Mount and Blade Central Asia

However, there is no conflict between the two parties for the time being. Instead, they have common interests and common external pressure, so this exchange of interests is very tacit.

"Do you know Joshua's house next to the Bibi Hanem Grand Mosque? Their roast beef is very generous. We always go there to enjoy it during our holidays." Jatalehun drank a lot of liquor and excitedly pulled Ostad to talk about his good memories in Samarkand.

To him, it was like a natural city. Its prosperity was even more attractive than the grasslands of Changshengtian. The women there were more delicate than those of the Mughals, the wine was sweeter (in the name of fermented fruit juice!), and even the sun in the sky was brighter than that on the grasslands!

This sense of separation made Jialhun lose the opportunity to compete with his brother, but Jialhun did not regret it at all. He was used to the prosperous city life and could never go back to the grassland life of living in a yurt and following the grass.

Ostad could only smile awkwardly. It was true that he was also studying in Samarkand, but he was not as wealthy as Jatalehun and had money to eat roast beef. He had very little free time at that time. After class, he had to help others copy books to make a living. Now he could only join in the awkward conversation.

But Li Rufeng also got what he wanted from their conversation. The total number of craftsmen in Samarkand was about 30,000 to 40,000. They not only occupied half of the city, but also extended to form large artisan areas along the Amu Darya River.

Craftsmen from all walks of life formed different guilds, and even influenced the political direction of Samarkand to a certain extent. It is no exaggeration to say that they are the strongest force besides the nobles.

The ones who leaked the information were actually the Eagle of Order, who had been monitoring the movements of the Mamluks.

This army set out from Damascus, but the knights of the Eagle of Order rode mixed-breed horses, and they had to waste a lot of time on the journey to provide early warning.

"The Mamluks are coming to attack us? This is bad! We have to hide from the Black Sheep People, let alone the Mamluks..." Jatalehun was still drunk and babbled nonsense, "Hurry up and tell my brother, we have to run away again!"

Mengge couldn't stand it any longer and slapped Jitale's face, knocking him around. He fell to the ground and fell asleep. Then he said, "A thousand-man team doesn't look like they are here to test us. Even if we are weak, we can still defeat a thousand-man team."

Li Rufeng was thinking about this matter. Logically speaking, the Mamluk Sultan Nasir had just written a reply to Ais Bek. Even if the Mamluk nobles in the Syrian region did not give the Sultan face, he would not be so embarrassed, right?

Moreover, as Mengge said, although they were "a remnant of a defeated army", what could a thousand-man team do? Even without Qinggelinayan's support, the forces he had at hand were enough to eat up such a thousand-man team in the wild.

This pointless action benefits no one, as as Aleppo begins to develop, other cities along the trade routes also benefit, including Damascus, Homs and Hama.

Aleppo's geographical location determines that all cities along the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula must pass through here if they want to do business in the Anatolian Peninsula or even further north.

What good will it do to these cities if they anger him?

"Get your people ready. If a fight really breaks out, we must fight cleanly and efficiently, otherwise someone will want to test the sharpness of our swords." Li Rufeng patted Mengge's shoulder. With such a thug around, he was too lazy to even use the tribal militia.

"They are just defeated generals. If they dare to come, I will make sure they never return!" Mengge also acted very relaxed. After all, when they dealt with the Mamluks, the only trouble was when they attacked the city. On the rest of the battlefield, the Mamluk knights did not have much more resistance than other chickens and dogs.

The glory of the past does not represent the glory of the present. Mengge did not know what the future fate of the Mongols would be, but at least before he could no longer ride a horse or wield a sword, the Mongols were the most powerful force in this land, no doubt about it!

Li Rufeng's confidence was no less than Mengge's. He was indeed filled with fear of the surrounding forces, but this fear was that the other parties would regard him as an opponent of the same level and put all their efforts into besieging Aleppo...

Chapter 244: Long time no see...old friend

Haishar rode a mixed-breed horse and stood far away on the hill, looking at the murderous Mamluk army in the distance, judging their origins.

"The two of them are no match," Martin Ewing warned, pulling out a large bow of the same model as Haishar's from behind.

"You too, let's collect some interest first and see who kills more?" After saying this, Haishar rode his horse down the hillside without waiting for Martin Ewing to reply.

...

Juan covered his nose and approached the pile of rotting corpses. After just one look, he gave up the idea of ​​investigating and ordered his men to use spears to pick up the corpses so that they could continue on their way.

He was a minor military noble in Damascus. He was not a Circassian slave, so he could not be called a Mamluk, but this did not affect Juan's status in the city.

