Mount and Blade Central Asia

To be honest, this task was not easy for Li Rufeng. He had always been short of people who could read and write. For this registration task, Li Rufeng had to pull out all the half-grown children in the school to make up the number and barely get enough staff.

You can easily imagine how ridiculous it is to see several fully armed soldiers protecting a few children who are only thirteen or fourteen years old as they go door to door to inquire about information.

What's more, the places Li Rufeng needs to count are not limited to the city of Aleppo. Many times, these children have to ride horses and go to gathering points, villages and even tribes outside the city with adults.

What's worse is that these children have not been studying for very long, and only the best ones have barely mastered basic spelling and reading skills. Therefore, in order to ensure that the statistical information is correct and valid, Li Rufeng often needs to form a group of 2-3 children to supervise and verify each other in order to obtain usable data.

For Li Rufeng, this was a helpless move, but it was also a way to train these children. He did not have time to wait for these children to study for seven or eight years before becoming talents. In order to rule his land more efficiently, Li Rufeng had to mobilize his manpower and material resources more comprehensively than other lords.

"I think there must be some misunderstanding here, Marcelino, do you believe me?" Li Rufeng frowned slightly and looked at the tall Armenian in front of him.

"Of course, sir, I trust you. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here." Marcelino spoke nervously. But out of some inexplicable loyalty, he mustered the courage to loudly answer the lord's question.

In fact, Marcelino didn't know why he trusted the man in front of him so much. This man looked a little different from other Mongolians. They had only known each other for less than half a year.

But Marcelino felt that he could trust him, so when the other party suggested that he go back to appease the emotions of other compatriots, Marcelino believed Li Rufeng's words without hesitation.

In fact, Li Rufeng does not need to resort to exploitation to make his subjects produce more economic benefits. To be fair, he is definitely the lord who treats all ethnic groups equally the most in this land.

However, any institutional change will have to go through twists and turns, and what Li Rufeng is facing now is just the beginning.

Chapter 384 Opportunities and Risks

"What's your name?" The impish Amadou sat properly behind a small table. The stool, which was made of a saddle, was only that high, so the table was also very low.

But for twelve-year-old Amadou, it was just right; he even had room to stretch his legs under the table.

However, the villagers who came to register suffered a lot. The middle-aged man standing in front of Amadou had a face full of the vicissitudes of life. At this time, he was squatting in front of Amadou with a humble look on his face.

In front of Amadou was a thick stack of papyrus, and on the table was a small wooden bowl filled with black ink, and in his hand was a feather pen.

There were traces of low-quality ink on Amadou's tender little hands, sleeves, and even face, which made him look very embarrassed. However, the middle-aged man in front of him did not dare to be negligent, because he knew very well that the price of these things on the table might be a little more expensive than his annual income.

So when Amadou asked him what his name was, the man frowned and began to look nervous.

Because he doesn't have a formal name. Although having a formal name is not a privilege only for the nobles, people like them don't care about it so much. Having a nickname is enough.

In the village, everyone called him "Cow Dung Seven" because he was the seventh child in their family and his father once fought with someone over cow dung and ended up killing the other person and had to pay a lot of money in compensation.

From then on, their whole family was called Niu Fen. Niu Fen Qi has always been proud of his name because it represents a kind of victory. Moreover, because of his father's privilege of picking cow dung, their family's fields grew more vigorously.

But when the little boy in front of him asked him what his name was today, Niu Fen Qi suddenly felt that the name didn't sound so nice.

Niu Fen Qi originally planned to tell the other party to wait a moment, and he would go back and think about his name and come back to give him an answer, but looking at the impatient Mongolian soldier next to him, Niu Fen Qi did not dare to speak.

But he also had his own little cleverness. Looking at the smug little boy in front of him, Niu Fen Qi took out a beautiful stone from his pocket that he had dug out while farming, and carefully placed the stone on the empty space on the table, for fear that he would accidentally touch the paper and ink.

"They usually call me Niu Fen Qi. I think this name is not nice. Could you please help me come up with a nice name?" Niu Fen Qi said his name a little embarrassedly, and looked at the little boy in front of him with expectation.

Amadou has actually become accustomed to such messy names. He has registered many similar names recently.

He was very curious about everything outside the city. His father was a caravan worker and his mother was a weaver. Although their family life was not rich, it was acceptable.

The most important thing is that because of his parents' work, they were considered knowledgeable people in that era, so his name was specially chosen by someone, and it is said that they even spent some money to give the other person a lot of fabric.

And now someone actually asked him to help come up with a name. Amadou immediately became excited. He suddenly felt like a big shot.

"Cow dung? Seven?" Amadou pinched his nose and thought, stumbling over his words, "Then I'll call you Smelly Seven (Note 1)!"

