Mount and Blade Central Asia

"You're a step late, Brother Butubasin. I've already had my first taste of the hot pot. It's boring, she's not a virgin." Li Rufeng whispered in Butubasin's ear, "I've suffered a great loss, but this is my first woman after all. Can you..."

After hearing this, Butubasin threw Parisa to the ground, discarding her like a worn-out shoe. "Why didn't you tell me earlier, Brother Rufeng, that I didn't have to take advantage of you? I told you to pick anyone from my tribe, and now a widow has taken advantage of you!"

Parisa didn't hear what Li Rufeng said, but everyone around her could hear Butubashin's words clearly. Their eyes widened and reddened.

The author says:

Author's words: I have a fever, so I will update less frequently. I will update normally tomorrow.

Chapter 26: The Hongmen Banquet

The Taierbahe tribe is a large tribe. From the gathering place they chose on the banks of the Tianshui River, it can be seen that this place has already taken shape as the prototype of a long-term camp.

A large group of horses are kept in a stable and are cared for by dedicated personnel. Groups of cattle and sheep are scattered on both sides of the river, drinking water and eating grass at will.

Looking for someone!" Wu Sali looked back at Li Rufeng as he walked, as if he was afraid that he might get hurt. "Are you okay? I made some calming soup in the tent. Have a big bowl first!"

Li Rufeng smiled and comforted Wu Sali, his expression natural, as if he was already accustomed to such courtesy.

Judging from his facial features, Wu Sali looked to be over 40 years old. His face looked a little pale, probably because he had been tinkering with witchcraft in the tent for a long time. He had two heavy bags under his eyes and looked listless.

On the one hand, his respect for Li Rufeng comes from the fact that he is the old shaman. As the pillar of the Changshengtian belief in this land, the old shaman's status in the shaman group is roughly equivalent to that of the Pope of Christianity. He has the final right of interpretation of all matters in the field of Changshengtian belief, such as scriptures and sacrificial rituals, and this authority has now been inherited by Li Rufeng.

On the other hand, there is the medical skills and sophistication displayed by Li Rufeng. Wu Sali saw with his own eyes that Li Rufeng once cut open the abdomen of a person who almost died of abdominal pain in front of him, cut out something unknown, and then sewed it up, and the person recovered.

Isn't this a miracle?

It must be the blessing of Eternal Heaven that the old shaman has successors. With two consecutive generations led by the one favored by God, the fire of their faith will surely burn brighter and brighter!

Wu Sali's invitation was ultimately not fulfilled, and the real leader of the Taierbahe tribe, Taierbahe himself, greeted Li Rufeng and his party at the entrance of the camp.

Although the short and strong Taierbahe is almost fifty years old, he still looks like a good horseman and a skilled assassin. His face is greasy and he looks like he is overnourished.

"Haha, when the moon was bright in the sky last night, I guessed that a distinguished guest from afar was coming! Get off the horse quickly, I have prepared hot soup and barbecue!" Taierbahe personally stepped forward and took the reins from Wusali, making it easier for Li Rufeng to get off the horse.

The group had encountered a battle last night and had not had a good rest all night. They were very hungry at this time and immediately accepted the other party's invitation and entered the tent.

Everyone was naturally having a great time at the banquet, toasting each other, and even Haishar was forced to drink a glass of fermented grape juice.

Although Islam explicitly prohibits alcohol, this ban has always been a political bargaining chip in the hands of those in power, and is generally used as a pretext for false charges.

Sultan Timur once went to war with Christian countries in the name of punishing citizens who drank alcohol, claiming that anyone who did not follow the teachings would be killed. In the end, he drank himself to death in his tent, which was a black joke within the church.

Fermented grape juice, a good thing suitable for all ages, is the corresponding product made by believers under the doctrine, and the output is quite high.

Although these Mughals do not believe in Islam, they are not averse to buying this relatively familiar beverage.

Although Haishar in black was a devout believer, he was accustomed to such things.

To be frank, he can make up 60 sentences in one minute, and if one sentence is repeated, it can be considered that his intelligence attribute of up to lv8 is just nonsense.

"Good! Shaman Rufeng is indeed a man of quick words!" Taierbahe laughed and raised his wine bowl: "I toast you!"

Taierbahe drank a large bowl of low-alcohol liquor with great enthusiasm, and then smashed it directly on the table.

Li Rufeng raised his eyebrows, wanting to know what made Taierbahe so anxious. He shouldn't have forced himself like this. It was totally unnecessary.

The belief in Changshengtian does not have such a strong cohesive force, otherwise that idiot Wu Sali would not have been sidelined to this extent.

Unless something unexpected happened that he didn't know about... Taierbahe was anxious, he urgently needed to increase his competitiveness.

