I was the Queen of Persia

Page 71

"【Culture and Technology - Improved Irrigation System】, Effects: Agricultural productivity +20%, yield +25%, water waste -30%."

Chapter 159 Persianization Advances Rapidly

Shahzani chose to spend that year's Nowruz festival in Merv.

Because of its slightly southerly location, Khorasan Province is warmer than Transoxiana Province, and although winters are slightly cold, they are quite short and limited. Nasita also likes the climate of Khorasan very much, as it is much milder than her hometown of Khwarazm.

A battle report came from the garrison commander of Malzban on the northwestern border: the Oghuz Turks had invaded Khwarazm again. This time, they had also gathered the Kangli and Arghun tribes of the Kipchaks. However, their raiding party was defeated at the Stilt Plateau, and all the captives and civilians were recovered.

Nasita was concerned about the safety of her homeland, so even though she liked Khorasan Province, she resolutely gave up her comfortable life and requested to go to Khwarazm Province to command troops.

Shahzani granted her request, but at the same time dispatched her senior strategist Liu Wenyuan as her deputy to assist her in training the troops.

The southeastern border remained relatively peaceful. The newly incorporated Punjab and other areas did not experience major chaos due to geographical barriers and cultural differences, which is related to Shahzani's religious tolerance and policies of recuperation and development.

Unlike Mahmud, who extensively destroyed temples and plundered the treasures of Hindus and Buddhists, Shahzani ordered the protection of religious freedom in India and focused on winning over the princes and religious nobles of Peshawar, Multan, and Lahore, thereby greatly easing ethnic and religious tensions.

Of course, Shahzani explicitly forbids certain outdated practices within Indian religions.

In Indian culture, widows are traditionally burned alive as a form of sati (human sacrifice) upon the death of their husbands. This practice is deeply ingrained in Hindu society. Shahzani ordered local officials to form patrols specifically to stop such atrocities, with severe punishment for those who resisted.

Governance was achieved through a combination of carrot and stick tactics, and the fact that the ethnic groups in Hindustan were (relatively) not particularly warlike, which contributed to the relative peace along the southeastern border.

The main border troubles are still in the north.

Nasita volunteered for the mission, and Liu Wenyuan accompanied her. One was a warrior, the other a scholar, complementing each other's strengths. The two led a small force to the border of Khwarazm Province, where they joined up with the local garrison.

The border guard reported that several Oghuz tribes had gathered on the shores of the Khwarazmian Sea (Aral Sea), and that the Oghuz chieftains, including the Yabghu, Adberg, and Inal, had all dispatched their warriors and personal guards. With their reinforcements, the Oghuz army numbered as many as 3, attempting to launch a counterattack and plunder.

The Samanid army stationed at the border outpost numbered only 5000, and even with the reinforcements brought by Nasida, it only numbered slightly over 1.

Even so, Nasita still attempted to lead her army to meet the enemy head-on, as few could withstand her military prowess. However, Liu Wenyuan believed there were better tactics.

Liu Wenyuan drew upon the strategies of Sun Bin of the Warring States period, Yu Xu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Xie An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

As planned, he personally led a small force to guard the enemy's likely route. When night fell, he ordered each soldier to light two torches, and thereafter the number of torches doubled each day.

The invading Oghuz Turks were astonished to find the Saman army's campfires as numerous as stars, assuming that the Saman army was large and powerful. They dared not attack rashly.

Seeing the Oghuz people hesitate, Liu Wenyuan took the initiative to retreat. As expected, the Oghuz people took the bait and launched a massive attack, only to be met with a fierce counterattack from Naxida, who was positioned in the shadows.

Naxida led her elite troops to a reversal of fortune, routing the Oghuz people and forcing them to abandon their armor and weapons. Naxida pressed her advantage, penetrating deep into the Oghuz steppe into several dozen Farsakh, capturing a large number of herders and livestock, before returning in triumph.

Besides the Oghuz Turks, this group of captured Turkic speakers included many Kipchak-Khamli, Kipchak-Kuman, Pecheneg, and Tatars. Nasita sold them to the slave markets of Koti, Urgench, and Khazalasp.

