Mount and Blade Central Asia

As an undercover agent, Raven had only met Sultan Karl Yusuf three times in his life. The first time was when he was chosen to be a spy. At that time, the Sultan was already making preparations for his comeback.

Facing Timur's iron hoof, Karl Yusuf knew that his rule would not last long, so he simply sought the help of dark wizards and established a spy system.

The second time they met was when Karl Yusuf launched his first counterattack and successfully occupied Baghdad. Raven, as an insider, worked together with others to open the gates of Baghdad at night, giving Karl Yusuf the opportunity to complete his first restoration.

The third time was the last time. As a meritorious undercover agent, Raven went to Tabriz to receive honor and rewards...

Now he finally remembered that the Alexi in front of him was one of the soldiers sent by the Mamluk Empire to escort Karl Yusuf!

At this moment, Lei Wen even felt a little shaken. Could it be that Li Rufeng was really blessed by Changshengtian?

He had gone through so much trouble to select a mercenary group whose leader could just blow his cover? You know, there were many mercenary groups of Alexi's size in the Mamluk Empire. What kind of coincidence was this?

"Kill me or chop me up, it's all up to you." Seeing this, Lei Wen no longer concealed his identity. He stared at Li Rufeng fiercely and said, "Long live the Black Sheep! Sooner or later, we will get back everything we have lost!"

Of course, Master Li would not care about the threat of a stray dog. Instead, he was very curious about Raven himself. He did not expect that the Black Sheep King actually had such a secret power.

He never expected that he would use this force to deal with him. After all, in Li Rufeng's mind, he should be an insignificant little character in the eyes of the Black Sheep King.

"Well done, Alexi, what reward do you want?" Li Rufeng has always been very generous to those who know the times, so he asked the Mamluk mercenary with a smile.

"I want freedom, sir, true freedom. I hope to be a warrior under your command." Alexi knelt on one knee and respectfully pleaded with Li Rufeng, "Please grant me the same rights as the Mongols, so that I and my people can use our swords and courage to exchange for wealth and land under the annual meeting!"

Li Rufeng looked up and down at the sturdy Mamluk escaped slave in front of him. In the system feedback interface, Alexi's relationship with him was over 40. As someone they met for the first time, this value was not low.

"My lord, I have heard that you thwarted the conspiracy of those followers of the Green Wind, and all my family members died in the plague brewed by those cultists." Alexi directly stated the purpose of his willingness to be loyal to Li Rufeng.

"Please give me and my brothers a chance. We will prove to you that we are worthy of your trust." Alexi bowed his head deeply. Behind him, the other Mamluk warriors also knelt on one knee and bowed their heads deeply to Li Rufeng. "I have nowhere to go, and they don't want to be slaves anymore."

"I'm willing to accept your loyalty. You will be split into teams of a hundred men each. You'll have to find a way to fill the remaining gaps." Li Rufeng pulled out a bag of gold coins and tossed it next to Alexi. "I promise you'll enjoy the same treatment as everyone else, but this money is your reward for surrendering."

"Your name of generosity echoes throughout the land of Syria, and everyone knows it." Alexi grabbed the bag of gold coins without hesitation. As soon as he touched it, he was sure that there were at least twenty gold coins in it.

"As for you, my friend, are you willing to pledge your loyalty to me? I am confident that I will not waste a talent like yours on such trivial matters." Li Rufeng looked at Raven again and tempted him.

Raven responded with even more violent curses, but even so, he looked at the black goat's head on his body, which once represented glory, with some despair. It seemed to come alive and began to glow and give off heat.

In the fear of death, Raven still couldn't maintain his tough demeanor. He looked at Li Rufeng in panic, "Save me, I'm willing..."

Before Raven could finish his words, his whole body suddenly twitched.

"Knock him down, tear off his clothes, let me see what's going on." Master Li jumped off his horse and kicked Raven to the ground. He watched as he was pinned to the ground by his own guards, and his clothes were torn to shreds with a ripping sound.

A black sheep's head tattoo was flashing red light as if it had life, staring at Li Rufeng fiercely.

