Mount and Blade Central Asia

But these are all predictions for the future. The military power of Mardin City does not exist at the moment, and the few residents here seem to be only slightly better off than Aleppo, which Li Rufeng had just taken over.

For now, the main military forces stationed in the city of Mardin are still the Badak Thousand-man Team and the Armenian Thousand-man Infantry Team. Especially the latter, which is currently just an empty shell, and Marcelino himself needs to find a way to fill the gap in soldiers.

But there is also good news. Thanks to the hard work of the blacksmiths in Aleppo, the weapons and armor that the Armenian thousand-man team lacks have begun to be manufactured, and are expected to be in place within a month.

This was also thanks to the generous legacy of the Black Sheep People. Although many of the equipment they left behind needed to be repaired, it also solved Li Rufeng's urgent needs.

In short, after such a war, Li Rufeng had to temporarily stop and recuperate, and look for the next opportunity like the Black Sheep and Aries people.

The aftermath of the fall of Mardin City did not stop but continued to spread far away. The first to react were the Black Sheep People who were besieging Diyarbakir.

The news brought back by Haidam soon made the Black Sheep Governor in Batman feel uneasy. With the consent of the Black Sheep King, they finally gave up the plan to continue besieging Diyarbak and began to withdraw their troops towards Batman and rearrange their defense line.

Haidam, who had failed in two consecutive battles with Li Rufeng, finally got his wish this time and continued to retreat with a thousand-man team composed mainly of his own tribesmen, directly towards Fancheng.

It is said that the governor of Batman once asked the Black Sheep King to leave Haidam in Batman as his reinforcements. After gathering the troops, there were only less than 4,000 people around the city of Batman.

This amount of manpower is certainly enough to fight against Li Rufeng, but if the Aries people are added, they will be at a complete disadvantage.

Chapter 502 The changing situation

"Sir, only tents are left in the camp of the Black Sheep People. They seem to have withdrawn." In a position hidden in the forest outside Diyarbakir, a scout reported to Moises with an uncertain expression on his face.

Compared with before the war began, Moises looked thinner and the color of his eye bags was much darker, but you could not see any fatigue in his eyes. He seemed to have absorbed some nutrients from the war, and overall he looked a lot more energetic.

"That's not your illusion, soldier, we won." Moises patted the other's shoulder, his tone somewhat excited.

He was originally prepared to die on the battlefield. After all, the Black Sheep people came with great momentum this time, and they were completely unprepared for war. The White Sheep King originally thought that the Black Sheep people would first resolve the conflict with the Timurid Khanate before they would have the energy to deal with them.

Moreover, King Aries still had a glimmer of hope in his heart, hoping that after Timur's successors solved their own problems, they would be able to bring order back to this land and restore his orthodox status.

The Turkmen people lived a very hard life. Any conqueror coming from the south and the north had to beat them up first, so the Aq Qoyunlu was quite satisfied with the order created by Timur.

After all, he earned his current status and the city of Diyarbakir with his loyalty and the blood of his people. Although he also followed the example of the Black Sheep People and declared himself king, that was also a choice he had to make under the pressure of the Black Sheep People.

King Aries believed that as long as he surrendered in time after the Khanate's power returned, he would be forgiven. The great conqueror always allowed the surrendered to continue to rule their land.

But now the Aries King doesn't have to make a choice. The allies he originally didn't have much hope for suddenly rose up and advanced triumphantly, defeating the Black Sheep people and heading straight for Batman!

"Hurry up and prepare your horses. I am going to visit the Wind-like Shaman in Mardin City in person!" The tone of Aries King Kara Osman was full of joy. Although the herdsmen of the Aries tribe suffered heavy losses, as the Aries King, his property and strength had hardly suffered any damage.

Moreover, he generously and kindly took in the herdsmen who had sought refuge in Diyarbakir and provided them with food, which also brought a lot of prestige to the Aries King.

"Sir, is it dangerous for you to take the initiative to visit the shaman?" Moises, who had just rushed back to the city, frowned. He had heard a lot of legends about the shaman.

But from various rumors, the shaman was an adventurous pioneer who did things without paying attention to details and with sophisticated methods.

