Mount and Blade Central Asia

He knew that although his brothers were not the kind of people who were obsessed with the profound principles of the Koran, they still had a condescending attitude towards the primitive shamanistic beliefs. Li Rufeng, on the other hand, was the kind of person who would respect others as much as he respected, and if anyone offended him, he would confiscate their property and destroy their entire family.

Under Lao Luokan's introduction, several former brotherhood members expressed their respect to Li Rufeng one by one. They learned a lot from wandering in society over the years, and their youthful arrogance was gone, just like Lao Luokan himself.

But what they didn't know was that Li Rufeng had a very high tolerance for this kind of technical talent, and it was difficult to describe how eager he was to recruit talented people, so the whole scene was filled with joy.

In fact, Li Rufeng has always been thinking about the Ahch Brotherhood. After all, compared with secret societies like the Eagle of Order, the Ahch Brotherhood is obviously taking a path that is more in line with the progress of civilization.

In this joyful atmosphere, Li Rufeng indirectly learned a lot of information about this organization, such as the fact that the Akh Brotherhood had cooperated with the Mongols during the Mongol Westward Expedition.

Relying on their own advanced technology that had created a technological gap locally, they deeply studied the gunpowder technology brought by the Mongols, completed the localization process of gunpowder manufacturing in a short period of time, and provided gunpowder supplies to the Mongolian expeditionary force for a long time.

Furthermore, during the Ottoman Empire, Old Rokan and his men had also created a musket similar to a small handheld cannon, and the order was placed by Bayezid the Prisoner...

The good news was that Bayezid paid the full amount, but the bad news was that the performance of the arquebus on the battlefield was so poor that the Akh Brotherhood simply abandoned the research route in this direction after the Battle of Ankara and focused on continuing to manufacture large-scale, high-powered stone-throwing cannons.

Although Li Rufen was very happy in his heart, he also knew that although he knew the future technology route that had been verified, he could not increase the time point for the appearance of the musket in a short period of time.

At this stage, in order to ensure that the projectiles pushed by the gunpowder explosion have sufficient lethality and will not injure the shooter due to barrel explosion, the wall thickness of the musket barrel will have to be unacceptably thick.

In other words, any musket that can shoot people can probably also be used as a war hammer...

Moreover, Li Rufeng’s biggest military advantage now is that he has enough high-quality archers on hand. Unless he is crazy, he will not take the initiative to break his advantageous route.

Chapter 445 Speculators

Renzo Piano, a native of Genoa, is both the darling and the abandoned of this era.

He had witnessed both the embers of Genoa's glory and the depression of the great bankruptcy era. The war surrounding the city of Chioggia drained Genoa's last bit of blood in the Mediterranean.

Since then, the Genoese's business empire has been reduced to only half, and they have to face "malicious" competition from up-and-coming companies from all sides.

As a Genoese, Piano led this group of mercenaries to fight endlessly around the world. One of the main purposes of exchanging blood for gold coins was to earn enough money for himself to invest in a trading company.

Like Venice, Genoa is a federation of commercial city-states, and merchants, especially big merchants, are the big figures at the pinnacle of power. The number of merchant ships a person owns and the number of shipping routes he occupies are proof of his strength.

The Genoese mercenaries, who were famous in Europe, were merely a by-product of protecting trade routes and were not worthy of public display.

Even if there are a few "mercenary marshals" who have made a name for themselves in the mercenary business, they are essentially just doing business in the mercenary market.

For example, someone once made a big deal with the Roman emperor in the thousand-year-old palace of Constantinople, and directly contracted the defense of a section of the city wall.

On the other hand, the "mercenary marshal" used the large commission he received from the Roman emperor to bribe the Ottomans to take special care of the walls they were guarding when attacking the walls of Constantinople.

In this way, the defensive pressure on this section of the city wall dropped sharply, and the "mercenary marshal" naturally had the capital to charge a higher commission from the Roman emperor, and then use this money to further bribe the Ottomans and obtain more care.

