Xijing, Chang'an.

At the Hot Spring Palace of Mount Li, Zhang Chao frowned slightly when he saw the report from the prince. The Arabs are inflated and are facing changes again. This news makes him care about Li Shimin's death from illness that he had just received. Li Shimin died, nothing surprised him.

In fact, if Zhang Chao really wanted to get rid of Li Shimin, he would not have let him live to this day. Six years ago, Li Shimin raised his army, and Zhang Chao received a report three months later. After some thought, he suppressed the voice of the court's attempt to send troops to conquer, and sent only a small fleet to America, but not to conquer the rebels, but to cover the retreat of the colonies.

After transporting the people from the North American colonies to South America, Zhang Chao threw the matters in North America aside. A few years passed, and he didn't care about how Li Shimin conquered and developed North America, but he just implemented a trade blockade on North America.

Zhang Chao knew that Li Shimin could not make a fuss. No matter how much he made a fuss, he would at most be a barbarian king in North America and would not threaten the Central Plains at all. The biggest loss of the Central Plains was that of a colony in North America in the early stage.

But Zhang Chao considered it from another perspective. North America was too far away after all, and the court focused on the Indochina Peninsula in the South Asian subcontinent, and even the Central Asia region, North Africa, the South Ocean region, and then Australia, Africa, and America. It can be said that America is at most ahead of Alaska and Siberia.

Li Shimin has the ability, and letting him conquer North America is probably a good attempt for Zhang Chao. Anyway, Li Shimin can't live long at that age. Let him mess up the waters of North America first, kill those ruthless people in Yin Di'an.

"Recently, pirates plunder and harass merchant ships frequently occurred in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Mediterranean and other places, and these were done by the Arabs."

"Since the Arabs defeated the Romans one after another, they have become more and more arrogant. Two years ago, it was because of his caliph Omer that I sent the Jinyiwei to stab him to death. Who would have thought that the Ottoman who took over was even more powerful."

The Caliph's assassination two years ago can be regarded as the beginning of the re-entry of the two major empires of Dahua and Arabia. At that time, Arabia captured Armenia and Asia Minor, and the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean was their territory. They began to ambition to invade Egypt.

But how could Dahua allow them to cross the Red Sea or even control the Suez Canal? After all, Arabia dominates, which is completely in line with Dahua's interests.

Dahua sent envoys to negotiate with Arabs several times, but the Arab caliph Omer didn't listen at all. Not only did he prepare for the southern expedition, he even made a request to Dahua to raise tariffs. Even the Dahua caravans passed through the Red Sea and the Arab Sea, he had to pay a new tax to them.

On the other hand, the Arabs were also ready to seize the territory occupied by the Persian Sassanid period, which are now in the hands of Dahua.

After several negotiations failed, Zhang Chao sent the Jinyiwei to assassinate the Caliph Omer. That assassination was very secretive, disguised as the revenge of the Persian Sassanian nobles.

The Arabs did not find evidence that Dahua did, but they knew it very well.

At that time, while Dahua assassinated the Caliph, he assembled several fleets to arrive at the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea to deter Arabia with force, and then stepped forward to reconcile the internal strife between the two Roman emperors, and also allowed the emerging Frankish Empire emperors in Western Europe to reconcile the alliance with the Roman emperors.

Under such circumstances, the Arab talents did not dare to turn against Dahua in the end.

Four years have passed, and the new caliph has endured for four years, and now he has finally revealed his minions to Dahua again.

"This caliph is tolerant enough." Zhang Chao said.

The Caliph Ottoman, who was born in the Wumaiye family of the Gulais tribe, is the most powerful family in the Arab Empire today. He himself is also one of the earliest and most loyal followers and comrades of the prophet. He even married the prophet's two daughters one after another.

Four years ago, the second caliph was assassinated and died, and he was elected as the third caliph. Since his rule, he has begun to deploy a large number of family members and take up important military and political positions.

For example, his nephew, Muaweiye, the governor of Damascus, became the governor of Asia and commander of the Northern Front after he became the Caliph.

He even organized scholars to compile the classical Quran of the Crescent Cultivation in his own name.

In four years, the Ottomans had basically consolidated their power, and in recent years, the Arabs stabilized the occupied Armenia and Asia Minor.

"Ottoman came to China as a special envoy, and at that time he saw that this person was extraordinary, but he didn't expect that he would become the third caliph."

The veteran cadre Qin Qiong said, "Yes, who could have thought that if he knew that this man had become a mansion like this, he should have been eliminated early."

