Chapter 1015: The Black Fores (2/2)

Everyone knew that the east was the Governor of Iron and Blood Abu Muslim's exclusive domain. Anyone who made this kind of request would be humiliating Abu Muslim, so Abu Muslim could never agree to such a demand.

”Okay!”

To Ziyad's surprise, just when he was prepared to hear a rejection, he heard an expression of approval.

”Milord!”

Ziyad looked up in shock.

”Milord, you can't agree to this. If you agree to Qutaybah's unreasonable request, Milord will become the laughingstock of the Caliphate, and Milord's reputation in the east will also be damaged.”

Ziyad immediately began to implore his commander to change his mind. Each governor was a proud person. If Abu Muslim agreed to Qutaybah's request, Qutaybah would always stand above him in the future.

”Ziyad, you don't understand my intentions. Now is not the time to think about individual gain and loss. Both I and Qutaybah have underestimated the importance of conquering the east. In Talas, we encountered a foe like never before. Their power far surpasses that of any opponent we faced before. We relied on the Behemoth Army and Skyquaking Army to conquer so many enemies, including the Khorasan Dynasty, but they both failed at Talas. From Khorasan to Samarkand, no empire has ever been able to stop us for so long, much less defeat us, but the Tang succeeded.”

Abu Muslim sat upon the stone statue, his eyes shining with a sharp light that seemed to see through all the details and secrets of the battlefield.

”Milord…”

Ziyad was dazed. He had never seen Abu Muslim like this before.

Before Ziyad could say any more, Abu Muslim spoke with a firm and unflinching voice. ”Let him come. Tell Qutaybah that I agree to all his conditions, but I have a condition of my own. He must bring his best soldiers with him.”

A complicated look flickered through Ziyad's eyes before he finally nodded his head. ”Your subordinate understands!”

”Besides that, how is the enlistment of militia progressing?” Abu Muslim asked.

In this battle with the Great Tang, the Arabs had suffered severe casualties. Abu Muslim was currently severely lacking in soldiers and needed to replenish his forces. Arabia was a militant empire, and this admiration of battle had gradually spread to all the countries it had conquered. Thus, the Arabian Empire always had an excellent way of replenishing its troops, and enlisting militia was one of the important ways this resource could be exploited.

Arabs admired martial prowess, so they had extremely high levels of discipline and sense for battle. As long as they were given weapons, horses, and armor, and then put through some teamwork and formation training, they would become excellent soldiers. Using this method, Abu Muslim had always been able to obtain an endless stream of soldiers. As a result, even though he had suffered many losses in this two-month stalemate with Gao Xianzhi, his army had only gotten larger, not smaller.

This was also an important contributor to the Arabian Empire's ability to constantly expand, conquering so many empires and civilizations in such a short amount of time to become the strongest empire west of the Cong Mountains.

”This… this battle had far more casualties than we expected. The militia available to us between Khorasan and Samarkand have been severely exhausted. More importantly, everyone was watching our battle with the Great Tang. The defeat at Talas was quickly spread around, and many people have begun to shirk enlistment. The number of people we've been able to recruit recently has severely dropped. It will be very hard to recruit many soldiers in the short term,” Ziyad sternly said.

The side effects of the Battle of Talas were far more severe than imagined. They had not only suffered blows to their soldiers and morale, but were now unable to recruit enough soldiers from the rear. This was something neither of them had predicted.

Abu Muslim said nothing, but his brows furrowed even more tightly together.

”…However, your subordinate is not worried about the militia or Qutaybah, but about Baghdad,” Ziyad said, and then fell silent.

Arabia was an extremely hierarchical empire. The death of Masil was even more serious than Abu Muslim's miserable defeat at Talas. For the Caliph's favored minister to die under the Governor of the East's watch was an extreme dereliction of duty on Abu Muslim's part, a sign of severe incompetence. Judging by the messages being sent from Baghdad, the Caliph was thoroughly enraged. All of Baghdad was also in an uproar over Masil's death, countless nobles, governors, and Great Generals criticizing Abu Muslim.

Although Masil's reputation in the capital was not very good, no one would choose a moment like this to say anything contrary to the opinion of the enraged Caliph.

Masil was not popular, but he had represented the Caliph!

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1. Tarsus is a city on the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Turkey. In ancient times, it served as an important link between the region of Anatolia, aka Turkey, and Syria. In this period, it was hotly contested between the Arabs and the Roman Empire. Cairo is the current capital of Egypt and was built near Memphis, the old capital of Egypt. The Arabs did build two cities in this area, which were known as Al-Fustat and Al-Askar, but the city known as Cairo was only founded in 969, some two hundred years after the Battle of Talas, by the Fatimid Caliphate.