Mount and Blade Central Asia

If Muhammad II had been smarter and had taken action from this aspect like Li Rufeng did, giving Badak a perfect way out, he would probably have taken control of this thousand-man team long ago.

The organized looting of Anamur Port ultimately lasted three hours, far exceeding the one-hour time limit given to Badak by Li Rufeng, but this was also within Li Rufeng's expectations.

Chapter 347 Departure

Li Rufeng slept soundly in Badak's camp. There was a team of a thousand men around him to protect his safety, which gave him a strong sense of security.

As for the city they had looted before and the possible consequences of this incident, Li Rufeng didn't care at all, at least for the time being.

At dawn, Li Rufeng was awakened by his personal guards. Outside this temporary wooden house, Baddock's thousand-man team had already become active. The soldiers were packing their luggage and their only personal belongings.

Of course, there were also a few people who, after getting permission from the officers, ran to the nearby villages to say goodbye to their temporary partners here, or asked for their opinions and asked whether they were willing to go with them.

In short, the entire military camp looked very lively, and with the cooks preparing breakfast before departure, Li Rufeng actually saw a hint of homely atmosphere here.

In fact, this is indeed the case. The thousand-man team under Bardock has more than 1,300 soldiers alone, and in addition, there are nearly 500 accompanying family members.

Not every soldier likes to have a one-time romantic exchange. Some are born romantics, while others are born studs. In the past six years, many soldiers here have found their beloved girls or become fathers.

This time they were not migrating alone, but with their entire family, which was something Li Rufeng had not expected.

"You should have told me earlier that there were civilians in the military camp." After washing up, Li Rufeng went to find Badak and had breakfast with him.

Like the previous tribal migration, the movement of the entire thousand-man team could not be accomplished all at once, but had to be divided into several parts, especially when there was no friendly cover and there were civilians who needed protection.

"Now you see, I've tried my best, but I can't control the lower body of every soldier." Bardock bit the lamb chops in his hand viciously. Today's breakfast was rich, and they needed to consume all the food that was inconvenient to carry.

This includes fresh meat and fresh fruit, but after this, they will probably have to make do with whatever they can eat for a long time.

Li Rufeng also picked a few pieces of mutton from the plate without hesitation. It must be admitted that the chefs in the military camp had good cooking skills. The mutton was processed very authentically. Even for him, who was accustomed to Mongolian cooking skills, the taste was top-notch.

"I like children. Children are the hope of a country. The more children, the better." Li Rufeng said calmly, "We can take the land route to Mersin first. There, I will find a way to replenish some food and inquire about the movements of your enemies at sea."

Hearing Li Rufeng talking about the enemies at sea, Bardock snorted, obviously full of disdain for those Crusader pirates.

After all, it was they who drove the Crusaders into the sea, preventing them from ever getting their hands on the Anatolian region again.

But now Badak and his companions cannot return to the Khanate by sea in the shortest distance, because the Crusader pirates have put a bounty on their heads, and no ship from any chamber of commerce dares to take on this big order.

The straight-line distance from the port of Anamur to the port of Alexandretta is only more than 300 kilometers. If there is a tailwind, it may take two or three days to arrive. Unfortunately, the whole journey is under the threat of the Cypriots.

Chapter 348: Bridge Ladder

Li Rufeng naturally did not dare to compare himself to Timur. As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times. Just like Genghis Khan, Timur's rise to power is not replicable.

The entire Anatolian Peninsula is currently in extreme chaos, with the various Bey states engaged in endless wars, and they all have a common enemy, the Ottomans.

Bayezid's brief rule in the Anatolian Peninsula brought an unprecedented new order to the peninsula. Although there were countless bloodshed and killings in the process, it is undeniable that during the Ottoman rule, at least a rare period of peace appeared between the various Bey states.

So there were almost as many people on this side of the peninsula who supported Ottoman rule as opposed to it.

