Mount and Blade Central Asia

In fact, the Jinyiwei was also investigating this matter.

This was not because the Jinyiwei were accustomed to investigating such large assets of unknown origin, but because they really wanted to know where Li Rufeng's "start-up capital" came from so as to trace his true identity.

This task eventually fell on Weng Guo. In fact, in the face of the extremely sophisticated and professional methods of the Jinyiwei, the personal guards under Li Rufeng failed to keep the secret.

Yes, they seemed to be possessed by the existence of the system and remained loyal to Li Rufeng, but the Jinyiwei would naturally not use such despicable means to do things. On the contrary, Weng Guo only spent a few weeks, wasted a little insignificant liquor, and hired a few prostitutes to get everything he wanted to know from the guards.

During this process, none of the guards realized that this was a spying incident. They simply regarded it as some kind of drunken gossip...

It's very dramatic, but I think Li Ruofeng is just a lucky man who achieved financial freedom in the war because of good luck, courage and carefulness.

This also made the Jinyiwei even more curious about Li Rufeng. It was not easy for a young man with a family background and property to reach where he is today. But it was even more worthy of attention that a young man who was poor and had no roots and could not even speak the local language could reach such a status in just a few years.

The higher-ups had fantasized about establishing a puppet regime on this land that would maintain a friendly attitude towards the Ming Dynasty. They even contacted Shah Rukh on this premise.

To be fair, compared to the great conqueror Timur, his son Shah Rukh was a very gentle king. He was not only knowledgeable and talented, but also gentle and willing to make friends with the Ming Dynasty, and he also intended to move the capital of the Khanate to the city of Khali.

The location of a country's capital represents its future development direction. For example, Emperor Yongle had always planned to move the capital to Beiping Prefecture, and his purpose was self-evident. Shah Rukh's move of the capital to Halie City also meant that the political center of the Timurid Khanate would move to the southwest, greatly reducing the threat to the western border of the Ming Dynasty.

But instead of supporting an outsider, why not just support one of our own?

Weng Guo guessed that the idea behind this was so simple, that's why he had to test Li Rufeng again and again. Sometimes he envied Li Rufeng, who gained the trust of the higher-ups just because of his Han ancestry...while he had to travel thousands of miles to become a Ming citizen, and was still doing these hard and tiring jobs.

Fortunately, Weng Guo only complained and continued working. He soon compiled some information about Li Rufeng. Of course, this also included the changes in the blacksmith district in Aleppo.

After all, there has been quite a bit of commotion there recently, and as a warrior, Weng Guo is naturally very interested in the rapidly increasing productivity technology in the blacksmith area. It's a pity that he hasn't figured it out yet.

The new blacksmiths were very wary, and Li Rufeng's personal guards were guarding outside. Weng Guo needed more time...

Chapter 460 System Completion

Li Rufeng was still standing on the city wall of Urfa Castle, looking up at the distant sky as if he was thinking about something. From a distance, his whole figure looked very majestic.

But in reality, he was looking at the system's new features. After capturing Urfa Castle, he earned a new achievement called "The First Step on the Right Path." Li Rufeng was pretty sure it wasn't an achievement from the original Mount & Blade game, as the name and description seemed to hint at him...

[The first step towards the right path: Congratulations, you have finally opened up the world in the right way. Please keep up the good work and stay focused!

Those who have this achievement can open the strategic map mode as a reward.

Li Rufeng's brows were furrowed, and his expression was a little distorted, because he had just opened the so-called strategic map mode, and then the whole world opened up in front of him in the traditional large map form of Mount and Blade... He only now realized that he seemed to have been playing in the "Road of the Creeps" mode before!

At this time, Li Rufeng's perspective had become a bird's-eye view. Perhaps in order to take into account Mr. Li's mental state, the strategic map was not actually presented to him in the form of a map.

His perspective was a first-person perspective that gradually rose and slowly unfolded. If one had to describe it, it was more like his soul leaving his body and transforming into an eagle. There was a relatively slow process of rising, allowing Li Rufeng to overlook the entire area from a bird's-eye view.

For a moment, Li Rufeng thought he was really standing on the Tengger grassland, looking down at the world... To be honest, when this idea first appeared in Li Rufeng's mind, he really scared himself.

