Vanguard Commander Wei Gao reported to Zhao Ziliang about the situation here.

Since entering the city, Zhao Ziliang has been stunned by the variety of Western buildings in the city, including not only Romanesque churches and temples, but also Greek, Gothic buildings, and Arabic domes.

After listening to Wei Gao's report, Zhao Ziliang jumped off the horse, a guard took the reins, and he and other generals and officials walked into this governor's palace under Wei Gao's guidance, this governor's palace is not the largest building in Damascus City, but it is also cut into atmosphere and luxury, and other large buildings in the city, such as mosques, churches, temples, etc., can not be described as luxurious and luxurious, they present to people the vicissitudes of history, the heaviness, and the grandeur of every civilization.

The residents of Damascus were vigilant and trembling at the arrival of the Western Qin army, they were just ordinary people, but they were not capable of contending with the strong Western Qin army, they could only pray to their gods to bless them, and pray that the Western Qin army would not stretch out their butcher knives to them.

After a night, the next morning no one in the city was harmed, and not a single house was broken into by the soldiers of the Western Qin army, they were relieved and tried to walk around the streets to buy some daily necessities, but they found that there were still teams of elite soldiers of the Western Qin army walking around on the streets.

In the governor's palace, the war knife in his hand was wiped by Zhao Ziliang with a silk cloth, and a hair fell from his head, just falling on the blade, and was silently cut in two.

At this time, Li Muchen came over and saluted: "King, the notice of the people has been posted, the city is in order, from yesterday when our army entered the city to the present, there has not been a single public security incident in the city, Weichen has ordered people to recruit locals, ready to select some strong people to serve as a fast arrest for maintaining law and order and investigating the murder, these can also help us monitor whether the locals are secretly resisting the rule of our army!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, did not make a sound, and continued to wipe the sword.

Li Muchen said again: "Weichen has already ordered people to gather all the blacksmiths engaged in the forging industry in the city according to the king's orders, and now they are outside the governor's palace, I don't know if the king is going to deal with them?" ”

Zhao Ziliang said at this time: "Come them all in!" ”

"No!" Li Muchen agreed or withdrew.

Soon, dozens of blacksmiths were brought in by Li Muchen and the soldiers, and the originally empty hall seemed a little crowded, but these blacksmiths were crowded together because they were worried about their fate and because they were afraid.

"The king, the people have brought it, a total of forty-seven people, and they are all the top blacksmiths in Damascus City!"

Zhao Ziliang listened to Li Muchen's words, stopped wiping the battle, and observed the blacksmiths, who came from different races, including Jews, Arabs, Byzantines, Romans, and Armenians.

"This king heard that you are all blacksmiths with top forging skills here, so I sent someone to ask you to come over and help see how this war knife in this king's hand is forged! Come, show it to the craftsmen! After Zhao Ziliang finished speaking, he handed the battle to a guard next to him.

A civil official standing next to him immediately translated Zhao Ziliang's words in Arabic and Greek, and the battle soon reached the hands of a blacksmith at the front, who took the war knife and used his fingers to make the blade, and flicked the knife with his fingers to listen to the sound.

The first blacksmith carefully observed this battle, his eyes glowed strangely, and his expression became extremely shocked, he was a blacksmith, not only with his hands and eyes can feel the sharpness and tenacity of this sword, as an old blacksmith who has been forging all his life, he has been dealing with iron and forging all his life, he can feel the quality of a weapon just by using his heart.

"What a knife! What iron! "The first blacksmith is holding a war knife, but this blacksmith is old, his physical strength is weak, and he has been sweating profusely for holding the war knife for so long, and Zhao Ziliang's war knife weighs forty-eight pounds, and ordinary people need to use two hands to pick it up, not to mention using it to kill the enemy, it is difficult to lift it, but this war knife is like nothing in Zhao Ziliang's hands, and using it to kill the enemy is as effortless as chopping melons and vegetables.

The sword then turned to another blacksmith, and the second blacksmith was a middle-aged man who could lift it with his own hand, and with his other hand he caressed the blade and blade, and the shock on his face was even greater than that of the first old blacksmith.

As the war knife passed down, all the blacksmiths observed it up close and tested its sharpness, felt its lethality, and finally returned the war knife to Zhao Ziliang's hands.

Zhao Ziliang put the knife into the sheath and put it on the table, looked at the blacksmiths and asked: "You are all blacksmiths, and you are skilled blacksmiths, what do you think of this king's war knife?" How does it compare to the Damascus scimitar you made? ”

The interpreter translated these words in Arabic and Greek, and the blacksmiths present immediately whispered to each other, but no one stood up to answer Zhao Ziliang's question.

Zhao Hu, the commander of the Dragon Guard Army standing next to him, stepped forward and shouted: "If the king asks you, you must answer honestly, otherwise you will all die!" ”

After the blacksmiths heard the translator translate this word, they all remembered that they were now in front of a king, and the old man at the front hesitated for a moment and stood up to Zhao Ziliang and saluted, and said: "Respected king, I don't know how to answer your question to make you satisfied, the material of this war knife is very good, it is not forged with patterned steel, but its material is not inferior to patterned steel, its sharpness and toughness are more than the vast majority of Damascus knives we forge with patterned steel, Only a handful of precious Damascus knives can compare with it! In terms of forging technology, the forging technique of this war knife and the Damascus scimitar can be said to have their own strengths, as far as this war knife is concerned, I can tell that it is made of steel smelted from ordinary iron ore through multiple processes, and then through the special forging technology of the forger! In terms of the shape and ornamentation of the sword, perhaps the differences between the civilizations of the East and the West are different, so the shape and ornamentation of the weapons are also completely different! ”

Zhao Ziliang was more satisfied with the old blacksmith's words, this person said more pertinently, he asked, "What is your name, which clan are you?" ”

"I'm Armenian!"

"Good!" Zhao Ziliang nodded, looked at the others and said: "You are all blacksmiths with high forging skills, this king is lacking talents like you, if you are willing to do things for this king, this king will not treat you badly, you will not only have a good reward, but also be able to learn the forging technology of the East!" But if you don't want to, the king won't force you, but come, bring the things. ”

Soon, some soldiers came in carrying several baskets, each of which was filled with gold coins in cloth bags, which rattled when the baskets were placed on the ground.

Zhao Ziliang pointed to the basket and said to the blacksmiths: "There are forty-five of you in total, there are forty-five cloth bags here, each cloth bag contains a hundred gold coins, this is the king's gift to you, if you are willing to do things for the king, each of you can take one, and every month in the future, there will be a rich reward and reward to be distributed to you within a fixed date!" ”

The blacksmiths were hesitant at first, but soon someone stepped forward and lifted a cloth bag from the basket and returned to its place, and then others came and took the bag, and the baskets were soon empty and empty.

Zhao Ziliang smiled: "Very good, this king believes that with the addition of you skilled blacksmiths, our forging technology will definitely go to a higher level!" ”