In this context, after Bayezid's death, the struggle for the throne among his sons gave these Bey states too many opportunities. Some wanted to take the opportunity to establish their status as the emperor's successor, some wanted to profit from it, and some just wanted to ensure that this chaotic state continued to prevent the Ottoman Empire from making a comeback.

And that’s not all. The Ottoman Empire was a huge power spanning the Islamic world and the Christian world. It also had huge interests in the Balkan Peninsula, which the Ottomans called Rumelia.

Overall, the chaos in the Anatolian region was actually much more complicated than the conflicts within the Khanate.

Even judging by the number of princes vying for the title of Sultan, the Ottomans have the upper hand...

Therefore, the Karaman people could not spare enough strength to suppress such an army that was eager to return home.

It was not until the morning of the third day after Li Rufeng and his team set out that scouts belonging to the Karaman people appeared nearby.

However, these scouts remained restrained and did not provoke. They just roamed around the nearby high ground and kept in contact with Li Rufeng and his group, waiting for the subsequent large force to gather.

This exploratory reconnaissance lasted for two full days, but achieved no other results except causing anxiety among the civilians in the team.

During this period, Bardock also sent out his own scouts to eliminate these stalkers, but the Karaman people seemed determined not to have a head-on conflict with Bardock's people, and would leave immediately as long as they approached these Karaman people.

"I have a bad feeling. Silifke is just ahead. If those Karamans want to ambush us, the Saleph River is the best location." As they set up camp at noon, Badak pulled out his map and made some marks based on the information his scouts had brought back. "It's the rainy season now, so the water level will be high. We might be able to cross on horseback, but walking is definitely not an option, especially with all those carts and animals."

Then Badak pointed to a sign that represented a bridge and said to Li Rufeng, "There is only one bridge over the Salefa River. If we want to cross it, it may take three to four hours. If the Karamans ambush us on the north bank, we will not be able to take care of both ends."

"Are you familiar with this place?" Li Rufeng felt that he was becoming more and more satisfied with Bardock. He was the most professional soldier he had ever seen since he came here.

He is well versed in various tactics, has great prestige among the soldiers, can command them with ease, can understand maps, read, and can even write and draw some maps of the situation. It can only be said that it is a bit of a waste of Bardock's talent to be only a thousand-man captain.

But now Li Rufeng found another advantage of his. It was obvious that Bardock had a photographic memory of the places he had passed by, and the maps in his hands were basically hand-drawn by him.

Chapter 349: Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors (Advanced Version)

Nur Aldin is the chief of a Karaman tribe. Of course, he is also an officer of the Karaman Bey State. It is difficult to define Nur's status according to the military rank that the people of this land are accustomed to, because in war his tribe can mobilize two and a half hundred teams at a time.

Therefore, Nur often has to share the power of a thousand-man commander with three other tribal chiefs of similar size. For example, now, there are three chiefs with the same status as him standing in front of Nur.

Noor responded to Mehmed II's request and went here to gather troops, but until this morning he had no idea what he was facing.

When he heard from other people that they were going to face Timurid Khan's thousand-man army with only a thousand soldiers, Nur felt like he was listening to a joke.

Those monsters, born for war, could eat them alive and leave them on the side of the road like horse manure, but that was exactly what Mehmed II's messenger had asked them to do.

"There's no need for direct confrontation. You just need to delay them, and our forces will grow in number," the messenger promised solemnly. "Those damned outsiders insulted our Lord, and they must pay the price!"

Despite the righteous words of the messenger, Nur still felt that he was talking nonsense, because up to now, he had not seen a soldier from the tribe directly under Muhammad II appear here.

Noor made up his mind that if he wanted to charge, his men would only follow behind the guards directly under Mehmed II. If the soldiers directly under Mehmed II did not show up, they would never be cannon fodder.

The other three chiefs obviously had the same plan, so even though the messenger was as anxious as an ant on hot pan, no one dared to say a word.

More than a thousand mounted soldiers were divided into four groups and hid in the nearby forests. Only a few scouts wandered around the bridge to prevent the Timurids from appearing suddenly.

