Mount and Blade Central Asia

"According to my investigation, Governor Tavel has always kept a respectful distance from dark wizards. This is our opportunity." Badrani said to Nasidin.

Nasidin nodded without being too nervous. The instructors had told him during training that most wizards had slow reactions, weak bodies, and were easy to kill.

The key is whether you are fast enough so that they can't react.

Otherwise, a wizard would always find ways to avoid death, which would be very troublesome.

Young Nasidin still didn’t understand how he could avoid death, and the instructor didn’t provide more targeted teaching, because for the Muqiyi sect, the next kill was the job of the next dagger.

Nasidin decided to use a crossbow to complete the task at close range. Speed ​​and accuracy can be guaranteed. As long as the first arrow can hit the triangular area of ​​the face, even if the wizard has all kinds of abilities, he can only leave a mark.

When Nasidin uses his usual crossbow, he can ensure that he is fast and accurate within seven steps and will never miss!

...

"Brother, what happened? Why did you suddenly call us back?" Tavel's younger brother was a man who looked much more heroic than he was.

Compared to Tavel himself, who has become bloated due to indulgence in pleasure over the years, his younger brother is Tavel's real military support.

"Someone told me that the Mongolian shaman is coming to attack me." Tawil, clutching a bottle of fermented grape juice, poured a glass for his brother with a gloomy expression. "Some of those Baghdad people also want to harm me. They didn't kill all the descendants of the Jalair family back then!"

"Where are they now? I'm going to kill them!" Tavel's younger brother Teng stood up suddenly and said with full energy.

"Sit down and listen to me first." Tavel motioned to his brother to calm down. "This was told to me by a dark wizard."

"Brother, haven't you always distrusted those dark wizards? Could this be a conspiracy?" Tavel's younger brother frowned. He knew that his brother had always had a bad relationship with the dark wizards, and it was not impossible that the dark wizards would deceive them now.

After all, among the many Black Sheep chiefs, his brother was the most recent to expel the Dark Wizards from his territory and army.

"It's not that I don't trust those dark wizards. They do have some abilities." Tavel sighed. He had made enough statements on the matter of expelling dark wizards.

But his real purpose in doing this was to please the Black Sheep King.

But among all the Black Sheep chiefs, Tavel may not be the first to see that the Black Sheep King is dissatisfied with the power of the black wizards, but he is definitely the first to set an example in his actions.

This was a political deal, and Tavel had no choice but to do so. Once he did this, it didn't matter what his attitude towards dark wizards was in private.

The reason why Tavel summoned his younger brother back was because he did not trust the dark wizard and needed to be on guard against him.

"You stay here and protect me. If that dark wizard makes any unusual moves..." Tavel made a throat-slitting gesture, and his brother showed an understanding expression.

Including the soldiers brought back by Tawil's brother, there are currently about two thousand Qara ...

But this should be enough. The problem Tavel encountered is the same as Li Rufeng's, that is, they do not have enough manpower to completely control a city the size of Motor and Baghdad.

In name, they are of course the owners of these two cities, but in reality, these two cities still rely more on the management of local people to maintain normal operation.

"Where is the dark wizard?" asked Tavel's brother.

"In the basement, those dark wizards love those dark and damp crypts. God knows what kind of rituals they perform in there." Tavel explained briefly, then said, "We will leave this palace tonight and stay in the military camp."

Tavel's brother looked at the various luxurious decorations in the palace with some nostalgia, and finally nodded.

His brother had fought a lifetime of battles before he began to enjoy life. Now that he was in his prime, it was naturally difficult for him to give up so early. He could only ask unwillingly, "Are we just going to leave the palace to that dark wizard?"

"What's wrong with leaving it to him? What's so good about staying in this place? I dream of going back to the grassland to ride horses and herd sheep." Tavel said in a tone that made his brother so angry that his teeth itched.

Chapter 642 I Want to Marry for Love

Now Li Rufeng begins to feel that he is gradually turning Mount & Blade into a weird game of Paradox.

In the past three days, because the Black Sheep People suddenly began to mobilize the army on a large scale and began to threaten the city of Malikiya, he had been sitting at his desk, mobilizing forces from all parties through communication with his personal guards.

Of course, Li Rufeng's lying in bed did not affect his operation, but he still had to pay attention to some impacts. After all, Princess Parisa was helping him handle official business in the study every day.

