Mount and Blade Central Asia

The soldiers who were originally planning to be deployed to the Diyarbakir battlefield had to be temporarily stopped and diverted to other nearby cities.

Obviously, this would greatly delay the original attack plan and allow the Aries people to hold on for longer. In order to make up for such losses, the Black Sheep King had to once again turn to the dark wizards he wanted to get rid of.

To be honest, the relationship between him and those black wizards is already very tense. If possible, Carl Yusuf really doesn't want to give them more opportunities to gain more power. Those black wizards are crazy. In comparison, the preachers with a scimitar in one hand and the Koran in the other look like peace messengers.

"Ask Ali Hassan to come see me and tell him that I invite him to dinner." Carl Yusuf said a little tiredly. He had passed his most energetic years.

Moreover, years of wandering overseas and occasional imprisonment have destroyed his health. In all aspects, Carl Yusuf has begun to go downhill. He even occasionally feels a little powerless sitting in his current position.

For all rulers, once you develop such a mentality, it means that you should find an heir for yourself, but looking around, Karl Yusuf does not think that any of his heirs is capable of solving the problems that the Black Sheep People are facing now.

He didn't dare to relax at all and could only grit his teeth and hold on, not allowing anyone to question him. As a result, the Black Sheep King's behavior became more and more tyrannical and cruel.

At the same time, the Turkmen leader, Aries King Kara Osman, who was in a similar situation, was drinking liquor excitedly. For the first time in this war, he felt relieved.

The Wind-like Shaman finally took action, and his action was like thunder. He directly captured the Urfa Castle and opened up the passage between Aleppo and Diyarbakir, directly threatening the safety of Mardin City. Now the Aries King would wake up laughing in his dreams at night.

Compared to cooperating with those Mongolian warlords who had no credibility at all, King Aries would rather trust the newly emerging Li Rufeng. At least from the time he first heard of this name until now, the other party has maintained a good reputation in all aspects.

Now that he was ready to place the bet, Kara Osman naturally had to offer the shaman lord a gift of sufficient weight. He wrote directly to Qinggelinayan and wrote down all the information he knew about his brother Dangertai in the letter.

These include the Mongolian warlords that Danggertai cooperated with, the supporters behind Baoledbagen, and which tribe the possible mastermind came from. As the nominal leader of those Mongolian warlords, Kara Osman still has some information channels.

Of course, the most important thing is where Dangertai is now.

The reason why he wrote to Qinggelinayan instead of Li Rufeng was because Kara Osman did not want his image to be too flattering. He could face the great conqueror Timur with such an attitude, and Li Rufeng... maybe he could reach that height in the future, but not now.

Kara Osman knew Qinggelinayan's character. He would never disregard the interests of all the Mughals for his own selfish interests. Even so, he had given his ally a qualified gift. What happened afterwards was a matter between the Mughals and had nothing to do with him.

No matter what the Mughals do next, their actions have already changed the current battlefield situation...

At this time, Dangertai, who didn't know that he had been betrayed, was enjoying his hard-earned rights and respect in a comfortable environment. Although all this was given by Chief Aslen, young people are always passionate, their thoughts are simple and direct, and most of the time they don't think so deeply.

Dangertai felt that for the first time in his life, he was treated as a real "adult" instead of Qinggelinayan's younger brother. Every word he said was listened to, thought about, and ultimately executed.

And those women...Dangertai is not a virgin. As a young Mongol nobleman known for his bravery, 90% of the women in this land are just a matter of whether he wants to sleep with them or not.

But these women worship Dangertai wholeheartedly, believing that he is the future king of this land, and fantasizing that they will become his queen and live a life of wealth and glory from then on.

"Baoledebagen, when are we going to take action and do something big?" One morning, Dangertai crawled out from the pile of women. The young man who was originally full of energy now had a pale face, which made Baoledebagen frown.

When he originally tried to win over Dangertai, he was indeed attracted by Dangertai's identity, but more importantly, Dangertai himself was also of high quality. But now the kid is about to be ruined.

This forced Baoledebagen to go talk to Asleng later, lest that stupid boy Dangertai die in bed before he even starts.

Although he held Dangertai in his heart, Baoledebagen maintained sufficient respect for him on the surface. He patted Dangertai on the shoulder and said, "My king, are you impatient now? But you must know that anyone who wishes to wear the crown must be patient. The Black Sheep and the Aries are fighting, and the shaman has also eagerly joined the fray, but they are not hunters. We are."