At this time, soldiers came to report that they saw more than 20 Mongols crossing the bridge and heading here.

Nur glanced at the messenger who was making wishes, turned his head away and didn't even look over there.

"Sir, when the Mongol leaders were crossing the bridge, someone shouted, offering to pay a toll." The soldier who returned with the news was clever. He found Nur and quietly reported the situation. He also said, "Everyone heard it. I think..."

Nur slapped the scout across the face and said in a disapproving tone, "Is that what you should feel? Idiot!"

After saying this, Nur glanced at the messenger of Muhammad II, who had an equally grim expression on his face. He wondered if the other party had heard what this idiot said.

"If there is an enemy, I will take my leave first." Nur made up an excuse to prevaricate the messenger, and then left the temporary camp directly.

"What's going on? How could you tell me these things in a situation like that?" Nur was very dissatisfied with the scout's cleverness. The scout was his nephew and wanted to find an opportunity to show himself, so he was so bold.

"I was just anxious. Everyone else was rushing back to tell the chiefs, and I was just worried you'd fall behind!" Nur's nephew said a little aggrievedly, "Didn't you see? When the Mongol leader and his soldiers rode over, their bags were full of gold. They showed it to us!"

The young man may have never seen so much gold gathered together in his life. When he talked about the scene he just saw, he was still in an excited state.

"Those Mongolians are really rich, uncle!" Nur's nephew said excitedly, "Their horses jingle so loudly when they run!"

Nur was also attracted by the scene described by his nephew, and his heart was burning with excitement. Although the face of Muhammad II was very important, compared with the gold that was within reach in modern times, the face of Muhammad II seemed not so important.

In the country of Karamanbey, as long as you have money, you have connections. Having connections means more say, and more say means power.

Nur rejected Muhammad II's face for the sake of gold today. When he grows into a stronger chief tomorrow, he will naturally help Muhammad II to regain the lost face. At that time, he will respect himself more.

After just a brief thought, Nur made a decision, hurried back to the camp, selected a few trusted men, and asked them to take their nephew and his will and quickly run back to find the Mongols.

This kind of thing cannot be neglected. If you are slow, you may not be able to eat hot food.

Sure enough, when Nur's nephew and his uncle's confidant hurriedly ran back to the road and followed the horseshoe prints left by the Mongols, the Mongols had already found a beautiful place. They were roasting rabbits they had just killed on the roadside and negotiating with several Karamans like dividing gold with a large scale.

Nur's nephew's first reaction was that it was bad, he was late, but he immediately realized that everyone who saw the deal would get a share, and then his cleverness made him arrogant again.

"What are you doing here?" the young man said in his characteristic voice, a mixture of oily and childish, which made people feel annoyed just by opening his mouth. "Why are you dividing up the gold before I even get here?"

Li Rufeng looked up at the other person and found it a little funny. He didn't know where the other person got the confidence to speak to him like that.

After all, the people who were negotiating with him now had no bottom line at all. He hadn't even paid a penny, but he had already figured out all the details about these people.

The four tribes together have only more than 1,100 people. Although they are all cavalry, the quality of the individual soldiers he has inquired about is at most equivalent to the militia in his tribe, or even worse.

Li Rufeng smiled, and several of his personal guards stepped forward. Before the other party and their guards could react, they quickly controlled those people.

"What are you doing? Do you know who my uncle is? Don't you want to live here anymore?" The young man's tone finally revealed a hint of fear. With his little life experience, he had no idea what went wrong.

However, Li Rufeng didn't care what the young man was thinking. He just hoped that when this matter was over, if the other party was still alive, he could learn some lessons from it and be more careful when speaking in the future. After all, not everyone had such a good temper as him.

"Great, it looks like we've found the first person to be eliminated." Li Rufeng sat in the middle of the crowd, grinning and announcing to everyone, "No matter which tribe he's from, this tribe won't get a single cent from me. So let's talk about this now. How are you going to get this money?"