In the end, the routine siege between the two sides turned into a money game under the eloquence of the "mercenary marshal". The Roman emperor got the military glory he wanted and the thousand-year-old capital stood firm again, while the Ottomans, from the sultan to the officers, all made a fortune.

As for the "mercenary marshal", he proved himself to be a true businessman, returning to Genoa with a lot of money and glory and becoming a figure in the city council.

Ultimately, only the soldiers who died on and below the city walls paid for the deal, but they obviously don't figure into any of the stories.

Piano's ambitions were not that big. He just wanted to make enough money to invest in a promising business, and then be called a noble man instead of a mercenary leader for the rest of his life.

But fate obviously did not favor him so much. The business he invested in suffered heavy losses after the first trade because of misjudging the local prices. Piano's capital did not even give him a chance to try again, and it disappeared without a trace.

Fortunately, Piano is an investor with a very healthy mentality. He only lost his liquid assets, and his personal reputation was not ruined.

So after losing his fortune, almost the next day, Pirno gathered his old subordinates again with full spirit and planned to go to the land of the "Saracens" again to work for the pagan lord.

Chapter 446 Mongolian Reconnaissance

"The Urfa Castle is ahead." Habashibuhua, who was following Bardock, still reported to him as an adjutant.

Although nominally speaking, Habashibuka's current status should be higher than Bardock, but as a veteran, Habashibuka's attitude towards Bardock, the centurion, can be described as respectful.

Of course, Bardock's years of experience overseas were not enough to inflate him. He hadn't really considered Habashibuka his deputy, so he asked politely, "You have occupied this place before. If we really want to attack the city this time, we still have to rely on your experience."

"When we attacked Dosit, he didn't have many men and had completely abandoned the defense here. Thanks to Qinggelinayan finding a cannon, we were able to defeat him easily." Habashibuhua pointed to the remaining marks on the city gate and said with a smile, "It seems those Black Sheep people haven't had time to repair their gate. If we fight again, we can still break in through there."

Badak looked at the Urfa Castle not far away, but he did not look as relaxed as Habashibuka, because every siege war was extremely brutal, even under the leadership of the great conqueror Timur.

He himself had never participated in this kind of siege. He usually served as a supervisor in the rear to prevent the infantry and archers from being unable to withstand the pressure and fleeing.

It is obvious that the Qara ...

Although the great conquerors liked to move these two types of people back to Samarkand, both Tabriz and Baghdad, especially Baghdad, were large cities with a thousand-year heritage and had sufficient foundation to recover from such plunder.

It can be said that as long as the people inside are not all dead, they will continue to produce scholars and craftsmen, just like the Mongolian tribes on the grasslands will continue to produce high-quality cavalry.

Bardock was not worried about the war potential shown by Urfa Castle. After all, it was just a small castle with only one or two thousand people stationed in it. Even if they used this method to carry out a long siege, they would still be able to achieve the final victory.

What's more, that lord had cannons in his hands. Badak knew that the lord had ordered a lot of cannons, and he happened to be one of the few officers in Timur's army who had experience in using artillery. Even when he was stationed near Smyrna, Badak was in charge of several cannons.

However, when times got tougher, those cannons were the first military supplies to be sold. Bardock relied on those cannons and gunpowder to keep his thousand-man army going for several more months...

So he knew the power of the cannon, and was very sure that the castle could not withstand the cannon bombardment, and after that, the Black Sheep people had no chance of winning.

What Badak was really worried about was the war potential shown by the Qara ...

However, their reconnaissance for the day was over. The sentries on Urfa Castle finally couldn't stand their unscrupulous reconnaissance. As the city gate opened, a cavalry team of fifty people rushed out and rushed up the hillside towards them.

"It looks like the guests are unhappy." Bardock laughed and borrowed a bow and arrow from the guards. "Let's see if I can scare them back!"

Chapter 447: Cannons are in place!

Both Li Rufeng and the Black Sheep King Carl Yusuf knew very well that the conflict between them would break out sooner or later. After all, although this land was vast, most of it had become barren due to years of war.

Even if they wanted to develop diligently behind closed doors, population was a big problem. No force in this land could remain vibrant without the prosperity of the trade routes, so the object of this war was not land, but the node cities and fortresses on the trade routes.

