"We still hoped to join forces with them at the beginning. Although the past was not very... pleasant, after all, the Portuguese would attack them directly. We feel that it is always possible to prepare them and actively defend." Mohammed was helpless. Said: "It's just that we still think too much."
"As mentioned just now, the Marin Dynasty is very loose, so the Sultan's court has very weak control over the local area, and there is even long-term civil strife within the palace. We want to report the situation, but they don't care about the problem of a port at all..."
"Actually, what he said was too euphemistic." Guo Kang explained to the Queen Mother: "The current dynasty, like the previous Berber regimes, has never been very stable, or even more serious."
"The previous sultan was assassinated by the ministers, which led to the failure of the eastward expansion. Now... Anyway, the sultan and the ministers are fighting passionately. I don't know if there is still a 'palace'."
"At most, the local emir of Ceuta can only make preparations. But it is an important commercial port, relatively wealthy, and there has been no war for a long time. Everyone has only thought about making money, and the armaments have been depleted for a long time. Even if preparations are made, It won’t have any impact for a while.”
"That seems to be really unreliable." The Queen Mother didn't know what to say: "But I still don't understand, why are they looking for us? We are already at the east end of the Mediterranean Sea, so we are too far away."
"Nothing close can be counted on." Muhammad shook his head helplessly.
"Morocco is in the northwestmost part of Africa. We have just mentioned its situation." He introduced it one by one: "To the east of it is the Algiers region, which is roughly the part of the ancient province of Mauritania-Caesarea."
"The rulers here are the Zayanid dynasty, but their strength is too weak. They have been annexed by surrounding powers many times, and then regained their kingdom because of their internal disputes."
"Therefore, this dynasty has actually been relying on diplomacy to survive in the cracks. It is a brother in distress. They certainly do not have much ability to provide support to fight against the fierce Crusade expedition. And if the Crusaders countries unite, let Cass Tilia and other countries support Portugal, but they probably don’t dare to speak out for fear of offending the suzerain country.”
"They also paid tribute to Castile." The Queen Mother thought for a while and said.
"More than that. They are now paying tribute to the Kingdom of Castile in central Spain, the Kingdom of Aragon in eastern Spain, the Marin Dynasty in Morocco, and the Hafs Dynasty in Tunisia, a total of four countries." Muhammad corrected: "Two from Tianfang Cult and two from Cross Cult."
"Then it's really even more hopeless." Now everyone understood.
"Where is the Hafs dynasty in the east?" The Queen Mother asked: "Since they paid tribute to him, he has some strength, right?"
"He is just a little stronger than others." Muhammad said: "Before, the Hafs Dynasty was attacked by the tribal army of the Marin Dynasty. It was destroyed twice and suffered heavy losses. In the past few years, they have just recovered. After gaining some vitality, we began to establish and try to expand the territory, but the control was very weak. It was okay to defeat the surrounding city-states, but it was really impossible to do anything else."
"Moreover, their military power relies heavily on the local nomadic Banu Hilal tribe. The dynasty has long paid annual coins to the various tribes of the Banu clan in exchange for their support, so that they can gain a firm foothold. They also have no intention of looking further afield. thing."
Everyone looked at each other.
"How come they all surrender to each other and pay annual coins?" Tuohuan said helplessly.
"At first, I thought that with so many remnants of the Yuan Dynasty here, we could simply call it the Yuan Universe. Now looking at it, it might actually be the Song Dynasty..." Guo Kang couldn't help but say.
"The one further away is the Mamluks in Egypt, and you know their situation well." Muhammad simply listed it all in one breath: "Actually, there is another one nearby, which is France. Unfortunately, something happened to them and they can't help. "
"Can France also provide support?" The Queen Mother felt that her eyes had been opened today.
"Of course, France has always been interested in Northwest Africa." Mohammed said: "Moreover, Portugal is a die-hard ally of England."
"When Portugal was founded, it relied on the help of the expeditionary force from England, so their relationship has always been very good. Later, the two families also signed a permanent treaty against Castile and France. The Portuguese took the opportunity to intervene in the North Sea Commerce, that’s where the English started going south to Africa.”
"Of course, there is no need for so many reasons for France. England has the advantage of making them uncomfortable, so they also hate Portugal. They even teamed up with Castile to fight once before. But now France's own The situation is also very bad, and I probably don’t have the ability anymore.”
"In this way, there are not many targets left to choose from. The only ones who are capable are your country and the city-states in Italy."
"We have also visited Venice and Genoa. However, although it is related to local trade, they don't want to offend the Portuguese, so their attitude is very ambiguous. We feel that you are the best choice."
"I think this is too far." The Queen Mother was a little confused instinctively, and then turned to look at Guo Kang: "What do you think?"
"In this circle of the Mediterranean, nothing is far or far away." Guo Kang thought for a while: "It's just how much support we can get from along the way and at the destination? This is the most critical factor that determines the ability to project power and the efficiency of power projection. . I need this information before I can make a judgment."
"Just answer what he said, he understands." The Queen Mother immediately smiled and said to Muhammad happily.
"Okay, Your Majesty." Probably thinking that we could at least negotiate, Muhammad also breathed a sigh of relief: "As for local support, don't worry about it. We have been thinking about it for a long time and we can prepare whatever we can arrange."
"We don't need your country to provide an entire legion. We just hope to obtain an elite group of veterans, and preferably technical units, to serve as the core of the local army. Because we only want to defend, and there are a lot of defenders that can be summoned. . But their quality is too poor and they lack a reliable backbone, so their performance on the battlefield will probably be much worse."
"There are many Christian communities in the territory of the Marin dynasty. They have good relations with us and the dynasty's court. In the previous war when the Marin dynasty replaced the Almohad dynasty, it was these Christian militiamen who helped the dynasty conquer the Malakosh." He said: "Although they don't have much expeditionary capabilities, their fighting will is still very tenacious when they defend their homeland or help their neighbors resist invaders. They should have more in common with you, so it's easy to It can be called upon.”
"It's hard to say..." Guo Kang felt a little unsure.
(End of chapter)
