I

In the Aksu region, the exiled Baishan faction and Zhuo murdered the governor.

In the Kashgar area, Yaolewas, who killed his father and usurped power, was also engaged in religious struggle. It had only been more than ten years since he introduced the Black Mountain sect, and there were still a large number of remnants of the White Mountain sect among the people. He purged a group of them when they first openly rebelled. After the patricide, he continued the purge and targeted Yarkand City.

Historically, Yaolewas was assassinated. The Great Khan of Junggar bribed the remnants of the Baishan Sect and assassinated Yaolevas in public in a way that would kill both the jade and the stone.

In another time and space, Junggar was able to rise thanks to the civil strife in the Yarkand Khan. The Baishan sect even actively led the way, volunteered to follow Galdan's army, and bravely captured Yarkand City, killing all the Blackshan sect believers in the city.

To be honest, if the Datong Army did not kill the nobles on sight, they could easily recruit and surrender tens of thousands of Baishan Faction troops, and then lead these troops to attack the Black Mountain Faction.

Hearing that the Han army had occupied Aksu, Yaolewas was a little flustered.

Because the nobles who escaped described the Han army as "zhenni" (devils, elves). It is said that the commander-in-chief Jiang Liang is a "big town nun", and the other Datong soldiers are all "small town nuns". Everyone can use evil magic and can summon meteorites to crush tens of thousands of enemy troops.

Of course Yaolevas didn't believe such nonsense, but he also knew how powerful the Han army was.

The mission that escorted Aqiyu back to the country passed through Kashgar with cavalry. They had superb war horses and well-equipped equipment, and they were not easy to mess with at first glance.

But Yaolevas annexed his father's tribe, and now there were a large number of nobles armed. They were frightened by the Datong army and came to join him. He already has more than 10,000 "elites" in his hands, as well as thousands of miscellaneous garrison troops, and he can also summon tens of thousands of serf soldiers.

With such a powerful military force, how could Yaolevas be willing to escape?

Yes, run away.

Yaolevas never thought of surrendering, and at best he would just run away. With his great strength, if he can no longer survive in Kashgar, he can still escape to Central Asia to dominate.

Just like more than a hundred years ago, a pair of cousins ​​could no longer survive in Central Asia, and each led more than a thousand people to escape. One fled to India and established the Mughal Empire; the other fled to Xinjiang and established the Yarkand Khanate.

…

Ush.

This is the largest city encountered on the way from Aksu to Kashgar. It originally belonged to Aksu, but it was captured by Yaolevas last year, and 3,000 troops were stationed to prepare for Aksu's counterattack.

Yaolevas gave the general a death order and must hold on for more than 20 days, so that he could recruit more soldiers for the decisive battle.

Wushi City is more than two feet high and one foot and five feet thick. It is built with rammed earth.

More than ten steps outside the city, there is a moat with spring water flowing all year round.

The bazaar (market) outside the city was already empty, and people of all ethnic groups fled after hearing the news. There are even Han shops here, but the Han people have to flee because they may encounter revenge from the Montenegrin faction.

The few people who didn't run away were taken into the city and forced into the army. Most of them were engaged in hard labor, helping to carry supplies for city defense.

The guard named Abdullah Tif was the illegitimate son of King Yalawas (his legitimate son had been killed). Now Yaolevas didn't believe anyone but his own son, so he sent his son to garrison Wushi City.

"Your Highness the Governor, the Han army is already several miles away. There are only several thousand cavalry and no infantry is seen." The general came to report.

"knew."

Although Abdullah Tif is young, he has been fighting with his father since he was fourteen years old, and he is considered a veteran in the battlefield.

He only had 3,000 elite troops in his hands, mostly infantry.

This small number of people can only defend the city and never dare to go out to fight in the field. After all, the nobles who escaped said that the Han army had hundreds of artillery pieces.

But if there were hundreds of artillery pieces, the city defender would be dead, and the bombardment would destroy the city wall.

Abdullah Tif could only take a chance and hope that those were exaggerations made by nobles.

Liang Zhen led the leading troops to approach the city and found that the city was well defended. He knew that the defender was a good fighter. He immediately divided his troops into three and dispersed to sweep the surrounding countryside and get some food from the nobles who had not yet escaped.

The effect of harvesting grain was extremely poor. All the rural nobles in the Wushi area ran away with their families in advance, leaving only a group of impoverished serfs.