"I know, but..." A trace of dissatisfaction flashed across Dangertai's face. He had no patience, not since he was a child. He has always been a person who only cares about the day.

"We'll need more time to gather the army and prepare food and weapons. You didn't think we'd need food to fight, did you?" Baoledebagen explained. "There are wars everywhere right now, and food prices have risen quite a bit, so we've been delayed for a while."

"It's just a matter of food. Didn't the shaman prepare a lot of food? Let's go and steal his food!" Dangertai said viciously, "We are wolves on the grassland. When have you ever seen a wolf prepare its own food? We only steal food prepared by others!"

"Child, they are our own kind, we can't do anything to them!" Baoledebagen frowned again, and he began to doubt that the child he had abducted was really a wolf cub.

What's more, they don't have the strength to rob Li Rufeng now...

"I don't care, give me a thousand men! I can bring the food back right away!" Dangertai walked out regardless. "If you don't give me any, I will recruit them myself!"

Chapter 457 Honoring the Mongols

Baoledebagen knew that Dangertai was not joking. In order to deceive people, they had used Qinggelinayan's younger brother's identity to build momentum for Dangertai during this period.

To rebuild a Mongolian Khanate on this land, they needed not just one or two psychopaths, but a lot of them.

To achieve this, mixed-race Mongolians like Asleng are aggressively promoting their Mongol identity. It doesn't matter if you were Turkmen or Kurdish, if you have black hair, blond hair, or red hair, or black eyes, green eyes, or blue eyes—as long as you're willing to contribute to this Khanate dream, you're a Mongol.

Baoledebagen had to admit that Asleng was a man who could do great things. He was born to do this. He spent several years in his tribe and on this land weaving a dream of a Khanate, making many people believe what he said.

So many young people are full of energy and are willing to sacrifice their lives at any time. Of course, most of them have nothing except their lives.

During this period of time, they have carried out a lot of publicity in the name of Dangertai. Now this kid has fanatical "followers" wherever he goes. If he is released like this, he might really be able to gather a team of a thousand people within a few days.

Baoledebagen is a pure Mongolian, but he is one of the few people who is very rational and basically not affected by emotions. The reason why he can work with Aslen is because they are both people who make decisions after planning.

What they hate most is variables beyond their plans, and for this reason they are even willing to temporarily give up their own interests and even endure humiliation.

In contrast, Dangertai is a typical Mongolian, whose wisdom often only shines on the battlefield...

However, since we have mentioned the above two types of Mongols, we have to mention two other Mongols of the same type who were sent to work together, Mongke and Huluchirga.

Mongke's mind may not be as gloomy as Baoledebaggen's, but his ambition is definitely slightly higher. He does not aspire to become another Khan or Sultan, but his lifelong dream is to gallop freely on the grassland like his father did and crush everything that makes him unhappy.

If you ask him how big this grassland is, Mengge will definitely tell you modestly that it is slightly smaller than the Tengger grassland.

In terms of recklessness, Huluchirjia and Dangertai can be regarded as rivals. After all, Dangertai is young and seldom considers the consequences of his actions. It is also difficult for him to be patient. The same is true for Huluchirjia.

At this time, the duo who were ordered to hunt down Dangertai had already entered the territory of the Mongolian warlords. Because of the large army's crossing of the border, many small tribes had discovered their traces.

But just like their previous style of doing things, both Mongke and Hulujirga chose to cover their tracks at a faster speed - as long as their marching speed was faster than those who tipped off the news, they would always be invisible in the eyes of others.

Based on the information they received along the way and the traces left by Baoledebagen and his men during their march, they already had a rough idea of ​​Dangertai's location.

Although this area was nominally divided and managed by various Mongolian warlords, there were only a few large tribes worth mentioning. Huluchirjia's status was not qualified before, and he rarely had the opportunity to get to know these warlords, but Mongke was different.

Although he was not like Qinggelinayan, who came here every year with gifts to communicate with each other, he had visited almost all the tribes, big and small, in this land. Sometimes he came with Qinggelinayan, and sometimes he came to sell the stolen goods.

When Mengge was engaged in highway robbery, sometimes when he came across goods that were easier to sell, such as tea and ironware, he would secretly sell the stolen goods here, and he also forged deep friendships with several tribes.

