Mount and Blade Central Asia

Qiu Fucheng saw the excitement in Li Rufeng's heart at a glance, so he used the most common method to sit next to Li Rufeng, not caring about the seating order at all.

Li Rufeng really fell for it. To be honest, he hadn't spoken "human language" to anyone in several years. Not to mention that this northern dialect had a bit of a rural accent. Even if Qiu Fucheng spoke Cantonese, he would still feel at home.

So Li Rufeng took the opportunity to extend his hand: "Forget about fortune-telling. I don't know if the Three Pure Ones can reach such a distant land. Please feel my pulse and see if there is anything I need to treat."

"That's too narrow-minded. We Taoists believe in sincerity. How do you know it won't work if you're not sincere? Distance is not a problem. As the saying goes, Sun Wukong can travel 18,000 miles with one somersault. Your Baoda City is just a somersault away, not far away." Qiu Fucheng didn't care whether Li Rufeng believed it or not. He reached out and grabbed Li Rufeng's hand and looked at it.

Don't be fooled by his fancy talk, he is really good at fortune telling. Whether it's palmistry or face reading, he knows a thing or two.

Those who are familiar with the culture of our ancestors know that when a person dares to say on any occasion that he knows a thing or two about something and can even get a stable job with this knowledge, his knowledge of a thing or two is getting closer to the level of one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things.

"Hmm? Interesting..." Qiu Fucheng looked for a while and then frowned suddenly. He looked up and stared at Li Rufeng's face for a long time. He hesitantly turned his gaze back to his hands, and sweat suddenly appeared on his temples.

What's going on? Qiu Fucheng's brows furrowed deeper and deeper, his face filled with a puzzled expression.

He originally wanted to take the opportunity to figure out Li Rufeng's background. After all, the captain of the Jinyiwei had said before that they had never found out, and Qiu Fucheng happened to be able to figure out people's backgrounds.

But the feedback he got now was - no such person exists.

"Lord Li's fate is destiny!" Qiu Fucheng said in a measured tone, but the previous vulgarity in his tone disappeared, and instead became serious.

Since you have used this Taoist method, you cannot hide it. What it is must be said openly. Otherwise, the fortune teller will have to bear the consequences himself.

Qiu Fucheng felt he couldn't bear the fate of a person who didn't exist and wasn't one of the five elements, so he said respectfully, "Could you please, Master Li, write me another word?"

Li Rufeng was immersed in the warm feeling of meeting someone from his hometown. He was not at all defensive about Qiu Fucheng's words and asked directly, "Come on, what should I write, Taoist priest?"

"You can write anything, Lord Li, why not just write your name?" Qiu Fucheng looked back at Fan Po, and in that instant, the two of them exchanged a lot of information through their eyes.

Li Rufeng dipped his hand in the wine and wrote his name on the table so that Qiu Fucheng could see it clearly.

Although Li Rufeng's handwriting was not good-looking, lacked any strength, and the stroke order was weird, and the font was a bit messy, to Qiu Fucheng, this ancient writing could still allow people across generations to recognize its content at a glance.

The countless pieces of information contained in it seemed to allow Qiu Fucheng to see the ultimate answer to the world in an instant, and also seemed to make him forget everything in an instant. His ability to tell fortunes and read words made him experience countless years in an instant, and then he forgot it in an instant.

Qiu Fucheng's nose spurted out immediately, and he was stunned for several seconds before he remembered to stop the bleeding: "It's dry here, and I'm a little irritated... irritated, please forgive me for making fun of you!"

Li Rufeng looked at the table covered in blood from his nose and raised an eyebrow. He could only let the matter go and said, "Master, you're right. I was inconsiderate. Someone, bring some heat-clearing food and more tea!"

"Old Qiu, what's going on?" Fan Po waited for Qiu Fucheng to sit next to him, and asked in a low voice while Li Rufeng started to greet others.

"This is a ghost! This person's fate is a bit weird. I can't tell anything. Trying to peek into fate is like being punched in the face." Qiu Fucheng said with lingering fear. "With my level of knowledge, I can't see through his background, but I can be sure that he has no connection with the Zhu family. I read the fortune of Emperor Yongle and it's different."

Fan Po glanced at Qiu Fucheng and wanted to ask whether this Tianming was more powerful than the Zhu family, but after hesitating for a while, he didn't dare to ask. This kind of thing was not a good thing whether it was true or not.

