Osman was a very capable general, a very capable person. It wasn't that he wasn't loyal, but he wasn't blindly loyal. He would be loyal to a leader that he trusted, and not blindly loyal to a spineless person who only knew how to run away.
As a general of the Umayyad Dynasty, he had spent his entire life on the battlefield, and had made great contributions to the Umayyad Dynasty. The expedition to the Kingdom of France was even more arduous, and he had suffered heavy losses. But even so, he had not forgotten that he should be loyal to the Umayyad Dynasty. It was just that the master he had originally been loyal to had been executed by the Apus Dynasty, and the only remaining heir of the royal family was a coward. This made him feel very uncomfortable, but for the sake of his reputation and for the sake of a way out, he had agreed to be loyal to this single heir.
But this coward was too insensible. He didn't have any misgivings about the situation of the army and casually gave out unrealistic orders. If Osman had been blindly loyal, the remaining soldiers under his command would have been wiped out.
Since ancient times, any capable general with military power would often choose to be their master, especially when their master was weak. This situation was even more obvious. Taizu of the Song Dynasty was a very good example.
The reason why they did this was because people were greedy. Everyone wanted to be in a high and mighty position. They didn't want to be below others and be someone's dog. Secondly, if the master was too weak, it would cause the death of many people.
In short, the powerful Osman had the ability to stand on his own. He wasn't afraid that the small Spanish court would hold him responsible for disobeying orders. At worst, he would ascend the throne himself.
On the Khorasan side, Apos's condition did not improve at all. However, people were not only concerned about Apos's condition, but also the situation in the court.
This was because the situation in the court had begun to change. Many officials had been beheaded or demoted, while many others had been promoted. All of this was Apos's doing. He wanted to weaken Abdullah's power and increase Mansur's support so that the empire could smoothly continue.
In order to prevent Abdullah from acting out of desperation, Sui Xiong had Mansur make emergency preparations so that he could stop Abdullah in time. On the other hand, everything Sui Xiong did was justified, unlike how he killed his servants. He didn't kill a few people for no reason at all.
It was inevitable that high-ranking officials would have some sort of problem. Not many of them were clean. Some liked to play with women, some liked to embezzle money, and some did things like embezzling the wealth of the common people. In short, no official could withstand an investigation. As long as one investigated them, they would find a lot of disgraceful things that violated the law.
If one did not investigate them, any official could be honest, but once one was investigated, one would find out how many bad things they had done, enough to be beheaded and exiled.
Since Apos wanted to support Mansur to inherit the empire, he naturally would not investigate the officials who supported Mansur's power. Instead, he would investigate the officials who supported Abdullah. After finding evidence of their crimes, he would make it public and execute them in public to serve as a deterrent.
Because the evidence was conclusive, the officials who were executed had indeed done a lot of things that they should not have done. Therefore, even if Abdullah was heartbroken, he could only grit his teeth and swallow it in his stomach. After all, he could not cry out for his supporters who had made a big mistake!
As an elder of the Apus dynasty, Abdullah was a very rational person. He knew that Apos was going to make a move on him, but he did not have a good way to deal with it. After all, he could not directly find Apos and blame him for always targeting people who supported him! After all, there were still a small number of officials who supported Mansur who were punished in order to balance things out a little and not make things too obvious and cause a backlash from some people.
However, the storm of investigation launched by Apos did indeed make the Khorasan officials feel insecure. Most of the officials, or perhaps all of them, had made mistakes before. Once they were investigated, it would be very bad. Therefore, many officials began to act cautiously and did not dare to offend anyone to avoid being reported.
There were also some officials who, out of fear, fled Khorasan with their families in order to preserve their lives. As for the more intelligent officials, they had long ago realized that Apo was using the investigation to suppress Abdullah. Thus, all the officials who had not yet taken sides all paid a visit to Mansur and expressed their loyalty.
There were even some officials who had already pledged their loyalty to Abdullah who began to change sides and secretly ran to Mansur's residence to send generous gifts in order to ask Mansur to protect them.
If this situation continued to worsen, Abdullah would no longer have the ability to contend with Mansur. Fortunately, the investigation was still in the field of civil officials and had not yet begun to investigate the embezzlement of soldiers' pay. If Apos extended his hand to the army, the impact would be even greater.
Therefore, in just a few days, Abdullah's supporters couldn't sit still. They were keenly aware that many of the officials who were close to Abdullah were being investigated, and they estimated that they would also be implicated. So, how could they not be anxious?
These trembling officials all gathered at Abdullah's residence, ready to discuss with Abdullah how to deal with this matter in order to resolve the crisis at hand.
"Sir, the Caliph is clearly targeting us. If this continues, we will be executed sooner or later. We must think of a way to deal with this."
"Yes! Who wouldn't make a mistake? The higher the position, the more mistakes one will make. "
"Sir, please come up with an idea! If we don't act now, we'll have no choice but to be captured. "
"Many of our people have gone to curry favor with Mansur. These damn fence-sitters!"
Many of his supporters began to complain.
They were all Abdullah's hardcore supporters and had done many things to harm Mansur, leaving no way out for themselves. Thus, it was very difficult for them to be accepted by Mansur, and they could only follow Abdullah to the end. Even though the situation was very unfavorable to Abdullah, they had no other choice.
