Mount and Blade Central Asia

...

"The situation is not favorable for us, Lord Yusuf." Abdul Rahman stood beside the Black Sheep King, frowning with him and looking at the sand table in front of them.

The situation presented on the sand table was exactly the situation of the Black Sheep on the Western Front. The three thousand-man teams of the Black Sheep and the White Sheep were in a jagged situation near Diyarbakir, while the other two thousand-man teams of infantry recruited from all over the place were stationed less than one kilometer outside Diyarbakir, constantly manufacturing new siege equipment.

If it weren't for the Mongols in Aleppo causing trouble, they should have a total of five thousand-man cavalry teams near Diyarbakir, completely isolating the Aries cavalry forces and concentrating on attacking that city.

Of course, if it weren't for the Mongols, Urfa Castle would still be in their hands now.

"I know, Sir Abdul, those dark wizards have already told me the bad news." Carl Yusuf sighed as he looked at the scene on the sand table. As the Black Sheep King, he shouldered too much burden. Haidam's choice was like a foreshadowing, telling him nakedly how fragile this reborn country was.

And those dark wizards were obviously using this method to warn him how vulnerable his country would be without the help of dark martial arts.

"We should take a step back in the negotiations, my lord," Abdul said, seizing the opportunity to persuade him. "Every indication indicates that His Royal Highness Prince Shah Rukh is not so ambitious as to maintain his father's vast territories. We can give up some territory. Maintaining the current border is too much of a burden with our current military strength."

"Of course I know, and those black wizards have already told me, but which tribe's interests should I sacrifice first?" The Black Sheep King smiled bitterly. Years of fleeing overseas had made him lose too much. Those tribal leaders supported him in restoring his country just by borrowing his reputation and his connections in the Mamluk Empire.

Although Carl Yusuf is the Black Sheep King, he is restricted in every way within the Black Sheep Tribe... and there are also those black wizards. When he thinks of those black wizards, he can't help but clench his fists.

"Sir Abdul, have you found a way to check and balance those dark wizards?" The Black Sheep King asked subconsciously in a low voice. He was worried that the dark wizards had spies around him who were eavesdropping on his conversation.

"Sir, I have contacted the people from the Eagle of Order organization. I believe we will be able to find a way to deal with those dark wizards soon." Abdul also whispered.

He was originally a half-baked alchemist. Although he was proficient in mysticism, he was completely unable to use the power of miracles as wantonly as those dark wizards. He could only hide in the dark and disguise himself as an ordinary person.

But Abdul knew that the believers of the Four-Part God could only bring disaster. They all worshipped evil gods. Whether it was the black wizards or the beheaded Prince Milansha, they were all people who overused evil miracles.

He had come into contact with scholars of the Eagle of Order in his early years, but the scholars of the Eagle of Order he was familiar with could no longer be found. He visited countless hermits and traveled to temples in deep mountains and forests before he finally restored contact with the Eagle of Order.

But the scholars of the Eagle of Order didn't seem to care much about what he said, and Abdul intuitively realized that these people seemed to have their own troubles.

But for now, this is all he can do to comfort the Black Sheep King. He only spends a few months a year with the Black Sheep King in Tabriz, and he already feels the pressure from the dark wizards.

The Black Sheep King has been dealing with black wizards all year round. Abdul can clearly feel that the Black Sheep King has become old in recent years.

"Eagles of Order, I've always heard of them but never seen them. I thought it was because I wasn't virtuous enough to gain their recognition and be unworthy of being called a king." Carl Yusuf showed a pensive expression.

He had indeed heard of the Eagle of Order, and he had even seen its knights in the Mamluk Sultan's court, but at that time he had no idea what kind of organization the Eagle of Order was, until he met those dark wizards...

"It all depends on you, Lord Abdul." The Black Sheep King patted Abdul's hand hard, as if he had grabbed the last straw.

Chapter 472: Door Blocking Tactics

After Li Rufeng ambushed a thousand-man team of the Black Sheep, the two sides clashed more than a dozen times in the wilderness. Thanks to the help of the black wizard, both sides won and lost.

Li Rufeng's advantage lies in the fact that the Mongolian cavalry under his command can regularly launch night attacks, which is simply a cross-dimensional attack in this era. Most of the "second-class" soldiers who have been exploited by the Mongols and the great conquerors have night blindness and are almost blind at night.

The advantage of the Black Sheep People is that they can rely on crows as their spies, which Li Rufeng has discovered during the battle.

