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Chapter 910 Not enough time
"Your Majesty, I think it would be beneficial for Chief of Staff Ding to stay with Prime Minister Oyani."

Before Ding Shun could figure it out, Wang Chengen interrupted. In his mind, the most difficult person in the world to fight was that foreign woman. If Ding Shun had the ability, he would avenge him. If Ding Shun had no tricks, he would have an ally who shared the same hatred and would not suffer any loss.

"Your Majesty, since the enemy is sure to attack, shouldn't we make a plan in advance?" As the Army Chief of Staff, Ding Shun must have had contact with Oyani at work. Upon hearing this, he glared at Wang Chengen.

"No need, just follow Du Wenhuan's battle report. He has made great progress and finally understands the wickedness of human nature." A defense plan? It had to be drawn up, and it had to be done as soon as possible, because the enemy would be at the gates of the city in a few days.

But now it is saved. Du Wenhuan's method is very good. It can not only have sufficient defense depth, but also prevent the local forces in the city from suddenly counterattacking. Even if I want to, it should not be more perfect.

"...Your Majesty is saying that the third defense circle arranged by Du Wenhuan is not aimed at... I was wondering why there were three circles. It turns out there is such a plan. He is indeed someone that Your Majesty values. I will arrange for manpower right away. It will take about three or four days to complete the work."

Ding Shun had read Du Wenhuan's battle report. If the emperor had not reminded him, he would not have noticed anything clever about it. It was even a bit stupid, for example, placing more than half of the field artillery in the innermost circle, which was not conducive to exerting its power.

With the density of the army's firepower, it is very easy to deal with cavalry as long as the line of sight is good and there are preset positions. There is no need to set up three layers of defense circles. To be on the safe side, two layers are enough.

Now he understood that Du Wenhuan was not being overly cautious, but had other intentions. Rather than defending against the enemy's cavalry, the third defense circle was aimed at the people in the city.

Once the Eight Banners Army in the city could no longer suppress the enemy, the trenches and field artillery closest to the city wall could immediately turn their guns around and turn from outward defense to inward encirclement. With so many field artillery watching, no one could rush out and threaten the defensive position from behind, and at the same time they would not be harmed by the arrows on the city wall.

Facts show that Latif Khan was more anxious than expected. Only five and a half days after Huang Taiji retreated, unidentified riders appeared on the west, north and south sides of Yarkand City at the same time.

They moved around the villages in groups of three or five, asking local people about the movements of the Ming army and the situation in the city, and then quickly left, using the terrain to play hide-and-seek with the cavalry squads of the Eight Banners Army. After more than a half day, they didn't catch any of them, which was very cunning.

However, the Ming army did not make much effort to capture these riders, and they still huddled near the city wall, digging trenches from morning till night. At the same time, they resettled some civilians who were willing to follow the advice and take their families into the city.

Where to live? It was very simple. With so many Khans captured, their homes could be used as temporary shelters. If Shadi Khoja had not strongly opposed it, even the palace would have been occupied.

At noon on the seventh day, two large black balls slowly rose from the Ming army's position, and teams of Eight Banners troops that had gone out for reconnaissance also came back one after another. Soon, a cloud of smoke rose from the western skyline, sweeping in at a speed visible to the naked eye, like a sandstorm in the Gobi Desert.

"Your Majesty, there are about 3 in the west and more than 1 in the north. No signs of large-scale cavalry activity have been found in the south and east."

But this sandstorm was not a product of nature, but man-made, the dust kicked up by tens of thousands of horses and camels running. As the hot air balloon continued to rise, messages came one after another. Ding Shun stood beside the emperor as a messenger, repeating the enemy situation he observed one by one. "Sun Chengzong's troops should be no more than fifteen days away from Latif Khan, but I don't know which route they will take. If they also go south along the Baiyu River, this battle will be greatly reduced.

Let Shadi Khoja find an emir in the city to represent us in the negotiations with Latif Khan. I need time, and I will delay as long as I can. As long as Sun Chengzong arrives in time, they will be unable to escape."

Hong Tao really didn't care about the mere 4 troops. What he was worried about now was not whether he could defend it, but how to keep all the reinforcements from Latif Khan and the two Khanates of Bukhara and Kazakhstan.

The army of the Yarkand Khanate and the Mongolian army may have significant differences in terms of military types and tactics, but in essence they are still mainly nomadic tribes, so their characteristics are also similar, which is just one word: fast!

They came fast and left fast, and when they saw the situation was not good, they would not fight to the death, but would run away. It was difficult to retain such an army, unless Sun Chengzong could have a tacit understanding and lead his army to attack Yarkand from the north while sending troops to occupy Kashgar to cut off the retreat route of the Khanate army to the west and north.

Unfortunately, it was too late to send a messenger to inform Sun Chengzong. It would take Latif Khan at least 2700 miles to reach Kashgar from Turpan. Although there were no mountain roads along the way, it would take more than 80 days at an average speed of 30 miles per day.

As soon as Latif Khan left Turpan, or even just intended to leave, Abdulchayin was absolutely unwilling to bear the attack of the Ming army alone, and would definitely find ways to leak the news.

By this calculation, it took the Northern Army a maximum of 20 days from the time it prepared to set out to the time it arrived in Turpan, which means it was 20 days later than Latif Khan. If we also take into account the four or five days wasted in Kashgar, the distance difference between the two armies could be shortened to about 15 days.

Considering the firepower of the army, it is estimated that Latif Khan could only attack Yarkand for two or three days at most before he gave up. If we take into account the four-day journey from Yarkand to Kashgar, there is still a difference of 9 days in between!
Now Hong Tao had to rack his brains to find a way to delay the meeting for 9 days. The first step was of course negotiation. There is a saying in later generations that villains die because they talk too much. As long as you are willing to talk, you can find various controversial topics. After bargaining a few times, 9 days will not be difficult to endure.

This time luck seemed to be on Hong Tao's side again. The Khanate army arrived at Yarkand City with great fanfare, but did not launch an attack all at once. Instead, they set up camp beside a small river 6 miles to the west. They did not take any action until nightfall, but instead lit many bonfires in the camp.

"What the hell? A mattress for festivals?" In order to solve the doubts in his mind, Hong Tao had to trouble Gulandam again. However, the words that came out of Jinsuo's mouth made him even more confused.

"She said she would not eat for a month, until the new moon came out... Your Majesty, is she lying? How can someone not eat for a month and wait until the new moon comes out?"

After repeated inquiries, Jinsuo roughly understood the whole story of the Ruzi Festival, but he did not think it was true, mainly because it went against common sense. I have heard that people with high cultivation can practice fasting, but who has ever heard that everyone can practice fasting? Then why would we need to plant crops or raise livestock? We just need to have water to drink.

(End of this chapter)