Mount and Blade Central Asia

Whenever there is any new news among the Black Sheep people, sharpshooters outside the city will shoot the news into the city at night, and the news will be immediately delivered to the Aries King.

So the White Sheep King knew that Li Rufeng had won victory after victory and had captured Urfa Castle, blocking the Black Sheep army used to balance him in the mountain city of Mardin. Now the Mongolian troops were heading straight for Batman, which was the logistics supply center of the Black Sheep army on the western front and also the Black Sheep's largest ruling node in this area.

"If the Shaman Lord just wipes out all enemies, we will probably have to offer our loyalty to this lord, just like we served the Great Conqueror back then." The Aries King, who looked strong and in his prime, sighed as he looked at the fragmentary intelligence at hand and complained to his ministers.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but the few ministers who had a say in front of King Aries were a little surprised, and they heard a sense of relief in King Aries’ tone.

But they soon realized that this was not their illusion, because the Aries King continued: "My Lords, what are your thoughts on this? The Aries tribe is already weak, and just dealing with the Black Sheep has exhausted our energy. Why not..."

"Sir, no!" One of the elders frowned, feeling he couldn't fathom the White Sheep King's intentions. "Those damned Black Sheep people sacrificed thousands and tens of thousands of lives to achieve their current position of independence! It's precisely because the other tribes are so devoted to the Black Sheep that we're at a disadvantage!"

"But no matter what, we are now an independent country. Why should we find another master for ourselves?" The old minister may have a long-term vision. Perhaps he has seen the initial formation of the Turkmen national consciousness through the rise of the Black Sheep People, but not everyone in this era has such vision.

"That's because we offered our loyalty to the right king last time, which led to our achievements today. Now we are faced with a situation where we need to make a choice." Aries King Kara Osman explained slowly. It was obvious that he still hoped to gain enough support from within.

Perhaps the last choice to join the Great Conqueror was based on fear of the Great Conqueror and hatred of the Black Sheep people, but in any case, the Aries people gained enough benefits from this choice.

You must know that before Kara Osman ascended the throne, the White Sheep Tribe was already a small tribe that was about to be completely wiped out by the Black Sheep Tribe. It was precisely because of their loyalty to the great conqueror that they had the capital to face the Black Sheep Tribe head-on on the battlefield and clash with each other.

Therefore, when facing Li Rufeng, an emerging force who nominally holds the right to inherit the great conqueror, Aries King Kara Osman has already developed a path-dependent mentality.

When a method has been proven to be effective before, it is best to choose the same solution when you face the same problem.

"And can't you see? Those Mongols have surrounded us on both sides. I'm afraid if the situation really comes to that, we will have no choice." King Aries smiled bitterly and pointed to a newly transmitted intelligence.

The small piece of paper clearly stated that Qinggelinayan's troops were advancing rapidly on the lands of the Mongolian warlords, had defeated the alliances of several tribes, and killed thousands of people.

The centurion named Mengge was like a devil, showing his fangs to his compatriots.

Chapter 475: The Fool Who Finds Another Way

To Mongke, these Mongolian warlords who claimed to be Mongolians were not actually his compatriots. Qinggelinayan knew them only because they wanted to gain more support in this land when the Mongols first migrated here.

Compared with the Mongols and Transoxiana people who migrated from the former Chagatai Khanate, these Mongols who nominally belonged to the former Ilkhanate had much more mixed bloodlines. Many of them had become Turkicized, Hellenized, or Persianized.

At least from the appearance point of view, only one-third of these people who call themselves Mongolians still have standard Mongolian appearance, while the others have less pure hair and eyes of different colors. That is why so many people follow Dangertai, who was pushed to the forefront as the so-called spiritual Mongolian.

Of course, this theory is just a joke now, because the idiot Danggertai has been caught. The only thing that made Mengge a little unhappy was that the person who caught Danggertai was Huluchirjia. When he took people out to rob girls, he happened to meet Danggertai who was also out "hunting for beauties".

It was a dramatic encounter, but it made a relatively orthodox officer like Mongke feel a little embarrassed, because he led his men to search for Danggertai like casting a net, and they searched for a full half month.