"The barbaric Turanians invaded our borders, and our righteous army, upon striking, killed over two thousand enemies, beheading one Mingbash (a commander of a thousand), four Yuzbash (commanders of a hundred), and ten Ambash (commanders of ten). A large influx of slaves into the bazaar market caused the price of slaves in Khwarazm to drop by five percent..."

The clerks accompanying the Samanid army recorded this victory of counterattack in this way.

Aside from the captured Turkic slaves, many Turkic tribes also voluntarily went to the Samanid borders to graze their livestock and seek military protection from the Samanid dynasty. In order to ease tensions, these Turks often converted to Islam, and their Khans and tribal nobles often switched to speaking Persian.

Shahzani continued to employ a strategy of "divide and conquer" against these "truce Turks," settling them in batches in various grasslands and pastures in Transoxiana and Khorasan provinces. While preserving their relative autonomy within their tribes, he strictly restricted their range of activities and suppressed their power within a completely controllable range.

Interactions between Iran and Turkic-speaking regions have increased (including peaceful trade, religious missions, and conflicts), and large Turkic communities have settled in provinces such as Transoxiana, Khwarazm, Shash, and Fergana. In many counties and towns, Persian-speaking populations are concentrated, while Turkic-speaking populations are scattered throughout the countryside.

However, the New Samanid dynasty, with its powerful political system and cultural influence, spread the seeds of Persianization among the Turkic-speaking tribes, greatly promoting ethnic integration.

According to statistics from local governments, by the end of 1003 and the beginning of 1004, among the assimilated Turkic groups, the tribal elites had largely switched to speaking Persian, converted to Persian Khorami Islam, and adopted Persian culture, including the Nowruz festival. Most of the lower-class Turkic herders, while still speaking Turkic languages, were also increasingly influenced by Persian culture.

Of course, Iranians also adopted some of the cultural customs of the Turks, such as the words "Khan," "Yagu," "Aga," and "Tuman" in the Turkic language, which were gradually absorbed into the Persian language.

Originally, even from the perspective of the past, Persianization and Turkicization were complementary, with Persianization even firmly holding the superstructure for a long time. It was only due to the historical changes of the Turkic-speaking dynasties replacing the Samanid dynasty, coupled with the destruction caused by the Mongol westward invasion and the invasion of Tsarist Russia in modern times, that the Turkicization process surpassed Persianization, leading to the dominance of Turkic languages ​​in the Transoxiana region.

In this dimension, Shahzani would not allow these events to occur. Her Persianization policy was unchallenged, Persian was the unshakeable official first language, Persian literature was the most noble literature, and the Persian traditional Nowruz was the most sacred festival.

The process of Persianization is irreversible.

Aside from the Turks who migrated to Transoxiana, the original oasis groups of Eastern Iran in Central Asia, such as the Sogdians, Khwarazmians, and Bactrians, were more easily swept up by the wave of Persianization. The new Persian-Islamic culture replaced the classical indigenous culture of Eastern Iran, and generals of the Eastern Iranian minorities, such as Nasita and Ikhshid, became "more and more like Persians."

The Samanid dynasty, with Persian culture at its core and the Horamish school of Islam as its pillar, was a centralized, multi-ethnic regime on the path to prosperity.

Chapter 160 "Kafir" Still Serves as an Official

The Turkic regimes (such as the Oghuz Yabghu State and the Kipchak-Kimak Union) were entrenched in the north of the Samanid dynasty, posing a challenge to the Samanid regime.

However, the same hidden dangers also exist in the southernmost part of the country, in Balochistan (Makran), a region bordering the sea.

The Baloch people, who have long existed outside the imperial system and lived by raiding, were a major destabilizing factor in the organization of the state.

During Shahzani's conquest of the Ghaznavid dynasty, he sent Nasita to lead troops to subjugate Balochistan. Nasita's Khwarazmian army naturally advanced triumphantly, crossing mountain ranges and reaching the Indian Ocean within a month.

However, compared to conquest and annexation, governance and development were more important issues to consider. Balochistan had a harsh and arid climate, and the local tribes were fierce and warlike. After Nasita's army withdrew, they resumed their old ways, looting and plundering, and the southern parts of Sistan and Kerman provinces were repeatedly harassed.

Shahzani then decided to send a capable official to Balochistan to serve as Qadhuda in order to completely resolve the Balochistan rebellion, but he had not yet been able to find a suitable candidate.

