Chapter 268: Lord is in a hurry
Leon stayed in Turda Fortress for only two hours before heading south again.
During these two hours, he met with Qaiwan Khan and gave him a clear solution - unite with Bahaman and other lords who did not follow Kadan to attack Sarleon City, and you should protect yourselves together.
The lord said that he came here specifically to cause trouble for Bahadur Khan Kadan. This was the response of the Kingdom of the Fierce Lions to Kadan's brazen attack on the royal city. It was a battle for the kingdom's dignity.
In other words, if a D'Shar lord like Ghaivan Khan, who has nothing to do with the attack on Sarleon, doesn't want to be crushed, it's best for him to stay out of the way.
Moreover, what will Bahadur Khan Kadan do when his strength is impaired and he faces a strong enemy?
Will he use you lords who are not particularly close to him as cannon fodder?
Judging from the fact that the Inquisition headed straight for the vicinity of Turda Fortress, Cardan has already done so, and the first person to be attacked is you, Khan Ghaiwan!
The approach Li Ang proposed was actually in line with Gaiwan Khan's own wishes - not to be cannon fodder for Kadan, but not to rely on others either. He could go find Bahaman himself, and the two brothers could join forces and keep each other warm.
Anyway, Le Ang did not ask him to surrender or do anything else that would lose his reputation, and even said that he would not occupy his territory, the Tulda Fortress, which was considered very moral.
So Qawan Khan rushed to Aishkeman as fast as he could, without even taking his soldiers with him - he wanted his brother to leave the dangerous place, bring his soldiers and go back with him to the Turda Fortress, which was actually much safer than Aishkeman.
To be honest, if Qaiwan Khan could hold on to the Turda Fortress, relying on the fortress's defense facilities and his troops' familiarity with the terrain, even if there were only 500 of them, they would be able to keep Leon's troops out of the Desha border and prevent them from advancing an inch...
After all, more than half of this army group, which seems to have more than 10,000 people, are merchants. Moreover, these merchants did not bring a large amount of supplies this time. They only brought high-value goods - not only did they fail to play a role in logistical supply, but they would also drag down the combat effectiveness of the entire army.
Moreover, the real warriors in the army were not suitable for attacking the city. They were a mixed force of small lords. It was very troublesome to use such a force to attack the city by force - as long as a knight was killed or injured, the knight's followers would most likely run away...
If there are a few more followers running away, the battlefield will become chaotic and the overall look will be as if it has been defeated.
If those businessmen saw such a scene, they might back down, which would set off a chain reaction.
Therefore, when attacking a fortified city, he could only use his own troops. However, Li Ang was unwilling to suffer any losses in this place, so he tried to avoid such things as forcibly attacking a fortified city as much as possible.
Besides, he couldn't waste time now.
Time is life, time is money. Leon doesn't want to give the Lord of Desha time to gather his troops together. He wants to capture Ashcoman as quickly as possible, as he is going to be auctioned .
When dealing with such a large business, you have to be efficient - Ramon was very efficient in his previous work.
The message that Leon had previously told Ramon to convey to Turda Fortress was that "Bahád Khan Kadan hired the Inquisition."
This news, combined with Sarah's words, naturally made Qaiwan Khan very confused.
To be honest, the Inquisition was indeed recruited by Cardan - Cardan's army was defeated outside Sarleon, and the Sarleon army was heading towards D'Shar. This was naturally the best opportunity for the Inquisition.
But in fact, the Inquisitor of the Heretic Tribunal, Rasmus Defatica, was only spying near Singal and did not come to Turda Fortress. It is estimated that the Heretic Tribunal originally wanted to attack Singal.
But Singal's lord, Caliph Tahir, did not follow Cardan to Sarleon, and Singal's strength was not damaged at all, so the Inquisition did not act rashly.
However, Leon asked Ramon to convey a message to Inquisitor Rasmus: "People from the Inquisition are looting around the Turda Fortress."
In fact, this was originally the plan of Emperor Marius, and the location information of Inquisitor Rasmus was also provided by Marius.
The small team that claimed to be "trying heretics" before was actually the illegal armed forces such as the mountain bandits and gangsters that Emperor Marius rushed to D'Shar. There were people from the Shadow Wolves following them and operating in secret. Emperor Marius originally wanted to "purchase" some horses from D'Shar.
Well, in a zero-dollar purchase format.
Emperor Marius' original plan was to drive these bandit groups to "crush heretics" and plunder, and then the Shadow Wolf Pack would be responsible for taking away the stolen horses - they would just "sell" the stolen horses back to Bacchus, and let the bandits return to their country to collect the money and divide the spoils.