Following the signal of Taierbahe smashing the bowl, the small door on the other side of the tent was soon pushed open, and the old acquaintance who was tied up, the messenger of Doshite Wanhu, Muzaffar Natanzi, was pushed in by the guards.

Muzaffar Natanzi had clearly been in trouble for a lot of things and no longer had the same arrogance as before. Even with his bruised face and nose, he still looked quite tough. He entered the tent and sat down on the ground: "I want to drink! I want to eat meat! I also want to pee!"

This time, Li Rufeng finally looked at Wu Sali, who had an expression that said, "This is what I wanted to say before!"

Hey, Li Rufeng laughed out loud. He thought these grassland barbarians could do something fancy, but this is the result?

Pigeon day, everyone.

The newly bought reference book contains a relatively systematic medieval weapon and armor system. I have to go through it again. Because of the war and language problems in Central Asia, there is still relatively little information available. Many things need to be guessed based on the information of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, so I have to write and revise it... 4,000 words will be updated tomorrow

Chapter 27 The Peculiarity of the Golden Bloodline

These barbarians from the grassland are really not suitable for this kind of political activities. You are just a small Wanhu. They either force you to express your position with a knife in one hand and a glass of wine in the other, or they organize a Hongmen Banquet and send an envoy to invite you to join them.

Tsk, what’s the difference between this and the bandits in Water Margin?

Mengge was ambitious and wanted to kill Duosite, so he forced Li Rufeng to join him. However, Li Rufeng made up a bigger ambition and fooled him.

Taierbahe was ambitious and powerful. He wanted to defeat Duosite. He also forced Li Rufeng to take sides because he knew that although he had the largest number of people among all the tribes, in terms of hard power, he was about the same as the group of regular centurions led by Mengge, and he needed someone to cheer him on.

Li Rufeng is the best candidate. Changshengtian is the mainstream belief among this group of Mongols, covering a population of at least 20,000.

"This is the envoy sent by Dosit to recruit soldiers. He was disrespectful to me, so I captured him." Taierbahe pointed at the unfortunate envoy and said, "Since we are both planning to rebel, why not wait any day? I will kill him soon to send you and me off!"

"Shameless traitor! Bah! You can kill him or chop him up at will!" Muzaffar Natanz glanced at Taierbahe and then at Li Rufeng, as if condemning them both at the same time.

Li Rufeng smiled and grabbed a handful of raisins, stuffing them into his mouth one by one as if he was watching a play. He watched Muzaffar and Tairba curse each other for three minutes without saying a word the whole time.

He was waiting, waiting for Taierbahe to show his methods and then talk to him about interests.

This land has been plagued by endless wars, chaotic thoughts, and a mixture of ethnic groups. Over the years, it has finally formed an order without a father or a king, and without law and order. Whoever has the bigger fist has the final say, and whoever can bring more benefits is the true friend.

Even this group of simple Mongolian descendants now know that they have to ask for benefits before doing anything.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, Muzaffar Natanz was dragged away and said he needed to take a shower and change clothes for a while before being offered sacrifice. Taierbahe finally started to make plans.

"The Black Sheep People have become a powerful force now. The two sons of the old Sultan are fighting each other fiercely. They cannot be controlled in a short time." After all, Taierbahe is from a legitimate military aristocracy. His grandfather's generation has been fighting with the Western Chagatai people in Central Asia. He can still break out of his limitations and look at the problem from a higher perspective.

Li Rufeng's judgment of the situation was the same. The Black Sheep Dynasty made a comeback and reoccupied the core areas from Tabriz to Baghdad. They had been planning for nearly twenty years and would certainly not let go easily.

The only person within the Khanate who was prepared to come and quell the rebellion was Milan Shah.

Although Milan Shah was the son of the old Sultan and was known for his military prowess in those days, after falling off a horse, he claimed that his brain was damaged, but in fact, it was more like he was possessed by an evil spirit and became a disabled person.

The incident of him massacring his own fiefdom is still mentioned from time to time. A famous city was reduced to ruins and almost all the citizens were wiped out just because of his madness. It was simply outrageous.

Miran Shah's political and military power now rests almost entirely with his son, Khalil, who currently resides in Samarkand and is confronting his uncle Shah Rukh.

Shah Rukh's base was in Khorasan, which geographically separated Khalil and his son Miran Shah, making it impossible for them to communicate with each other.

Under such circumstances, Miran Shah still decided to lead his army to attack Tabriz, obviously still obsessed with the city that he had reduced to ruins.

Li Rufeng guessed based on the course of history that Milansha's counterattack must have failed, because he seemed to have seen the name of the Two Sheep Dynasty somewhere in his previous life.

In this area, being able to leave one's name in the Chinese encyclopedia is already considered very good, so he inferred that the restoration of the Black Sheep Dynasty this time was likely to be successful.

