Chapter 500 Abbas's Savior

In Baghdad, a large number of Turks rushed into the city and began to kill wantonly.

"Kill, grab everything for me!"

"The deputy khan has ordered that the city cannot be massacred, but those who resist will be killed without mercy."

"You can rob and kill the rebels. This is Baghdad, the seat of the caliph. You can't kill people at will!"

"I warn you again and again, no one is allowed to approach the dock!"

"Bring it to you."

All kinds of military orders were issued, and the city was in chaos.

At this moment, there were still a large number of people in Baghdad who had not had time to escape, and they closed their doors and hid in their homes.

The streets were full of Turks who were burning, killing and looting everywhere. They robbed, raped, and even killed people when they encountered resistance, causing chaos in the city.

As the situation intensified, the chaos in the city also intensified.

Many Turks were no longer satisfied with just killing and robbing on the streets. Almost all those who were still on the streets were poor, and there was nothing to rob.

They quickly set their sights on the rich in the city, rushed into their houses, burned their gardens, and robbed their treasures.

Many of the rich gathered at the eastern dock. Baghdad, like Bianliang, was well connected. The main trading area was near the dock, which led to many shops.

Although the residential area of ​​the rich was not here, many people had witnessed the power of the Song army's artillery due to the presence of the Song army envoys, so many rich people ran here.

Not only the rich, but also many people in the city ran over. The dock became more crowded. Many people ran to the dock and knelt down to the Song army's ships and prayed for shelter.

If the dock was not large enough and the Song envoys were all on the boats instead of on the dock, they would have been drowned by the surging crowd at this time.

"When the country prospers, the people suffer. When the country perishes, the people suffer. This is what Mr. Lu Xun once wrote in the Great Song Periodical."

On the Tigris River, the fleet of the envoys just floated in the river.

The west side of the ship was densely packed with people.

The officials and soldiers of the envoys looked at the dock in the distance. The dock was in chaos, and many people were even squeezed into the water.

There were countless people who had boats and even robbed boats, and they all drove their boats to the middle of the river and approached the Song fleet.

They obviously regarded the Song people as their saviors. After all, the city was full of Turks who were making trouble. The Delam people had been defeated, and their caliph had no troops. Only the Song people might have some hope.

But unfortunately, the Song army has not made any moves until now.

"Do you think that if we had sent troops earlier, would we have saved so many innocent people?"

Zhang Youwei asked with pity.

Tan Wenxue shook his head and said, "Remember, the interests of the Song Dynasty are paramount. Why should our soldiers help them fight? Why should we send envoys to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute without any practical benefits? Besides, you should also understand that even if we defeat the Seljuks when we leave the city, we have to go back to help the caliph clear out the Buyids in the city. Do you think this is against morality?"

"Okay."

Zhang Youwei had to swallow his words.

They are the envoys of the Song Dynasty, not the saviors sent by their God.

If the Caliph had promised them to send troops to help them at the beginning, they would not only have to face tens of thousands of Seljuk Turks, but also have to go back to deal with the Buyid Kingdom.

The Daylamites were willing to make peace with the Song Dynasty and agreed to send envoys.

Even if in theory the Daylamites were only ministers of the Caliph, and they accepted the Caliph's request to eliminate the ministers who rebelled against the Abbasid Dynasty, but morality was not acceptable.

So it would be better to let the Turks overthrow the Daylamites, and then the Song Dynasty would defeat the Turks, so that they would not have to fight the Buyids again.

What's more, the Song army actually had only two thousand soldiers, and the artillery was difficult to carry on the ship. Even if the two thousand soldiers had rifles, they would still suffer losses in the wild against tens of thousands of Turks.

In order to help the Caliph, a foreign emperor without power, it was obviously unreasonable to let his soldiers risk their lives to go out of the city to fight.

Therefore, the best way is to wait for the Turks to enter the city. They have no cavalry formation, so the best option is to play to the strengths of the Song army, engage in small-scale street fighting, or even rely on the fleet to cover the riverside with artillery fire.

While the Song army was watching from the sidelines, waiting for the right time to intervene, in the center of the city, after entering through the Vastani Gate, there is the Abbasid Palace, a golden dome palace.

At this moment, the Delamite guards who were originally used to monitor and semi-imprison the Abbasid Caliph had long disappeared in the palace, and the Caliph Kaim was naturally free.

But he stood on the high wall of the palace and looked down at the city below, and said angrily: "How can the Seljuks do this? How can they do this!"

"Respected Caliph, now is not the time to be furious, but to think about how to regain our dynasty!"

"Yes, Tughril sent people to pay tribute to the Caliph, and said that he was willing to send troops to help the Caliph and get rid of the control of the Daylamites, but we are afraid that he is not a good guy either."

"The Song people have a saying that goes, just out of the wolf's den, into the tiger's den. Tughril's ambition is not small, what if it is another Daylamite, what should we do?"

Several trusted ministers of the Abbasid Dynasty said with sorrow.