"Smelly Seven? What does that mean?" Niufenqi looked at the young man in front of him in confusion, but he was soon relieved. No matter what he meant, it sounded better than Niufenqi, right?

Smellie Seven happily left his name, family information and other information, and then turned around and told everyone in the village that he had a new name.

Amadou immediately became the most prestigious person in the village. Everyone knew that the young man sent by the village lord to register information would give people names for free.

All of a sudden, all the people in the village who had no name or thought their names were not nice, clamored to get themselves a trendy name like Smellie Seven, which not only had a first name but also a last name. This was not something that would be easily avoided.

Amadou's vocabulary was exhausted after he came up with fifteen names. At first, he tried his best to associate the names with the nicknames of the people, but later he just made up his own names.

This also caused the names written on the scrap paper in his hand to become more and more outrageous. Amadou only realized this problem afterwards. He didn't know what his teachers and classmates would think of him when he handed the list back to the school.

After all, many of the names don't look like human names, but considering that there are four or five outrageous names like cow dung in the village, Amadou felt that he had done a good thing.

Of course, the most important thing is that he received a lot of small gifts today, from beautiful little stones, hand-polished wooden swords, to a few boiled eggs. Although the things are not expensive, for a child, these things are enough for him to brag about for several years to come.

Similar things were happening simultaneously in many villages and gathering places. Not everyone was as sensitive as the Armenians and Kurds, and Li Rufeng also took some additional appeasement measures.

Li Rufeng sent a batch of food and money subsidies to the villages and settlements that had completed the statistics. He could certainly do the same thing through tax reduction policies, but obviously giving the lords less money and the lords giving them money in return are two completely different concepts.

Although Li Rufeng was unable to monitor the feedback from villages and gathering points outside Aleppo in real time, the loyalty level in the city of Aleppo instantly increased by a full 8 points.

At this time, in Li Rufeng's city interface, the data of Aleppo City is -

【City——Aleppo

Governor-General Li Rufeng

Settlement tax: 0/month

Prosperity: 1637

Security: 88

Loyalty: 68

Owned buildings: Level III city fortifications, Level II open-air market, Level I granary, Level I workshop, square, canal]

From the perspective of the city alone, Aleppo has embarked on the road to revival. The expected change in prosperity in the next quarter is +256. Several surrounding gathering points and villages have also seen significant numerical increases. The most obvious change is that the population is increasing by hundreds of people every month.

It is naturally impossible that all of these people are newborns. This proves that Aleppo is forming a population siphon effect on the surrounding areas, and most of those attracted are young and middle-aged people and businessmen with small assets.

In this era, only businessmen are the most adventurous, and they can really do anything to get rich.

But trouble also came with it. A group of Venetian merchants had arrived at the port of Alexandria and were eying this recovering commercial hub with vulture eyes.

Chapter 385 Windfall from Heaven

In this era, both the Venetians and the Genoese had a bad reputation. They controlled all major trade in the entire Mediterranean and the Black Sea coast. In recent years, the Venetians, who were replacing the Genoese in the Mediterranean, had shown greater aggressiveness.

In the port of Mersin, which Li Rufeng was relatively familiar with, there was only a Venetian "office". Although there were only seven people, their only task there was to ensure that Venetian merchants enjoyed everything in the port and that the privileges they should enjoy were not violated in any way.

The Venetians, who were eyeing the situation covetously, set up similar offices in all port cities that their merchant ships could reach. However, in the eyes of the lords who owned the ports, the Venetians stationed here seemed more like they were looking for trouble.

The Venetians had thousands of ships sailing back and forth along the Mediterranean coast. They were the undisputed overlords of this sea area. After defeating the Gerais, they were even more martial and looked upon everyone as their own dish. They wholeheartedly established Venetian hegemonic trade in the Mediterranean region.

Before this, the Aare was just another declining city on this land, and no one cared about it. But as Mr. Li promoted the revitalization of commerce here, more and more merchant ships traveled to and from the port of Alexandretta, and it gradually attracted the attention of the Venetians.

"Clement, what do you think of this place?" A middle-aged, somewhat portly man stood on the bow of the ship, boasting to his companions. "Did you know? In the past three months, the total transaction volume of this port has tripled."

"What? Do you think there will be new business opportunities here?" The man being questioned was relatively thin, but he was also wearing colorful silk clothes that were not very common in this land. It was obvious at first glance that he was a wealthy man.

"I think we could try investing a bit. I've researched the lord of Aleppo, and he's a fascinating Oriental." The man clenched the handguard on the ship's bow. "All the commercially valuable ports around here have already been invested in by others. If Aleppo can regain even a third of its heyday, my investment will pay off a thousandfold."

