Mount and Blade Central Asia

At this stage, Li Rufeng is indeed more passionate about preaching, because he finds that in this era, the religious card is really easy to play.

As the ruler of Aleppo Hama and the surrounding areas, Li Rufeng could confidently say that he did not give any special preferential treatment to the believers of Changshengtian, but because most of the people who believed in Changshengtian were Mongolians, these Mongolians already had considerable privileges.

This has created a wonderful misunderstanding, as many people seem to have confused the logical relationship between the Mongols, the Tengri belief, and privilege.

According to Bartel's incomplete statistics, at least two hundred new believers were born among the subjects under Li Rufeng's rule in the past few months. However, because Li Rufeng had never preached publicly, these believers were basically "tap water."

Not only did they convert completely voluntarily, but they also secretly believed in Eternal Heaven, fearing that their extravagant behavior would bring punishment from the Mongols.

On the other hand, the school founded by Li Rufeng became an unexpected faith harvesting organization.

Rufeng may have only changed the economic situation of many adults in Aleppo, but its existence has actually changed the fate of many children living in Aleppo.

In the eyes of these children, Lord Li Rufeng, who believed in Changshengtian, brought them clean and spacious classrooms, a full lunch every day, and teachers who also believed in Changshengtian and taught them knowledge.

Before Li Rufeng appeared, these children never thought that their lives would become so fascinating.

Therefore, they are also the generation with the least resistance to the belief in Eternal Heaven. This behavior is completely spontaneous. They will imitate Bater's behavior and the way he speaks, stumbling over and speaking words in Chagatai language to praise Eternal Heaven.

Compared with other surrounding cities, Aleppo is like a paradise at this time, and the overall situation is prosperous and constantly moving forward.

Antonio, the Venetian merchant, was more and more pleased with the city. He walked along the streets of Aleppo, visited the bustling market, and then went to the blacksmith district. He listened to the clanging of the blacksmith shops all day long and wrote in his diary:

"I saw prosperity here, saw new growth points in East-West trade, and seemed to hear countless gold coins colliding with each other in my pocket, making a pleasant sound.

After the death of the tyrannical Timur the Lame, the vast empire he left behind was heading towards disintegration, just as the Grand Council had predicted. His most brutal son, Miransha, had died in battle at the gates of the Black Sheep not long ago, and Miransha's son was imprisoned in Samarkand.

The newly emerged Black Sheep were obviously just another type of barbaric nomadic bandits, and no one cared about the importance of this trade route connecting the East and the West.

But it was obvious that the Eastern lord named Li Rufeng understood this better than anyone else, and his act of rebuilding Aleppo provided a brand new option for all merchants who benefited from this trade route.

They could pass through the relatively safe southern Asia without having to risk passing through the war-torn areas. More importantly, the lord had obvious mercantilist tendencies. He not only exempted passing caravans from transaction taxes and commodity taxes, but also almost opened Aleppo to all merchants for free.

The spies I hired discovered through investigation that under the leadership of this lord, the Mongols were not only restrained from plundering the caravans, but also became the protectors of this trade route. He used his prestige to make this happen.

I have obtained the qualification to attend the dinner party hosted by the lord in the lord's mansion through a very influential local businessman. God bless me, we will have a good chat and all cooperation agreements will be signed with our joint names. "

Antonio was delighted, because in his opinion the lord had no reason to reject him. With the powerful Venice behind him, he could bring a wider market to the lord. With his intervention, those goods that had been transported from the East with great difficulty could be sold in Aleppo at several times the price, and then sent north and west on his ships to fetch even higher prices.

This is a collaboration that seems to benefit everyone, but only Antonio himself and Venice behind him know that in addition to the profits, they also earn many hidden benefits from it, including influence.

As long as these lords can taste the benefits of cooperation, they will soon become an extension of Venice's will in this land.

At the same time, Li Rufeng was actually very curious about what merits and abilities his wild land had to attract the interest of Venetian merchants.

