Ang Lee was still very concerned about Osman and Altik. With their help, he could achieve his goal of dividing the Arab world. If Mansur unified the entire Arab world, it would definitely not be a good thing for the Tang Empire. Only a divided Arab world would be the best Arab world.
Ang Lee was very clear about the conflict between Osman and Altik. He knew that these two guys would never share the same pot. It was impossible to expect them to be in the same boat.
Fortunately, their strength had grown many times over, and they had the ability to stand on their own. This was especially true for the 30,000 elite soldiers under Osman's command. There were no strong enemies in Egypt. As long as Osman wanted to, he could easily wipe out Egypt and realize his dream of establishing his own country.
As for Mansur's elite soldiers, they must first defeat Altik's army and occupy the entire peninsula. Only then could they launch an attack on Egypt, which was further away.
Therefore, Osman was not afraid of being attacked at all. He wanted to seize the time to occupy Egypt and run it well to consolidate his ruling position. As for fighting against Mansur's group, that was Altik's problem. He believed that with the Tang Empire's support, Altik would definitely be able to repel Mansur's attack and win the final victory.
This old man saw the problem very clearly. He understood Ang Lee's intention very well. He knew that the Tang Empire did not want to see the Arab world unified and wanted to divide it. Therefore, they would naturally seek a balance between all sides. Osman did not intend to unify the Arab world. He knew that he did not have the strength to do so. It was already very good that he could be the emperor of Egypt.
Altik would not beg Osman to come and help him. If Osman left, so be it! It was not a big deal. If Mansur sent an elite army over, he would work hard to meet the enemy. After all, he had expanded his army a lot with Ibrahim's name. With enough soldiers, he was not afraid of anyone. In addition, Ang Lee provided him with a large number of advanced weapons, which gave him a lot of confidence. He felt that he could fight against Mansur's group.
Ang Lee looked at his trusted subordinate and said, "If Osman stayed on the peninsula, he could still share the pressure with Altik. Now that he is in a hurry to leave, Altik will face a lot more pressure. I don't know if he can handle it."
His trusted subordinate said, "Assistant Minister Li, there is one more thing. There is a man named Ibrahim who escaped from Khorasan and ran to Altik's army. He is respected as the Caliph by Altik and the others. I heard that this man is a descendant of Ali, so he has a lot of appeal. Now, Altik is not the same as before. He has 100,000 soldiers under his command, and it will continue to increase. Oh right, Altik has requested more weapons from us. Although he has expanded his army on a large scale, the weapons can't keep up, so we have to provide them."
Ang Lee suddenly understood. He nodded and said, "I see. With the banner of Ibrahim, Altik has the conditions to gather people's hearts. No wonder Osman wants to leave. It turns out that Ibrahim has joined Altik's army. There will be a good show to watch now. Oh right, we must urge them to speed up the production of military products and satisfy Altik's demand for military products.
If both sides fight, it will be a win-win situation. "For Ang Lee, his biggest hope was for Altik and Mansur's groups to weaken their strength at the same time so that the Tang Empire could control them and prevent the Arab world from ever rising again.
His subordinates understood Ang Lee's meaning. They immediately went to the military ships to make arrangements and recruit more workers to produce more weapons and equipment. Of course, bows and arrows were still the main production targets. The quantity of other military products was relatively small.
Ang Lee was more concerned about the issue at the moment. He wanted to dispatch troops north as soon as possible to occupy the Sinai Peninsula, which he had already discussed with Osman and Altik. That would be the land of the Tang Empire.
The reason why they had not gone there before was that Osman and Altik had not completed their respective tasks. The Tang Empire could not rashly occupy the peninsula. But now, Osman was already on the way to Egypt, and Altik had also occupied the entire Arabian Peninsula. It was time for the Tang Empire to occupy the Sinai Peninsula.
After occupying the peninsula, the Tang Empire would definitely need to give it a name, a name that would be beneficial to the Tang Empire. In addition, the purpose of the Tang Empire occupying the small peninsula was naturally to build a canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Therefore, after occupying the peninsula, the most important task was to carry out the excavation of the canal as soon as possible and connect the huge canal as soon as possible.
Of course, digging a canal was not an easy task. It could not be done without a certain amount of time, manpower, and material resources. However, the Tang Empire had plenty of time. As long as all the funds and equipment were in place, the canal could be completed in a few years, thus achieving the goal of connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Ang Lee could not leave Aden City for the time being. There were many tasks that he needed to handle personally. Therefore, he could only send some troops to the peninsula to investigate the situation and make some basic preparations, such as determining the boundary of the Tang Empire.
Because of the need to build a canal, the Tang Empire needed to get more land near the west side of the peninsula. In this way, after the construction of the canal was completed, the entire canal would belong to the Tang Empire. Otherwise, if the Ottoman Empire got a share of the profits, it would be a great loss.
Ang Lee had already chosen the members of the advance party. He would send his brother Li Feiyu with a thousand troops. In addition, some officials and technical personnel would also be sent out. The three military ships would also leave Aden City. After all, Aden City was too far away from the cities in the northern part of the peninsula. It would take too long to transport weapons. However, if the weapons were directly transported from the northern part of the Red Sea, these newly produced weapons could be transported to Altik's army more quickly. This would greatly increase the combat power of Altik's army, allowing it to fight against the powerful Mansur Group.
"Big Brother, are you looking for me?"
Li Feiyu had just come back from the cuju competition, so he was dressed casually. Of course, Ang Lee did not care about this and did not think there was anything wrong with it.
