As Malbert guessed, Li Ang is indeed no longer in Aishikeman at this moment.
Li Ang didn't care about the Bacchus Empire's fleet at all. He left most of the merchants behind in Ma Dan and Aishikeman, and led a large force to the southwest.
The businessmen did not panic. In their view, since Lord Li Ang would continue to go out to fight, they were naturally confident that Aishikeman would definitely be safe. It had to be said that the businessmen's simple judgment was the most correct.
Of course, Li Ang doesn't need to worry about the Bax fleet. Emperor Marius is his ally, and that fleet is under the banner of General Agason. Even if the two sides are not allies, Agason can't do anything like robbing merchants. He can't even lose face by scrapping the land.
Right now, Li Ang is in the southwest of Aishikeman, in a place called 'Fangdal'.
This place is not in the desert, but a town built in a grassland, surrounded by the best grassland in Dexia.
The grassland where the town of Fangdal is located is the horse breeding land of Duchy of Dexia, and it is also the place where 'Gazi Raiders' and 'Gazi Archers' were born.
There is a huge mountain to the south of Aishikeman. This mountain is also regarded as 'Gazi Mountain'. There are temples everywhere on the mountain.
Dexian people regards this mountain as the place where God Vata was born, that is, it regards it as a sacred mountain, and the huge peninsula surrounding this mountain is also the earliest birthplace of Dexian people.
The word 'Gazi' is an ancient Dexia language, which is almost equivalent to the meaning of 'holy' or 'Holy Hall', so being called 'Gazi Warrior' is the lifelong pursuit of most Dexia warriors.
But... this ancient Dexia language is actually no different from the language of Gatu people...
Dexian people is not the aborigine of the Pande Continent. They originally came from the same family as Gatu people - also from the Amara Continent.
It's just that they came earlier. They came to the vicinity of Gazi Mountain as early as Pande's late king Kavala era.
And Dexian people and Gatu people came to the Pande Continent for the same reason - Gatu people came as a mercenary of General Osa a hundred and fifty years ago, and Dexian people was a mercenary of Pende late king Kavala hundreds of years ago...
But Dexian people themselves do not admit this. They probably consider themselves to be people in a "civilized society" and look down on warlord tribes like Gatu people. And if they have different beliefs, everything is different. If Gatu people does not believe in Vata, then they are by no means their kind.
However, their daily living habits and looting methods are really no different from Gatu people. Civilized society cannot be developed by just building a few cities...
As for the Dexian people around Gazi Mountain, unlike the settlers who call themselves "civilized people", the people here are still pure nomads.
They still live around Gazi Holy Mountain chasing water and grass, and have preserved their ancient nomadic tradition.
But since most Dexian people have now become settlers, the nomads under Gazi Mountain have become aliens.
Moreover, many Dexia "city dwellers" living in Toba or Aishikeman today even regard the traditional herdsmen under the Holy Mountain as brainless barbarians - this is a mockery with a little regional discrimination, and the discrimination is still against the people at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
This is because it is not easy to become a 'Gazi Warrior'. It requires not only extraordinary martial arts, but also devout faith - you have to climb the holy mountain on your knees and go to the temple to offer everything you have in order to get the title of 'Holy Hall Warrior'.
But most of the Dexian people who have settled in the city are not able to be 'pious' - the eminent monks of the temple in the Holy Mountain have a very deep understanding of 'piety', and those who cannot dedicate their property and wives to God Vata are not pious enough...
This is the case in a place where politics and religion are integrated. Everything must be carried with the "will of the gods". I don't know why their God Vata, as a horse, requires believers to donate dinars and women...
But the people around Gazi Mountain are really pious. They will even send their wives to the temple alone on their wedding night to seek the blessings of the gods.
Because God Vata not only represents prosperity and wealth, but also represents reproduction.
In fact, Sarafan Sheikh was a warrior who came out of Gazi Mountain - so Sarafan was exiled by Kadan to the southernmost Holy War Fortress.
Toba City of Kadan blocks the southern part of Desha. Sarafan cannot break through the blockade and return to the area around Gazi Mountain, otherwise he is likely to gain full recognition from the Ghazi people.
Since the nomadic culture has always been preserved in the area around Gazi Mountain, it has given birth to countless skilled riders and archers, and the people are brave and good at fighting. Therefore, most Dexia lords will go to the Ghazi region to recruit warriors.
Today's area around Gazi Mountain is probably Dexia's 'troop base', but in the past twenty years, no 'Gazi Warrior' has become the lord of Dexia...
This is not because of regional discrimination, but because the people of the Holy Mountain who have always preserved the ancient traditions will not learn the culture of Pendor. They can't even speak the Pendor language, let alone read and so on - naturally they can't be a lord. Even the warlords of Jatu know how to learn the official language.
Besides, if you give everything to God, how can you be a lord?
Therefore, the lords of Desha are particularly willing to go to Gazi Mountain to recruit warriors - these pious people here will not threaten their status, as long as they are given the honor of 'Gazi Warriors'...
Yes, for Desha lords like Bahaman, most of the 'Gazi Raiders' or 'Gazi Archers' in the team are actually not real Holy Hall warriors. This is just a title given by Bahaman to the elite troops in the name of the Caliph...