Whoever controls more trade route nodes will have stronger economic power, and whoever has stronger economic power will have the power to buy over the "wild forces" that exist in the form of tribes and villages along the way.

The main reason why Li Rufeng was able to gain an advantage in this development competition was that the city of Aleppo occupied by Li Rufeng was one of the few termini of the trade route in this land in the west.

Aleppo is not only the hub of the north-south trade route, connecting the Arabian Peninsula and Asia, but also an important node connecting the east-west trade route, ensuring the commodity corridor between the East and the European continent. So when the war between the Black Sheep and the Timurid Khanate broke out, after the Ottomans suddenly fell into civil strife——

The sudden opening of Aleppo almost became a savior for all merchants on the East-West Trade Route. There were endless caravans coming and going every day, and many of them chose Aleppo as their last stand.

The Black Sheep King had previously acquiesced to Li Rufeng's occupation of Aleppo because he did not want to go to war with the two great powers, the Timurid Khanate and the Mamluk Empire, at the same time. However, he soon discovered that Li Rufeng was accumulating money and expanding his power at a very fast speed.

Of course, this was also due to the two tons of gold that Mr. Li had, which led many people to misjudge Li Rufeng's economic strength and make them think that Aleppo was a place where one could make a fortune.

Antonio finally brought Li Rufeng with him to the port of Alexandretta to personally receive the batch of valuable cannons. At this time, the port was extremely crowded and bustling. Hundreds of trackers were dragging the heavy reins, slowly towing the Honest Man into the port.

Although Li Rufeng expanded the port of Alexandretta a little bit, it was still difficult to dock a "big ship" like the Honest Man. It required hundreds of people to coordinate closely and serve carefully to barely achieve this.

When the Honest Man finally docked safely at the port, a wooden crane equipped with a pulley system, which had been built only a month ago, was right next to it. It made it easier for port workers to transport goods on and off the ship, especially for those heavy goods, and the efficiency was many times faster than before.

The design drawing of the crane was originally given to Li Rufeng by Antonio as a gift. It is said that it is becoming increasingly popular in the coastal colonies of Venice. Li Rufeng gladly accepted the gift and was very happy to see it in use today.

With the help of cranes and workers, the heavy artillery was quickly transported off the ship. It gleamed with a chilling metallic luster in the sun. Hundreds of workers at the port and merchants passing by all saw this batch of brand new weapons.

Li Rufeng knew that among these people were spies of the Black Sheep, spies of the Mamluks, and possibly Cypriots, spies of the Knights Hospitaller, and even informants of the Ming Dynasty's Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After all, most of the merchants sailing on the sea these days are happy to sell the information they have collected as intelligence to those who are willing to pay for it, so the news that Li Rufeng has a large number of artillery on hand cannot be hidden at all.

If it weren't for the rise of the Black Sheep People, which had been going on for so short a time and lacked sufficient foundation, they would probably have known the news when Li Rufeng had just placed an order through Antonio at the cannon foundry in the Venice and Genoa business districts.

Chapter 448: Bringing the War into Your Own Rhythm

"First, lubricate the barrel with boiling hot oil!" Diobiya changed his usual bad temper and taught the novices calmly and patiently how to maintain these new cannons.

His gentle attitude seemed as if he was coaxing his new lover, and the hands of several well-trained gunners were shaking, and they shook off a lot of hot oil.

Snapped!

Diobia slapped the gunner on the back of the head, "You're such a fucking cutie. Don't be so anxious, don't shake your hands, and be very careful not to burn yourself."

"Captain! Why don't you just scold us? We're scared of you..." The newbie who was being photographed was completely upset and said to Diobiya with a sad face, "We have done this process countless times, but it's your attitude that makes us..."

"Shut up! It's so rare for me to be in a good mood. It's okay if you don't know how to be grateful, but you actually dare to find fault with me?" Diobia immediately put on a dog face, and his tone returned to his usual irritable tone.