Our guide is a hunter from one of the tribes. There is nothing new on the grassland, and no secrets can be hidden forever, so Mengge and his companions are now approaching the grassland occupied by Asleng.

"Do you think that little bastard will be spanked in public when he is caught?" A sly smile appeared on Hulucierjia's face. Until now, he still thought that this was just a "family affair", which could be classified as a situation where the child was ignorant and needed to be caught and taught a lesson.

Mengge sneered. He knew that things would not end so easily. Ten years ago, Qinggelinayan would have hanged the brat on a tree trunk himself, but now he was a little unsure of Qinggelinayan's attitude.

As his health deteriorated over the past two years, his personality changed dramatically.

Mengge never expected that Qinggelinayan would give up his power so easily, and he didn't even have the intention to compete with Li Rufeng. He woke up from his dreams countless times, regretting that he didn't seize the opportunity.

Perhaps if he had been a little tougher and braver, he would now be the one called Lord Na Yan. But Li Rufeng's power has already been established, and Mengge can only put away his own thoughts and serve Li Rufeng just as he served the great conqueror.

"Qinggelinayan said he wanted to live. This is his choice. It's a good thing for the shaman." Mengge said absentmindedly. He was wondering if this was a way for Qinggelinayan to retreat at the right time and take the initiative.

After all, in such a power struggle, it is really difficult for anyone to get away unscathed, and self-defilement has always been the most effective means. From now on, as long as Dangertai is still alive, all the Mongols will remember this incident. The former Lord Nayan gave up the interests of his tribe for the sake of brotherhood.

Mengge glanced at Jitalehun who was following beside him. After sacrificing Dangertai, Qinggelinayan had paved the way for his younger brother.

Thinking of this, Mengge suddenly shuddered. He remembered the scene when he was young and Qinggelinayan sent Jatalehun to Samarkand as a hostage without hesitation. If his two younger brothers were just pawns in the hands of Qinggelinayan and could be swapped at will, then Qinggelinayan would be too scary.

Perhaps the so-called brotherhood in his heart is just a shield to protect the interests of his family... If this is the rule of the game in the aristocratic circle, are you really ready to enter this circle?

Just when Mengge was falling into self-doubt, the scouts they sent out had returned with the latest news.

"Sir, we captured a group of Kumanzi (Turkmen), who said they were going to join Danggertai and become honorary Mongols." The expression on the scout's face was interesting, and it was obvious that he had never heard of such a ridiculous term as honorary Mongols in his life.

You have to know that even among the Mongols, they would trace each other's bloodline and tribal origins to distinguish between the superior and the inferior. The Mongols are pure descendants of the Chagatai tribe and the most legitimate descendants of Genghis Khan. They have always been proud of this.

Over the years, at least half of the hatred between the Mongols and the people of Transoxiana was due to a competition to see who could represent the true Chagatai tribe.

The Mongols felt that the people of Transoxiana had abandoned the nomadic customs of Mongolia and were not even Mongolians, let alone Chagatai people. The people of Transoxiana, on the other hand, felt that they were richer and more powerful and were emulating Genghis Khan's feat of establishing Karakorum.

Because of this kind of thing, the Mongol people and the people of Transoxiana, who share the same origin, have been fighting for decades and have become sworn enemies. Now that a group of people have emerged and claimed to be honorary Mongols, it is naturally an even bigger problem.

Mengge rode away with a frown, and Huluchirjia and Jatalehun followed behind him. They looked at each other, and our minds were also a mess.

At this time, the nominal king of these honorary Mongols, Dangertai, was reviewing his army with high spirits. Just as he said, no matter whether Baoledebagen and Aslen supported him or not, he now had his own supporters.

As long as Dangertai wanted, these gathered foreigners were willing to exchange their lives for a better future. This feeling of manipulating other people's lives made Dangertai experience for the first time a feeling more refreshing than that of sex!

Chapter 458 Productivity Advantages

"We need to leave at least 400 people to defend Urfa Castle in order to maintain normal operations." Bardock said with a frown. As much fun as he enjoyed attacking the city, he felt as much of a headache now.

The Black Sheep might not have that many cannons, but given the current situation of Urfa Castle, they don't need them. That gate can't even stop a bird.

