Mount and Blade Central Asia

Because I personally tend to believe that European and American history is largely fabricated, I'll treat the legends from before 500 BC as myths and legends. You can just treat them as nonsense and take them too seriously. Also, some of the content regarding Islam is mostly sourced from the internet. Due to my limited knowledge and personal biases, it's full of subjective conjecture. If you find it offensive, feel free to change it...

Chapter 104: Urfa Castle

Qinggelinayan was willing to take the initiative to undertake the task of attacking the city, and Li Rufeng was naturally happy to watch the show. He was not a famous warrior or general who needed these false names. He was a shaman, and he just needed to brush up his reputation when the ground was covered with wounded soldiers after the battle.

Besides, siege has never been an easy job since ancient times. What's more, when the Taierbaha tribe was attacked before, Master Li had witnessed with his own eyes how outrageous the death of Taierbaha and his son was. Today, he dared to observe the defense of the castle from a distance with Qinggelinayan, which was a big risk.

It is a land of glory. From this we can see the nourishment that a nomadic tribe of the size of the Tailbahe tribe has brought to Li Rufeng.

...

The Guardian of Glory, Falbod, stood on the city wall, gazing gloomily at the Mongol army. Of course, anyone would have a gloomy expression in this situation, but it should be noted that perhaps because of the Persians' relatively deep eye sockets, the Mongols' first impression of the Persians was generally one of sinisterness and gloom...

So Farbod, with a gloomy face, was much gloomier than other Persians at this time. He had long been mentally prepared that Urfa would become the target of the Mongols' attack, but they came too quickly, so that the reinforcements promised by Lord Dost might not have set out yet.

There is no shortage of food and water in the castle, enough to keep everyone well fed and watered, but the problem is that with so few people, how can he hold out against the Mongolian attack?

When Sultan Timur's army passed through, all the cities that did not open their gates and surrender were massacred. The people here still remember it vividly. Among the nightmarish memories of Timur's army for most people here, the Mongols are definitely the most memorable one.

So when the Mongols outside the city sent out envoys and publicly announced that anyone who stayed outside the city would be slaughtered all day after the city was captured, the morale of the people inside the city collapsed, and the remaining defenders did not even have the courage to stand behind the city walls and fight the Mongols.

As time went by, the civilians who had taken refuge there in advance became increasingly hysterical. They did not want to become another footnote in the Mongol legend.

Falbode now began to regret his momentary weakness and his idea of ​​getting manpower for free. He originally thought that once these civilians entered the castle and were surrounded by the Mongols, they would have to be obedient and give up their manpower and labor.

"Lord Falbod, we have arrested another soldier who tried to escape. What should we do with him?" Falbod's men came to report the situation.

The Mongols outside the city placed their cavalry in front of the Urfa Castle. They did not even send scouts in the other three directions, allowing people to enter and exit through the other three gates, and deserters inevitably appeared.

"Hang him on the city gate tower!" Falbod said gritting his teeth. The only people he could count on at this time were the fifty gendarmes stationed here. Those people were basically veterans who had participated in the old Sultan's expedition against the Ottoman Empire. There were Armenians and Persians. It had become their habit to obey military orders. Fighting was like eating and drinking water to them. It was commonplace, and their fear of the Mongols was not that exaggerated.

They actually knew better than anyone how formidable the Mongols were on the battlefield, but this was, after all, a defensive battle. They knew that the threat posed by dismounted Mongols was greatly reduced, and that the Mongols were not good at sieges...

Maybe their ancestors could, but under Timur, they were only doing field work, and sieges required specialized engineers...

It didn't take much effort for them to form a fairly qualified engineering team in their hometown.

An engineering team of nearly two hundred people slowly advanced, pushing simple shield carts reinforced with sandbags and shields. Using these shield carts as the core shelter, they began to dig a diagonal trench on the spot. Their movements were calm and unhurried, and they obviously did not worry at all about being hit by long-range weapons from inside the city.

At this time, they were nearly 150 meters away from Urfa Castle, a very delicate distance. Most long-range weapons could not pose a substantial threat to them at this distance. If the defenders had artillery and catapults that could fire at such a distance, they would have opened fire long ago.

These engineers dug an irregular trench on the spot, 15 meters long and 30 degrees inclined towards the city wall, and filled all the excavated soil on the side facing the city wall, forming a "breast wall" about half a meter above the ground. This height plus the one-meter deep trench was enough to provide adequate cover for the soldiers.

