The city of Spahan (i.e. Isfahan) is located in the valley of the Zagros and Kukhru Mountains, on the banks of the Zainde River. It is a historic town that was a thoroughfare for trade between the east and the west, and was established here during the Ahmenides dynasty in the 4th and 5th centuries BC.

Castle Lord's Mansion.

Mahdi sat on the throne with a crown on his head, looked at the ministers and generals with a serious face and said: "The attack of the Western Qin army is too fierce, many places in the Persian region have been attacked by them, and the loss of territory is almost more than half, if this continues, we will lose Persia, we must find a way to prevent the Western Qin people from continuing to attack!" Lord Khalid, what do you think we should do now? ”

After al-Mansur was captured by the Western Qin and Mahdi was proclaimed caliph by his ministers and generals, all parts of Persia soon submitted to Mahdi's rule and recognized his caliphate status. Tribal chiefs throughout the Arabian Peninsula also expressed respect for the Mahdi as caliph, and apart from the area around Baghdad, the rest of the Mesopotamian Plain was dominated by the Mahdi, which shows that the ministers and generals who supported the Mahdi were still very powerful.

When Khalid heard Mahdi call him, he thought for a moment and stood up to Mahdi and the other ministers and generals: "Commander of the Faithful, my original idea was to persuade you and your other brothers to give up their prejudices for the time being, and to unite together to resist the attack of the Western Qin army, but now it seems that this may not work, our territory directly faces the threat of the Western Qin army, and the territory of your other brothers does not have such danger at all, they want to compete with you for the legitimacy and dominance of the caliphate, They wish you were defeated by the Western Qin, and now we have only one way left! ”

Al-Mansur is not dead, and there is no appointment of a prince before, even if a prince is appointed, powerful princes can still compete with the prince for the position of caliph, because the prophet did not make a clear statement about the succession of the caliph before he died, and there is no clear provision in the Qur'an, but he still preferred the democratic election system during his lifetime, so the first four caliphs after his death were jointly elected by the chiefs of various tribes and sect elders, but during the reign of the fourth caliph Ali, there was turmoil in the highest echelons of power in the Arab Empire. Ali was the Prophet's son-in-law and cousin, and Muawiyah, then governor of Syria and commander of the Northern Front, questioned the legitimacy of Ali's succession to the caliphate and provoked him with force, resulting in a bloody confrontation involving tens of thousands of people, known as the Sui-Finnish War. As a result, Ali was militarily victorious, but politically defeated, and for the first time there was a major political split within the Great Food Sect. Ali was then assassinated on his way back to the Kufa Mosque, and Mu'awiyah ascended to the throne of caliphate with great military prowess, and he also declared the remnants of Ali illegal, and sent troops to arrest and kill him. Mu'awiyah did not intend to be elected as caliph after his death in his old age, but used his power to appoint his son as the prince and control a large number of military and political powers, and before his death, he nominated his son Yazid to succeed him as caliph, so that Yazid easily inherited the caliphate, and the Arab democratic consultation system was abolished and transformed into a feudal monarchy. All these gave the powerful princes of the Great Food Kingdom in the following generations an excuse and reason to compete with the prince for the position of caliph.

Mahdi asked: "Lord Khalid, what can you do, now is not the time to be polite and modest, we don't have time to discuss it anymore, the people of Western Qin will not give us a lot of time!" ”

"Yes!" Khalid agreed, and immediately said: "Now the only way for us is to send people to negotiate with the Western Qin, give the Western Qin some benefits, let them withdraw their troops, as long as the external trouble is solved, we can free up our hands to deal with other rebels!" ”

Khalid not only offered a solution, but also characterized Mahdi's other brothers as rebels, and Mahdi listened with great joy, which would not only solve the external troubles, but also give legitimacy to his caliph, because only a legitimate caliph was qualified to negotiate with foreign enemies.

Mahdi was overjoyed, and immediately clapped his hand and said: "Okay, Lord Khalid's opinion is very good, so I will handle it accordingly, and immediately send someone to talk to the Western Qin people, give them some benefits, and let them withdraw from the army!" ”

"Yes!"

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Valcha Pass.

This is already close to Span City, Chu Ge led the Western Qin Vanguard Army of 15,000 people here was frantically blocked by the Great Food Army, in order to defend Span City, Mahdi dispatched the most elite heavy cavalry of the Guards 5,000 horses, light cavalry 20,000 and 20,000 infantry, while Chu Song only had light cavalry and infantry, even the Modao team was only 1,000 people.

The Great Food Army occupies favorable terrain, after Chu Ge led the army to arrive, the two sides immediately set up a position, at the beginning of the left and right wings of the Great Food Army dispatched 20,000 light cavalry, Chu Ge responded with light cavalry, soon after the battle began, the left and right wings of the Great Food Army were once defeated by the fierce Western Qin light cavalry, but they soon dispatched two thousand light cavalry in the Chinese army to confuse Chu Ge, Chu Ge met with three thousand light cavalry, the two thousand Great Food Light Cavalry of the Chinese Army were defeated, and retreated to the two wings, and the five thousand heavy armored iron cavalry hidden behind the Chinese Army appeared, They killed the Chinese army of the Western Qin Army with unparalleled momentum and unstoppable impact, and the three thousand Western Qin light cavalry at the head were instantly scattered, with heavy losses, and the remnants had to retreat to both wings, and the heavy armored cavalry of the Great Food Army rushed to the position of the Shuai Qi where Chu Ge was located, and the Western Qin generals were a little panicked at this time, but fortunately, Chu Ge was still calm, and at the critical moment, the thousand Mo sword team lined up in a neat formation to block the impact of the heavy armored cavalry of the Great Food Army, Chu Ge took this opportunity to move the Shuai Qi backwards, Shuai Qi Daxu's retreat was soon discovered by the officers and men of the Western Qin Army on the left and right flanks, and morale began to decline, and the advantages previously gained by the two wings were gone.

