Mount and Blade Central Asia

Li Rufeng calculated the time and planned to teach Ais a lesson so that he would know how a ruler should win the hearts of the people.

That night, Huluchirga led a hundred cavalrymen and rushed directly into Aleppo, scaring the residents of the city so much that they almost fled overnight. In order to ease the panic of the residents, Li Rufeng decided to host a banquet for the famous nobles in the city to give them a shot of prevention in advance.

After all...there will be a lot of people coming in the next few days.

Saduddin Fasif acted as a messenger. Li Rufeng had said before that he was a generous ruler and naturally wanted to show his generous side. Today's job of delivering the letter was a very appropriate gift for the occasion.

Li Rufeng doesn't care whether you were a well-known figure in the city before. If you didn't show up at his party tonight, your past will not count. It's that simple.

He could not deprive the previous interest groups in Aleppo. Now was not the time to fight for power. Every person who could breathe was a valuable population, but their future position in the city would require these people to work hard for it.

Saduddin was the first surrenderer to show his sincerity. It was like buying a horse's bones for a huge sum of money. Li Rufeng didn't care at all whether he would only call people who had a good relationship with him. If he could understand this, it would not be considered such a big gift from Li Rufeng to him.

With the arrival of Hulujirga, the city's change of flag and banner seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Only the Mamluks outside the city still had some ideas of struggle, but as long as they did not dare to enter the city, they would never be a threat to the city.

However, after thinking about it during the day, Li Rufeng has made new arrangements for Ais Beck.

Even though Li Rufeng didn't know the background of Ais Baker at all, he could tell from his face that he was under great psychological pressure that he was carrying a heavy burden. Moreover, he was outside the city when he was completely unable to control Aleppo.

After persisting for several months, it was almost as if the words "I'm at my wit's end" were written on my face.

To accommodate Ais Baker, Li Rufeng had chosen the watchtower at the entrance to the city for his banquet. After all, there wasn't much city defense going on there right now, right? All he had to do was clean up the feces left behind by the various species and light a bunch of torches, and it could temporarily serve as a banquet hall.

The Mongol banquets have always been simple, but simplicity does not mean frugality. Lambs that are driven over are slaughtered on the spot, spread out on special racks, and roasted over flames. The burly Mongol warriors stand shirtless next to the grill and flip it back and forth, showing their wildness.

Plenty of spices are sprinkled on the lamb that has been roasted to release fat, and mixed with the high temperature of the oil, they instantly burst out with multi-layered fragrance, which makes people unable to walk.

At least the guards brought by Ais Baker were all unable to move their legs. It was no wonder that they behaved so poorly. The main reason was that Ais was really short of money in the past few months. He himself only ate simple meals every day, not to mention his subordinates.

Ais looked at Li Rufeng standing on the watchtower with complicated eyes. After a whole day, he finally figured out who the other party was. The most beloved shaman in the world, the scholar from the East, the Mongolian doctor with superb medical skills, the Conqueror of Mardin, and so on, all of these were his nicknames.

"Thank you for inviting us to your party." Ais Baker did not make the same mistake as yesterday. He was no match for Li Rufeng yesterday, and even less so today.

"You're also welcome to put aside our differences and honor us with a visit." Li Rufeng said meaningfully, pointing to the entrance of the watchtower. "If you don't mind, please come in and take a seat. I still need to greet other guests."

Ais Baker sighed. These Mughals refused to leave and he really had no good solution. His soldiers couldn't even enter the city.

Before sunset, all the guests arrived immediately. Anyone with eyes and ears knew that the situation in Aleppo was about to change. Now that the new emperor was inviting everyone to a banquet, who would dare not come? Who would dare to neglect it?

In the end, there were seventeen guests besides Ais Baker. This number was much more than Li Rufeng had expected. He thought that with so few people in Aleppo, there would be enough people with seven or eight sayable people. But the number was more than doubled. There must be some unqualified people among them. Master Li planned to optimize it when the time comes.

When the lamb was roasted, Li Rufeng finally came down from upstairs and stood among the crowd. He looked at the people around him with satisfaction as they waited respectfully for him to speak. He had become more and more accustomed to being surrounded by people like the moon surrounded by stars.