Chapter 403: Is this a case of being possessed by evil spirits?

Ever since the followers of the Green Wind left Aleppo, Li Rufeng had not dealt with these strange forces for some time.

And today's scene clearly reminded Li Rufeng that there is a very close relationship between the Black Sheep People and another group of believers of the Four Wind Gods.

"Save me... Save me..." Raven gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words with his last bit of strength, "I'm useful! I'm useful!"

Li Rufeng shrugged. He didn't really care whether this person was useful or not. Master Li was simply kind-hearted and couldn't bear to see others die tragically in front of him.

Especially if he died from this kind of black witchcraft, otherwise people who didn't know would think that Master Li was unable to control the situation and allowed black witchcraft to wreak havoc in his territory.

Well, he admitted that he just didn't like these dark wizards because of Azadirim.

"Hold him down!" Li Rufeng commanded his personal guards to pin the spy to the ground so that he could not move.

He gently touched the black sheep head tattoo on the other person's chest with his fingers, and the scorching temperature instantly burned Li Rufeng's fingertips.

Now it was not only Li Rufeng who could see that Raven was not in a good condition. The Mamluks surrounding him also looked at Raven in horror, struggling on the ground as if he was possessed by an evil spirit.

It’s a pity that his strength was far inferior to that of the two Mongolians who were holding him down, so even though Raven’s voice was hoarse from roaring, his upper body was held down and he could hardly move at all.

Li Rufeng glanced at the frightened Mamluks, waved his hand, and asked his guards to keep them away.

After all, one must be on guard against others. God knows if there is a hidden Immortal Knight among these Mamluks. If anyone takes this opportunity to shoot him with an arrow, it will be a lot of fun.

Li Rufeng calmed down and thought hard. According to the customs before his time travel, Lei Wen's condition could be classified as being possessed by evil spirits...

This kind of personal exorcism ritual is often particularly effective with the blood of a black dog. However, there is no suitable black dog in this place right now, but Mr. Li has a better alternative.

Although there are no black dogs in this place, there are plenty of strong men. Moreover, these Mamluks need to be frightened first so that they will be more obedient in the future.

"Alexi, come here." Li Rufeng waved to the Mamluk leader standing far away. Seeing him reluctantly approach, he said directly, "Did you see? Your employer colluded with the devil, and now he's suffering the consequences."

Alexi's expression froze, and he instantly fell into doubt. He was torn between believing and disbelieving Li Rufeng's words.

"The Black Sheep borrowed power from the demons, which is why they rose so quickly. If you don't believe me, just touch their tattoos and you'll feel the evil." Li Rufeng continued to bewitch him. "If you accept their money, it means those demons are now stalking you too. I'm afraid you have no other choice but to complete this commission."

Alexi's expression became a little ugly. He carefully looked at Li Rufeng's back from an angle where Li Rufeng couldn't see him, and seemed to be really considering whether to continue to complete this commission.

But the Mongolian guards standing beside Li Rufeng finally calmed Alexi down. They came here to make money, not to die. The Mongolian lord in front of him was so calm, he must have a way to solve this problem.

"Sir, please stop joking. We dare not be disrespectful to you." Alexi looked at the smile on Li Rufeng's lips, and a trace of cold sweat ran down his forehead.

"I can see you're a smart person, but whether you like it or not, you've already been dragged into this mess." Li Rufeng smiled and shook his head, then said, "But you're lucky, I happen to have a way to solve this problem."

"As long as you master the right methods, demons aren't difficult to deal with. Otherwise, they would have ruled the world long ago, wouldn't they?" Li Rufeng reached out and took out a knife, handing it to Alexi. "A warrior's heart is filled with masculine righteousness and passion, and they are the most capable of restraining demonic power."

Alexi looked at the dagger in his hand, a hint of hesitation flashed across his eyes, but he soon became determined again. He turned his head and squinted his eyes to search among the team behind him.

"What are you doing?" Li Rufeng slapped Alexi on the back of the head and scolded him, "We are not barbarians. Next time, listen to me before you act on your own."

