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

Chapter 699 Broken Leaf City

Hojisi, the governor of Aksu, was very smart. He knew that he could not defeat the Ming army, and Khan King Daniel was unable to send troops to rescue him.

In this case, he would simply do it without stopping and directly package up all the nobles and Zhuo from Aksu to Wush and sell them to the Han generals in exchange for their glory and wealth with the Han emperor.

No, now he can no longer be called the Emperor of the Han people, but the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

He heard that the Han people seemed to attach great importance to the praise of the "Celestial Dynasty".

Moreover, even if he decided to surrender to the Ming army, this guy still habitually kept a cautious eye and rushed to report the news that the Ming army's front had arrived in Aksu to the Yarkand Khan Daniel.

Although he didn't think Daniel could win, the egg still had to be placed at both ends.

The Ming army arrived very quickly. After receiving the head offered by Huojisi, it took less than half a day for the three thousand vanguard cavalry to arrive at Wushi City.

This is also the largest city in southern Xinjiang from Aksu to Kashgar.

Huojisi was very sincere. He took his trusted subordinates, as well as many nobles and nobles who he had lured to Wush and tied up in the name of holy war, and opened the city gate and knelt down to ask for surrender.

The vanguard cavalry general is named Zhou Chong, but he is the eldest son of Zhou Haizhong. He is not relying on nepotism, but he does have real qualities.

After all, his father was the Governor of Xi'an and a founding member of the People's Republic of China. He held a high and powerful position, so his son's natural starting point of resources was higher than that of ordinary people joining the army.

This is inevitable, and it can be regarded as a necessary benefit and blessing for soldiers who go through life and death.

After quickly taking over the control of Wushi City and returning quickly to report the news, Zhou Chong said to Huo Jisi: "You surrendered on your own initiative and killed Qiuci and Zhuo, which can be regarded as a contribution to the dedication of the city. Our Ming Dynasty Your Majesty, the Emperor, is kind and will not trouble you any more. As for the reward, we have to wait until the battle report is sent back to the capital. Did you just say that all the nobles here are already here? "

Huo Jisi breathed a sigh of relief at first, knowing that he had made the right bet, and then he quickly said with his hands, "They are indeed here, and their families, private armies, and believers were all lured here by me. All those who disobeyed have also been here. If they are all executed, even if there are still fish that slip through the net, they will no longer be able to pose any threat to the Chinese army, and they have no way to escape. The only option is to go to Yarkand City and defect to the Puppet Khan Daniel."

Zhou Chong couldn't help but marvel: "You are so ruthless! For your own selfishness, you will not leave any way for your own people to survive. But you made the right choice. If Hami and Turpan before could think so, I guess There’s no need to die.”

This is true. Although the imperial court has long ago decreed that the foreign tribes in the Western Regions should only retain civilians and no nobles, otherwise they would be the source of unrest. However, the common people have no culture and little religious influence. They only use Central Plains Taoism and Buddhism to preach, and they can slowly and subtly exchange blood and educate.

But Huojisi is too aware of current affairs and sees the situation too clearly. It will be difficult to kill him if he messes with the Ming Dynasty in this way, and it will also be difficult to not reward him for his merits.

It is estimated that even if he cannot stay in the Western Region, he will definitely have to be rewarded with an official position and give him a share of glory and wealth.

This is also the case in history. This guy saw the right opportunity to stab Junggar in the back, and relied on his great power to gain glory and wealth from the Qing court.

After that, the Qing government transferred him to various places to stabilize the situation, and he did not complain at all.

Later, all the Burkes in the Western Regions jointly reported him for taking power. The holding of power was false, but it was true that the Qing government was ready to kill the donkey after it was used up. Huo Jisi was still very aware of current affairs and decisively resigned from office and went to Beijing to retire.

The troops from Aksu to Wushi were spared no blood, and even a large number of grain, grass and baggage were seized. All of them were confiscated by the nobles who were unwilling to surrender, and a lot of them were also hoarded in the city of Wushi.

Zhou Haizhong waited for Zhou Haizhong to march urgently to take over Wushi City: "You have done a good job. You have dedicated the city to the inner city, captured the rebellious nobles in Aksu and Wushi, and intercepted and killed the rebellious He Zhuo in Qiuci. This general will report to you on your behalf. Your Majesty, please give me credit. You will temporarily assist our officials in the Celestial Empire to stabilize the people's hearts in Aksu and Wushi, and then you will make a census of the grain households."