As a result, the two idiots met in a small tribe in this unreasonable way. Mengge could only think that this was a special tacit understanding between idiots.

The happiest person in the team was naturally Qinggelinayan's other younger brother, Jialalhun.

Every day, Jiatalehun would use the excuse of delivering food to his younger brother to provoke Dangertai with an expression as if he were watching a monkey show. To be fair, the two brothers did not actually have any deep-rooted hatred.

Even in this situation, Jatalehun was more concerned about watching his young and ignorant brother being spanked by his "parents" for doing something stupid.

Although Danggertai's actions led to a war of varying sizes, which has caused nearly a thousand casualties and the destruction of several tribes to date, the grassland is a place where the strong prey on the weak. Even without Danggertai, they would have eventually perished for other more ridiculous reasons.

Therefore, whether it was Jatalehun or Dangertai, and probably also those victims who had suffered from the war and looting, they did not feel that their experiences should be attributed to the willful behavior of a certain child.

They have become accustomed to this natural law, which has been the law of this land since ancient times.

"Today we only have dried meat. I'll soften it for you with boiling water." Looking at his brother who was tied up and lying across the horse's back, Jialalhun felt a little strange.

There was not much contact and communication between him and his younger brother. The only family affection between them was basically connected by Qinggelinayan. Jialalhun envied the other party for being able to grow up freely under the protection of his brother and to gain the respect of other warriors in the tribe. All these were opportunities he had never had.

After Jatalehun returned from Samarkand, the so-called dispute over the succession to the Nayan title was actually more of a channel for him to vent his dissatisfaction with his brother. Fundamentally, he did not have much dissatisfaction with his younger brother Danggertai, nor did he think of fighting him to the death.

Especially after Li Rufeng began to rise, Jialalhun, who came back from the big city, realized the fact very early. The title of Nayan that they had been fighting for might not have been taken seriously by Li Rufeng. After all, in Mongolian tradition, Nayan was just a thousand households.

Moreover, the Mongolians have always had the custom of the eldest son living apart and the youngest son staying at home. Although this inheritance law originating from ancient times has become a joke since the time of Genghis Khan, it is still a traditional custom.

Qinggelinayan was injured in his early years and had no offspring, so according to this custom, Dangertai should have inherited his position. What's more, Jialalhun was still a hostage and his ties with the tribe were not deep.

So when Jialalhun chose to leave the tribe and follow Li Rufeng, he had actually given up the competition within the tribe.

"Why do you act on your own?" Jatalehun used a dagger to stir the dried meat that had been torn into thin strips in boiling water with salt, and sat down next to Dangertai.

"Humph!" Dangertai, still a young man at heart, turned to the other side in anger. "I won't talk to you cowards!"

"Coward?" Jatalehun smiled, not angered by his foolish brother. He sighed and said, "Do you know that in order to save your life, your brother almost gave up all his rights?"

"I don't need him to save me anyway! If I fail on the battlefield, I deserve to die!" Dangertai was a little enraged. He struggled to sit up. Although he got himself covered in dust in the process, he still overwhelmed Jitalehun in terms of momentum. "I'm not afraid of death!"

Jatalehun looked into his younger brother's eyes and suddenly realized that he was telling the truth. He was really not afraid of death.

But come to think of it, when he was still a hostage in Samarkand, Dangertai was already practicing drills with those cavalrymen and learning how to use bows and arrows and sabers to kill people.

"In that case, I have nothing more to say." Jialalhun looked at Dangertai's tiger-like expression and shook his head.

He originally came here to show off his good-for-nothing brother, but when he saw him tied up there pitifully, the inheritance from his blood made him give up his previous idea.

Jatalehun felt that they should sit down and have a good talk. What they lacked was just communication, but now he didn't want to say anything. The conflict between them was not about power, but about the size of their ambitions.

He now felt that Dangertai was simply a child who had never grown up. He was completely blinded by the flattery that surrounded him in the past. He really thought that he possessed the so-called military talent and dreamed that he could be like the heroes in myths, who could solve all problems just by riding on horseback with a knife and arrow in their hands.