"In the East, we generally believe that the heart and fingers are connected, so taking blood from the fingertips is enough. Although the effect is much worse, fortunately there are enough brave people here." Li Rufeng turned and walked a few steps, picking up a helmet from the ground. "Have your men fill this helmet with blood from their fingertips."

In fact, not that much blood should be used, but it is not Mr. Li's blood, so the more the better.

At this time, Raven, who had been pressed to the ground, had exhausted his strength. The two eyes of the black sheep head on his chest gradually turned blood red. At first glance, he looked extremely ferocious, as if he was about to come alive.

"If you want to live, just hold on a little longer." Li Rufeng said lightly, then glanced at Parisa not far away and gave her a look that showed everything was under control.

He did have a simpler and faster way, which was to use the magic sword to directly suppress the power of the opponent's chest tattoo.

Li Rufeng was very sure that the magic sword in his hand was far more powerful than the tattoo on Raven's chest. After all, that was the thing that Lord Milansha had always been obsessed with, while the tattoo on Raven's body was probably just a cheap mass-produced product.

But the main purpose of rituals is not to solve problems, but to win people's hearts.

Li Rufeng really needs a defector who understands the inside story of the Black Sheep People. After all, the Black Sheep People are rising too fast.

"Sir, it's full." Alexi carefully held the helmet and walked in front of Li Rufeng, fearing that the blood inside would spill out. To be fair, he asked all his subordinates to bleed, including himself.

"Very good, now step back a little." Li Rufeng took the helmet with both hands, muttered something, and stood in front of Raven condescendingly.

Perhaps sensing something, Raven's eyes suddenly changed and he roared, almost breaking free from the restraints of his two guards. He shouted in a completely different voice, "I'll remember you!"

"Bullshit!" Master Li kicked Raven back with one kick, and then he was covered in blood. The splashing blood directly soaked the sheep head on his chest.

At that moment, it was like boiling hot oil was poured into cold water. Black smoke lingered in Raven's chest and finally dissipated reluctantly into the air.

Li Rufeng clapped his hands, looked at the unconscious Raven, and said to Alexi and the other Mamluks: "I have severed the contract between you and the devil."

Chapter 404: Do you know about commercial insurance?

For Li Rufeng, it was a routine operation to clean up a spy cursed by black magic and blackmail a wave of newly acquired Mamluk centuries.

While cleaning up the battlefield, his soldiers found the body of another Black Sheep spy in a wooden house. The body also had a black sheep head tattoo on its chest. The tattoo was lifelike, with blood-red eyes, but the owner of the tattoo had lost all signs of life.

Judging from the traces left on the ground, he suffered a lot before his death.

This result made the Mamluks even more awed by Li Rufeng. A demon who could take people's lives from a distance could not do anything in front of Li Rufeng. Such a shaman was enough to make anyone keep in awe.

After this battle, the bandits in Li Rufeng's territory disappeared again. Even the few who were not eliminated in this anti-bandit operation now knew the danger and ran away early.

What followed was a matter of seeking credit and fame in such a small matter, which could be completely classified as a business operation. Li Rufeng not only planned to return the goods looted from the bandits to the merchants intact, but also posted a notice announcing that all caravans that had traded in the city of Aleppo and were robbed after leaving could get compensation from the lord's mansion.

He plans to implement this policy for three months, and after three months, Li Rufeng will start charging for this service. You can think of it as an old version of insurance business, but Master Li only insures against accidents that occur in his own territory.

It is obvious that there will definitely be businessmen playing tricks and trying their best to take advantage of Mr. Li, but Mr. Li doesn't care about losing some money. What he needs is to build his own reputation and fame.

This was a business he had thought about for a long time before deciding to take on. After all, the number of troops under Master Li's command far exceeded the number required for his territory. Apart from external expansion, there was no other way to go.

War is always in conflict with business, and few businessmen are willing to take the risk of crossing the war zone to do business, but Mr. Li just wants to have both war and trade.

This insurance business is preparing for this pursuit.

As long as a few people can reap real benefits from this business, more people will try to join in, and soon, the merchants coming and going will realize that as long as Mr. Li's territory is large enough, the scope of his insurance will become larger and larger.

