Mount and Blade Central Asia

Fortunately, they had built "bunkers" in advance that were large enough for the attackers and defenders to switch roles, so when the first rain fell in 1409, the two sides clashed near the simple city walls.

Tired of waiting and suffering from artillery fire, the Black Sheep People poured out of the city of Mardin in a mixed formation of infantry and cavalry. Those Black Sheep People who abandoned their war horses used their courage and shields to block the arrows shot from behind the "city wall" in the direction of the Badak Thousand Man Team, and then filled the horse traps with shovels, paving a smooth path for the cavalry.

Judging from the smooth division of labor among these people, even if it didn't rain today, they would still force themselves to do so despite the casualties. It can only be said that the weather was not on Bardock and his team's side this time.

"Infantry, advance! Spears raised!" The battle-hardened Bardock could see what the Black Sheep were about to do and shouted, "Hold on! Hold on!"

The temporary fortress they built did not have much advantage in terms of height. A cavalryman with good riding skills could "fly" directly into the fortress at the right speed.

That's not the case. Badak has seen this situation more than once, and the Black Sheep People obviously have the foundation to use this tactic and can do it. Then, just as Bardock expected, a whole row of cavalrymen lined up in a horizontal line, shouting incomprehensible slogans, riding on horses with their eyes covered, and rushed up!

"First row, hold on to your positions on the defense line! Don't look back! Leave your backs to others!" Bardock patrolled along the not-so-long city wall, drew his sword and killed a black sheep man who flew too far, shouting to boost morale.

Chapter 478 Night Attack

March 26, 1409, a rainy night.

Li Rufeng took a sip of hot water from a silver bowl. This thing was one of the spoils captured by his men, but now it has become his private property. The surface of the bowl is carved with exquisite patterns, and no one knows who used it first.

The sudden rain interrupted the plans of both sides of the war, but overall, the rain gave the Black Sheep people an advantage, after all, they were on the defensive.

At this time, Li Rufeng was less than 40 kilometers away from Batman. Judging from the speed of his cavalry, it would only take a day and a half to reach the destination. If the physical strength of the people and horses was not taken into account, they could arrive in one day. However, his artillery could not keep up with this speed and had now been left far behind.

The Black Sheep People, who had been constantly exploited by Li Rufeng in field battles, had now learned to gather their forces, and there were no other scattered troops outside the city of Batman for Li Rufeng to kill.

Li Rufeng, who had a strategic map perspective, had the advantage in this small-scale war. Of course, this was also closely related to the fact that his elite cavalry could quickly follow his orders.

On Li Rufeng's war path, those second-line troops who were unable to respond to his orders quickly and could not keep up with his marching speed were gradually left behind and were considered to have been voluntarily abandoned outside the command chain by Li Rufeng.

"Sir, we don't have enough tents or food. We have to wait for the troops behind us." Hadanerba sat opposite Li Rufeng with a cold look on his face, and warmed his hands in front of the fire.

The tent that Li Rufeng is using now was also captured. It was the big tent of a Black Sheep centurion, so he was able to make a fire in the tent. Most of the tents used by other soldiers were small tents that could only accommodate one person sitting inside.

"I know, I have to stop." Li Rufeng sighed regretfully. In the past few days, he led his team to run nearly 150 kilometers, defeating several Black Sheep armies along the way, just to reach Batman before the Black Sheep near Diyarbakir.

According to the intelligence sent back by Li Rufeng's personal guards, the Black Sheep people did not deploy heavy troops to defend Batman. They focused their defense on Urfa Castle, which was closest to the border of Li Rufeng's forces, and the city of Mardin, which was very close to both Diyarbakkar and Urfa Castle.

But Li Rufeng's advance speed obviously exceeded the Black Sheep people's expectations. When Li Rufeng blocked the three thousand-man teams of the Black Sheep people in the city of Mardin, Batman had less than a thousand-man team of defenders, and nearly half of them were foreign militiamen who were recruited to make up the numbers.

Even now, the Black Sheep people had only sent four cavalry centuries to reinforce the city of Batman. Li Rufeng was too fast, and in order to quickly cross the Tigris River, he also detoured a short distance to the east and took advantage of the opportunity to get rid of several centuries that the Black Sheep King had "squeezed out" from various places.

And now, all this has temporarily ended with this heavy rain.

