The suggestion of first equipping the Imperial Guards with Type 22 rifles was denied by Zhao Jiaren. Zhao's official family suggested that the army of Guangdong and Guangxi Military Region should be equipped with Type 22 rifles. The primary goal of the Guangdong and Guangxi Military Region is to recover Guizhou and Yunnan.

In the edict, Zhao Jiaren clearly wrote, "I had already been for Jiaozhi ten years ago, and Yunnan and Guizhou recruited envoys. Now Jiaozhi returned to the Song Dynasty, and Yunnan and Guizhou are still owned by the captives. I always feel sad. Today, Mongolia has been expelled from Hebei. Should we recover Yunnan and Guizhou. If we want to do it well, we must first sharpen our tools. Therefore, we will first instruct the Guangdong and Guangxi Military Region to equip new guns..."

The logic of this principle is clear, no one in the Ministry of War is willing to refute it, and the policy of regaining Yunnan and Guizhou was immediately determined. In theory, Yunnan and Guizhou were still Mongolia's territory at this time, but no one in Mongolia cared about it at all. At this time, Kublai Khan had led the Khan's personal army into Baghdad, not far from Tabriz City.

The climate at this time has entered the early December of the Western calendar. Even in the early stage of the small ice climate, the lowest temperature in Baghdad was four or five degrees. It was a very comfortable temperature for the Mongols. Kublai Khan sat on the tall Arab horse and looked at the city that surrendered to him and did not speak for a long time. Marshal Boyan suggested that Baghdad be the end of this Western Expedition. At this time, the Mongolian Khan finally arrived at this end, but found that he saw a completely exotic city.

After a while of silence, Kublai Khan finally ordered, "Enter the city!"

The cavalry rumbled forward, and the troops headed straight to the palace of the Caliph of the former Arab Empire, the Caliph of the Habas dynasty. This building was once very magnificent, but after being destroyed more than twenty years ago, it still kept the original in sloppy. Seeing the onion-headed palace, Kublai suddenly laughed and said, "But he didn't expect to live in such a house."

"Khan, I have time to transform it into what we like." Marshal Boyan replied beside him.

"Yeah." Kublai agreed.

Boyan continued to make a statement, "The most urgent task at the moment is to order Guo Shoujing and others to quickly rebuild the dam."

Recalling the situation he saw, Kublai Khan continued to nod in agreement.

Baghdad is on the banks of the Tigris River. In addition to bridges, it also needs to use dams to provide stable water supply to the city. In the past, the civilization of the Mesopotamians made great achievements in this regard, but later it was destroyed and messy. Destroying water conservancy facilities in ancient countries has always been the tradition of the Mongols. Destroying these water conservancy facilities can effectively conquer the city and expel local residents, so as to facilitate the Mongols' offensive.

However, if a stable rule is established in the local area, these water conservancy facilities need to be restored. Guo Shoujing and other Yuan water conservancy experts performed well in Hebei and Shandong and accumulated a lot of experience. At this time, Boyan asked these people to continue serving the Mongolian Khan Kublai Khan in the distant Baghdad.

There were no locals in the former Caliph's palace, and the Khan's personal army occupied the place. In a blink of an eye, Baghdad became the new capital of Mongolia. Kublai Khan began to select bedrooms, while the palace staff began to choose offices of various imperial departments.

Looking at the empty tabletop, Kublai Khan couldn't help but sigh: "The paper here is probably very expensive."

"Khan, you can buy paper from Song State when you go to the port." Buhua Wanhu, who has temporarily become a direct subordinate of the Khan, immediately replied.

"Can you buy paper from the Song Dynasty in the port?" Kublai Khan was very surprised.

General Buhua quickly brought the map. This map is not a map with longitude and latitude lines like the Song Dynasty, but a traditional map. It only has four directions, east, west, south, north, and no scale. Pointing to the southeast, General Buhua said: "The ships of the Song Dynasty anchored here and sold their goods here. Paper has always been the main goods sold in the Song Dynasty."

Kublai Khan looked at the map and had a sarcastic expression on his face, "But he didn't expect that the Nanman arrived here earlier than me."

General Buhua heard this and did not dare to speak again. No one in the palace dared to get into trouble at this time. Kublai Khan had a bad temper and was beaten to withdraw from Hebei by Song. If he wanted to get an attack from someone, no one could stop him. Kublai Khan was silent for a while and suddenly said to Buhua: "Since you said that, then go and buy it!"

General Buhua immediately went out to arrange for his subordinates. The men hurried to the trading city of Basra. The Tigris River sets downstream and will converge with the Euphrates River in Gurnai. After the convergence, the river is called the Arab River, which is nearly 200 kilometers long and has an estuary of about 800 meters wide. The river water in the middle and lower reaches of the two rivers is the irrigation water source of the rich Mesopotamian plain. The sea boats enter the Arab River from the sea to the port where the ship can navigate to the Arab River.

The same is true for the ships of the Song Dynasty. When General Buhua's envoy arrived at Basra, he saw the banner of the Song Dynasty among many ships. It was a red flag hanging high on the mast. Compared with the surrounding Arab ships, the sea ships of the Song Dynasty are always the largest in size and the mast is the highest.

When I got closer, General Buhua's subordinates found that the three Dasong ships were particularly different this time. There were two huge paddle wheels on both sides of the hull. The messenger didn't know what was going on, so he went to the market to search. Sure enough, he saw a large amount of paper in the Dasong shop.

As soon as you see the color and finish of the paper, you will know that it is Chinese paper. Papermaking was introduced from China to Central Asia, entered the Euphrates River basin, and later transmitted to Europe. There are some differences in each place, such as the material used in the Arab region is grass, and the paper produced is dark in color. In addition, there is no Chinese medicine used to bind pulp, the paper is also quite rough.

The messenger stepped forward to negotiate, and then he heard the local guy hired by the Song Dynasty say, "Master, the price of paper is the same as before. However, Master Song is now buying books. If you can take out the books, we can exchange them for you."

"What kind of books are they?" The messenger was very surprised. The Mongolians had no interest in books. If they could exchange useless books for paper, it would be a good deal.

After hearing this, the guy quickly took out a booklet and opened it with all kinds of titles. In the past, there were universities and large libraries in Baghdad. There were many books. It is said that after Hulagu conquered Baghdad, he threw a large number of books into the Tigris River in Baghdad, turning the entire river into black. This is just a legend, but in fact, there are still many folk books.

After reading the booklet, the messenger asked, "Can you give me one?"

"Probably not." The local guy replied with a smile.
Chapter completed!