I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 694: Conquest of the Western Regions
Why bamboo flute complain willow, spring is not degree Pass.

In the past, Wang Zhihuan used this poem to complain that the emperor did not pay attention to Yumen Pass. Nowadays, Yumen Pass has long been abandoned and dilapidated, leaving only the Gobi Desert and ruins in the sky.

Although it was announced last year that we would fight the Western Regions, the early preparations for the war, raising military rations, and recruiting civilians consumed a lot of time in the Xi'an Governor's Office.

In the spring of this year, 8000 dragoons from the Xi'an Dudu Mansion rode into the Gobi desert into Dunhuang.

Opposite Dunhuang is the dilapidated Yumen Pass.

Outside the Yumen Pass is the commander of the Hami Guards and the territory of Yu Subu, the "Hui King (actually a Uyghur)" of Hami.

Since he rebelled from Junggar Mongolia, he turned around and surrendered to the Ming Emperor, and was named the Commander of the Hami Guard. Yu Subu has lived a very prosperous life in the past few years. His territory is located on the strategic route of the Silk Road. Just collecting business tax money from passing merchants along the road is enough for him to make a lot of money.

Yu Subu is very cautious. Although he is actually the local emperor in Hami, he still remembers that he has a father in name. Heavy commercial taxes were never levied on Han merchants along the road, and they also served as mediators to Turpan Burke (official positions) to provide a certain degree of security for Han merchants.

It's a pity that no matter how moist your life is, it will eventually come to an end.

Yu Subu didn't have much ambition, he just wanted to be a local king in Hami.

But Emperor Zhu wanted the entire Western Region, so it was naturally impossible to let go of his little "King Hami".

Moreover, although the Hami Basin is not large, it has fertile alluvial sloping plains, and together with the Turpan Basin, it is called the Turpan-Hami Basin.

The entire Tuha Basin is a closed terrain. It is not only a strategic location to control the Western Regions, but also a rare and large oasis, a good land suitable for Han immigrants to cultivate.

Eight thousand Ming dragon cavalry climbed over Yumen Pass and crossed the Su Lai River to the north. They were soon discovered by the passing Hui tribe.

"What? The Han emperor sent 8,000 cavalry to attack me?" Yusubu's face was full of surprise and disbelief.

For many years, starting from his grandfather's generation, although Hami was sandwiched between the Central Plains Dynasty and the Western Junggar Region, it has always been the object of mutual attraction between the two sides.

Even if he encountered Galdan Celing's lunatic, he would still be able to survive in Hami without his father.

Yu Subu said with some reluctance: "The Han emperor really sent eight thousand cavalry and didn't say anything else?"

The subordinate who came to report said: "Sir Burke, the Han generals have told you to surrender immediately and go to their Nanjing city."

Yu Subu frowned: "You want me to surrender? Then there is still room for discussion."

Before he finished speaking, his son Isaac asked: "What about the conditions? My father is the commander of the Hami Guards of the Ming Dynasty. He is also the Hami Bek canonized by Junggar. He is also the Khan of all Hami Hui people. He wants us to surrender. , there must be sufficient conditions.”

Close subordinates were sent from Hami City to negotiate terms with the Ming army vanguard.

He went there for two or three days. When he came back, he was accompanied by the vanguard cavalry of the Ming Army. The news he brought back also made Yu Subu frown.

"There are no conditions, and I am also required to go to Nanjing with my wife and children. I am not allowed to bring private soldiers and slaves, and I am only allowed to bring five carts of riches." Yu Subu's face was gloomy.

Beside him, the young and energetic Isaac was even more furious, his face turning red from suppressing his emotions: "The Han emperor is so bullying. Does he really think that I, a Hami native, are just a fake?"

Hmm... It's really a mess. In the previous war between Junggar and Qinghai Heshuote, although Hami was not a battlefield, it was also the first front line.

The entire Hami was destroyed by the crazy Galdan Celing. The people here either fled to Shaanxi and Gansu in Han Dynasty, were filled in the battlefield, or suffered heavy losses due to military disasters and man-made disasters.

Although today's Hami population has recovered after several years, it has still not recovered to half of its heyday, and the Han population has also been added to this.

Yes, they are Han people, not slaves. The Hami Hui people have lost too much strength and are no longer able to defeat the Han "slaves".

