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The two pieces of news he just received were both very important. Qin Mu couldn't help but ask, "Where is Su Jin's army now? Has any news been sent back?"
Su Jin's army of tens of thousands was originally in the area of Hezhong, and now they are fighting in the Punjab region of India in the south. In the north bank of the Caspian Sea in the northwest, Li Ding and Aobai's army of tens of thousands should also be fighting with Kazakhstan and Ottoman armies. Where Su Jin goes will have a major impact on the war situation on both sides, so Qin Mu asked this question.
Minister of War He Liang replied, "Your Majesty, Su Jin has been busy stabilizing the situation in Transoxiana, and has sent troops north to sweep the Kipchak steppes. However, the situation in Transoxiana is relatively complicated, and the Safavids of Persia have long coveted Transoxiana and are now eyeing it covetously. Therefore, Su Jin's main force remains in Transoxiana and Samarkand."
It was the Safavid Empire again. Qin Mu had previously worried that the Safavid Empire would take advantage of the chaos to send troops to occupy the Indus River basin, so he asked the Navy Department to dispatch Indian warships north to seize the important port of Karachi near the mouth of the Indus River.
Now Su Jin's tens of thousands of troops were tied up in the river again, which made Qin Mu feel very uncomfortable, but he was not impulsive enough to immediately order troops to attack the Safavid Empire.
However, being passively threatened is not Qin Mu's style.
The best military operation is to attack the enemy's plans, the next best is to attack their alliances, and the worst is to attack their cities.
At present, although it is not easy to find a relatively powerful ally from outside to deal with the Safavid dynasty, every country and every person always has his own weaknesses. It depends on how much you know about it and whether you can find its weakness.
It now seems that Li Ding is fighting a fierce battle with the Kazakh and Ottoman armies, while in the south it is mainly the Dzungar tribe and Aurangzeb fighting for the Indian Punjab, and the Safavid dynasty has nothing to do with it.
But we cannot just look at one side of the problem, treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.
The Safavid dynasty has posed a serious threat to the Qin Dynasty's Central Asian and South Asian strategies. If we don't pay attention to it, it is likely to let the other party take advantage of it.
The Safavid Empire was an empire founded by the Persians in 1501. Its territory stretched from Khorasan in the east to the Euphrates River in the west, from the Karakum Desert and the Aral Sea in the north to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea in the south.
It includes the entire territory of later Iran, part of Iraq, Turkmenistan, western Afghanistan, and southern Uzbekistan.
The Ministry of War had already been collecting intelligence on the potential enemy, the Safavid Empire, and when Qin Mu asked about it, the Minister of War He Liang answered fluently.
"Your Majesty, the current reigning Abbas II is the seventh king of Safavid. The king of his country is called Shah. Abbas II ascended the throne nine years ago when he was less than ten years old. The power was handed over to Prime Minister Safavid, but this prime minister was too radical in his administration. He made enemies everywhere because of his crackdown on corruption, which made the factional conflicts in Safavid country more and more serious..."
According to He Liang, Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Empire, established this empire mainly relying on two forces.
The first is the Turks. They were the main armed force when Ismail I established the empire. Because they used red turbans, they were called "red heads".
The second group is the Persians, who are mainly responsible for managing administrative and religious affairs.
To put it bluntly, one is a martial arts group and the other is a civil group, made up of different races, and conflicts are inevitable in this process.
Because the Red Heads were not traditional Iranians, Ismail I successively appointed five Persians as governors. They were also the highest military commanders of the Red Heads Army. The second of them was defeated and killed in the battlefield because his Red Heads soldiers disobeyed his orders. The fourth and fifth were murdered by his Red Heads. Later, they even murdered Ismail II.
As a result, the Safavid Empire experienced several Red Head Rebellions.
From the 17th century onwards, the power of the Red Heads began to weaken, and the former warlike soldiers gradually evolved into administrative agencies and bureaucrats. But no matter what, the Red Heads were still a force that could not be ignored in the Safavid Empire.