"Sir Li, I wonder if you have a cartographer here? I've been drawing all this way and am exhausted, so I'd like to pick up a ready-made one." After a few rounds of drinks, Chang Jinyu, noticing Li Rufeng's warm and gracious demeanor, and the feeling of meeting an old friend in a foreign land, said with a serious expression, "I'm a nobody, so I don't dare trade you for other charts, but I believe the chart of the north side of the bay we came here with might be of some value to your rule."

When Chang Jinyu and his group came, they came along the northern coastline of the Arabian Gulf. When they leave, they plan to follow the southern coastline. If Li Rufeng is interested, the nautical chart of the southern coastline can be used for another round of transactions.

Although Chang Jinyu's abacus was clattering so loudly that it made Li Rufeng's ears numb, Li Rufeng didn't care. He agreed to this request directly at the dinner table.

Although expecting Mr. Li to build a navy in the Arabian Gulf is basically a century-long project, people always have to have dreams. If all else fails, can't he hire a few Ming Dynasty warships?

They have common interests and are naturally a strong alliance.

"I've always admired you. The ocean is a new frontier left to mankind. Only the bravest can conquer it!" Li Rufeng, taking advantage of the drunken atmosphere, stood up and said loudly, "So, for all of you friends who have come from afar, I've prepared a gift!"

After Li Rufeng finished speaking, he clapped his hands, and two guards came in carrying a sand table.

"Everyone, please take a look!" Li Rufeng stepped forward first. "I'm a layman in navigation, and I'm not very proficient in cartography. But because I'm the ruler of this cross-land, I've collected nautical charts from various countries and pieced together this world geomancy map. I'd like you to take a look!"

Of course, all of the above words are nonsense. In fact, the sand table is just a simplified version of the world map that Li Rufeng sketched out based on his memory. It is neither accurate nor exquisite. It just barely depicts the locations of the continents. The proportions and sizes can only be described as relatively abstract.

But even so, this is definitely the earliest world map in the world!

Chang Jinyu was an insider after all, so he immediately took a breath of cold air and felt that the wine he had just drunk instantly turned into sweat and was completely discharged from his hair and armpits.

"This is...this is..." Chang Jinyu opened his arms and protected a corner of the sandbox like a lion to prevent others from accidentally damaging it.

"Brother Jinyu, you are drunk!" Dong Huaihui stepped forward and pulled Chang Jinyu, but the other party struggled hard to break free.

"You don't understand!" Chang Jinyu said like a madman, pointing at the weird map, "This is the bay we sailed through before. This is the Indian country! Srivijaya! Annan!"

Chang Jinyu's excitement quieted everyone else down. He pointed to the area near the center of the map and gradually moved eastward: "This is Ming Dynasty, this is Japan..."

He traced his finger across the Pacific Ocean, all the way to what would later become the North American continent, his eyes filled with disbelief: "What kind of place is this? How could it be so huge?"

"I privately call it Yangzhou. Legend has it that it's where the sun rises," Li Rufeng said calmly. "The map may not be accurate, but this continent definitely exists. It's said that some Castilians have already been there."

This statement is of course nonsense. Although the Portuguese did later start the Age of Exploration and eventually brought great geographical discoveries to European civilization, they do not have the ability to do so now. Li Rufeng estimated that he would hardly even see that day.

"Oh, right, this place is rich in gold." Li Rufeng pointed to the future San Francisco and said with regret, "It's a pity that I will never have the chance to pan for gold in this lifetime."

"Sir Li! Can I take this painting back?" Chang Jinyu asked with red eyes, with the momentum of an envoy from the Han Dynasty questioning the widower of a small country. If Li Rufeng dared to say no, he would draw his sword on the spot.

"Please feel free to do as you please. This is my gift to the Ming Dynasty." Li Rufeng took a step back.

He did not doubt the pioneering spirit of these Ming sailors who dared to drive wooden boats thousands of miles to appear in front of him. This world is already crazy enough, so what if it gets a little crazier?

Li Rufeng had indeed considered whether this gift was too expensive and would affect the emergence of the miracle-creating country hundreds of years later, but then he thought, instead of giving this advantage to those white people, why not take a gamble?

Chapter 669 Big deal!

The atmosphere at the table became increasingly heated, especially after the world map was taken out. Even Weng Guo didn't expect that Li Rufeng actually had such a treasure.

Regardless of whether this map is true or false, as long as the map can be brought back successfully, everyone here will have made a great contribution. After all, judging from the map, each of these continents is not small, and it is easy to find out as long as the direction is correct.

"When I first went out to sea with Lord Zheng, we had already reached Java. How could there be such a big island further south?" At the dinner table, only Chang Jinyu was copying the map and constantly exclaiming in amazement at Australia.

