Mount and Blade Central Asia

At that time he would say that because Dost had secretly defected to the Black Sheep People, they led a cavalry expedition, but after capturing the city of Martin, they were no longer able to fight and could only rest for a while.

The Mediterranean is only a little over a hundred kilometers away. If you're looking to make some extra cash on your way home, you'd better give me a good price." Li Rufeng, already understanding Renzo Piano's character, threatened bluntly, "I only need an artillery team and that cannon. If the price isn't satisfactory to me, I'll just hire those veterans who know how to use the cannon and send the others back empty-handed."

"You are truly a bargaining genius, Master Shaman. How about this? Let's lower Master Qinggelinayan's price by half, so that we can save that master's face." Renzo Piano asked pensively.

"Half and half. If any of you are killed or injured, I can give you an extra pension." Li Rufeng chopped off half of the head again.

Renzo Piano looked at the other man helplessly. Considering his current situation, he could only steel himself and shake his hand. "Deal, Master Shaman. The Golden Arrows are now your most loyal guards!"

Li Rufeng was a little allergic to this kind of flattery. He told the other party to come to him tomorrow morning to sign the contract and then told him to get lost.

Next, he would have to talk to the Kurdish leader. After Saladin Muhet, he would probably have to talk to the Armenian leaders to see if he could win the loyalty of those tough heavy infantry.

But Li Rufeng didn't have much hope for the latter.

Chapter 163: Winning People's Hearts

Timur has always implemented a high-pressure policy towards the Armenians. He did not allow them to build churches, forced them to leave the mountains and move to the plains, and required them to learn Chagatai. Of course, this has had little effect over the years.

The reason why they were mobilized by Dost was mainly because they were oppressed by the Khanate's martial ethics. They were accustomed to the Khanate's conscription because every resistance would bring greater oppression.

Now, a civil war has broken out among the Khanate forces responsible for managing this area, and the Khanate's deterrence against them is no longer in name only. The Armenians are not fools, and they can naturally see that this is an opportunity to return to freedom.

What Li Rufeng needs to do is to test these Armenians just like he tested the Kurds to see if they are willing to stand up and fight for their status.

Of course, before that, Li Rufeng had to resolve the Kurds' doubts first.

Li Rufeng promised that as long as they shed blood on the battlefield like the Mongols, the Mongols would treat the Kurds like brothers after the war.

But this war was fought a little too quickly, and neither side had time to shed blood, so the Kurds were full of doubts. The war was over, so what should they do next?

"Lord Rufeng, you want to see me?" Saladin Muhet walked into Li Rufeng's spacious and bright office. This was Dost's study with a large balcony, which now belonged to Li Rufeng.

It was sunny outside, and the sun shone through the balcony into the study, casting a comfortable shadow. Li Rufeng sat at the desk that once belonged to Dost, looking at the Kurdish regional leader in front of him.

"I have promised that after this war, the Kurds will no longer be an oppressed nation. You will be brothers and sisters like us." Li Rufeng looked at Saladin with some amusement. The other's face showed both expectation and hesitation.

Apparently, even Saladin himself felt that the Kurds had not shed enough blood to be worthy of being brothers with the Mughals.

"Now I will fulfill my promise. I will announce that from now on, the Kurds in my territory will pay the same amount of taxes as the Mughals. Your enemies are our enemies, and we will live and multiply on this land like brothers." Li Rufeng did not keep Saladin Muhet in suspense, but announced his decision directly.

"The Kurds will be loyal to you forever, Shaman. Like the Mughal warriors under your command, we will believe in Eternal Sky and fight for the glory of Tengri." After hearing Li Rufeng's words, Saladin Muhet excitedly knelt on one knee and offered his loyalty.

Of course, the matter of conversion is still only verbal at present. The reason why Saladin dared to make such a promise is that the Shamanism of Changshengtian has always been very gentle, and there has been no news of forced conversion. The main goal is to accept the call of the willing.

This good reputation was earned by generations of Buddhist shamans who lived their own leisurely lives.

