Zhao Mingde knew very well that the business pursuits of the West Asian region by the empire merchants in the South Asia were now in chaos during the Goa War. The empire's commercial interests on the subcontinent were expanded again, and there was no force that obstructed the empire from carrying out the West Asian region. But the only unacceptable thing was that in West Asia, the empire did not obtain a port, and in fact no foreign trader was treated.

The two royal states of the Ottomans and Persia are always full of vigilance against outsiders. The Persians will have limited opening ports, but they only allow outsiders to establish commercial stations, and may be cancelled at any time. The Ottomans do not even allow commercial stations. These two countries are too strong and outside the scope of the extension of the strength of any East and West colonists. However, in West Asia, there are not only these two countries. The Muscat Sultanate is a preacher country dominated by Omans in the Persian Gulf.

This country is an old rival of the Empire. It has collided with it since the first time the Empire extended its hand into the Indian Ocean. The Empire inherited the Portuguese and its decades of war and has been breaking away from control of the Eastern African coastal and North Indian Ocean. The strongholds on the African coast were gradually captured by the Empire, but no major progress has been made. Muscat had nothing to do with the Persians, and it may not be so easy to seize the Ottomans, but it is not difficult to defend it.

The Portuguese's success in the sixteenth century was that they defeated the Ottomans, and the failure was that they lost to the Muscats in the seventeenth century, but in any case, this was just a small country with a population of less than 400,000 and a means of survival using maritime trade, and perhaps it was really time to end.

After a simple measurement of the pros and cons, Zhao Mingde agreed with Mahmoud's suggestion and said, "The things you said should be better if they exist, otherwise don't say it's me, neither the Indian Ocean Fleet nor the African Development Company of the Empire will forgive you."

Mahmood's heart trembled. Mahmood had respect for the fleet of the Imperial Regular Army, but Mahmood had only fear for the African Development Company. In the Goa War, the fleet and army of the African Development Company participated in the unlimited pirate war on the Indian coast, which was the most professional and fierce among them. The black soldiers under his jurisdiction had inhuman tolerance and combat power, and Mahmood had witnessed their killing and abuse with his own eyes.

However, Mahmoud was not worried that his cowhide would be blown up, because Muscat was a trading city where the Omani people were the dominant, but they were only responsible for collecting taxes and building fleets, armies, and the cities were mixed with Persians, Indians, Jews and almost all common ethnic groups along the Indian Ocean. They just refused the Chinese because of war. These people not only participated in commerce and trade, but also controlled the management of ports, warehouses and even urban communities. They only needed to express their predecessors to the Omani and provide sufficient taxes.

After the two agreed on everything, they took the White Deer merchant ship to Suez Port. According to their agreement with King Yu Li Junwei, King Yu would start a war ten days after receiving the news. The sending of the letter plus these ten days is the entire time the delegation fled Istanbul. Neither Zhao Mingde nor Mahmoud wanted to delay here for too long.

Don River.

The great Khan of Crimean, Muradgre, stood on the high ground on the bank of the river, and watched with his own eyes a advance team from China arrive here. In less than fifteen days, he built a pontoon bridge that traveled across the straits with the equipment he brought and materials purchased or seized on the spot. As for this advance team, the Zhouqiao Battalion and the Engineer Battalion were troops he had never heard of. Even the cavalry responsible for order and security, the weapons in his hands made him feel a little strange.

Now, the imperial expeditionary forces are coming from the east, crossing the river through the floating bridge, and heading northwest along the Donetsk River. That is the new battlefield and the Ijium defense line that the Crimean Tatars have been troubled by for several years.

At first, Muradgle did not believe that the Chinese could break the defense line that the Tatars could not break for several years. You know, it was because of this line that he became the Khan. The original Khan was abolished by Mustafa's Ottoman Sultan because of his unfavorable attack.

But Muradgle saw many light cannons and artillery vehicles in the Chinese army. At first he scoffed, believing that such small cannons are completely incomparable to the cannons sent by His Majesty the Sultan. However, he witnessed the small cannons and ammunition trucks being dragged by horses in the muddy road and moving forward easily. Gray seemed to understand something. Perhaps lightness is their greatest ability, which is especially useful in the Ijium defense line, which is densely covered with swamps and depressions.

Blue account.

Li Junwei sat on the chair with a serious face listening to Ata beside him. Ata took a letter and said, "Look here, this word is separated, the good word is smaller. If you write a word on it, it is a bad word. These are all things that the humble official and the liaison officer agreed upon. He went to the school with the humble official. When we were learning Chinese characters, he often made such jokes at the beginning, especially this word, which could be read in the school. Now, he is separated according to the old habit. It only means that the liaison officer has lost his freedom!"

Li Junwei said: "Does the liaison officer still send letters every day?"

"Yes, but every letter is different from before, and I asked the sender that he had not seen the contact officer for five consecutive days." Ata responded seriously.

Li Junwei focused heavily and said to Chen Ping, who was suspicious on the side: "General, maybe we have been exposed. That guy Mustafa should know that we have reached a secret agreement with the Russians."

"It's impossible. Not many people know about this, they are all very reliable." Chen Ping was a little unbelievable.

"The Russians are not reliable. It is very likely that they betray us. We must adjust our strategy." Li Junwei responded calmly to Chen Ping, with a slight disappointment on his face.

As Princess Sophia expected, Li Junwei always hoped to let Russia, Poli Federation and Ottoman countries consume the defense line of Ijium, and then cut off the most elite troops of the countries around the Black Sea in one fell swoop, creating a stable situation for the empire in the Black Sea region for at least ten years, but nothing is possible now.

