"Your Highness, I want to ask if the envoy of the Tang Dynasty captured by the prince is Cui Yao?"

"So what?" Agush sat up straight and stared at Muta and said, "Do you know him?"

Muta smiled bitterly, "To be honest, I knew Cui Yao when I was in Chang'an, and later met him when I was shattering the leaves and came with him to suck the sweat. I didn't know that he was an envoy of the Tang Dynasty, but I knew his true identity."

‘Real identity?’ Agush suddenly became interested, “Tell me quickly, what is his real identity?”

"Your Highness, he is the grandson of Cui Yuan, the former prime minister of the Tang Dynasty. In his childhood, he was known as a child prodigy. This person seems to be mature, but in fact he is only sixteen years old."

"So that's how it is." Agush showed surprise on his face. He walked to the door of the tent with his hands behind his back, looked at Cui Yao's camp from afar, and suddenly laughed, "It's not easy to be able to represent the great country at the age of sixteen! The Caliph will definitely be very interested in him."

"And you." Agush looked back at Muta and smiled slightly, "Since you are willing to travel thousands of miles for him, it means that your friendship is good. Please stay and take care of him for me and teach him a great speech. I will thank you very much in the future."

Muta was overjoyed, and he kowtowed respectfully, "I am willing to serve the prince."

The next morning, the team set off again, with a spacious and straight road from Hamadan to Baghdad. After only three days, the group arrived at Baghdad, the capital of the Abbas Caliph Empire.

Baghdad means god-given in Arabic. It is a village of the Sassanian dynasty. It took four years to build by the second caliph Jaffar. Baghdad was a product of internal and external political influence. Although the center of the Wumaiye dynasty was destroyed, there were still fierce rebels in its vast empire territory. In this case, Damascus was obviously not suitable as the capital of the new dynasty. Secondly, Abbasian Caliph died in smallpox in his thirties. His sudden death caused a fierce struggle for the succession of the dynasty. Abbasian's younger brother Jafar successively killed his uncle Abdullah and Khorasan's leader Abdullah and seized the throne, but it also triggered a large-scale uprising. The original capital of the Abbasian dynasty, Kufa, was the gathering place for the rebels. For this reason, Jafar had to find a new capital. He looked for many places and finally chose Baghdad.

Baghdad was originally named Peace City, located on the right bank of the Tigris River. Within just a few years after its construction, it became one of the three magnificent capitals of that era. Chang'an, Constantinople, Baghdad, and the Abbasid Empire had extremely vast territory. Tripoli in the far west, and Tochar and Sindhi in the east. The center of the territories that ruled this ten thousand miles was Baghdad.

Agush's army was stationed outside the city. He only brought more than a hundred servants and took Cui Yao into the capital of the prosperous Abbasid Empire.

This is a circular city, so Baghdad is also known as the Tuan City. It is divided into inner city and outer city. It is all made of bricks. There is also the Forbidden City in the inner city. The walls are towering into the clouds. Unlike the Chang'an Palace City, which face north and south, the Caliph's palace is located in the center of the entire capital. It is also a circular palace group. With the inner city and the outer city, it forms three concentric circles. It radiates outward through the four palace gates, forming four straight streets, like spokes of wheels, shooting towards every corner of the empire.

Cui Yao entered the city through the city gate directly north. The noise and noise came to his face. The street was filled with people. Teams of camels passed by. The streets were filled with small vendors. They enthusiastically promoted goods to pedestrians. There was a huge wooden platform for selling slaves in the distance. You could vaguely see the black slaves trafficked from Lower Egypt being auctioned. Next to it was a magnificent mosque and the round dome shone in the sun.

"This is an outer city, the place where ordinary Baghdads and foreign merchants live. There are 300,000 people living there, and there are huge business opportunities and wealth here." Muta introduced this magnificent city to Cui Yao in simple Arabic. Now he has officially become Cui Yao's housekeeper and entourage. The old Sogdian businessman bets the future of his family on this young Tang nobleman.

Apart from the large population and grand architecture, the cultural customs here are no different from the other Dashi cities they passed by. Cui Yao was not surprised. He was very interested in the magnificent buildings here and could not help but compare them with Chang'an. Although it is called the world's "human city" with Chang'an, its scale and population are much inferior to Chang'an.

After listening to Muta's introduction, Cui Yao smiled and asked, "Uncle seems to be familiar with this place. Have you been in trouble with this place in the past?"

Muta smiled, "I have lived here for five years. There is also a house in my neighborhood to the west. Now it's empty. I'll take you to see if I have the chance."

After walking about five miles, they entered the inner city again. The inner city was the place where the dignitaries and wealthy people of the Abbasid Dynasty lived, and it was also the concentration of various government offices. Compared with the chaos in the outer city, the buildings here seemed much more neat and orderly. Small castle-like private houses were built adjacent to each other. Most of the roofs were round in Islamic style, with spacious roads and sparse pedestrians. Occasionally, a magnificent carriage drove past the corner of the street, and you could see magnificent buildings, either the Imperial Library, the Imperial Taxation Administration, or the mosque.

Entering the inner city, the aura of the merchants has gradually disappeared, and it is replaced by a kind of imperial majesty. The neatly equipped caliph guards can be used everywhere on the streets. They wear black helmets, chain mail, carry battle axes or spears, carry round shields on their backs, and ride Gao Jun's war horses to patrol the streets. When passing by them, they will bow to pay tribute to Agush.

