Mount and Blade Central Asia

The enemy was not moving fast, but they kept going and going, and as the night grew darker, they were near Maarat-al-Nu'aman, a place that Schimbukh had visited before and was impressed by.

Maarat Nu'man is a city with hundreds of years of history. It was once prosperous during the Crusaders, but that is all in the past. At least when Schinbuch last visited here, it was already in ruins.

The reason why Schinbuch

I was so impressed by this place because there is a legend that during the Crusades, the defenders in the city were eaten alive by a Crusader army composed of refugees.

Those starving refugees had nowhere else to go in the Christian world and were driven across the channel by their lords, and thus walked into the war. A few knights served as their officers, leading these people to death again and again.

However, the food problem was still not solved. The kingdoms and lords who started the war were unwilling to share their precious logistical supplies with these people. In the end, these starving refugees went down the road of no return and ate their enemies.

Even for the pagans, this was too much... In the end, when the war was over, all of Maarat-Nu'man was turned into a white land.

Later, for various reasons, this place was not rebuilt like other cities. It was abandoned here, with only a pile of stones left to prove its former glory.

Schinbuch was on horseback watching the enemies he was chasing suddenly stop. The cavalrymen began to set up camp and bonfires were lit, but the entire camp was still very quiet.

The wind blew through the rugged rocks, making a strange whistling sound, which made Schinbuch shiver uncontrollably.

He was extremely alert. Although Schinbuch did not have night blindness, the night was still not his friend. He planned to retreat a little and find a place downwind to deal with it for the night. Those strange enemies all had a strange smell on them. If they wanted to attack him at night, the wind would bring their information in advance.

This is what Schinbuch thought and did.

To his enemies, Schinbukh and the other scouts who were following him in the dark were like wild dogs on the roadside and flying insects in the grass, and no one cared about them at all.

The reason why the Immortal Knights stopped to rest was that they were hungry and wanted to eat something. This place, Maarat Nu'aman, was where they had camped when they came, so it was easier to camp here.

For these immortal knights, nothing is more important than saving time. They are favored by the Green Wind. Besides immortality, corruption, and plague, laziness is also a major concern...

Chapter 280: Pursuit (2)

"Those mortals are following us. Who of you will deal with them?" Zals lay on his back on a huge rock. This was a good place he had chosen when he passed by here last time. The angle and area were just right, making it especially suitable as a backrest.

"If you want to move, go ahead. Moser is dead. You are the youngest here, so you should move more." Ishaq Khafra mocked in an unclear voice, then stretched himself, lay down on the ground, turned over and fell asleep.

Now that the ambitious Moser has died, the entire class has become peaceful. No one will stay up late at night to practice swordsmanship without taking care of their health.

Is that something urgent?

As for the Mongolian scouts outside, these immortal knights had no intention of seeking trouble. Just one look at the enemy's configuration of three horses and no armor, and they knew they could not catch up.

But they still had confidence that they could escape the Mughals' pursuit during this march...

After all, they didn't really need to rest. Tonight's rest was just a form of entertainment for the Immortal Knights. They liked to stay in a place like Maarat Nu'aman that was full of "death air".

The group of people including the Ancient Horus even lived in the pyramids on weekdays and regarded the tombs as their home. Although the other immortal knights were not as extreme, they also preferred places with a stronger smell of death.

The night passed quickly, and the Immortal Knights did not stay here for too long. They set off again before the sun rose. Schinbuch felt that he had just closed his eyes when he was awakened by the noise coming from the enemy camp not far away.

His companion who was also a scout was captured by the enemy. Schinbuch didn't know whether his companion was careless or there was an expert in stealth among the enemies, but that was the fact.

The sound that Schinbuhe heard was the scream of his companion when he was disemboweled. Schinbuhe knew the other party, Temoler, a scout who was older than him. If he had not fallen off his horse when he was a child and fell into the slope, he should have joined Qinggelinayan's regular hundred-man team.

Temerle has a strong body, like a tiger without its fur, but it's a pity that he is useless without the horse.

At this time, Temoler was hung on a temporary wooden frame, head down and feet up. Schinbuch could see clearly that a knight in armor used a strangely shaped scimitar to cut open his stomach, pulled out his intestines, and stretched them to the bonfire next to him to roast.

The shrill screams woke Schinbuch up instantly, and even the warhorse under him took a few steps back.