They left a wide enough road in the middle to facilitate the cavalry's charge into the city gate in the future. Because of the angle of the entire trench, the engineers advanced 15 meters, and the defenders only shot a few arrows sparsely, which did not pose a substantial threat. Therefore, the engineers began to dig a communication trench perpendicular to the direction of the city wall more boldly.

Li Rufeng watched the engineers digging for the whole morning. Didn't people say in later generations that no man could refuse an excavator? But now a large group of human excavators were digging the soil frantically. This scene was really rare.

Unfortunately, Li Rufeng was just watching the excitement. For the defenders of Urfa Castle, this was more like the footsteps of death.

With every meter the engineers dug forward, Farbod's face grew darker. Although he hadn't had the honor of following the old sultan on his campaigns, he knew the engineers' tactics. They would dig trenches day and night, eventually attempting to use gunpowder to blast a breach in the city wall...

If he had enough long-range firepower, using catapults, crossbows, and artillery, he could naturally launch an effective counterattack, but he didn't have it... The only heavy weapons that Farbod could use were two poorly maintained catapults, which could throw 30-kilogram stone bombs to a distance of 150 to 200 meters.

However, he did not have qualified men who could ensure the accuracy of the catapults. This place was just a frontier land for the Khanate, and Sultan Timur had conquered it too much, causing the place to wither.

Timur didn't care about this land at all. He only regarded it as a buffer zone that could threaten the Ottomans and the southwest region of the Golden Horde. If anyone dared to attack here, he could simply raise troops from the Transoxiana region again and fight all the way here.

Therefore, the predicament of the local defenders is not difficult at all. On the contrary, they should maintain the current weak status quo of the local area.

Dost was once Timur's most loyal follower. He strictly followed the old Sultan's wishes and allowed the cities here to wither and decay. Maintaining tax revenue and maintaining trade routes were his most important responsibilities.

In the absence of sufficient long-range firepower to counterattack, the best solution is to wait until night and send out a suicide squad to fill the trenches. Of course, taking advantage of the chaos to attack the enemy camp is a better solution, but Falbod really does not have the confidence to lead his unfit soldiers to fight the Mongols in the field. He even has difficulty selecting enough brave men to cover the city walls.

In this way, in silence on both sides, the engineers completed a trench with an absolute length of almost 30 meters. The front end was only about 120 meters away from the city wall. When the engineers returned to the camp, a team of 100 bravest Mughal warriors took over and entered the trench to defend and prevent the soldiers in the city from going out to attack.

All the engineers were rewarded by Qinggelinayan. Not only could they eat meat and drink fermented grape juice, but each of them also received a promised reward - they could participate in the looting with the first group of soldiers entering the city.

Li Rufeng watched people digging for a whole day, drank two bags of water, and had a meal in between, but he didn't see any reaction from the city. Even an outsider like him now knew that there might be no need to attack the city of Urfa.

If the defenders in the city had any countermeasures, they wouldn't be so confused. And until now, Qinggelinayan has not sent anyone to perform traditional Mongolian skills in front of the battle...

Sure enough, early the next morning, Centurion Steel Pillar assembled his army as usual and placed them in front of the battle formation, doing nothing but standing there. An exceptionally tall Mongolian warrior, riding a tall horse and holding a white Sulu Ingot high, slowly approached the city of Urfa.

In Mongolian culture, Sulu Ding means divine spear, which is usually black and white. It is called "Hala Sulu Ding" and "Chagan Sulu Ding", which means "black" and "white" respectively. Black symbolizes war and power, and white symbolizes peace and authority.

Before the war, Mongolian envoys would bring the Chagan Sulu Ding, a symbol of peace, to ask for peace. This was also the only chance for peace the Mongols gave to their enemies.

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Chapter 106: Offering the City

Farbod stood on the city wall, looking at the Mongolian knights approaching from a distance, his face turning pale and black, and he was having a fierce struggle in his heart.

First of all, one thing is certain: he does not want to die. His loyalty to Dost has not reached the point of sacrificing his life for him, but surrendering without any resistance is obviously a bit beyond Farbod's acceptance.

He is a lord entrusted with a great responsibility, and this would tarnish his reputation...

