Mount and Blade Central Asia

"No." Li Rufeng calmly rejected Said's request and refused to allow him to join his army. "They are all warriors of Changshengtian. They don't need God's blessing for the time being."

Not only that, Li Rufeng also took away the money that Said had worked so hard to raise and handed him an IOU for 72 dinars.

Chapter 431 The War Is Approaching

While Li Rufeng began to prepare for the war and raise funds, other forces were also not idle. The war between the Black Sheep and the White Sheep had already caused the deaths of thousands of people. Both sides had no mercy on the other's civilians. Basically, as long as they got the chance, they would slaughter everyone in the other's tribe, regardless of gender, age or status.

Because the Black Sheep were stronger, the White Sheep suffered greater losses in this war. In just a few weeks of war, many White Sheep tribes gathered in the western part of Diyarbakir, on the plains near Husnú Mansur province.

Perhaps because they were afraid that Li Rufeng would interfere in the war, the Black Sheep People did not send more troops in this direction except for the thousand-man team that moved into Urfa Castle in advance.

The thousand people in Urfa Castle alone were enough to stop the Aries people from trying to go south and seek refuge with Li Rufeng. Obviously, the Black Sheep King had already noticed the possible deal between Li Rufeng and the Aries people.

After all, the two sides are only one step away from a falling out and a direct face-to-face conflict...and this step is getting closer as Li Rufeng throws scouts into the Black Sheep people's territory and stirs up trouble.

Li Rufeng's personal guard Abelji had already penetrated deep into enemy territory and arrived near Salmas.

The Salmas region is a rare high-quality arable land in the area. It has been a stable provider of grain to the surrounding areas since the ancient Persian Empire. Even the great conqueror Timur consciously protected this agricultural area because he marched north from here to conquer the Golden Horde.

But now this fertile farmland has been ruthlessly trampled by the Mongolian knights. Abelji now has half a century of soldiers under his command, but the number of his horses is more than two hundred. Although most of them are poor horses that are not of any use, they are still a powerful force.

It was February at that time, and the farmland was full of tender seedlings that had just been planted and were just beginning to break through the soil. Although the areas trampled by the cavalry would not result in a complete harvest, the yield would definitely be severely reduced.

But in order to get to Tabriz as quickly as possible, Abelji always chose the shortest road and didn't care about the crying farmers at all.

In his opinion, it was good enough that he did not stop to burn, kill and loot. In order to cover up their tracks, they were now basically wearing clothes seized from the Black Sheep people, and the flags hung in the team were also the Black Sheep flags.

The farmers who only knew how to work diligently and plow the fields could not tell who the cavalry on horseback belonged to. They did not dare to approach these knights at all. They could only know that these people were the damn black sheep people by their flags.

Although this move was simple, it was just right for the Black Sheep people who had just restored their country and had not yet fully become regularized.

So they had long since escaped the pursuit of the Black Sheep People. Now was a time when the sky was high and the sea was vast, and they could go wherever they wanted.

Although with Salmas as the center, Van, the traditional territory of the Black Sheep people, is less than 200 kilometers to the west, and Tabriz, the current capital of the Black Sheep people, is also about 150 kilometers away in a straight line, bypassing Lake Urmia to the east.

Abelji thought this place was good. The nearby villages were quite wealthy and almost all had food reserves. There was no big city within a hundred miles. The Black Sheep People, who were fighting on almost all sides, did not have many remaining tribes stationed nearby, so the defense force seemed quite weak.

The most important thing is that with the speed of his team, starting from here, whether attacking Van or the caravans near Tabriz, it is not too far, and the three-day journey is just right to get rid of the pursuers.

so...

Let’s go to Tabriz today to do some work, and then find a suitable place to stay when we come back!

Most Mughals were impulsive and reckless on the battlefield, because after a long civil war with the people of Transoxiana, their war in this land was more like an adult game that could properly stimulate the secretion of adrenaline and dopamine.

When you can always get everything you want through war, you will subconsciously regard this method as the only method. This is human nature.