Now the few sharpshooters in the tribe who have been awarded the title of Eagle Shooter are keeping a vigilant eye on the sky, ready to shoot down the birds that bring death at any time. Although not every crow is controlled by the dark wizard, it is always better to be cautious.

After Li Rufeng expanded the number of his personal guards, the centuries directly commanded by his personal guards and the centurions followed by his personal guards' "adjutants" had become accustomed to Li Rufeng's command style. They knew that as long as they obeyed the orders of his personal guards, they would always be able to find the enemy accurately.

But overall, in this confrontation between cavalry and cavalry, Li Rufeng's side still had a certain advantage.

After all, the Black Sheep were fighting on three fronts. Not only did they have to take care of the battlefield on Li Rufeng's side, but they also had to fight against the Aries. On the other hand, their main force was dragged on the eastern front and could not move, and they were unable to split their forces.

So in just over ten days, Li Rufeng pushed the front line all the way to the foot of the hillside where the city of Martin was located.

The last time he came was on a snowy night. The wind and snow mixed with the cold wind were impressive. At that time, Dost in the city was an almost forgotten opponent. Compared with the Black Sheep People, he didn't even have many troops that could be called regular troops.

But the Black Sheep people were different. Even when fighting on three fronts, the Black Sheep King tried his best to constantly mobilize new troops to arrive on the battlefield.

After nearly two thousand-man teams were defeated on the front battlefield and one thousand-man team was disbanded, the number of Black Sheep cavalry blocking Li Rufeng in front did not decrease significantly. On the contrary, they even had enough strength to send more people to join the siege of Diyarbakir.

However, in comparison, the quality of the Black Sheep cavalry had dropped sharply. In Li Rufeng's opinion, the Black Sheep had sent all the armed herdsmen in the tribe who had no combat experience to the battlefield.

Although Li Rufeng was also doing this, the two were not comparable at all. Strictly speaking, this Mongol tribe was simply the military households of the great conqueror. Among these tens of thousands of herdsmen, apart from women and children, there were only two types of men: inexperienced recruits and experienced veterans.

So although Li Rufeng was mobilizing the herdsmen in the tribe to join the army, almost all of these herdsmen were elite soldiers who had received military training since childhood and had been passed down from father to son and grandson to generation.

The armed herdsmen on the Black Sheep side were really just armed herdsmen, which gave Li Rufeng a feeling that the battle was getting easier and easier.

The cavalry groups under his command, which were divided into teams of 100 men, were almost all led by veterans.

Although there were foreigners assigned to many hundred-man teams, the number of those foreigners was not large after all. In addition, Li Rufeng had always tried his best to make use of his advantages in command and never engaged in hard battles. Instead, he constantly mobilized and pulled the enemy in flexible mobile warfare, looking for weak points to launch sneak attacks, so these people quickly integrated into the collective.

Simply put, the morale of the troops under Li Rufeng is high, and because the productivity of the Aleppo blacksmith district has increased, Li Rufeng's trade policy is correct and continues to play a role, bringing sufficient supplies to Aleppo, and they can always get adequate supplies.

The situation on the Black Sheep People's side was much worse. When Li Rufeng left Mardin, the city had already been looted by the Mongols commanded by Qinggelinayan. In that era, the Mongols were almost professionals in robbing. They had rich theoretical experience, enough practical opportunities, and plenty of time to summarize their experience.

Aleppo is an example. After the Mongols sacked the city, almost nothing remained except for the houses and city walls. Even the residents were relocated later. Li Rufeng estimates that the rats in the city may have starved to death in the first few months after the Mongols left...

What's more, when Li Rufeng left, he not only took away all the craftsmen in the city, but also blew up the city wall of Mardin. Although it was originally just to slow down the advance of the Black Sheep People, it has obviously become a great advantage now.

The city walls are still the same as they were when Li Rufeng left. Like Urfa Castle, the Black Sheep People have not carried out any repair work on the city. They just stationed troops here to declare sovereignty some time ago and have no time to truly rule.

After all, these Black Sheep people haven't even cleared out the ruins of their "homeland". In terms of warmongering, the Black Sheep people are more thorough than Li Rufeng.

Moreover, the Black Sheep people did not take Li Rufeng and his group of Mongols seriously at the beginning, and did not feel the need to defend the city at all. They were already overwhelmed by the achievement of killing Prince Milansha in battle.

The Black Sheep People knew very well that the Mughals were excellent rangers, particularly good at harassment warfare, but not good at attacking cities and seizing territories. But who could have imagined that Li Rufeng could create an entire regular army of the Khanate capable of fighting tough battles in the blink of an eye?