After all, they were all bandits from Bucks. They all knew that the horses would be sold at a higher price if sent back to Bucks, and they were also going to return to their country to divide the spoils.
But in fact, Marius only planned to get the horses back to Bacchus. He did not plan to let the bandits return home. If no one returned home, Emperor Marius would not have to pay. They were all bandits anyway. Only if they all died in Desha could it be considered a contribution to Bacchus...
Marius had always known about the existence of the Inquisition. In fact, he used this method to let these bandits commit crimes under the banner of the Inquisition, so as to attract the Inquisition to attack them...
So Marius originally planned to send someone to pass on the message to the leader of the Inquisition, the Inquisitor Rasmus.
However, the Inquisition stopped in Singar, and it was difficult for the Shadow Wolves to contact the Inquisition - if those Shadow Wolves dared to appear before Inquisitor Rasmus, they would probably be "judged" directly.
So Leon expanded the plan a little bit and found Ramon, the Singal boss, as soon as possible.
Therefore, Inquisitor Rasmus led his troops to bypass Singal and headed straight for Turda Fortress - no troop would be happy to see someone looting under their name, and when encountering such a counterfeit and reputable guy, they must first fight against the counterfeiter!
Even though their own reputation may not be that good, they still cannot tolerate imitations...
Afterwards, Ramon sent his men to lead the Inquisitor Rasmus, and they defeated a force of Khan Qaiwan near Gasin - this was a deliberate attempt to bring the Inquisition to the vicinity of Khan Qaiwan's force. Ramon's men were quite reliable.
In fact, Inquisitor Rasmus was also a flexible man. He did not kill those bandits, but recruited many of them.
After all, many people were killed and wounded in the battle with Gaiwan Khan's troops, so they had to replenish their manpower. At least when it came to "trying heretics", everyone had a common language, and these guys seemed to be very efficient in looting the heretics' property...
But the clever Inquisitor probably didn't expect that just after he had replenished his manpower, the Singalian who led him once again led him to the direction of another large army...
And once again, the same target that Sarah was about to visit.
…
In the desert more than a hundred miles north of Ashcoman, a tribal settlement called 'Madan' was inexplicably attacked by a troop.
This army seemed to be from the continent of Barkley. Some of them were burly mercenaries or bandits, some were knights in white surcoats, and some were monks who looked powerless.
The mercenaries launched the first attack, followed by the monks who seemed to pose no threat, while the well-equipped knights were ready to block the villagers who might escape from the periphery.
They held up blunt weapons of varying sizes in their hands, and waved their weapons while muttering something.
But the strange thing is that not many villagers escaped from this village, and... it seemed that a large number of strong warriors came out of those earthen houses and tents?
After the attack, all the villagers of Madan rose up to resist. Almost everyone of them had a saber and a war horse...
This so-called village is actually a huge military camp!
So a raid turned into a melee fight with no technical content.
The leaders of both sides were asking the same question: "Where the hell are these troops from?"
After each side suffered hundreds of casualties, the troops on both sides were completely mixed together and the fight was difficult to separate.
Inquisitor Rasmus Defatica smashed the head of a D'Shar rider with his hammer, turned around and shouted angrily: "You lied to me! Did you bring me here on purpose?"
But no one responded to him.
The Singalian who had led the way had disappeared by then.
Rasmu Defatica gritted his teeth, turned around, and rushed into the place where the Desha people were gathered, and the war hammer in his hand set off a bloody storm.
Rasmus is a baptized knight, but he is not a member of the Order of the Dawn.
In fact one could probably call him a 'church knight' - before he was a knight, Rasmus was a monk.
Since the Knights of the Dawn came to the continent of Pendor, one religious judgment after another has been launched, and various sects have also spread in the western part of the continent of Pendor. It was at that time that Rasmu became a monk.
The Deshar people often raided other countries, and would raid his territory from time to time...so the Deshar people who believed in Wata naturally became heretics in Rasmu's eyes.
As a devout believer of the goddess of justice and a monk, Rasmus's main purpose at the beginning was to "save the fallen" and "spread faith".
He organized some monks and friars and came to the "nest of heretics" - the Savannah Desert. They saw countless wars and killings here, so these believers who were committed to saving the world started a "salvation" movement in the Savannah Desert.
But the looting habits of the Desha people are hard to change, and their belief in Wata is long-standing, so the call of the goddess of justice sometimes doesn't have much effect...
Rasmus was unable to convert the plundering herders through oral preaching, so he decided to conquer them by force in the religious field.