In fact, up to this day, although Li Rufeng has been vigorously developing Aleppo's business activities, there have been no other typical examples worth mentioning except Marinus. The people of Aleppo seem to be very satisfied with their current lives, and the newly moved in merchants have not yet reached the time to make an effort.

Moreover, the other party was able to directly find Saduddin to ask for an audience with him, which obviously showed that he had a very deep understanding of Aleppo.

It’s a pity that Pepper Mali went out for adventure again, otherwise it would be nice to call him over in the evening to broaden his horizons.

Li Rufeng instructed the cooks in his kitchen to prepare for the banquet in the evening, and then sent someone to invite Princess Parisa to the banquet. They had met frequently recently. Although they did not go to the final step, Parisa had begun to regard herself as the hostess of Aleppo.

Parisa has never been a vase. Even though she grew up under the terrifying oppression of Maharaja Milansha, she always maintained her determination to be self-reliant. Or it should be said that it was precisely because she was in such a family environment that she developed such a tenacious character.

She finally found an opportunity to take away her father's magic sword and tricked Lord Milansha in this regard.

Li Rufeng still remembers the first time he met Parisa. She had a sturdy figure and extraordinary skills. She was a wild rose that was destined not to become a greenhouse rose. If you want to taste her fragrance, you must be prepared to be pricked.

In addition, Li Rufeng also invited scholar Ostad Mahmoud. The scholar who was invited as a painter has been "staying" in Aleppo and has not left. In recent times, he has been helping out in the school and teaching children.

Li Rufeng was very happy to see these intellectuals living in his city, so he offered them a salary. Although Ostad did not want to accept it, Li Rufeng donated the money directly to the school in his name.

This behavior obviously made scholars like Ostad very "enjoyable", so he stayed in the school.

And tonight, Li Rufeng planned to bring the other party over to help him save face, so that those Venetians wouldn't think that he was just a bunch of rough men who wielded swords and guns.

Chapter 388 Soft rice

"Are you going to accept the investment from the Venetians?" Parisa, who lived not far away, looked at the banquet being prepared in the lord's mansion with a scrutinizing look. As far as he knew, this was most likely the first formal banquet organized by Li Rufeng after he ruled Aleppo.

It was hard to imagine that a local lord could be as casual as Li Rufeng. In Parisa's eyes, many of Li Rufeng's living habits were far more sophisticated than any nobles and lords she had met before. Even her own father and grandfather could not be as casual as Li Rufeng.

But on the other hand, Li Rufeng was casual as if he was still the shaman of the tribe.

To give a simple example, Parisa knew that Li Rufeng loved cleanliness. As long as conditions allowed, he would take a bath almost every day. Even if such conditions were not available, he would make sure to wash and brush his teeth every day. Therefore, Parisa could often smell a faint scent of laurel on Li Rufeng.

However, Li Rufeng was surprisingly simple when it came to pomp and circumstance. He loved to communicate with his subordinates and guests at the dinner table, but he had never held a banquet that matched Parisa's impression of the lords who often held such banquets.

Many times, in Parisa's eyes, Li Rufeng was too harmonious with his followers and lacked the dignity of a lord.

Therefore, Parisa felt that this banquet was a good way to show her majesty to others. Moreover, as a princess who had received Christian education since childhood, Parisa's teachers inevitably mentioned the existence of the two commercial city-states of Venice and Genoa when explaining the world situation.

Compared with the tyranny of the Genoese, the Venetians were better at pursuing long-term interests, using immediate interests as bait to seduce those short-sighted lords.

Even her arrogant grandfather had suffered several losses in this regard, and easily gave away the profits he had seized from the Ottomans to the Venetian merchants. Therefore, Parisa has always regarded these merchants as poisonous scorpions. She felt that she had to remind Li Rufeng in this regard.

After this period of contact, Parisa has already had a preliminary understanding of Li Rufeng. He is an extremely intelligent and far-sighted person. He may come from an aristocratic family in an Eastern empire. Parisa would not even be surprised if he was a prince who was exiled.

But Li Rufeng is not a local after all, and he doesn't understand many things.