There is a lot of good news in front of Li Rufeng now. For example, after Li Rufeng began to connect the Mongolian warlord coalition in his "territory", King Aries has realized the dissatisfaction from his allies.

The siege of Batman has been very intense recently, and this can be seen from the casualties of the Aries.

The casualties of the Aries people were not Li Rufeng’s goal, but it was an attitude after all.

A little further north, the Armenian coalition forces under Hiltberg had crossed Lake Van and directly threatened the city of Van. This made the Black Sheep King temporarily hesitant and unable to mobilize more troops to harass Li Rufeng.

Hiltberg was indeed capable. He had somehow won over several Kurdish tribes to make up for the lack of cavalry strength in the hands of the Armenians.

There is only so much high-quality pasture in this land. If the Mongols and the Black Sheep People want to eat their fill, then naturally someone will go hungry, and the Kurds are obviously the direct victims.

One only needs to look at the proportion of Kurdish citizens in the cities Li Rufeng occupied to know how many of this nomadic people were forced into the city, skipping the farming stage and adapting directly to urban life...

Compared to the Mongols who spent more than a hundred years teaching all the ethnic groups on this land why they must feed themselves first, the Black Sheep People, as latecomers, obviously had a much lower foundation.

This often gives the oppressed Kurds an urge to replace them.

Hiltberg took advantage of this and made the Kurds think that helping the Armenians fight against the Black Sheep was a good business that could make money.

The last piece of good news came from Aleppo. After a long wait, the cannons ordered by Li Rufeng finally began to arrive.

Although the artillery commander-in-chief, Diobiya, was not in Aleppo and had taken away most of the capable gunners, the terrible memories they left behind were deeply ingrained in the Black Sheep People.

A few Black Sheep people who bypassed the Batman front and tried to harass the cities of Mardin, Urfa Fort, and even Aleppo gave up their plans to get closer when they saw the glaring cannon muzzles on the city walls from afar.

But even so, harassing trade routes and attacking those "poor" merchants are still things that the Black Sheep People can easily do.

The business legend that had just begun to spread in Aleppo was cast into a shadow by the war.

And this was just the beginning of the bad news. Anis, the Iranian Emir who had a relatively pleasant meeting with Li Rufeng, just delivered a new message not long ago.

Under the mediation of Prince Shah Rukh, the Iranian emirs, now well fed and well-fed, expressed their willingness to stop the war.

In fact, some of their troops have stopped in place, waiting for further orders, and the specific armistice date depends on how much the Black Sheep King is willing to pay.

Obviously, His Royal Highness Prince Shah Rukh has noticed the existence of Li Rufeng, the troublemaker, through his partners in Iran.

As the competitor with the greatest advantage in the War of Succession, what Shah Rukh most does not want to see is naturally a change in the situation.

Moreover, from the perspective of closeness, even Khalil was still his familiar nephew, but Li Rufeng was a pure outsider. He could never accept such an outsider who suddenly appeared as his competitor.

What's more, Li Rufeng is not only a Kafir, but also Khalil's brother-in-law. Naturally, he and Prince Shah Rud are not on the same page.

Shah Rukh was a devout Muslim, and in this respect he was much more sincere than his father who shocked the whole audience. This is why many religious people were willing to support him.

Li Rufeng is undoubtedly an extreme negative example. He is not even a Muslim, and he is mixed up with those secular heretics. His crimes are simply heinous!

In the face of such an evil existence, even the Black Sheep people became amiable "fellow countrymen". After all, for the sects, a Muslim world divided into a large number of scattered small countries is more in line with their interests.

With the great conquerors as their role models, they have had enough of the sufferings of powerful kings...

"What's wrong? You look so sad." Parisa looked at Li Rufeng sitting there in a daze, smiled, and took the initiative to sit next to him, intending to help him with some official business.

She knew that Li Rufeng didn't care about her intervening in the management of this "kingdom". To Parisa, this trust and unprecedented support were more sweet than all the love words in the world combined.

But when Parisa looked at the paper in Li Rufeng's hand, she found a stick figure of herself drawn on it. She blushed immediately, but her eyes widened in surprise.

Li Rufeng drew a Q version of Parisa. Not to mention the Q version style, even simple drawing was just a vague concept in this era. Li Rufeng had indeed taught Parisa about sketching and perspective before.

But because it was difficult to express accurately in words, and Mr. Li himself only had a vague understanding of it, Parisa was confused and only understood the general idea.