"I've heard that Aleppo was the first place where humans settled. In the distant Babylonian era, the Amorites built their capital here. Later, the Macedonians, Romans, Armenians, Persians, and Arabs all prospered here." Li Rufeng's opening remarks made many locals open their eyes wide. They didn't know so much yet.

Little did they know that this one sentence had already overdrawn all of Li Rufeng's knowledge of the city, but Li Rufeng's next words drew everyone's attention elsewhere: "Today, I want to revitalize this city here."

Except for Ais Beck, everyone showed curious expressions. They wanted to know what the leader of the Mongolian barbarians wanted to do.

"I don't want to hide my ambition for this city, but I will also prove my sincerity to you." Li Rufeng snapped his fingers, and two burly Mughal warriors came to Li Rufeng carrying a heavy box. Li Rufeng kicked the box open, and with a loud noise, mountains of gold coins overflowed from the box.

Under the light of the fire, everyone, including Ais Baker, let out a surprised wow...

Of course, there weren't actually that many gold coins. Two-thirds of the bottom of the box was filled with straw, otherwise the box couldn't be lifted at all. But the people who were blinded by the gold didn't realize this problem at all.

"I hereby declare that I am the King of Aleppo. Anyone who obeys my orders will be promised the opportunity to earn gold. Anyone who disobeys me will be killed by my warriors and their heads will be placed in the Jingguan Square outside the city." Li Rufeng said calmly, "Now I declare my first order. Anyone willing to repair the city wall for me will be rewarded with a hundred gold coins, half in advance and half later. As the Eternal Heaven says, if I break my promise, I will be struck by lightning and die without a burial place!"

Chapter 189 And you, my friend, you are a fool

The wool trade was the gift that Li Rufeng gave to Saduddin Fasif. After all, he was the first to surrender, and the work of repairing the city wall was the flagpole that Li Rufeng bought with horse bones for a huge sum of money.

The walls of Aleppo are a complete defensive system, including watchtowers, three city gates, a drawbridge, a moat, and the wall itself. Although most of it is in good condition, it is still a huge project.

But even so, the price offered by Li Rufeng was enough for the contractor to make a fortune.

So, as soon as these words were spoken, the merchants wholeheartedly accepted Li Rufeng's claim that he was the King of Aleppo. Who cared who owned the city? As long as they could make money, they were even willing to call Li Rufeng "Father"...

Li Rufeng was very satisfied with their reaction. The first thing he had to do was

In the business circle, you have to build your own reputation and make these people believe that what you say is true.

There is no way. The name of the Mongols is too bad, or the reputation of the Timurid Khanate is too bad. As the saying goes, if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will be crooked. Since the old Sultan, no one has paid much attention to the issue of his own credibility.

If I am stronger than you, I will send my troops to invade you. If I am weaker than you, I will show my weakness to the enemy. This is an old tradition.

In terms of not keeping one's word, the Mughals were of good character and had been influenced by the Sultan.

But if you want to run a commercial city, reputation is undoubtedly the most important asset. Fortunately, Mr. Li is rich and can spend money to buy reputation.

Ais. Baker felt short of breath. Compared with Li Rufeng, he was under pressure from above and had his own difficulties. He could not stand up straight to the outside world and could not pay bonuses to the inside. Only most of the Mamluk soldiers came from the slave class and had a longer-term plan for their future, so they could remain loyal under such circumstances.

At this time, Li Rufeng had already raised his glass, and with the approval of everyone, the glasses clinked and the atmosphere became joyful.

The merchants were secretly competing with each other, and only Saduddin Fasif dared not say a word. He had already obtained the wool trade, and if he came here to snatch the business, everyone would be embarrassed.

"If you believe me, remember what I said. This is just the first step in my revitalization of Aleppo. I have a whole five-year plan to make this city the brightest pearl in the Fertile Crescent!" Li Rufeng's words once again set off a climax among the merchants.

At this moment, Li Rufeng looked like a little golden man shining with golden light, dazzling in their eyes.

After three rounds of drinks, Li Rufeng got rid of those merchants who were talking sweet words and walked to Ais Baker, which made his guards nervous. Fortunately, Li Rufeng just waved to Ais, indicating that the two of them should go to the top of the city wall to talk.

