The fertile Mesopotamia in the Middle East has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times. From ancient Rome to the Persian Empire, to the Mongols, Turks, and Arabs, almost every powerful country and tribe will not let go.
through this fertile land.
So much so that in this ancient land, civilization has experienced ups and downs, prosperity, decline, prosperity, and decline, and the cycle continues as if it will never end.
Baghdad city.
"Dong dong~dong dong~"
Accompanied by the rumble of shelling, Ottoman soldiers launched an attack on this ancient city like a tide.
The abominable Persians took advantage of the war between the Ottoman Empire and Egypt to sneak attacks from behind and sent troops to capture the Mesopotamia. How could the Ottoman Empire, which had recovered from its recovery, swallow this sigh of relief?
Two hundred thousand troops were mobilized directly from the European Thin Line and came to the Eastern Front to have a good fight with the Persian army and the Egyptian army to determine the status of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.
The powerful military front of the Ottoman Empire is invincible and invincible wherever it goes. In the entire Mesopotamia, only Baghdad has not yet been conquered.
Here, the Persian Empire gathered a hundred thousand troops to defend the city.
Once Baghdad is lost, the Persians will be driven back to the Persian Plateau by the Ottoman Empire and lose ownership of this land. This is something that Ismail I absolutely cannot accept.
He has coveted this land for a long time and has long wanted to include this fertile land in his territory.
The Persian Plateau where the Persians are located is actually very barren, with many mountains and uneven land, and there are really few good places. If the Persians want to become strong, they must occupy this fertile land in the Mesopotamia.
Apart from this, the Persian Empire really had no direction in which to expand.
To the north is the powerful Ming Empire, and the Hezhong area is very rich, but the Ming people are not easy to mess with. If they don't attack us, they will burn incense. How can they dare to worry about the Ming people's Hezhong area.
To the east are the colonies of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese Kingdom, and the Koreans, which are not very hot. The Ning Kingdom is the most powerful vassal state at present. It has strong soldiers and horses, and rich people, so it cannot be messed with.
Japan and Korea were vassal states of the Ming Dynasty, and the younger brothers who followed the Ming Dynasty were not easy to mess with.
To the south is the Arabian Peninsula, a barren desert area, which is given to Persia for free. Persia has to consider whether it wants it or not. If it wants people and no one, it means nothing, a place where birds don't poop.
Only the Mesopotamia in the southwest has fertile land and a large population. It is a treasure land. Whoever occupies it can basically determine their status and hegemony in the Middle East world.
Baghdad cannot be lost under any circumstances.
"Kill! Kill!"
On the walls of Baghdad, the Persians roared.
Cannons one after another were not to be outdone and attacked the Ottoman Empire army.
Dongdong~dongdong~
The sound of violent shelling resounded through the sky, and the billowing smoke covered the top of the city, but it was soon blown away by a strong gust of wind.
"Bang~bang!"
Above the city, dense gunshots continued to ring out.
This kind of musket from the Ming Empire has a long range, high accuracy, and full lethality. It can be said that it has every advantage when used to defend the city. With every wave of gunshots, countless Ottoman soldiers fell on the city.
.
However, the Ottoman Empire was also determined to win Baghdad.
The powerful Ottoman Empire had never lost except once to the Ming Dynasty. As for the Persians.
In the past, they were often bullied by the Ottoman Empire. Whenever there was any problem, they would kill the Persians directly, driving the Persians to the east like lost dogs.
Now, with the support of the Ming Dynasty, the Persians have become spirits.
I heard that they are at odds with the Spaniards here in West Africa, and they are coming to rob the Mesopotamia of the Ottoman Empire. If they don't give the Persians a lesson, they may forget how powerful the Ottoman Empire is.
The mighty Persian army surged towards Baghdad to attack.
Every moment, a large number of soldiers died, like a meat grinder, causing both sides to bleed continuously, and the fight was extremely fierce.
“Why haven’t the Egyptians taken action yet?”
"What are they waiting for?"
"Are we going to wait until we are all killed and they wait to be dealt with by the Ottoman Empire?"
On top of the city, Musa, the commander-in-chief of the Persian Empire army, was covered in blood. The battle was very fierce. It had been going on for several days. The Ottoman Empire army almost took turns in the battle and launched endless attacks. It had been fought several times.
