Mount and Blade Central Asia

"It's worse than that. My king, Mushtaq Talib Saidi, surrendered to that Mongol shaman. Erbil Fort is now occupied by that shaman. The Iranians have reached some kind of tacit understanding with him, and their troops will stop in front of Erbil Fort." Abdul looked at the Black Sheep King's expression and kept thinking about what to say next.

But after hearing what he said, the Black Sheep King froze, expressionless, like a statue...

Abdul didn't even dare to breathe, just waiting silently. He felt as if time had stopped.

After a long pause, the Black Sheep King calmly asked, "Surrender? No resistance? Did the castle's defenders agree?"

"We don't know what happened in Erbil Castle yet. We only know that after being surrounded by the Iranians, Mushtaq chose to surrender to the Mongol shaman," Abdul explained. "I've sent people to the vicinity of Erbil Castle to learn more. We'll have to wait a few days for more information."

"And..." Abdul hesitated for a moment, but decided to say a few more words for the Saidi family. "The Saidi family has sent assassins. They assure you that the betrayer must die."

"Has the Saidi family sent out assassins?" asked the Black Sheep King in a calm tone.

"Yes, they hope to have a chance to atone for their sins and prove their loyalty," Abdul continued. "The Saidi family hopes to have a chance to meet with you after that and show more sincerity."

"Sincerity?" The Black Sheep King swept his hand across the table, picked up the vase on the table, and suddenly jumped up like an old lion, smashing the vase heavily on Abdul's head!

"Sincerity! Sincerity! Just how much sincerity did they give you?" the Black Sheep King demanded furiously. "My officer surrendered to the enemy, giving the Mongols a sturdy fortress for free! And his family knew about it before I did! Huh?!"

"You call this sincerity? You call this loyalty?" The Black Sheep King pointed at Abdul and shouted, "They've even sent out assassins! They're so eager to silence us, what are they hiding?!"

"First it was Haidam, now it's the Sayidi family and you!" The blood vessels in the Black Sheep King's forehead seemed to be about to burst as he roared loudly, "Do you think I'm dead?"

Abdul had lost his ability to think at this time. He was terrified. He was too careless to connect Mushtaq's matter with Haidam...

The Black Sheep King has never been known for his kindness and tolerance. When people talk about this king, they always think of his forbearance and his perseverance.

But few people know that Karl Yusuf is cold-blooded and cruel, and all those who have been his enemies over the years have died.

Not every king has the opportunity to make a comeback after leaving his court for more than ten years. Carl Yusuf was able to do this because he never gave his enemies a second chance.

Of course, beating the Conqueror doesn't count...

Abdul didn't know how to defend himself, because the main reason why he was willing to speak for the Saidi family was that the Black Sheep King was old, and his physical and mental condition had been poor during that period. He was worried that he would not be able to bear too much bad news.

But such words cannot be said at all, as the consequences may be even more serious than the mistakes made by the Saidi family.

"Please forgive my sins, my king. They gave too much... I was moved and concealed the news for them..." Abdul finally took the blame because he was indeed loyal to the Black Sheep King, and he knew that the Black Sheep King still remembered their friendship.

"How many years have you followed me? Am I not generous enough to you, Abdul?" The Black Sheep King was old after all. After venting his emotions, he asked with a heavy breath.

"Of course you are generous, my king. It's me who has become more greedy than before. Some time ago, I fell in love with a dancer. Her owner wanted two thousand gold coins for her, and I was tempted. That's why this happened." Abdul took the initiative to play the victim. "She looks a lot like my ex-wife..."

Hearing Abdul say this, the Black Sheep King also sighed, because Abdul's wife died during the years when he was wandering overseas, and he knew that they had a good relationship.

"You... have disappointed me, Abdul. You shouldn't have betrayed my trust." The Black Sheep King looked at Abdul lying on the ground with blood on his face. In the end, he didn't stand up or help him up. He just waved his hand and said, "Have someone from the Sayidi family come to see me tomorrow. For your sake, this matter ends here."

"I'm sorry, my king, I have let you down..." Abdul breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. Although the consequences of the whole incident were a little beyond his expectations, he finally got through it.

"Also, within three days, I will see any trace of Haidam, and he must die." The Black Sheep King said finally, and then left the room, leaving Abdul lying on the ground.

...、

At this time, Haidam, who had completely angered the Black Sheep King, had already moved southwards towards Mosul with only a few hundred followers.