The soldiers under Li Rufeng's command were exhausted, as were their horses. Even Li Rufeng himself felt that if he relaxed, he might sleep for a whole day before getting up. This was based on the fact that Li Rufeng had only been riding horses for the past few days and did not need to take on any combat missions.

The reason they were trapped in the wilderness by the heavy rain this time was because Li Rufeng rushed forward in order to save time. He wanted to cross the river before the rain, but he was still one step short.

"When the rain is lighter, we will return to the previous village and let the soldiers warm themselves by the fire and drink some hot soup." Li Rufeng looked at the dark night outside the tent and shivered when the cold wind blew.

He knew that after the rain was over, not only would he have to slow down, but the Black Sheep and Aries would have to do the same. And judging from the current rainfall, if it continued for three or four hours, the entire war would have to take a break for a week or so due to this power of nature.

If this heavy rain continues for two or three days, Li Rufeng will have to consider calling off the troops, making preparations in advance to receive refugees and guard against the possibility of plague.

Rain will take away people's body temperature, which will prevent soldiers from lighting campfires to keep warm and heat food. It will also affect war horses. Although horses are warm-blooded animals with some resistance to low temperatures, if they are not properly rested after being in the rain all night, they are prone to catching colds, fevers, and even lung infections.

Moreover, the cavalrymen's bows, strings, arrow feathers, leather armor, chain mail, and even their sabers needed maintenance and drying after a rainy night... Thinking of these things, Li Rufeng felt a headache...

Of course, it wasn't just the newcomer on the battlefield, Li Rufeng, who had a headache on this rainy night. The veteran Bardock wasn't much better off either.

Badak's current situation is slightly better than Li Rufeng's. The temporary fortress they built took into account the possibility of rain, and when cannons were used as firepower supplement a few days ago, the soldiers and civilians did not stop the work of expanding the fortress, so the soldiers would not be soaked by the rain after the fierce battle.

But they also experienced a real bloody battle today. Bardock alone counted forty-two dead soldiers and twice that number of wounded, and almost one-third of them would definitely not survive tonight.

Considering that Bardock led only a team of a thousand men, a casualty rate of nearly one-tenth would have reached the breaking point for most armies of that era, but Bardock finally stabilized the defense line, forcing the Black Sheep People, who suffered even greater casualties, to return empty-handed.

At this time, Bardock was shirtless and letting an experienced veteran bandage his wounds. At the most critical moment of the battle, Bardock and his guards rushed forward regardless of life and death, preventing the Black Sheep from loading the cannon onto a carriage and transporting it back to the city of Martin.

This heroic act also caused Badak to be stabbed several times. The Timurid Khanate's standard officer armor helped him block most of the damage, but a dying Black Sheep man stabbed Badak with a dagger through the gap in the armor.

If he hadn't dodged quickly, he would be lying on the bed and making arrangements for his death. Being stabbed is not a big deal, but being stabbed would be troublesome.

"I guess those Black Sheep people won't be too obedient tonight." Sayib stood not far away and watched the veteran disinfect Badak with liquor, and frowned along with him.

The shaman had requested that they use strong liquor to disinfect the wounds, and Bardock and his companions followed the local customs. The biggest difficulty here was the strong liquor used to disinfect the wounds, which was distributed separately by the shaman. What about that liquor?

Bardock sent special soldiers to guard the strong liquor used to disinfect wounds. As a result, four soldiers guarding the liquor were knocked unconscious within a week of the war. In the end, Bardock had to use flogging to punish the soldiers who came to steal the liquor, and he increased the number of floggings to fifteen before he could barely control the situation.

He thought the shaman could earn enough money for his army just by selling this strong liquor. After all, Bardock himself had once secretly drunk some...

Now he finally experienced the power of this strong liquor. When Sayib spoke, the old soldier poured the liquor on the wound. The intense pain immediately made Bardock wail: "This hurts worse than when I was stabbed!"

"Hahaha, if you don't want to use it, you can save it for me!" Saib couldn't help licking his lips. Like Badak, he had also secretly drunk this kind of liquor once.

"Sir, you told us to pay attention to the effects of this liquor earlier. I must say it's surprisingly effective. Of the wounded who were disinfected with it before, only one developed an infection." The veteran in charge of bandaging the wounds said very seriously, "I don't think the wounded tonight will be in serious trouble."

