Mount and Blade Central Asia

Without waiting for the representatives to speak, Nur's nephew knelt on the ground with his legs weak. He saw clearly that one of the heads was his uncle, Nur Aladdin. At this moment, his spirit had collapsed. He never dreamed that he would bring disaster to his powerful uncle because of his momentary bad mouth.

"Dear guest from afar, this is the head of the Nur leader who disrespected you yesterday. The other is the envoy of Mehmed II. This is our sincere gift." One of the representatives stepped forward and explained to Li Rufeng, "We will ensure that the road from here to Mersin is clear and there will be no trouble along the way."

Bardock stood by and witnessed all of this with his eyes wide open. If he were to become a true general or a local lord in the future, this scene today would definitely be one of the sources that would motivate him to make progress.

"Very good. I like sincere businessmen like you. I believe we will have many opportunities for in-depth cooperation from now on." Li Rufeng walked forward with a smile on his face and kicked the two heads one by one into the depths of the forest. "But we are all civilized people. There is no need to use these bloody things to prove our sincerity."

Chapter 351 You won’t refuse my kindness, right?

Ever since Li Rufeng and his men disappeared from Mersin that morning, Omar Mahmoud has been in a state of anxiety.

He did profit from the trade route from Mersin to Aleppo, and wanted to maintain it, but as a small-scale maritime merchant, the threat from the Cypriot navy was something he had to face.

So even though he knew that introducing the Crusaders' "Gray Gloves" to Li Rufeng and his group would cause unnecessary misunderstandings, Omar still did it.

He only had two ships, and he didn't want to risk offending the Gray Glove of the Crusader by having them all plundered by sudden pirates.

Omar could indeed deceive himself into thinking he knew nothing about Eli Bastos's hidden identity, but even he didn't believe that excuse.

Even though Bastos had never publicly acknowledged his background as a member of the Knights Hospitaller, Omar had still sensed this connection from many clues.

So despite being threatened and even losing a potentially lucrative trade route, Omar still couldn't vent his emotions on Bastet and could only blame himself for his bad luck.

But what Omar didn't expect was that after less than half a month, he actually met Li Rufeng again.

"Sir, you left without saying goodbye last time. Was it because I didn't treat you well enough?" When Omar, who had just attended a banquet and returned to his mansion drunk, saw Li Rufeng and the scary black-clad guard beside him in the bedroom, the fat man shuddered all over.

If he hadn't just urinated on the way home, his pants would probably be wet by now.

But these days, most of the sea merchants who can go out to sea to do business are extremely daring, so after a brief adjustment, Omar took the initiative to speak and tried to get close to them by using their past friendship.

Li Rufeng naturally did not have the unique skill to sneak into someone's house at night without being discovered by the guards and servants, but fortunately he had a master in this area, Haishaer, by his side.

So even with a stupid teammate like Li Rufeng, Haishar still managed to sneak into Omar's bedroom successfully, and skillfully strangled Omar's concubine in the bedroom.

Apart from anything else, this skill alone made Li Rufeng very envious. When he was a child, he always thought that the rapists in martial arts novels were very handsome. Now seeing Haishaer's skillful movements, he immediately felt empathy.

"Let's skip the formalities of being polite to each other. You are a businessman, and so am I. It's just that my business is a little bigger than yours." Li Rufeng stretched out his hand in front of Omar and made a gesture that could break the defense of a Korean, to describe that it was indeed only a little bit bigger.

Omar smiled bitterly. He felt that the gap between them was not as modest as this adult said.

"Look, the problem we're facing is simple. I have a shipment of goods that needs to be shipped back to my territory, but a gang of bandits wants to collect a toll from me. It's a bit too high," Li Rufeng said, smiling at Omar. "So I'd like to see if any local merchants can help me save on this toll."

"Of course, considering that this group of bandits is very powerful and difficult to confront head-on, it would be best for me to smuggle this batch of goods back to my territory secretly. This way, it won't seem to hurt the relationship and it will be good for everyone, isn't it?" Li Rufeng said as he looked at Omar's reaction.

Li Rufeng and his men have successfully arrived near Mersin, just as he expected, because the Badak Thousand-Man Team is fast enough, and Muhammad II lacks control over the Karaman Bey State, especially the southeastern region within the Bey State, so Li Rufeng and his men did not encounter any significant obstacles along the way.

But the next huge problem facing them was that they were about to leave the area under the actual control of the Karamanbey State.

To return to Aleppo by land, they need to start from Mersin and head towards Adana, and then cross the entire Ramazanbey Kingdom along the Samsun Bay before they can return to Aleppo smoothly.

There are too many variables involved. Not to mention whether the Ramazan Bey Kingdom would allow a fully armed team of a thousand people to pass through its territory, the subordinate relationship between the Ramazan Bey Kingdom and the Mamluks alone is enough to give Li Rufeng a headache.