Killing and torture were nothing to them. Schinbuch had seen similar things several times before. There would always be people who wanted to find new entertainment because they were bored during the killing. Generally speaking, as long as it was not too horrific, no one would interfere excessively...

No, the old shaman would be very unhappy, and so would Li Rufeng. Schinbuhe remembered those two serious faces, and then forced himself to draw his attention back. He wanted to escape the process of his companions being tortured, but no, he was a scout, and he had to bear it all.

Then, Schinbuch saw the knight stuff the roasted intestines back into Temoler's stomach, sew up the wound on his stomach with thick needle and thread, and then

Under the watchful eyes of the knights, a potion was applied to the wound.

Schinbuch saw it clearly. Temoler's wound stopped bleeding almost immediately, but Temoler was still screaming. He knew that even if the external wound was sutured, the intestines inside would still be roasted.

He just didn't know how to treat such an injury and whether it would cause death. After all, he had never seen such an injury before.

After torturing Temerle, the knights mounted their horses again and filed out of the camp, chasing the miserable infantry behind them, almost trotting all the way.

Schinbuch waited there for half an hour, listening to Temoler wailing while hanging there, his voice becoming weaker and weaker. He did not ride in until he was sure that the camp was completely safe.

"Temoler, are you still alive?" Schinbuh did not dismount, but shot an arrow to cut the rope tied to Temoler when he was three or four meters away from the rack, causing him to fall to the ground.

"I'd rather be dead..." Temoler lay on the ground motionless, his voice full of pain, "Kill me, I don't want to live like this, it hurts too much..."

"They asked me to give the Shaman a message..." Temerer took a breath and continued, "They said we'll meet again in the future, and they hope he's ready..."

After hearing this, Schinbukh waited for a minute and found that Temoler had slit his neck with a dagger.

"Have a safe journey, brother." Schinbuch looked at the other's body for a while, and finally just said a few words lightly, then left a mark on the ground and turned around to continue his mission.

...

Li Rufeng and his companions also started their journey before dawn. It was already July, the height of summer, and it was too hot to travel by noon. Even if people could bear it, the horses could not, so they could only travel when the weather was cooler.

The experienced Mongols kept adjusting their direction based on the marks left by the scouts, but the speed at which the group traveled was indeed beyond Li Rufeng's expectations. They walked very decisively and very fast, and they didn't care at all whether the infantry could keep up.

They had found more than a dozen corpses along the way, all of them were infantrymen wearing armor. The bodies inside the armor were already half-rotten, and some of them had their toes worn off.

Li Rufeng ordered his men to burn all the corpses found along the way. In order to ensure that nothing was lost, even the armor and weapons were not recovered. Although they were all old and broken, they were all metal armors, and each piece was worth a lot of money.

He couldn't help but sigh that these followers of the Green Wind were truly wealthy and powerful. The equipment of these thousand men would be enough to bankrupt a smaller principality.

It would be a lie to say that he wasn't moved or heartbroken, but as soon as he thought of the things in the armor, Li Rufeng gave up the idea. Before leaving Aleppo, he had given Muzaffar a death order, not allowing any trophies to be left behind. They must all be burned and buried.

Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed without mercy.

"Lord Rufeng, at this rate, we should be able to stop them near Hama." Habashibuhua rode up to Li Rufeng and asked, "What if they enter Hama? Should we engage in direct conflict with the Mamluks?"

Li Rufeng could not answer the question asked by Habashibuhua for the time being, but he believed that he would have the answer soon.

The author says:

Author's words: Three more chapters...I haven't finished writing it yet, let's see if I can finish it tonight.

Chapter 281 Chaos Spreads

Gulanchi Gonçalves is the current governor of the Hama region. Yes, governor. Based on the current administrative system of the Mamluk Empire, governors of various regions are directly appointed by the Sultan, but...

Because of Sultan Nasir's military failures, political concessions, and religious disapproval, the governors he appointed were always ignored by the Mamluks in various places.

The people who truly hold power are still the emirs who hold military power.

Gulanqi didn't want to complain. After all, if the governors in the Syrian region were not always prone to various accidents, it would not be the turn of a commoner like him to survive.

Compared with the Circassians, Gulanchi has darker skin, thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a thick beard under his high nose bridge.

At this time, Gulanqi was sitting in his mansion, wearing a gorgeous robe inlaid with gold threads and jewels, and wearing sparkling rings on his hands. His face was stern and his brow was furrowed, and he seemed to be in anxiety and tension.

The plague is spreading outside the city of Hama, and people from several villages have sent reports saying that someone in the village has contracted the plague.