Damascus doesn't care much about background, and now even Circassian slaves find it difficult to make a name for themselves. Slaves without anyone behind them can never get ahead.

In comparison, the life of a small military noble like Juan was much easier. He only needed to respond to the lord of Damascus and take his armed slaves to help when the other party needed his strength.

The current situation is a bit tense. A few days ago, a group of strange soldiers came from Cairo and wanted to pass through. They asked the city to provide sufficient supplies, but the lord of Damascus himself is now allergic to the word Cairo. He thinks this is a test from the Sultan.

After thorough discussion, the lord decided not to allow these people to approach Damascus, and instead let Juan be responsible for receiving these soldiers who came from afar...

Juan was a man of little influence, so when faced with the lord's offer of a one-year tax exemption, he gritted his teeth, did some calculations, and felt that he could barely make the money back, so he agreed.

But he didn't expect that the soldiers were so strange. Not only did they emit some unpleasant smell, but they were also picky and asked for a lot of extra livestock.

If Juan hadn't calculated that he had made a little profit when he was doing the accounts before, he wouldn't have been so reasonable...

However, after the soldiers left, a plague broke out in his territory. Juan suffered a great loss. He went out just to seek refuge in the city and cried to the lord, saying that the plague must have been brought by that group of foreign soldiers!

He suffered losses and needs more compensation to make up for it!

But Juan didn't see that among the bodies the soldiers picked up, there was one that seemed not to be completely dead. After struggling for a while, it stood up unsteadily and followed their footsteps all the way towards Damascus.

...

Haishar had seen clearly on the hillside before that the entire team consisted of about 600 people, divided into two parts. Since nearly half of them were walking, their movement speed was not fast.

He made a wide circle and approached the front half of the "enemy army" from the left. These men were all mounted cavalry, bows and arrows in hand. From a safe distance, they shouted, "Who are you? The territory ahead is that of the Lord of Aleppo. In the name of the Lord, I demand that you reveal your identities!"

When Haishar said this, he felt inexplicably happy. Li Rufeng had done a lot of things under the banner of the Eagle of Order, and this time it was finally his turn to take the lead.

A man in dark green armor raised a hand, and the marching troops stopped sparsely. Although they were not in a neat order, any team of more than a hundred people who could be commanded by hand gestures were all elites.

The man rode his horse slowly forward, wearing a helmet that covered his face and the horse under him was also wearing a vest. Haishar frowned slightly. Few people would be fully armed when traveling, let alone armoring the horse as well. Doing so would be a waste of horsepower.

But judging by the horse's pace, this did not seem to put any burden on it, and its pace remained steady.

The man reached out and fumbled on his visor for a while before finding the handle to open the mask. He slowly pushed the mask open, revealing a slightly swollen and pale face. He said in the same slow tone, "Long time no see, Haishaer."

Take a day off

Please take some time off to play Starfield. Please forgive me, I have been waiting for many years...

Chapter 245 Mozer

Twenty years ago, Naseeruddin Moser was brought back to the castle by a knight of the Eagle of Order. He was twelve years old at the time. After going through so much, no one found it strange that he was a little silent.

Moser was born in Luxor, Upper Egypt. His father was a local lord. At its peak, his territory had a total of 5,000 feddans (approximately 1 acre, about 6 mu) of arable land.

But his hometown was corrupted by the followers of the Green Wind, and the outbreak of the plague did not happen overnight, but penetrated bit by bit like a frog in boiling water.

This long sacrifice lasted for four years. In the last year, less than one-tenth of the five thousand feddans of land had been planted, and by the time of harvest, there were not many farmers able to go to the fields to work.

The word plague was magical, like a taboo, which made the Sultan order the city to be surrounded and the other half of the people to be burned to death, leaving their bodies mixed with the plague to be devoured by the fire.

After all, the great disaster that broke out half a century ago almost turned the entire Muslim world into a deadly place. No one dared to underestimate this power. The Sultan didn't even dare to let anyone record the horrors that had happened...

The records of the Mamluk court scholar about the plague during that period can be summarized in one small detail: he wrote: Sultan Nasir Muhammad

Dīr ibn Qālawīn registered 24000 Mamluk cavalrymen, but with the outbreak of plague seven years later, the number was reduced to 1001. Such a small number of soldiers was unable to maintain peace at home and defend against foreign enemies, which was extremely worrying.

Mozel was dug out from the pile of dead bodies by the Knights of the Eagle of Order, and his original mission was to enter the dead zone to check whether the plague was a natural outbreak or was affected by the Green Wind.

