Chapter 5352 Bear the humiliation and bear the burden

Chapter 5352 Bear the humiliation and bear the burden
After the envoy left, Xue Rengui finished his meal, put down his chopsticks, wiped his mouth, and asked curiously, "Why insist on asking for so much money? Be careful not to lose everything."

Wang Xiaojie sat down, picked up the teapot, and brewed tea, full of confidence: "Yesterday we captured some prisoners. I didn't sleep all night and interrogated them. When Denilari left, he took hundreds of thousands of gold coins with him, as well as countless treasures and silks. That guy is very rich!"

Xue Rengui was taken aback: "So much money?"

He somewhat regretted reaching an agreement with the Assyrians. If he had known that Mosul was so wealthy, he might have been willing to risk greater casualties to recoup his losses...

"It is said that this was the wealth accumulated by the Assyrians over hundreds of years. When the Arabs captured the city of Sumer and wanted to take this money, the Assyrians fought desperately and lost tens of thousands of people but refused to give it up. In the end, the Arabs backed down and allowed the Assyrians to keep the money."

Xue Rengui sighed, "You're a good-for-nothing too, you should have asked for more!"

Wang Xiaojie laughed and said, "Fifteen thousand gold coins will be enough to exchange for banknotes and copper coins when we get back and distribute them to the brothers who died or were crippled!"

Xue Rengui nodded, took a sip of tea, and asked, "Later, send scouts downstream along the river to search for information and see if the navy has attacked Taixifeng City as planned."

"Here!"

Wang Xiaojie accepted the order and then said excitedly, "According to the timeline, the navy should have already captured Ctesiphon. At that time, our two armies will advance by land and sea, directly into the heart of the Abbasid Caliphate. I hope that Caliph can still sleep soundly when the news reaches Damascus."

"It all depends on whether the Abbasids are pragmatic. If they are willing to negotiate, we will stop here. If they are arrogant and ignorant, we might just have to let our horses drink from the Balada River!"

"If we can really reach that level, it would probably far surpass 'sealing the wolf's lair' and 'carving the stone at Yanran,' wouldn't it? The Grand Commandant once achieved this, so wouldn't we be going a step further than him!"

Wang Xiaojie, on the other hand, hoped that the Arabs would remain unyielding and fight to the death, and he longed for this.

After drinking a few sips of tea, he got up to take his leave and sent out scouts downstream to search for news of the navy.

Xue Rengui was reading through battle reports and drinking tea when he saw Wang Xiaojie hurrying back...

"General, we have news from the navy!"

"Oh? So fast?"

"Governor Su personally led the navy across the ocean into the Persian Sea, and sailed upstream along the Frisian River. They have already captured Ctesiphon and killed the famous Abbasid general, Vagas!"

Xue Rengui slammed his fist on the table and stood up: "Good! Our two armies, one in the south and one in the north, will support each other, allowing us to attack or defend. Let's see if the Arabs have the guts to fight us to the death!"

*****
Damascus is built on a plateau, separated from the sea by towering mountains to the west, by the vast desert to the east, and by the lush Syrian steppe to the north. As a result, it has wet winters and dry summers, and the abundant water of the Balada River flows southward...

Located at a vital transportation hub connecting the north and south, this place has been a thriving center of commerce and trade throughout history.

After Mu'awiyah seized supreme power from the previous Caliph, he moved the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate from Medina to Damascus and built a magnificent and luxurious palace, making it the center of the entire Arab world.

The royal palace was covered with brightly colored carpets with intricate patterns, and the towering stone dome was painted with complex designs. Mu'awiya sat on the throne, watching his son Yezid argue heatedly with the imperial envoy Sheikh, and suddenly felt bored.

One is the crown prince of the empire who led an army of 200,000 to attack Suyab but suffered a complete defeat and returned in disgrace; the other is the minister of the empire who was stationed in Merv but was captured by the Tang army and fled back to Damascus like a rabbit. Yet here they are blaming each other, attacking each other, and shirking responsibility.

Instead of learning from their mistakes and striving to improve, they're competing to see who can be even worse...

He raised his hand to stop the two from arguing.

He only has one son, so the crown prince cannot be changed, and Sheikh has the unwavering support of several powerful clans, so he cannot punish him either... Therefore, he is unwilling to deal with the mess between the two, as it would only add to his troubles and be meaningless.

After Yezid and Sheikh both fell silent, Muaviyah turned to an elderly man with white hair and beard, Saerd, on the other side: "Uncle, what should we do in this situation?"

The old man who had served as the governor of Egypt and who had come to Damascus to plot with Mu'awiyah when the third Caliph usurped the throne, and who directly seized the throne to become the fourth Caliph, was Mu'awiyah's uncle and the brother of the second Caliph, Uthman.

Sa'id, presumably too old and lacking energy, slowly said with drooping eyelids, "That depends on where your ambitions lie, Caliph."

Muaviyah respected him greatly and said in a deep voice, "I would like to hear the details."

Serd raised his eyelids and glanced at Ye Qide, who stood with his hands tied to the side, and said, "Judging from the fact that the Crown Prince suffered a great defeat in his expedition to Suyab, the Tang army's combat strength is far superior to ours. Although the Crown Prince made many mistakes, the fact that the Tang army always overwhelmed his opponents in every battle is enough to prove the point."

