Last King of Kings

Chapter 73: The End of the War

The news of Persian victory spread quickly. At this point, it would be only a matter of time before Persians overran the whole Arabian peninsula, reclaiming some of their lost holdings in Bahrain and Oman while gaining new. Reports reached Ctesiphon and thus Yazdegerd's ears briskly, his reaction being overjoyed one. He was happy not only because they won, but also because there weren't any casualties. The strange bitterness, darkness he sometimes felt in his heart was still there, and although he has since gotten used to it and accepted it, it still was relieving, knowing no one died for you. He hoped he will get used to it more as years go by, but that was something no one could guarantee.

While happy Persian soldiers were the ones spreading the news back home to Persia, it were "defeated" Arab soldiers who brought the bad news home. And soon, the news reached Mecca itself, the Caliph's seat of power. Even though Umar knew what was about to unfold, even though he knew that victory was almost unachievable – he still took a different decision from Khalid. While Khalid folded under the weight, under the pressure, Umar took a different stance, instead maintaining his position of defiance, disallowing the town garrison to yield, instead forcing them to fight, despite their lack of morale and willingness. It wasn't as if Umar could endure more pressure than Khalid. That wasn't it. It was more about understanding their own men. Umar was no general – he was a statesman. He specialized in completely different fields than Khalid did – and it was due to that difference that Khalid decided to yield while Umar didn't. Umar didn't understand his own men. He didn't realize that he had no support from them – he didn't realize the dire situation he and his army was in. Khalid realized that. He realized that his soldiers no longer wanted to fight and die for ideas forced onto them, for ideas they didn't believe in, for ideas that didn't prove themselves worthy.

Umar couldn't see that, and it was for that reason his soldiers began to resent him. Soldiers had to follow either their leader or his ideals for him to be good leader. If they follow both, then that army is basically impregnable. If they follow neither, the army is doomed to fail from the inside. Khalid realized that soldiers stopped following his ideals, and that was what he lacked to defeat the Persians. In this case, soldiers followed neither Umar nor his ideals, and because of that he lacked the ability to properly lead. After all, how could one lead an army that did not follow him?

Mecca fell after merely few days of resistance. The order was given to the Persian army to not destroy or desecrate any religious Islam buildings, paintings, artefacts or in a sense anything tied to Arab religious practices. Any violation would be severely punished. Rostam had to make that order, even though he believed in the discipline of his own troops. After all, it cost him nothing to make that rule, but it could save him everything.

After Persian army took over Mecca, the garrison was captured, stripped of equipment and then they were released. After all, they were worth nothing to the Persians, as they held no real value and it would only be a nuisance to keep them locked somewhere. Umar was captured and imprisoned, as he was actually worth the effort. Before his capture, rumours were going around that he took his own life as the Persians were storming Caliph's palace. But once he was found mounting a last stand in his chambers together with his bodyguards, those rumours quickly perished.

What had to be acknowledged though was the bravery, valiance and fearlessness with which Umar fought. Despite being quite old, he himself brought down three Persians, before they overpowered him and captured him. Even though his rule was hard, strictly following the extremist religious doctrine, he at least proved his beliefs and showed to the world that he wasn't just a power-hungry dictator that would gladly turn coat as soon as he got the chance. No, he was someone that would fight to the last breath for what he believed in, not being easily swayed.

Surprisingly, most of the civilians were indifferent to the Persian army that had just occupied their city. Maybe they were simply tired of war, seeing Persian army as a welcomed peace-keeping force. Perhaps they simply didn't care anymore. Who knows. What Rostam cared about is that he didn't have to worry about civilians making any issues with the Persian garrison.

He quickly set some regional administrative offices to easily keep law and order, which also served as a base for the imminent Persian takeover of the bureaucracy and the economy. Rostam knew very well how this would go – because he was one of the people who worked on it. But now, that the time has come to lay down weapons and focus on more administrative matters, that was something it would take some time to get used to. And, while he had a lot of work to do here, like rooting out possible resistance groups or some fanatical remnants of the Arab armies, he could only wait for information from his Shahanshah who would be doing the decisions. And now, without Rostam by his side, Yazdegerd would have to prove himself.

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Although Yazdegerd expected it, or rather wanted this result, he was still a bit surprised by the news of complete Persian victory. He remembered how he mourned the soldiers that died at Walaja, at the Battle of Chains and other military disasters for the Persians. He remembered feeling lost and hopeless. He remembered thinking that he can never win against these odds. Yet he did. He did prevail in the end. And what did that prove? Did that prove that the Persians are superior? Or perhaps their religion? Yazdegerd didn't think so. He only thought this proved his competence, and his worth, together with many other's. This proved Jaduyah's, Piruz's, Rostam's and Jalinus' military and tactical competence. It proved Farrukhzad's economic and bureaucratic knowledge. It proved that these are the people that will lead Persia into a new era of growth and prosperity. And Yazdegerd was glad he could be a part of that.

He then called Farrukhzad to assist him in dealing with the annexation process. He brought a map of the peninsula with him, so they had some idea what territories they would be talking about. There were several things to take into account. One of these was the agreement they made with Usama – that he would take over ruling Arabia under the supervision of the Persians – a puppet, basically. But that wasn't all. The agreement also stated that Persians had the right to annex any territories they deemed strategically or otherwise important. And that was what they would discuss today.

It wasn't necessarily long discussion – they fairly quickly reached the consensus that they should annex as little of land as possible, because of the cultural and religious differences. They both agreed on the following terms:

1. Usama ibn Zayd would become a ruler of Arabia, supervised by no one but Shahanshah Yazdegerd III. and would reply and accept any order or request given to him. The religious practices of Arabs would resume and their religion would be legally protected by Persian law.

2. The Empire of all Iranians would annex all of its previously held territories on the peninsula, including Bahrain, Mazun, Azd'Oman, Mahra and Hijaz. These territories would be directly governed by Shahanshah Yazdegerd III. or his appointed governors.

After having written that, Yazdegerd let Farrukhzad go to take care of the details and then send it to Usama for his signature. At long last, the war was over and Yazdegerd could take care of administrative and economic things. He never could've imagined how close war would always be.

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