In the face of the attack of the Mahdi army, the resistance of the outnumbered Talal was futile, and in less than a month, the Mahdi's army reached the city of Baghdad, Talal wanted to escape, but it was too late, and the Mahdi's vanguard cavalry blocked the way out of Baghdad.

The ministers, generals, and nobles who had proclaimed Talal as the new caliph soon betrayed him, and some of them colluded with the Mahdi army outside the city, and secretly contacted the generals who defended the city to quietly open the city gates, which allowed the Mahdi army to drive straight into the city, and Talal was captured in the Caliphate's palace. Within three days, almost half of the ministers, generals, and nobles had surrendered to Mahdi.

Mahdi did not kill Talal's younger brother, but put him under house arrest and offered him good food and drink, like raising a pig. After the capture of Baghdad, Mahdi officially became the master of the Caliphate, and sent people to Syria, Antioch, Jordan, Jerusalem, Egypt, Carthage, and other places to tell his other brothers who claimed to be kings and hegemons, and told them to come to Baghdad immediately, or send a large army to attack.

Of course, the Mahdi's brothers could not give in, they killed the messengers sent by the Mahdi, and then began to recruit more troops, levy more taxes in the territory to strengthen the armament, and prepare to fight the Mahdi to the death to see who is the agent in the world of Allah!

In August 771, Mahdi personally led an army to conquer the northwestern region of Antioch, and an army of 100,000, claimed to be 200,000, was mighty and mighty, and the banner covered the sky and the sun.

The Mahdi's army was in full swing, and after only three months, by mid-November, Antioch was completely pacified by the Mahdi.

Soon after, the Mahdi's army recaptured Bereoea (present-day Aleppo), and just as Mahdi wanted to continue to lead his army south to pacify Syri, he was reported by his ministers that the treasury was empty and there was no money for war.

"What? The treasury is out of money? In the city lord's palace in Beloea, Mahdi looked at the chancellor of the exchequer Belleroi in surprise and asked.

"Yes, chief of the believers! Last year we paid a down payment of 100,000 taels of gold for the indemnity, and this year we paid another 20,000 taels of gold. ”

Without money, you can't do anything! Mahdi sighed helplessly, he wanted to order the soldiers to plunder to solve the problem of insufficient military spending, but he knew that he could not do this, he would undoubtedly dig his own grave, there were not only a large number of Jews, Persians, Byzantines, Greeks and Romans, but also a large number of Arabs, if he plundered here, it would inevitably reduce the prestige of his caliph among the people, and push the people into the arms of the enemy, which was unwise.

After careful consideration, Mahdi decided to return to Baghdad, leaving part of his army to defend the Antioch region.

At the palace of the caliphate in Baghdad, Mahdi convened his ministers to discuss how to raise military funds to continue his expedition to pacify Syria, Jordan, and Jerusalem.

"My lords, we can't fight until we reach Beloea, because we have no money and the treasury is empty! And as time goes on, my brothers will grow stronger, and we must defeat them before their foundations are secure, regain the land they occupy, and let the light of Allah's world shine again on the earth. I have summoned you today to discuss with you a way to raise enough money for the military, and if anyone has a good idea, please speak up, and you can speak freely, even if you say it wrong, I will not blame it! ”

The ministers present had known about the emptiness of the treasury for a long time, and it was not surprising that Mahdi had summoned them to discuss the matter of raising military funds, and that Mahdi was indeed more capable than the other princes who were kings everywhere.

The ministers whispered to each other for a while, and one of the ministers of agriculture stood up and said: "Now it seems that there is no other way to raise enough military funds but to collect taxes and increase taxes!" ”

The justices immediately stood up and objected: "Absolutely not! The tax burden on believers and their people is already very heavy, and if they increase the tax revenue, won't they be unable to live? If they don't have enough food and clothing, will they still believe in Allah? ”

The Minister of Agriculture pouted and said, "I didn't say that we should collect taxes from our brothers and people, I meant that we could increase the taxes of the infidels!" ”

The Chancellor still objected: "That will not work, now we are divided internally, if we force those infidels, where will we have more troops and experience to deal with their riots?" I think we must first resolve the internal rebellion, and we must not provoke any more revolts and riots! ”

The Minister of Agriculture was a little annoyed: "Since we can't increase taxes, we can only increase commercial taxes!" ”