What's more, Li Rufeng also bought so many cannons...

Strictly speaking, the eight cannons in Li Rufeng's hands were unlikely to pose a threat to the city walls of Mardin in terms of caliber. Compared to Urfa Castle, Mardin City did not have to worry about the city walls on the east and south sides because of its geographical advantage, so the walls on the other two directions were built thicker and higher.

The people of Hezhong who had been stationed on the city wall at the time were well aware of this. If Li Rufeng and his men had not taken a small path to secretly enter the city and kill Duosite first, and if the people of Hezhong had not rebelled, they would have been able to cause hundreds or even thousands of casualties to the attackers just by relying on the city gates and towers.

But success and failure are both due to Xiao He. The city of Mardin has indeed become an easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack mountain city due to its geographical advantages, but it can easily be directly ignored by the attacking side in such a long and deep war.

Li Rufeng had no intention of attacking the city. He only needed to block the only mountain road and use a small number of troops to block the Black Sheep people hiding inside and prevent them from coming out.

This is what he thought and did. Of course, in order to achieve his tactical goal, he still needed some preparatory work, such as building a simple fortress less than 800 meters away from the gate of Mardin City.

The main body of the fortress is made of sand, gravel and wooden boards packed in wooden baskets, which can be built quickly and ensure sufficient strength. The wooden baskets themselves are contributions from various Moghul tribes.

Because Li Rufeng had already lifted the ban on Mongolian yurt construction, the women of the tribe had already begun weaving branches to build the frames for the yurts. Now they were just requisitioning some of them in advance...

In order to offset the advantage of the cavalry hiding in the mountain city and charging down the slope, Li Rufeng also asked his men to dig dense horse traps on the only way down the mountain, and made many wooden barriers and placed them in front of the position.

The advantage of the chevaux de frise is that even if the Black Sheep set it on fire, the fire cannot spread. Moreover, when the fire is extinguished, the chevaux de frise with the burned surface will still stand there. Because of the hardened surface, it can perform its task more efficiently.

Li Rufeng could see clearly from the strategic map that the Black Sheep People had gathered nearly three thousand soldiers in the city of Mardin, mainly cavalry.

However, after suffering losses in the open field battles with Li Rufeng's troops, these cavalrymen chose to enter the city, waiting for an opportunity to strike...

Li Rufeng now wants to tell them that the opportunity they are waiting for will never come.

The simple fortress was built in just three days. Li Rufeng left Badak and his thousand-man team here, and also supplemented him with four hundred-man infantry teams. These hundred-man teams were mainly composed of surrendered Armenians, who were very good at defensive combat, which had been verified in the previous plague war.

Bardock had complicated reactions to Li Rufeng's decision to return his military power. During the previous period, Li Rufeng's command completely overturned Bardock's understanding of the war mode.

He had to admit that Li Rufeng had achieved amazing results, but the more so, the more frustrated Bardock became, because he knew very well that he would never be able to learn Li Rufeng's command style.

Even if Li Rufeng hadn't explained it to him, he could tell that this shaman possessed some kind of psychic ability, allowing him to communicate with his guards very efficiently and in real time. He could also raise his soul to the Eternal Heaven and observe the enemy's movements from above...

Either of these two abilities would make a frontline commander like Bardock go crazy with jealousy. Li Rufeng, who possessed both abilities, had undoubtedly become the greatest general after the Great Conqueror in Bardock's heart, even though he didn't have that many brilliant achievements yet.

"I will leave one of my personal guards by your side. If there is any unusual movement in the city, he will inform you in advance." Li Rufeng smiled and patted Barak's shoulder. Now the centurion was convinced.

In the past ten days or so, every time Li Rufeng won a battle, Bardock's favorability towards him would increase by 3 or 4 points. Now the favorability is almost 60. Li Rufeng still remembers that Muzaffar became his follower after his favorability exceeded 80. Obviously, this centurion is also about to reach that level.

The reason why Li Rufeng could make such a boast to Badak was very simple. The secret passage he had secretly used to sneak into the city of Martin was still usable now, and those Black Sheep people had no idea about it.

So Li Rufeng simply asked one of his personal guards to take a few soldiers who had come out of Mardin City and sneak into Mardin City to observe all the changes in Mardin City directly.

Now, Li Rufeng might have known about the Black Sheep's military deployment in Malding City even before the Black Sheep's governor...