The danger that Moises mentioned was precisely for this reason. The Aries people were now suffering from the pain of war, and if the Aries King went to visit them rashly, if the shaman had murderous intentions, he might very well swallow up the entire Aries tribe.

This is not impossible, thanks to the fact that the Aries King himself gained a lot of benefits from his choice to surrender to the great conqueror, so most of the tribal chiefs of the Aries tribe are also "docile" in character and are not at all opposed to surrendering to a stronger one.

If the targets of this war were not the Black Sheep People, with whom they have a long-standing feud, the two sides would basically be fighting to the death. I believe the war would not have developed to this point, and they would have found an opportunity to surrender long ago.

Otherwise... otherwise Moises would not have been promoted by Huoxian. He was born as an ordinary herdsman, neither a tribal chief nor a noble. He only got his current status because of his military exploits. Therefore, he had always been marginalized in the court of the Aries King, and only had the opportunity to turn things around until this war.

Even in the eyes of many Aries, Moises is still the gendarme loyal to Timur, and he will kill any deserter who tries to betray Timur without hesitation.

Even now, some people still mock us, asking why we stayed here instead of following Timur to conquer that distant eastern country.

Moises always laughed off such provocations and did not argue with others. Only he himself knew what he was thinking.

Moises's way of thinking about things is relatively extreme, because in his opinion, every choice Li Rufeng makes is to expand his own strength, and his ambition is obviously more than that.

However, the Aries King simply waved his hand, dismissing Moises's concerns. "If the war were over, I would be worried about this possibility, but his appetite isn't that big right now. He can't eat us."

Politically speaking, Aries King Kara Osman was a very good ruler. He had a unique vision and could be both soft and hard. He would bow when he should, and he would be tough when he should.

The only thing that can limit his performance is the strength of the Aries tribe and his personal ambition. Compared with the overlord like the Great Conqueror and the tenacious and ambitious man like the Black Sheep King, he lacks some competitive elements in his character.

The king was temporarily satisfied with winning Diyarbakir for the Aries tribe, and now the purpose of his visit to Li Rufeng was only to ensure that his land and interests in Diyarbakir would not be damaged.

The Aries King wanted to divide their respective territories with the Rufeng Shaman in advance. At the same time, he was also prepared and willing to suffer a loss in name, allowing Li Rufeng to take the lion's share and stand in the front to attract the attention of the Black Sheep people.

Of course, if this generation of Shaman Rufeng is really as talented as the Great Conqueror and directly tramples the Black Sheep people under his feet, then the Aries King does not mind providing all the necessary support to Shaman Rufeng just like he served the Great Conqueror.

"In that case, my lord, please allow me to go with you to see the shaman." After Moises finished speaking, he left the palace on his own without waiting for the Aries King's order, and asked the servants to prepare the horses in an imperative tone.

Faced with the current Moises, the servants did not dare to complain and just prepared the horses according to Moises' instructions.

"Lord Osman, that outsider doesn't respect you." The chief steward of King Aries's palace witnessed all this and whispered in King Aries' ear, "Now that the war is over, you should let that outsider return to his own land. Many chiefs dislike him."

"How much money did they offer you to convince me to kick Moises back?" The Aries King gave his long-serving butler a playful look. "If anyone dislikes him, let them say it to my face."

"They don't like Moises, but do I like them?" The Aries King looked at the trembling butler and waved his hand lazily. "Go away. You've benefited a lot from being with me over the years. You won't be left alone in your old age. Vigita will take over your work."

Chapter 503: The Winner's Wine

All the changes happening in the distant outside world could not affect Li Rufeng now. On April 7, he received the visiting Aries King in the city of Mardin. The two sides reached a consensus on the current war and formed an alliance to jointly resist the ambitions of the Black Sheep people until the region restored its former peace.

As for which past peace this should be restored to, the two sides may have some differences, but neither Li Rufeng nor King Aries pointed this out.

The two old foxes, who looked still young, hugged each other warmly and called each other dear brothers and respectable friends.

Then, when asked about more details, Li Rufeng generously stated that what was given to the Aries people by the Great Conqueror before the war began would still belong to the Aries people, but those things that were illegally stolen by the Black Sheep people would be taken back by Li Rufeng one by one.