Li Rufeng, who only controlled Aleppo and Hama, was just a small local lord to the Black Sheep People and the Mamluks. New lords were appointed and old ones were deposed every day, so he was not worth mentioning at all.

But if he could get the merchants passing by to board his chariot, the meaning would be completely different.

Li Rufeng didn't know whether such a pure commercial empire had ever been born in the Arab and Asian regions in history, but it was obvious that the town federation that had emerged on the Apennine Peninsula further north had proved the feasibility of this path.

Both Genoa and Venice are like the bright moon in the night sky, announcing to the world that the power of merchants and capital can change regional politics.

Unfortunately, among the caravans traveling to and from Aleppo, there are still a few big businessmen with enough influence.

Hundreds of years of religious jihad in this land have intertwined wealth and power among the powerful people in this land, making it difficult to distinguish one from the other. There is a natural ceiling for pure businessmen. They are either the white gloves of a certain emir, or they will be eaten up without leaving anything behind after growing to a certain size.

On the other side of the scale are the Mongolian princes who are mainly based on blood and tribe. They maintain their huge assets with sabers and bows and arrows. They are far less sensitive to wealth than to war. They don't care how much assets are in their vaults. Gold coins are just an embellishment to them.

Therefore, Li Rufeng could only hold high the glory of democracy with the supremacy of trade on one hand, trying to attract those merchants who were unwilling to be slaughtered like pigs to come and join the wise ruler, and with the other hand, hold down his hat as the Eternal Heaven Shaman, naturally occupying the moral high ground among the Mongols, doing both things well.

On January 23, 1409, three days after Li Rufeng completed his bandit suppression work, the second wave of envoys from Diyarbakir rushed into Aleppo with the smell of war.

"Lord Rufeng, this is a handwritten letter from our king. We are suffering from provocation and oppression from the Black Sheep People. We need to unite to deal with those evil Black Sheep People!" The messenger was obviously an eloquent person, first of all, much better than the previous messenger.

His tone was neither arrogant nor humble, and he kept emphasizing the relationship of mutual dependence. On the other hand, he kept talking about the loyalty of Aries King Kara Osman to the Khanate, saying that the Aries people only wanted to live and work in peace and had no ambitions, and did not want him to gain more land and rights through war.

What he meant was that if we all fight together, all the benefits will go to you, and we just want to live our lives.

Li Rufeng had no doubt about this point, because the Aries King was indeed consistent in his words and deeds after being granted the title of King of Diyarbakir. Faced with the drastic changes in the surrounding environment, he held on and did not move or react at all.

He allowed the Ottomans in the west to engage in civil strife; he turned a blind eye to the Armenians' independence struggle in the north; he had no ambition to see the Mamluk border in the south empty and deserted; and he had no desire to move when the Sultan of the Khanate in the east passed away.

If it weren't for the Black Sheep, his arch-enemy, who seized the opportunity to rise again and acted aggressively, the Aries King could have continued to fight Tai Chi with Li Rufeng for a few more years.

But now the initiative is in Li Rufeng's hands. He is currently reading a letter sent back by another knight belonging to Hiltberg's messenger team.

The messenger arrived in Aleppo almost at the same time as the Aries King's envoy. He described in detail from Hiltberg's perspective what he saw and heard in Diyarbakir, the direction of the Black Sheep people's military deployment, and the emotions expressed by the Aries King.

Li Rufeng was very satisfied with Hiltberg's letter. It could only be said that he was worthy of being a "house slave" of three surnames. He had very high level of personal insights. He knew what kind of information Li Rufeng needed most for the negotiation at this time, so the letter was written very clearly, which greatly facilitated Li Rufeng's "bargaining".

Of course, there is actually only one path before Li Rufeng, and that is to intervene militarily in the conflict between the Black Sheep and the Black Sheep. The only difference is how much the bigger one has to pay and how much benefit one will gain. After all, he cannot watch the Black Sheep continue to expand their influence.

Chapter 405 Preparing for war

Li Rufeng was very clear about his current strength and that it was difficult for him to confront the Black Sheep people head-on. However, as an "emerging" force, the Black Sheep people naturally faced many more problems and enemies than he did.