The inner city is obviously much smaller than the outer city. Not long after they walked, they came to the Forbidden City. From the gate, they could vaguely see the famous palace of the Caliph, "Green Dome Palace", on the green dome. A statue of a knight holding a spear rose into the air like a horse.

The city gate was heavily guarded, with about a thousand soldiers guarding both sides of the city gate. Agush waved his hand and ordered everyone to dismount. He quickly stepped forward and negotiated with the officer guarding the city gate. The officer immediately ran into the city and reported to the Caliph.

In the magnificent palace, Caliph Rashid was in anger. He held a sword and chopped the palace. Several precious tables and chairs carved from agarwood had been cut to pieces. The eunuchs and palace maids were so scared that they were trembling. They hid in every corner and shivered. Only one minister looked at Rashid seriously and was angry, with a calm eyes, waiting for the Caliph's anger to calm down.

Rashid just received the news that the Uighurs who had already agreed to attack Beiting actually made a fuss and withdrew their troops back to Han'er Duobali. In this way, the originally perfect link in the Battle of Shattered Leaf: the attack on Beiting to contain the reinforcements of the Tang Dynasty was declared to be defeated, and his 20,000 Great Food Army had no effect at all.

"Damn Surman, how did he promise me!" Rashid's anger spread to the useless Persian again.

Perhaps he was a little tired, Rashid inserted his sword back into the scabbard and sat on his wide chair, kneading his temples with his index finger and thumb. Rashid had rich experience in war. Ten years ago, as the supreme commander of the Abbasid Dynasty, he led an army of 200,000 to attack the arch-rival Byzantine Empire and besieged Constantinople for several months. It was the fourth time that the Arabs had besieged Constantinople since the Wumaiye Dynasty. It was also because of this battle that he won the support of the military and overthrew his brother Hadi's throne five years ago and became the fifth caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty.

It was the experience of besieging Constantinople that made him well aware of the importance of reinforcements to being besieged by the enemy. In order to completely win the Battle of Shattered Leaf, he had almost exhausted all the gold coins in the national treasury and delayed the planned tax reform. He could not rely on heavy taxes again to maintain this protracted war. But now, the Uighurs' rebellion cast a shadow on this war.

"Have Your Majesty calmed down now?" The minister standing at the door finally spoke. His name was Yehaya, who was Persian, with Oriental blood. His grandfather was a Buddhist monk from Tochar. Yehaya is now the Vizir of the Abbasid Dynasty (equivalent to the prime minister). He was about sixty years old and was the most powerful person in the entire empire except Rashid. He was also the Emir of Baghdad. Agush served as the governor of Samarkand as his deputy.

Yehaya's power was not given to Rashid, and even half of the entire Abbasid dynasty belonged to his family. His father Khalid was the close friend and brother of the Abbasid Caliph, the founding elder of the Abbasid dynasty, and Rashid was his adopted son. If we use the metaphor of the Eastern people, Yehaya was Lu Buwei of the Qin Empire, and Rashid respectfully called him "father".

Ye Haya slowly walked forward and said softly: "Your Majesty the Caliph, you shouldn't be angry like this, it's not conducive to your rational decision-making."

With a wave of his hand, more than a dozen guards ran over quickly and packed up the broken tables and chairs. Rashid seemed to wake up suddenly. He didn't know that Ye Haya had entered the palace. He immediately stood up and said respectfully: "My father, please forgive me for my impulse. I am worried about the Battle of Shattered Ye, and the Uighurs betrayed their oath."

Ye Haya smiled and shook her head, "I already know that the Uighurs are two birds. They both want to take advantage of the East and the West. From their Khan's desire to establish two queens at the same time, they know that this is an unreliable ally. However, I also have a way to make it truly surrender to us, it just requires your patience and wisdom."

Under the gentle gaze of his adoptive father, Rashid completely regained his rationality. He immediately asked Ye Haya to come to his war room and asked him to sit down, "Please tell me how can the Uighurs completely turn to us?"

"Have you read Surman's report?" Ye Haya smiled and said, "The Uighur military supports the war with the Tang Dynasty. The Sogdian merchants and Manichaeists are loyal to the Caliph. Their Khan remains neutral. If the Uighur Khan dies suddenly, who will His Majesty think the next Khan will be biased towards?"

Rashid suddenly realized that Yehaya was right. The Uighurs' domestic power had actually slid towards Baghdad, but was hindered by their Khan's swinging national policy. If this treacherous loyal Khan was eliminated, the Uighurs' westward reliance would be unstoppable.

Seeing that he had understood his intention, Ye Haya changed the subject and returned to the Battle of Broken Leaf. "We are not good at attacking cities. The weapons we can rely on are catapults and siege rams. Last month, His Majesty transferred 500 newly built catapults to Bahan. Now it is almost winter. It is estimated that it will be difficult for the Tang army reinforcements to come. Please give orders to Alan and you can officially launch an attack."

Rashid nodded slowly, "Okay! I will order immediately."

At this moment, the guards' report came from outside the door: "Your Majesty, Prince Agush has arrived and is looking for a meeting outside the palace."

"Announce him to meet him!"

Rashid glanced at Ye Haya quickly, Ye Haya smiled and stood up, "I still have something to do, so let's go first, you brothers have a good chat!"
Chapter completed!