Kara Osman was a smart man. He could hear Li Rufeng's ambition, but he knew that it was best for him to behave like a rabbit at the moment, so he solemnly expressed that he respected the order established by the great conqueror.

Li Rufeng estimated that even the Great Conqueror himself would blush if he heard such nonsense. After all, what kind of order did he establish here? He just killed all the enemies who stood in his way, burned their cities, and took away all the literate people and skilled craftsmen.

He simply treated the land as farmland, harvesting talents regularly, and he used primitive methods such as slash-and-burn farming.

But no matter what, King Aries was so considerate that Li Rufeng saved himself a lot of trouble. So at the dinner party that night to entertain King Aries, Li Rufeng specially asked someone to serve strong liquor for treating the wounded.

This stuff has now become hard currency in Li Rufeng's army. The medical officers accompanying the army have to find someone to look after these liquors to ensure that they are not stolen.

There were also many wounded soldiers who would rather risk infection of their wounds than drink the strong liquor distributed to them for disinfection. The medical officers had to personally supervise these wounded soldiers every day and watch them pour the liquor on their wounds before they were done.

These extra tasks made the medical officers, who were already short of staff, miserable. Many of them even embezzled the medicine and started drinking it themselves.

These deeds are enough to prove how popular the "strong liquor" brewed by Li Rufeng using a simple distillation method is, so this liquor was welcomed by all Aries people as soon as it was served.

Especially the Aries King himself, that man who was originally a bit of a true-hearted person, after getting drunk, he enthusiastically pulled Li Rufeng to dance wildly for half the night. It seemed that he was almost ready to pull Li Rufeng to become sworn brothers and become their best friend.

However, although good wine is delicious, one should not drink too much. This principle has been passed down for thousands of years and there is a reason for it. When Kara Osman woke up in the room the next day, it was already dark.

"What's wrong with me?" Aries King, who was in pain all over his body, felt as if he had been swung by an ogre and beaten back and forth three hundred times. He felt dizzy all over.

"My lord, you've had too much to drink." Moises, also holding his head, appeared beside Osman. "The wine provided by the Mongols is too strong..."

Chapter 504 The Doctor's Kindness

With the lifting of the siege of Diyarbakir, Mongke, who had been leading his team away from the main battlefield, was finally able to arrive in Mardin smoothly with his incompetent junior Danggertai.

What made Mengge a little regretful was that he was ultimately unable to catch the real traitor, Baoledebagen. What made him even more upset was that the reckless man Huluchirjia was even more persistent than him. He led his own hundred-man team deep into the enemy's territory alone, and continued to advance westward while holding on to clues whose authenticity was unknown.

Mengge knew that as long as Huluqierjia wanted to leave, there would not be much danger, so he did not dissuade him. He just transferred all his surplus supplies to the other party and stuffed Jatalehun into the other party's team to get some credit.

As the saying goes, it's better to plow the grass first, this time Qinggelinayan's younger brother got into trouble, so he had to give his other younger brother more credit to offset it. In addition, Jitalehun had made great progress along the way, which was a verification of what he had learned and the actual situation. He was not a burden, so Huluchierjia did not object.

The reason why Mengge hurriedly took Dangertai back was because the stubborn boy was seriously ill.

Because of Qinggelinayan's prestige, even though Dangertai was imprisoned, he received care commensurate with his status. Mengge did not imprison the boy in a prison car, but gave him a poor horse so that he could ride the horse to keep up with the team without having the chance to escape on horseback.

In addition, Mengge also arranged several soldiers who were not familiar with Dangertai to watch over Dangertai from a distance to ensure that he ate and slept on time.

But even so, Dangertai's expression became worse and worse day by day. Five days ago, he even developed a high fever and fell off his horse.

Walking on the road, Mengge had no other good way to alleviate Dangertai's symptoms. He could only ask the military medical officer to use some herbal medicine, which he didn't know whether it would work or not, to temporarily maintain Dangertai's condition. Then he walked all the way, trying to get back to Li Rufeng as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Mengge also had Li Rufeng's personal guards around him, so they were able to quickly get the latest situation of the war and grasp Li Rufeng's real-time location, so they didn't go the wrong way.

Even so, when Mengge led his troops into the city of Mardin, the young man Dangertai was breathing more than breathing in and was on the verge of death.