Because Li Rufeng himself was not a Mongolian, he could not truly experience the sense of control of galloping across the world. He only knew that the Mongolian cavalry under his command could fight and be invincible as long as they mounted their horses.

So in Abelji's heart, he had no fear of the Black Sheep People and truly despised the enemy tactically.

Not only him, but also several other teams that Li Rufeng threw into the Black Sheep people's land were like this.

Therefore, because of the black wizard, the Black Sheep King Carl Yusuf, who was able to grasp the situation of the land under his rule more quickly, suddenly discovered that in just a few weeks, there had been considerable losses in his territory.

Eleven villages and settlements were attacked, and the attackers took away almost nothing except horses, a small amount of food, and precious metals. They came simply to destroy.

The Black Sheep tribes suffered even greater losses, as a large number of young and middle-aged men were conscripted to the front lines for the glory of the Black Sheep people. As a result, many Black Sheep tribes were left with only the elderly, the weak, and the sick, with too many warriors left behind.

So when they encountered this group of barbarians who came only to destroy, they also suffered heavy losses.

The Mongols would chop off the thumbs of men above wheel height, take away the youngest and most beautiful women, burn grain, and slaughter livestock meaninglessly, leaving the prime meat and fur to rot on the grasslands.

They would also take away the war horses that the Black Sheep people regarded as their life, burn excess hay, and throw rotten corpses into the wells. They were simply committing all kinds of atrocities.

The Black Sheep King didn't even need more evidence to know that these atrocities were committed by the Mongols. This was their style. In comparison, even the conqueror Timur seemed so merciful.

The only reason why these Mongols did not massacre the old, weak and sick was because they knew that in order to ensure that their internal order would not collapse, the Black Sheep People would have to use their precious food and grass to rescue these "negative assets".

But the Black Sheep King had no way to do anything about it. Although the Black Sheep Dynasty became famous for defeating Maharaja Milansha, they were still in a state of being surrounded by enemies and their internal defenses were empty.

Facing the provocation of the Mughals, the Black Sheep King has coordinated two thousand-man teams from the front line to hunt down the Mughals. At the same time, they have three thousand-man teams fighting against the White Sheep.

The defensive pressure on the northern border was also increasing. As the negotiations between him and Shah Rukh entered a white-hot stage, those damn Iranian (Note 1) emirs continued to dispatch troops and generals to the border to cooperate with Shah Rukh to deter him.

The negotiations with Shah Rukh were limited to a "verbal battle" between the rulers of both sides. They would not and could not sit together for face-to-face negotiations, and could only communicate through written letters.

Therefore, this negotiation is destined to be a very inefficient one with long time intervals.

And I'm afraid this is also what the two ambitious rulers want. They don't really want to reach any agreement with each other at the negotiating table. They just need to use this method to temporarily relieve the pressure on their respective borders so that they can free up their hands to deal with other more important enemies.

On this point, there is even empathy between the Black Sheep King Karl Yusuf and Shah Rukh.

The Black Sheep people urgently need a stable rear and a bridgehead for future westward movement to the Anatolia region. After all, the situation there is currently a mess and it seems easy to attack.

The Timurid Khanate on their eastern border was in a state of chaos but not disunity, and the hard power of the emirs in the Iranian region had hardly been damaged. Once a full-scale war broke out, the Black Sheep People would definitely suffer heavy losses.

Shah Rukh also had the same concerns. His nephew had already declared himself the new Sultan after Timur. Although the origin of the Speed ​​​​Bicycle Number was not correct, because it was recognized by most nobles, the fact that Khalil occupied Samarkand and inherited Timur's throne itself had a kind of orthodoxy bonus.

Every day Khalil remains in power, his legitimacy will increase a little, and those wavering emirs may eventually turn to Khalil for various reasons.

So Shah Rukh urgently needed to drive Khalil out of the city and take over his position.