This was immediately opposed by the Minister of Commerce: "No, now that our trade with neighboring countries has just resumed, if we increase the commercial tax now, it will undoubtedly kill the chicken and take the eggs!" Chiefs of the Faithful, most of our country is desert and desert, there is very little land that can be cultivated, and the output cannot be compared with countries like the Western Qin and the Tang Dynasty, and if you want to feed your people, you can only rely on commercial trade, I can't imagine what the Abbasid Dynasty would have become without commercial support! ”

This is not good, that is not good, Mahdi was a little irritated and asked, "Then how do you say you can raise enough military funds?" Is it possible to postpone the indemnity to be paid to the Western Qin State next spring? ”

Mahdi's solution was immediately opposed by Vizier Khalid and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who said in unison: "No! ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer stood up and said: "Chiefs of the Believers, this will not only anger the Western Qin and give the Western Qin an excuse to deal with us, but they will also use other methods to sanction us, such as increasing the import duties on goods, so that our losses will be even greater!" ”

Mahdi's face fell after hearing this, he, a caliph, couldn't even raise military expenses for a war, did he have a pocket?

Seeing that Mahdi's face was not good, a minister stood up and said, "Otherwise, the adults present will donate some, and the chiefs and believers of the tribes in various places will donate some, which ?????? I donate 500 dinars ??????"

This suggestion changed the faces of all the ministers except Mahdi, and someone immediately said: "I'm sorry, I don't have any land, let alone shops or other property, and my only income is a little salary, and my whole family of dozens of people depends on this salary!" Lord Abia, it seems that you are very rich, why don't you donate more, take out a million dinars, and the military expenses for pacifying Syria will be enough! ”

It's okay to let others pay for it, but if you want them to take the money out, unless the sun comes out of the west, no way!

So the adults came out and said that they had no money, and one by one they cried out to Mahdi as if they were the poorest people in the world.

"Enough!" Mahdi slapped his palm on the table, and the loud noise silenced the ministers' voices.

Mahdi said coldly: "Did I let you pay for it?" I asked you to figure it out! ”

In desperation, the ministers racked their brains, and finally, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stood up and said to Mahdi: "Chiefs of the believers, I have a solution, but I don't know whether to say it or not??????

After deliberating for a long time, no one came up with a feasible solution, and Mahdi could only ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer to say: "Tell me about it!" ”

"Yes! Chiefs of the Believers, we can borrow money from the Western Qin Kingdom! "The Chancellor of the Exchequer said something that no one had thought of, or even dared to think of.

The ministers were stunned, this guy was really brain-opening.

Mahdi's face was a little ugly, "Are you sure you're not joking?" We still owe a huge amount of compensation to the Western Qin State, and they will lend us money, do you think it is possible? ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "It's not a joke, I'm telling the truth!" I'll use an analogy, there are two people, a poor man and a rich man, the poor man has no property and no name, and if he borrows money from the rich man, of course the rich man will not lend it to him, because he will worry that the poor man will not be able to pay it back. But if the poor man has a land or a house or a few children, the rich man will not worry that he will not be able to pay it back, and if the poor man does not pay back, they will take away the poor man's property and house, and let his children become slaves! Now our Great Food Country is not a country of poverty and whiteness, we still have an army, a large amount of land and hard-working people, and Xiqin will not worry that we will not be able to pay off our debts! Moreover, they have a large army and a strong combat power, and they are not worried that we will deliberately not pay off our debts! ”

Mahdi thought about it carefully: "Hey, you seem to have some truth in it, so we can borrow money from Xiqin?" ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "Yes! If a delegation is sent to Xinjing, it should be possible to borrow money from Western Qin! ”

The Minister of Commerce stood up and asked, "According to your argument, if we can borrow money from the Western Qin State, can we borrow money from the Eastern Roman Empire, from the Papal States, or from the Franks further afield?" ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said: "You can try, but I don't think it's very likely to borrow money from these countries!" ”

"Why?"

"The Eastern Roman Empire is our feud, which is completely different from the Western Qin State, I don't think the Eastern Roman Empire will use money to finance us to quell civil strife, as for the Papal States and the Franks, they are too far apart, can they take back the money they borrowed?"

Mahdi nodded, and agreed with the Minister of Finance's statement, and immediately said to the Minister of Commerce: "Bunod, you form an embassy to send an envoy to the Western Qin State, and borrow five million dinars from the Western Qin State, at least two million dinars, and make every effort!" ”

What if I can't borrow it? The Minister of Commerce did not dare to ask, so he could only agree with a bitter face.