Yu Subu was afraid of Emperor Zhu and did not dare to bully Han merchants, but he was not lenient at all in his internal rule in Hami. Over the past few years, large areas of Hami have become desolate and inhabited, with vast land and sparsely populated areas, and the sky is filled with yellow sand from the Gobi Desert.

The eight thousand Ming Dynasty dragon cavalry went all the way north. Except for scattered Hui tribes and a few Han forts, the rest were abandoned ruins of towns.

The close subordinates looked at the angry little Burke and quickly knelt down and said: "Those Han generals said that Hamiwei is the hometown of China, and Hamiwei was canonized by the Chinese emperor... If you want your ministers to obey, you must obey. "

The last two sentences are in Chinese. Although the retelling is very stiff, Yu Subu understands Chinese.

Yu Subu was furious, but at this moment he suddenly calmed down and looked with a cold face from the top of Hami City to the well-equipped Eight Thousand Mingqi outside the city.

Just the solemn appearance of the Ming army gave him an inexplicable chill.

In recent years, he has made a lot of money by collecting commercial taxes along the road. Although the taxes collected are not high, he has still made a lot of money. In addition to spending such extravagant daily expenses, he has also trained armed troops and built city fortresses.

I don't know if he was comforting himself, but Yu Subu murmured: "The Han people are all cavalry. My Hami city has thick walls and the Han people can't break in!"

Isaac nodded quickly: "What father said is that the Han people came with cavalry, and there were only eight thousand, not even the baggage. As long as we hold on to Hami City, we can let the Han cavalry retreat on their own. If they insist on not retreating, We can also go out of the city and take the initiative to fight. By then, we in Hami will be waiting for work, but the Han people will be short of men and horses, and we will definitely succeed in the battle. We may even take advantage of the situation and cross the Yumen Pass of the Han people to seize large areas of the Han people's land in the Western Regions."

The war hasn't even started yet and you're already dreaming. You even dare to covet the Han area of ​​Gansu further east.

Yu Subu descended from the city wall worriedly, and the eight thousand dragon cavalry who came to Hami quickly saw that Yu Subu really refused to surrender the city, so they quickly retreated and set up camp.

They were just cavalry that opened the way first. They didn't bring any siege equipment, and even the food road was still in the rear.

We could only wait for the large troops to arrive first. Hami was too poor and the population was too small. The cavalry took the lead and opened the way. They ran into almost nothing and ran all the way. They swept several Han villages and towns by the way.

As we got closer to the city of Hami, the number of villages and towns became more concentrated, and the scattered tribes began to become denser.

The next day, the cavalry began to raid villages and tribes around Hami.

Hami in this time and space has a rather strange development model. Cities have been established in local areas, and there are scattered tribal villages in the local areas, and there are also a large number of Han immigrant villages interspersed.

Most of these villages were forcibly relocated from Gansu during the conflict between the Manchu and Qing Dynasties and the Junggars. They were mainly used as military camps for war. You can regard them as Manchu and Qing military households.

The Ming army cavalry swept along the road and saw the "Hui people" tribal villages. All the leaders and nobles inside were slaughtered, while the civilians were left alone.

The Ming Dynasty is about to conquer the Western Regions. Naturally, it is impossible to keep these religious sticks and destabilizing factors that occupy more than 90% of the land in the Western Regions.

It would be best to go through the war and clear them all in one wave.

Even those who surrender will be cut down if they can, and those who cannot be cut will be scattered and moved to other places.

The Ming army had accumulated military rations and supplies for several years, and there was no need for these guys to surrender. Giving Yu Subu a chance was because he had surrendered on his own initiative before, which would save Ming a lot of effort.

When the Ming army's cavalry swept through, many nobles from the "Hui" tribal villages gathered in Hami City and fled, and some fled further west to Turpan.

When the Han villages among them heard the news, they brought their own weapons and dry food and went to the Ming army's camp to seek refuge.

They were all military households who were immigrated during the Manchu and Qing Dynasties. Now they heard that the Manchu and Qing court was gone and now the Han emperor reigned supreme. Moreover, the businessmen passing by along the road said that the Han emperor who is now in power is a wise emperor and treats the people very well (this is a detailed work).

Within a few days, the villages around Hami were raided, and many nobles who had managed to escape gathered in Hami city.

In addition to consuming Hami's food and grass, it also further made Hami city's people's hearts wander.

(End of this chapter)