The Black Sheep King could not openly reach a peace agreement with the emirs of the Timurid Khanate because the Black Sheep people had too deep a hatred for the Khanate. If Karl Yusuf dared to do so today, his head would be hung on a flagpole tomorrow, and the next tough guy who dared to fight the Khanate would continue to fight the Khanate.

Shah Rukh was in the same embarrassing situation. If he dared to declare that he and the Black Sheep Peoples would each be their own country today, he would be beheaded by the emirs who supported him tomorrow... Not to mention the position of Sultan, even his fiefdom in Afghanistan would be taken away.

"To Timur's successor, His Highness Shah Rukh, under the protection of the Black Sheep Totem, our people are as tough as iron, and we will not give up even a single step on our borders!

But for...we are willing...if you are willing...we will..."

Soon, a letter was written by Karl Yusuf, which was harsh in wording and arrogant in attitude, but made concessions on practical issues. This kind of letter dialogue had been going back and forth many times.

Both sides adopted a similar strategy, using ambiguous language that required a certain level of political acumen to sincerely offer concessions and expedite negotiations, while also maintaining a harsh tone to prevent the letter itself from leaking.

This can also be considered a kind of word game, but compared to Shah Rukh, who was not yet a sultan, Karl Yusuf had more options.

"As before, send this letter to the city of Harle." The Black Sheep King put the letter into a special packaging and tied it to the feet of a crow. He said softly and then released the crow.

Chapter 432 Strategic Goals

"Excuse me, Lord Rufeng, but with our current military strength, we are completely unable to pose a real threat to the Black Sheep."

In the city of Aleppo, in the Lord's Mansion, in front of the sand table, Badak, who was dressed in plain clothes, stared at the sand table and said solemnly.

As the highest-ranking Khanate officer under Li Rufeng, Badak is almost on the same level as Qinggelinayan in terms of ability and qualifications.

"The Black Sheep People are not as powerful as you think. Once they fail on the front battlefield, they will soon suffer a chain defeat." Qinggelinayan, whose face was a little pale, coughed and refuted.

Because of Dangertai's incident, Qinggelinayan's health condition has deteriorated sharply in the past few days. All the personal soldiers he trusts most have been sent out to deliver a message, calling on all the tribes to gather in Aleppo to discuss important matters.

Before the leaders of each tribe arrived, Li Rufeng and his team had to come up with a feasible strategic plan.

This point is actually a bit unfamiliar to middle-level officers like Qinggelinayan and Badak. After all, when they fought in the past, they didn't care why the war started or when it would end.

Before them are specific tactical goals, such as which city to capture, which enemy to eliminate, and so on.

And now they have to consider all these things, because Li Rufeng is also a layman. The only thing he can propose is the strategic direction - what is the possibility of us completely defeating the Black Sheep People?

If we can completely defeat the Black Sheep People, how large an area can we control with our current military strength?

When Li Rufeng raised these questions, both Qinggelinayan and Badak fell silent, and Habashibuhua, who said he was a veteran but was actually a veteran soldier, was even more silent. He still couldn't calculate how much supplies a team of a thousand people would consume when they went out to fight for a month.

"I know they'll be defeated, but they'll quickly gather. If we don't have enough troops to quickly wipe out the tribes behind them after they're defeated, we'll just have to wait for them to attack again and again." Bardock shook his head. "Our current territory can barely support such a large army. If the war drags on, we'll definitely collapse before the Black Sheep."

Compared to Qinggelinayan, Badak could better understand how much money it cost to maintain an army. When he was in the Anatolian Peninsula, he almost turned gray in order to barely achieve this.

Behind Qinggelinayan, there are tens of thousands of people from the entire Mongol community supporting him. He only needs to fight well.

"Bardak is right. We can't let this war become a protracted one. The Black Sheep King is very resilient. Even the old Sultan probably didn't expect that he could come back again?" Li Rufeng also stared at the map.

"In general, if we enter a state of all-out war, we need to end the war within half a year." Li Rufeng set a time point for the war.