On the other hand, the Mongolian Sulu Ding was a real threat. If it was not accepted by the defenders, the moment the city was captured would be the day of massacre. The Mongols would show no mercy and all living things in the city would be killed, including him.

At this time, Farbod even felt some resentment towards Dost. In order to accumulate strength, he gathered elite soldiers from all over the country in the city of Mardin, intending to use the convenience of the city's defense to fight the Mongols for several months, waiting for winter to come, or when the Black Sheep People were free, the threat of the Mongols would naturally be gone.

However, the area outside of Mardin...

Farbod's face looked even uglier. He should have been in the city of Mardin at this time, watching dancers and drinking fermented grape juice every day, instead of waiting here to be trampled in the face by the Mongolian horses' hooves.

He was "exiled" because he offended the black sheep in the city. The black sheep who occupied the ruins of the church behaved strangely every day. Ever since they began to appear in the city of Mardin, people began to disappear in the city.

As a soldier with a sense of justice, Farbod ignored Dostwanhu's hint, and accidentally found the clues to the black sheep people. Then, he came to Urfa Castle as a defender.

Surrender? But surrendering without even firing a single arrow is a bit too cowardly...

Don't surrender? There are more Mongols outside than civilians in the city, and they also have engineers...

Falbode's brow furrowed into a "川" shape, but he was immediately relieved. A scimitar was placed on his neck. His personal guards, with ferocious expressions and some shame, said behind him: "I'm sorry, sir, we want to live..."

Falbode let out a long sigh, as if a huge stone had been lifted from his heart. He nodded slowly and interrupted the soldier: "I understand..."

"...I want to live a better life! I want to stand out!" The overly nervous soldiers had no time to pay attention to what Falbod was talking about. They simply cut his neck with a knife and shouted to the Mongols outside the city, "Falbod has surrendered! We surrender!"

The last thing Falbod knew was that he was being pushed to the ground by his personal guards, who were slitting his throat with daggers, intending to cut off his head and offer it to the Mongols...

How could I be so stupid? Falbod's regret gradually faded away with the darkness.

The city of Urfa surrendered just like that. Li Rufeng rode on a horse, took Bater and Hanlus with him and followed Qinggelinayan to approach the small city. Hundreds of armored soldiers walked out of the city gate in a daze and discarded their weapons at the collection point outside the city gate.

Just by looking at these soldiers, Li Rufeng knew that these people were not warriors. They were just farmers, beggars, and desperate men who were temporarily armed.

Their eyes were empty, they did not feel the shame of being captured, and they did not even have much worry about the future. Most of them were only concerned that the military pay promised by the master who had been beheaded before had not yet been paid.

"This is our enemy, haha." Qinggelinayan rode his horse and passed through the prisoners of war head-on. He didn't care at all that he was among dozens of enemy soldiers who had not laid down their weapons. He went against the flow of people and was the first to enter the city.

No one had the courage to look up and see Qinggeli's face clearly. The surrendered soldiers just gave way silently without any fighting spirit.

At this moment, Li Rufeng understood why the Mongols were so unruly. Compared with other people in this land, they were simply natural warriors. Every child was well fed and well clothed, and there was never a shortage of the three sources of protein: meat, eggs and milk. This made them much stronger than others.

The skills of riding and killing taught by their fathers were imprinted in them like instinct, and passed down from generation to generation.

Li Rufeng followed Qinggelinayan into the city of Urfa. This conquest did not give him any sense of accomplishment, which made him look down on the city.

However, in fact, this city has a very long history. It has stood here since the time when the Assyrians ruled this land. Many of the stone buildings here have a history of hundreds or even thousands of years. But for Li Rufeng, this is just a temporary place to stay.

Because there was no brutal siege, the people here were lucky enough to survive and they would not be slaughtered meaninglessly, but all the soldiers still needed motivation. As a reward, they could take away any property they wanted.

In addition, the residents of the city had to hand over one-fifth of their women as a reward for the soldiers.

Qinggelinayan didn't even need to give any orders. These rules were customary and had been used as early as the time of Timur. No one would object, not the soldiers, and the same went for the civilians who were forced to hand over their property and women.

Although, last month they were nominally subjects of the Timurid Khanate...

"Maybe I can offer some immature suggestions?" Li Rufeng walked towards Qinggeli.