Rasmus accepted the baptism of knighthood, was willing to bear the sin of killing, and armed himself to become a "judge".
At the same time, he began to hire mercenaries with the same "beliefs" and began his redemption and purification under the banner of judging heretics.
He claimed to be the Holy Inquisitor of Pendor, and told everyone that he was the savior of Pendor, who wanted to eliminate all heresy and false gods in the world and judge those fallen beliefs.
Rasmus is a natural commander with a flexible mind, extraordinary martial arts, and extremely charming personal qualities - as a former ascetic monk, he does have many excellent personal qualities.
He is clean, tidy, polite, sincere to others and never lies. He is also extremely self-disciplined and never drinks or has any contact with women.
A person who possesses both powerful military force and charisma will naturally attract many believers and soldiers to join his team.
Moreover, his subordinates all believed that Rasmu existed in the continent of Pendor to eliminate heresy and purify pagans. He was the messenger appointed by the goddess to judge heretics. He had no hobbies or bad habits and seemed to be born to judge heretics.
As a result, this self-proclaimed Inquisitor was recognized by many believers, and even some other branch sects recognized Rasmus' title of "Inquisitor".
Rasmus is best at using the warhammer. He believes that the warhammer is a powerful weapon that does not cause bloodshed, and can bring believers who have been seduced by false gods back to their senses.
Therefore, Rasmus and his fellow believers all used this weapon as the equipment of the Holy Legion in their minds, and they called themselves the "Inquisition".
Since Inquisitor Rasmus was not a bloodthirsty person, the Inquisition only captured prisoners and tried to persuade them to stop believing in the false god Wata.
Many people will be 'converted' and then 'voluntarily donate' all their property to worship the goddess.
Those who are "obstinate" will be judged by the "holy fire" - just like what the Dawn Knights said, the goddess will naturally tell whether there is sin or not...
So far, they have used hammers and torches to conduct countless "trials" in the Savannah Desert, and Rasmu's reputation and team size have grown rapidly in the past few years.
To date, there are more than two thousand people following the Inquisitor.
But if nothing unexpected happens, they will soon lose half of their men in Madan Village - or even more.
Because Madan is the family territory of Caliph Bahaman, the lord of Ashkenazi, and it is managed by his son Ikram.
This place is Bahaman's base and the source of his personal troops. After Bahaman became the caliph, the strength of this tribe became quite powerful.
But at the same time, if nothing unexpected happens, most of Bahaman's tribe will definitely be wiped out by the Inquisition ...
The young chieftain Ikram has already started to run away. He is a brave D'Shar warrior, but he knows that he will definitely not be able to win. The military strength of the Inquisition is more than twice that of the tribal warriors.
He must return to Ashcoman as quickly as possible to ask his father for help.
Thousands of people were fighting for their lives, a few women and children were fleeing, houses were set on fire, and the sound of bones breaking could be heard one after another.
No one noticed that a beautiful woman was watching all this coldly.
Yes, this is driving the tiger to devour the wolf.
Lord, you are in a hurry. This will allow merchants to enter Ashkoman before the Desha Principality gathers its army. Business is important...
Moreover, only after the merchants are separated from the troops and resettled can Li Ang's army exert its combat effectiveness.
A day later, Sarah came to Ashcoman and met Bahaman.
"Your Excellency Caliph Bahaman... If nothing unexpected happens, you have probably met your brother Qawan Khan? Or perhaps your son Ikram?"
Sarah didn't use her professional smile this time. Her expression was serious: "I'm Sarah, the chief foreign affairs officer of Count Leon."
"…Is Count Leon's army…coming?"
Bahaman seemed calm, but his tired face revealed his true feelings - he must have not slept all night.
"The army is fifty miles north of Madan Village. You should know what this means... But Earl Leon can show you a clear way - if you are willing."
Sarah was very direct in her words, because Bahaman’s current situation was so bad that there was no need to beat around the bush.
"What advice does Earl Leon have? You can just say..."
Bahaman still appeared calm, but his hands were tightly grasping the armrests of the chair.
“Aishkoman has few soldiers, and your tribe has been invaded by the Inquisition, so you can’t replenish your forces. Your brother, Qaiwan Khan, has suffered heavy losses and can’t help you. The great lords of D’Shar now have their own thoughts and will not come to support you. Instead, they may take advantage of the opportunity... You should know who summoned the Inquisition, and you should also know that Emperor Marius’ fleet is heading towards Aishkoman... The only person in the entire D’Shar who can help you in a short period of time is Count Leon..."
