The so-called heroes of the times, Lieutenant Lie Yong was once an officer of the Red Fort Guard. After being deceived by Lieutenant Colonel Li Xiaopeng (that time in 1884), he made a new situation on the barren land of Somalia, which was hit and kicked.

In the vast Arabian Peninsula and the rich Mesopotamian River Basin, most locals may not know Li Yong's name, but when it comes to the "African Lion King" who spreads fear and war, it is famous, almost everyone knows it and is well-known.

He is a legendary smuggling king of the Gulf of Aden, the king of mercenaries, and the largest human trafficker in West Asia. He is famous for stopping children from crying at night.

He sold more than 33,000 Arab women. Except for a small number that flowed into the Suez Canal area, most of them were sold to the farther South Pacific and Australia. It would be impossible for them to return to their hometown in this life.

Over the years

Li Yong wove a huge smuggling trade network by winning over the Iranian Kingdom and the extremely influential local families in the Ottoman Empire, which stretched deep into the entire Mesopotamian basin of the Persian River and even reached Lebanon, thus earning huge wealth.

The smuggling business is the money-making tool of the "African Lion King". The brutal mercenary team who intervened in the tribal war in West Asia was his sharp blade, which won him a huge reputation for stopping the children's night cry and was in full swing.

In fact, Li Yong's mercenaries were not many, and there were not 700 people in total. More than 70% of them were armed escorts in the smuggling fleet, and there were only more than 200 mercenaries who could use them at any time.

Private mercenary groups do not raise idle people, one carrot and one pit.

The great reputation of the "African Lion King" is more of a mercenary team from Xi'an Town. Because the reputation of "African Lion King" is very famous and has a high prestige, it is always up to 20% or 30% to negotiate prices with local Arab tribe employers under his banner.

Over time, everyone has formed a habit.

Li Yong didn't mind that Xi'an Town mercenary team would fight under his banner, because they could enjoy 10% of the war bonus, which was a conventional rule.

Late at night

Edtown

The captive dogs in the town suddenly barked, instantly awakening the sleeping African town. A cavalry team in the town rushed into the vast night and searched forward.

From this we can see that the town has a very high level of combat readiness and has a very quick response.

Not long after

The cavalry team in Ed Town had returned quickly, and the team members shouted, "You are here, you are here... You are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here, you are here."

The sleeping town kerosene lamps lit up one after another and soon connected into a galaxy. People in the town walked out of their homes, and laughter and joy became louder.

A bonfire was lit by the small bridge at the entrance of Ed Town. The bright flames illuminated the surrounding area of ​​more than 100 meters. A large number of horse teams appeared in the darkness. This was a team of thousands of horses set off in Xi'an Town in the morning. They rushed for more than 280 kilometers to arrive here.

The tired cavalrymen entered the town and immediately removed the saddle of the Arabian horse who was sitting down. Under the illumination of the torch, they covered the horse with a thin blanket, served the horses to drink some clean water, and fed the egg-added soybean meal.

The cavalry only took a few bites of the dry food they carried with them. After serving the horses, the cavalry fell asleep one by one in the pile of forage by the horse shed. They were so tired when they traveled for more than ten hours.

Li Yong rode his horse to the entrance of a large mansion in the town. Major Mo Zhenxiong (Ministerial Reserve) had been waiting here for a long time. Seeing this, he walked up and said, "Mr. Yong, you are here!"

"How is the situation... Are the Italians doing anything?" Li Yong grinned and climbed down from the horse. Because his legs were numb, his figure couldn't help but sway. Several strong men next to him quickly supported him with all their strength.

"Not yet, but there is a regiment of Italian soldiers stationed in a river valley more than 10 kilometers away. They seem to be malicious and most likely want to attack us."

"Don't bother him for now. I'm exhausted. I'll talk about the big things after I've been sleeping. Since I've brought people here, these Italians can't get over the sky." Li Yong waved his hand to the people around him, stood up and explained, "First place all the people I brought, arrange for people to prepare enough feed for the horses, and get some hot food to deal with. The irrelevant personnel have dispersed. How can I deal with them now?"

"I know Mr. Yong, I'll do it right away."

Major Mo Zhenxiong was very courageous and shouted that his subordinates would act separately and take good care of these tired cavalrymen first, especially the long-distance war horses were sweating a lot, so they must prevent them from catching a cold at night, and immediately feed the semen to prevent fat loss.

You should know that Ed Town is in a mountainous plateau, with an average annual temperature of less than 16 degrees. Now it is only about ten degrees at night. It is very cold when the mountain wind blows. The pores of the Arabian horse that has been running for more than ten hours are wide open. It is easy to get sick under the cold wind at night.

Today, Xi'an City is different from the past. It can gather a huge team of more than tens of thousands of people at a single order, and all of them are excellent Arab war horses.

Because the bulk goods smuggled are women and Arabian horses (including Persian horses), as the smuggling center of the entire Arabian Peninsula and the Mesopotamia, Xi'an certainly will not lack these things.

