Su Chen said: "That was a whimsical idea of hers. I thought she told His Highness."
Li Chengqian glared at Su Chen: "Elsa is very well-behaved in front of me. She always asks Hashim to tell me anything."
"On the contrary, I feel more casual in front of you, teacher. I tell you everything first."
Su Chen spread his hands: "You are His Royal Highness, does she dare to behave inappropriately in front of you?"
Li Chengqian said in his heart: This is not the case at all! Teacher you yourself don’t know the rumors that the soldiers have told you privately.
But considering Elsa, it’s not too much. Teacher, you don’t seem to have any special treatment for Elsa, so I didn’t say anything.
Otherwise, even though you are my teacher, I am still your uncle!
Li Chengqian was too lazy to talk about this with Su Chen: "Forget it, let's not mention this, what kind of whimsical ideas does she have?"
Su Chen said to Li Chengqian: "Your Highness, you also know that there are actually many parties in Dashi, and they are fighting with each other fiercely."
Li Chengqian nodded: "Teacher, you told me, and I also asked Hashim Elappasu and others to learn more about it,"
"But this doesn't help us much. They fight internally, but they are still very consistent externally."
Su Chen shook his head: "Elsa doesn't think so."
"She thinks that maybe the food nobles may have the same opinion when it comes to treating Persia and Byzantium, but there must be big differences when it comes to us."
"Elsa told me about this when we left Medina."
"She suggested that I send people to contact the food nobles in Mecca and ask them to put pressure on the food king in Ctesiphon."
Li Chengqian frowned and thought for a while: "Elsa knows the food aristocrats better than we do. She said so, maybe this is also possible."
"Teacher, how did you answer her then?"
Su Chen sighed: "I thought this was unlikely at the time. Even if there were disagreements within Dashi, it would not be so soon, and we don't have anyone to go to Mecca to contact the nobles of Dashi."
"Elsa saw that I was not interested in her suggestion, so she seemed to mutter that she wanted to find you, His Highness."
Li Chengqian shook his head: "She never told me about this, and neither did Hashem."
Su Chen said: "Things were busy at the time, so I didn't worry about it. Later, Elsa never mentioned it again, so I forgot about it."
"I didn't expect Elsa to mention this matter again now and want to go to Mecca in person!"
Li Chengqian thought for a while: "According to Elsa's previous behavior, there is no certainty that she will not run away and take risks. Is it really as good as she said?"
Su Chen shook his head: "If it had been left a few months ago, it would have been unlikely."
"The Food Army has always been invincible before, and their domestic and foreign opinions will not fundamentally change because of a defeat in Medina."
"However, as the resistance forces against Dashi in various places became stronger and stronger, the Khazars moved south, and the Byzantine army suppressed the border in the Levant. Every time the Dashi army fought against us, we were defeated and returned with heavy losses."
"Under such circumstances, Dashi's country should be very suspicious of King Dashi's current foreign policy."
Li Chengqian nodded: This situation is the same for every country. If the army keeps winning battles outside, everyone can say anything.
But once we suffered a big defeat, all kinds of doubts came out.
What's more, Dashi never won a single battle against the Tang army, and suffered heavy losses every time.
At this time, it is estimated that the nobles of Dashi were very dissatisfied with their king for provoking such a powerful enemy as the Tang Dynasty.
"In other words, Elsa should gain something from her trip to Mecca this time, but the King of Food, who has a large number of soldiers, may not admit defeat so easily."
Su Chen smiled and said: "Your Highness is right!"
"After the death of the prophet Dashi, he left a huge inheritance to Dashi, but he also left a disaster: the prophet had no sons, and he did not designate an heir before his death, so the throne of his subsequent heirs has not been very stable.
."
"If Osman wants to keep his throne, he must fight us to the end!"
Li Chengqian sighed: "So we still have to completely defeat Dashi?
It is impossible to get them to voluntarily admit defeat, unless the cannibal himself kills Osman and replaces him with a new king."
Su Chen was stunned: This is not impossible!
Su Chen remembered that most of the successors to the Prophet of Food in history, especially the first few, seemed to have been assassinated by their own people!
If Elsa ran to Mecca, she wouldn't encourage the food nobles to assassinate Osman, right?
Then Su Chen shook his head again: Elsa didn't have the ability to eat people, and she wasn't stupid enough to kill her own king first when the army was approaching.
"After all, the Dashi Peninsula has only been unified for a few years, and the internal tribal power is still very strong. The internal buoyant mood can weaken the power of the Ottomans. It affects the morale of the Dashi army, which is of great benefit to us."
"We still proceed according to our plan,"
"As for Elsa, I guess she is quite ambitious this time, but don't hold out too much hope. It would be best if it is useful. It doesn't matter if it is not useful."
Su Chen set the tone for the subsequent actions, and then said to Li Chengqian: "Your Highness, if Elsa achieves something in Mecca, I estimate that important nobles will take the initiative to contact us."
"When the time comes, Your Highness can give them more promises!"
Li Chengqian smiled and said: "Okay, I'm familiar with this matter. Anyway, we can't occupy the Dashi Peninsula and the Mesopotamia."
Su Chen nodded: "If a big food noble comes to visit, we should also make our request."
Mentioning this, Li Chengqian smiled again and said: "Okay, the things you said last time sound interesting, let's just target Osman and those militant nobles."
“I just don’t know how much compensation Dashi is willing to pay?”
Su Chen also smiled and said: "Your Highness will take care of this matter. In fact, our goal is to control the trade route from Datang to the Red Sea. Everything else is easy to talk about."
As for the purpose of traveling tens of thousands of miles to Dashi, Su Chen had already told Li Chengqian that one of them was to teach Dashi a lesson, and the more important thing was to open and control the Maritime Silk Road.
Based on the current situation of Osman, the King of Food, Su Chen estimates that this time he will lead his army north and he will find an opportunity to fight with him.
Moreover, Elsa suddenly wanted to run to Mecca. Su Chen estimated that the food nobles of the peninsula would find Li Chengqian first.
So Su Chen found Li Chengqian and first told him about Elsa running to Mecca.
Then I discussed with Li Chengqian how to deal with the big food nobles if they came.
After everything was arranged, the next morning, Su Chen led the army to march northwest along the left side of the Euphrates River.
The Marine Corps of the Tang Dynasty will go deep into the interior of the Mesopotamia.