"They are willing to pay for the development of Aleppo, so why not?" Li Rufeng liked the way Parisa frowned and thought about him, which was very novel to him.

From the time he traveled through time until now, because of the existence of that system and his confusion about the history of this land before traveling through time, Li Rufeng has always had a sense of unreality that he is playing a game.

This mentality gave Li Rufeng an equally illusory sense of control over everything he had. He was not even afraid of losing everything he had, so every time he had a choice, he was more inclined to choose the option with higher risk and greater profit.

For example, not long ago, he risked his life to go to the Karaman territory and bring back the Bardock Thousand-Man Squad.

Even when he was chased and intercepted by the Knights Hospitaller on the sea, Li Rufeng did not feel that he was experiencing life-and-death risks at all. It was only after he returned to the Lord's Mansion in Aleppo, felt the hot water gradually flooding over his chest in the bathtub, and his heartbeat became more clearly felt due to the pressure of the water, that he was finally overtaken by the fear of falling behind.

Chapter 389: A little etiquette shock

"Sir, this is Mr. Antonio." Saduddin Fasif introduced the Merchant of Venice with a beer belly behind him to Li Rufeng in a humble tone.

For Saduddin, Li Rufeng is naturally his breadwinner, but Antonio from Venice is also a big man he must respect.

How can we describe the Venetians' position in the Mediterranean during this era? A more accurate metaphor is that the Venetians easily achieved what the Crusaders failed to achieve during their several expeditions to the East.

These Venetian merchants could freely enter and exit the port cities controlled by Muslims, and their commercial power had to a certain extent crossed the barriers formed by religion.

The Venetian merchants, who had the support of the Venetian Council, even had the ability to decide whether the kings of the Christian world and the sultans of the Muslim world would have a good life.

In the north, Venetian merchants enjoyed great privileges in Constantinople, and the shadow of Venetian merchants was behind several changes of the Roman throne.

In the south, Venetian merchants were also quite influential in the Mamluk Empire. The priests of the Christian world did not have a church in Cairo, while Venetian merchants owned large tracts of land in Cairo and even had their own ports.

Therefore, even a local lord like Li Rufeng had to entertain this uninvited investor in a very formal manner.

Of course, this is no psychological burden for Li Rufeng. As a time traveler, he has only one fixed and profound impression of this kind of angel investor, that is - Party A.

Of course, he knew the ambitions of these Venetians hidden behind profits and business plans. After all, such things have become commonplace in later generations.

Compared with the commercial colonization activities carried out by the Anglo-Saxons in later generations, the Venetian whites of this era still seemed a bit immature, and all their methods were still on paper.

Therefore, Li Rufeng sincerely welcomes Venetian merchants to invest here. After all, when it comes to being more ruthless, Li Rufeng himself is even more ruthless. Even if these Venetian merchants dare to use a piece of paper to exchange huge wealth for the right to rule the city of Aleppo, Master Li will dare to sign the agreement on the spot, and then turn around and refuse to acknowledge a single word.

After all, these days, landlocked countries are still more accustomed to the old tradition, that is, whoever has the bigger fist is right.

However, I am afraid that even the stupidest Venetian merchants would not sign such an agreement with Li Rufeng. What's the use of them having an empty city? If they wanted Aleppo, they would have had the opportunity to take it away long ago.

What they really wanted was Li Rufeng and the power that Li Rufeng possessed, and the authority he had established in this land.

Before Antonio spoke, Li Rufeng knew that as long as he maintained a strong army, these Venetians would be his most loyal allies.

Therefore, the tone of this dinner party was destined to be joyful even before it started. Parisa's worries were simply because she was a princess and had never held real power.

"From Aleppo to Cairo, from Cairo to Venice, your reputation has spread across most of the Mediterranean, Lord Rufeng." Antonio bowed deeply. Such thoughtful etiquette finally made Saduddin breathe a sigh of relief.

You know, he has always been worried that this Venetian merchant would arouse Li Rufeng's disgust because of his arrogance, but he gave too much, so much that Saduddin was willing to take this risk.