Although Master Li always claimed that he was the chosen shaman of Changshengtian when he was away from home, and used this identity to gather a large group of followers, the premise was that Changshengtian was just a fictional concept, and Tengri was also a personified image later to deal with the impact of other religions. If these things really existed, Li Rufeng would have a hard time accepting it.

Fortunately, the familiar icon of a little man on horseback was highlighted near Urfa Castle. The familiar icon instantly put Li Rufeng's heart at ease.

He already had a Mount & Blade system that was unknown to outsiders. Now this system was just self-complementing. It was no big deal... maybe?

Li Rufeng comforted himself with a mentality of making the best of things and then began to study this new function.

The first thing he discovered on the earth was the Urfa Castle. When his attention was focused, the image of the Urfa Castle was quickly enlarged. Li Rufeng saw himself standing on the city wall from a third-person perspective. This was the first time in his life that he saw the back of his head so clearly.

Li Rufeng stretched out his hand tentatively, gestured twice in the air, and then moved a few steps to the left and right to ensure safety. His reason and body told him that he was still standing on the city wall.

However, the strategic map perspective where his mind was located kept reminding Li Rufeng that he was overlooking the entire castle from a high vantage point. This conflict of perception made Li Rufeng suddenly feel dizzy and nauseous.

These feelings instantly kicked Li Rufeng out of this strategic map perspective. He lay on the city wall and vomited for a long time. He stood up again with a pale face, held the battlements with both hands, and then returned to the strategic map perspective.

From Li Rufeng's perspective, an icon of a man on horseback with the number 25 marked below was hovering in Urfa Castle, representing the 25 personal guards that Li Rufeng brought with him on this trip.

The icon of the horse-riding figure was the brightest. At the same time, when Li Rufeng focused his attention on the horse-riding figure, he could even see the specific locations of these guards in the Urfa Castle. Even the guard was highlighted in the room.

Li Rufeng had a feeling that as long as he wanted, he could make them accept his orders and take action at any time... He even felt that he could micro-control his personal guards on the strategic map.

The other one was a little gray in color, but it was marked with 1544 below. The cavalry composed of several small horsemen was just an icon. Li Rufeng could not have any influence on it, but at the same time he was also very clear that this icon represented the number of troops led by Bardock.

In name and in reality, they are also Li Rufeng's soldiers, but they are not recognized by the system, so they cannot enjoy Li Rufeng's skill bonuses, nor can they receive his orders in the void.

Li Rufeng's strategic map perspective "illuminates" the area within about five kilometers around Urfa Castle, while areas farther away are literally covered by the "fog of war."

According to his understanding of this system, this could be achieved by increasing the proficiency of the Scouting skill level under the Cunning attribute to increase the "Illumination" range, or by sending his own guards to dispel the fog of war.

Even so, Li Rufeng, who was no longer a rookie on the battlefield, fully understood what kind of ability he had acquired - to see what was behind the mountain. This sentence can be used to summarize the desire of all generals in the history of human warfare.

This sentence has always spurred mankind to make continuous progress in war technology. Radio, hot air balloons, airplanes, and even satellites are ultimately aimed at achieving this goal, and achieving this goal farther and faster.

And now, Master Li could easily see what was behind the "mountain". He saw from afar in the fog of war, a small man on horseback with a personal guard icon slowly approaching Urfa Castle. He emitted an extremely faint light, illuminating an area of ​​about one kilometer centered on him.

When Li Rufeng focused his sight on the personal guard, he could even directly see the environment he was in. There were more than a dozen ordinary cavalrymen following him. All of them looked very embarrassed, and some of them had wounded soldiers on their horses whose lives were unknown.

He was a spy sent by Li Rufeng to conduct close reconnaissance of the city of Martin. A few hours ago, he learned through telepathy between him and his personal guards that the other side was attacked by the Black Sheep scouts. Now he just saw it all with his own eyes.

"Bagatur and the others are back. Move the roadblocks away." Li Rufeng shouted condescendingly to the soldiers who were busy at the city gate.

The young men with good eyesight looked into the distance in confusion, but they did not see anyone within their sight. However, Li Rufeng was the lord and they had to obey Li Rufeng's orders unconditionally, so the soldiers quickly cleared a passage for the cavalry to pass through.

The personal guard named Bagatur did not appear in the sight of the soldiers at the city gate until a full twenty minutes later. The young men looked at each other in surprise, totally unable to understand why the lord knew that the scouts would return.

After all, the city wall wasn't that high, so there was no reason why he could see that far...