Haidam finally came to his senses and decided not to fight anymore. Since he had completely offended the Black Sheep King, he went to join the Black Sheep King's biggest enemy.

The reason why he was willing to follow the Black Sheep King may be because of his passion, but after more than ten years of ups and downs, that passion had long been exhausted.

The final humiliation of the division of Urfa Castle was merely the result of Haidam's complete breakdown of defense.

He now had to reconsider his future. Going north was the first option that was ruled out. Instead of competing with the small tribes in the north for the few grasslands, he might as well continue to follow the Black Sheep King.

Going west to join the Aries King is even more impossible. Not to mention the grudges between the Black Aries and the Aries, Haidam himself alone cannot get over the hurdle.

He was worried that if the Black Sheep King could recover, he would just wave his hand and kill the Aries people.

Going east and joining the Iranians has an uncertain future. Although there is no grudge between the Black Sheep people and the Iranians, and there is even a hint of tacit understanding in the long-term confrontation, it is precisely because of this hint of tacit understanding that Haidam has doubts.

He was worried that one day he would be sold by the Iranians as a gift to the Black Sheep King.

Based on Haidam's understanding of Carl Yusuf, he would rather pay the price of several cities in exchange for a gift like this from himself.

So in the end, the only option left was to go south and seek refuge with the Mongolian shaman.

From Haidam's perspective, Li Rufeng has so many advantages. First of all, he is young enough, and youth means a stable foundation for rule.

Secondly, Li Rufeng was a good fighter. After the death of the Great Conqueror, the Black Sheep People had become one of the few powerful armies in this land. However, they suffered heavy losses at the hands of Li Rufeng and were defeated in successive battles. Haidam himself was defeated in the process.

The cities and lands now controlled by Li Rufeng also prove the power of this adult.

Last but not least, he had just heard that the lord had accepted the surrender of the Black Sheep of Erbil Castle.

It was this incident that made Haidam make up his mind.

Li Rufeng had a very good reputation. The Mongols were restrained under his leadership. Even now, rumors have been circulating about where the Mongols were and which cities they massacred.

The Kurds and Armenians were both valued by Li Rufeng, showing that he did not exclude foreigners.

Or to be more precise, he himself is a foreigner. Now Li Rufeng's Tang identity is no longer a secret. After all, he looks very different from the Mongolians.

Haidam is very clear about his own value and has an accurate positioning of himself. He is a signboard.

Since Li Rufeng is willing to accept the Black Sheep people, he can just be a mascot in public, which is a very important and safe position.

This gives the Black Sheep people a completely different path to choose when they are in desperate situations.

With this awareness, Haidam fled in panic and successfully escaped to the vicinity of Mosul. He was then discovered by Li Rufeng's scouts and escorted back to Mosul.

...

"Were you originally the commander of the garrison at Urfa Castle?" Li Rufeng met the lithe Haidam at the dinner party that night and had a good first impression of this black sheep man.

Perhaps it would be a bit too conservative to describe Li Rufeng's first impression of Haidam as not bad. After all, when he conquered Urfa Castle, he wanted to give a badge to the black sheep who fled without fighting. Now Li Rufeng finally had the chance.

"Yes, I was a garrison soldier in Urfa Castle at that time. I had some conflicts with Dimurati, who later became my successor. I was a bit radical at that time..." Haidam was a little ashamed when he confessed his "glorious deeds" and spoke in a low voice.

"So, you poisoned him, killing a lot of officers and giving us the opportunity to easily break through Urfa Castle?" Li Rufeng suppressed the urge to laugh and gave Haidam enough face.

It’s just that Li Rufeng gave him face, but the others below didn’t give him this face.

Saladin Muhet, the Kurdish leader who had participated in the war to recapture Urfa Castle, immediately burst into laughter, ran to Haidam with a glass of wine, and forced Haidam to clink glasses with him and drink.

Even Li Rufeng couldn't help but sigh when he listened to Haidam's narration of the various accidents that happened in Urfa Castle at that time. If it weren't for Haidam, he would probably have lost hundreds or thousands of people to capture the castle.

With the military strength they had at the time, if they had lost so many people, the course of the entire battle might have changed.

From this perspective, Haidam is truly Li Rufeng's "noble man".