"As long as you can support me in becoming the new Wanhu, I am willing to appoint you as the chief shaman of the entire Wanhu!" Taierbahe said generously, "Then you can freely spread the belief in Changshengtian in this land. Our Chagatai bloodline will no longer have to be secretive!"

"How do you want me to support you?" Li Rufeng asked with a smile. Taierbahe's offer was much more generous than Mengge's. If Li Rufeng had looked down on him, it might not have been impossible to reach a cooperation.

The old shaman once said that Taierbahe's ambition was greater than his ability, and he would bring disaster upon himself sooner or later. Li Rufeng and the old shaman had similar views.

When it comes to rebellion, either don't do it at all, or do it to the extreme.

A centurion like Mongke, who was in his prime and had real power, knew how to conceal his actions, spend time winning people's hearts, and find the right opportunity to bet on the right person.

As for Taierbahe, this reckless guy treated this matter as a competition in the duel arena, thinking that as long as he was strong enough, he could get everything.

Was there any practical significance in capturing Dost's envoy? No. The fact that Muzaffar was sent to recruit the Mughals proved that he was not afraid of death. He was merely a pawn testing the Mughals.

If Li Rufeng was Dosita, knowing that the Mughals had a tendency to rebel, he would give priority to mobilizing those tribes that supported him, and when he was ready, he would send a soldier like Muzaffar to the Mughal territory to recruit soldiers under the guise of a conscription order.

It is both a decoy and a test. In fact, the army has already prepared for battle, and it just depends on who will be the first to step forward.

Of course, this was Li Rufeng's consideration from Dosite's perspective. If he were to do it himself, he would simply cooperate with the Black Sheep.

This group of people killed the Ottomans and Mamluks too cruelly, and their size was too small, so there was no possibility of cooperation.

But the restored Black Sheep Dynasty was much easier to deal with. Although they had killed many people back then, that was more than ten years ago. The Turkmen had many enemies and their strength was not very strong. They would definitely not suffer any loss if they got the support of a Khanate of Tumed with tens of thousands of households out of the blue.

Moreover, Karl Yusuf, the leader who led the restoration of the Black Sheep People, and Timur were from the same era, and are now very old... Opportunities always depend on seizing them, right?

"To be honest, Shaman Rufeng, my ancestor is actually Chagatai's illegitimate son. I have the blood of the orthodox Golden Tent!" Taierbahe took a sip of wine and said to Li Rufeng with courage, "I need you to help prove that we are descendants of the Golden Bloodline (Note 1)!"

puff!

Li Rufeng looked up and down Taierbahe and his fat son, Butubasin. No matter how he looked at them, he couldn't tell that these two had golden blood.

He glanced at Wu Sali, who was rolling his eyes with his back to Taierbahe. It was obvious that this was not the first time he had heard such remarks.

"Do you know what kind of ceremony you need to go through to prove that you are the heir of the golden bloodline?" Li Rufeng looked at Wu Sali strangely, but what he saw was an equally confused face.

Well, this shaman who is not very good at anything knows nothing. Li Rufeng now understands how such a religious person could stay at home for so many years but still fail to make a living. So you learned this rule of Changshengtian being able to help others from the old shaman, right?

In fact, the situation has been quite peaceful in recent years. When the old Sultan first started out, there were many people who pretended to be the heirs to the golden bloodline.

At that time, the major Han countries each had their own difficulties. The descendants of Chagatai split into two parts, east and west, and fought endlessly. The Golden Horde in the north was also in a mess, and the Blue Tent Khanate and the White Tent Khanate fought each other to a pulp.

Not to mention that the lands once ruled by the Mongols are almost everywhere with emirs and sultans claiming to be heirs to the golden bloodline.

It was not until Timur conquered a large territory, married a wife of orthodox golden blood, and became the orthodox Gulgan (Note 2) that he officially embarked on the road to hegemony.

He first suppressed the Eastern Chagatai tribe to the mountainous area in the far east, and then strongly supported the old Sultan's capricious adopted son Toqtomishi to the position of ruler of the White Horde to the north. He further merged many khans of the Blue Horde, and finally ended the farce of the golden bloodline heir.

According to the old shaman, Timur and his people had a very simple way to identify the golden bloodline, that is, wearing a golden mask.

It is said that true golden bloodlines cannot be harmed by gold, even if that gold is melted liquid gold.

Therefore, the entire identification ceremony would generally be very quick and bloody. Timur would order people to melt large pieces of gold and then pour them directly on the head of the person who claimed to be his successor.

If he is really the heir of the golden bloodline who has been lost, he will receive a tailor-made golden mask. If not, the craftsmen who were responsible for melting the gold will have to kill the impostor inside and spend several days to refine the gold again.

It is said that the piece of gold used to identify the golden bloodline later turned blood red because it identified too many impostors. It would also emit terrifying screams at night, as if it was replaying the last words of those impostors.