Such little stories would eventually become another step to strengthen Li Rufeng's rule and reputation. Li Rufeng was happy to see similar news spread among his own people and enemies, and strictly speaking, it was not even bragging.

In this era, every famous general and hero can brag about themselves, and those who can't can't become famous. You can completely think that every famous person is a braggart, and they will brag about their ability of 100 to 10,000, and their ability of 10,000 to 1 million.

The one who boasted the most was the Prophet Muhammad...

Li Rufeng walked into a temporary operating room that had just been cleaned out early. Since Bater was not around, he had to do many things himself. Li Rufeng had already begun to consider whether to recruit a few assistants to help him in the medical field.

If possible, he naturally hoped to bring the female nurses trained by Isabella to be his assistants, but considering that it would be somewhat inconvenient to have several women around during the war, Li Rufeng gave up this plan.

It is true that many nobles would bring their personal maids with them when they went to the battlefield, but Li Rufeng was a clergyman and he did not want to cause gossip.

"Send all the wounded around Bagatur to me, and let him come as well to orally report the information they have obtained." Li Rufeng waved his hand, and his personal guards went to handle other matters.

Chapter 461 Prepare to fight

"Bagatur, what did you find?" Li Rufeng asked his personal guards while stitching the wounds of the wounded.

Deyu's medical skills level is high enough. Li Rufeng found that even in a harsh operating environment, the wounded treated by him personally would rarely get infected. Muzaffar is an example.

Muzaffar's injuries were so severe that it was a miracle he didn't die from the post-operative infection.

"We were ambushed, sir. Those Black Sheep People can see us. We tried to get rid of them several times but failed..." Bagatur's tone was full of doubt. As scouts, they should come and go without a trace, and they would quickly escape even if they had a head-on conflict with the enemy.

But this time it was different, those Black Sheep people could always predict their direction of movement in advance...

As a shaman, as someone who had come into contact with the miracles hidden behind the truth, Li Rufeng didn't know how to comfort the young soldier. He might never understand why he was so unlucky.

Those Black Sheep people might have a way to observe the entire battlefield from a bird's-eye view like himself, or to put it even more simply, they could use the power of black magic to control a bird to conduct reconnaissance in the air... Those Knights of the Eagle of Order might even be able to do this without relying on miracles, who knows?

Because of the existence of those miracles and witchcraft, it is difficult for Li Rufeng to define the truth hidden behind the world. Sometimes he can't even tell whether he has traveled through a parallel world or simply retraced the timeline.

Perhaps the miracles and witchcraft that he encountered today were also buried in the history of his former world, but they were eventually buried by the torrent of time and secular forces and became unknown to the public.

"Sir, give me fifty men! I can definitely..." The personal guard named Bagatur wanted to say something else with a spirit of not admitting defeat, but his words were immediately interrupted by Captain Bardock who walked in.

"No need for that. Those Black Sheep people are about to come over and attack the castle." Badak glanced at Li Rufeng, then pointed outside the tent. Obviously, there were some situations that needed to be explained to Liu Feng separately.

Li Rufeng quickened his pace and quickly sutured the wounded man's external injuries, then followed his "general" out.

"My people found that they were gathering troops. They must have withdrawn some troops from the direction of Diyarbakir." Badak's expression was a little serious. He was very surprised at the reaction speed of the Black Sheep People.

Judging from the time, they had just captured Urfa Castle when the Black Sheep People in the direction of Mardin City had already begun to gather troops, and by that time, the defeated troops of Urfa Castle might not have arrived in Mardin City yet.

Bardock vaguely realized that the Black Sheep people's reaction speed should not be so fast, but this is a war after all, and anything can happen. He can only keep this doubt in his mind for the time being.

"How many people are expected? Can we hold on?" Li Rufeng could treat this calmly. Even if he was cheating, the enemy was just pulling him back to the same level.

"The number of people cannot be determined for the time being. Haven't your people tried it? Our scouts can't get close to the Black Sheep People's camp." Badak was not surprised by such situations. As a veteran soldier who had been on the battlefield for many years, he was also knowledgeable.

It was obvious that the Black Sheep people currently had the advantage, but neither Bardock nor Li Rufeng showed much surprise on their faces, because war was war after all, and the ultimate decision on the outcome of the war was made by the soldiers and generals themselves, and they were both quite confident in this regard.