At the same time, a new merchant class gradually became powerful in the Safavid Empire, mainly composed of Armenians, Georgians and Indians.
Prime Minister Shata's radical policies offended the Red Heads, who were made up of Turks, and the merchant class, who were made up of Armenians, Georgians and Indians, and internal conflicts intensified.
Six years ago, Prime Minister Shata was assassinated and the radical policies were temporarily shelved, but this internal contradiction did not disappear.
From an external perspective, the Safavid Empire's main enemy was the Ottoman Empire. It was because the Sunni Ottoman Empire persecuted Shiite believers that Ismail I raised the banner of resistance and eventually established the Safavid Empire.
The two countries have been at endless war over religious beliefs and the fertile plains of Iraq.
Abbas I captured Baghdad in 1509 and was recaptured by Ottoman Suleiman I in 1534.
In 1623, the Safavid Empire recaptured Baghdad, but Murad IV recaptured it in 1638.
This tug-of-war between Sunnis and Shiites lasted for 150 years.
Originally, in order to fight against the powerful Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Empire wanted to make friends with the Mughal Empire in the south, but later, in order to compete for the strategic location of Kandahar, the two sides began a repeated tug-of-war.
However, now the Safavids' two most powerful enemies, the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire, are both hostile to the Qin Dynasty and even at war with it, making it difficult to cooperate with them.
Qin Mu said leisurely: "It seems that the only way is to find a solution from within the Safavid Empire. No matter how strong a fortress is, it cannot withstand destruction from within."
He Liang agreed with this very much. He said: "Your Majesty, the reason why the Red Heads fell was actually due to external influences. Thirty years ago, Abbas I, with the help of the British Navy, seized Hormuz in the Persian Gulf from the Ottoman Empire. He expanded trade relations with the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company.
Trade with the outside world not only brought Abbas I a great deal of wealth, but also many advanced firearms. Thanks to this, Abbas was able to get rid of his dependence on the red heads, strengthen the central government, and push the Safavids to their peak.
In other words, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf was the most important lifeline for the Safavids. The Safavid navy was very weak, so the coastal areas of the Persian Gulf were almost all controlled by the Ottoman Empire. It was with the help of the British Navy that they were able to capture Hormuz.
My Great Qin has the most powerful navy. If I seize Hormuz, or block the exit of the Persian Gulf and intercept passing merchant ships, I can immediately have a huge impact on the Safavid Empire and intensify its domestic conflicts. "
"Not bad, not bad!" He Liang's strategy made Qin Mu nod his head repeatedly.
It would be extremely difficult to attack the Safavid Empire using the army.
If we use the navy to attack Hormuz, or perhaps blockade the Persian Gulf, it will be a low-difficulty, low-cost, and high-return undertaking, and it will be a great bargain!
“Your Majesty, if you want to weaken the Safavid Empire from within, in addition to winning over the Red Heads, there is another force you can use, and that is the Kurds.
More than 40 years ago, a bloody war broke out between the Safavid Empire and the Kurds. The cause of the war was a castle in the area near Lake Umiya in northwestern Persia. The local Kurdish chieftain tried to maintain his independence between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. His reconstruction of the castle was seen by the Safavid Empire as a gesture of independence, thus threatening the Safavid Empire's rule over its northwest region.
Many other Kurdish chieftains, including the chief of Mahabad, also began to assert their independence from the Safavids. The castle fell after a long and bloody siege by the forces of Abbas I.
Abbas ordered the looting of the entire province and relocated nearly 100,000 Kurds to Khorasan. By now, these Kurds had reached 300,000 people, but they had been subjected to extremely harsh oppression.
Your Majesty, I think that if we can let Su Jin contact the Kurds in Khorasan and give them some support, it is possible that they will become a sharp sword piercing the heart of Safavid. "
"Okay! He Qing, go back first and ask the Ministry of War to come up with a detailed and feasible plan as soon as possible."
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
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