When Saifuddin Ghazi returned, he told his father that the Easterners were very arrogant and that he should attack them.
This aroused dissatisfaction among many generals in Mosul.
However, Zengi did not want to fight the Song army. He wanted to go west to attack Constantinople and force the Roman emperor to pay him.
In his eyes, the Song army was not as important as Rome, nor as important as the holy city of Jerusalem.
Therefore, he had to maintain a non-aggression pact with the Song army.
However, this aroused dissatisfaction among his other generals.
Especially under the instigation of his son Saifuddin Ghazi, calls for war between Mosul and the Song army emerged one after another, and grew louder and louder.
In December of the eighteenth year of the Jingkang era, at another banquet, Saifuddin Ghazi launched a coup while his father was drunk.
Nearly half of the generals joined in, supporting Saifuddin Ghazi as Sultan.
In fact, Zangi is old; he is sixty years old this year.
Historically, he died of illness a year later.
In West Asia at this time of year, sixty years old is considered a long lifespan.
But in this dog-eat-dog world, devoid of ethical norms, aging and weakness are the original sin.
The generals embraced a young, ambitious sultan who shared their ideas.
In their eyes, Baghdad and Isfahan had already been captured by the enemy, but the enemy was exhausted from their long journey and was now very weak, making it the perfect time to attack.
December 10th, the eighteenth year of the Jingkang era.
Saifuddin Ghazi led 30,000 cavalrymen from Mosul, marching south until they reached Baghdad.
Looking down from the walls of Baghdad, the endless, dark mass of cavalry gave one a sense of oppressive force, like a raging torrent. The cold glint of their gleaming swords was too intimidating to look at directly.
Saifuddin Ghazi sent an envoy to tell Yue Fei that if he surrendered Baghdad, he would spare their lives and incorporate them into his own forces.
As a result, the messenger's head was quickly thrown off the city gate.
Enraged, Saifuddin Ghazi ordered an attack on the city, telling his generals: "Kill all these Easterners."
Mobilization began, and preparations were made for a fierce siege.
Suddenly, a deafening sound rang out from the city tower, as if the gods were enraged.
A dozen cannons ripped through the sky, trailing long streaks of fire, and crashed down on the iron cavalry legion hundreds of meters away.
Each cannonball that hit could kill a large number of people, instantly causing flesh and blood to fly everywhere and bones to splatter.
The impact left a trail over ten meters long, carving a bloody path through the ground.
Before anyone could react, the second wave of artillery fire from the city wall arrived.
At that moment, countless people looked up at the sky in horror.
It was as if the gods, out of anger, were unleashing divine punishment.
Each cannonball that hit the ground shattered a section of land, resulting in over a dozen casualties.
The muskets of the musket battalion were ready in front of the city wall.
Soon the sound of muskets came to mind.
Although Saifuddin Ghazi's army was battle-hardened, their equipment was indeed very poor; apart from their swords, they had virtually no armor.
If a musket hits them, they will almost always be seriously injured.
The musketeers on the city wall moved with fluid grace; as soon as one wave finished, another immediately followed, in a continuous stream.
The vanguard of the cavalry below immediately fell into disarray.
Saifuddin Ghazi was terrified as he watched the cannonballs rain down upon him, his heart filled with dread.
While he was lost in thought, a cannonball came hurtling towards him.
I don't know if it was just luck, but it didn't hit him, but it passed by him from two meters away and hit a general next to him.
He witnessed with his own eyes the general who had been loyal to him just yesterday being smashed in the head, his body mangled and bloody.
Saifuddin Ghazi was completely stunned.
He was running around aimlessly with his subordinates, no longer having any intention of attacking the city; that last move had completely stunned him.
What can we do now?
Of course, we should run away!
The cannons on the city wall kept firing, firing more than a hundred rounds in total.
The musketeers came in waves.
The Great Crash Has Begun.
The earth-shaking drums of the Song army resounded from the city tower, the city gates swung open, and squads of iron cavalry charged out.
It's the Beiwei Army!
Holding an iron mace in his hand and a horse-slaying saber at his waist, he charged into the chaotic enemy ranks like a surging torrent of steel.
The slaughter began, and lives were harvested like a meat grinder.
As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, the western half of the sky turned completely red.
The most powerful force in Mesopotamia collapsed in an instant.
On December 25th of the 18th year of the Jingkang era, the Song army besieged Mosul, which then surrendered.
The two major cities on the Tigris River were captured by the Song army.
At this time, upon hearing that the Turks had been defeated by enemies from the East, the Holy See's crusaders began to stir again.
The Crusaders, led by King Louis VII of France and King Condra III of the Holy Roman Empire, were already on their way to the East.
Their primary objective was to first defeat Edessa, who had already lost his backyard, and then quickly move south to expel the infidels from Jerusalem and threaten the enemy's core, Damascus.
This was the Second Crusade in history.
In March of the nineteenth year of the Jingkang era, Zhao Huan received a memorial from Yue Fei.
This memorial details the events of the past year or so in detail.
Zhao Huan was somewhat surprised, not expecting Yue Fei to be such a capable fighter. After conquering the Tigris River, he had now reached the Euphrates River and was engaged in battle with the Crusaders.
After reading the memorial, Zhao Huan suddenly burst into laughter, feeling that the course of history had completely changed.
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