"Don't worry, you'll be one of us from now on. I'll make you a banner," Li Rufeng assured Haidam. "Don't like fighting? That's okay. I have so many brave generals under my command, there's no need for you to go to the battlefield!"

"We all live on this land together. How can you kill each other just because you're an Aries and he's a Black Sheep? That's too narrow-minded!" Li Rufeng criticized the Black Sheep King in front of Haidam. "It's your narrow-minded thinking that led to this war. This is wrong. I must put a stop to this!"

Haidam looked at the ferocious Mongolians behind Li Rufeng, smiled bitterly and responded to what Li Rufeng said, feeling like a clown.

But he was able to take it easy. Since he escaped from Tabriz, this was the only way he had left.

But clowns have their own way of living. At the beginning, King Aries was just a clown beside the great conqueror, but didn’t he still become King Aries?

Although the Black Sheep people have always looked down on the Aries people, the king is the king, and the Aries King is, after all, a king on equal footing with the Black Sheep King.

And Haidam paid so much for the Black Sheep King, but in the end all he got was a small, broken fortress that no one wanted, and he had to fight hard to build it up.

Such a gap made Haidam feel that he was worse than a clown.

"I see you're a sensible person, and you see things very clearly." Li Rufeng patted Haidam's shoulder and said, "So I have another compatriot of yours who's still alive and not as clear-sighted as you are. If you have time, try to persuade him."

"No, no, your order is my will!" Haidam complimented Li Rufeng, and then got his first task after surrendering.

He knew without a doubt who he was trying to persuade, Mushtaq Talib Saidi, a member of the Saidi family.

Haidam sometimes felt that the reason why he felt such a huge gap in his feelings at the time was due to the existence of the Saidi family.

These people gave up everything and risked their lives to follow the Black Sheep King through so many difficulties, but in the end, after the Black Sheep King made a comeback, they had to share the fruits of victory with these "traitors" who did not pay any price.

No, it's much more than that.

What the Saidi family got was far more than Haidam could have dreamed of. Even a young man like Mushtaq could get the position of a centurion and wait for gilding in Erbil Castle.

However, an old man like him who is close to the Black Sheep King has to prepare his own dry food and continue to fight for the Black Sheep King on the border with his few confidants, and he also has to compete with latecomers!

When Haidam thought of everything he had suffered in Urfa Castle, he was filled with resentment towards the Black Sheep King. Now he finally had a place to vent his anger.

Chapter 609 Taking Over Erbil Castle

As the Erbil Castle was officially handed over to Li Rufeng's army, and as the thousand people in the city came out, the Black Sheep people who planned to follow Mushtaq to try their luck with Li Rufeng lined up outside the castle with uneasy feelings, waiting for Li Rufeng to inspect them.

Li Rufeng finally smiled. Anyone who picked up such a complete and powerful team of a thousand men for no reason would also be smiling like him.

Although the identity of the Black Sheep is a bit... embarrassing, to be honest, it's really not a big deal in this era.

You cannot regard the Black Sheep people as a whole, or even as a major ethnic group. They are not worthy of it.

The Black Sheep People who can be called the old Beijing Zhenghuang Banner are probably just a small branch of Turkmen nomads between Tabriz and Van. It is not certain whether their total population is as large as that of the Mongols under Li Rufeng.

The reason why the Black Sheep were able to make such a big noise was ultimately due to the shabby notification system left by Timur.

He turned the place into a wasteland, and when the army withdrew, there were basically no valuable assets left.

Among all the bureaucrats left behind by the great conqueror, the most efficient were the tax collectors of Muzaffar. They did not care about the production reduction caused by natural disasters or man-made disasters, nor did they care about the casualties caused by tribal infighting. They collected wealth strictly according to the registered amount left by the great conqueror.

Strictly speaking, the Mongur people under Li Rufeng and the exiled enemy tribes from the river were actually secondary tax farmers under Timur.

In places where bureaucrats like Muzaffar were unwilling to go far, they would collect taxes on behalf of the emperor. As long as the taxes were eventually handed over to the great conqueror, their own wealth would remain unchanged, and the people below could do whatever they wanted with it, and no one would care.

Over time, almost everyone in this land became a rebel, and the Black Sheep King was just the most powerful one.

Of course, the Black Sheep Tribe was originally the most powerful branch among the Turkmen people. When it rose again, many people wanted to take advantage of it.