However, as soon as he made this dog face, the gunner holding the oil bottle stopped shaking his hands and his face stopped turning pale. He directly poured the hot oil in his hand into the barrel in a slow stream using a standard posture, while his partner quickly poked the oilcloth pestle into the barrel, and the pestle flew back and forth, up and down.

Diobbia could no longer contain his excitement and kicked the young man holding the oilcloth pestle away. He pestered the oilcloth up and down for a while and pulled out the pestle. He saw that there was almost no residue on the oilcloth except grease and smiled with satisfaction.

"They're all good cannons, sir, they're all good cannons!" Diobiya ran over to Li Rufeng happily, holding the oilcloth pestle and showing him the results of his inspection. "This time you can give me a new cannon!"

"No problem. These cannons will be under your charge from now on. Whether you teach them how to shoot or prepare to shoot them yourself, it's all up to you." Li Rufeng was also very happy. Although he was knowledgeable and knew the past and future five hundred years, he was at a loss when it came to the details of certain things.

For example, these cannons in front of him, although they are called cannons, they are completely different from the ancient cannons that Li Rufeng imagined, both in terms of material and design.

These cannons he purchased from overseas at a high price were all used to fire stone bullets, just like the previous cannon of Diobiya. These stone bullets had to be made by stonemasons in Aleppo according to the different calibers of the eight cannons.

If Li Rufeng did not have only these eight cannons, the issue of logistical supply alone would have been enough to make the staff of the newly established General Staff scratch their heads.

So although the cannon made Li Rufeng happy for a while, this excitement soon dissipated as its stats lagged behind. What Li Rufeng wanted was a lighter, more powerful cannon that could fire metal shells...

However, considering the current metal production and cost in the blacksmith district, even a wealthy man like Mr. Li would find it difficult to afford such a gamble...

That's basically no different from loading a cannon with Fair copper coins and shooting people at it. However, Li Rufeng had placed an order with the blacksmith district beforehand, ordering a batch of spherical metal shells and a small amount of chain bullets.

Although those metal shells are incredibly expensive, as long as they can play their due role and give the enemy an unexpected surprise at the critical moment, Li Rufeng's money will not be wasted.

The sound of cannons from the test factory began at noon. Diobiya and his students spent the entire afternoon verifying that all the cannons could fire.

When Antonio purchased these cannons, the various cannon foundries had arranged for people to conduct several test firings in front of him, but both Li Rufeng and Diobbia himself believed that seeing is believing.

Chapter 449 Afternoon

Just as the army under Li Rufeng was preparing to attack the Black Sheep People's Urfa Castle, a huge change also took place inside Urfa Castle. The centurion Haidam, who was sent by the Black Sheep King to support Haidam, died.

Just as Haidam had hoped, his confidant easily sneaked into the hall where Dimurati was preparing the banquet, and poisoned the drinks through his chef friend.

However, this matter was a little beyond Haidam's control. Not only Dimurati died, but also all his centurions and almost all the warriors under Dimurati who were worth mentioning...

Out of fear and greed, the honest chef poured the poison into the wine jug, but at the banquet that night, in order to show that he would treat all his supporters like brothers, Dimurati poured his best wine into a larger wine jar and drank from the same container with everyone.

The result is self-evident. Every word of the dark wizard's guarantee is true. It is the most poisonous poison in the world. No one who takes it can survive.

Haidam still remembers that when he received the news and walked into the banquet hall the next morning, the room was full of dead people still sitting in their seats, and the food prepared for the banquet was piled on the table, most of it intact, as if waiting for the host's visit.

Twenty-seven people in total, no one survived. The only reason Haidam didn't get the news until the next morning was that the waiters and cooks knew they were doomed and fled the castle overnight.

Including the chef who poisoned the food and slipped away before the banquet officially began.

Dimurati's eyes were wide open, but his look was full of confusion, as if he had no idea what had happened until the last second before his death.

Haidam wasn't much better either. Looking at the scene in front of him, he was so scared that he broke out in a cold sweat when he thought about the bottle of poison he once carried with him.

In order to cover up his tracks, he found a reason to deal with the confidant who took action that night, and then naturally took over Dimurati's thousand-man team in the chaos.