Li Rufeng's meaning was very clear. He was willing to pay money to buy a way out for these Timurid soldiers, but he did not want to pay an insurance premium for every tribe. Now he used the excuse that the other party's words offended him and he did not want the "toll" from the Nur tribe. If the remaining tribes wanted to get the money without any trouble, then they had to find a way to shut the Nur tribe up.

Of course, this was just a temporary plan that Li Rufeng came up with. He just relied on the fact that his own side was stronger and that these hesitant Karaman people did not have the courage to confront him head-on.

Nur's nephew widened his eyes, watching the other party openly bidding so unscrupulously and instigating other tribes to become enemies with his uncle's tribe. It was too unscrupulous!

"I'm sorry, I was wrong!" Nur's nephew knew the character of the chiefs of other tribes too well. For the sake of the gold, if they even blinked an eye, it would be considered that they had a conscience, so he admitted his mistake very cleanly and hoped that the other party could forgive him.

Well, it's a pity that he has become a part of Li Rufeng. The allusion of "two peaches killing three warriors" has been very useful since ancient times. Now the territory has been changed and the rules of the game have been changed, but it's just a change of name. The peaches have been replaced by gold, and the three warriors have been replaced by four tribes. In the end, one person has to die, right?

The only variable here is whether one death is enough?

Li Rufeng threw three bags in front of the representatives of the other three tribes, each bag containing a full ten kilograms of gold.

In this era, a chieftain of a nomadic tribe of a thousand people, who was determined to tighten his belt and tighten his belt, hide money from his superiors and extort money from his subordinates, causing complaints from the tribe, could only save up this much wealth after two or three years, not to mention that this was just a deposit.

"Here's ten kilograms of gold. I'll give you one day to sort it out. Tomorrow at this time, we'll pass through here and see no one nearby. Can you do that?" Li Rufeng asked directly. "After this, if we arrive safely in Mersin, each tribe will receive an additional ten kilograms as a balance."

Representatives from several tribes swallowed their saliva, looked back at Nur's nephew with wolf-like eyes, then nodded and collected their deposits.

Then, without seeing any sign from Li Rufeng, this group of people saw Li Rufeng's personal guards escorting several of Nur's confidants who were escorting Nur's nephew to their side.

At this time, everyone did not need too much communication. They all drew out their scimitars and hacked their fellow tribesmen in front of them into a pool of blood. This was considered a token of their loyalty.

Nur's good-for-nothing nephew escaped this disaster, but he was so scared that he wet his pants. Li Rufeng's personal guards came forward, tied him up like a dumpling, and put him directly on the horse's back.

"I look forward to hearing good news from you all." Li Rufeng spread his hands with great confidence, then stood up, kicked out the campfire, jumped on his horse, and left with his men.

That's the power of money, but what really made Li Rufeng's plan go so smoothly was the bonuses he received from the system, especially his "eloquence." This ability, which involves probability, is almost a bug when used in negotiations. In the previous negotiation, his Charisma skill proficiency increased by 3 points, now reaching level 69.

Li Rufeng couldn't even imagine what kind of benefits he could wreak at the negotiation table if his Charm skill level was high enough... Maybe if he took some time to go to the Vatican and talk to the Pope, he could get that Calixtus III to leave and sit on the throne for a bit? The Great Blessing Shaman Pope sounded like a lot of fun...

Chapter 350 Sincerity

Li Rufeng, along with his personal guards, quickly returned to the Badak Thousand Man Team. It was getting dark, and the risk of crossing the bridge was too great, so the entire Thousand Man Team set up camp in the woods near the bridge.

Neither the Karamans nor the Mongol cavalry in the Badak Thousand liked the woodland environment.

Riding through the woods was too risky for cavalrymen. Not only could their heads be hit by branches if they were not careful, but there were also holes dug by small animals such as voles on the ground, which could cause the horses to break their legs if they were not careful.

But it must be said that when facing possible conflicts, forests are the best protection for soldiers.