Li Rufeng naturally smiled at the flattery and warmly invited his guests to sit down at the table.

Chapter 390 Cooperation methods

From the pre-dinner etiquette to the order of serving and the dishes themselves, today's dinner far exceeded Antonio's expectations.

Li Rufeng behaves very easy-going most of the time, but he has very sophisticated requirements when it comes to food, clothing, housing and transportation.

As early as when he was still an apprentice of the old shaman, Li Rufeng had begun to think about how to improve his diet. However, he had no money and no conditions at that time. But now he has become the lord of Aleppo, in charge of the transportation routes for trade between the East and the West, welcoming and seeing off merchants. Although the spices they brought were not as complete as those in later generations, it was enough for Master Li to enjoy.

Ever since Li Rufeng moved into the lord's mansion, the person who communicated with Li Rufeng most frequently was probably the cook in the mansion.

In order to ensure his own safety, Li Rufeng selected cooks from his personal guards. Young soldiers with some talent in cooking served as his apprentices, and he taught them step by step how to cook dishes that better suited Li Rufeng's taste.

Li Rufeng was too lazy to even make any comparisons when it came to food. One only had to look at the Mongols who came on the Western Expedition. Almost none of those who had served in the East Asian war zone stayed in this land. They all gave up their wealth and glory and ran back to the Central Plains. This showed how big the gap in quality of life was between the two sides.

The reason why Li Rufeng went to so much trouble to do this was to intimidate Antonio, a businessman from a big city.

This cooperation is like a war without gunpowder. Whoever has a psychological advantage on either side will gain more benefits. Why are these Venetians so successful in this land? It is because they have money and they also have an advantage in productivity.

It is hard to imagine that the Syrian region, with its vast territory and countless cities, had a GDP that was probably not even a fraction of that of the Venetians at that time.

Although Li Rufeng wasn't a native of this land, he knew from years of acquaintance that goods from Venice and Genoa were now equivalent to German goods from the 1990s. In every sewer, there was a German engineer wrapped in oil paper, waiting to provide after-sales maintenance...

Judging from the expression on Antonio's face at this moment, Li Rufeng's basic purpose has been achieved. The pot-bellied Venetian merchant has put away his well-hidden arrogance.

So the two sides quickly got to the point. Antonio put forward his plan to invest in Aleppo. Yes, investing in Aleppo, the Venetians' ambition was so undisguised. What Antonio wanted was the right to commercial taxation.

For this he was willing to pay five thousand Carter gold coins in the first year, and this number would increase by 30% each year, but there were also some additional terms.

For example, if Li Rufeng launches a foreign war and causes an economic depression, Antonio has the right to terminate the contract or reduce the amount.

Chapter 391 I, a Business Wizard

As it turned out, Antonio had no room for negotiation. He could either agree to Li Rufeng's conditions and try his luck in this new partnership, or return to Venice with the borrowed cash and the interest he had lost, and accept his impending bankruptcy.

A businessman like Antonio is naturally a gambler of fate. He hesitated for only a few seconds before toasting with Li Rufeng and agreeing to the partnership he proposed.

In the second half of the dinner, Li Rufeng and Antonio had a more detailed discussion on the contents of jointly establishing a trading company.

Antonio will stay in Aleppo and be responsible for setting up the basic structure of the trading company, while Li Rufeng will recruit brave people from the territories under his rule. They will be sailors, men, and even captains.

The reason why Li Rufeng is so fond of the Venetians is because they have the most luxurious resource allocation in the Mediterranean. Their shipyard in the Mediterranean launches nearly a hundred ships every year.

The galleys built by the Venetians were probably the best merchant ships of this era. Compared with the galleys built by the Ottomans, they had more graceful bodies, were made of more solid materials, and adopted a length-to-width ratio of 6:1. The largest commercial galley could carry 250 tons of cargo at a time. It had three masts and three large triangular sails, which could make the most of the power of the sea breeze.