Here, there are no less than 20 horse farms of considerable size, and those raised and bred by captives are all excellent Arabian horses, which is also the favorite of mercenaries.

It is precisely because of the need for a vast and excellent horse farm that Xi'an continues to expand into the Eritrea region. Compared with the Somalia region where the Gobi and yellow sands are everywhere, the Eritrean Plateau mountainous areas with abundant water and grass are very attractive and are the only direction for the expansion of Chinese immigrants in Jibushi area.

It is not only a need to develop farming, but also a need to develop excellent pastures, but also a need to expand living space.

The town house

Li Yong slept hard in this fight and did not wake up until he was hungry at dusk the next day.

He was trapped in the soft and comfortable lion skin mattress. He opened his eyes and stretched his waist lazily, revealing his bare and strong arms. Two naked Arabian girls beside him, one left and one right, were pressed against the warm bed. Seeing Li Yong woke up, he quickly called out.

Several Arab maids came in with brass-golded utensils, including golden basins, gold bowls, gold pots, gold combs and ivory toothbrushes, and stood along the side of the big bed.

"Okay, get up. I'm so hungry that I'm touching my back. I don't have the time to train you." Li Yong stretched out his big hand and patted **'s smooth and tender buttocks, then sat up from the lion-skin bed, and then got down naked and started washing.

In the large wooden bucket in the room outside, the Arab maid was pouring buckets of hot water in, then sprinkling petals and essence, and setting the temperature of the bath water to the right for the master to use.

Li Yong brushed his teeth, threw the ivory toothbrush on the tray, picked up the golden bowl (gold-plated outer layer) with lemonade, rinsed his mouth, turned his head and spit it in the golden basin, then picked up a white towel and wiped it and said, "Don't mess with those useless things, hurry up and let the kitchen get me some food, so just use roast lamb, or I'll dizzy in the bathtub if I steamed the heat."

The master said that the Arab maids who were serving the washing and washing left one by one. Soon, the maids carrying various food and fruits on the tray came in again. While taking a comfortable bath, Li Yong feasted and filled his stomach with delicious food.

As the saying goes: fullness and warmth lead to thieves, hunger and cold lead to thieves.

The sound of water splashing quickly in the room, and the panting and moaning of the beautiful Arabs, like rain hitting a banana leaf...

After a long time

When the sunset was filled with sunset, Li Yong walked out of the inner house with a refreshing spirit and walked around the yard outside. He saw that all the Jingqiang subordinates were resurrected in full blood, and then he came back with satisfaction.

Major Mo Zhenxiong had just returned from an inspection outside the town and saw Li Yong step forward and bow and said, "Master Yong, I think your spirit is not ordinary!"

"Hahaha... Brother Zhenxiong, I can't stop me for hundreds of miles. It's a trivial matter! How about it... What's the change in the situation outside the town?"

"According to the Cavalry Observation Post, another team of logistics supplies arrived in the Italian station in the valley today. There were about 200 mules and horses, mainly food and weapons and ammunition. The observation post also found field artillery. The specific caliber has not been clarified yet, but there were 6 artillery pieces seen, and these Italians are not calm!"

"Hmph, a group of people who deserve to be beaten, let's go and follow me to inspect outside the town for a while." Li Yong snorted coldly, took the whip handed by his entourage and turned over the horse, and took more than a hundred elite mercenaries around him and rode out.

The rumbling sound of horse hooves swept across the dirt road in the town, causing the wooden houses to tremble constantly, and a piece of dust fell.

Standing on the hill, Li Yong looked into the distance with a copper telescope, carefully observing the Italian camp arrangement in the valley, looking solemn.

In this valley

There were neatly arranged gray-brown military tents, and they counted one row after another, almost 400 people. According to 10 to 12 people per tent, it was almost 5,000 people.

Li Yong has a very urge to curse people. Is this a group?

"Yong Ye, according to our recent observations, the accommodation of these Italian camps is relatively loose. There are only 7 to 8 people in a tent, and some tents store ammunition, drugs and food, so the number of troops is about 3,000. If this time the supply team is added, there will be about 3,300 to 3,400 people, about six artillery pieces, and more than ten heavy machine guns. Such firepower attack capabilities are quite strong."

"Well, it looks good, the logistics supply is sufficient, and the soldiers' morale is relatively high. I don't know how to fight?"

"Yong Ye, I think they are very difficult enemies. If they fight head-on, they may suffer a lot of casualties. The British envoy is already on the way to come. I hope the Italians can remain rational. If the situation worsens, I think it is better to avoid the edge for the time being."

"The Italians think so too. He wishes us to retreat." Li Yong said with a hint of mocking expression on his lips, and he continued with a cold expression. "I don't care how glamorous they look. We haven't beaten the Dutch before. The Ottomans have been beaten up by us for many times. The old saying goes... I can only talk about it but not practice fake moves, but just pull it out or horse."

Mo Zhenxiong turned his head and looked at Li Yong. Seeing that he was full of confidence, he could only spread his hands helplessly and replied, "Okay, you are the leader and you have the final say."
Chapter completed!