He already has the qualifications to be Na Yan's colleague, but that's all. If he wants to make some changes, he must be cautious in his words and actions and use suggestions.

"Do you also think we are too cruel? We should be more merciful?" Qinggelinayan asked with a smile, as if she already knew the question Li Rufeng was going to ask.

In fact, this is indeed the case. Li Rufeng does feel that he could be more "merciful", but the two sides obviously have different understandings of mercy.

In his mind, human resources come before all other resources. People can create wealth and reproduce more population. As a ruler, human resources are undoubtedly a high-value-added asset, of course, provided that they are used properly.

But to be fair, Li Rufeng really couldn't find any human resources that were easier to utilize than here. You could even use all these people as slaves. No one cared about these people, not even themselves. As long as they could have enough food to eat, they were willing to do anything.

As for efficiency, you can completely rely on the Mongol saber to ensure it. Set an almost impossible return target, and then you can eliminate individuals who fail to meet the performance targets year after year, screening out those with high output...

But Qinggelinayan used the word "also", which made Li Rufeng frown slightly.

Chapter 107 Is this the stone castle?

1408, March 20, main hall of Urfa Castle.

Li Rufeng looked at the main hall of the castle, which was not luxuriously decorated, but he was still a little excited. This was the first time in the three years since he came here that there was a roof that was strong enough above his head... He even felt that he could not adapt to living in such an environment.

He always felt that the main hall was a little low and the stone roof was too heavy, which made the interior of the main hall seem a little depressing. Moreover, the overall environment in the castle was a little cold and damp, which was far less comfortable than living in a tent.

Li Rufeng patted his thigh lightly, telling himself that it was just a habit he had developed after living among the nomadic people for three years.

In fact, the main hall of the castle is far from being low. The ceiling here is more than four meters high. It has a beautiful wooden beam ceiling, a circle of torches for lighting on the wall, and an exquisite copper stand underneath to prevent oil stains and carbonite dripping.

From the perspective of the entrance where Li Rufeng was standing, the entire main hall was rectangular, approximately a 20*10 meter square area. There was a wooden curtain in the middle that divided the square hall into two halves, so the actual area might be a little larger.

Urfa Castle is a castle with a long history. Its earliest roots may be traced back to the time when the Romans ruled this land. Later generations built and repaired it but ultimately did not go beyond this scope.

Fortunately, the castle has undergone some modernization in at least the last century, abandoning the ancient central hearth and moving it against the wall. It has been given a stone hood to better capture the smoke, allowing it to pass through holes in the wall and eventually be exhausted by the buttresses outside (Note 1).

At a lower position, there are several asymmetrically distributed small windows. They are windows that were opened by castle lords in different eras when renovating or repairing the castle. What makes Li Rufeng happy is that these windows have glass, which greatly strengthens his sense of belonging.

At this time, the servants in the castle had already begun to nervously prepare for the evening banquet. Originally, Qinggelinayan didn't even want to hold the banquet in this broken castle, but Li Rufeng persuaded him that if they didn't want to attack the castle again when they came back, they'd better make the locals believe that they planned to own this land for a long time, rather than just grabbing it and leaving.

Of course, Qinggelinayan’s first reaction at the time was, “Aren’t we?”

The above is not discussed here for now. In short, Li Rufeng used his eloquence to finally convince Qinggelinayan that it was more important to give up some short-term interests, let the soldiers show more mercy, reward the army in other ways, win the hearts of the people, and establish his own ruling position in this land.

Holding a banquet in the castle was like a signal to let the civilians in the city know that the Mongols were just another group of lords who came to collect taxes from them and whip their backs to make them work, not man-eating demons.

People can accept the former calmly, but the latter often brings unexpected and desperate resistance.

Dozens of confiscated chickens and ducks were sent to the kitchen. With the cooks' quick hands and chopping of their knives, they were quickly processed into meat products. Sheep, pigs, vegetables and fruits were also sent to the kitchen.

It’s a pity that the food sent in was eventually processed, either stewed or baked. If there weren’t so many people, Li Rufeng would have wanted to rush into the kitchen and cook for himself to reward himself.

Li Rufeng spent some time walking around the castle. Before he came in, the castle had been searched by personal soldiers like Qinggeli and was basically clean. Broken containers and roughly torn cloth products could be seen everywhere.