Li Rufeng didn't believe it at first. After all, he seemed to have seen this kind of thing in Game of Thrones, but that group of people claimed to be of true dragon blood...

But the old shaman emphasized again that this is the best way to distinguish

Because the blood of the Golden Family really has an extraordinary tolerance to high temperatures, they can even endure the burning of flames for a long time.

The old shaman swore that identifying golden bloodline was also one of the shaman's duties and must be mastered, but Li Rufeng did not believe a word of it until he came into contact with people like Haishar and Parisa and saw the tall and terrifying knight with his own eyes.

Now he believed it—

"If you are truly the heirs of the Golden Bloodline, I'm afraid I'll have to conduct a trivial identification ceremony on you." Li Rufeng looked at Taier Bahe and his son meaningfully, "I advise you not to take this risk."

But obviously, Taierbahe deceived himself before deceiving others, or he really believed that his lineage was a direct descendant of Chagatai...

The author says:

Author's Note: Note 1 - After Genghis Khan's death, only his direct descendants, namely Jochi, Chagatai, Ogedei, and Tolui, were called the "Golden Family" and were eligible to inherit the throne of each Khanate. This scope was later further expanded to only the descendants of Tolui being considered the Golden Bloodline.

Note 2 - Gulegan means the monarch's son-in-law. By the way, Timur's golden-blooded wife was the widow he inherited from Huxin, Lady Mulehei. However, considering that Timur's previous wife was Huxin's sister, this relationship is also quite complicated.

One more day to go, brothers.

My computer broke down yesterday. I sent it in for repair today and won't get it back until tomorrow. I've been fiddling with it all day but haven't found the page for coding on the app... This is so annoying. The bad news is that it's gone today, but the good news is that I don't have any leave requests this month, so I won't be taking any more leave this month... Now I seem to still owe two thousand words, so I'll make up for it in the next few days.

Chapter 28 A Long Day

For the leaders of "small tribes" like Taierbahe, the magic of the Golden Family is undoubtedly a secret. They have no channels to hear such things that are only circulated among the upper class.

But even the shaman Wusali was ignorant of this, which only proved that the belief in Changshengtian had completely become a second-rate religious faction in this land.

Li Rufeng spent some time, using his drunkenness to persuade Taierbahe and his son to give up this unrealistic fantasy. It was not difficult. He just told a few stories about the old Sultan putting a golden mask on people, and the father and son were scared.

The people of this land were deeply afraid of the Golden Family, and Timur took advantage of this. However, at that time, Timur had tens of thousands of cavalrymen backing him up, and a small force like Tairbahe and his son did not have the qualifications.

The dinner was over soon. It was obvious that Taierbahe and his son were determined to get the biggest piece of the pie in this rebellion. They also offered Li Rufeng a very sincere condition.

Like Mongke, they were also willing to hand over all rights in the field of faith to Li Rufeng. What they wanted were secular rights.

These rulers who linger among the middle and lower classes have not yet realized the influence of the field of faith on secular power. In their view, the influence of shamans is just so-so. Even an old shaman who is so knowledgeable can only have enough food to eat and be respected by others.

They completely ignored the fact that the old shaman was so aloof from the world because of his personal pursuit.

After the feast, Wu Sali finally found a chance to meet with Li Rufeng alone. However, he no longer had any valuable information to offer Li Rufeng...

"Um, Shaman Rufeng...actually, I wanted to tell you in advance that they have captured the messenger of Dosite." Wu Sali fiddled in a corner of his tent for a while, found a few clean tea bowls, and used the hot water outside to make two cups of strong tea and handed them to Li Rufeng to sober him up.

Li Rufeng looked around Wu Sali's tent. The layout was almost the same as when he visited more than a year ago. A small iron kettle with a broken handle was sitting on the fire, and the edge of the tea bowl had jagged edges caused by bumps.

This kind of stability seems normal in this slow-paced era, but it would be abnormal if it happened to a tribe of hundreds of Mongols who could ride horses into battle.

As the legitimate rulers of the land, these followers of Timur had become accustomed to an increasingly better life over the past generation.

They were born plunderers who gathered the wealth of the land into their own hands, giving one third to the old sultan, one third to the local diwan, and one third to themselves.

They knew this rule the day they were born and intend to keep it until the day they die.

As for where the wealth comes from, why it comes, and who it originally belongs to, they don’t care at all. They only care about the secondary distribution.

Although Li Rufeng's tribe looked shabby, it had more than 70 households and more than 300 people. Everyone could have enough food to eat, and most families had more than one slave working for them.

The Taierbahe tribe was located on the south bank of the Tianshui River. There was a large population in the vicinity, and the conquered people would rather endure being extorted by the Mongols than leave this lush grassland.