However, the unfamiliarity that Badak mentioned still made Li Rufeng feel a little uncomfortable. This centurion of the Khanate still maintained an independent state to a certain extent. He felt that the relationship between him and Li Rufeng was more of a cooperative relationship. Obviously, he still had a long way to go before becoming a follower.

"The gate of this castle is almost destroyed. It will take at least three days to repair it. Our army is mostly composed of cavalry. It would be a waste to defend this castle." Badak frowned. They knew their own business. They didn't have the strength to fight the Black Sheep people head-on. They were just taking advantage of the Black Sheep people's lack of strength.

After all, the Black Sheep People are a powerful regional force that can fight a large-scale war involving tens of thousands of people, while Li Rufeng's current strength on paper is only two cities and one fort, which is not enough.

If the Black Sheep were really willing to abandon the front line in the direction of Diyarbakir and turn around to deal with them, Li Rufeng would have no other good choice except to retreat to Aleppo.

So in Bardock's eyes, it is a bit risky to provoke the Black Sheep People now. Of course, Bardock's perspective is purely from a military perspective, while Li Rufeng considers it from the perspective of a ruler. Naturally, there are many different standards.

The most obvious thing is that Li Rufeng knows that if he does not seize the opportunity now and waits for the Black Sheep to eliminate the Aries, a potential ally, he may not find the best opportunity again in the next few decades.

As for the current crisis, Li Rufeng wanted to try out his newly developed abilities himself...

On the other side, in the city of Mardin, less than 200 kilometers away from Urfa Castle, Captain Abirama, who was supposed to go to support Diyarbakir, was solemnly asking his soldiers to change their direction and leave the city from the west gate.

He only learned about the fall of Urfa Castle when he received the order from the Black Sheep King three hours ago. After he received the news, it was another full hour before the defeated soldiers who escaped from the direction of Urfa Castle arrived in Mardin with the news of the fall of Urfa Castle.

If we take into account the time when Captain Abirama received the news, the Black Sheep King knew about this news almost before the fall of Urfa Castle... As one of the most powerful generals under the Black Sheep King, Abirama knew very well that this meant that the great Black Sheep King had once again relied on the power of the black wizard.

Chapter 462 Micro-management

Thanks to his newly acquired strategic perspective ability, Li Rufeng was a little excited about his "first" command of a major battle. Although this made Bardock a little dissatisfied, Li Rufeng felt that he needed to show off his prowess in front of the "senior generals" under his command.

Why were the Taierbahe tribes so honest once they received payment?

Although a big part of the reason was that Li Rufeng recruited the most capable young men in the tribe as his personal guards, the scene of Li Rufeng leading the cavalry to charge into the enemy group and turn the tide that night was the real reason that made the Mongols return to their faith.

The more experienced and powerful the nobles were, the more they could appreciate Li Rufeng's divine command of the army that night, so they accepted Li Rufeng's rule so calmly. They truly believed from the bottom of their hearts that Li Rufeng was the chosen shaman of Changshengtian.

Especially the legends about those personal guards, which have actually been subtly influencing the residents of Aleppo and even Hama under Li Rufeng's indulgence.

Now, as Li Rufeng's power expands, more and more new "shareholders" join in, and Li Rufeng's previous minor "divine grace incidents" naturally need to be updated.

Bardock followed Li Rufeng, ready to take over the command of the troops at any time. In name, he was still the captain of a thousand men in Korea, and the thousand-man team under his command was preserved by him with countless efforts.

He couldn't just give up the lives of all the young men under his command because of the lord's whim, but he also couldn't refuse Li Rufeng's order to take over the troops. In the end, the dissatisfied Bardock and Li Rufeng reached a compromise agreement.

Bardock is willing to hand over the command of his troops, but he will stay by Li Rufeng's side to ensure that every one of his orders is carried out.

Deep down, Bardock was pessimistic about the actual combat command capabilities of young people like Li Rufeng. However, Li Rufeng did show considerable leadership when he brought them back from the Karaman territory.

Moreover, all the Mongol cavalrymen obeyed Li Rufeng's orders, and even Qinggelinayan maintained a humble attitude in front of Li Rufeng. All this left Badak with no choice but to compromise.

Fortunately, after taking over the army, Li Rufeng did not act aggressively. On the contrary, he respected Bardock's opinions very much. If he did not have a strategic map perspective, Li Rufeng would prefer to leave professional matters to professionals.