But in reality, war is not the joke he thought it was.

"In a real battlefield, you are like being in a fog, blind and deaf. What you can see is not even beyond the scope of your military camp. Every piece of intelligence you get is conveyed by scouts who may not even be able to read. Every piece of intelligence looks true, and for every piece of intelligence, there are several other contradictory intelligence sent back together." Jatalehun still remembered the courses that the generals who followed the great conqueror had taught when he was in school in Samarkand.

“Most of the time you have no idea where your troops are or where the enemy is. You can’t even be sure if they really exist. All the goals you plan to accomplish will take days or even weeks to get definite results.” The old general’s tone at the time was like a real blind man, standing in the crowd, looking completely bewildered.

"The only good news is that your enemy is facing the same dilemma as you. What both sides are competing for is actually their will. You need to make a judgment and choose whether to stick to your own judgment and whether to believe that the troops you send out can really complete the task you assigned." The old general's hair was grayer than his actual age, which left a deep impression on Jatalehun.

"You must take responsibility for every choice you make, because the consequences of every wrong choice will be paid for with the lives of your soldiers and yourself." The old general's tone was a little sad, but he still smiled proudly. "Only those who are truly favored by fate can win the war after making correct predictions time and time again, and stand here to teach you a lesson."

Before, Jatalehun was completely unable to understand the realm that the general talked about. It was not until he followed Mengge, actually led a team to an expedition, and actually commanded a small team that he completely understood it.

On the battlefield, you must first adapt to becoming blind and deaf, and then you are qualified to become a real officer. Obviously, his stupid brother chose another path. He chose to become a fool and ignore all obstacles...

Chapter 476: Cannons blocking the door!

"Aim well. The city is so big. If we miss, the fat old man will definitely laugh at us again." The young gunner Damudin reminded his companion who was squinting his eyes and aiming carefully at the city.

"He is not here now, how can he take care of us?" The gunner who was reminded was named Tohunus. Both of them were Mongols, but one was from Li Rufeng's tribe and the other was from other tribes.

From Li Rufeng's perspective, it was actually a waste to let the Mongols serve as gunners, but the Mongols were the most important force under his command and also his most loyal followers.

The artillery is undoubtedly one of the most important military forces under Li Rufeng in the future, and its status may be second only to the cavalry. Therefore, Li Rufeng deliberately arranged for some Mongols to become the earliest artillery apprentices.

If selecting qualified cavalry from other people is a difficult task, then selecting useful artillery from the Moghul group is even more difficult.

Even so, it is still based on the fact that Diobiya is an experienced gunner. If he wants to use more scientific and reasonable methods to train qualified artillery officers, he will probably have to wait until the first batch of students from Aleppo Academy graduate.

For Li Rufeng, calculating the parabola was just a simple math problem, but for most people of that era, just understanding mathematics was as difficult as finding the Golden Fleece.

Therefore, Li Rufeng did not expect the artillery under his command to reach the level of Diobia. As long as they could... forget it, Li Rufeng really did not have any big expectations for them.

After all, the cannons purchased by Li Rufeng this time are just toys in this era where casting giant cannons is popular. The fact that they can be pulled by a carriage alone makes them unpopular among real artillery experts.

Due to the limitations of the era and materials used, the power of these cannons is currently more of a deterrent than a practical benefit. Furthermore, considering the limited range due to the size of the cannon, even if these novices are incredibly skilled, they wouldn't miss a target the size of a city from a distance of a few hundred meters...

boom!

"Where the hell did you shoot?" Damudin shielded his eyes from the sun with his hands and looked into the distance. However, after the smoke cleared, he couldn't find the landing point of his companion's shell.

Tohunus also looked confused. When he lit the cannon just now, he could clearly feel that the sound of the artillery fire was a bit muffled, but he didn't expect that he would miss.

"There!" Damudin finally found the landing point of the shell. It turned out that it was less than 300 meters away from the cannon. The round stone bullet just made a hole in the grass.

"Why is the distance so short?" Tohunus' tone was full of confusion.

During this period they had already conducted many live-fire bombardments. Although they only had four cannons, they were always able to achieve good results in this open area without any obstructions, causing the Black Sheep people who did not have the courage to rush forward recklessly to lose a lot of manpower.