"That place is a bit desolate, with a desert and Gobi in the middle, but the coastal area is all good land with abundant mineral resources. It is a place to fight for for generations to come." Li Rufeng especially enjoyed the feeling of pointing out the way forward, and his eyebrows were beaming as he spoke.

"Lord Rufeng has this treasure map, but he is willing to give it out as a gift. I really admire his broad mind." Qiu Fucheng was not sure about Li Rufeng's background, but he still admired Li Rufeng's sincerity. He pinched his beard and said a few words to praise him.

"You've all seen my situation. If you'd come here yesterday, this place would probably still be engulfed in smoke." Li Rufeng smiled wryly and shook his head. "I control two large cities like this, five smaller ones, and two castles. With a territory spanning 1,200 miles long and 600 miles wide, how many subjects do you think I have?"

Qiu Fucheng calculated with his fingers that this was almost as large as the territory of Nanzhili. If calculated based on the population density of Nanzhili in the Ming Dynasty, the estimated number of people would be 18 million.

But seeing that Lord Rufeng was gloomy, Qiu Fucheng gave him a hard discount and asked tentatively, "Are there two million people?"

"If we count all those who can still breathe, there will be no more than 400,000 people at most!" Li Rufeng sighed. In fact, he felt guilty about saying this number out loud. Maybe he would have to include the Turkmen tribes in the north and the population of Damascus in the south to barely make up the number.

"Less than 400,000 people?" Qiu Fucheng was truly shocked this time. He kept calculating with his hands, his eyes wide open. "This... this is a bit against the harmony of nature."

"War, famine, plague, warlords—this place has it all, you name it." Li Rufeng pointed at the map. "What's the point of me keeping it?"

"Sir Li, why don't you just come with us..." After all, Chang Jinyu came from a good family and was not good at winning people's hearts. He almost put both sides in a difficult position with just one word.

Dong Huaihui grabbed Chang Jinyu's neck from behind, and with his fingertips, he made the other person's second half of the sentence turn into a meow. He added awkwardly: "He drank too much, I asked him to drink two less glasses."

"When I first arrived, I was saved from being snatched away by the wolves of the grasslands thanks to the care of these Mongolian brothers. We've lived together for many years, so how could I just leave? Besides, I've lived everywhere, and I've never seen anyone more carefree when I return." Li Rufeng said this to himself and Weng Guo, "If you can stay a little longer, it'll be just in time for my wedding, and you'll all be considered my family!"

"Lord Li's bride is the granddaughter of Sultan Timur, a legitimate royal relative." Weng Guo added on the side to prevent these people from talking nonsense again.

You guys tricked Li Rufeng back. How can we find another lord in this broken place where people can do business with peace of mind?

"Since Lord Li is so sincere, the little wealth we brought on board should be a gift to him. However, the interests behind this trip are complicated, and we can't make the decision. We can only settle accounts with him first." Qiu Fucheng said with regret. It was more convenient for him to talk about this matter now. "But I promise you, Lord, we will give you a generous gift before your wedding!"

Li Rufeng didn't care about this at all. After all, the Ming Dynasty was still the same Ming Dynasty, and it was very concerned about its reputation. If he had a fleet that could sail long distances, he wouldn't have to do any other business every year. He could make a fortune by shipping a boatload of local specialties on the tribute route every year.

So the two sides quickly delivered the goods brought by the advance fleet at the dinner table with considerable efficiency. These goods were mainly porcelain, textiles and tea.

Because it was an advance ship, mainly used for exploration, the amount of cargo was not large. However, what surprised Li Rufeng was that Chang Jinyu also brought dozens of kilograms of paper as trading items based on the actual situation.

This was probably the largest amount of paper Li Rufeng had seen since he came here. Just for these papers, Li Rufeng paid Chang Jinyu half a pound of gold.

According to Li Rufeng's estimation, although the purchase price of the goods was not low, if all these goods were sold "locally", the profit margin would have to be around three times.

If he was willing to transfer the goods directly to Aleppo and hand them over to his Venetian partners or Genoese merchants, the profit would increase further.

When large sums of gold and silver were transported out of the Baghdad military camp and handed over directly to the soldiers accompanying the advance ship for safekeeping, smiles appeared on the faces of all the Ming people, including Weng Guo.

If Li Rufeng could buy all the goods carried by this fleet at the current price, not to mention whether Emperor Yongle and the high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty would jump up from their chairs with joy, Duke Zheng and the Jinyiwei would definitely be grinning from ear to ear.