"Antonio, I must remind you that this ship is your last. If your investment fails this time, you will go bankrupt." Clement frowned and tried to persuade his old friend who was about to take another gamble. "This land has been plagued by constant war, and there's no sign of an end in sight. The risk is too great."

"If the risk wasn't big, why would I invest?" Antonio said with a self-deprecating smile. "I've been a merchant shipowner for half my life, and I only know one thing: the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish."

"So you specially invited me on board this time just to show me this port?" Clermont looked at the small port carefully.

From a distance, the port of Alexandria is indeed very lively now. It is not very large. There are two merchant ships docked at the port. The coolies at the port are sweating profusely to transport the goods from the ships. On the other side, the goods that the owners of the merchant ships have already purchased are piled up at the port, waiting to be loaded onto the ships.

It has to be said that such a scene is indeed very tempting to these merchants. Everyone at the port looks cheerful and full of hope for tomorrow, while the soldiers patrolling near the port ensure order at the port.

"Perhaps you're right, my friend. Perhaps this place can indeed develop." Clement frowned, then continued, "Then don't forget that their overlords are Mongol shamans. Compared to money and reputation, they trust their scimitars and bows more."

Clermont's meaning was very straightforward. The Venetians were now mainly promoting their own economic colonial system when doing business. The parliament in Venice even had public financial expenditure projects to support businessmen who could expand Venetian business space overseas.

Behind every successful investment lies today's profit. Those businessmen who have secured privileges for the Venetians overseas will eventually not only gain wealth, but also respect and glory in the Republic of Venice.

Especially the latter, which is what almost every Venetian merchant wants.

The Venetian Council now has a total of 1,200 members, and each member is respectfully addressed as Mr. Senator. Antonio makes no secret of his ambition; he wants to become the next Mr. Senator.

But first he needed to get rid of his financial crisis and earn glory through overseas investments, so the emerging Aleppo became Antonio's chosen target.

As an experienced businessman, Antonio didn't even need to send anyone to Aleppo to investigate for more detailed information. He just sat in a tavern in Mersin Port and spent a few dollars to get a list of the goods transported by the ships on the recent route from Mersin to Aleppo. He could easily deduce that the lord in charge of Aleppo was constantly spending money to purchase various materials and artificially promote the prosperity of Arab business.

So it was obvious that the lord needed a more professional business group to help him out of this predicament. Antonio felt that he was the most suitable candidate, as he had sufficient capital and connections.

In this cooperation process, the Venetians already have a mature system to operate on how to make those old-fashioned lords fall into their business traps.

For example, they now control Constantinople's trade circle, logistics, and all ports. Another example is that they control nearly half of the ports of the Empire of Trebizond.

In the Mediterranean, the ports controlled by the Venetians are densely packed along the coastline, forming a line to forge hegemony.

Antonio was confident that he could use his business acumen and experience to manipulate the lord of Aleppo. He only needed to give him a little sweet taste first, and then...

As for the Mongols that his friend was worried about being more accustomed to using swords and weapons, Antonio actually didn't care. As long as he could gain a foothold here, even if the Mongols planned to use force, the members of the Grand Council would probably not allow anyone to threaten the dignity of Venice.

He could have hired Ottomans from the west, Mamluks from the south, Qara Qaidam from the north, and even people from the Timurid Khanate from the east to calm the lord down and make the Mongols learn to be reasonable.

"Okay, you've convinced me. How many ducats do you want to borrow from me?" Clement knew he couldn't convince his friend, so he pulled out a small, exquisite hardcover notebook and said in a businesslike tone, "I can lend you 5,000 ducats at a 10% discount below market interest, but you'll need to use this ship and your three properties in Venice as collateral."

Chapter 386 Preaching

December 30, 1408 was Li Rufeng’s birthday, but considering that he would not be born until nearly 600 years later, he didn’t know whether he should celebrate his birthday.

However, the envoy from Damascus survived the quarantine and arrived in the Arab city, presenting Li Rufeng with a precious gift.

The gift came from Emir Sayyid al-Had, who ruled Damascus. Sayyid gave Li Rufeng a pair of Mongolian scimitars decorated with gold and silver threads from his collection as a gift.

The scimitar came from a Mongolian prince of the Ilkhanate. He gave his scimitar to the Had family as a gift and maintained trading relations with the Had family for nearly twenty years.

The meaning of Said giving this scimitar to Li Rufeng is self-evident. In this troubled time, he was even willing to give up the city of Hama in exchange for Li Rufeng's panacea.

The medicine drunk by the refugees near the city of Hama is gradually taking effect, and the number of deaths caused by the plague is gradually decreasing every day. The messenger himself witnessed this miracle with his own eyes near the refugee camp.

He also wrote a letter and gave it to his followers to send back to Damascus what happened near the city of Hama.