In Li Rufeng's opinion, if the old shaman had not had some sense of responsibility, he would have taken the initiative to persuade the Mongols to convert to Islam to avoid such trivial matters causing problems every day.

After seeing off the satisfied Kurdish leader, Li Rufeng met an Armenian old man who was tall, with firm features, but whose expression looked bitter and resentful. When both sides saw each other, they sighed almost at the same time.

Li Rufeng sighed, because just by looking at the other person's face, he knew that this person was a stubborn person, and it would definitely be very difficult to communicate with him.

The reason why the other party sighed was that he once again stood in front of the winner as a loser and bowed his head in submission.

"Marcelino Gini?" Li Rufeng knew the other party's name in advance. This captain was very prestigious among Armenians, and the other team members listened to him.

"It's me, sir." Marcelino replied in a low voice. He was the kind of person who was usually taciturn.

"In this war, you Armenians were bewitched by Dost, and you are also victims. I forgive you and, with the blessing of Eternal Heaven, we will both

"The best outcome is that neither side causes suffering to the other." Li Rufeng abandoned his prepared remarks the moment he saw him and dismissed him cleanly. "If there are no other issues, you can leave the city and return home tomorrow at the latest."

"Sir, are you just going to let us go like this?" Marcelino's calm face finally showed a hint of surprise. He raised his head and looked at the Oriental man for the first time.

"Yes, the war is over. Take your people home." Li Rufeng said very calmly. As the conqueror of Martin City, he had this right.

But this time it was Marcelino's turn to be torn. He hesitated for a moment, then finally made up his mind and said, "Merciful sir, when the Dostite commander recruited us, he promised that each of us would take home 100 kilograms of food at the end of the war..."

"You seem a reasonable man. You are an official under the Khanate, as is the Wanhu of Dost. If you fight, that's your business, but we responded to the call according to our agreement with the Sultan... We hope to return with the food as agreed." Marcelino spoke slowly but methodically. "After all, all of Dost's food is in your hands now, my lord."

Li Rufeng looked at the audacious Armenian with some surprise, and for a moment he didn't know how to refuse his reasonable request.

After all... Qinggelinayan did attack the city of Mardin in the name of the Khanate. Marcelino's request is legally tenable, but normal people generally don't do that. For example, the Persians in the city, if they could just leave, they would wake up laughing in their dreams.

"Sir, isn't that right?" Marcelino grunted for a long time before finally speaking. "We are honest people who pay our taxes on time. You can't just let us pay taxes, do military service, and then suffer the consequences, right?"

"You're right, but we didn't find any food in the granary. Dosit may have given all the food to the Black Sheep. You know that Dosit is colluding with the Black Sheep, right?" Li Rufeng had no way to deal with this wise but foolish young man, and could only use magic to defeat magic.

Aren't you talking about Duo Si Te? I'm talking about him too. Anyway, Duo Si Te is dead, but his brain is still rotting away. If you have any questions, go ask him.

Marcelino opened his mouth several times, but in the end said nothing. He just bowed to Li Rufeng and turned to leave.

"Wait a minute, I'll write you a note. You have a point. You paid taxes, so the rulers should be trustworthy." Li Rufeng was impressed by the reputation of the Armenian infantry and wanted to establish a good relationship with them. "I don't have any food now, but I can write you an IOU. When I have food, you can come and get it."

The author says:

Author's words: Wagner's move was quite sudden. Russia is really in trouble now.

Chapter 164: The battle report is here!

1408, April 4.

The city of Mardin had been almost emptied. The Mongols were experts in this area. Although the surviving residents of the city were not slaughtered under the influence of Li Rufeng, most of them were left with only the clothes they wore and a few personal belongings that were easy to carry.

The reason why no one starved to death was entirely because Li Rufeng had been giving out porridge to win people's hearts.

Li Rufeng had to admit that deep down he was happy to see the Mongols rob these people clean, and then when he announced that they planned to abandon the city of Mardin because of the threat from the Black Sheep People and all those who were willing to move to Aleppo, these people had no choice.