"It seems that our shaman lord has another reason for us to be loyal to him." Saib looked at the wine bag in the old soldier's hand with some regret. After all, compared with the lives of the soldiers, his appetite had to be put aside.

"If those Black Sheep people don't want to stay in there until the end of the war, tonight is their last chance." Bardock said with a grin.

At this point in the battle, Badak was no longer surprised that Li Rufeng's personal guards could inform him of the movements of the Black Sheep people in the city of Martin at any time. Similarly, it was not surprising for the Black Sheep people to know that before noon tomorrow, a group of infantry with a total number of more than 500 people would come from the rear to reinforce their defense line.

After all, Li Rufeng's orders were so clear. He asked Bardock and his men to shoot down all the crows flying from the direction of Martin City.

"If they really come, how are we going to fight them tonight?" Sayib helped Badak put on his armor. "There's no light outside. I estimate that if those Black Sheep don't have torches, they'll lose half of them at this distance."

"Nadir Khan's centurions have been gathering strength today. Let them take over tonight. God knows if those Black Sheep have the courage to come out." Badak moved his shoulders. The pain from the wound in his abdomen made him frown immediately.

"I'll keep an eye on you tonight, so you don't get into any trouble..." Saib had just said half of his words when a shrill whistle was heard outside. It was the soldier on guard who had discovered the enemy.

"They still have some courage!" Bardock grinned, put on his helmet and pushed Sayib. "Teach them a lesson and let them know who the real warrior is!"

"Be careful, I feel something is wrong!" Sayib followed behind Badak, constantly looking left and right, and shouted loudly, "Who blew the whistle! Which direction is the enemy from!"

But the soldier who had just blew the whistle seemed to have disappeared. Under the sparse firelight in the camp, only the soldiers of the Bardock Thousand were looking around in confusion, and no shouts of killing were heard.

Bardock and Sayib looked at each other, and then they moved forward tacitly, covering each other.

Chapter 479 Murderous Intent on a Rainy Night

If possible, Haidam didn't want to have any entanglement with the dark wizards. He felt that he was squeezed out of the center of power of the Black Sheep people by these dark wizards.

If Qara Qoyunlu had not befriended these dark sorcerers in Mamluk prison and eventually brought them back to this land, they might have taken a different path...

After all, no one had expected that the great conqueror would die so suddenly, and the seemingly impossible hope of restoring the country appeared in front of everyone.

"Watch the road under your feet and the flame in my hand, follow my guidance and don't make any noise. These flames cannot block your voice." The voice of the black wizard in front of Haidam sounded like a crow. Whenever he spoke, you could imagine the sharp and piercing noise of nails scratching on the blackboard, which gave you goose bumps all over your body.

"As long as you remain silent and keep looking directly into my flame, your enemies will not be able to see you." The dark wizard continued, "Anyone who leaves will no longer be protected by this flame."

Including Haidam, everyone remained silent as requested by the dark wizard, while staring at the ball of blue flame floating in the other's hand.

To create this flame, they massacred nine men, nine women, nine elderly people, nine children, nine pregnant women, nine disabled people, nine healthy people, nine illiterate people, and nine well-read scholars...

In order to find all these victims, Haidam and his men had to kill several times the number of Mardin residents, especially the nine scholars required at the end. Haidam felt that they had captured all the literate people in the city of Mardin.

But in the end, the damned dark wizard was picky and kicked out three of the nine "scholars", and then pushed his apprentices into the ranks of victims in a cruel way. As for the last two vacancies, they were selected from the Black Sheep.

Haidam had never even thought that there were two people on his side who could be regarded as well-read scholars by that damned dark wizard.

For the top leaders of the Black Sheep, the blood sacrifice rituals of the black wizards are a nightmare they cannot avoid. Haidam can barely squeeze into this group and knows some of the secrets.

There are rumors that the sudden death of the Great Conqueror was caused by these dark wizards, and that the Black Sheep King got rid of these dark wizards and killed the Great Conqueror by using curses.

There are also rumors that they killed the devilish Lord Milansha in the same way. Haidam thinks that these two rumors are nonsense. He thinks that if these dark wizards had that kind of ability, they would have broken away from them and worked on their own long ago, and there is no need to cooperate with them at all.

However, it is undeniable that the dark wizards are indeed an indispensable force for the resurgence of the Black Sheep. They constantly hold blood sacrifices in exchange for all kinds of strange powers...