But the Q-version character in front of her was so simple and easy to understand. Parisa fell in love with it at first sight and held it in her hand unwilling to let go.

In fact, Li Rufeng's painting was average, except that the eyebrows were outlined very accurately, so that people who were familiar with Princess Parisa could recognize at a glance that the painting was of her. More importantly, the exaggerated door-panel sword in the villain's hand made a mockery of Parisa's strong martial virtue.

"Are you...are you willing to support my brother? Or..." After being shy, Parisa suddenly raised her head and asked this question.

"Many people told me that you wanted to marry me just to become the new heir." Parisa looked at Li Rufeng with a look of worry and expectation. This question had been on her mind for a long time.

As a princess, Parisa felt that she had long accepted the fate of marrying. This is what she told herself when she first became ambiguous with Li Rufeng.

But as the two of them spent more and more time together, Parisa felt more and more unwilling. She wanted to know a definite answer, even if that answer made her regret for the rest of her life. She didn't want to live her life in such a muddle.

Chapter 643: The Care of My Mother's Family

No one knows whether Princess Parisa got a satisfactory answer later, but the latest news is that Her Royal Highness has set the wedding date.

Li Rufeng planned to marry Princess Parisa on October 1, 1409. On the one hand, his small kingdom needed a more formal name as its territory continued to expand, and his followers also needed Li Rufeng to have a greater title.

A tribal shaman cannot become the leader of a country, not even a shaman of a Mongolian tribe.

On the other hand, this date was chosen to commemorate Li Rufeng's homesickness.

In terms of time scale, he will never have the chance to go home in his life, and in terms of space scale, after living here for several years, for Li Rufeng, it is better to stay here than to return to that strange homeland.

At least here, Mr. Li has the ability to change any rules that make him unhappy.

But it was obviously a different concept in the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention that his hometown, Inner Mongolia, was still under the control of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the name of the Ming Dynasty itself was enough to make Li Rufeng dare not act rashly.

This is not the time of the late Ming Dynasty when people were living in poverty, nor is it the time when the Tartars outside the Great Wall were about to close the border. If Mr. Li goes back now, it will be difficult for him to realize his ambition as a time traveler.

It can also be said that Li Rufeng was afraid and lost his fighting spirit.

If it were in the first few months after he came across the time travel, he might still have maintained that kind of spirited attitude of "I am the one who should replace the kings and generals".

But now, after actually controlling several cities and shouldering the burden of nearly 100,000 people, Li Rufeng became scared.

According to historical records, Emperor Yongle had a population of almost 70 million under his rule during this era. No matter what the Ming Dynasty would be like in the future, whether it would be constrained by the shackles of the feudal dynasty and eventually fall into the inevitable decline, after all, at least in the next few decades or hundreds of years, the Ming Dynasty would be on the right track.

It will be the most dazzling pearl in the world and a treasure in the history of human civilization.

Li Rufeng was conceited that he was not capable of shouldering such a heavy responsibility, nor did he have the courage to interrupt the progress of such a thriving dynasty.

Of course, the entire above perspective is from Li Rufeng's perspective as a time traveler, with a slightly conceited mentality. If he were really allowed to go back, there would be a high probability that he would start a rebellion today and be arrested tomorrow.

Damn it, the Jinyiwei came to his door from halfway across the world, and they were able to provide him with local intelligence that even the locals couldn't get, as well as real-time changes in the situation. Master Li was almost scared to death, okay?

What is this Jinyiwei? Is he the Buddha Bole of the Ming Dynasty?

Speaking of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Master Li also had to send a wedding invitation to Weng Guo. After all, no matter how you look at it, he is half her family.

It is not difficult to find Weng Guo now, or rather, it is not difficult to find the members of the Jinyiwei... They set up a shop in Mosul, named Jinyi Cloth Shop, and there is a flag at the door with the name written in Chinese characters on it, making it difficult to miss it.

The most absurd thing is that Weng Guo hired a group of kids, and at the cost of two pancakes a day, he had them walk around the city holding small flags of Jinyi Cloth Shop to advertise. I don't know who taught him that, but the effect was surprisingly good.

Jinyi Cloth Shop sells everything from authentic oriental silk to relatively cheap local cloth. It also does part-time business such as exchanging money, making change, providing pawnshops, lending money at high interest rates, and even collecting stolen goods. Its comprehensive business is so overwhelming that it's almost like writing "I want money" on its forehead to hint to Li Rufeng.