"Hehe! I'm addicted to playing cuju! I play it every day. "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
"Big Brother, we don't have much to do in Aden City. If we're really bored, we'll go to the competition venue to play cuju."
Li Feiyu was really bored. He felt more comfortable playing cuju.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "I know you have nothing to do. Now, I'll give you a difficult task."
"Big Brother, tell me what the task is. Is it a war?"
Li Feiyu asked eagerly before Ang Lee could finish.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Why are you always thinking about war? It's not a war mission. I just want you to lead an advance party here. The specific task is written in the book. "
As he spoke, he pointed to the Sinai Peninsula on the map.
"These places are all part of the Tang dynasty's territory? What if someone doesn't give it to us? Then we can start the war. "
Li Feiyu still could not forget about war.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "If someone dares to provoke the Tang dynasty, of course, you can fight. However, if you can avoid fighting, it's best not to. Now that the north has been occupied by Osman and Altik, they will not be enemies with the Tang dynasty. So, you should not encounter any resistance. You just need to occupy the place I drew."
Li Feiyu glanced at the map and scratched his head. "Big Brother, it's easy for you to draw a line, but there are no lines on the land. If you occupy too much or too little, you can't blame me."
"Don't worry, I'm not asking you to go alone. Someone will be responsible for studying the land. You just need to send troops to occupy it and set up a sovereignty monument. It's not difficult. If there are pirates and bandits who harm the people, you can make the decision to eliminate them."
Ang Lee said with ease.
Li Feiyu said with satisfaction, "Well, in that case, I'll go back and prepare. I'll set out as soon as possible to occupy this large piece of land and make it the territory of the Tang dynasty."
After Li Feiyu left, Ang Lee began to think about how to submit a memorial to the imperial court to ask for more support. After all, the cost of digging the canal was very high. He must clearly explain the huge benefits that the Tang dynasty would gain after the canal was dug. Only in this way could the officials of the imperial court understand the benefits of digging the canal and fully express their support.
The benefits of digging the canal were obvious. First of all, after the canal was dug, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea would be completely unimpeded. In this way, it would have an extremely important impact on maritime trade and would greatly promote the development of commerce. It would make it easier for the products of the Tang dynasty to enter the European market, which would be very beneficial to the expansion of trade.
Secondly, the opening of the canal required a huge amount of money, but as long as the construction of the canal was completed and the merchant ships could pass through smoothly, the construction cost could be recovered very quickly. The more merchant ships there were, the higher the toll would be, and the faster the cost could be recovered.
According to the current trend of commercial development, there would be more and more commercial ships in the future. In this way, investing in the canal was very cost-effective.
These were all economic benefits, but the more important benefit was political influence. If the Tang Empire could open the canal, all the businessmen who passed through the canal would understand that it was the convenience brought to them by the Tang Empire, and they would worship the Tang Empire very much.
If the canal was given a resounding name that reminded people of the Tang dynasty, its influence would be even more far-reaching.
Ang Lee's initial name for the canal was the Tang dynasty's canal. Only this name was the most domineering and could reflect the strong influence of the Tang Empire.
Ang Lee was very clear about the benefits of digging the canal. Therefore, he could fully describe the benefits of digging the canal in detail and make the imperial court agree to invest in it.
However, digging the canal was, after all, a very large project. In addition to the investment of funds, it also required a lot of manpower and material resources, as well as a variety of advanced equipment.
In addition to the manpower from the Tang dynasty, it also needed to borrow a lot of local manpower to make up for the lack of manpower. All kinds of advanced tools for digging the canal could only be provided by the Tang Empire, and these had to be transported from the mainland.
Fortunately, a large number of advanced equipment had been transported from the mainland for the construction of the provinces along the way. Malacca, Anshi, Anzhu, and other places all had a large number of advanced machines from the Tang dynasty. Moreover, with the continuous support, these places already had a large number of machines to support the needs of their respective construction.
As long as the Tang dynasty needed to build the canal, they could borrow some of these machines and then transport them from the mainland to speed up the construction process and let the canal be completed more quickly.
In order to connect the two sides of the canal, it was necessary to build a large number of bridges on the canal. In addition to the ordinary bridges for carriages and horses, they also needed to build a high-level railway bridge to meet the needs of the railway passing through the canal in the future.
Although the railway would not be connected to the canal for the time being, it would pass through it sooner or later. Ang Lee had no doubt about this. Therefore, he needed to make some preparations in advance to avoid trouble in the future.
Ang Lee spent a lot of effort and finally finished writing the memorial. As long as this memorial was submitted to the imperial court, they would definitely agree.
"Come on, send this memorial to the capital as soon as possible. Don't make any mistakes. Take the fastest route."
Ang Lee ordered.
The so-called fastest route was to first go to Anzhu by sea, then go to Tocharia by horse. After arriving at Tocharia, they would take a train back to Chang 'an. As long as it was the fastest train, they could arrive at Chang' an very quickly and send the memorial to the imperial court.
Ang Lee calculated that if they were fast enough, they could arrive at Chang 'an in about ten days to half a month. The imperial court needed to study it and then issue an edict. But it would not take a long time. It would only take a few days. When the imperial edict was sent, it would probably take about a month.
In other words, Ang Lee only needed to wait for at least a month to get a reply from the imperial court. As long as the imperial court could provide a lot of support, the completion of the canal would be guaranteed. Ang Lee believed that with the current financial resources of the Tang Empire, they would not care about the expenses of digging the canal at all. Compared to the benefits they could get after the canal was dug, this investment was really nothing. It was a big profit.
While Ang Lee was still thinking about how to build the canal and other facilities, in the Khorasan region, the newly appointed Caliph Mansur was about to explode.
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