Antonio himself owned a large ship of this kind, called the Candide.

But such a large ship is obviously not suitable for use in the port of Alexandretta, which is attached to the city of Aleppo, and it cannot even dock at the port.

Moreover, in order for the ship to operate at full efficiency, it requires at least two hundred sailors and oarsmen, which is very costly. Only by transporting high-value goods such as tea and spices can the ship owner make a lot of money.

This is why Antonio tried to establish connections in Aleppo and take a gamble. As the East-West trade was cut off due to years of war, he had not been able to get such business opportunities for a long time.

After discussions between the two parties, Li Rufeng was finally willing to invest 3,000 ducats worth of gold and many privileges of the company in the Aleppo area, including but not limited to the security of the trade route to the east, in order to own 60% of the company's shares.

Antonio invested 5,000 ducats and his influence in the Mediterranean and among the Venetians to ensure that the company could move freely in these areas, and he also held 40% of the company's shares.

In addition, Antonio also had to use his personal connections to transport the funds contributed by both parties to Venice, turning them into orders in the shipyard, or simply directly purchase some second-hand merchant ships and recruit enough sailors and experienced captains.

"Although I shouldn't say this, since this is our business, I still have to say that it's better to hire sailors and captains from Genoa!" Antonio, who had just signed the cooperation contract, was drunk and flushed. He spoke to Li Rufeng in a heartfelt tone, "Although they are cheap, they are almost as good as the Venetians!"

Antonio was certainly qualified to say such things. Just ten years ago, the Venetians had completely defeated the Genoese at sea, dismantled their fleet, acquired their shipyards, and seized their coastal colonies.

Before that, Genoa was the dominant power in the Mediterranean.

"You're more experienced in this area. I've always believed in trusting people, so I'll leave these matters to you." Li Rufeng patted Antonio's shoulder again, his tone suddenly becoming serious. "But as a partner, I must emphasize that every ship must have one of my people. In two years, one out of every two captains will be my man."

"That's simply unrealistic, Master Rufeng. Training a qualified captain is incredibly difficult. They need half a lifetime of experience to take on such a responsibility!" Antonio retorted immediately. "Excuse me, but you simply don't have that kind of talent here."

Chapter 392: Despicable Lord

On January 8, 1409, Safavid, an envoy from Damascus, returned to this troubled city with the prescription provided by Li Rufeng and a batch of raw materials for making medicine.

Because no one was willing to take the risk to go to Damascus with him, and Safavid had no other servants to help him, he had to spend money to buy two slaves in Aleppo to help him drive the carriage.

He didn't even dare to buy a few more slaves, for fear that they would rob him of his money and kill him on the way. After all, going to Damascus at this stage was a high-risk thing in itself, and it was hard to say what those slaves would do under extreme pressure.

In addition, Safaved only dared to take small roads along the way and tried to avoid contact with people as much as possible. These objective factors combined greatly delayed his return to Damascus.

When Safaved saw the towering walls of Damascus again, he felt as if he were in another world.

This once prosperous city was now unusually quiet. Even the city gates were tightly closed. It looked lifeless, making one wonder if it was a dead city.

The once bustling trade route is now deserted, with only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the sand, making it seem particularly desolate.

Fortunately, there were still guards on duty on the city wall. They saw Safaved and the carriage full of medicinal herbs behind him from afar, and their first reaction was to draw their bows and shoot arrows!

The arrow pierced Safavid's path. The guard shouted in an unquestionable tone, "Don't come any closer! Otherwise, the next arrow will be your death!"

"I am Safaved! Send someone to inform Lord Said! I have brought back the medicine to cure the plague!" Safaved shouted loudly, his voice revealing an indescribable pride.

As long as the prescription he brings back is half as effective as the one in Hama, he will be the hero of this city from now on!

When the soldiers defending the city heard the words "cure for the plague", they immediately became excited, as if the sunshine had dispelled the haze in their hearts.

Less than ten minutes later, Sayyid al-Had, the ruler of Damascus, who was anxious every day in his house but helpless, received the news.