In order to ensure that his followers would not escape halfway, the envoy had to promise the other party that he would give the follower a higher social status when he returned to Damascus.

But even so, he could not be sure whether the follower would return to Damascus to deliver the letter. After all, from the news brought by the refugees later, the epidemic in Damascus had become more and more serious.

"Respected Lord of Aleppo, I am Safaved Sarus, the messenger of Lord Said Hadd. I come with the friendship of Lord Said." Safaved was very humble. He had experienced life and death several times along the way, and the only miracle he had seen was the medicine brought by these Mongols.

Moreover, he also heard some rumors related to the belief in Eternal Heaven near the refugee camp.

Safaved didn't want to verify the truth of those rumors, but it was obvious that the oriental man in front of him had possessed a layer of mysterious power out of thin air, and it was unwise to make an enemy of such a person.

Li Rufeng played with the gorgeous Mongolian scimitar in his hand. Compared with the scimitars he was used to and the common ones in the tribe, this scimitar was more like a ceremonial weapon, both in terms of style and practicality.

Compared with the curvature of the Mongolian scimitar, the curvature angle of this scimitar is smaller, and therefore it appears a little longer. In terms of shape, it is somewhat closer to the Persian style.

Green gems are inlaid on both sides of the scimitar near the handle, which cast a beautiful luster in the sunlight when it is swung.

But its value only limited itself to this. After all, Li Rufeng had swept away the treasures of that group of dark wizards, and there was a large pile of even more dazzling gold, silver and jewelry in his warehouse.

"I heard from Muzaffar that you hope to obtain peace and an antidote to the plague?" Li Rufeng asked slowly.

Now that he had the initiative, he naturally had to be more assertive. However, the Emir of Damascus still surprised him a little. He was obviously more tolerant than Li Rufeng thought.

“And your friendship,” Safaved emphasized.

Of course, what he actually wanted to express was that Li Rufeng could also gain the friendship of Said Hadd and the family behind him in this transaction, but the art of language is nothing more than this. If he said this directly, the negotiation would probably fall through.

Li Rufeng had indeed considered this matter seriously. He could indeed take this opportunity to turn enemies into friends with the Syrian emirs, and from then on, he could transform himself into one of the Syrian emirs.

But does this really make sense? These emirs have been stirring up trouble in Syria for more than a decade, and they haven't even elected a "leader" yet. They are nominally following the orders of Sayyid al-Hadd in Damascus.

However, any discerning person could see that these emirs were merely using Said as a scapegoat to bear the wrath of Sultan Nasir.

To put it bluntly, these emirs were playing a game of cat and mouse. They enjoyed their semi-independent status, and even the sultan could not collect taxes from them or place his own people on their lands, but they could not muster the courage to completely rebel against the huge empire.

Li Rufeng vaguely remembered that according to the development of history, the good days of these Syrian emirs were coming to an end. Although the Mamluk Empire's sultans since Nasser Sultan were weaker than the previous one, the Ottomans who rose in the north were no pushovers.

He didn't want to waste his time on these Emils. The more he understood the rise of the Ottomans, the more Li Rufeng felt that compared to the Central Plains, this land was almost full of opportunities. It really was true that the bolder one was, the more productive one would be.

But it would be nice to take this opportunity to squeeze some money out of those emirs, and...

"Safaweed, you came from Hama City, so you should know something about those medicinal herbs, right?" Li Rufeng asked tentatively. "I can indeed give you the medicine and even the prescription, but can you guarantee that it will be effective in your land?"

Safaved's face immediately turned ugly and he kept silent, as if he had not heard the question.

He was not a devout Muslim, and his belief in Allah was just a formality, but converting was definitely beyond his authority.

I'm afraid that even Lord Said would not dare to talk about such things lightly. You have to know that Damascus is not far from Jerusalem, and the religious atmosphere can be imagined.

Many believers would rather die in the plague than waver in their faith, and Safavid doesn't even dare to touch this area.

"It seems you know exactly what I'm talking about." Li Rufeng looked at Safavid with a half-smile. "I'm curious, did those decoctions work on you as well?"

"I was very healthy when I arrived in Hama. The reason I was quarantined near the refugee camp for three days was just to cooperate with the other party's epidemic prevention policy!" Safaweed immediately responded righteously.

"Why are you so nervous? The Changshengtian faith isn't a monotheistic faith, nor is it even an exclusive faith." Li Rufeng's voice was like a demon's whisper, echoing in Safavid's ears. "He doesn't care about your worries. He simply has compassion for the world and offers a tiny bit of help to those who seek self-help."

"It's just this insignificant help, but for all of us, it's truly real—" Li Rufeng looked at Safaweed, whose forehead was covered in sweat, paused, and continued, "A miracle."

Chapter 387 Dinner Party