What made Gulanchi even more nervous was that the roads leading to Homs and Damascus had been blocked by the Mamluks, who prohibited the movement of people on the road.

This is obviously a policy that emerged to deal with the plague. Ever since that strange team of a thousand people passed by here, the whole thing has become difficult.

The reason why Gulanqi was anxious and nervous was that he was secretly cooperating with Moser and his men to pass through this area. The other party had the handwritten order from Sultan Nasir in their hands, so he had to cooperate.

But as the plague begins to spread, Gulanqi is under increasing pressure.

Although there are only a few thousand people in Hama, it is divided into several factions, some of whom are loyal to the Sudan, at least on the surface.

, while some swore an oath to the local Emir never to betray.

As the governor of the Hama region, Gulanqi's first task since taking office was to prove that he was not an enemy of the local emirs, so that he could survive. Only then could he become the governor of Sultan Nasir.

But Gulanqi had been away from Cairo for five years. During these five years, what had happened in Cairo or what changes had taken place in the court of Sultan Nasser, Gulanqi knew nothing about it.

He only knew that the envoys from Sultan Nasir who came to collect taxes were becoming more and more rude and domineering, as if he had no longer been trusted by the Sultan.

Until this time, the army was accompanied by Ignis Alvarado, a close attendant of Sultan Nasir. The other party was just a eunuch, but he told him arrogantly that he only needed to do things convenient for him and didn't need to ask any other questions. This attitude finally angered Gulanchi, and made him determined not to continue to be blindly loyal.

But out of his final loyalty to Sultan Nasir, Gulanchi still allowed the army to move freely in the Hama area and obtain food and fodder from various places.

However, before Gulanqi could explain his new stance to the local emir, the plague broke out, and Gulanqi could feel that the entire Hama region was isolated outside the defense line and abandoned... just like Aleppo.

"Lord Gulanqi, we need your help. The plague has begun to spread in the city. We need more herbs and more doctors." A group of officials chased after Gulanqi and talked about the difficulties they encountered.

All these demands can be summed up in two words: money.

This group of people has not yet realized the danger behind this plague, but Gulch has already realized the problem. The moment he separated himself from his loyalty to the Sultan, he realized the problem.

It was almost obvious that the army was spreading the plague.

Gulanchi hurried out of the mansion, ready to have a frank talk with Emir Idrissa, talking about his current position, the sudden plague in the city, Sultan Nasir, and so on.

Having figured out some trivial matters, every move of Gulanqi was full of strength and confidence, as if he had become the true governor of this land.

But the next second, his steps became unsteady, and he stumbled and nearly fell to the ground. Weakness and powerlessness burst out from his body, knocking Grunky down...

He touched his forehead, feeling it burning hot. He immediately recalled the time he had met that dark-skinned eunuch some time ago. His lips had turned pale, and his eyes were abnormally red...

At this time, the Immortal Knights had approached the city of Hama again. The plague that was already spreading in the city broke out almost immediately and became more serious.

With Gulanchi suddenly falling ill, Emir Idrissa was the only one in the entire city of Hama who could perform his duties normally. The good news was that Emir Idrissa was a brave and warlike Emir, but the bad news was that he had long been dissatisfied with the army that slaughtered a village as it passed by and carried the Sultan's orders.

So when he saw that the army had only a little over 200 remnants left, he led his troops out of the city to intercept them.

The Mamluks in the Syrian region had never been fond of Sultan Nasir. They blamed Sultan Nasir for the humiliation they had suffered when they were crushed to the ground by Timur.

Moreover, because of the Red Sea Strait, the two sides have traditional political differences. The Syrian territory of the Mamluk Empire has always had an independent tendency. Confrontations between the Emir and the Sultan in such places often occur. As long as no handle is left, even if people die, the party that suffers the loss can only endure it.

But this time, Emir Idrissa misjudged the enemy's strength. Although he had three times the number of soldiers as the enemy, when the Immortal Knight on the opposite side led the remaining cavalry to break through his formation in one round, Idrissa was dumbfounded on the spot.

And this wasn't the worst experience he had today...

When Li Rufeng led his troops to the vicinity of Hama City, the battlefield was already in ruins.

The Immortal Knights' team disappeared, and the remaining infantry who had originally acted with them were executing a group of prisoners of war who came from nowhere on the spot, with no intention of escaping at all.