"You don't need to worry about defending the city. Your next target is the city of Mardin." Li Rufeng stood on the familiar city wall, looking at the civilians who were busy repairing the city gate below, and said calmly.

He now has sufficient troops at his disposal, and both the tenacious Armenians and the militia fighters trained by Piri Reyes have already shown initial results.

Especially the latter, it may be difficult to ask them to fight in the field now, but there is definitely no problem in asking them to defend the city.

These days, young people who want to make a name for themselves have few options other than serving their lord. Especially in the previous war, Li Rufeng has proven himself to be a generous lord, and many young people in his territory have enthusiastically signed up to become militia.

Li Rufeng spent a lot of effort and money to build a blacksmith area, which has now begun to show its brilliance. Those blacksmiths are currently providing weapons and equipment for Li Rufeng's army with extremely high efficiency.

Generally speaking, it takes about five to ten years to train a blacksmith apprentice, and it also depends on whether the blacksmith who teaches the apprentice is willing to pass on his real skills to the apprentice.

It is not uncommon for those selfish blacksmiths to make their apprentices, who are not so easy to get along with, to waste seven or eight years of their time fetching water and burning firewood. However, Li Rufeng used a more clever way to reduce the learning costs of his apprentices.

On the one hand, the blacksmiths in the Aleppo blacksmith district naturally divided into two factions. On one side were the blacksmiths from Mardin, who were relatively numerous but generally had low technical skills. On the other side were the foreign blacksmiths, mainly Mersin blacksmiths, who were fewer in number but had relatively high technical skills.

To some extent, a healthy competition has formed between the two sides. All the blacksmith apprentices are ultimately Li Rufeng's people. They are not bound by the blacksmiths themselves, so these apprentices are actually capable of going to heaven...

On the other hand, there is also pressure from orders. First of all, Mr. Li is rich, very rich. Since the blacksmith area was built, he has placed large orders. The existing orders are enough to keep the entire blacksmith area busy for a whole year.

The whirring of hammers, the sizzling forges, the billowing black smoke—all of this forces those inefficient blacksmiths to quickly improve their efficiency. These blacksmiths have only one way to increase their efficiency: to quickly involve apprentices in the production process...

Thanks to the standardized process and assembly line operation proposed by Li Rufeng, the learning difficulty for apprentices has been greatly reduced. An experienced blacksmith who can single-handedly do everything from smelting ore to casting a sword, polishing the blank, balancing the center of gravity, and quenching and sharpening it may take five years to achieve initial success.

But it only takes a few months to master just one of the links. The large amount of single and repetitive work allows these blacksmith apprentices to grow quickly.

Before Li Rufeng left Aleppo for Urfa Castle, he had selected several outstanding apprentices to form a team. They could each focus on their own field and forge sabers at a speed several times faster than other blacksmiths.

In addition to the saber, Li Rufeng's confidence in going to war with the Black Sheep People this time was also due to the army's armor rate.

In this era, the technology of manufacturing chain mail has become very mature. Even many veterans can maintain and repair their armor themselves if they have the right tools and armor rings.

The two factors that limit the production of chain mail are the output of iron rings and the speed of weaving armor. Li Rufeng is lucky to have a team of "technical blacksmiths" from the Brotherhood.

The steam forging hammer, which seemed very simple to Li Rufeng, could stably produce qualified metal, and then be forged into iron rings using the wire drawing process, solving the first problem.

The reason why the second problem was solved was because of Li Rufeng's foresight that transcended his generation... After the founding of New China, in order to strengthen productivity, the slogan of liberating women's productivity was shouted, and this sentence has the same effect in this era.

Isabella Darhe has a very special status in Aleppo. First of all, she is the director of Aleppo Hospital. During the war, many soldiers saved their lives in this hospital, so she has a very high prestige among the soldiers.

In addition, there are rumors in the city that there is some private relationship between Isabella and Shaman Rufeng that cannot be told to outsiders. After all, Isabella is indeed an extremely charming woman.

Isabella herself was of course aware that there was nothing between her and Li Rufeng. She had experienced a nightmarish night after the fall of Martin City, but for some obscure reason in her heart, she did not take the initiative to stand up and clarify the rumors.

These two reasons combined made Isabella the spokesperson for the female community in Aleppo. Because of her helpful character, gentle temperament and nature, many women in the city would come to her for help as their first reaction when they encountered difficulties.

