Malik Mahyad looked at the corpses of a dozen or so tribal soldiers who had fallen in front of him, and couldn't help frowning, his mouth was tightly pursed, and he didn't say a word, holding the reins in both hands, and controlling the war horse to keep turning in circles. Immediately, he raised his eyes to look at the caravan in the distance, and saw that the two groups of armed guards who had left the convoy were covering alternately, and had retreated into the phalanx surrounded by carriages one after another, relying on the vehicles to be on full alert.

There was no doubt that it was a large caravan, and a rough count yielded no less than fifty carriages, and the carriages were tightly wrapped in linoleum cloth. In the midst of the array, there were dozens of camels kneeling, presumably carrying a lot of goods.

However, it was somewhat tricky that the caravan had two or three hundred armed escorts, and it also carried a large number of muskets. Now, the other party has retreated into the car formation, and can completely rely on the cover of the carriage to shoot calmly and force back the charge of their cavalry.

Malik Mahayad was the leader of one of the largest tribal confederations in the nearby mountains, controlling a population of six or seven thousand men, who could be mobilized at any time with eight hundred to a thousand warriors. A dozen years ago, they were a small and inconspicuous tribe, subject to the control of the local governor, and accepted the military conscription of the Empire, participated in the suppression of riots in various parts of the country, or followed the Empire's armies to fight the frequent armed rebellions in various places.

However, a series of defeats in the eastern region had a devastating effect on the morale of the entire Imperial army, and at the same time dealt a fatal blow to the prestige of the Empire.

A few years ago, Malik Mahayad first refused the imperial Shah's military call to take part in the military campaign against the Afghans in the east. Then, in response to the order of the Governor of Fars to pay the sacrifice of cattle, sheep and grain, he openly resisted and refused to pay it.

As a result, neither the Shah nor the local governor seemed to be able to punish him for his disobedience, let alone send troops to directly strike at his tribe.

In doing so, Malik Mahyad became even more contemptuous of the Empire's authority and ignored any decrees issued by Isfahan. Although he did not know whether the empire would collapse and the dynasty would fall, he was keenly aware that the whole of Persia was about to be in turmoil.

Although Malik Mahayad was only an insignificant tribal leader compared to the governors and generals who owned a province or a region, he was deeply aware that in order to preserve and grow the tribe in such troubled times, he had to develop, make money, and make a lot of money, so that he could recruit more small tribes and accumulate more strength. In this way, he can survive with his own people.

Or, if you have the chance, you can learn from the Turkmen chiefs of more than 200 years ago, and like the Safavids, they also supported the creation of a new dynasty, so that they could have endless wealth.

However, as a poor tribe in the mountains, they had nothing but cattle, sheep and horses. They are not even able to achieve a minimum level of food self-sufficiency.

But it doesn't matter, we have a knife in our hands, a horse under our crotch, and a bow on our back, so we can go and grab money, we can grab food, we can rob women, we can grab anything we need!

Since three years ago, Malik Mahayad has led more than 300 tribal cavalry to loot and co-opt some of the weaker tribes in the vicinity. As for the young men, they were incorporated into the tribe warriors and then moved on to the next goal of conquest.

As more and more tribes he conquered and controlled, so did his armed forces, and by now he had more than a thousand fierce warriors, making him one of the most powerful warlords in the entire region, and even the Governor of Fars saluted him three points.

However, as the population increased and the size of the army grew, so did the corresponding spending and spending. So, in order to raise funds, Malik Mahayad set his sights on the caravans that were coming and going. The mountainous region under his control was located on the road from the port of Bushehr to Isfahan, and merchants from Arabia, India, Europe, and Qi would hire pack horses and caravans, laden with all kinds of goods, and sail to the capital of the empire. Of course, there are also well-made merchants who return from Isfahan to their seaside ports and set sail back to their own country with boxes of lovely and attractive gold and silver coins.

The interception of caravans and travelers was the most serious crime under imperial law, and certainly a blasphemy in the teachings of the true God, punishable by Allah. But today's Safavid Dynasty has long been "ruined", so why do you need to taboo any imperial decrees! Moreover, there is a "holy war" in the doctrine of the true God, and for the sake of Allah, in order to save the people, we must carry knives and horses to kill all the infidels and merchants who have been deceived by money, plunder their wealth, and feed our tribal warriors.

Over the past year, Malik Mahayad led the tribal cavalry to repeatedly intercept passing caravans and travelers, and indeed plundered a lot of floating wealth, which greatly improved the lives of the tribesmen and the equipment of the warriors.

Of course, out of deep reverence for the Empire, they generally do not haunt the vicinity of Shiraz, Kazelen and other towns, let alone directly raid the rich port of Bushehr.

When a caravan departed from the port of Bushehr and passed through the small town of Borazjan, Malik Mahyad received the news and immediately began to gather his tribal soldiers to intercept it.

Two days earlier, after a day's rest in Kazeren, the caravan had continued its journey into the southern foothills of the Zagros Mountains. It is said that quite a few local merchants and travelers have joined the caravan and are ready to follow them to Isfahan, which undoubtedly further increases the size of the caravan.

In order to ensure that he could eat this caravan, Malik Mahayad drew almost all the soldiers of the tribe who could fight, and gathered more than 1,300 of them, including 400 cavalry on which he depended.

In this valley they had to pass, they stopped the caravans, and the endless carriages, the large numbers of pack horses and camels, all proved that their harvest would be very rich.

However, they did not expect that this caravan would be so shrewd, and in such a short time, the convoy would be surrounded in a phalanx, and their escorts would also react quickly, like an army, with muskets lined up to cover the entire caravan.

"Hamza, tell them that as long as they hand over half of the goods or two million Abbasi silver coins (the Safavid currency, a Abbashi silver coin weighs 4.61 grams, and has an eighty percent silver content, and almost eight Abbasi silver coins can be exchanged for one tael of silver), and we will let them out of here. Otherwise, we'll cut off each of their heads! Malik Mahyad turned to his nephew and commanded.

"Yes, my master!" Hamza Zarini then rushed to the chariot formation, stopped at a distance of thirty or forty meters, and loudly conveyed Malik's order. Probably to increase the intimidating effect, he shouted loudly and waved the scimitar in his hand, and the horse kept circling in front of the cart.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

With a few crisp muskets in the middle of the car, Hamza Zarini, who was showing off his might, shook his horse, fell to the ground, and after a few convulsions, he was motionless.

"Roar! Roar! ……”

Seeing this, the tribal warriors gathered in the distance immediately became excited, brandished their scimitars and spears in their hands, and were about to attack the caravan.

Malik Mahyad immediately turned his head, and his gloomy gaze swept around the noisy subordinates, which immediately stopped the noise and noise, and then, with a look of fanaticism and bloodthirstiness, waited for his orders.

The caravan was so arrogant that without any communication, it shot their messenger directly.

Rush over, kill them all, then cut off their heads, stick them in sticks, and stand on the side of the road to warn those who come after them!

"Ebadipour, you take a hundred cavalry to attack the north side of the chariot formation."

"Sharifat, take a hundred cavalry to attack the east side of the chariot formation."

"Holt, you also take a hundred cavalry and attack the west side of the chariot formation."

"Remember, you only need to gallop around the perimeter, shoot the enemy with your bow and arrow, and do not storm the chariots!"

"Hmph...... I'd like to see how long this caravan can stay here!"