The surrendered people who stayed in Erbil Castle can only be guaranteed to be basically Turkmen. It is estimated that some of them were forcibly absorbed into the Black Kingdom after being defeated, while others were the defeated group. Some of them took the initiative to join the Black Demon King when he rose to power.

No matter where, as long as there are people, there will be classes.

The Black Sheep people under the rule of the Black Sheep Dynasty were naturally divided into different classes. Most of these people were not ranked in the top three classes for various reasons, and their lives were not much better than during the rule of the great conqueror.

And they also have to take on more and more intense combat missions.

Apart from the Mongols, a "fighting nation" that truly ate their fill in wars and whose heritage is rich enough to sustain them to this day, only they can fundamentally support such a war-loving nation. Others are far behind.

Therefore, under the rule of the Black Sheep Dynasty, many people felt that they had actually lost out. Of course, this kind of department was mainly concentrated in the middle and lower levels. All the tribal leaders who were willing to support the Black Sheep King at that time basically received sufficiently generous rewards.

This is also the main reason why the Black Sheep people are so powerful. Of course, the situation in which the Black Sheep people are now surrounded by enemies is ultimately due to this reason.

In order to make a comeback, the Black Sheep King promised too many benefits, resulting in not enough for his own confidants, and also spoiling the appetites of many people.

"Who do these people listen to now?" Looking at the Iranians evacuating in the distance, Li Rufeng whispered to Saib beside him.

The task of communicating with the Iranians was still handed over to Saib. Apparently, the other party was still unsure about what attitude to adopt in approaching him.

Therefore, both parties tacitly maintained the strategy of keeping the king away from the king, and the handover was entirely arranged by the subordinates.

"There is no leader. They killed each other badly during the civil war a few days ago. Now no one trusts each other among the military leaders, and they are divided according to the previous tribal system." Saib knew the situation of the defenders of Erbil Fort clearly.

Without the restraint of the Mushtaq and the suppression of the pure-blooded Black Sheep People, it has degenerated from the Black Sheep People's regular army into a Turkmen militia.

"Pick 300 people from there, and take the rest back to Mosul." Apart from Mosul, Li Rufeng had no other place to accommodate these surrendered soldiers for the time being.

The military strength of those cities in the rear is a bit weak, only the defense force of Martin City is relatively strong, but it cannot withstand such hidden dangers.

There is only Mosul. At present, Li Rufeng has a strong army in Mosul, so it is not a problem to absorb and digest these 1,800 surrendered soldiers.

This is also thanks to Qinggelinayan who always adhered to the standards required by Timur and trained a large number of grassroots officers, allowing Li Rufeng to expand the army anytime and anywhere based on them.

When Li Rufeng arrived at Erbil Castle this time, the person in charge of his protection was Huluchirga, who brought with him 500 people, almost all of whom were Mongolians.

Behind them was a mixed infantry unit with Armenians as the backbone and soldiers from the Malikiya coalition forces filling in, hurrying on the road.

After several previous battles, Li Rufeng really looked down on the combat effectiveness of the Malikiya City League, but now only their organization remained intact and could mobilize enough soldiers.

In desperation, they could only mix them with the better-performing Armenians and send them to Erbil Castle to make a show of it.

According to Li Rufeng's estimation, the possibility of conflict between the two sides is very small before the Iranians reach a consensus internally, so he just needs to make Erbil Castle look like it is.

These thousand people, cobbled together from various sources, were intended not so much to guard against the Iranians as to deter a possible counterattack by the Black Sheep.

This time, Hulujirga was appointed as the temporary governor of Erbil Castle, responsible for the safety of the entire castle.

To be honest, Li Rufeng was somewhat skeptical of the careless Huluchirjia, but there was no better candidate. Facing the old subordinates of the Khanate, Li Rufeng could only trust the Mongolians from his own tribe.

If only Habashi was there, that would be the perfect candidate.

"Stay here and don't worry about anything else. Food and drinks will be delivered on time. If someone attacks the castle and their numbers outnumber yours by twice, retreat immediately." Li Rufeng instructed Hulucierjia, "Do you understand?"

"I understand!" Hulucierjia answered confidently, as if he couldn't wait to start his career as governor.

But the more Huluchirjia acted like this, the more worried Li Rufeng became. But when he looked at Saiyibu next to him, he became even more worried.

He was afraid that if he released Sayyib again, he would become the third in line to the throne of the Khanate tomorrow, so he had to release Prince Shah Rukh and Sultan Khalil.