She originally intended to send her senior strategist Liu Wenyuan, but due to the invasion of the Oghuz people from the north, Liu Wenyuan was sent to assist Naxida in consolidating the northern frontier and could not leave, so she had to give up the plan.

As for Holshid, Hosslu, Rustam Zaman, and others, they were all high-ranking generals commanding a military region and had more important responsibilities, so it was really inconvenient for them to be sent to remote provinces.

“Your Majesty, I am willing to volunteer to go.”

An Armenian Christian, Sofia Shaban Kardenyan, came to see Shahzani and volunteered to serve in that poor, remote province.

When Muzaffar Khan of Khwarazm seized power and, in alliance with the Karakhanid Dynasty, invaded the Samanid Dynasty, it was she who bravely ventured into danger and persuaded Nasita to surrender, thus thwarting Muzaffar Khan's plot and facilitating the return of Khwarazm. For this achievement, she was richly rewarded upon her return.

This Armenian female slave, though lacking both Bahramu's military talent and Falzana's governing abilities, was cautious, prudent, and loyal to her master, making her perfectly capable of holding a local-level position.

Moreover, Shahzani was happy to use these "naturalized foreigners" to counterbalance those "restless frontier tribes," achieving the goal of "mutual restraint" and thus realizing a delicate "balance of power."

Shahzani then appointed her as the governor of Balochistan (Qadhuda), and transferred three companies from Shah's guard, along with many Qin soldiers, to escort her to her post.

Sofia set off from Merv, passing through Tus, Badghis, Herat, and Zalandj, crossing the Jaggai Mountains into Balochistan, and then passing through several post stations before arriving at Fannazbur, the capital of Makran.

The roads in Balochistan were rugged and difficult to traverse. Skilled Qin laborers cleared paths through mountains and felled trees to remove obstacles in front of the troops.

After Sofia arrived at the capital, she reorganized the troops and militia to strengthen their defenses. At the same time, she sent envoys to the various tribes of Balochistan to persuade them to settle down and stop plundering.

The arrogant Baloch chiefs, naturally ignoring her orders, continued to send their troops to plunder villages and post stations, and to seize livestock and grain.

"Lord! If even the commands of a slave are ignored, then the majesty of the King of Kings will surely be lost!"

Sofia was furious and immediately launched an attack.

She proceeded methodically, first attacking the few stubborn Baloch tribes and defeating them in the initial battle. Then she led her troops deeper into enemy territory for a large-scale encirclement and annihilation. Thanks to the formidable fighting power of the Shaher female guards and the superb skills of the Qin artisans, she achieved victory after victory.

Most Baloch tribes, terrified by the fighting, surrendered en masse. A small number of stubborn tribes chose to retreat into the mountains, attempting to resist to the very end.

Qin soldiers created gunpowder weapons to attack the mountains. The soaring flames and thunderous roars made the tribesmen, living in an era of ignorance, cry out in alarm: "The wrath of God has descended!"

The remaining Baloch tribes were terrified and powerless to resist. Their chiefs and leaders led their entire tribesmen down the mountain to surrender.

According to Shahzani's decree, Sofia granted the Baloch tribes a considerable degree of autonomy, appointing their chiefs and elders as local officials, and adjudicating tribal affairs according to customary tribal law. Of course, outdated practices such as "honor killing of women" were explicitly prohibited.

Shahzani then instructed Sofia to build extensive infrastructure in Balochistan, especially post stations and roads, to ensure that this peripheral province was connected to the prosperous interior.

Shahzani also instructed Sofia to develop the port of Tiz. Once completed, the Maritime Silk Road would extend directly to this port, bringing even greater wealth to the empire.

Under the rule of this Christian governor, Balochistan achieved initial stability.

Next, Shahzani plans to leverage the advantages of the system to gradually improve local productivity. Once the problems of harsh climate and economic poverty are addressed, the Baloch people's motivation to raid will be greatly reduced.

As Liu Wenyuan quoted from an ancient Chinese saying: "When the granaries are full, people know etiquette; when they are well-fed and clothed, they know honor and shame."

……

Apart from Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, Alans, Qin people, and other ethnic groups, as well as minorities of Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism, Confucianism, and other religious schools of thought, can all be promoted to official positions as long as they possess genuine talent and learning.