"Ah."

Mu'awiya's expression was not good. As the Caliph and the sole ruler of the Abbasid Caliphate, it was an embarrassing thing to admit that his army was inferior in combat strength. However, he did not try to cover it up. Inferiority was inferiority, and it did not cease to exist just because he did not admit it.

Yeqid and Sheikh both showed expressions of gratitude. Although they were both defeated generals, the defeat was due to their own incompetence and the defeat was due to the enemy's superior strength. These were two completely different concepts.

It's not that I'm incompetent, it's just that the enemy is too powerful!

Therefore, the punishment he receives will be very different...

Seid continued, "Therefore, whether it is the Tang army that descended from the Persian Plateau to Mosul, or the Tang navy that crossed the Persian Sea and sailed upstream to capture the city of Ctesiphon, even though they are far from their homeland and have poor logistics, they still have the strength to fight. To completely annihilate them and recover the territory, it will require a long war and a heavy price to pay."

Mu'aviye let out a breath and nodded: "I underestimated the Tang Dynasty. Even though I had already suffered a defeat in a personal campaign, I still wanted to avenge the previous humiliation, and as a result, I repeated the same mistake."

The last time he personally led an expedition, he suffered a crushing defeat. He was still not entirely convinced of this, because although he was at a disadvantage when the two armies clashed, the reason for his complete defeat was that the Tang army "won by surprise" by using a strange weapon to fly into the sky and attack from below, which made him think that this was not the norm.

With more troops and more meticulous planning, the Tang army was not invincible.

This led to the whirlwind attack on Suyab by Yeqid, who commanded a coalition of 200,000 troops from various ethnic groups...

Saeld laughed and said, "Why should the Caliph take a temporary victory or defeat to heart? But if you cannot swallow this anger and are determined to annihilate the Tang army and recover the lost territory, then you will have to transfer naval forces from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea along the canal, and then rush to the Persian Sea to outflank the Tang army. You also have to guard against the Tang navy at the port of Muxun... because for the Imperial cavalry, the Tang navy that captured the city of Ctesiphon is almost invincible."

That's how wars are these days: army against army, navy against navy. It's absolutely impossible to annihilate a navy by using an army to overcome a difference in military branches.

Muaviyeh remained silent in thought.

He understood what Selder meant, because diverting the Mediterranean navy to attack the Tang army and recapture Ctesiphon meant that the empire's advantage gained in decades of war against Byzantium would be lost overnight, and Byzantium would take advantage of the empire's insufficient forces in the Mediterranean to launch a counterattack.

This is unacceptable.

While he was still the governor of Damascus, he was ordered by the second Caliph to build the Imperial Navy. Before becoming Caliph, he achieved a great victory at Phoenix Harbor, severely damaging the Byzantine navy. This was his glory and the foundation upon which he was able to smoothly become Caliph.

That's why Selder asked him "What are your aspirations?"

If the goal is "empire", then of course the navy can be mobilized and troops can be assembled to engage in a great battle with the Tang army. The final result would likely be that the Arab army fighting on its home turf would defeat the Tang army, which had come from afar and had no logistics.

It's not impossible to annihilate the Tang army completely.

However, if he "aims for all directions" and attempts to accomplish an unprecedented grand undertaking, then he must be patient, because "to repel external aggression, one must first pacify the internal." After all, the Tang Dynasty is too far away and beyond his reach. Conquering Byzantium, capturing Constantinople, and completing the unification across the Mediterranean are the most crucial tasks.

As his thoughts raced, he pondered, "Perhaps the Tang people were precisely aware of the empire's current predicament, which is why they dared to launch such a long-distance raid and a costly expedition?"

Selder stretched his stiff limbs and nodded in agreement: "That's right. Whether it was the army's long-distance raid on Mosul or the navy's capture of Ctesiphon, it seemed to be in full swing, but in fact it was extremely restrained. Otherwise, if they had just sent their invincible navy to the Persian Sea to land in Basra, they might have been caught off guard and conquered the entire Mesopotamia."

The reasoning is quite clear: since the Tang army exercised some restraint and did not continue its advance after capturing Taisifeng and Mosul with lightning speed, but instead stationed and rested in these two cities, we can estimate their intentions.

Muaviyah sighed, "Use war to force talks!"

Seid readily agreed.

Muaviyeh asked, "What do they want to talk about?"

"Reparations, ceasefire, trade, that's all."

"Ha, is that all?" Mu'aviye sneered, then slammed his hand heavily on the table, his face contorted with rage and his teeth clenched: "A treaty made under duress, a disgraceful humiliation!"

Yazid and Sheikh were so frightened that they held their breath and dared not make the slightest sound, lest they become the target of the Caliph's wrath.

Selder stroked his beard and chuckled, “A true hero is one who can endure what ordinary people cannot. The two wars against Tang have already shown that the Empire’s current national strength is inferior to that of Tang. Since that is the case, we should endure humiliation and accumulate strength, and then compete with Tang after conquering Byzantium. Knowing that we are no match, yet still waging war for the sake of so-called face, you are truly foolish.”

(End of this chapter)