"Let the Guards enter the fortress! It is forbidden for the Tatars to go south and detour to us! Protect the farmland, protect the crops! They don't know what these unscrupulous bastards will do! ”

Kaffa's governor, Conraddo, stood in front of the barracks in high spirits and said to the new lieutenant colonel.

Qin Cang's three consecutive months of trade brought him quite a lot of taxes. The large-scale consumption of the wealthy has led to an even larger luxury business. Conrado, who has been in charge of it himself, has selectively forgotten the tragedy of Cromdo.

With financial support, Conrado reorganized a professional mercenary army of up to seven hundred people. This group of soldiers was mainly composed of local Karaim. This is a warlike Turkic-speaking group of ancient Central Asian remnants of the two rivers, whose history is as long as that of the Jews. They follow the heretical Karaimism of Judaism, a magical sect that only believes in the Torah of Moses.

They originally inhabited the valley of the two rivers, and were later brought to the Black Sea by the Greeks, and then they began to speak in Turkic. They were small in number, and there was a small castle built in the Crimean Mountains. Their population may be less than a thousand, so Conrador employs almost their entire family.

The Karaim were considered to be very warlike mountain warriors, and their neat and serious military formations once fascinated the Grand Duke of Lithuania. This shows how strong the military traditions of the Kara'im people are.

And the leader of this group is the patriarch of the Karaim people, Lemar.

Lemar didn't know much about the original situation, so he asked Conrado: "Can the Tatar cavalry of the Han people in the east pass?" ”

Without even thinking about it, Conrador said, "Of course you can!" King Han is an important ally of ours! Most of your wages come from his trade! ”

When Lemar heard this, he stopped talking.

Built north of Kaffa, the fort was a military facility that could accommodate thousands of people. It was a defensive front built by the Milanese with specialized facilities such as granaries, secret warehouses, and weapons depots.

A small city with walls and several towers, with more than a dozen watchtowers evenly distributed around it.

The fortress did not make economic sense, he was built from the very beginning, to defend against the enemy, in order to be surrounded. So there isn't even a piece of farmland next to this fortress.

The Karaim are accustomed to living in the mountains, so they are used to fortifications that don't even have beds.

Here, Lemar and his people monitor movements in the north. The occasional artillery fire also made many people who stayed up late to rest after being on duty complain.

......

Another five days passed, and the war continued. The Tatars frantically attacked the Han positions, hoping to break through here completely and strangle those hateful Han Chinese. Chen Hanlin paid a lot of money to stop the Tatar cavalry that was frantically attacking. The pikes suffered heavy losses.

Both sides are getting more and more agitated, and everyone is paying a great price to fight the enemy. Who can't hold it first?

Qin Siliang and Gullitt are now nesting in the stable. The defeat of Guha and the heavy losses of the war made Mengus's impression of him worse and worse.

There had been no fighting for two days, and most of the herders were lying in their tents complaining about the damn war. In fact, they are not afraid of war, but the question is that what is the use of war that does not bring benefits?

That night.

The Karaim got up and went on patrol at night as usual.

Lemar is on his night shift today, and I don't know why he always feels a flustered feeling in his heart.

Around one o'clock in the middle of the night, Lemar, who was a little sleepy to the sound of galloping horses' hooves, woke up.

The flag was half rolled, and the army of the Han king who arrived at midnight made Lemar dare not slack off, this is his own big benefactor.

The Han king did not accede to Lemar's request to see him. He simply led the cavalry to a stop not far north of the fortress. That's the farthest point of the watchtower.

What are they waiting for?

Lemar was a little confused.

King Han couldn't have been carried away by victory, right? He's been being pressed and beaten! And his cavalry was only one-sixth of the Tatars!

Lemar and his compatriots watched the movements of the cavalry.

.......

On the sixth day, there were still no troops. Mengus seemed to be on the verge of having to make a decision.

Of course, not only Mengusi, but Qin Cang was also on the verge of having to make a decision. In less than twenty days, coupled with the previous preparations for war, Qin Cang's two vaults were sharply reduced from more than 10,000 sea peruns to less than 5,000 sea perons!

The treasury was empty in an instant! Qiao Su mobilized internal funds to send the money urgently needed by Meng Zhuoyan and others, so that this big hole would not be broken and could not be filled.

Qin Siliang, who is familiar with the inside story, certainly knows this problem. So he insisted on ending the mission ahead of schedule, despite Gurlit's objections.

Because Qin Siliang found a particularly good opportunity. Tatar herders have been grazing outside these days to give the horses a good rest. After all, it's spring, and the horses have lost weight after a winter.

And this is the perfect time to cause riots.

Qin Siliang sneaked to the place where the grass was stored in the stable at night. This is for the guards of Harachi. Qin Siliang had been living here for several days, and the herdsmen who came and went did not suspect him. What's more, it's evening, and there aren't many people coming and going. They paid the grass tax for Harach. Put down the grass and they are gone.

Taking out the flint and steel from his arms, Qin Siliang smiled and started a fire.

The fire was soon ignited and soon spread throughout the haystack. Dark red flames flew between the haystacks. It was already evening, and the night was about to arrive, and in the drowsy night, the slightest hint of fireworks was not very conspicuous.

Taking advantage of the fact that the fire had not yet burned out, Qin Siliang ran back to the stable to pack his things, and pulled Gurit and his friends to ride out on horseback.

"Are you going?" The herdsmen on patrol who passed by saw the three people in a hurry, so they chased after them and asked.

"It's been a long time since our leader returned. We were afraid that something would happen to him, so we had to go out and find him. As soon as Qin Siliang dealt with it roughly, he ran out.

Qin Siliang, what I said is Guha.

In fact, Guha had abandoned the tribesmen of the other tribes he had gathered and fled home. His losses were so heavy that he didn't dare to stay here under pressure from his own family.

After successfully getting out, Qin Siliang ran to Kaffa City in the south according to the predetermined plan. There is a merchant inn of the Han Kingdom in Kaffa where he can be sent back to Chizhou.

Under the remnant sun, a thin gray smoke rose.

The guards, who had gone to the stables to fetch food and grass to feed their horses, suddenly felt a trace of heat. Curious, he lifted the haystack outside, and the blazing flames inside told him the answer.