Not only the craftsmen, Li Rufeng also planned to pack up and take away the civilians this time. He spent money to buy food from the looting Mongols. Although Qinggeli Nayan had stated in advance that each tribe should stockpile food for emergencies, there were still people willing to sell their food to Li Rufeng in exchange for gold.

So Li Rufeng is not short of food now, or it should be said that the city of Martin is not short of food.

Dost started preparing for war a year ago, and all the necessary logistical supplies were available. Before gathering his forces to defend the city of Mardin, he even forced all places to transport food to Mardin for storage, so all these things are now available to the Mongols.

Or to be more specific, all of it went to Li Rufeng.

Of course, this is also thanks to the dark wizards who came from afar. These people can be called internationalist fighters with selfless dedication.

Without food, the civilians in the city either chose to migrate with Li Rufeng, who would provide them with meals along the way, or to seek refuge with nearby relatives. However, in the end, less than a hundred people left the city of Mardin.

In the end, many of the remaining people had to pack their bags and wait for the Mughal army to set off, whether they wanted to or not.

In the end, Li Rufeng gained the loyalty of 2,123 people, including craftsmen. These people were willing to follow Li Rufeng to live in a new place. They were afraid of the black sheep people who believed in the four wind gods, and they were also worried that they would starve to death in the city of Martin due to lack of food.

On the contrary, more of the wealthy families who were deliberately spared by Li Rufeng chose to stay. Those leaders all laughed at Li Rufeng's mercy, saying that he should not have left them so much property in the first place. If he had robbed them directly like the civilians, they would have to leave now even if they wanted to.

But they didn't know that this was what Li Rufeng wanted. He wanted to paint a brand new city on the blank paper of Aleppo, without any need for these so-called

The rich.

The wealth of these people is accumulated by trade routes, not by talent, and Aleppo is the intersection of trade routes. As long as they guard that city, they will not have to worry about wealth. What he needs are only executors, not rich people who think they have privileges.

Rather than turning against each other later and leaving behind a reputation for brutality, it is better to make the cut now. When the black sheep come to exploit them, these people will be the best propaganda machine.

Li Rufeng's troops have withdrawn from the city of Mardin. Currently, only half of his personal guards and Satuya are temporarily living in the castle, waiting for the outcome of the war between the Black Sheep People and Maharaja Milan Shah together with other Mongol leaders.

Qinggelinayan had already sent people to gather information, but all the information he had received before was not good news. According to the news three days ago, Maharaja Milansha was unable to reach the city wall of Tabriz. The two sides were fighting in the town of Sarderud in the south of Tabriz, with both sides winning and losing.

For Milan Shah, being stuck in place would be the biggest failure, because his son Khalil, who inherited the throne, was confronting his uncle in Samarkand at that time.

If Milansha hadn't been possessed by evil spirits, this war with the Black Sheep wouldn't have happened. "To conquer foreign enemies, one must first stabilize the country" is the winning principle proposed by the God of Micromanagement...

As a large number of Mughal soldiers began to withdraw from the city of Mardin, the Persian prisoners of war who were defeated and captured were also divided up among the tribes. The Mughals had no tradition of using slaves on a large scale due to their nomadic lifestyle, but the Ottomans next door accepted them all, especially Persian slaves. Regardless of gender, as long as they were of appropriate age and in good health, each person could be exchanged for a horse.

Although the Mongols had no shortage of horses, and their horse breeders used to hand over qualified war horses to the Khanate every year, they still liked this kind of human-horse trade.

The Ottomans wanted all kinds of slaves, even black slaves produced by the Mamluks were purchased in large quantities. God knows what they wanted so many slaves for.

Li Rufeng did not care about the future fate of these Persian prisoners of war. As the losing side, they were destined not to be quickly absorbed into the available population like others.

Under Dost's rule, these Persians have always enjoyed the highest treatment and monopolized powerful positions such as grassroots tax officials. No matter how kind Li Rufeng is, these Persians will be grateful. On the contrary, they will always remember how they fell from the position of vested interests.

In comparison, other people are much easier to deceive. Li Rufeng has ten thousand ways to ensure the interests of the Mongols, who were originally a privileged class, by constantly making the cake bigger.