No one knows how much wealth Qinggelinayan's personal soldiers took away from here. The only thing that is certain is that they were very professional and basically nothing useful was left. Even the feather pillow that Li Rufeng found in the living room behind the hall was stabbed twice to ensure that there was no hidden wealth inside.

Li Rufeng sighed, feeling that he still had a long way to go before he could live the life of a lord he had always dreamed of...

As the night deepened, the servants in the castle tried their best to collect seven or eight

There was an intact long table and enough chairs. The cooks, under the supervision of Qinggelinayan's personal guards, prepared enough food and used part of it first under the supervision of the personal guards to ensure that it was not poisoned.

Afterwards, the protagonists of today's banquet began to appear. The centurions under Qinggeli, the Mongol leaders who worked together with him, and Li Rufeng and his men all took their seats. It was a pity that two of Li Rufeng's capable generals had not had time to return because they were leading their troops to plunder outside, so the momentum around him seemed a little weak.

Qinggelinayan sat on the main seat. The chair was one of the few good ones with some gold and silver inlays on it that had not been broken by the swords of the guards. The heavy oak chair was older than the generals present just by looking at the patina on the armrests.

Li Rufeng sat on the left side of Qinggelinayan, while the Steel Pillar Centurion sat on the right side of Qinggelinayan, and to the right were Qinggelinayan's two younger brothers. It is worth mentioning that Jialhun sat behind Dangertai.

Although Jatalehun sat there chatting and laughing with the people around him, seemingly not caring about such trivial matters, there was no interaction between him and Dangertai, who was closest to him and had a blood relationship with him.

The person closest to Lu Rifeng was Centurion Mengge. He sat casually on the chair with his legs crossed and kept twisting his butt as if there were thorns on the chair.

"I remember you, Shaman, always wanted to build a castle for fun?" Mengge tilted his head and asked Li Rufeng while the servants began to place more candles for lighting. "How about this? Or we can just make do with this."

Li Rufeng shook his head. After a tour, he didn't even care about the castle even if it was given to him for free. The lighting and structure were too poor. The later generations made too much use of the relics left by their predecessors. The words "main focus" and "highlighting" were almost enough.

Qinggelinayan knocked his wine glass with a silver spoon to make a sound to attract other people's attention. It should be noted here that all the wine glasses were first recovered by Li Rufeng from the hands of those personal guards.

"I'm sorry to host you warriors here today, but Shaman Rufeng said that having a meal here can calm the people's hearts. I believe him, but you must drink at least some wine!" Qinggelinayan said simply, taking the lead and then saying, "If anyone is dissatisfied, you can ask him directly."

Li Rufeng replaced the wine in the Qinggeli wine pot with water in advance, otherwise he would have started coughing violently just now. At this time, he looked at these Mongols with a smile, waiting to see who would really stand up and question him.

The author says:

Author's Note: Note 1 - A wall made of stone or brick to strengthen or support the structure of the wall, often used in Gothic architecture

Most of the descriptions of castles in this chapter come from the book Life in a Medieval Castle, Gues J. 2015. However, the main context of the description is castles and castle life in Europe. Information on Central Asia is missing, but the Urfa Castle was indeed first built by the Eastern Roman Empire, so there is a certain commonality.

Chapter 108: Tongues as Sharp as Knives

"The city has been captured, but the warriors are not being rewarded. This doesn't make sense anywhere!" A burly man wearing a cowhide breastplate stood up first and slammed his wine glass on the table, splashing the wine everywhere. "My warriors are complaining! My soldiers are screaming!"

Li Rufeng glanced to the left and saw his potential ally, Centurion Mengge, whispering, "This is Biligetu. His tribe has over 500 people."

On the grassland, whoever has good riding skills, sharp sabers, and accurate archery skills is a bater and a warrior, but in today's circle, whoever has a large tribe and more men who can ride horses and fight is the one who gets the thumbs-up.

For example, now, Qinggeli Nayan has many powerful soldiers under his command, so he takes the main seat, his brother also sits in the front row, and Li Rufeng, whose tribe has many people and soldiers, sits next to Qinggeli Nayan.

As for Biligetu, he was sitting in the seventh seat to the right of Qinggelinayan, in a position that was neither high nor low. At this moment, he looked extremely angry, with red ears and thick neck.

It is worth mentioning that the name Biligetu means a wise person, but Li Rufeng has not yet seen this characteristic in the other party.