For example, the crows that can help them scout the battlefield and transmit information, and the strange flame in the hands of the wizard that can burn in the rain.

Guided by the flames, Haidam and the three centuries behind him approached the Mongolian defense line in silence, their footsteps drowned out by the sound of falling rain.

The sentries simply ignored their presence, allowing them to approach the fortress and climb over the wall in the section that was washed away by rain.

Haidam was so nervous that he forgot how they were discovered in the first place. He only knew that with a roar, the two sides started fighting face to face.

But he remembered the dark wizard's words firmly: anyone who left the protection of the flame would never be able to receive the care of the flame again.

Haidam didn't say anything, his eyes never left the ball of blue flame in Hebus's hand... I must protect this dark wizard, he thought so to justify his unwillingness to fight a life-and-death battle with the Mongols.

The dark wizard seemed to have heard Haidam's thoughts. On the devastated battlefield, he suddenly turned around and looked at him, smiling meaningfully.

Haidam also forced out a not-so-pretty smile. He clenched the scimitar in his hand, carefully avoided the warriors who were fighting each other, and planned to get closer to the dark wizard.

He always felt that something unexpected would happen tonight, and that dark wizard seemed to be more prepared than they were.

But the next second, a black shadow suddenly fell from the darkness like a night owl. Under the illumination of the fire, a cold light flashed, and the black wizard who seemed to have a clear mind was instantly beheaded.

His head, whose face was covered by a black hood, flew high into the air, while the rest of his body remained standing, as if unaware that death had come. Haidam even saw the headless body relying on muscle memory to take half a step forward before suddenly falling down.

Blood gushed out from the bowl-sized broken pieces, instantly dyeing the rainwater accumulated nearby red!

Haishar picked up the black wizard's head from the ground, identified it in the firelight, and put it into a black bag. He stepped on the fire to extinguish it, turned around and looked at the black sheep officer who seemed to be frightened in the distance. He flicked his fingers on the hilt of the knife and finally chose to ignore the other party.

The Eagle of Order should not intervene in worldly disputes... Haishar said this to himself in his heart, but he knew very well that his current behavior was actually favoring Li Rufeng.

The power of miracles exists in this world itself, and it is inevitable that humans will use it in wars. However, it should be used as cautiously as possible and the power of miracles should not be made known to everyone. This is almost the default rule of all human forces.

The power used by this dark wizard is not very advanced. The Eagle of Order should trace back to something more original, otherwise a hidden organization like theirs may need ten times the manpower to complete their task.

Then, on his way out of the battlefield, Haishaer killed seven or eight Black Sheep Warriors who happened to be blocking his way and trying to stop him... Haishaer finally sighed, without giving himself any other excuses, and silently moved towards the direction of Mardin City...

As for Haidam, he still stood there motionless. At that moment, he was almost "killed" by Haishar's eyes. He felt that if he had made one more movement, or even just blinked his eyes, he might have been dead.

But for some reason, the other party finally let him go. Haidam was very relieved that it was a rainy night, because then no one would notice that he had wet his pants...

Chapter 480 Ambition

Because the Black Sheep launched a night attack on the city of Martin, Li Rufeng did not notice the movements in the city. This was also a weakness of his new plug-in. It was impossible for him to stare at the strategic map for 24 hours without diverting his attention.

He knew nothing about the military movements that took place when he was sleeping, distracted, or did not open the strategic map.

In addition, the farther away the personal guards are from him, the smaller the range of their vision. For example, a personal guard who has sneaked all the way to the vicinity of Fancheng, Li Rufeng can only see a small light spot in his strategic map perspective.

The illumination range of the light spot was less than two meters, and it did not support the magnification function, so Li Rufeng did not even notice his existence at first.

But after heavy rain fell all night with no sign of stopping, Li Rufeng, who was idle in the tent, had nothing to do except constantly examining the strategic map. Finally, he discovered the light spot floating on the "edge of the map".

If he saw correctly, the guard named Abelji was already in Van City now—

"Boss, are we going to enter openly like this?" A Mongol scratched his head, looked at the chain mail he was wearing, and then looked at the black sheep people collecting head tax near the city gate in front, and felt a little uneasy in his heart.

"Look at you. You should squat down to pee from now on." Abelji mocked his companion without any hesitation, and then led his horse towards the city gate.