He needed to extract well water to determine whether there was anyone sneaking in the water, and Moser was hiding in the well, with his lower body soaking in the well water and his upper body below the chest soaking in corpse oil.

Moser was taken back to the Castle of the Eagle of Order and was carefully cared for for a whole year before he learned to speak again. It was also from that time that he began to know Haishar. They were the first two people of their age to become official attendants.

During that time, they were each other's playmates, friends, and competitors, but then, at the age of fifteen, their lives took two completely different paths.

Moser had developed a lung disease from breathing so much smoke from burning corpses in the well. When their training began to intensify, Moser's breath became insufficient, and he would cough as if he was going to turn his lungs inside out for everyone to see...

And Haishar still endured all the pressure put on him so calmly, just like usual.

From then on, Mozel became another nameless servant in the Eagle of Order Castle. He would help the knights take care of their horses, help the apprentices wash their sweat-stained training clothes, and change the candles in the scholars' rooms on time.

There is always a lot of work to do in the fortress of the Eagle of Order. No one has ever forced Moser to do it, but Moser always has a fanatical spirit of risk and does more than others. He wants to prove that he is not a useless person.

But whenever it was late at night and everyone was asleep, whenever he saw Haishar, he would ask himself, is this what his life is going to be like?

Mozer watched as Haishar was transformed from an apprentice into a squire, and for the first time he went with the knights to deal with the believers of the Four Winds God who had caused his family to be destroyed. He watched as Haishar became the youngest official knight in the Eagle of Order, and was given armor, a long sword, and a mighty hybrid horse.

He knew best how powerful those tall war horses were. He had cleaned the fur and smoothed the hair of those big animals in the stable countless times.

Haishar was like a mirror to him, perfectly showing what kind of life Moser should have lived if he were healthy.

He never acted arrogantly because of his change in status. He always treated everyone in the castle equally. No matter whether Moser was an apprentice like him before or a servant now, Haishar's attitude towards him had not changed.

But this is also what Moser can't stand the most. He would rather Haisha act superior, or even simply forget about himself, an unknown person, in the past. The more perfect Haisha is, the more unbearable the pain of being torn apart by insects and bitten by rats in his heart.

Until one day, the scholar named Ahmed returned from his travels in Cairo, and something that changed Moser's life appeared.

It was placed in a small crystal bottle, on the table, in the sunlight, reflecting a kind of reassuring luster.

"Come here!" Moser, who was about to change the candle for Master Ahmed, was startled. He didn't know where the sound came from.

"Come here, I can cure your illness, I can cure all diseases in the world..." Moser followed the voice and saw the crystal bottle sparkling with spiritual light.

"Come closer, I'll whisper to you, I am the legendary panacea. I once made the pharaohs immortal and their bodies resilient after death. I once allowed the most powerful man in the world to rule an eternal empire. I have also cured scabies on the feet of the lowest slaves." The crystal bottle seemed to breathe, flickering.

"I don't care if you're a king or a beggar, a general or a whore. I just want to cure your illness. That's the purpose of my existence. I'm the panacea!" The crystal bottle's voice suddenly grew louder. "I'm the end of all diseases in the world!"

"Come, uncork me and drink from me. Just one drop will cure your ailment and free you from all worries." Moser hadn't realized when he'd finally grasped the crystal bottle. Adopted by the Eagle of Order since childhood, he knew this miraculous creature, capable of communicating with humans, was the most sinister of creatures.

But it was placed openly on the windowsill by a scholar, not locked in a restricted area... It was so harmless and only wanted to do good for him... It... It was a panacea!

Moser mustered up his courage and dropped a drop of the dazzling elixir that seemed to have colorful light into his mouth. Then, without caring about feeling the surging churning in his body, he hurriedly put the elixir back to its place like a thief who had stolen money, ran out of Ahmed's room, and even ran out of the castle of the Eagle of Order.

He ran so fast that when he realized he had left the gates of Mecca, Moser realized that his breathing was still steady and balanced, as if it had just been a warm-up.

The author says:

Author's Note: There will be another chapter soon

Chapter 246 What's the hurry?

"Long time no see, Haishaer." Mozer looked at Haishaer, who was still as elegant as ever, and smiled.

A strange smile.

He did not mean to mock the other party. There was no personal grudge between him and Haishaer. He was not even jealous of Haishaer. What he resented was his own fate and this world.

Moser just has trouble controlling the muscles on his face...

The panacea gave him not only health, but also something more precious than that - strength.

