After listening to Guo Kang's words, everyone agreed. The Queen Mother took the lead in applauding, and for a moment, everyone seemed to have been convinced.
"Wait a minute, please don't get excited." Theodora also stood up and interrupted them.
"This goal is indeed good, but how are you going to implement it?" she asked.
"That's the one who beat you." Tuohuan slapped the table: "Activate 'Alemany Silver'! This time we will directly take down Naples and Sicily and beat the shit out of them!"
"Alemanni Silver" was a reserve proposed by Guo Gai when the Khanate had just expanded its territory and was at war with Shinra.
At that time, the trade routes leading to the Caucasus and Central Asia through the areas around the Black Sea controlled by the Purple Horde Khanate brought large amounts of gold and silver every year. But at that time, the goods the Purple Horde Khanate needed were not only weapons but also agricultural tools. With the completion of industrial and mining areas and manors, the demand for imports was getting lower and lower, so the money could not be spent.
Guo Gai believes that too much gold and silver entering the domestic market will disrupt prices and be easily exploited by foreign businessmen. At that time, the Khanate happened to be fighting with the interventionist forces of the Alemanni Chiefdom, and he took this opportunity to request that the excess money be stored for use at critical times.
Since then, the Purple Horde has been saving for war preparations, and has only used it twice in the past few decades: once during the "Civil War", it bribed the Venetian Parliament and cut off Hungary's supply of armor and ordnance, leading the Hungarians to form a The progress of the new army was greatly delayed; another time was when Basil was on an expedition to Syria, where he helped the locals pay the ransom money in exchange for Timur's army leaving directly and turning around to fight against the Ottomans.
To this day, the money has accumulated over time, and the amount is very objective. If it is really a war related to the fate of the country, we can indeed unblock it, mobilize legions and mercenaries, and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
However, Guo Kang thought about it and felt that it was not necessary.
"I don't think it's necessary." He shook his head: "This is not a particularly critical battle situation, and in terms of importance, it may only be worth calling when we are on the line with Dongfang in the future."
"Then how are you going to deal with them?" Tuohuan asked quickly.
"It depends on how they cooperate." Guo Kang turned to ask "Old Sea Urchin": "Have the emirs told you what price they can offer? For example, can they give money to the border fiefs?"
"The money will definitely be no problem. They told me before I came here that as long as I can keep Ceuta, they will give me as much as I want." Mohammed said with certainty: "As for the fiefdom, as long as we can win the battle, it should be no problem to negotiate."
"The people over there are very rich. But their problem is that they are not good at fighting, but they are still very rich." He was a little helpless: "If we can provide a group of reliable warriors to protect the local area from robbery, then they must be I'll be happy to. Just don't turn around and rob them again."
"This is not a big problem." Guo Kang thought for a while and said.
"What are you going to do?" Theodora asked doubtfully.
"Aren't we preparing to organize a crusade to rescue the Egyptian Caliphate?" Guo Kang replied: "If everything goes well and the task is completed, the Caliphate can call for a jihad to rescue Ceuta."
"Is jihad reliable?" Muhammad felt guilty: "We have invited many jihad armies in the past few hundred years. If they are not strong enough, they will not be able to defeat the Christian countries; if they are strong, they will attack us first. Now As soon as everyone heard about jihad, they felt frightened..."
"That's because you all invited a whole force." Guo Kang explained: "They are your neighbors, so they naturally want to take advantage of the opportunity to expand."
"But this time, we can do it differently."
"Over Egypt, the fighting is fierce now. The Caliph is on one side, Syria's great warlord Hafez is on one side, and Egypt's local warlord Sheikh is on another side. In addition, there are many who have already taken sides or have temporarily joined forces. Emirs who are waiting and watching." He analyzed the local situation.
"Now the Caliph asks us for help, and Hafez also wants us to intervene. But the two are also wary of each other and cannot trust each other. The Sheikh of Egypt wants to become the new Sultan, and is even preparing to abolish the Caliph. In short, everyone is It’s incompatible with fire and water.”
"Our main goal in this expedition is to defeat Sheikh. But even if we defeat him, the follow-up will be very troublesome."
"You should be aware of the current problems in Egypt." Guo Kang said: "Every time the Sudan is changed, it is a huge chaos. A large number of directly affiliated Mamluks are either purged or displaced. Of course, these people will not be more willing. They often become attached to other warlords, causing further crises.”
"Due to the decline of the country, the number of Mamluks now is far less than it used to be. It is said that during Baibars' time, there were as many as 16,000 Mamluks under the direct supervision of the Sultan. Thirty years ago, when the Burgi dynasty was founded, , Sultan Balkuk had less than 6,000 Mamluks in his hands. After that, after Faraj’s chaotic rule, the number of Mamluks currently on staff cannot exceed this number.”
"But even with this number, it's still difficult to handle to be honest. Moreover, because of the previous chaos, the Mamluks may lose more territory."
"We cannot be enemies of all the emirs and Mamluks, otherwise the current strength will not be able to gain a foothold in the local area. On the contrary, our main goal is to mediate the conflicts between the caliphate and the various emirs. But after completing the mediation and reconstruction In the process of bringing order, more Mamluks will definitely lose their identities and fiefdoms."
"So, I think it's better to reserve a new opportunity. Launching a holy war and letting them go to Andalusia is a good place to go." He calculated.
"In addition to recruiting the Mamluks who lost the land, the Caliph can also call on those unlucky ones who failed to take sides. Previously, within the Mamluk dynasty, these people were treated cruelly. But we can only pursue the culprits, and let the rest join the Roman army Jihad, as long as they have military exploits, we will provide them with fiefdoms in Spain, which is also rich."
"We can give your local emirs the title of governor or prefect according to the size of their sphere of influence. These Mamluks will be named Roman knights." Guo Kang said.
"Of course, there is no need to worry about them rebelling. One reason is that these people are just scattered Mamluk rogues. Their lord has been destroyed long ago and they were recruited to fight. Unlike the previous Berber tribes, which had a systematic power."
"Moreover, the Spaniards opposite are also a group of religious lunatics. They could still talk when they were weak, but now they are strong and want to kill all the Tianfang Sect believers. If those who are unable to protect themselves go to them, there will be no good end."
"On our side, we can also send troops to help you watch - but we don't need to send too many people. I think that as long as we send a combat unit with an engineering brigade as the core, up to half a legion in size, we can complete the task."
"What do you think of this idea?" he asked, looking around at the crowd.
(End of chapter)