Yuvash, an Alan Christian, was appointed by the Samanid court as the military and political governor of Farah; Lu Changgong, a Confucian scholar from Qin, was appointed by the Samanid court as the governor of Kunduz and granted the title of "Emir"; Moses Mangham, a Jew, was absorbed into the treasury of the Diwan organization and put in charge of the local treasury's finances...

Even Manichaeism, which had suffered discrimination for centuries, received Shahzani's forgiveness and was granted the right to preach and hold official positions. In response, Manichaean elders and followers from all over the country knelt in devout prayer all the way to the Bukhara Palace to express their gratitude to Her Majesty the Queen's kindness.

Many more traditional Islamic scholars are often puzzled by Her Majesty's tolerance of heretics and non-Buddhists.

"God has revealed to us that there is no superiority or inferiority among religions, and that all people, regardless of whether they believe in the same religion, should be treated equally."

Shahzani often quotes from the Persian version of the Quran to answer questions from Islamic clerics.

Of course, this equality of faith presupposes that the Persianized Khorami sect of Islam must occupy a dominant position in the national religious system. After all, a unified regime must have an ideological core.

Chapter 161 Establishing a Printing Plant

Through exchanges between civilizations, gunpowder weapons had spread from Qin to Iran and gradually developed and matured within the Samanid military system.

As China's national strength grew and its technology spread, Shahzani planned to absorb and learn from China's other great invention—printing—and even make it his own. He decided to establish large-scale state-run printing plants in the provinces of Transoxiana and Khorasan.

In fact, as early as the war with the Karakhanids, among the Qin artisans who were absorbed into the Samanid army, there were artisans skilled in printing. In the following years, as the number of Qin artisans in the Samanid army gradually increased, the number of printing workers accompanying the army also increased slightly.

However, at that time, plans to develop the printing industry in Persia were not yet mature. The biggest challenges lay in technology and materials.

To establish a printing workshop, a large and complex team of artisans with clearly defined roles would be needed, from stencil carving to final printing. Furthermore, the woodblock printing technique most prevalent in China at that time required a large quantity of high-quality trees as raw materials for the stencils, and precisely what Iran lacked most were these tree resources.

These unfavorable factors, to some extent, restricted the popularization of printing.

Therefore, at that time, Shahzani only had the artisans print small batches of experimental publications, which were limited to military orders and similar documents, and were generally short, few words, and had a fixed format.

Long works like the Quran, Rudaki's Poems, and Shahnameh are difficult to mass-produce using time-consuming woodblock printing.

The turning point came in 1002 AD, thanks to the leader of the Guiyi Army who marched eastward—Shahimnian.

Sahimian was a shrewd and capable woman. After arriving in Dunhuang, she used force to persuade the Guiyi Army, the Shazhou Uyghurs, and other forces to cease hostilities, and she even established a brief political alliance to jointly resist the Karakhanid Dynasty.

For the sake of a longer-term goal, she also arranged for her husband, Zhu Jiande, to marry a princess from the Cao family of the Guiyi Army, in order to consolidate their initial foothold in Dunhuang. Although this would sacrifice her happiness and joy, in ancient struggles, marriage was often linked to political interests.

On the other hand, this female warrior also greatly promoted technological exchange between civilizations.

During her time in Dunhuang, Sahini met two Qin artisans who had a basic understanding of movable type printing.

She keenly realized that the two men's skills were exactly what the queen needed, and thus tried every means to persuade them to serve the Samanid dynasty. However, the two Qin men were unwilling to travel to a foreign land thousands of miles away.

Sahimian changed tactics, wanting to learn the craft from them, but the printing technique was a secret both publicly and privately, and they were unwilling to reveal it.

Seeing that they were difficult to persuade, Sahimian resorted to her trump card – her beauty.

One day at a banquet, she got them both completely drunk, then took them back to her mansion. With an irresistible force, she forcibly undressed them and began to have her way with them. The female warrior, now naked, revealed her beautiful, muscular body. Her aggressive advances were as fierce as an invincible fire, yet as gentle as a warm, bright flame. She combined strength and tenderness, knowing exactly what to do with them, manipulating them at will, leaving them wanting more.