Chapter 473: Growing Ambition

If possible, Haidam hoped that he would not be surrounded in this besieged city, but he still underestimated Li Rufeng's advancing speed.

"Haidam, Abdurehman, you have all fought a battle with those Mongols. Tell me what is so special about that shaman." Zhuo Gelu stood on the city wall with a gloomy face, looking at the Mongols who were building barricades in the distance. Beside him stood Haidam, Abiram, and Abdurehman who had escaped all the way back.

Strictly speaking, the city of Mardin is not the territory of Dzoglu. His original duty was to coordinate the logistical supplies of all the Qara Qoyunlu troops on the western front. Dzoglu established a very high civilization in the war in which the Qara Qoyunlu overthrew the rule of the Timurid Khanate, which was far beyond the reach of a small follower like Haidam.

So after being trapped in the city of Mardin, Zhuolu naturally became the supreme commander of the Black Sheep people in the city.

When Zhuo Gelu asked this question, Haidam's face turned red. He couldn't say that he poisoned Dimulati, which resulted in insufficient number of defenders in the city, right?

"Their cannons are very powerful, there are at least a dozen of them. They bombarded the city gate day and night before the battle. The gate of Urfa Castle was blown down before anyone could even see it..." Haidam finally found a reason for his failure.

This was not a lie. Haidam was indeed frightened by the fierce bombardment. Dimurati's followers could all testify that he was so scared that he slipped away from the city wall.

And now, when Haidam saw the Mughals setting up their cannons outside the city gates again, he still felt weak in the knees.

"I calculated that it took them a full twenty minutes from unloading the cannons to setting them up. If we leave the city and attack them at this time, they won't have enough time to bring the cannons back." Abiram offered a very constructive suggestion.

"But we can't destroy those cannons. We have time to drag them back. They set a trap in front of the artillery position, right under our noses." Zhuo Gelu said, pointing to the soldiers standing ready near the artillery position. "Besides, it's almost dark. They are better at night fighting than us."

When talking about night battles, Abdureheman frowned immediately. His troops were dispersed in the Mongolian night attack, and in the end he only recovered less than half of his men.

Some time ago, in addition to Abdurehman, several other troops were attacked by the Mongols at night. The Black Sheep People were now scared and would set up a strong camp and fight a static battle as soon as night fell.

"Then we're just going to watch them. They use such a small number of people to block us in the city and prevent us from leaving?" Zhuo Gelu punched the city wall in frustration. The next second, he heard the group of people moving the cannons back and forth in the distance suddenly shouting something, and then a torch was lit.

"Get down quickly, they are about to fire!" Haidam reacted the fastest. He took a step forward and lay down behind the battlement, sticking to the base of the city wall.

Then, accompanied by a loud bang, a cannonball landed in the soil more than ten meters away from the city wall. The powerful cannonball left a mark on the ground like water ripples.

Apparently, hitting a high ground from a low position was a bit beyond the capabilities of these new gunners, so they lowered the cannon.

The real artilleryman Diobiya was now being led forward by Li Rufeng. Because they were short of troops and the Black Sheep were powerful, the city of Martin was their destination.

But this time, Li Rufeng had no intention of stopping here. His personal guards who had sneaked into the Black Sheep territory in advance had already figured out the Black Sheep's strengths and weaknesses. In order to deal with the wars on both the eastern and western fronts at the same time, and to maintain a territory far beyond their actual capabilities, the Black Sheep's internal defense was extremely weak.

This time, Li Rufeng planned to confront the Black Sheep People from a distance in the Diyarbakir area, bypass the city of Mardin and go deep inland, extend his influence to the west bank of the Tigris River, and then slowly prepare to move north to capture the city of Batman to encircle the rear of the Black Sheep People's western army.

In fact, Li Rufeng has now led his troops all the way to the Qamishli area, a densely populated area located at the foot of the Taurus Mountains. It is said that the Hurrians began to build cities here as early as 4,000 BC.

However, there is no trace of a city here now. All Li Rufeng saw along the way were small settlements with a population of three to four hundred people. Compared with the areas around Aleppo, the settlements in this area are indeed more densely populated. There is a village or a small town almost every ten miles or so.

Between these villages and towns, there is almost entirely fertile land. The free people who do not even have enough farming tools rely on backward planting techniques to support the food needed for the former Timurid Khanate and the current Black Sheep People's external expansion.

But obviously, for the Mongols, Transoxiana people, and even the Kurds under Li Rufeng, they did not care whether the land was fertile or not. In their eyes, only the grassland was the most valuable land.