It can be seen that they are really hungry.

However, on the other hand, these Jinyiwei spies are really efficient when they are not doing their job.

On the one hand, they did have real goods. Take silk for example. This group of Jinyiwei actually got a large quantity of oriental silk.

How do you say this thing?

Before the Arabs and Italian city-states mastered the art of silk production, its price was tied to that of gold, and by volume.

But even though Arabs and Italian city-states now produce silk, the gap in public welfare for thousands of years is still irreparable. The same size of silk from China costs three times as much as that from Arabs and five times as much as that from Italian city-states.

Just one look at the delicate patterns and the silk forging blanks covering the entire store, and Li Rufeng knew that this group of people must have picked up a batch of goods from the seaside specifically to sell.

"I'm getting married. Come over for a drink at the wedding." Li Rufeng personally delivered the invitation, but this time it was not Weng Guo who was there, but a bearded man who looked like a local.

"Congratulations, sir! I'd rather die than live like a pair of mandarin ducks." Liu Guangyue took Li Rufeng's invitation with both hands, recited a line of poetry in a refined manner, and smiled brightly. "That princess is indeed a perfect match."

No, no, right? Li Rufeng knew that these Jinyiwei spies, no matter if they looked like they had red noses and blue eyes, or yellow hair and green eyes, they all spoke Chinese well.

But you can still speak so eloquently. Isn't this an insult to me?

Mr. Li looked at the invitation in the other party's hand with some guilt. It was a handwritten invitation with Chinese characters written on it.

As a cultured person, Li Rufeng was used to other people in this era, including Princess Parisa, looking at him with admiration when he showed off.

After all, in terms of the wealth of information, Li Rufeng was unrivaled in his time. If one didn't get too caught up in the details, he could predict the future, five thousand years in the past and five hundred and twenty years in the future...

It can be said that the only thing Mr. Li is worried about is the scholars of the Ming Dynasty. Those people certainly cannot match his breadth of information, but they can't help but dig deep.

"Who are you?" Li Rufeng looked at the bearded man opposite him and asked somewhat stiffly.

"You can call me Liu Guangyue, but here I'm Muhammad Ali," Liu Guangyue replied gently. He added a chair and brought tea to Li Rufeng. "It's a rare opportunity for you to come to our place, sir. We, the Jinyiwei, are a humble institution, so we can't make any decisions about your wedding. But we can't let you come in vain. So, we've just got some excellent Suxiu. Whichever one you like, we'll make you a shabby bridal gown. It'll be a gift from your family."

Liu Guangyue's speech was comprehensive and worldly-wise, which made people feel more favorable towards him. It also made Li Rufeng feel as if he had instantly returned to his hometown from medieval Central Asia.

If he didn't have a full beard and brown hair and blue eyes, it would be more suitable. Otherwise, when Master Li looked at him, he always felt that he couldn't open his mouth to call out Liu Guangyue. He would rather call him Muhammad Ali...

Liu Guangyue thought Li Rufeng was worried they couldn't make good clothes, so he explained with a smile, "Don't look at us as rough men, but there's an old tailor on the ship this time with excellent craftsmanship. The adults are lining up to ask him to make clothes for them. We happen to be close by, so we have the best opportunity."

Well, what else can Li Rufeng say? The other party is a real Ming person, and he is just a native of a foreign country.

Chapter 644 Assassination!

"Naseedin, I have confirmed that the target is in the Abbasid Palace." Badrani appeared beside Naseedin with the appearance of a noble young man.

At this time, the two lived in a side courtyard of a wealthy businessman in the city. The wealthy businessman himself had left the increasingly chaotic city of Baghdad several months ago and sought refuge elsewhere.

The gatekeeper who was in charge of guarding the house was easy to bribe, and Badrani only spent a small amount of money.

The two men had learned from the lessons of the last mission and did not completely trust the spies left in the city by Xiao Walad. Instead, after completing the connection and successfully sneaking into the city, they disappeared in Baghdad that day and found a place to live.

Of course, Badrani did not look for a place that was too remote. After all, the target of their mission this time was the dark wizards, and in the Muqi sect, it was generally believed that the dark wizards were a very solitary group.

They are unlikely to have access to a large amount of intelligence resources. Compared with secular means, they prefer to obtain various information related to themselves through witchcraft or sacrificial rituals.