Compared with the several big soldiers following behind him, Abelji, as Li Rufeng's personal guard, was also a bit lucky. Before they set off, he changed into new armor produced in Aleppo, and his saber was polished to a shine. Even his warhorse was covered with a layer of studded armor. For a moment, he looked a bit like a noble lord.

As Abelji approached, the ugly black sheep guards at the gate became noticeably nervous. After all, the Mongols had been causing trouble recently, and several surrounding tribes had suffered, including many caravans that had been looted.

The old man in front of them was obviously a pure-blooded Mongolian warrior. If it weren't for his calm expression, as if he was going back home, these Hengyang people would have shouted and howled to close the city gates to keep the enemy out.

"I'm a wandering mercenary with seven of me. I heard you're at war now, and I want to find some work. Who should I talk to?" Abelji didn't even get off his horse, but just looked down at the few people. The pressure that came over them made the Black Sheep people look at each other in bewilderment.

It's no wonder they hesitated. Based on the reputation of the Mongols, there were many wandering Mongol warriors working as mercenaries these days, especially after Timur's death. The larger Mongol tribes had their own political stances and were busy speculating and betting, but no one cared about the small tribes.

Those who can become mercenaries are considered to have a conscience. Many tribes simply start to take local wealth when life becomes difficult. They don't give anyone face and just rob without any regard.

Moreover, due to the two-front war during this period, the Black Sheep people were seriously short of troops and had to recruit soldiers all the time.

"We should go find..." An old-looking Black Sheep soldier lowered his guard when he saw that Abelji had no hostility and was alone, but he immediately realized that he had no idea who was in charge of the mercenaries in Fancheng now.

As one of the Black Sheep's strongholds, Fancheng suffered almost no military disasters during the Black Sheep's revival war. It was one of the first cities liberated by the Black Sheep, so it looks quite prosperous now.

However, after the war against the Aries began, Van transferred many noble lords who were in charge of the military, and then, in order to put pressure on the neighboring Armenians, another group of core officers were transferred.

What really caused the chaos was that after Li Rufeng's troops began to intervene in the war not long ago, the Black Sheep People had to once again draw a group of experienced veterans from this city to go into battle.

Although the number of people was small, less than 500, the repeated transfer of troops from the city still caused substantial chaos in the city.

Van is an important horse-breeding area for the Black Sheep People. The eastern region is full of livestock grazing areas. In addition to the Black Sheep People themselves, many Kurdish tribes live and recuperate here. The two sides often clash over the division of pastures.

Thanks to the overall rise of the Black Sheep People, the Kurds, who had always been submissive, also acquiesced to the fact that the Black Sheep People replaced the Mongols and became the new masters. After all, the amount of money they paid every year was not much more, so it didn't matter who was exploiting them.

However, recently, a large number of troops have been deployed, resulting in an overall lack of strength near Van. This has been noticed not only by the Mughals, but also by the Kurds.

The only reason why there has not been any large-scale conflict between the two sides so far is that the Kurds want to play it safe and wait and see whether the Black Sheep people will suddenly return victorious.

The old soldier looked Abelji up and down and suddenly felt that the city's masters were in need of such warriors, so he simply said, "Once you enter the city, go directly to the governor. He will definitely be able to give you a good price. He lives in the highest castle."

"If I can sign a good contract, I will treat you to a drink." Abelji rode his horse with his head held high and walked into the city ruled by the Black Sheep People.

Abelji was considered quite astute among the Mongol people. Originally a member of the Tairbaha tribe, he later joined Li Rufeng, whose approach inspired him greatly. Add to that the Mongols' inherent disdain for these second-tier ethnic groups, and Abelji now had an idea for something big...

He planned to act according to the reason he had just made up, find an opportunity to replace himself and his people with each other and enter Fancheng, and then launch a wave of attacks in the center. Before that, it would be nice to play a game of pretending to be friendly with the Black Sheep people.

In this way, Abelji rode into the city on horseback without even taking off his weapons, and the originally prosperous city of Van looked a little desolate because of the severance of trade routes.

There were only a few pedestrians on the not-so-straight road, and almost no young and middle-aged people. Several consecutive conscriptions had drained the Black Sheep tribal alliance dry.

As Abelji walked along, he even considered whether he should take more risks. If there was really a chance to meet the governor of the Black Sheep People here, he might as well stab him with a knife and then ride away before others could react.