These farmlands have been artificially divided into pieces and cut by mountains and rivers. Although the scattered plots cannot be said to be worthless, they do not have any appeal at all.

So much so that when they rode their horses through the land, many people complained that the land was too soft and not suitable for cavalry to pass through.

But for Li Rufeng, riding eastward from the city of Mardin took a whole day, and all he saw was fertile farmland. The joy in his heart was beyond words.

For a lord who came from a traditional agricultural civilization, he even wanted to make a bold statement that he would store grain and build high walls here, and sooner or later he would become king... However, Li Rufeng soon realized that although the population of this place was a little denser than that of Aleppo, it was still sparsely populated in an absolute sense compared to the Central Plains.

Those who can farm may not even have cultivated one-tenth of the land. Due to geopolitical reasons, this place has never had the opportunity to recuperate since ancient times, and the population base has been on a pessimistic growth curve.

Li Rufeng didn't need to look carefully to see a kind of indifference in the eyes of the villagers passing by. They didn't care who the ruler above them was. They had always been submissive. As long as they could barely make ends meet and not starve to death, they would work in silence until they died.

"Sir, the Black Sheep stronghold in the town ahead has been eliminated. No one was injured. The boys performed very well." A personal guard who had performed well before came back and reported happily.

The officers who came out of Li Rufeng's personal guards, such as Hadanerba and Abelji, significantly increased the subjective initiative of the personal guards.

Now, all the personal guards dream of being able to kill people everywhere under the command of Li Rufeng, and their desire for war is very strong. When these people played the scattered meat-cutting tactics on the grassland with the Black Sheep People who could not squeeze out more troops for the time being, they left a very deep impression on the enemy.

These successes continued to nourish Li Rufeng's ambition, giving him the urge to fight to the end of the world. Perhaps Genghis Khan conquered the world with such confidence?

Chapter 474 Path Dependency

"The Black Sheep have transferred another thousand-man team. Those Mongols are indeed good at fighting." The White Sheep General Moises, who looked more tired and thinner, stood on the hillside, looking down at the Black Sheep camp in the distance, and said with some emotion.

This Aries general led the only three organized thousand-man teams of the Aries people. These three thousand-man teams were the elite who had followed the Great Conqueror to participate in the Battle of Ankara.

After finishing his service to the Great Conqueror, the Ayyan King almost exhausted the output of Diyarbakir and barely maintained the framework of the three thousand-man teams. He chose a model similar to that of the Mughals, retaining experienced veterans and all officers, and turning them into full-time soldiers.

Unfortunately, the White Sheep people were not very powerful. They only occupied the grasslands around Diyarbakir. Due to their numerical disadvantage, even though they had the support of the Khanate, it was difficult for them to gain the upper hand over the Black Sheep people.

And now, just as the Aries King had always feared, the Black Sheep King had finally accomplished his great cause and made a comeback with the Black Sheep Tribe still having some power.

Moises led two of the three thousand-man teams to roam outside Diyarbakir and fight the Black Sheep People in the field, delaying their progress in attacking Diyarbakir.

He completed his mission well. Although the Black Sheep had besieged Diyarbak for nearly two weeks, they had not formed a truly threatening siege wave.

Moises always found gaps in the Black Sheep's defenses to harass the engineering troops building siege equipment, and even planned a night attack that burned a large amount of cut wood.

But the situation in Diyarbakir is still very tense. Moises knows his own business. He knows how many people have gathered in Diyarbakir and how much food there is in the city.

Therefore, if he cannot lift the Black Sheep's siege of Diyarbakir within the next month, the food in the city will be exhausted, and the White Sheep King will have no choice but to take a risk.

However, the Mongols' participation in the war changed everything. Starting five days ago, the Qara ...

Moises did not have the help of a black wizard, and could not grasp the changes in the situation on the battlefield as quickly as those Black Sheep officers. He could only judge the battle situation there by the direction in which the Black Sheep army left.

The good news is that it seems that the Mongols have given the Black Sheep People a good beating and have pushed the front line to the vicinity of the city of Mardin.

Meanwhile, the Aries King in Diyarbakir was worried about the outcome. The reason was also the Mongols. Li Rufeng's advance was too fast, and his results were too brilliant...

The White Sheep King Kara Osman had not been without any preparations over the years. He had at least developed some "friendly people" among the Black Sheep tribe, so compared to the veteran Moises who was isolated outside the city by the Black Sheep people, the information he received was more timely.