A few days later, Jiang Liang led the main force.

It's the same old trick of not bothering to fill in the moat, and setting up artillery to bombard the city wall directly across the river.

At the same time as the bombardment, the cavalry all moved away to cross the river, blocking the enemy's retreat when they fled.

Abdullah Tif looked at the cannons lined up outside the city, and his mood instantly fell into despair. He only has four cannons for defending the city, and they are antiques from decades ago, but the Datong army has dozens or hundreds of cannons for attacking the city.

After two days of continuous shelling, the city wall to the east collapsed in many places.

Due to the dry climate, the rammed earth walls here were too brittle and could not withstand the pouring of shells.

My father asked him to hold off the Han army for twenty days, but given the current situation, he couldn't even hold it for ten days. Abdullah Tif wanted to abandon the city and flee, but he did not dare. First, he was afraid that he would be killed by his father for disobeying military orders. Second, the Han cavalry had already circled to the west to intercept them.

"Captain, southeast wind!"

"Hot air balloon."

Following Jiang Liang's order, several hot air balloons rose across the river. Most of the eastern city wall has collapsed, and the defenders' artillery was also crushed under the broken wall. The defenders could only watch the hot air balloon take off.

A soldier guarding the city shouted: "Zhenni (devil), they are taking the Zhenni with them!"

As soon as these words came out, the defenders' expressions changed and they looked at the hot air balloons in horror.

"boom!"

The first one hit an enemy of ten thousand people, killing only a few people and injuring a few.

However, the subsequent panic caused by the explosion caused the defenders to begin to collapse. They were already in a desperate situation. A large section of the east wall collapsed, and they heard many terrifying rumors about the Han army. At this time, their tense nerves finally couldn't bear it anymore.

"Run away quickly, Zhenni is here!"

Countless defenders ran towards the west, opened the city gate and rushed out. They didn't care whether there were enemy cavalry blocking them, they just wanted to escape the city as soon as possible, as far away from those hot air balloons as possible.

Abdullah Tif did not stop it and was powerless to stop it.

Historically, after Jaurevas was assassinated, he was crowned king by the Montenegrin faction. When they met Galdan's army, they were also defeated. It was not because of his commanding ability, but because Ye Erqiang's people had long since dispersed.

Who wants to fight when they are fighting among themselves all day long and fighting among their own clans?

Ten years ago, if the Datong Army came to kill, they would definitely encounter stiff resistance. At that time, Yarkand was unified and could be twisted into a rope, but now it was divided into several forces, which were easily defeated by the Datong Army.

Almost all the soldiers defending the city fled, leaving only a dozen loyal guards.

Abdullah Tif said to the guards: "You also run away. I must stay in the city. This is my father's order. You also know how strict my father is. If I dare to escape from this city, I will be executed."

Several guards said goodbye immediately, and a few actually stayed to accompany him to death.

Three thousand defenders and more than a thousand civilians who had been captured as young men fled to the west in panic. The Datong cavalry, which had only escaped two or three miles and had already crossed the river, rushed over to kill these defeated troops.

In particular, the Yarkand cavalry received special attention from the Datong cavalry.

The infantry of the Datong Army also began to cross the river and rushed into the city, but there were only Abdullah Tif and a few guards. These guys did not commit suicide, but charged with knives and were shot to death by the Datong army.

There are always a few fish that slip through the net and flee to Kashgar in panic on their war horses.

Yaolevas asked in shock: "How long have you been defending the city before Wushi City was breached?"

The noble who fled back said: "The enemy can summon Zhenni..."

"Nonsense!" Yaolevas was furious.

"Khan, it's true," the noble said. "The Zhenni summoned by the enemy are very big balls that can fly into the sky. Then they drop small balls and explode when they hit the ground. A small ball It can kill dozens of people. If the Khan doesn't believe it, he can ask other soldiers who have escaped."

Of course Yaolevas didn't believe that it was the devil summoned by the Han army, but the nobleman said it seriously, and it didn't seem like he was lying.

Yaolevas guessed that it was probably the secret weapon of the Han army.

"The enemy really has hundreds of artillery pieces?" Yaolevas asked.

The nobleman replied: "I don't know if there are hundreds of gates, but there should be a hundred gates."

There are a hundred artillery pieces, so how many muskets should there be?