But now it seems that he is obviously the most professional person, but he still needs a professional adviser, and Bardock is just the right person.

"If those Hengyang people will appear outside the city before 10 o'clock tomorrow afternoon, should we let the troops rest inside the castle or outside the castle at night?" Li Rufeng asked Badak while studying the map.

A hint of doubt flashed across Bardock's face. He had always wanted to know why Li Rufeng judged that the Black Sheep People would appear before ten o'clock tomorrow morning. After all, the newly sent scouts had not brought back the latest news yet.

However, considering that he had already defied the shaman's authority to a certain extent, Bardock answered honestly, "There's enough space inside Urfa Castle to accommodate our army. If it were me, I would prefer to leave most of the troops inside to rest, but I would retain a cavalry unit of under 500 men stationed behind the eastern slope. This way, they can launch a threatening charge against any enemy that might appear at any time."

"Are you planning to sit back and wait?" Li Rufeng looked at the map and pointed at three points. One of them was near the city of Mardin, and the distance between the other two was more than 30 kilometers. He continued, "If the enemy has about 3,000 people, then they are divided into three parts. The first part is here, the second part is here..."

"Isn't it a little too late to play military chess simulation games now?" Bardock frowned again. He didn't like Li Rufeng's attitude towards war as a game. It made him feel humiliated. If war was really so simple, then what was the meaning of his friends and companions who died on the battlefield over the years?

"I mean, what if?" Li Rufeng's tone was calm. He was now increasingly able to consider issues from the perspective of a superior.

If it were a year ago, he would never have communicated with Bardock in this way. His methods would have been much gentler. But now he realized that he didn't really care what Bardock thought. He always believed in leaving professional matters to professionals. At the same time, this also meant that he only needed professionals to do what he needed them to do.

Questioning oneself is the reaction that Li Rufeng hates to see the most.

Chapter 463 Night Attack

Hadan Erba was one of the first personal guards to follow Li Rufeng. Of course, he is no longer a personal guard now. He is now a centurion.

One third of his soldiers were from the Li Rufeng and Taierbahe tribes, another third were selected from other tribes, and the last third were from Badakna, plus less than ten people from the river.

If they were under the command of the Great Conqueror, they would actually be more accustomed to dividing and organizing according to the tribal model, but it is obvious that Shaman Rufeng had other considerations. There were several mixed-organization teams such as the Hadanerba Centurion Team.

He has been deliberately breaking up the organization to prevent the emergence of factions in the army based on local ties and family ties. Although this will weaken the army's combat effectiveness to a certain extent, Li Rufeng is willing to accept such a debuff.

Timur's approach was completely aimed at simplifying the cost of ruling, and everyone saw the result. An empire that seemed extremely powerful collapsed in the blink of an eye after his death.

For Hadanerba, he was indeed a little uncomfortable with such a mixed team. At least twenty people in the entire team of 100 people could not understand his Chagatai language with a slight accent, and he had to repeat it several times before they could understand.

But fortunately, at least these people are experienced veterans, and many times Hadanerba only needs to use gestures to complete on-the-spot command.

Thanks to his dual identities as centurion and personal guard, Hadanerba is almost the most efficient unit under Li Rufeng. For example, when other centurions are still preparing to set off after communicating with the personal guards accompanying the army, Hadanerba's centurion is already ready to go out of the city gate.

As Li Rufeng's personal guard, Hadanerba understood Li Rufeng's tactical intentions very well, and also gave others a clear grasp of Li Rufeng's visual advantage.

Of course, it was impossible for Hadanerba to share the strategic map perspective with Li Rufeng, but the direct orders given to him by Li Rufeng could still provide Hadanerba with a sufficiently clear understanding of the battlefield situation in a vague concept similar to intuition.

It will be a night attack, which is almost the advantage of the Mongols in this era. Most Mongols believe that this is the proof of their bloodline advantage and that they are strong enough.

But Li Rufeng certainly knew that this was because the Mongols had always been the superior race in this land for more than a century, so most Mongols were even in a state of overnutrition, and their physical fitness far exceeded the average.

With the arrival of Li Rufeng, at least in Li Rufeng's tribe and Taierbahe's tribe, and even later in the Aleppo area, these elite cavalrymen more or less learned what it meant to combine meat and vegetables, and solved the problem of night blindness early on.