Chapter 670: The Vision of Firearms

Li Rufeng put aside the matter of hiring the armed forces of the Ming Dynasty for the time being. After all, Weng Guo had no say in such matters. Even if Lord Zheng was interested, it would only be feasible after the fleet entered the Arabian Gulf. Moreover, Li Rufeng had to repair the plank roads and establish supply points along the way.

Otherwise, the desert march alone would cost the lives of the Ming mercenaries.

After eating and drinking, the crew of the advance ship had already made their assignments. Under the orders of the Taoist priests from Chaotian Palace and Shenleguan, they planned to assign some people to establish a long-term relationship with Li Rufeng.

Chang Jinyu almost immediately signed up to stay. If he had not been longing for this kind of exotic adventure story in his heart, he would not have given up his family's fertile fields and homes to run to the Western Fleet to suffer hardships.

In Chang Jinyu's eyes, Li Rufeng was undoubtedly like a golden sun. He must have countless secrets in his hands. The Feng Shui Map of the World alone was a rare treasure.

Chang Jinyu had countless questions in his mind that he wanted to discuss with Li Rufeng. Even though his good friend Dong Huaihui advised him several times, Chang Jinyu still refused to turn back.

"You haven't finished drawing half of the sea chart this time, and now you've got the treasure map. If you bring it back intact, it will be a great achievement. If you leave it now, you'll lose everything!" Dong Huaihui looked at the feng shui map that his friend had copied and thrown directly into his arms, and said with a smile, "I'm just a military commander. Can I report my achievement by taking this thing back?"

"Merit, fame, that just doesn't sound good. A man like me would sail thousands of miles alone, is it just for this word of merit?" Chang Jinyu was still drunk, and the heroic spirit in his heart surged to the sky, "If I wanted fame, I would have participated in the imperial examination!"

"Look at Lord Rufeng. He's only a few years younger than you and me, and he's already a prince. What a tremendous achievement, what a great reputation!" Chang Jinyu said to his friend. "What he said on the feng shui map before was so true. If even one in ten thousand of them was true, can you imagine what kind of changes this will bring to the world from now on?"

Chang Jinyu, after all, was born into a scholar family. He said with a sense of responsibility, "In the past, the world was so small. You and I had to rely on scrolls to make a name for ourselves. Take you, Dong Huaihui, for example. How many times have you risked your life to get to where you are today? If Lord Zheng gave you two hundred men and asked you to go to the large island in the south to expand the territory of the Ming Dynasty, would you go? How would the merit and fame of this compare to presenting the map?"

Dong Huaihui lowered his head and remained silent when he heard this. When he heard his friend's words, a flame seemed to be ignited in his heart.

Although the Ming Dynasty is still in its rising period, it has been established for several decades after all, and signs of land annexation have begun to appear in the most prosperous Jiangnan region.

Dong Huaihui, a mere fisherman, might not be able to see that far, but he was knowledgeable and experienced as he had followed the fleet to the West. His vision had long gone beyond the boundaries of fishermen, skipping over the plague-shrouded mountains in the southern part of the Ming Dynasty, and he had seen Palembang and the rich overseas lands like Majapahit.

He has already mastered the most important knowledge that the first generation of colonists should have mastered, which is that when expanding territory, one should not fight hard battles, but pick the soft persimmon first, and skip the rotten land instead of fighting hard, and just occupy the fertile golden holy land.

In the end, Dong Huaihui failed to persuade his good friend to change his mind. Instead, he was lectured by Chang Jinyu. He wished he could fly back to his hometown tomorrow, gather a group of young and strong people, borrow a loan from Lord Zheng, and borrow a boat to go out to sea and occupy the land.

Li Rufeng naturally welcomed the decision made by these fellow countrymen from the Ming Dynasty. Just as Weng Guo said, they were indeed capable of helping him build a ruling system from scratch.

Chapter 671 The wedding is coming

Time flies and it’s a month later. It’s September 29, 1409 AD. Li Rufeng has returned to his loyal Mosul and witnessed how the city quickly repaired itself with the help of crude cement.

Although not even one of these workers could write his own name, they had learned how to use plaster and how to perform water curing, just like their colleagues in later generations.

At this moment, the most important thing for Li Rufeng is the upcoming wedding. His wedding with Princess Parisa has reached the point where it can no longer be delayed.

Not to mention that the Iranian emirs next door are all eagerly waiting, the pressure from within alone has made Li Rufeng feel a sense of impending storm.