Although Mengge and Dangertai were related by blood, they did not have much friendship on a daily basis. If Li Rufeng had not suddenly appeared and risen, he might have been the rebel who attempted to challenge Qinggelinayan.

So when he saw the young man who was about to die, Mengge felt sad. In a trance, he seemed to see himself lying there, about to return to heaven.

Qinggelinayan, who had received the news in advance and hurried from Aleppo, was waiting at the city gate early. The moment he saw Dangertai, who was pale and being carried all the way here, the anger in his heart had long dissipated.

Holding Dangertai's hand, Qinggelinayan began to cough violently. The things that scared him most were strenuous exercise, emotional excitement, and cold wind entering the lungs. Now he had all three and he coughed up blood immediately.

The desolate scene was so moving that even a cold-hearted person like Mengge could not help but sigh.

"Hurry up and send my brother to Shaman Rufeng!" Qinggelinayan didn't care about himself and gave orders to the soldiers directly without going through Mengge.

But these people were all Mengge's confidants. Faced with Lord Yan's order, they just turned their heads to look at Mengge, waiting for his reaction.

Mengge nodded, and the soldiers immediately ran in carrying Dangertai under the leadership of Li Rufeng's personal guards.

Chapter 505 The Secret of Gold

As Dangertai's condition stabilized, Qinggelinayan also gradually stabilized. But after this night's ordeal, everyone could see that Qinggelinayan, who had originally looked healthy, could no longer bear the burden.

He couldn't even ride back to Aleppo from Mardin on his own without some rest, and he didn't want to go back to Aleppo.

Originally, Qinggelinayan went to live in Aleppo just to see what kind of person Li Rufeng was and to ensure the smooth completion of the whole process. After all, Li Rufeng was the old shaman's student. Although he was somewhat unwilling, this was still a decent way of transferring power.

At least, it is much more harmonious than what has happened among the Mongols in the past. In Qinggelinayan's case, he cannot ask the Eternal Heaven to grant him more gifts. This is the best result.

And now Qinggelinayan's final mission has been completed, although not in the way he hoped. He looked down at Dangertai who had fallen into a deep sleep, sighed, covered his face with his hands, coughed softly a few times, and walked out of the room.

Outside, Li Rufeng was watching a makeshift stove simmering medicine. Master Li never relied on others for favors like this. "For the next month, take it three times a day. Avoid cold or raw food. Keep to a minimum and focus on rest. In half a year, you'll be cured."

"Thank you." Qinggelinayan said sincerely, not only for the treatment of the disease, but also for Dangertai.

Family members know their own affairs. Qinggeli Nayan took over his father's position early. In order to secure the title of Nayan, he put almost all his energy into bravery and fighting, and neglected the care of his two younger brothers.

Like their father, their mother also died early, and Jatalehun was sent to Samarkand as a hostage when he was still young, leaving only Dangertai.

Without the care of his father, mother and brother, Dangertai grew up eating at hundreds of homes. Although all the tribesmen respected Qinggelinayan, there was still a gap in their relationship.

Little Dangertai developed his current proud, arrogant, sensitive and irritable character. Qinggelinayan probably understood Dangertai's thoughts, so he could not vent his anger on him.

He just didn't know why things had exploded so quickly. A year ago, he was still the awe-inspiring Nayan. All the Mongols respected him, and even the Turkified Mongolian tribes were proud to be able to drink with him.

And now, even though Qinggelinayan couldn't see, he knew how those Mongol warriors looked at him. For a Mongol, when you can't ride a horse, you are a useless person, and even Genghis Khan is no exception.

Qinggelinayan was not surprised by Mengge's "rebellion" against him, but the reaction of his soldiers made Qinggelinayan realize in an instant that his era was over.

Of course, the betrayal of Baoledebagen and the attempts of those Turkified Mongol tribes to drag his brother into the water is another example.

The rights of a Mongol will decline as the strength with which he wields his saber decreases. This is the truth, and it is also the basis for maintaining the brutal rule of the Mongols for hundreds of years. They have no room for corruption.

It was precisely because Qinggelinayan himself was a beneficiary of this power system that he could see more clearly that Li Rufeng was trying to take a completely different path.