"Khan, it's not good!" Another minister came running in panic.

Yaolevas asked: "What happened?"

The minister said: "There are nobles who have fled from Hotan, and there are also Han troops there, with more than 10,000 cavalry. And the news was ten days ago. I am afraid that they are approaching Yarkand City now."

It was the Southern Route Army sent out by Jiang Liang, with several thousand Datong cavalry and eight thousand Qinghai cavalry.

The southern route army attacked Yarkand City from Hotan, and the main force attacked Kashgar from the north. They launched a pincer offensive and attacked from both sides.

Yaolevas said: "Noble messenger, come with me, let's go to Dayuzi!"

This guy is planning to run away, take the army and nobles, and go to Central Asia to regain territory. Anyway, Da Yuzi is very weak now.

Jiang Liang led the main army to Kashgar and found that all the nobles here had fled. He Zhuoyeti, who ruled the place, had fled, and all the people left behind were civilians and serfs.

Tens of thousands of elite soldiers and thousands of miscellaneous troops, this powerful force poured into Dayuzi, and Yaolewas was enough to shake Dayuzi up.

Jiang Liang summoned his general He Yudu: "Take five thousand soldiers to recruit the Kyrgyz tribes to surrender. Tell them that as long as they surrender to China, they will no longer be oppressed. The imperial court will treat the Kyrgyz people equally."

The territory of the Kyrgyz people would become Kyrgyzstan in later generations.

Their ancestors lived in the upper reaches of the Yenisei River. During the Genghis Khan period, they were forced to move south. In the following hundreds of years, they were bullied by various major forces in turn.

What's even more rare is that although everyone around their territory believes in the Green Religion, the Geligis still maintain totem worship at this time. Historically, the Gilijis were greened during the Qing Dynasty, and some Gilijis even converted to Buddhism.

Yaolewas led his troops to escape to Dayuzi, and had to pass through the territory of the Gilijis.

This move frightened the Giljis so much that each tribe gathered warriors. But they didn't dare to fight. After learning the truth, they were forced to agree to Yaolevas' crossing.

They say they are crossing the border by crossing, but in fact they are just grabbing it all the way!

The Giljis still dare to be angry and dare not speak out about this kind of robbery. They were initially attached to the Chagatai Khanate, then to the Yarkand Khanate, and now to the Dzunghar Mongols. There is no independence at all, not even a recognized leader, because the patriarchal power does not allow them to have a leader.

They could only disperse into countless tribes, farming or grazing in the mountains.

After finally sending the Yaolewas gifts out of the country, before the Giljis had time to breathe a sigh of relief, He Yudu came with thousands of Datong troops.

This was a powerful force that defeated the Yarkands. The Giljis did not dare to resist, and the leaders of various tribes sent envoys to visit them.

"Call your leaders, I want to hold a meeting!" He Yudu said to the envoys.

Twenty days later, more than 80 tribal leaders gathered at the edge of Rehai (Lake Ixai).

The translator conveyed He Yudu's words: "From now on, the land of the Kyrgyz people is the territory of Datong China. All the Kyrgyz people are also Chinese. The imperial court will send troops and immigrants to build here. City!"

The leaders of various ministries were immediately upset, and some stood up on the spot, clamoring to fight the Chinese army.

He Yudu raised his hand and said: "Quiet, listen to what I have to say."

After being noisy for a while, the venue finally became quiet.

He Yudu said: "First, the court will not force you to convert to religion. Your tribes can continue to worship your totems!"

As soon as these words came out, most of the leaders' expressions softened.

He Yudu continued: "Second, the tribute you will bear will be less than before. And it is not called tribute, it is called tax."

"Third, Rehai Prefecture will be set up here, which will be subordinate to the Anxi Protectorate. Rehai Prefecture will be divided into several counties, with Han officials serving as county magistrates. The leaders of large tribes can serve as county magistrates. The leaders of small tribes, Can serve as mayor."

"Fourth, the imperial court will not forcefully buy or sell your goods. Han merchants will bring a lot of cheap goods, and your life will be better in the future!"

He Yudu said this, and the leaders of various ministries believed it for the time being.

If you don’t believe it, there’s nothing you can do about it, so why don’t you still fight?

The entire Kyrgyzstan was captured without a single blow.

Li Bai’s birthplace finally returned to the embrace of the motherland.