Ais Baker felt that a normal banquet was like a public execution for himself. Every clink of glasses and every laugh from those cheerful businessmen was like a slap in his face. Seeing that Li Rufeng wanted to talk to him alone, Ais made up his mind and followed him up.

The cool night breeze sobered Ais up a bit. He looked carefully at Li Rufeng in front of him and realized for the first time that the other party was so tall that he was afraid he would not be his opponent in a one-on-one fight.

What made him feel even more ashamed was that he had just realized that this Shaman Rufeng was much younger than himself...

"What do you want from me? If you want to claim sovereignty over this city, I will not admit it, and I will not leave. You can just send troops to destroy us directly and hang my body in front of the city gate!" Ais Baker said somewhat desperately.

Where else could he go? His family no longer had any valuable assets, and his mother even sold her jewelry so that he could inherit his father's fiefdom.

Although everyone knew about the curse of Aleppo and its dilapidated state, Ais Baker still came because this was the only thing he had to hold on to.

His mother and the entire family were waiting for good news from him, but Ais could only act like a coward, reclaiming wasteland outside the city with his few men and growing some food that was not enough to eat.

Every day was torture, every day was like a nightmare. Sometimes Ais even felt that this Mongol shaman came at the right time and could rescue him from the nightmare so that he would no longer suffer from this torture.

"What good would it do me to kill you?" Li Rufeng said gently. "I've always believed that any cooperation can lead to a win-win situation. As long as you are willing to cooperate with me, I can find a way for both of us to benefit."

Ais Baker said nothing. His only dignity prevented him from asking, but the responsibility on his shoulders prevented him from just walking away.

"Look, I can see that you are under a lot of pressure. Maybe coming here has cost you a lot?" Li Rufeng asked tentatively. With the blessing of social attributes and charm skills, Li Rufeng can always control the topic firmly in such situations.

"Maybe in your mind, we are conquerors, destroyers, and barbarians on the grassland who can do nothing but destruction." Li Rufeng shrugged and said in a relaxed tone. After all, he was a Tang person from the East, and this adjective was not meant to describe him.

"But in my eyes, you are probably just like this. Your culture is still a long way from true civilization. You are just a group of barbarians who can do nothing but fight." Li Rufeng seemed to see Ais Beck's gradually growing anger, and he extinguished it with the next sentence.

"I can proudly say that I am a Tang person. Our civilization has been recorded in written form since 4,500 years ago and has never been interrupted. Everyone's ancestors can be traced back to ancient times. My blood is the blood of Yanhuang. I know where I come from and where I am going. What about you?" Li Rufeng asked calmly.

Such words would be a deadly blow to this land, which had never been unified. Forget Ais Bek, even the current Mamluk Sultan would pout and turn away if faced with such a question, because they were all born of slavery...

"You can't even enter Aleppo, how can you inherit this city and benefit from it?" Li Rufeng continued to persuade, "But I can make this city prosperous again, as long as

If you are willing to cooperate with me, I will allow you to call yourself the master of Aleppo in the Mamluk community, and the city will also be willing to pay its due taxes within a reasonable range, so that your family can continue to maintain its glory.

"And you, my friend, will prosper and prosper by cooperating with me."

Chapter 190 Investment and Returns

In the end, Ais Baker did not make a choice on the spot. He just left the banquet with an uncertain expression, returned to his shabby residence and began to think about life and the future.

The merchants did not choose on the spot who would undertake Mr. Li's project. After all, it was a huge business worth hundreds of thousands of gold. Apart from Saduddin Fasif, no one else on the scene had the ability to guarantee that they could do the work with quality and quantity.

Although Mr. Li looks generous and kind, he came with a large Mongol army. If anything goes wrong in the project, the consequences are self-evident. The more than 20,000 heads in the back mountain can testify to this. The Mongol people never joke about this.

In the end, the merchants in Aleppo formed a consortium, and as many as eleven small merchants contracted the task of repairing the city wall. Li Rufeng did not break his promise and paid a full fifty large gold coins directly to those merchants in front of the whole city.

That's real gold!

Aleppo hasn't seen such a large-scale business transaction for a long time, and even the citizens can feel the changes this business has brought to the city.