It was not until Li Rufeng led his troops in two rounds of close-range archery, knocking down all the infantrymen, that he learned from the frightened captives that the enemy was the defenders of Hama City, and their leader, Emir Idrissa, was standing not far away, watching all this with his head stuck on his spear.

The Immortal Knights, along with their cavalry, have already stormed into Hama...

Chapter 282: A Blessing in Disguise...

"Sir, the city of Hama is ahead. Should we follow him in?" Muzaffar was also a grassroots official appointed by the Khanate. Compared with military officers like Mongke, he was more politically savvy.

Muzaffar was well aware of the delicate balance Aleppo was in. The Mamluks might not be unaware of what had happened in Aleppo. Even if they didn't know it before, they should know it now.

But Sultan Nasir might be happy to see such a troublemaker appear. Anyway, Li Rufeng can no longer represent the Timurid Khanate. The lives of the Mongol people can be sold to anyone, so why not to Sultan Nasir?

The Mamluk nobles in Syria may also have fought

With the same idea, Aleppo was still nominally the Sultan's territory, and it also had a troublesome curse. No one would care if it was left there deserted, but if these nobles took the initiative to recapture the city, it would be considered too proactive in the eyes of the Sultan.

In general, the conflict between the Sultan and the local Emir gave Li Rufeng an opportunity to take advantage of, and the existence of Ais. Baker, the rubber stamp, allowed the drama to continue.

But now, the Green Wind believers who rushed out from another track were like a hammer, smashing the mud and splashing it all over the onlookers.

Not only that, now it has also stirred up this muddy water in the city of Hama. The city is right there, with its gates open, like a girl who was reluctant to refuse but opened her heart, abandoned her shame, and asked for everything.

So a difficult problem was placed before Li Rufeng: Hama City...what if he didn't want it?

Both the old shaman and Haishar once said that miracles should be miracles and secular things should be secular things. The two should not be mixed together, and cannot be mixed together.

But since ancient times, no one can tell how many miraculous things have been mixed in with worldly affairs.

For example, now, if Li Rufeng is willing, it will only take a little more time to occupy the city of Hama.

"Let's go into the city and take a look." Li Rufeng didn't know what political impact his occupation of Hama would have, but if Sultan Nasir himself had already begun to use the followers of the Green Wind to strengthen his power and authority, then...

The defenses of Hama were not as grand as those of Aleppo, and there was only one gate, which had been opened. Occasionally, a few panicked soldiers flashed by on the city wall, and they became even more panicked when they saw the cavalry approaching outside the city.

As the horn sounded, Li Rufeng led his men into the city.

At first glance, the city of Hama is even more prosperous than Aleppo. After all, the city was not considered a defensive focus by the Mamluks because of its weak defenses. When Timur's army was at the gates of the city, it chose to surrender early without any retreat, so it was not destroyed.

Behind the city gate was a spacious and flat stone road with areas planted with green trees on both sides of the road. Li Rufeng even saw a small pond at the end of the road. If it weren't for the corpses everywhere on the street and the bloody horseshoe prints extending inward from the city gate, this would have been a nice place.

Behind the city gate, citizens were hurrying and busy through the streets and alleys. The chaos was filled with noise and panic. Looking around, there were at least nearly a hundred people trying to escape from the city gate with their families.

They were filled with fear at the corpses on the street, but they also mustered up the courage to survive, so they abandoned everything and planned to flee to the outside of the city for refuge.

It is easy to imagine the shock of these frightened citizens when they suddenly saw the Mongols breaking in from the city gate. Screams and cries immediately became the main theme on the street, and the place was full of trivial matters.

"Block the city gates and don't allow anyone to leave from here." Li Rufeng gave the order to Muzaffar, turned around and led his men forward along the street, and captured a small group of soldiers who originally belonged to Hama City on the way.

"First, go into the city and see where those cavalrymen went!" Mengge knew how to communicate with these fleeing soldiers. He simply drew his sword and chopped down an unlucky guy, and then used a horsewhip to calm these soldiers down.

"They are heading towards the south gate!" The leading young officer looked at the group of Mongols in a daze, feeling that he had experienced too many accidents today.

First, Lord Idrissa went crazy for some unknown reason and led his troops out of the city to intercept and kill a group of defeated soldiers who came from nowhere. Then soon came the news that Lord Idrissa had died in battle.

Then, even Gulanqi suddenly fell ill, and suddenly there were a lot of patients in the city. People said that the plague outside the city had spread in, and then a group of well-informed nobles planned to leave the city for refuge.