It was already February of 1409, and the temperature was quite friendly to the cavalry. They did not have to gallop in heavy armor in the high temperature of 30 or 40 degrees.

This is even more true for war horses. At this time, the grass on the grassland is still abundant, so the cavalry only needs to carry some dry food and let the horses take care of the rest on the spot.

Otherwise, when the midsummer season comes, with the Mongolians' configuration of riding multiple horses, the logistics alone will be too much for Li Rufeng to handle.

So theoretically they should have ended the war within four months, but Li Rufeng didn't want to push his "generals" too hard, so he gave them two more months.

These two months are based on the assumption that Aleppo has not been counterattacked by the Black Sheep People, and business continues to flourish as usual...because by that time, Li Rufeng's promise to exempt commercial taxes for one year will expire, and he can obtain a lot of wealth from the prosperous business to support the continuation of the war.

Although Li Rufeng has no shortage of money, sometimes it takes time to convert money into usable war resources.

"I hope that by the end of the war, even if we fail to wipe out the Qara ...

He did not include Baghdad in this circle, because beyond Baghdad is the border of the Khanate. No matter what the considerations were, he did not want to have such contact with the Khanate forces so early.

Because in terms of legal status, Li Rufeng and the Mongol people he led were still vassals of the Khanate...

Bardock must have sensed something from the scope of this circle, but he remained silent. His soldiers had been assimilated into Li Rufeng's forces over the past few months, leaving him somewhat unsure of where to go...

Li Rufeng's finger continued to move northward, lightly passing through the city of Mardin and Urfa Castle, and finally stopped on the south side of Diyarbakir, bordering the territory of the Aries people.

The area where his finger passed basically included all the areas once controlled by Dost. Those people in the river must be willing to fight this war to the death.

When Li Rufeng's fingers stopped, Banak and Qinggelinayan looked at the circle and fell into deep thought. In terms of military strength alone, they could indeed control such a large area of ​​land.

The only problem is Mosul, which is a big city, even bigger than Aleppo. And less than a hundred miles east of Mosul is a fortress called Erbil, which is also a tough nut to crack.

Most of the soldiers under Li Rufeng's command are cavalry, which is their advantage and disadvantage. They can hunt their enemies unscrupulously on the plain, but attacking cities is not their forte.

Even when Qinggelinayan attacked the city of Mardin, the main force he prepared for the siege was Armenians and hired Genoese...and in the end, the capture of Mardin was only possible because Master Li personally took part in the battle and launched a surprise attack.

Li Rufeng's infantry had yet to muster a thousand-man detachment, and his artillery was currently without any cannons. Facing such a fortified city, he couldn't expect Master Li to risk his life again and launch a surprise attack...

He himself knew the difficulty involved. Just from Urfa Castle to Mosul, the entire area was basically fertile farmland and a fertile grain-producing area. As an Oriental, Li Rufeng really couldn't bear to see these lands go to waste.

"If there is enough gunpowder, it is not impossible..." Finally, Badak broke the silence. Compared to Qinggelinayan who came from the "Cavalry Tent", he was a regular officer of the Khanate after all, and had cooperated with the engineers on the battlefield several times.

"I'll find a solution to the gunpowder problem." Li Rufeng slapped the sand table, leaving a big five-fingerprint on it.

Chapter 433: War to Glory

Gunpowder is one of the important milestones in the advancement of human civilization to the next stage, or it should be said that it is one of the important milestones in the advancement of human warfare to the next stage.

Ever since those mysterious alchemists gained experience in blasting in the furnace again and again and extracted this mysterious little powder from it, the mysterious thing called gunpowder has officially entered the history of mankind, spreading from the East to Asia, and then from Asia to Europe,

In the near future, this legacy will retrace its steps, returning from Europe to its birthplace, and blossom into the brilliant flower known as insufficient firepower syndrome...

But that is all in the future. Given the place and time where Li Rufeng is now, the secret of gunpowder was probably passed to this land through the East, and then to Europe through this land. At this time, all three parties are in the stage of exploring this mysterious weapon. It is an era where no one can say who is backward or who is advanced.