The first thing is that the quarry outside Aleppo will resume operations. Because Mr. Li's work is urgent, the merchants offer very high wages. A large number of citizens living in the city are hired to work in the quarry.

The main reason why Aleppo is called the White City is that it is built entirely of light white marble produced in nearby quarries. It looks particularly stunning at first glance, and it becomes full of artistic sense with just a little bit of shaping.

Li Rufeng watched the workers leaving the city in full swing, and felt that the day when he would live in a stone castle with an open-air bathtub was not far away.

That afternoon, Habashibuhua arrived in Aleppo with another two hundred cavalrymen. By then, the people of Aleppo were no longer surprised by the coming and going of the Mughals.

After all, there are more than a hundred people in the city...

"Shaman Rufeng, do you mean to say that the city of Aleppo has surrendered?" As a veteran who participated in the siege of Aleppo, Habashibuhua rarely controlled his expression. He widened his eyes, opened his mouth, and looked like an idiot.

"I can only say that Changshengtian's guidance is indescribable, and the people of Aleppo don't want to experience another war." Li Rufeng sat in the camp, brewing tea, and explained leisurely, "I'm afraid I'll have to trouble you again to help me escort the immigrants from Mardin City. By the way, notify the Wuerhun tribe leader and have him lead his people to move the entire tribe here and settle down outside Aleppo. There is a large grassland east of the city that should be sufficient."

"But sir..." Habashibuhua opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. Things happened too suddenly.

"Oh, by the way, I also need to tell Qinggelinayan and the others that they don't need to mobilize a large force. Aleppo is now completely under my control." Li Rufeng blew away the steam from the tea leaves and said comfortably, "Let's ask Beren and the other kids to come along. Starting from the first of next month, all children under the age of twelve will have to attend classes in the city during the day. I'll provide their meals."

But you are the shaman of Changshengtian, the eagle of the grassland, how can you live in the city? Habashibuhua finally did not ask the question in his heart. His loyalty to the shaman surpassed his loyalty to the rules.

"Yes, I will go there myself and pass on your order." Habashibuhua saluted, turned around and mounted his horse again, leading dozens of cavalrymen back in the direction he came from.

After Habashibuhua left, Li Rufeng began to think about how to invest in this city and maximize the returns on his investment...

...

Marinus was a "native" of Aleppo. He had luckily escaped Timur's massacre and fled with his family to a relative's home in a nearby village for refuge. After the war, he returned to the city to continue his life.

He was a shrewd small businessman, bold and careful, otherwise he would not have been well-informed enough to leave the city before Timur's army arrived and dared to come back after the war.

Now he has a medium-sized house and a shop in the city, which is separate from his residence. This is Marinus' greatest achievement in his life.

He is also very proud of this. The time he enjoys most is when he wakes up in the morning and walks from home to his shop to open the door.

The envious and jealous looks of passers-by along the way made Marinus feel that his adventure was not in vain.

He mainly runs a spice business and does some scrap business that big businessmen are unwilling to do, such as purchasing damp pepper, remaining pepper powder in bags, and miscellaneous materials that are mixed with other spices and cannot be separated, etc. These are his targets.

Marinus would carefully separate these things in the store, dry them again, grind them into powder, add a little salt, and put them into small bags. Once he had collected enough, he would take his old horse and two donkeys to the surrounding small villages, gathering places, settlements and even nomadic tribes to sell these inferior spices.

Because he grinds spices all year round, Marinus is also full of the smell of spices.

Among them, pepper has the strongest flavor, so it is also nicknamed Pepper Horse among businessmen.

But today, Pepper Mali was riding his horse not to sell spice powder. He was one of the eleven small merchants who had previously contracted Li Rufeng's project. His pockets were full of small fils (the lowest currency of the Mamluks, copper coins), and this trip was to hire enough people to fill the quarry outside the city.

In its heyday, thousands of people worked in Aleppo's large quarries, living in sheds nearby. Most of these quarry workers came from nearby villages, and the quarries would mine marble during the slack season.

A considerable number of residents in Aleppo are stonemasons, who are responsible for carving the marble into the required shapes.

However, the best stonemasons have basically been taken back to Transoxiana by Timur, and there are no more than ten qualified stonemasons in the whole of Aleppo. Fortunately, their demand for stone is not that great. The most important thing now is to rebuild the entire production system.