But in the process, their artillerymen were driven back to the fortress behind them twice, leaving their cannons to the Black Sheep people who rushed forward with casualties.

But just as they encountered, facing these cannons made of pure metal, the cavalry rushing over could not cause any effective damage to the cannons.

They did try to use a few horses to pull the cannons and bring them directly back to the city of Mardin, but Badak was not a spectator. He fully utilized the advantages of his Mongolian cavalry.

As long as the Black Sheep dared to reduce their mobility and try to drag the cannons, he would surround them from both sides and focus on attacking the cavalry that were dragging the cannons.

Both sides fought over the cannon, and after dozens of lives were lost, the cannon still stood there, like a copper pea that could neither be steamed nor cooked.

The city of Mardin had nearly twice as many defenders as those outside the city, but due to the terrain, it was unable to deploy its troops and could only fight a war of attrition with Badakhshan, and its morale continued to decline.

But what happened today proved that the Black Sheep people had not completely failed to achieve any results.

After they were sure that they could not drag the cannons back to the city gate, they would hit the cannon barrels with sledgehammers every time they approached the cannons. Although several Black Sheep warriors who were famous for their bravery had their knuckles cracked, their efforts were not in vain.

After several shots, the cannon, which was hit by external force, finally cracked. After carefully inspecting the cannon, Tohunus broke out in a cold sweat and discovered that there was a crack on the bottom of the cannon, which was as long as an index finger and as thick as a few hairs.

If it weren't for the blessing of Changshengtian, the shot just now might have caused the barrel to explode instead of cracking.

Tohunus and Damdin looked at each other, feeling that they had escaped death.

For a moment, they really wanted to tell the Black Sheep how to effectively destroy a cannon in this situation, so as to save them from playing this kind of test to see who fate favors more...

Diobbia had taught them early on that if they had to leave their cannons to the enemy in the future, they could use hammers to hammer iron nails into the firing ports to prevent the enemy from using these weapons.

Even among their personal tools, they are equipped with these weapons to "kill" cannons.

The main reason they dared to throw the cannons directly at the Black Sheep People this time was that Li Rufeng bet that these old-fashioned people had no idea how to fire cannons and had no gunpowder reserves.

Li Rufeng's bet was right. Among the Black Sheep people currently trapped in the city of Martin, there was indeed no one who was familiar with weapons such as artillery.

It can be said that the governor of Mardin City, Zhuo Gelu, witnessed with his own eyes the killing of soldiers in dense formations by this weapon every time. Because Mardin City is a mountain city, its main city gate faces the downhill road.

In order to gain a local military advantage, the Black Sheep People could only march out of the city gate in dense formations every time. And every time, those damn Mongols outside the city could be aware of their movements in advance and prepare to fire early.

Because of this, Zhuo Gelu has captured Mongolian spies in the city several times, and killed hundreds of people but to no avail. The Mongols outside the city can still accurately grasp the moment when the Black Sheep People leave the city gate and open fire.

Zhuo Gelu could only watch as the stone bullets, each the size of a human head, roared and opened up bloody passages in his own cavalry.

Not only did those cannons cause massive casualties, but the sight of them also wore down the soldiers' morale, forcing Zhuo Gelu to order the soldiers on the city walls to retreat before marching out to attack the enemy...

Otherwise, just seeing those flying shells smashing the brave soldiers into pieces, leaving them with missing limbs, would make the soldiers completely collapse. In any case, Zhuo Gelu himself had already given up the idea of ​​going out to charge with the cavalry.

But today, the cannon that failed to fire gave Zhuo Gelu a new opportunity!

Chapter 477 The First Rain of 1409

"Hurry up, hurry up! Get to the military camp before dark and everyone will get an extra fifty fils!" The captain of the Saduddin family's caravan shouted loudly, urging his men and mules and horses to speed up.

Their destination was the city of Mardin, and the mule and horse teams were carrying food and various supplies to replenish the army.

