I am Li Shen and Li Shimin, the free kings of the Tang Dynasty

Seeing King Ji smile, several people felt relieved. It seemed that the first hurdle was passed.

"Your Majesty, we will tell you whatever you ask. We would never dare to deceive you."

Several people immediately expressed their opinions.

“Very good, this king wants to know how far the Arab Empire has expanded now.

How big is the territory?

Li Shen heard from some merchants in the Western Regions that the Arab Empire was very ambitious and they took advantage of the war between Byzantium and Persia to rise up as a powerful force.

Continue to expand outward.

According to the geographical location, the Arab Empire belongs to West Asia, the Tang Dynasty belongs to East Asia, and there are many small countries between the two countries.

But sooner or later, the two countries will meet, so Li Shen wants to find out the general situation and prepare in advance.

“It’s huge, we don’t know exactly how big it is, our country is always expanding outwards.

I hope more people can enter the true embrace.

Our Muslim army is invincible and unbeatable.”

They are very fanatical when it comes to religion.

"I heard that there should be an Egyptian Empire over there. Have you heard of it?"

"Egyptian Empire?"

Several people looked at each other and shook their heads in confusion.

"Your Highness, Prince Ji, we have never heard of this country."

Li Shen thought about it and thought that maybe it was called differently.

"That's the place with the big cone-shaped building. It looks like this."

Li Shen pulled out a dagger and simply carved a pyramid on the table.

"Ah, Your Highness Prince Ji is talking about Coptic."

Faisal shouted in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

Li Shen didn't understand.

“Your Majesty, the huge building you mentioned, I heard that the Copts have such a building.

Hossaikadi is a Coptic. ”

"What? You still have hobbits?"

Li Shen was very surprised to hear Faisal's words. Aren't Hobbits fictional?

"Ah, no, Your Highness, they are Copts. The place where they live is called Coptic."

Faisal shook his head and pointed out.

"Oh, so they are Copts, I was wrong.

Who did you say were Copts?

“Your Highness, my name is Hosseikadi and I am a Coptic.

But there is no such thing as Coptic now.”

This is a middle-aged man in his forties. When he talked about Coptic, his expression was a little gloomy.

It would be sad to some extent if one's country was destroyed or annexed by others.

"When was your country conquered by the Arabs?"

Li Shen doesn't care whether you are sad or not, he just asks you directly.

"For five or six years, they first conquered Damascus in Syria and finally became the masters of Alexandria."

Hosakadi was asked by Li Shen about his sadness.

Oh, so that's how it is. Li Shen didn't ask any further questions. He was just interested in the ancient country of Egypt.

An ancient country with thousands of years of civilization just disappeared like that. After being occupied by the Arabs, how much of its original culture could be retained?

"How is your war with Persia going?"

Li Shen asked again.

"We are not sure about this either. I heard that Persia has no ability to resist and will be destroyed soon."

Amis replied.

Is Persia going to perish too? This religious nation is so powerful that they destroyed Egypt, which had existed for thousands of years.

Ancient Persia was also destroyed by them, which means that the territory of the Arabs had expanded from West Asia to the Middle East in Africa.

This is much larger than the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

If they annexed Persia, they would not be far from the border of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty.

"Do you know how many people the Arabs have? How many troops does the Arabs have?"

Li Shen continued to ask.

“The population should be around 15 million, and this is what a bishop told me when I went to the Hashemite family for work.

As for the army, the main Muslim army should have a million people, and we don’t know how many other tribes have.”

Amis replied.

so much?

Li Shen frowned. He estimated that the current population of the Tang Dynasty was probably only about 10 million.

The main combat force was only 300,000.

Including the local soldiers and border troops, the total number is about 800,000, plus the troops that the Turks and Tiele tribes can provide.

Even if all the troops of the Tang Dynasty were counted, it would take a total of one million.

The main combat army of the Arabs had only one million soldiers, not counting the troops from the many countries and tribes they conquered.

The Tang Dynasty was at a disadvantage in terms of military strength.

The rest depends on the weapons and equipment. Thinking of this, Li Shen asked:

"How do you think your iron smelting technology compares to our Tang Dynasty?"

Amis shook his head. He really didn't know.

Faisal said:

“Your Majesty, if it comes down to iron smelting technology alone, our country is better than the Tang Dynasty.

However, the soldiers' equipment is indeed inferior.

I have seen the ironware and swords you use in Chang'an, but they are not as good as those in our country.

But your bows and armor are much better than ours.

This is one of the reasons why we are here.”

He knew what Li Shen meant by asking about iron smelting, he just wanted to know the comparison of the soldiers' weapons and equipment.

Anyway, they were already in this situation, and in order to survive, they told everything they knew.

"Iron smelting technology is better than ours?"

Li Shen frowned again.

This is not a good thing.

"Your name is Amis, right? You should be a steward of the Hashim family.

You should know more than them.

Your country of Dashi should be having internal disputes now, right?"

Li Shen looked at Amis, as if he could see through him.

"Your Highness, Prince Ji, yes."

Amis felt a little flustered when Li Shen looked at him, and nodded and answered truthfully.

"Tell me about it. This king is very interested."

"The Muslims of our empire are now in a period of division."

"Split? Don't you believe in one God? How can you split into two gods?"

Li Shen asked with some confusion.

It is normal for a country to be divided internally, and it is often due to a struggle for power.

Whether it is the fight for the throne or the warlord separatism, they are all trying to fight for the ultimate throne.

But the Caliphate was a religious country, they believed in the same God, and Muslim means obedient one, or believer.

How can we be divided when we all believe in the same God?

"Your Majesty, this story begins with our third caliph.

The current Caliph of our empire is called Uthman ibn Affan, the third Caliph of the empire.

He was one of the earliest and most loyal followers and close companions of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Prophet married both of his daughters to Uthman ibn Affan, so after the assassination of the second caliph,

Uthman ibn Affan was elected as the third caliph.

However, the pro-Ali faction of the Hashemite family, led by Ali ibn Abi Talib, questioned the legitimacy of Uthman, who was from the Umayyad family, to become the caliph.

This is where the fight started.”

(Well, writing about the Arabs was purely accidental.

Originally I wanted to fill the hole of the sea cannibals.

As a result, I looked up the situation in the Arab Empire at that time, and unexpectedly, there were more and more things going on, and in the end, they really came into conflict with the Tang Dynasty.

So I thought about writing it down, and the more I wrote, the more I wrote, and I read the materials for several hours.

It's already very simplified.

And because this religion still exists, it is quite sensitive and cannot be written in too much detail.

If you are interested, you can check it out yourself.

There has been a lot of flooding around us recently, and I'm thinking about buying a kayak as a precaution.