When they reached the top of the city, they almost attacked, but in the end they fought tooth and nail to repel the Ottoman army's attack.
Musa knew that there would be no way for Persia to support him.
The Persian Empire is now fighting on two fronts. It is fighting fiercely with the Spaniards in West Africa, desperately trying to seize colonies, and it is facing off against the Ottoman Empire here.
In fact, Persia's own national strength is not strong, and it cannot support a two-front war at all. The national treasury has been drained dry, and it has borrowed huge funds from the Ming Dynasty to operate, and there is no way to support it.
The only one we can count on now is the Egyptians.
During the last war between Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, Persia made a sneak attack on the two river basins, forcing the Ottoman Empire's army to retreat. Therefore, the two sides formed an alliance to jointly fight against the Ottoman Empire.
Now that the Ottoman Empire is besieging Baghdad, it is a great opportunity for the Egyptians to launch a sneak attack on the Ottoman Empire.
As soon as he finished speaking, the Ottoman army that was attacking the city quickly receded like a tide, and then began to evacuate Baghdad almost without looking back.
"Did the Egyptians succeed?"
Musa breathed a heavy sigh of relief and began to speculate as he looked at the retreating Ottoman army.
Soon, good news came through.
The Egyptian army made a sneak attack on the rear of the Ottoman Empire and directly cut off the food supply line of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Army, which lacked food supplies, had to postpone its attack on Baghdad. After retreating, it quickly stabilized its rear and at the same time attacked
Egypt launched an attack.
The two sides fought a great battle near the city of Damascus, and in the end the Ottoman Empire nearly defeated the Egyptians with its superiority in military strength.
However, the Persians in Baghdad took the opportunity to take back several large cities in the two river basins, so the Ottoman Empire once again had to divide its forces to guard the two river basins.
The three armies were constantly engaging in tug-of-war with each other in the Middle East. For a while, no one could do anything to the other.
Since ancient times, once war breaks out, it is undoubtedly the biggest disaster for ordinary people.
The same is true for the entire Middle East at this moment.
The armies of the Egyptians, Persians, and Ottomans fought repeatedly on this land. The two sides came and went. Often the walls of a city had not yet been repaired, and it soon changed hands.
In one area, the Egyptian army swept it once, and the Ottoman army came to sweep it again, over and over again. In addition, slaves are very valuable now.
When these armies have nothing to do, they basically have a business, which is to capture slaves from all over the place, and then sell these slaves to the people of the Ming Dynasty.
This has almost become a public matter.
Being a soldier is not only about honor, but also about money.
Every siege is bound to be accompanied by massive killing and looting.
Now no one is spared, captured local soldiers, and civilians looted everywhere can all be sold to the Ming people in exchange for free money or food, medicine, weapons and equipment that the army urgently needs, etc.
The three parties were at loggerheads with each other, but the merchants of the Ming Dynasty had smooth access to this land and delivered a steady stream of ammunition to the three parties.
As long as you have money, they can get you anything.
Food, weapons, armor, war horses, and medicine are no problem. The Ming Dynasty has transfer points in the Persian Gulf, the Egyptian Canal, and Damascus City. As long as the money is in place, anything can be delivered to you.
Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't have money. You can exchange it for slaves. The high price of a slave of nearly 20 taels of silver is enough to exchange for a cart of grain. Is there any more cost-effective deal than this?
Under this trend, the armies of the three parties have become accustomed to sweeping around, arresting people when they see them, and selling them to the Ming people in exchange for money and supplies.
From top to bottom, everyone is sharing the benefits. They call this activity threshing the valley, just like the nomadic tribes. Even when they are threshing the valley, the soldiers on both sides pretend to be invisible to each other in a tacit understanding.
Do each one.
Continuous wars, repeated tugs of war, and the practice of clearing grass and valleys have caused the originally prosperous Middle East and Mesopotamia areas to quickly become depressed.
There are no people at all in each city. No one dares to stay in the city. No matter who comes here, they will be sold as slaves.
They can only escape to the countryside and mountains and forests, but even if they escape to these places, it is still not safe because soldiers from the three parties will go to Grass Valley from time to time.
The entire Middle East and the Mesopotamia region are like a garden after a cold winter, everything is quickly withering and withering.