He didn't want to link his power with force, perhaps because Rufeng Sashao was not good at it, or perhaps because his intelligent brain was far more useful than a strong body.

In short, Qinggelinayan is happy to see this happen. If the shaman still needs him to make use of his remaining energy, then he will make use of his remaining energy. In this way, a tragedy like Dangertai may not happen again.

The impact brought by Dangertai came to a temporary end, but this incident itself reflected a big problem, that is, those Turkicized Mongolian tribes that were nominally under the management of King Aries also had their own interests in private, which was something Li Rufeng had not anticipated before.

This is not to say that Li Rufeng only regarded them as NPC forces in the game, and they were unchanging things before he, the player, triggered them, but that they had maintained a certain strange homeostasis over the past few decades and continued to this day.

If they had their own interests, they could have made their own choices like the Aries when the great conqueror first visited this land.

As you can see, although those Mongols have been Turkified culturally, most of them still have standard Mongolian appearance, and the origins of the various tribes can be traced back to the rule of the Ilkhanate.

As far as Li Rufeng knew, although the Great Conqueror himself was also a Mongolian, bloodline was just a tool for him, just like religious belief.

If he could nominally set up a Khan above him who had the blood of the Golden Family and could win the hearts of all the Mongols, then he would set up such a Khan. If Allah could satisfy all the subjects under his rule, then he would give Allah the greatest honor.

Chapter 506 Global Impact

After several days of intense negotiations, Li Rufeng and the White Sheep King Kara Osman reached an agreement that they would decide when to stop the war started by the Black Sheep people. Both sides would mobilize an army of no less than 5,000 people and advance simultaneously from the north and south directions to force the Black Sheep people to leave this land.

The impact of the heavy rain has completely faded, and this land has become the best battlefield for cavalry to gallop. The three parties in the war happen to be all forces that are good at cavalry and are mainly nomadic peoples. Therefore, in the preparation stage of a new round of war, scout teams composed of nearly a thousand cavalrymen are fighting each other on this plain.

Given the deep blood feud between the Aries and Black Sheep people, there is no need for the Aries King to mobilize for more war. They are willing to give up everything to bring the war to the heads of the Black Sheep people, and the same goes for the brave generals under Li Rufeng.

To the Mughals, they were the real masters of this land, and these black sheep were nothing more than rebellious slaves.

Currently, the focus of the three-way war still revolves around the city of Batman, but compared to the Aries people's urgent strategic goal of pulling out this thorn, Li Rufeng prefers to bypass this city. He already has the city of Mardin, and continuing eastward, he can head straight for Mosul or the city of Sirte.

Compared to Batman, which has been destroyed by the Black Sheep People, these two cities are undoubtedly more strategically valuable. Moreover, they have actually penetrated into the heartland of the Black Sheep People and restored half of the long-cut-off East-West trade route.

On the other hand, no matter which city Li Rufeng finally chooses as his strategic target, it will sever the continuity of the Black Sheep people's territory in the north-south direction, making Baghdad, the pearl of Inner Asian civilization, an isolated city.

You must know that before this, in order to expand their territory to the greatest extent, the Black Sheep people dispersed a large number of their manpower in the border areas, resulting in internal emptiness, with only a small number of garrisons in those node cities.

It can be said that there is no obstacle in front of Li Rufeng's advance. The Black Sheep people's last strategic defense node in the western region is in Batman. If the White Sheep people are willing to fight the Hengyang people to the death outside Batman, Master Li will wake up laughing in his dreams.

But the Aries King is not a fool. He has completely given up his interests in the Black Sheep land in previous negotiations. He only wants to keep his existing borders. Therefore, compared with Li Rufeng, the Aries people are much more conservative in strategy.

Their goal is to drive the Black Sheep away from their doorstep, so there is no need for the Aries King to let his people fight the Black Sheep to the death in Batman City. He just needs to sit back and watch the two tigers fight each other, and those Black Sheep will sooner or later mobilize their troops, and then he can take the city without bloodshed.

The two old foxes have their own plans, but the situation is generally unfavorable for the Black Sheep. They have to make a painful choice, either take care of one thing or lose the other.

At this time, Murad Jalaluddin, the highest commander of the Black Sheep People's Western Front, who was in Batman, had already keenly noticed this.