Chen Ping said: "The Grekhan of Crimea is right next to us, and he has less than 6,000 people under him. If Mustafa knew our plan, why should he put such an important person in such a dangerous place around us?"

"Because Grey is not important, his great khan was given by the Ottoman Sultan, and it does not come from prestige. The Grey clan has a lot of blood, and the Sultan can also choose other Grey as the great khan.

The reason why Mustafa was like this was to control the Tatars' cavalry with as many as 40,000 people on the front line to cover his army of more than 100,000, so he must have kept it from the Tatars." Li Junwei said his judgment.

Chen Ping emphasized: "Grekhan didn't know about such a large-scale retreat, and our allies, Russians and Poles, did not send troops to contact us. It can only be explained that they didn't want us to know that King Sobesky might breathe a sigh of relief because of the Ottoman retreat, and the Russians were the culprits."

Li Junwei smiled: "General, I thought you didn't believe my judgment."

Chen Ping shook his head: "It's not that I don't believe it, but I didn't support you from the beginning the risky move of annihilation of the elites of the Three Kingdoms. Whether it's military or diplomatic, this is too... too risky."

Under Li Junwei's control, the Empire formed an alliance with the two enemies of Ottoman and Russia in this direction, which itself undermined the empire's majesty and integrity. If I directly attacked the allied army in Ijium, it would be a complete rogue act. It would be fine if it succeeded. Once it failed, even if it was not completely successful, it would be possible that the Empire would become the target of public criticism in the area around the Black Sea and the public enemy of all countries.

Li Junwei obviously doesn't care about these things. He doesn't care about the illusory things of the empire's integrity. In his eyes, for the sake of the empire's interests, allies can be betrayed, and the contract is signed to violate it. Only the weak hope that allies can cooperate fairly and the contract can protect themselves.

Li Junwei didn't want to convince Chen Ping, but just said, "Okay, now is the time to do something. Ata, tell us Grey Khan, I'll invite him to dinner at the Blue Point tonight, and destroy him and the troops under his command tonight."

"Have you waited for the exact news about Ijium to come?" Chen Ping asked.

"Don't wait. If the Russians and Poles wanted to annihilate the main force of the Ottomans, they would definitely be more active than us and should have contacted us long ago. But now, we have only seen a Russian envoy once, and the King Sobesky did not even send a single person!

Haha, well, even if the tiger returns to the mountain, there will be endless disasters. After all, the Ottomans came from the Balkans. When these soldiers were released, they would not be in trouble with us in the future. Let them do whatever they want. There is no need for war, and the next step is to seize territory. Obviously, the situation is not so beneficial to us." Li Junwei said helplessly.

Because of Mustafa's attack last year, the battlefield had expanded eastward from the Zaporoze area on the Dnieper River last year to Ijum, a tributary of the Don River. It was on the right bank of the Don River. The area between the Don River and the Dnieper River was now occupied by the Ottomans, and the pursuit of the Russians and the Poles could definitely occupy this land. If the battlefield was on the banks of the Dnieper River such as Zaporoze, the empire would have the opportunity to occupy it.

Chen Ping opened the map and said, "From the perspective of seizing territory, the situation is very unfavorable to us."

In fact, this is not so true, because the territory of the Crimean Khanate includes the land of the lower Dnieper River and the lower Don River, and thinks that the North Caucasus region has extended a lot, but in fact, the rich land of the Khanate is on the Crimean Peninsula, the Don River and the Dnieper River. Chen Ping said this because according to Li Junwei's idea, after the war ended, the Black Sea coastline should be shared with Russia and the Poli Federation. This cake should be cut by China, but as the war ended before it began, everything was out of control.

Li Junwei pointed to the place where the Crimean Peninsula crossed with the mainland, the Isthmus of Pilekop, which is only eight kilometers wide and is densely surrounded by swamps to the east, which naturally separates the Crimean Peninsula from the mainland. Li Junwei clicked here and said, "Chen Ping, you take all the dragoons and cavalry battalions to occupy the isthmus to prevent any enemy or friendly forces moving towards Crimea. I authorize you to open fire on any enemy who attempts to get involved in the Crimean Peninsula.

But don't worry, I won't let you fight alone. I will send people to sweep the Don River and its surrounding ports, block the Sea of ​​Azov, and use ships to transport the troops to the Crimean Peninsula as soon as possible.

Ata, send a message to Chang'Adai and the Turkuts, let them move westward, sweep the Tatars on both sides of the Don River, and send a command to Chang'Adai not to allow any Russians to cross the Don River, and I will cut off the land of the Tatars east of the Don River intact."

In Ijum, Count Naresh and King Sobesky planned a betrayal of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, but everything was not within their control, because Mustafa used the supreme authority given by the Sultan to control the Tatars' generals, and directly established the cavalry commander as the Khan, and planned the retreat of the entire army with his own hands.

With the Tatars, the Russians and Poles could not gain any advantage on the battlefield. Fortunately, the Cossacks had considerable combat experience. Under Sobesky's command, they did not engage in a cavalry battle like a meat grinder with the Tatars behind the temple, but directly passed through the Cossacks' scorched earth hometown and passed the Dnieper River. This directly led to Mustafa not only losing tens of thousands of troops, but also losing the troops that had been occupied by the Ottomans on the right bank of the Dnieper River. The Ottoman and the Tatars' coalition were settled until the southern Grey River.

The whole war looked more like Poland, the coalition between Russia and the Cossacks was in the Ottomans and Tatars, while the Chinese joined forces with the Turkuts to seize territory behind and devour the fruits of victory.
Chapter completed!