Li Rufeng had previously used Pavlov's conditioned reflex method to teach the refugees who were about to migrate what discipline was, using watery food as a basis and coarse bread as rewards over the past few days.

This is the advantage of the newly conquered people. As a newly conquered group, they are naturally more obedient to the authority that conquers them. It only took Li Rufeng five days to train these refugees to queue and wash their hands before meals.

Before that, Li Rufeng spent nearly three years but still failed to make the Mongols in Li Rufeng's army accustomed to these things.

They are simply two different species in wartime and non-wartime. The Mughals in wartime are more willing to obey orders, but in non-wartime they are like a group of living fossils. Many of their so-called traditions are just because they have been influenced by them since childhood, and they refuse to change.

Another thing that needs attention is the trouble of Azadirim. After capturing the city of Mardin and successfully finding the batch of gold, Li Rufeng has already planned to deal with the hidden danger.

The reason why he hadn't taken action was that he was worried that the dark wizard would continue to use the method of resurrection to reveal his secrets everywhere, so Li Rufeng had been keeping Azadirim at the risk of being discovered by his brother Mengjiang.

But perhaps the minds of the dark wizards were still quite useful when they were not affected by the blue wind. Azadirim suddenly "died" last night, or rather, he gave up this body that had begun to shed skin and muscle tissue.

Azadirim lost contact from then on, and Li Rufeng didn't even know whether he was really dead or still active in the dark.

But what he worried about did not happen. The Mongol leaders showed him nothing but more respect, and the secret of the gold was not leaked.

The boring waiting consumed everyone's passion. The Mughals soon became fed up with city life and began to miss the women and livestock in their tribe. During this process, the two hundred infantrymen that Li Rufeng used to make up the numbers finally arrived in the city of Mardin after completing an immigration escort mission.

Piri Reyes looked at the city built on the mountain in the distance and silently thanked his luck that he didn't have to attack such a city. Then he called on his subordinates to move faster so that they could enter the city earlier and have dinner earlier.

After all, food and drink in the city were all at Shaman Rufeng's expense, while food and drink on the road were all paid for by Piri Reyes himself...

But they soon faced a new task. Li Rufeng asked them to return to Li Rufeng's tribe with the first group of immigrants willing to migrate. Of course, as a reward, Piri Reyes received a generous reward. There were more than 40 draft horses and oxen looted from the Persians, all of which were given by Li Rufeng to the leader of this small tribe.

The remaining infantry also received their own rewards. After all, the Persians were the "rich" in this land. After the Mughals robbed the remaining border

The scraps are enough to satisfy these people.

Two days later, on the evening of the 18th, Dangertai, on behalf of Qinggelinayan, invited Li Rufeng to attend the dinner again, saying that they wanted to discuss the specific matters of capturing Aleppo.

This was an unusual signal, because in the past, the person responsible for communicating with Li Rufeng was Qinggelinayan's other brother, Jitalehun, but this time, Qinggelinayan obviously wanted Dangertai and Li Rufeng to have more contact.

Dangertai behaved modestly and politely, but if you looked into his eyes you would find that he was provoking you with his eyes. Of course, this provocation was not malicious, but more of the arrogance that is inherent in young people.

He was very jealous of Li Rufeng's luck. Li Rufeng was the most successful in this war. Everyone was talking about Shaman Rufeng's bravery and benevolence, even the enemies in the city of Martin.

This made Dangertai jealous and envious. He originally thought that after the war, he would be the one who stood out, and the Mongols would completely recognize him and regard him as his brother's successor.

And now, all the damn limelight has been stolen by Li Rufeng!

The banquet hall was decorated with brilliant lights. The impatient Mughals planned to spend all the things they couldn't take away, and it would be best if they could leave early tomorrow morning.

Li Rufeng could feel the impatience in these people's hearts. To them, fighting was like doing business. There would be gains if there were investments, and after the gains, they should go home and live a good life. Now that the war was over, they were still gathered here and refused to leave, which meant they were losing money.