The Ramazan Bey State was a thorn in the side of the Mamluks in the Anatolian region. Li Rufeng could not be sure how close they were to Sultan Nasir, but this was obviously a hidden danger.

Taking the sea route is much more convenient. Li Rufeng and his team set out from the port of Alexandretta and arrived at the port of Mersin. It took a day to take the Omar ship.

Li Rufeng felt that even if those Crusader pirates and Cypriots established a blockade at sea, there would always be loopholes, right?

"That's going to be difficult, sir," Omar said with a troubled look on his face. "Those bandits have spies in many nearby ports. Even local merchants can't be sure which pair of eyes at the port are working for them."

"What if we don't load the goods in Mersin?" Li Rufeng asked again. After all, the goods in his hands were not real goods. They were all living people, and they were much easier to transport than dead objects.

Even if there is no port, they can board the ship halfway by small boat.

"But leaving the port empty will still attract unnecessary attention?" Omar frowned, but he was obviously limited by the vision of a businessman.

"Why leave the port empty?" Li Rufeng's smile widened, and he once again showed his ability to make money. "You can leave with a full ship, dump the cargo into the sea, and then replace it with my cargo. As long as you successfully deliver my cargo to the port of Alexandria, I will pay you double the profit you made on that cargo when you left, and I guarantee you'll make some money on your return trip as well."

Omar's eyes widened, and he suddenly felt that he was indeed superficial.

"Well... well... it seems... indeed, it's feasible, sir!" Omar suddenly felt his mind open up, and his subjective initiative also came. "I remember there is a river called the Seyhan River more than 20 kilometers east of the port. There is an abandoned small fishing port there. If your cargo can be transported by boat along the estuary for a few hundred meters..."

"Actually, I've always admired you. You're a courageous businessman who's good at seizing opportunities. That's a strength." Li Rufeng walked over and patted Omar's chubby face. "So you won't refuse. Until our deal is done, will you let my people follow you around the clock?"

"Of course I don't mind, my lord. Isn't this all for my safety?" Omar showed an honest smile on his face.

Chapter 352 The Dilemma of the Return Journey

Eli Bastos had been lingering near Mersin for many days, and Li Rufeng's sudden disappearance was indeed a bit beyond his expectations.

After all, according to the intelligence they had, Li Rufeng's purpose of this trip was the thousand-man team stranded in the Karaman territory.

He can run away, but the monk cannot run away from the temple. They are a team of a thousand people!

But Li Rufeng did just that, and according to the latest intelligence obtained by Bastos, he ended all of Bardock's troubles in Anamur Port in the shortest time.

Afterwards, he led the thousand-man team directly into the pursuit and interception of the Karaman people, and disappeared from the sight of many forces.

As of today, no one knows where they are.

It’s not that they hid very deeply. After all, there were nearly two thousand people, and they would always leave some traces on the road, but Li Rufeng and his men took up a quick advantage.

They never stayed in one place for more than one night, and the entire march was so fast that the spies of these forces could not pass on the news in time.

After all, the only force that really wanted their lives was the Knights Hospitaller, and although they, together with the Cypriots, dominated the outer seas, they did not have such long tentacles in the pagan land of Anatolia.

For example, Knight Bastos could only remotely command the forces he hired to do the work in Mersin, a territory he was relatively familiar with, and he did not dare to go deep into the inland on his own.

Otherwise, no one can say what accidents may happen.

Li Rufeng, on the other hand, obviously had no such worries. First it was the Mongols, and then Timur, who had deeply implanted the idea that the Mongols were not to be trifled with into the hearts of the people of this land.

Many times, a Mongolian face can avoid eighty percent of the risks along the way.

Bastos didn't care how Li Rufeng did all this, he only cared where the sword was now.

As a devout believer, Knight Bastos had seen too many strange things during his time in Jerusalem, but those strange things were nothing compared to what happened to Maharaja Milansha.

That is to say, Timur's power was so strong at that time that even if the Pope launched another Crusade, he could not do anything to him, so Milansha was lucky enough to survive until now.

However, hidden dangers are still hidden dangers. He can only feel at ease if the magic sword of war that represents the power of the Scarlet Wind is in the hands of the church.

Compared to the church's tightly sealed "foreign object" storage measures, the local otherworldly organization was too amateurish.

Although it is a bit hurtful to say this, it is the fact. The organization called Eagle of Order was severely damaged in the Mamluk conspiracy before, and they even condoned the fact that the Eastern shaman used foreign objects.

What a degradation this is!

The more Bastos thought about it, the angrier he became, but it was obvious that anger could not help him find any clues. He could only stare at the merchants in the port.

The sea route from Mersin to the port of Alexandretta is the shortest and fastest route for them to return to Aleppo. What's more, Li Rufeng has some influence here.