Although they came from different tribes, it was obvious that without a leader, the people of Dimurati did not dare to go against the authority of the Black Sheep King. The great Black Sheep King asked them to assist Haidam in defending Urfa Castle.

Now, even though Dimurati and many prominent people in the tribe are dead, the Black Sheep King's order is still there. Apart from sending messengers to Tabriz to announce the death of Dimurati, the remaining soldiers can only obey Haidam's orders temporarily.

In this way, Haidam once again became the sole owner of Urfa Castle, and his strength increased greatly.

But what puzzled him was that he was waiting to seize power in the castle, but what were the Mongols waiting for?

As one of the earliest people to follow the Black Sheep King, Haidam naturally knew that there was nothing in the world that the Mongols dared not do. Now that they had appeared outside the castle, they would definitely launch an attack.

But soon Haidam will find out what the Mongols are waiting for...

Chapter 450 The cannon fired!

March 1, 1409, Diyarbakir, outside the city, the Black Sheep Tent.

After half a month of preliminary confrontation, the Black Sheep and the White Sheep finally reached the climax of the war. The five thousand-man teams of the Black Sheep surrounded Diyarbakir from three directions.

Not only that, the Black Sheep also mobilized a large number of civilians from Tabriz, Baghdad and other places to help transport supplies, and built catapults under the command of scholars. It was obvious that this time the Black Sheep were determined to capture the city of Diyarbakir.

Aries King Kara Osman sat in the center of Diyarbakir, appearing unhurried. He had two plans in mind.

First of all, the Aries King had reached some secret agreements with the Mongolian warlords. Anyway, the Great Conqueror was dead, and the once powerful Timurid Khanate was no longer able to maintain its rule over this land, so the Aries King no longer had to follow the wishes of the Great Conqueror to maintain his reputation in this land.

All the Mongolian warlords wanted was a title, and Kara Osman was very happy to use such an illusory thing to exchange for reinforcements that he could really use.

The only reason why he had been delaying until now and had not made a final decision was that his other preparations involved another Mongolian force.

The White Aries King's other preparation was naturally the Li Rufeng forces centered in Aleppo. To a certain extent, they represented the last legal authority of the Timurid Khanate in this land. Out of respect and fear for the great conqueror, Kara Osman did not want to go to the last step and did not want to open the scars of the Khanate.

So he was waiting for Li Rufeng to join the game. He just didn't know how big the appetite and courage of the Eastern lord were. Because for Li Rufeng, it was not unacceptable to reach an agreement with the Black Sheep people and only take the part of the benefits that he should take.

But if Li Rufeng is brave enough and wants more, this is his best chance... This land is like the Mongolian grassland, only the most greedy hungry wolves who dare to bite blood from other companions can eat the most.

And today, when the Black Sheep people outside the city finally set up the first catapult, the White Sheep King also waited for the news he wanted before promising equal status to those Mongolian warlords.

"Sir! The Mongols from the direction of Aleppo have attacked the Black Sheep people!" The messenger, still smelling of dust, risked his life to break through the blockade of the Black Sheep people, rushed into Diyarbakir from the direction where he was not surrounded, rushed to the palace of the White Sheep King, and reported the latest intelligence to him.

Li Rufeng's army has launched an offensive against Urfa Castle...

"We artillerymen are all about the first shot! Hitting the target with the first shot is the ideal of all artillerymen! Why do I get paid so much every month, while you don't? It's because I'm an accurate shooter!"

Diobiya held his big belly, tightened his belt, turned his nose up to the sky, and boasted to the apprentices who had no practical experience.

Then he mounted one of the cannons in a very inelegant posture and spent nearly ten minutes directing the apprentices to calibrate the direction of the cannon. Only then did he get off with satisfaction and lit the tinder with the embers in his pipe.

The next second, all the artillerymen, including Diobia himself, ran to the protective slope about ten meters behind the cannon. With the advantage in military strength and sufficient manpower, Diobia asked those strong apprentices to dig a large enough protective slope behind each cannon.