Li Rufeng handed over part of the logistical supply tasks directly to the merchants in the city. Facts have proved that any military-related business is highly profitable. Li Rufeng doesn't mind spending more money to allow the merchants he trusts to relieve his logistical pressure with higher efficiency.

The merchants in Aleppo lived up to expectations and completed a considerable share of the supply in the early stages of the war.

In this transaction of money and "people's hearts", the most crucial part is Li Rufeng's trust. However, the most basic threshold for a businessman to gain Li Rufeng's trust is that he must be one of Li Rufeng's own people and a resident settled in the city of Aleppo.

Considering the high profits of logistics supply missions and the current land prices in Aleppo, this threshold is undoubtedly not a test. So after more than a month of the war, many visionary businessmen chose to buy property in Aleppo.

For a while, Mr. Li made a lot of money just by selling unowned properties.

This also gave Saduddin, once the largest merchant in the city, a sense of urgency, because he ultimately only snatched less than 20% of the logistical supply share from those outsiders.

As Li Rufeng left his ruling center and went to the front line, the management agencies he left in the city acted completely in accordance with the rules and regulations, and no one dared to overstep the line.

Thanks to the detailed character relationship information provided by the system, Li Rufeng can always see through the fog of interpersonal relationships and find the most suitable candidate to take up the most suitable position as quickly as possible.

Saduddin once tried to bribe the bureaucrats in charge of logistics, but all the gifts he gave were returned to him intact.

These officials may have greed in their hearts, but until they are sure that there are no spies from Li Rufeng's personal guards around them, they will definitely behave uprightly for a long time.

Therefore, Saduddin can only guarantee the least he can grab and do his best to achieve perfection, using the quality of service in exchange for the possibility of more orders in the future.

The sky was a little gloomy at this time, and everyone could see that a rain was about to come.

It is almost mid-March now and the weather is still a bit cold. Once it rains, the temperature will drop sharply and it may even freeze at night.

"The animals need to rest, or we won't be able to complete the rest of the journey tomorrow!" The old driver said to the captain worriedly, "Especially since it looks like it's going to rain soon. We have to prepare the hay in advance, otherwise they'll have diarrhea tomorrow if it gets wet!"

"If it really rains, we won't be able to reach Martin City in time!" The captain's face was gloomy and uncertain, and he was obviously weighing the pros and cons.

"It's either half a day late or several days late, we have to choose one." The old driver looked up at the sky. "We're transporting dry food for the war horses. If it gets wet, it's useless to transport it."

The captain of the caravan finally gritted his teeth and stamped his feet: "Everyone stop and prepare to set up camp!"

"We can't fight a war in this lousy weather!" The old coachman shrugged, jumped off the carriage, and began to work to prevent the cargo from getting wet by the possible rain.

Such a day was not suitable for fighting, and Bardock was well aware of this, but no one could predict what the weather would do, and they had been well taken care of in terms of weather. It hadn't rained since the start of the march.

The day before yesterday, one of the cannons had a problem, and the Black Sheep people in the city of Martin seized the opportunity to fight them fiercely. Although they lost a lot of morale under the close shooting of the other three cannons, they still gritted their teeth and showed amazing resilience.

Badak even saw the shadow of the Ottoman Guards in them, but fortunately, the simple castle they built became an insurmountable natural barrier for the Black Sheep People. The archers hiding behind the bunkers used their bows and arrows to cause enough casualties, and in the end the Black Sheep People returned empty-handed, leaving behind a field of corpses.

Now, the sky has been cloudy for two days. When it rains will obviously become the fuse of the next war. Although the Black Sheep People do not have cannons, they at least know that once it starts raining, the cannons in the hands of the Mongols will not be able to fire.

Bardock felt that as long as the Black Sheep people were not stupid, they would definitely take this opportunity to come out of the city and fight them.

"Sir, the bowstring is a little weak, and the gunners also said that the gunpowder has begun to harden. It is definitely going to rain." The centurion named Sayyib under Badak walked around the simple fortress and gave him some not-so-good news.

Outside the main gate of Mardin City was a slightly sloping downhill road. While the slope wasn't steep enough to hinder the movement of cavalry and carriages, it was still an advantage for those heading out of the city.