Li Rufeng happened to have the key to the right path in this era. He knew the true power of gunpowder weapons. Although most of the ideas in his mind could not be realized due to material strength issues, sometimes just an idea was enough to broaden the horizons of others.

At present, gunpowder is not cheap in any region. In order to prepare enough gunpowder to supply future artillery, Li Rufeng placed an order with his Venetian partner Antonio early on.

Thanks to the Eternal Heaven, the price of sulfur in the Apennine Peninsula is very "fair" due to its volcanic activity. The real difficulty lies in the difficulty of collecting saltpeter...

But the good news is that there is a huge Jebel Salt Marsh less than a hundred miles away from Aleppo. Along the area around the salt marsh with the strongest smell, take the white soil on the surface, boil it repeatedly, filter it, and dry it in the sun, and you can eventually get saltpeter of good purity.

However, during the entire process, because a large amount of water needs to be boiled and evaporated repeatedly, the fuel alone is a huge consumption, so the cost of producing saltpeter using this method is not cheap.

But even so, Li Rufeng still has a batch of raw materials sufficient to make hundreds of kilograms of gunpowder. This is his preparation for this war, and this number is growing over time.

The workers who had boiled Greek fire for Li Rufeng during the Plague War had been busy with these things since the war. Li Rufeng had worked hard to make them develop the good habit of wearing protective equipment at work. How could he let these "technical elites" who had already entered the "chemical worker" industry return to the civilian population?

Just like Li Rufeng's plan for the blacksmith area, he also planned a special area for these workers, and the workshop was located near the outskirts of Aleppo. Although it took some time to commute to get off work, considering that Li Rufeng provided them with commuter carriages and wages that were significantly higher than the average, these workers were still very satisfied with their jobs.

On the other side, Bardock, who received a positive response from Li Rufeng, has entered a state of war.

As a young officer with many battles under his belt, although Bardock had wasted several years, he still inevitably felt excited about the upcoming war.

"Notify all soldiers on leave and tell them that their vacation is over." There was a hint of suppressed excitement in Bardock's tone, and this excitement was immediately caught by Centurion Sayyib.

"Should we take action against the Black Sheep People?" Saib asked directly, and a smile appeared on his originally serious face.

Sayib is the most determined returnee among the Badakhshan Thousand. He is from Mashhad, a prosperous city, and his family has a warm home in this prosperous city because of his military exploits.

He has four wives and thirteen children waiting for him to return in this small home, and he has reasons to go back.

But perhaps because of Sayyib's sense of responsibility to the army, or perhaps for other reasons, Sayyib did not leave the army and return to his hometown immediately after arriving in Aleppo.

"Saiyib, this is not your war. Perhaps..." Bardock glanced at his most loyal centurion and said sincerely, "It's time to go home."

"Go home?" Saib's smile gradually turned bitter. "Why? I haven't received any orders to go home. If I just go back to Mashhad, what will others think of me?"

"If they ask me if I'm a deserter, what should I say?" Saib shook his head and said firmly, "We must win this war. I'm not a coward, nor a deserter. I must return home with glory and victory!"

"Saiyib, that might take a long time." Bardock sighed. He knew that many people in his army chose to stay here because of the same concerns.

Under the rule of the old Sultan, these soldiers who were directly under the Sultan had honors and responsibilities far exceeding other armies of the Khanate, just like the Ottoman Guards. When the old Sultan died suddenly and the new Sultan had not yet ascended the throne, they did not know what to do.

But the appearance of Li Rufeng at least gave them a backup option. Li Rufeng provided them with safe accommodation, abundant food, and a reason that was convincing enough for them—

Her Royal Highness Princess Parisa.

These "guards" who were only loyal to the old Sultan were far away from Shah Rukh and even farther away from Khalil, but Her Highness Parisa was very close, and Li Rufeng, as Princess Parisa's "husband", obviously had strong control and influence.