This is a natural defensive position. The infantry can obtain wood for building a defense line here. There is always water in the woods, and the army can also obtain some extra food in the woods.

Of course, the forest can also provide its most basic ability. It can provide sufficient cover for the army, making it difficult for the enemy to figure out how many people they are fighting in a short period of time.

Just as Li Rufeng had commented before, Badock was a very professional officer. Every time he chose a site to set up camp, he was extremely careful and cautious. This time was no exception. After all, there were potential enemy activities on the other side of the bridge.

Whether or not a conflict will occur between the two parties depends entirely on the results of Li Rufeng's negotiations.

Bardock had never experienced such a predicament in his military career, so when Li Rufeng came back confidently and assured Bardock that they could pass the bridge normally tomorrow and would not be besieged by the enemy, Bardock was actually very unsure.

But fortunately, time will prove that Li Rufeng is right.

That night, on the north bank of the Salefa River.

As the night deepened, Nur Aldin finally realized that the situation might have changed. Neither his nephew nor the confidants he sent out returned to the camp. At first, he thought it was a long negotiation and his nephew might have delayed him, but soon as several surrounding tribes began to move stealthily in the dark, he finally realized the danger.

After all, Nur was an experienced ruler, and the loose alliance of the Karaman people had already experienced the danger of being destroyed, so chiefs like Nur already had the most basic sense of vassalage.

He knew that he had made a political bet on Mehmed II. Although this loyalty seemed cheap, it was still a right and responsibility for both parties. Therefore, when he encountered danger, Nur's first reaction was to move closer to the messenger's camp.

There, although the envoy of Mehmed II was escorted by only ten soldiers, these ten soldiers represented the majesty of Mehmed II.

At this time, Nur had not yet realized that several other tribes had secretly formed an alliance, and under the influence of money, they were ready to see bloodshed.

This information gap ultimately cost Noor his life.

Nur did successfully reconcile with the envoy of Muhammad II, but the other three tribes, blinded by greed, had no intention of leaving any hidden dangers. They planned to get rid of the envoy of Muhammad II as well, and then put the blame directly on the Mongols, or just on the bandits in the nearby mountains.

People were dying all the time in this land. As long as there was no direct evidence to prove to Mehmed II that they were the ones who killed them, with the soldiers under their command and their influence among the Karaman people, even if Mehmed II knew the truth, he would have no choice but to swallow his anger in the end.

The killing happened quickly in the dark. The soldiers of the three tribes combined numbered nearly 800, and they had to face only Nur's soldiers, plus the envoy of Mehmed II and his ten guards.

The only thing these people need to pay attention to is that Noor himself and the messenger of Muhammad II must die here. As for the others, it doesn't matter even if they escape. They are not nobles and have no say. Their testimony cannot be used as evidence in court to accuse the nobles.

The shouting and killing sounds so close to them naturally could not be hidden from the Timurids on the other side of the river. That night, Badak stood alone by the river, watching the flames rising into the sky on the other side of the river for a long time in silence. When he came back again, his eyes were full of awe when he looked at Li Rufeng.

Bardock didn't sleep the whole night. He didn't know what the shaman had done, but it was obvious that the enemies on the other side of the river had fallen into a situation of killing each other. This made Bardock believe for a time that Li Rufeng was really Sarah, the chosen one of Changshengtian, and that he had a kind of magical power that could bewitch people.

But Li Rufeng slept well that night. Just as he had said before, there was an entire Khanate regular army of a thousand men nearby to protect his safety. What else did he need to worry about?

At dawn the next day, the three representatives of the Karaman tribe rode across the bridge and approached Badak's camp with white flags. They threw the two heads at the gate of the camp, then dismounted and waited aside.

Li Rufeng and his personal guards walked out of the camp with Nur's useless nephew, and Badak followed behind him.

"What do you mean? My friend, I didn't remember our deal including this kind of door-to-door delivery service." Li Rufeng covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and said nitpickingly, "Can someone explain to me who these two people are? Why did they leave it at my door?"