Abdullah angrily panted, not knowing what to say.
This was because Apos had truly grasped the situation too well. Every official who had been punished had committed unforgivable crimes, and none of them had been wronged or lightly punished. If Abdullah used his supporters as a reason to rise up, this would clearly not work. Apart from his trusted aides, no one else would be unconvinced. In this way, the chances of success would be greatly reduced.
But if he did not immediately rise up and allow Apos to play his tricks, his supporters would dwindle away, and the final outcome would still be disastrous.
This meant that Apos now held the initiative. Whether Abdullah chose to bide his time or rise up, he did not have enough of a chance of victory.
"Tell me, what should we do?"
Abdullah looked at his supporters and asked.
"Sir, we have no path of retreat. Why don't we rise up? This is the best method. "
"That's right! We can't just sit around and wait for death. We have to show our enemies that we're not pushovers. We have to show them that we're not pushovers. "
"Rise up, we have to rise up and take over the palace as soon as possible."
"The only way to prevent further losses is to rise up. There's no other way."
All of the supporters could only think of mobilizing the army. They couldn't think of any other methods. This was because Apos was very good at playing politics. They simply weren't Apos's match. Only mobilizing the army was the only way to solve the problem at its root.
"Rise up? You're making it sound too easy. What's the reason for rising up? We have to have a good reason."
Abdullah had long thought of rising up, but he could not think of a more reasonable reason. Without a good reason, rising up would be considered a rebellion. If he could not kill Mansur in one blow, in the ensuing protracted battle, Mansur's supporters would grow more and more, and his chances of winning would be gone.
"Sir, there's a saying in the Tang dynasty, 'If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext'. It's not difficult to find a reason to rise up."
A supporter said.
"Oh, then tell me, what's the best reason to rise up?"
Abdullah asked.
"Ziyad is enough. When we rise up, we can say that Ziyad came back on Mansur's orders, and Mansur called Ziyad back to lead the Khorasan army to destroy us. In order to protect ourselves, we can only rise up and kill Ziyad and Mansur."
A supporter said.
"Yes, we can use Ziyad's return to the Khorasan as an excuse. This reason will definitely be believed."
"Sir, don't hesitate. We have no other choice but to rise up. If we don't rise up, we will die in the Khorasan sooner or later."
Many supporters voiced their agreement.
Abdullah heard this and felt that it was very reasonable. It was indeed easy to fabricate rumors using Ziyad's return as an excuse. Moreover, as long as it was someone who was dissatisfied with Mansur, it would be easy to believe.
"Alright! Since there's no better way, we can only rise up and resist. Allah, this is a sin. "
Abdullah was quickly convinced and felt that it was imperative to rise up and resist.
However, rising up and resisting was not an easy matter. Abdullah's army was indeed very powerful, but Mansur's strength was not to be underestimated. It would not be difficult for Abdullah to charge into the palace and kill the gravely ill Mansur, but if Mansur fled into the army, it would be very difficult for him to kill Mansur. This was because the soldiers under Mansur's command were very elite and somewhat stronger than his own.
Thus, the details of the rising up were extremely important. The rising up of troops had to be concealed and could not be discovered prematurely. Once the troops were mobilized, they had to surround the palace and Mansur's residence with lightning speed and capture or even kill both Mansur. In this way, Abdullah would be the only person left of the Apus dynasty with high prestige. This would make the following matters much easier.
Controlling and killing Mansur was of the utmost importance. If this step was taken wrongly or the goal was not achieved, the following work would be in a passive position. Thus, they had to keep a close eye on Mansur's every move and ensure that they could quickly find and kill Mansur after the rising up.
The rising up of troops needed to be decided on a date, the mission objectives of each unit, how to act, how to deal with emergency situations, and so on. If any of these details were not handled properly, the consequences would be severe.
"Rising up is no small matter. This is a matter of great importance. If news of this is leaked and Mansur is prepared, the consequences will be disastrous. Thus, the news of the rising up of troops must not be leaked. Everyone, you must not say a word to anyone, not even to those closest to you."
Abdullah said anxiously.
Since they had already made up their minds to rise up, the rising up of troops had to be carried out in secret and not leave the slightest trace. If they were discovered, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Sir, be at ease. We're all in the same boat. If something happens, none of us will be able to escape. Thus, we won't say a word."
The diehard fans all agreed.
"Okay, then let's discuss the exact date and plan of the operation! We must figure out the date and plan of the rising up of troops within three days. "
Abdullah said.
The current situation was already quite dangerous. If they did not act as soon as possible, the consequences might be very serious. Therefore, after making up his mind to rise up, Abdullah had to determine all the details of the rising up of troops in a very short time so that he could launch the operation as soon as possible.
The better the rising up of troops was, the better the effect of the rising up of troops would be. Only then would it be able to achieve the effect of a sudden attack and it would be easier to achieve their goal of rising up.
Abdullah and several of his diehard confidants gathered in the secret room of his residence and began to carefully study the rising up of troops. A big argument broke out. Because different confidants had different views on many of the details of the rising up of troops, it was inevitable that there would be arguments.
Fortunately, the soundproofing of the secret room was very good and there were confidants guarding outside. No matter how loud the voices inside were, the people outside would not be able to hear it at all. Therefore, they could rest assured.
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