So Bastos just waited here, betting that Li Rufeng would not risk passing through Ramazan, but would instead take the risk of starting from Mersin.

Although the Cypriots are the maritime overlords here, they are not crazy enough to harass shipping routes and affect the normal business environment. The Venetians and Genoese also have businesses here, and they are the real kings of the Mediterranean.

As for the Knights Hospitaller, strictly speaking, Bastos was not in the same group with them. He was loyal to the Inquisition under the Dominican Order, while the Knights Hospitaller were only loyal to the Pope himself.

But Bastos had served in the Knights Hospitaller for more than a decade and had many connections there.

For the benefit of the church and for the stability of the world, he took on this task and used his connections with the Knights Hospitaller to exchange for convenient conditions.

He knew those old friends too well. The bounty on Bardock's Thousand-Man Squad was more of a face-saving measure. They couldn't send their ships away from the waters of Rhodes Island for a long time just for revenge.

Bastos easily persuaded his old friends to cooperate in this matter by bringing into play the interests of the church. This way, they could not only save a large sum of money, but also gain the friendship of the Inquisition, killing two birds with one stone.

"Master, you asked me to keep an eye on Omar. Now there is news that he went out to place an order early in the morning." Early in the morning, a caravan clerk from Omar's mansion secretly came to Bastos with an excited face.

Mr. Bastos was very generous with his money, and every time he gave him money, he could spend a few days in a brothel.

"Didn't you see any customers?" A hint of doubt flashed across Bastos' face. As a businessman, it was normal for Omar to place an order. What he was worried about was that the other party would take the opportunity of transporting the goods to send Bardock and the others away.

Bastos gave the informer a reward and then sent someone to the port to deliver a message that a small boat would follow Omar's ship on the sea.

If their strength on land was not enough to confront the thousand-man team head-on, Bastos would have taken his men to search the nearby mountains and forests long ago.

According to his calculations, the Bardock Thousand-Man Team should be near Mersin now. Food and drink for a team of more than a thousand people is a problem. As long as they stay here, their position will be exposed in a few days.

Bastos believed that Li Rufeng was a smart man, and when he knew it was impossible, he would choose the bright path.

Thinking of this, Bastos began to write a letter. This letter was to be written to a high-ranking judge in the Tribunal.

In order to keep the magic sword, they lost countless devout believers in the monastery of Sumanleni. However, the Oriental man seemed to have a kind of magic power that could resist the temptation of the magic sword.

If Li Rufeng could be brought into their ranks, he would surely be another capable person, right?

As for the issue of faith, it was nothing to Bastos. He was used to seeing converts in Jerusalem, and they often became the most devout believers.

While Bastos was writing the letter, Li Rufeng was already feasting less than a kilometer away from him. He hadn't had a proper meal for half a month.

You can't ask for too much during the march, and the genuine princess of the Khanate didn't complain, so how could Mr. Li have the nerve to complain?

He is now thinking about how to get rid of the spies in Mersin City. With his personal guards secretly following Omar, Li Rufeng doesn't have to worry that he will turn around and sell him out.

But Omar said that the damn Crusaders were still in Mersin, which gave Li Rufeng a headache. It seemed that this time those Christians were really determined to get the magic sword...

Chapter 353: Qianhai Tactics

Strictly speaking, the magic sword was not an important item to Li Rufeng. In fact, for a long time, Li Rufeng treated the magic sword as some kind of cursed object, and maintained the principle of cautious contact and careful use.

It was not until he had used it for a while that he discovered that this crappy thing really had no effect on him. It was extremely sharp and extremely strong, making it a rare artifact on the battlefield, so he began to use it unscrupulously.

But as Master Li's power grew, he not only controlled two cities and many vassal tribes, but now he has successfully tricked a regular army of the Khanate. It can be said that he has more and more elite soldiers and generals under his command, and his chances of going to the battlefield are getting fewer and fewer.

Therefore, the actual effect of the magic sword on Li Rufeng became smaller and smaller. On the contrary, the negative attributes related to the Scarlet Wind, which he had been concerned about, once again caused the magic sword to be put aside.

So when Knight Bastos met Li Rufeng for the first time, he did seriously consider using this magic sword as a reward in exchange for a boat ticket to take Bardock's thousand-man team home safely.

But on the other hand, this magic sword is a relic of Parisa's father. No matter what attributes it has, it still has some commemorative significance for Parisa.

Of course, considering the limited affection between Parisa and Lord Miranda, this commemorative significance is probably not as great as its identity proof, but Li Rufeng wants to please Parisa, so he naturally has to think more about it.

On the other hand, the credibility of the Crusaders was hard to describe. Perhaps when it came to a specific individual, such as Knight Bastos, he was a "good man" who kept his word, but as a whole, the reputation of the entire organization was truly awful.