All parties are waiting for this wedding to determine the character of their "new neighbor" and to decide whether Li Rufeng is an enemy or a potential ally.

Within Li Rufeng's power, most people, including the Mongol tribes, undoubtedly hoped that Li Rufeng would get married as soon as possible to prove that he was the legitimate successor to the rights of the great conqueror.

The most anxious among them is undoubtedly Muhaya, the representative of the secular Sufi order. He needs a truly strong supporter to continue to have a say in the religious field.

So the whole thing has come to a natural conclusion now. Li Rufeng had already released the news that October 1st is the wedding day, and he will marry the princess of the Khanate on that day.

Returning to Mosul with Li Rufeng was the Ming Dynasty's "envoy delegation". Of course, this was just their private name, and neither the Ming Dynasty officials nor the Khanate itself recognized this statement.

Chang Jinyu didn't realize he had jumped into a fire pit until he arrived in Mosul. When he was still immersed in the unbelievable way that Li Rufeng had quickly handed over the control of Baghdad to the newly surrendered enemy and only sent mercenaries as a check and balance, the situation in Mosul shocked him even more.

If Li Rufeng put Baghdad aside as a mess for the time being and would deal with it when something happened, then Mosul was completely "unmanned", achieving the true meaning of "rule by inaction".

No one could conjure food out of thin air to solve the famine problem in Mosul. The food that Li Rufeng collected with all his effort could only provide the minimum guarantee to prevent a large-scale famine in Mosul. This also led to the rapid development of black market trade in the entire city of Mosul.

A large number of well-connected businessmen are smuggling grain through various means, and Li Rufeng obviously ignores this situation to a considerable extent, or to be more precise, he is happy to see this happen, because this behavior has indeed alleviated the food pressure in Mosul to a certain extent.

The only problem is that this also brings with it a lot of corruption.

The Armenian thousand-man team that Li Rufeng left in Mosul to control the "official grain" was the most loyal one so far, but the centurion Marcelino himself was too busy to supervise whether there was any trick in the expenditure of every grain.

Therefore, a lot of food that should have been used for disaster relief was directly transported to some people's warehouses before it was distributed, and then sold at high prices.

Even though Marcelino had hanged twelve heroes who had interfered according to the intelligence, he still couldn't suppress this evil fire.

Now, this problem has become a problem for Chang Jinyu and Qiu Fucheng. Li Rufeng even threw the language problem directly to the Hu scholar Liu Guangyue of the Jinyiwei.

"This world is a huge makeshift team." In 1409, Chang Jinyu made a complaint that would not become popular until six hundred years later. At this time, he was in a trance.

Due to the lack of literate individuals, the entire administrative system of Mosul is just a makeshift team, and the work that can be recorded in written form every day is less than one-third of what actually happens.

That is to say, two-thirds of the official business every day would be difficult to continue the next day due to delivery problems. This situation was only achieved after Li Rufeng incorporated many literate businessmen and assistants in the city into the administrative system.

Moreover, Chang Jinyu now deeply understood the greatness of the First Emperor's policy of standardizing the writing system and the wheel gauge. He even felt that the First Emperor's policy of burning books and burying scholars was justified.

Although he had Liu Guangyue as his translator, Chang Jinyu was still faced with the torture of three to four spoken languages ​​and the same number of written languages.

What's worse, some people spoke Turkic and wrote Persian, or vice versa, or mixed them together. It is difficult for anyone else to understand it except the recorder himself.

Fortunately, stimulated by this huge makeshift team, Chang Jinyu entered a state of supreme self-confidence. He simply overturned all the previous paperwork, took out the scrolls of Ming Dynasty scholars, and started checking warehouses one by one from scratch.

Chang Jinyu spent five days creating a Chinese version of the warehouse records from scratch, and counted the total amount of food currently available in Mosul and calculated the minimum daily consumption.

Of course, the price is that this job is now tied to him. The more than 10,000 refugees in Mosul need Chang Jinyu to provide them with food every day. If he doesn't do his job well, some people will starve to death.

In fact, during the five days that Chang Jinyu was doing the statistics, some people had already started to starve to death, but Chang Jinyu at least knew that a short pain is worse than a long one.

Qiu Fucheng has been taking several Ming army soldiers to search for edible wild vegetables and herbs in the nearby riverside oasis these days. The story of Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs was explored in China thousands of years ago, but this land still requires the efforts of future generations.

Qiu Fucheng's requirements were not high. He just wanted the medicine to be edible and not lethal. After some searching, he actually found several plants that were everywhere and would not kill people.