However, Da Xu only retreated, did not fall, the morale of the soldiers of the Western Qin Army was not completely lost, and there was still the power of a battle, but at this time the Western Qin Army had lost the opportunity, and it was impossible to get any benefit from fighting again at this time, Chu Ge could only order the whole army to retreat slowly, and the five thousand heavy armored iron cavalry of the Great Food Army also lost their speed after breaking away a thousand Western Qin Mo sword teams, and there was no longer the power to rush and kill, and the two sides immediately collected their troops and waited for the next day to fight again.

The camp of the Western Qin Vanguard Army.

"I made a mistake, the big cannibal hid five thousand heavy armored iron horsemen behind the light cavalry of the Chinese army, and General Ben didn't even find out!" Chu Ge's face was as silent as a pool of water, and the ancient well had no waves.

He looked at the clerk and asked, "How much did we lose this time?" ”

The clerk bent over, lowered his head, and arched his hand: "The Modao team lost more than 800 people, and the remaining 100 people were all wounded. The 3,000 cavalry at the front of the Chinese army lost more than 1,200 men, wounded more than 500, and lost more than 300 people, leaving nearly 1,000 people to withdraw safely."

The more than 300 people who disappeared were afraid that they had been captured by the Great Food Army, which Chu Ge and the other generals knew in their hearts.

Such a big loss is the first time for the Western Qin Army, even if Chu Ge pretends to be calm on the surface, he also feels ashamed, the Western Qin Army has never suffered such a big loss since the Quartet, isn't this in the eyes of others that he Chu Ge is incompetent?

He harbored a huge anger in his heart, he forcibly suppressed his anger and said to the generals and officers accompanying the army: "The fault of this battle lies with me, it has nothing to do with others, the blame is borne by me Chu alone, it is the general who is not in charge of the battle and the command is not effective, and later he will personally write a letter to the king to ask for guilt, but this battle is not convinced, the general is determined to regroup, and then fight with the big food army, are the generals willing to help me?" ”

The generals looked at each other, clasped their fists and said in unison: "Resolutely obey the general's orders!" ”

The generals in the tent also felt really aggrieved about this battle, just because the Great Food Army had five thousand heavily armored iron cavalry suddenly killed from behind the rout, killing the Western Qin Army by surprise, in fact, with the combat quality of the Western Qin Army, this kind of imagination that is too late to deal with should not exist, the factor that hinders Chu Ge's timely response is the infantry, the infantry moves slowly, except for the Modao Army, the other infantry cannot resist the charging of the heavy armored iron cavalry at all, fortunately, Chu Ge ordered the Modao Army to quickly pass through the infantry in front of the front, so that the infantry retreated, If there is no infantry to hold back, the Western Qin army is not afraid of the heavy cavalry of the Great Food Army when all of them are light cavalry, and if they can't fight, they can turn around and retreat in time, and maybe they can fight a beautiful counterattack.

Chu Ge nodded at the generals' statement, and said: "Let's learn a lesson in the next battle, we don't have many infantry, and fighting in this terrain doesn't play a big role, this time it's because the infantry is dragging its feet, and then let the infantry stick to the camp, and the generals will lead the cavalry to fight, and the generals will go back to prepare!" ”

"Yes, General!"

After resting for a day, Chu Ge led 4,000 infantry to hold the camp, led more than 7,000 cavalry to fight, and sent people to call for battle under the Valcha Pass.

After Musannana, the commander of the Warcha Pass, became a famous general, his ancestor Harith fought with Khalid the Sword of Allah and served as his lieutenant. Musanna was proud of his martial arts, thinking that the Western Qin generals were nothing more than that, since he could defeat Chu Ge once, he would be able to defeat Chu Ge a second time, so he led his army out of the pass to meet the battle again.

The Varcha Pass was located on a fairly high terrain, and Musanna had previously led his army to occupy a favorable terrain under the pass, and the attack of the Western Qin army was quite blocked, and it was rushed by the iron cavalry of the Great Food Army, so it was defeated.

This time, Chu Ge only brought cavalry, and learned a lesson, took the initiative to send troops to provoke, Musanna, who had completed the formation, immediately sent troops to meet the battle, several small groups of cavalry sent by both sides to engage in a trial battle, the cavalry of the Western Qin army had superb riding skills and combat skills, and the big food army suffered a big loss, Musanna saw that the situation was unfavorable, and immediately increased his troops, Chu Ge was not afraid, and also increased his troops, and finally played a real fire, and the two sides pressed on the whole line to start a decisive battle.