In comparison, the Knights Templar were far superior to the Knights Hospitaller, at least in terms of credibility. Before the Knights Templar were wiped out by the King of France, they were an honest group that could do business in various places based on their reputation, providing goods first and payment later.

The Knights Hospitaller have not had a very good reputation in the Mediterranean in recent years...

A few years ago, they were defeated in the Battle of Ankara and were driven out of the Anatolian Peninsula by Timur, which greatly reduced their reputation. After that, they engaged in piracy in the name of the Crusaders in the Mediterranean region for a long time, which made many merchants who came and went very dissatisfied with them.

In this era, the people who were best informed and the ones who could spread news the most were businessmen. This caused the reputation of the Knights Hospitaller to decline, to the point that even the Pope was a little dissatisfied and even wrote a letter to warn the leader of the Knights Hospitaller, Philibert de Nayrac, asking them to abide by the rules.

This incident dealt a heavy blow to the Knights Hospitaller. After all, the Knights Hospitaller were now stationed in Rhodes Island, a deserted island with only a few thousand residents, which was not enough to support a knightly order.

The Knights Hospitaller's ability to repeatedly suffer defeats and rise again over the years was due to the fanatical pilgrims from all over the European continent.

Thanks to the reputation accumulated during the Jerusalem era, the Knights Hospitaller were always able to obtain the best soldiers from these pilgrims to make up for their losses and build glory for generations.

But as the news that the Pope wrote to warn them to observe the precepts spread, the reputation of the Knights Hospitaller was dealt a heavy blow, and the number of pilgrims willing to join them was much less than before. Under such circumstances, their pirate activities had to be scaled down.

It can be said that the hunting of Bardock's Thousand was the largest operation of the Knights Hospitaller at sea in the past six months. They mobilized twelve warships and a total of nearly 800 troops to hunt down these pagan soldiers who had made enemies with them.

But the Knights of the Hospitaller knew very well how skilled the soldiers under Timur were in battle, so they decided not to get off the ship and complete their revenge at sea.

Otherwise, let alone the mere 800 of them, even if the number doubled to 1,600, they would not necessarily have the confidence to complete the hunt for Bardock's thousand-man team on land. In that case, they might even add new hatred to old ones.

As a target closely watched by the Knights of Bastos, Omar's merchant ship was soon targeted by the Crusader pirates as soon as it went out to sea.

But this time, because of the relationship between Bastos and the church, the Knights Hospitaller did not dare to act rashly.

After surrounding Omar's ship, they only sent a small boat and let four Crusaders board the pagan merchant ship. They thoroughly checked the inside and found no trace of Bardock's thousand-man team.

The ships basically carried food and pig iron. The profit of this business was not high, but it took up a lot of space. Even if there was no church watching over these pirates from the hospital inspection team, they would not look down on this kind of goods.

However, in the past, when they encountered such a situation, they would dump these goods directly into the sea, causing heavy losses to the ship owners. This was considered a punishment by Christians on Muslims. Of course, when they were in a bad mood, killings and burning of ships also occurred from time to time.

But this time, for the sake of their reputation, the Knights Hospitaller even politely apologized to Omar after the inspection and left.

So Omar's merchant ship arrived safely at the port of Alexandretta, where he exchanged his goods for a ship full of spices and cotton. Then he took advantage of the night breeze and sailed all night, returning directly to the port of Mersin and made a fortune.

Of course Omar made some money. Li Rufeng specially wrote a letter, asking the people who stayed in Aleppo to sell spices and cotton to Omar at very favorable prices. His profit on this trip would probably be 20% more than usual.

Most of these goods came from the east. At that time, the Khanate was in a military standoff with the Black Sheep People in the further north. Many caravans chose the trade routes in the southern region of the Khanate, and the end point of these trade routes was basically near Aleppo.

If these merchants chose to continue westward, they would enter another war-torn area, the Anatolian Peninsula.

Therefore, choosing Aleppo as the end point of their journey is a wise choice made by many businessmen.

Li Rufeng didn't know whether the recent influx of caravans was a rebound in the Khanate's commercial activities or a change brought about by the "smooth trade routes" buff, but it was obvious that Master Li now had more chips in his hands.

Even if Mr. Li is willing to give concessions to businessmen like Omar, he can still make money in such a transaction, the only difference is whether the profit is big or small.

In this day and age, people are willing to do business even if it means risking their lives as long as they can make money. Moreover, the sea route from Mersin to Aleppo is relatively smooth, so businessmen soon began to follow suit.

Chapter 354: One Pot After Another

After just a week of observation, Knight Ali Bastos still found no direct evidence of the connection between Omar and Li Rufeng. However, the two ships in Omar's hands were fully loaded every day, constantly traveling back and forth between Mersin and Aleppo, making him a lot of money.