No one is a fool.

The reason why Kaim would rather seek help from the envoys of the Song Dynasty than to go to the Seljuks who are also Sunnis, is it because he would rather be with friendly countries than with domestic slaves?

Of course not.

But Qayim knew very well that if the Delam people were wolves, then the Seljuks were tigers.

It is said that it is easy to invite gods but difficult to send them away. When the time comes when the Seljuks have the same virtue as the Delam people, then won't they just come out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's den?

So what Qayim hopes most is that Da Song can help him.

But it was obvious that the Song Dynasty was not willing to let go of hawks when it saw rabbits, and many of the conditions he proposed were false. They rejected them outright and had no intention of helping him at all.

This made Qaim very uncomfortable.

The key is that the Seljuks didn't care whether he agreed or not. They just sent people to worship him and told him about the matter, and the other party sent troops without authorization.

This behavior of not taking him seriously made Qayim very worried.

"Then what should we do? Tugrile didn't take me seriously at all. He just sent someone to inform me. I didn't even summon him, so he came by himself."

Qayim said desperately: "It seems that the Abbas Palace is about to change a group of people again. They used to be Delam people, but now they are Turks. I just don't know if the Turks will do anything excessive again. "

"Dear Caliph."

At this moment, a close minister, Umu, put his right hand on his chest, bent down and bowed and said, "I have something to tell you."

"What's up?"

Caim was still looking at the tragic situation in the city, his eyes already looking a little hollow and dull.

Umu said: "I talked to Saladin before, and he said that the Song people also sympathize with us, but because Abu is very friendly to them, they cannot send troops to help us against morality."

"oh?"

Kaim came back to his senses and immediately realized something. He turned his head and looked at him with wide eyes and said, "What do you mean?"

Umu smiled and said: "Now I don't know whether Abu is alive or dead. He has obviously been defeated by the Seljuks. The Bouveshi family is finished and the Baiyi Dynasty has also been destroyed. The Song people do not have such a burden."

"That"

Qayim said quickly: "Then quickly send someone to ask the Song people for help."

"Caliph, no."

Another minister, Barzani, quickly stopped him.

"Why?"

Qaim was puzzled.

Barzani said: "In this case, no one knows the true strength of the Song people. If we have not defeated the Seljuqs, then we will anger them and the consequences will be disastrous. Secondly, if Tugril does not If they want to control us, they retreated after defeating the Buweishi family. Wouldn't it be unnecessary for us to let the Song people fight with them? So I think the Song people are our last resort and cannot be rushed. "

"Hmm"

Caim thought it made sense, nodded and said: "Not bad."

"The other thing is that we still have to have a good talk with the Song people. Our previous request for them to send troops to help was too stingy. We didn't even pay a penny. How could they help?"

Barzani said: "I think that in addition to the previous conditions, we should also promise benefits to the Song people, at least send a large amount of gold and silver to make them agree to send troops."

"Sending troops directly?"

"Of course not. We still have to wait for the opportunity and see how the Seljuks react."

"What do you think of their reaction?"

"They will definitely send someone to contact us. Once it is determined that the Seljuks are just like the Bouveshi family and just want to control us, we will immediately ask the Song people to send troops. This period of time is just enough to negotiate with the Song people."

"Um."

Qayim was convinced that this was a foolproof strategy and said, "That's it, you guys will immediately find a way to contact the Song people."

"I'll go."

Umu said: "I will go around the west side of the city, where there are few Turks."

"good."

Qaim nodded: "If the Seljuks have wolf ambitions, I will have someone put up a black flag above the tower. You should be able to see it from the direction of the port."

"clear."

Umm knew that the Abbas Palace had the tallest building in the city, a minaret.

Since the Caliph is the leader of Sunni Islam, the palace is full of commonly used Islamic buildings, including several minarets, and the tallest one can be seen throughout the city.

Soon, when the Turks had just entered the city and the west gate had not yet fallen, Umm was protected by more than a dozen Abbasid palace guards and left the palace.

Less than a quarter of an hour passed when someone came in from outside and said, "Dear Caliph, the Seljuk Khan Tughril wants to see you."

"Let him in."

Qaim took a deep breath, knowing that now was the critical moment that would determine whether he could return to the helm of the dynasty.

Even though the once huge Abbasid dynasty only had the territory of Mesopotamia.

But this fertile land once nurtured many ancient civilizations. If it is managed carefully, it may not be able to make a comeback given its prestige in the Islamic world.

So he calmed down, hurried back to the palace, sat on the throne surrounded by ministers, and waited for Tugrile to come in.

After a while, the sound of hard boot soles hitting the floor was particularly harsh. Many guards rushed in and surrounded the entire palace on three floors. Even the remaining palace guards of Abbas were forced to leave. retreat.

Tugrile walked in with his head held high, walked to the center of the hall, looked around first, and then looked at the middle-aged man sitting on the throne, smiled slightly, put his right hand on his chest and bowed: "Tugrile, I have seen you respect me. The Caliphate!”