Mozel did indeed secretly open the castle gate on the night of the fall of the Eagle of Order Fortress and set fire to the castle to create chaos for the attackers.

But there were less than eight hours between the time he drank the elixir and the attack. Even the power of miracles could not allow him to gather enough forces to contribute to the Order Eagle Fortress in just one night.

The great Green Wind, no, the great Green Father had already prepared everything in secret, just waiting for it to happen.

The fact that Moser was cured by the panacea was naturally destined in the filthy cauldron of fate and became the foreplay of this big drama.

At this time, Moser's skin was loose but quite tough, as if he was wearing a layer of leather armor.

His blood tasted rancid and contained toxins, and a single spit from him could contaminate a well.

His muscles swelled and his fat melted, but they were everywhere, providing him with strength support at all times.

His internal organs recovered from corruption, and then corrupted again, but it no longer affected his ability to fight or gallop.

He now had his own armor, his own weapons, and his own steed.

Although the armor was rusty and covered with verdigris, it was extremely strong and was no less sturdy than Haishar's fine steel plate armor.

Although the weapon was broken and full of holes, it was still extremely sharp. As long as it could leave a wound on the enemy, it would take the opponent's life in no time.

And his horse, although not as tall and mighty as the hybrid horse of the Order Eagle Knight, is no longer an ordinary creature like him. It is not afraid of damage from swords, spears, and halberds. Although it is not good at sprinting, it has amazing endurance.

So Moser was finally able to stand in front of Haishaer calmly and said lightly: "Long time no see, Haishaer."

This was the first time he spoke to Haishar in the past five years.

"Moser..." Haishar looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face, a trace of surprise flashed across his face, but it was only for a moment.

He knew from the beginning that the fortress of the Eagle of Order was breached so easily, it must have been the work of a traitor, and now Mozer's appearance only confirmed this.

"I guess you must be thinking in your heart that it was me who messed up everything and that I was the one who secretly planned all this." Moser chuckled. Even though he was several meters away, Haishar could smell the rotten stench.

"I thought so at the beginning. I thought this was the fate that was cooked in the cauldron of plague." Mozer was not in a hurry to attack Haishar. His mood was still different. He enjoyed the current situation of swapping strength and weakness.

"However, over the past few months, I've suddenly realized that perhaps my fate wasn't directly imposed on me as I thought, but was influenced by another person along the way. Although all of this is ultimately part of the Green Wind's grand plan,..." Moser chuckled, "But I can't just bear other people's resentment for nothing."

"What do you want to say, Moser?" Haishar frowned. Things were now developing in the direction he least wanted to see.

The Eagle of Order is located in Mecca. The destruction of Cairo's fortress by mortals was orchestrated by the Four Winds Gods, and some of their men have even sided with the Four Winds Gods.

Since its establishment, the Eagle of Order has been unable to escape the fate of its members being corrupted from time to time.

The belief in the Four Wind Gods itself is a kind of information that can be both blessed and harmful. As long as you know the relevant information, you will be affected. The more you know, the greater the impact will be.

Nothing can help you resist this influence except firm faith and strong will.

Haishar firmly believed that he could stick to the bottom line, but he couldn't stop others, just like Moser in front of him.

"You know, I've always felt that what happened to me was too coincidental. When I walked into his room, suffering from an illness, there was the elixir that was said to cure everything, right in front of me." Moser didn't mention the name directly, but simply recounted what happened to him. "That day, I wasn't supposed to change his candle, but coincidentally, the apprentice on duty was hit by a carriage, and I was the only one on my day off who had time."

"You know me. I'm usually the hardworking type. They never hesitate to use me." Moser's laughter was grammatically ironic. "Then, I got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cure my illness once and for all..."

"Furthermore, after so many people died, he still had the chance to escape." Moser looked at Haishar and made a sound of tut-tut. "He was so lucky. So many knights skilled in archery and horsemanship didn't have time to find horses, but he was so gentle, yet he had time to rush to the stable with his apprentice..."

"Shut up! You're slandering Master Ahmed!" Haishar's words alarmed him, but he still scolded him immediately, "Don't think you can sow discord with such words!"

"Hey, I didn't say that person's name, you said it yourself, so why should I try to sow discord?

"What?" Moser took off his gloves and showed Haishar his pale, swollen, bruised, bloody wrist. "Besides, you understand us well. Do I need to sow discord? That's not what I want."

Without saying a word, Haishar turned around and ran back the way he came. On the way, he shot a flare into the sky to signal Knight Ewing's movements.