Gazi Mountain, this sacred mountain, is really just a recruitment base in the eyes of senior officials like Bahaman - only the Kuhaha at the bottom are so pious, and the upper-level ruling class has always been very flexible in their attitude towards gods...
Fangdal town is the recruitment center of this 'troop base', and it is also where the nomads near the holy mountain sell their war horses.
Li Ang will come here, of course, originally to march towards Toba - Fangdal is between Aishikeman and Toba, and the three places are basically in a straight line.
The entire auction plan that he and Ramon jointly planned was actually not complicated.
Li Ang was confident from the beginning that he could quickly conquer Aishikeman - he could do this no matter what method he used. After all, Emperor Marius's fleet would also provide support, but Li Ang used the least labor-intensive method to achieve his goal as quickly as possible.
Then Ramon will publicly announce the auction of the city leader of Aishikeman at Xingar.
Ramon's propaganda ability is very outstanding in this era. The great lords of Dexia, including Kadan, will definitely hear about this matter as soon as possible, so they will definitely rush to Xingar.
The great lords of Dexia, including Kadan, must all understand the reason why Li Ang entrusted Ramon to auction Aishikeman--Li Ang's territory is far away from Aishikeman, and an outsider cannot effectively rule God Vata's people. Only by selling the city can Li Ang's interests be maximized.
In order to recover Aishikeman intact, Kadan will definitely participate in the auction - if Aishikeman fails in the auction, then this city will definitely be completely destroyed by Li Ang's army. This is easy to imagine.
Spending money to buy it back is more cost-effective than letting the city be completely destroyed, and you can also organize an army at Xingar. Maybe you can do a zero-dollar purchase when the city is handed over.
Anyway, the auction house only needs to pay a deposit first. As for whether you need to pay the final payment when delivering the goods, it depends on the actual situation...
At the same time, since it was Xingar who organized this auction, everyone including Kadan would suspect that Xingar city lord Tahir might conspire with Li Ang, so they had to go to Xingar.
In fact, Kadan's response was faster than Li Ang and Ramon imagined. After Aishikeman had just been occupied by Li Ang, Kadan had already considered that Tahir might be unstable, so he went to Xingar before the news of the auction reached Toba.
Of course, this does not affect Li Ang and Ramon's plan.
When Kadan leaves Toba City, most of the great lords of Dexia will also go to Xingar, which will make Toba City and the surrounding areas relatively empty during this period.
Probably few people would have thought that Li Ang would immediately send troops again after occupying Aishikeman - this was still during the process of his 'City Lord Auction'. Who would have thought that the auctioneer would leave the auction item at this time?
And they left just as Bacchus Empire's fleet was 'attacking' Aishikeman...
No one in Dexia will know about Li Ang's verbal covenant with Marius, at least no one knows about it yet, except Ramon.
Ramon will indeed complete his auction, and he will definitely sell Aishikeman to Emperor Marius - this is the result of Li Ang's agreement with him.
Yes, no matter what era or place, auctions are always operated behind closed doors...
Selling a big city to Emperor Marius can give Ramon the highest reputation and also gain the friendship of the Bacchus Empire.
For Ramon, the underground king, a country that does not border Xingar is the best ally.
At the same time, this is also Li Ang's promise to Marius and Agason - he will leave Aishikeman to the Bacchus Empire.
Of course, this is a sale and he must get enough profit. Marius said before, 'Wait until you occupy Aishikeman', so let Emperor Marius go to the auction house to bid.
The most important thing is that Aishikeman must be sold to Emperor Marius so that both Kadan and the Desha lords who support Kadan can go to Aishikeman. They will inevitably assemble to try to take back the city.
In fact, Kadan must do this now. If he cannot take back Aishikeman, it will be equivalent to announcing to everyone that the current Bahad Khan is no longer good. Come and grab the throne...
Aishikeman is bound to face a tough war.
After all, Li Ang told Agason early on that he only needed Bacchus Empire to guard Aishikeman.
And this will give Li Ang enough time and space to conquer Toba City.
Ramon will escape from Xingar after completing the auction for Aishikeman, lest the angry Kadan and Tahir come to kill him...
He will rush to Toba City and preside over the auction of the title Bahad Khan together with Li Ang.
--During the auction of Aishikeman City Lord, the empty Toba City will definitely not be able to stop the army of Li Ang. Both Ramon and Li Ang are confident in this.
The auction of the throne mentioned by Li Ang and Ramon can actually be understood as the auction of the ownership of military power and Toba City.
To put it simply, whoever gives Li Ang and Ramon more benefits will hand over Toba City to the other party, and Li Ang's army will support the other party to become the real Bahad Khan--of course, before that, Li Ang will at least make it impossible for the Desha lords to quickly replenish their troops, lest they fall into a tight siege.
If necessary, after capturing Toba, you must return to Aishikeman and cooperate with Agason defending the city to defeat Kadan's army.
And having traveled thousands of miles, Li Ang naturally has to avoid encountering the same dilemma as Kadan. After all, the lesson learned happened more than half a month ago.