The veteran cadre Li Jingze said, "Arab founded a few years earlier than us, but its strength is extremely strong. In just over ten years, it has swept across Central Asia, unified the Arabian Peninsula, annexed Persia, and seized Armenia and Asia Minor. The two former Western empires, Persia and Rome, were beaten by him one after another. In recent years, if we had not been interested in helping each other, I was afraid that the Roman Empire would only be Constantinople on the other side of the Mediterranean, and even Egypt would have to be lost."

Even military strategic experts like Li Jing sighed and couldn't understand it. Persian Sassanthes and Rome can be said to be old, but the rotten ship still has three pounds of nails. Moreover, after the demise of Persia, Rome had long recognized the threat from the Arabs, which disturbed many younger brothers to form alliances, and continued to borrow military purchases from Dahua. But who could have expected that even so, Rome would still be defeated one after another, which was simply sorry for Dahua's support and Adou who could not help him.

"The old ministers have also carefully studied the important battle examples of the Arabs in recent years and found that their cavalry is indeed great. They are far more powerful than the Persian and Roman cavalry when they were strong at that time. Even the most powerful Turkic cavalry is far inferior to them."

"How about my cavalry in Dahua?" Zhang Chao asked.

"If it were five years ago, our Dahua cavalry, without the support of artillery, had a cavalry against the cavalry, and the number was equivalent, so we could say that we had no advantage and might even suffer losses. But now, they would definitely win."

The Arab cavalry is now invincible across Central Asia, but has not yet met Dahua's soldiers. Dahua's most powerful army is not the cavalry but the navy. The navy has obtained a huge military budget in recent years. Under the thinking of giant ships and cannons, it has developed extraordinary strength.

On the contrary, without any strong enemy, the number of cavalry in Dahua has been reduced, but the number of horse infantry has increased a lot.

But even if the cavalry is streamlined, the equipment is even better.

Sabre, cavalry, and a half-body armor with extremely strong defense but not heavy knights, a backpack of grenades and a three-eyed gun, and a cavalry bow. They are both far and near, and can attack and defend. There are even several types of cavalry. Different types of cavalry focus differently and have different equipment.

What the Dahua cavalry is best at is not fighting alone, but also in concert with infantry, cyclists, cavalry, cannons, etc. So Li Jing said that if the Arab cavalry is under comparable conditions, the Arab cavalry is not the opponent of the Dahua cavalry at all.

"But if we go on an expedition to Arabia and go deep into the inland to fight, especially on the Persian plateau, it's not easy."

War is not just a matter of talking about war, it involves many different situations. For example, right time and place, local defense, or away battles, which are completely different concepts. Especially although Dahua is bordering Arabia now, the core area of ​​Dahua is actually far from Arabia.

When I went to Arabia to fight war, there were huge differences in supply, geography, climate, etc.

With the momentum of the Arabs now, it is really not easy to run over for an expedition.

Even with the cooperation of a powerful navy, it will be very troublesome as long as you leave the coast and go deep into the inland.

In recent years, the Arab cavalry have been defeated, and the Persian heavy cavalry, the Roman heavy cavalry, and even the Khasa light cavalry were all defeated before them.

"It seems inevitable that Dahua and Arabia will fight against Arabia."

Zhang Chao looked at the map and sighed. He was not afraid of not beating Arabs, but that once the war with Arabs began, the foreign trade would be greatly affected.

In the end, when fighting, money is still the one that is fought.

In the ten years since the founding of Dahua, everyone lived a good life. Although they used troops to the outside world, they did not affect everyone's lives. On the contrary, they used troops to expand countless lands, opened up countless new markets and made the economy even more prosperous.

But if you start a war with Arabia, it is different. This time the enemy is a very powerful enemy.

At least in Central Asia, there is no one to defeat now, and even the Persians have to avoid the enemy's edge.

"Or why should I assassinate this Ottoman first?"

"I killed Omar last time, and it wouldn't be so easy to kill Ottoman this time. But you can try it, but if you really want to defeat them, the key is to bring Rome and Frank together, and the countries of Khsas are besieging them."

Zhang Chao said while twisting his beard.

"Rome is now a paper tiger, and it's useless."

Eastern Rome is not as good as the Principality of Constantinople now, while Western Rome can be called the Kingdom of Egypt. Each of them has only one territory left and is still alive. If Great China hadn't supported them, it would have collapsed long ago.

As for the Khasa people who were guarding the Caucasus, they also rely on the assistance of the Caspian Sea and Mediterranean fleets in Dahua. Not to mention other Aksums, etc.

If it is useful, perhaps it is the Frank Emperor who was crowned the emperor in Dahua. He has been supported by Dahua in recent years and has become the dominant rule of Western Europe. Taking advantage of the struggle between Rome and Arabia, the Franks attacked everywhere and went to war with the Western European countries established by their German barbarian compatriots, and they have built considerable territory and are in good strength.
Chapter completed!