Qinggeli Nayan looked in good spirits. When he sat there with a smile on his face, the leaders all fell silent, but everyone knew that Qinggeli Nayan was no longer as strong as he had been.

"We are gathered here today to discuss sending troops to capture Aleppo..." However, Qinggelinayan had just started talking when he was interrupted by a messenger who suddenly broke in.

"Lord Nayan! Prince Miransha was killed in battle! The Khanate's army was defeated on the spot!"

The author says:

Author's Note: I forgot to click publish in the draft box, which is really annoying... I suddenly remembered it when I got up to pee

Chapter 165 Upgrade!

According to what the messenger brought back, Milansha led his army to fight with small groups of Black Sheep people all the way. It took a full eighteen days to advance a hundred kilometers. After arriving at the town of Sarderud in the south of Tabriz, they were blocked by the Black Sheep people again.

The two sides set up their battle lines in this little-known town. A fierce battle broke out with the Black Sheep Dynasty's army from April 9th ​​until the 16th, a whole week, with no winner, but overall the Black Sheep people had a slight advantage.

On the morning of the 16th, just after the sun rose, Grand Prince Milansha personally joined the battle as usual, but was surrounded by the Black Sheep People. The two sides fought bloody battles for three hours. In the end, the Khanate's army failed to break the Black Sheep People's encirclement, and Grand Prince Milansha died in battle.

The messenger did not wait for follow-up, but rode a fast horse for two days and two nights to bring the news back. After the messenger finished speaking, he grabbed food and drinks from the table of a chief and started eating and drinking. He even urinated on the horse's back during the journey, and his whole body smelled of urine.

"Thank you for your hard work. Just take whatever you like and have a good rest. You have done a great job. If Qinggelina Yan wants to reward you, come find me and I will take you to reason." Li Rufeng made a joke and then let the messenger go down to rest.

After the messenger left, a group of Mughal leaders fell silent. Although they had known for a long time that the old Sultan was gone and the Khanate was going downhill, when this day really came, they were still a little at a loss.

People are conditioned by inertia. The Mongols lived quite well under the rule of the Khanate, and now it is somewhat uncomfortable for them to leave their safe zone.

"Ahem... Let us mourn for Lord Milansha and wish his soul can return to his hometown." Qinggelinayan said, then closed his eyes and began to think about what to say.

The same was true for Li Rufeng. With Milan Shah's death, the Khanate's sphere of influence was bound to shrink, but no one could predict how much it would shrink.

Although Milansha's defeat and death temporarily made Parisa and the magic sword no longer a threat, it exposed the Khanate's internal problems and how weak the Khanate is now.

If Li Rufeng still wants Aleppo, he'd better act sooner rather than later. Otherwise, by the time the Mamluks react, they will be caught between the Mamluks and the Black Sheep, and they won't even have a place to stay.

"What I mean is that the old Sultan is dead, and the Khanate is temporarily separated by the Black Sheep People. We need a place to stay." Qinggelinayan glanced at Li Rufeng. The young Eastern Shaman once again looked ahead of him. "Didn't Shaman Rufeng say before that we should attack Aleppo? Then let's do it. What opinions do the tribes have now?"

"Don't you consider the reaction of the Mamluks?" asked a tribal leader named Yesian. He had only four fingers on one hand, and the missing one was chopped off by the Mamluks on the battlefield.

"The hatred between us and the Mamluks is not bad enough to justify another attack on Aleppo, right?" Li Rufeng said. "Besides, if we occupy Aleppo, whether the Mamluks or the Qara ...

Li Rufeng's words made many leaders blush. They did not participate in the siege.

, but they joined in looting the city. Now the parties involved are making a fuss about this matter, and they are just short of pointing at their noses and scolding them for putting bloodshed behind and robbing money first.

"Then why don't you just occupy the city of Martin?" another leader who looked like a reckless man asked.

Qinggelinayan sighed and answered for Li Rufeng before he could say anything, "Because this place is too close to the Black Sheep people's territory, it would only take two days for us to send troops from Mosul. By then, we won't have to do anything else but defend the city every day."