In addition, Marinus also hoped that the generous lord could rebuild the spice trade route of the past, otherwise the stocks in his hands would be sold out.

As long as the trade routes were reopened, the city would soon return to its former prosperity. By then, he could rent out his shop and convert his front yard into a shop. In less than two years, he would be able to save up enough money to buy another house...

However, Marinus did not know that the wealthy Mr. Li had already started sending people to count all the ownerless houses and vacant land in the city. From now on, the largest landlord in and outside the city could only be Mr. Li.

Chapter 191 Population Migration

On May 9, 1408, after returning to the tribe and giving all the orders that Shaman Rufeng asked him to convey, Habashibuhua took ten cavalrymen and spent three days to reach Qinggelinayan's base.

"Lord Nayan, Shaman Rufeng asks you to cancel the order to gather troops at the end of the month and let each tribe recuperate in order to deal with future threats." Led by the guards, Habashibuhua met Qinggeli Nayan who was drinking and watching music.

In the previous war against Doshite, they kidnapped several Persian dancers. These beautiful women were Doshite's pets who were rarely seen, but now they are all in Qinggelinayan's possession.

"What's wrong with him? Doesn't want to attack Aleppo anymore? Does he have other targets?" Qinggelinayan was lying on a soft couch, stuffing a grape into his mouth from time to time, his tone a little casual. He had just finished taking some herbal medicine containing poppy ingredients, and was in a trance.

"Shaman Rufeng has already occupied the city. There is no need for Lord Yan to gather troops and send out more troops." Habashibuhua replied dryly.

"Changing to another city is also a good idea. Aleppo is a place with unknown origins. It's easy to defend but difficult to attack, and there aren't many people there..." Qinggelinayan was stunned as he spoke. He suddenly sat up from the couch, looked at Habashibuhua and asked, "What did you say? He occupied Aleppo?"

Na Yan couldn't help but pray to Chang Sheng Tian, ​​asking Chang Sheng Tian to forgive her past impiety. There was a time when Qing Ge Li Na Yan really considered converting to the faith, but fortunately, the matter was later dropped, otherwise...

"Then...did Shaman Rufeng say anything that required our cooperation?" Qinggelinayan carefully considered his words and said, "Forget it. I'll go with you to Aleppo to meet with Shaman Rufeng in person."

Qinggeli said he would leave as soon as he said so. He hesitated for a moment and finally called his younger brother, Jitalehun, who was used to city life, to go with him. After all, Dangertai was still too young and it was difficult for him to control his emotions.

On the other side, Piri Reyes also met Li Rufeng's messenger, who was delivered by one of Li Rufeng's personal guards.

The guards rode all the way to Piri Reyes' settlement and relayed the Shaman's message: "Master Reyes, Shaman Rufeng invites you to Aleppo for a meeting."

"Aleppo? Why go there?" Piri Reyes was a little confused, but he actually had no say in front of the Mughals.

"Shaman Rufeng has already occupied Aleppo. He invites you to visit his city as the Lord of Aleppo." A personal guard, perched high on his horse, looked down at Piri Reyes, then turned and left. "Reach Aleppo before the evening of the 12th. Don't be late."

In the camp of Li Rufeng's tribe, everyone was busy in a hurry. There were too many things to pack up. This was a difficult decision for both the old members of Li Rufeng's tribe and the members of the Taierba tribe who merged later.

The former had been recuperating here for two or three years, and under the influence of Li Rufeng, they were adapting to a semi-settled life, while the people of the Taierba tribe had just completed a tribal migration and were about to migrate again. Many people had some complaints about this.

Fortunately, because of Li Rufeng's reputation, these small disturbances were quickly dealt with one by one by Wuerhun.

In contrast, the immigrants from Mardin were more receptive as they were originally recruited to move to Aleppo.

When Shaman Rufeng's order arrived, these people packed up their belongings and began to move towards Aleppo. The Golden Arrow Mercenary Group was responsible for escorting them throughout the journey without charging any additional fees.

A large group of more than 2,000 immigrants began to move on the third day after the information was conveyed. In terms of time, they set off at almost the same time as Qinggelinayan.