Isabella even used the hospital to shelter several wives who were almost killed by their husbands, and daughters who were threatened by their fathers...and those men who tried to provoke Isabella were severely punished by the soldiers who were happy to serve the dean.

Li Rufeng completed this outsourcing business through Isabella. Now the blacksmiths in the blacksmith area only need to make enough iron rings, and the rest of the weaving work will be taken over by women.

Although hammers, chisels and other tools were still needed in the weaving process, the women quickly mastered these techniques in the face of the relatively high labor costs. Even the most discerning soldiers had to admit that the chain mail they wove was much more refined than before in every way.

Marcelino, the Armenian centurion, received such a chain mail. He carefully examined the chain mail that covered the upper body, shoulders and upper arms, and found that it even had a tighter weaving method on the chest and abdomen. Although it was a little heavier, the protective effect was much better.

But this wasn't the most surprising thing for him today. What surprised him the most was that the person in charge of distributing armor saw that he had only brought ten people to collect the equipment. He said in surprise, "With so few of you, how are you going to get everyone's armor?"

"Everyone?" Marcelino asked in an even more surprised tone. "Everyone?"

Chapter 459: The Jinyiwei's Position

In fact, under Li Rufeng's command, not only the Armenian Marcelino himself was surprised by the new equipment he received, but all those who received equipment in this supply were surprised.

After losing the supplies from the Khanate, the Mongols had been very frugal in using weapons and armor. It can be said that the supplies consumed in the war with Dost were almost the last possessions of the Mongols.

After all, when Li Rufeng first saw the arrowheads and horseshoes made by the blacksmith in the tribe, he almost gave up the idea of ​​practicing blacksmithing skills. The reason was simple: the environment, tools, and even the blacksmith's skills were all available.

Obviously, the situation of Li Rufeng's tribe at that time was universal among the Mongol people. At most, the blacksmiths in the large tribes had slightly better skills.

People are route-dependent. What the great conqueror Timur needed back then were these nomadic tribes to provide him with powerful rangers. Apart from that, he could meet any needs of these screen tribes.

For nearly three generations, these tribes have respected warriors and have lost the soil for cultivating technical talents. This is why Li Rufeng is eager to recruit blacksmiths from the city of Mardin.

After Li Rufeng brought back the Bardock Thousand-Man Squad from the Karaman territory, the demand for military supplies under Li Rufeng's forces was further intensified.

As a result, in more than a year, Li Rufeng was able to provide stable logistical support in terms of weapons and armor for his army of thousands of people. This allowed the Mongols and the people of Transoxiana, who were accustomed to the Khanate taking care of everything except fighting, to return to the familiar pattern.

At the same time, it also strengthened Li Rufeng's personal prestige. In the past, they fought for the great conqueror Timur, but now they fought for Li Rufeng... Although Li Rufeng did not explicitly promote this concept, many things can be accomplished subtly.

Just like the city of Hama before, they were not used to the rule of the new masters, but as more and more goods poured in from the Arab direction, the residents of Hama began to enjoy the benefits of the prosperity of the center of Aleppo.

What's more, many residents of Hama survived the plague by relying on the herbs of Shaman Rufeng, while Damascus further south had just begun to recover from the plague. In comparison, the residents of Hama immediately felt the benefits brought by the new lord.

Because of the plague, the Syrian emirs could only watch Li Rufeng show off his power on this land, allowing him to concentrate on fighting the Black Sheep People.

At this time, Karim, the leader of the people of Transoxiana, was counting troops in the tribal base. He also received Li Rufeng's call-up order, and along with the call-up order came armor, scimitars and arrows shipped from Aleppo.

Although somewhat reluctant, Karim still obeyed Li Rufeng's will. As the "Qinggelinayan" among the people of Hezhong, Karim was far inferior to Qinggelinayan in both military exploits and reputation.

Therefore, he accepted Li Rufeng's rise much faster than Qinggelinayan. In just a few months, Karim realized that at least at this stage, Li Rufeng was a more generous ruler than the great conqueror Timur.

He generously shared his land, gave up his fertile grasslands, and even subsidized the development of the city to maintain the high welfare of the "Mongols"...

Especially the latter. After Karim figured it out, he was even willing to believe that Li Rufeng was a chosen shaman sent by Changshengtian. Otherwise, who would pay their own way to become a lord? And where did he get the money?