Two Qin printers, intoxicated by beauty and exhausted by physical exertion, gradually revealed their knowledge in their confused and infatuated state. They even vaguely mentioned that in Kaifeng, in the Central Plains of the East, there were many more skilled craftsmen whose techniques were even more exquisite than theirs…

This further fueled Sahinian's desire to explore. She yearned to absorb wisdom and knowledge, just as she now yearned to absorb life essence. She took turns pouring her mature and alluring feminine desires onto the two of them, thrusting her flat, firm belly against their ribs, pressing her full, round breasts against their chests, kissing their cheeks with her jewel-red lips, and tracing their handsome faces with her tongue.

The air grew increasingly ambiguous. The Persian enchantress's cheeks flushed crimson, her beautiful eyes slightly closed, and she let out a high-pitched, nightingale-like moan. Her tight, powerful flower path had already been squeezed full of essence, which was overflowing.

The Persian enchantress opened her "blood-red maw" below her navel and feasted on them, extracting confidential knowledge and leaving her own pungent marks on their bodies. Only then did she let them rest, satisfied, before dressing and leaving herself.

For the next few days, she would host banquets for the two printing craftsmen every day. Each time they were drunk and confused, she would use her beauty to seduce them and tease them until they submitted to her will in the enchanting embrace of her and confessed the secrets she possessed. Only then would she release her warm and moist passage, rub her full belly with satisfaction, and leave with a wicked smile.

After making numerous inquiries, Sahini used her exceptional memory to piece together the relevant information, wrote it down in a secret letter, and entrusted it to a reliable female guard who accompanied her on a return journey with a merchant caravan. After a long and arduous journey, the letter finally reached the central court of Saman.

The technology of movable type printing spread throughout the territory of the Samanid dynasty.

Shahzani was overjoyed. She already knew about this major Chinese invention, but as a non-specialist, she wasn't familiar with the specific details of the internal processes and practical operations. The secret message from Shahini filled precisely the gap in her knowledge.

At the same time, through the years of instruction from Qin artisans, Iran had developed a large number of artisans skilled in printing, who could print books and documents relatively independently.

Shahzani estimated that the conditions were ripe and immediately decided to develop movable type printing within the Samanid territory.

Developing a specialized technology begins with preliminary preparations.

Shahzani issued a decree that Farzana summon court poets, high-ranking scholars, and bureaucrats in charge of paperwork within the Diwan institution, ordering them to conduct a comprehensive review of the Persian-Arabic alphabetic vocabulary and develop a word-sorting system suitable for the rhythmic ordering and spelling of the Persian language.

He also ordered the establishment of workshops specifically for printing within the government-run districts of Bukhara, the provision of printing molds and equipment, and the dispatch of craftsmen. The paper needed for printing could be directly procured from nearby paper mills.

With everything ready, the printing press in Bukhara officially began operations, and after several weeks, it successfully published its first work—"Selected Poems of Rudaki".

“Excellent, truly a masterpiece.” Shahzani looked at the printed copy in her hand, a satisfied smile appearing on her lips. “I believe that one day, it will be recognized throughout the known world and will be passed down forever.”

He then ordered the establishment of printing workshops in Samarkand, Tus, Nishapur, Murrut, Herat, Balkh, Urgench, Birjand, and Zabul, using these as a basis to gradually spread the printing industry to all cities in the country.

The first batch of books approved for publication was also announced, including the Queen's Hadith, the Persian version of the Quran, the complete poems of Rudaki, the History of Bukhara, the Canon of Medicine, the Chronicle of the Peoples of the East, the History of Tabaristan, the World's Territory, the History of the States of Truth, the Barish version of the Shahs, and so on.

Most of them are works that promote Persian literature and culture.

Of course, the most important of all is Her Majesty the Queen's personally compiled military treatise. Shahzani hopes that her military writings will be read by more generals and officers, thereby further enhancing the army's combat effectiveness.

Chapter 162 Founding the Persian Gazette

From a historical perspective, the rise of a new technology is often accompanied by the decline of an older technology.

With the rise of the printing industry, the once prosperous book copying industry suffered a great impact, and copyists throughout the Samanid Kingdom were on the verge of losing their means of livelihood.

Shahzani understood that in Iranian society, the literati class, including scribes, was not only a key force in protecting traditional Persian culture, but also an important force that could have a huge impact on the court. If this professional group could not be stabilized, the foundation of the entire Samanid dynasty would be greatly shaken.