Hiltberg's arrival not only brought Li Rufeng an understanding of the political situation in Samarkand, but also effectively supplemented Li Rufeng's control over the current situation in the entire Khanate.

The resurgence of the Qara ...

Therefore, Li Rufeng was not worried that the Black Sheep people would suddenly withdraw a large number of troops in a short period of time to deal with the problems on the southwestern border. Therefore, the pressure Li Rufeng faced at the moment was nothing more than how many thousand-man teams the Black Sheep people had.

In short, according to the intelligence sent back by Hiltberg, the Aries people are far from being at the end of their rope. As the arch-enemy of the Black Sheep people, they still have some strength. The Aries King can mobilize at least five cavalry teams of a thousand men.

The Black Sheep people have currently deployed only two thousand-man teams on the Aries border. What the Aries King is worried about is how determined the Black Sheep people are in this border conflict.

Behind the seemingly generous conditions of the Aries King, he was actually thinking of getting something for free. He urgently hoped that Li Rufeng could send troops to help him share the pressure. On the surface, he promised to hand over everything that once belonged to the Black Sheep people in this conflict to Li Rufeng, but in fact, what he meant was that he didn't want to give a single cent or a single grain of food.

He wanted Li Rufeng to help him fight for free!

God have mercy on me! Master Li has never done such a business that loses money but gains publicity since his debut!

Moreover, the Aries King's calculations were too loud. If Li Rufeng really sent troops to help him resolve the threat of the Black Sheep people and occupied the land left behind by the Black Sheep people after their retreat, the Aries tribe would be separated from the Black Sheep people again, and Li Rufeng would become a barrier between them.

Li Rufeng had to admit that the Aries King's strategic thinking was probably similar to his, both of them mainly using the strategy of leveraging the opponent's power to counterattack...

So Li Rufeng sent the Aries King's envoy away with a few words. He would definitely intervene in this conflict, but not now. The Aries people had not been pushed to their limit, and they would offer better conditions sooner or later.

Of course, this does not mean that Li Rufeng will turn a blind eye to the conflict between the Black and White Aries. He must ensure that his information flows smoothly, send more spies to operate in the Aries territory, and even continue to send envoys to maintain contact with the Aries high-level officials to prevent the worst situation.

Although such a situation is unlikely to happen, Li Rufeng still has to be on guard. After all, they are all Turkmen. If the two sheep accidentally make peace, the situation Li Rufeng will face will become complicated.

But generally speaking, the current situation that Li Rufeng is facing is improving.

First of all, in the military system, although the territory directly controlled by Li Rufeng is not large, he can support more than 2,000 full-time soldiers. This is no longer something that can be described as warmongering.

In fact, just the Badak Thousand was too much for a small lord like him with only two cities to support. Moreover, Li Rufeng also had to bear the burden of three additional Mongol cavalry centuries, two cobbled-together infantry centuries, his own personal guard, and so on...

But after the baptism of the previous war in which the Green Wind followers besieged Aleppo, these soldiers were mentally prepared to become warriors. Releasing them back to the civilian population would be a huge loss for Li Rufeng.

Therefore, this overstaffed military scale has continued to this day. Master Li is completely relying on his financial ability to cheat.

When Li Rufeng made the decision to start his attack on the Black Sheep People in the north, the entire military system, including Bardock himself who had just joined the group, showed excitement.

For these officers, nothing is more attractive than achieving success on the battlefield.

Especially among the Mughals, this news was really a celebration for the whole clan. They already had a grudge with the Black Sheep People. Although it was a one-sided grudge, the fact that an opponent who had been knocked to the ground and trampled on for many years stood up again and showed off his power still made these Mongolian descendants very unhappy.

Therefore, even those officials under Li Rufeng who leaned towards the civil service faction were also full of anticipation for the upcoming war.

Strictly speaking, there were actually no civil servants in the traditional sense under Li Rufeng's command. Li Rufeng even suspected that there were no civil servants in the traditional Eastern sense in the entire Timurid Khanate.