Qaim said calmly: "The Great Khan does not need to be polite."

"Thank you Caliph!"

Tugrile straightened up and looked at Qayim with bright eyes.

Qayim was frightened by him and thought of the Song people again, so he said: "I am very happy that the Great Khan can lead his troops to eliminate the heresy of the Buweshi family. I will give you the title of Seljuk Sultan and seal you." For the King of the East!”

King of the East?

Tugrile glanced at Qayim playfully.

The first reason he came here this time was to communicate with Qaim, the caliph, and to confirm that he was summoned by the caliph to attack Baghdad.

Otherwise, he has no reputation and righteousness, and the Islamic world will inevitably attack him.

The second is to negotiate with the Song people, hoping that the Song Dynasty will not interfere with their own internal affairs in the Middle East.

But of course he couldn't go to the Dragon's Den and the Tiger's Den in the Song Dynasty in person, so he first went to the Abbas Palace to see Qayim, and it was enough for the Song Dynasty to send an envoy.

If the Song Dynasty agrees to negotiate with them, the Song Dynasty will send an envoy to discuss with them. As for the Song Dynasty's conditions, he will agree when the time comes, and he will even place a trade order.

What Tuglile didn't expect was that he originally thought the second task was the most difficult, but unexpectedly he ran into problems with the first task.

Judging from Qayim's wishes, it was obvious that he wanted him to retreat after capturing Baghdad.

Because in the Middle East, people are accustomed to calling the east of the Mesopotamia, which is later Iran, Afghanistan and other places, the East. To the west of the Mesopotamia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other places were later called the West.

Therefore, being crowned King of the East is telling Qitugrile that the eastern regions such as Khorasan and Persia that you captured can be given to you, but you have to keep the west for me.

After Qayim finished speaking, he continued without waiting for Tugril's reaction: "You are now the greatest sultan in the empire, the savior and protector of the Abbasid dynasty, and Baghdad is a subject of the Abbasids. , I hope you can restrain your troops immediately and don’t harm them.”

Tugrile grinned, showing his white teeth and said: "Dear Caliph, please forgive me for not obeying my order."

"Why?"

Qayim felt uneasy.

really.

I saw Tugril saying disdainfully: "Because these people are all Baiyi people, and they are all Shiite heretics. I must eliminate them and let us Sunnis revitalize!"

"Tugrile!"

Qayim stood up suddenly, pointed at him and yelled angrily: "You know what you are doing. Most of the people in the city are our Sunni people. How can you kill even your own people?"

"hehe."

Tugrile sneered and said: "Dear Caliph, I think you are tired. You can't even tell the difference between heretics and your own followers. Being imprisoned by the Delam people for too long has made you lose your mind. You should take a break."

After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and said to the guards behind him: "Help the caliph back to his palace to rest!"

"you"

Qaim clenched his fists.

He knew that unfortunately he was right. Tugrile was not here to save him at all, but was acting as another Bouveshi family.

The Abbas guards next to them looked at each other and did not dare to stop him.

Seeing the Turks approaching.

Minister Barzani quickly stepped forward to support Qayim and said: "Caliph, you are indeed tired."

He winked at Qaim as he spoke.

Qayim barely suppressed his anger, and surrounded by several close ministers and under the supervision of the Turkic guards, he had no choice but to go towards the palace.

This can barely be regarded as preserving the remaining dignity of the Caliphate.

Tugrile sneered, looked around, and waved his hand to signal his guards to leave first.

The Abbasid Palace is divided into three floors, inside and outside. The innermost part is Qaim's palace and dormitory, as well as some religious buildings such as churches and minarets.

The inner palace still retains some Abbasid guards, but there are not many of them, only one or two hundred people.

Tugrile knew that one or two hundred people could not make any trouble, but he still took the middle and outer palaces as his own, just like the previous Baiyi dynasty, and ordered the guards to control them.

In this way, the Abbasid dynasty will be limited to the inner palace, and all his troops will be outside. He will still only retain Qayim's religious status. As for real power, don't even think about it.

What Tugril didn't know was that he had just left the inner palace and arrived at the outer palace, taking control of the original Baiyi dynasty's palace and waiting for the report from the people sent to the dock.

On the minaret at the highest point of the inner palace, a black flag was hung at some point, which was extremely dazzling in the wind.

And after about half an hour.

Wumu, who had already arrived at the dock, glanced in the direction of the palace, and then ordered the boatman to quickly row towards the fleet of the Song Dynasty envoy.

He never expected that not long after he left the palace, the caliph would raise a black flag. It was obvious that the Turks had directly controlled the palace and forced the caliph. This made Umm anxious.

He looked at the Great Song Dragon Flag floating on the Tigris River, gritted his teeth and whispered: "I can only rely on you, Song people, don't let the Caliph down."

The envoys of the Song Dynasty.

It seems that he has become the savior of the Abbasid Dynasty!