In order to avoid the situation like when Kadan ran into the main army when he first arrived at Lion City, Li Ang must first destroy Dexia's recruitment center Fangdal - or in other words, move it to another place.
For example... Madan and Aishikeman.
The person who brought Li Ang to Fangdal was Ikram, the son of Bahaman.
Bahaman father and son often go to Fangdal to recruit Gazi Raiders, and Ikram is very familiar with this place.
In fact, Ikram is actually emotional now - his father gave Aishikeman to Li Ang as the dowry of his sister Ruha, which means that he will lose the inheritance rights to Aishikeman, and he has strong opinions on his father Bahaman's decision.
Although his father received the support of Li Ang and seemed to have a chance to become Bahad Khan, who knows whether it will come true?
Compared with Aishikeman, who was bound to inherit, the 'opportunity' to become the heir of Bahad Khan is not so good for Ikram.
In Ikram's view, even if Li Ang fulfills his promise, and even if his father Bahaman really takes the position of Bahad Khan with the help of Li Ang, he is just a puppet of Li Ang and has no dignity as a Dexia ruler.
Such thoughts made him uncomfortable.
Young people always value dignity and honor more.
His father Bahaman didn't think so at all - if he didn't take the initiative to hug Li Ang's lap, I'm afraid even living would be a luxury, and what dignity would there be...
Besides, Li Ang has to leave. He cannot stay in Dexia forever. Being attached to Li Ang for a short time does not mean that he will be a puppet for the rest of his life. He will have the opportunity to restore his strength and accumulate more power. Only when he becomes strong can he have a real future.
But Ikram didn't think so far, he just felt very humiliated - now he seemed to be a translator leading the way for Li Ang, feeling like he was leading the invaders to harm his own compatriots.
This feeling of guilt makes Ikram's mood quite unstable.
So, after bringing Li Ang to Fangdal, Ikram decided to take a risk.
Li Ang originally planned to ask Ikram to tell the nomads that from now on, matters such as recruiting soldiers and selling horses can be changed to Aishikeman, where the bids will be higher.
At the same time, if you are willing to serve as a mercenary for Lord Lion Territory, or sell horses to Baxian, you can even earn three times more money than before.
This was originally just to prevent Fangdal from becoming a recruitment base for Dexian people and prevent the Dexia lords from quickly recovering their strength.
Since the people near Gazi Mountain only speak their traditional dialect, which is very different from the mainstream official language of the Pande Continent, Li Ang cannot understand what the people here speak, so he asked Ikram to act as a translator.
Oh, Li Ang can understand two sentences - one is 'Bispa' and the other is 'Wusa'. I learned it from Gatu people.
Li Ang Go to Fangdal to have relatively friendly communication with the mountain people here, and naturally they will temporarily leave the protection of the army. After all, if you bring too many people, the herdsmen will stay away.
Therefore, the army did not enter Fangdal, Li Ang only brought the guards with him.
But after Ikram brought Li Ang to the place where Gazi Mountain herdsmen gathered, he asked the herdsmen to capture Li Ang in the name of Bahaman - he promised those people to capture Li Ang The people of E will become the khan under Gazi Mountain, and declare that the Caliph Bahaman will establish a permanent reservation around Gazi Mountain, so that the 'Gazi Mountain people' can use ancient traditions to implement self-government!
Speaking of which, Ikram can be considered smart if he can make the herdsmen listen to him with such a promise. Many mountain people are not willing to deal with "city people", and the implementation of autonomy has always been what the mountain people have always wanted.
Moreover, this second-generation official with some brains has probably carefully considered the consequences - he cannot kill Li Ang. If Li Ang dies here, he will most likely die too.
Lionheart Kingdom's army will definitely kill him and even destroy everything including Aishikeman. Li Ang's men will definitely kill his father Bahaman. Maybe his uncle Gaiwan Khan and sister Ruha will not survive, and the entire family will be uprooted...
Of course, if Li Ang had not died, the outcome would probably be similar... In order to save the family, Bahaman might personally kill this son who does not know how to be generous...
So Ikram plans to capture Li Ang alive.
He wants to capture Li Ang and then force Li Ang to act according to his own ideas.
Li Ang's army is one mile away. It is of course very dangerous to attack Li Ang here, but Ikram is just a young man in his twenties, and his mind is full of so-called honor and bravery. Maybe he thinks this is a heroic feat.
He wants to become Dexia's hero and wants to gain status with dignity by standing...
So Li Ang encountered an attack.
This attack was actually very hasty. Nearly a hundred Gazi Mountain herders swarmed up and rushed towards Li Ang from all directions. They looked very brave.
In fact, Li Ang really didn't expect that Ikram would dare to do such a stupid thing, but fortunately, this attack was not too dangerous for the lord.
Li Ang This time he walked into the place where the herdsmen gathered with his personal guard, not alone.
Although he only brought about twenty people, it was actually quite normal for these twenty people to deal with a hundred nomads without armor, and it was not something worth bragging about.
The twenty people accompanying Li Ang are Meitengheim's old guys from Kloze's team, as well as Sarah and the female explorers she brought with her; in addition, there are Risadiran and Wendy...