The vast territory from Aksu to Wushi was captured by the Ming army without bloodshed.

Further west are the Kashgar region and Yarkand. These two places are very interesting. Although they both belong to the Green Sect, they are also the Yarkand Khanate.

But in the Kashgar area to the north, he belongs to the leader of the White Mountain Sect, Mahamut Hezhuo, while in the Yarkand area to the south, where the Yarkand Khan Danier was also tacitly approved by the Ming Emperor, it belongs to the leader of the Black Mountain Sect, Hezhuo.

In the past hundred years, the White Mountain Sect and the Black Mountain Sect have been fighting for their religious beliefs and territory in southern Xinjiang.

Even when the Yarkand Khanate fell and the Junggar Mongols rose, it was thanks to the failure of the Baishan faction in the battle that they directly became the leading party, leading the Mongolian army southward and breaking through the Yarkand capital.

However, the White Mountain Sect only lasted less than twenty years before being overthrown by the Black Mountain Sect and monopolized the power to rule southern Xinjiang for thirty-five years.

Nowadays, in order to resist the Junggar Mongols, the Black Mountain Faction is forced to reach an agreement with the White Mountain Faction to jointly resist the Mongols from going south, and completely withdraw from Kashgar (previously, it was ruled by black and white).

By the way, the Xiaohezhuo rebellion that will cause trouble in Xinjiang in the future and achieve Qianlong's "perfect martial arts" are the two sons of Mahmut, the current governor of Kashgar.

Among them, "Big Hezhuo" has been killed by Galdan, and "Little Hezhuo" was just born the year before last and is still a little baby.

In fact, if the Ming army had not killed any nobles who did not voluntarily surrender, and had not also attacked the local Green Sect, it would have been easy for them to force tens of thousands of White Mountain Sect followers to surrender and take them to fight the Black Mountain Sect in Yarkand.

After all, these Baishan sect did the same thing when Yarkand was overthrown decades ago. Hundreds of years of religious grievances and hatred cannot be paid off by giving up a piece of Kashgar.

Previously, the Mongols were in the north, so they temporarily joined forces, and mainly the White Mountain sect was in the front, and the Black Mountain sect was in the back to expand religious influence, and even moved their hands back to Kashgar. stretch.

Daniel, the Montenegrin great master, is not a one-size-fits-all man, not to mention that he represents the entire Montenegrin sect and sells out Kashgar. There will always be some extreme members of the nobles who are dissatisfied.

The Ming army occupied Aksu to Wushi, and Mahamut, who was entrenched in Kashgar, was in a panic.

It is impossible for him to surrender. If he surrenders, he will definitely be killed. But if he doesn't surrender, he will be defeated again and again.

The nobles who escaped directly described the Han army as "setani" (devils). It is also said that the generals of the Han army are all "Ibris" (demons). They lead a huge army of "devils" and summon fire and thunder to fight against the army of Allah.

Mortal flesh and blood cannot resist the magic power of the "devil".

Mahmut, as the Great Master of the Baishan Sect, naturally has some intelligence and would not listen to such outrageous nonsense.

But the serious nonsense of these nobles still made Mahmut feel frightened, and it also highlighted the strength of the Han army.

But after finally retaking Kashgar from the Montenegrin faction, he was used to the taste of power, and he was really reluctant to give up.

Mahmut still has more than ten thousand "elite" troops in his hands, as well as armed nobles who are constantly fleeing from the east. In addition, he has more than a thousand cavalry of fanatic believers directly under his command. He can also summon the nobles and serfs of the Baishan sect in Kashgar. Soldiers, if you put them together, you can put together a 100,000-strong army.

Such a powerful military force may not be able to fight a dozen.

Even if he really can't defeat him, he can still run away to Central Asia, where the Kazakhs are in chaos. Even if he didn't talk about unifying Kazakhstan in the past, he can still dominate one side.

This is normal. The losers who came out of East Asia's monster house can beat the local "king" when they go to Central Asia.

The founding emperor of the Mughal Empire was also a poor man who couldn't survive in East Asia and took thousands of people to India to develop.

Mahamut directly activated his religious genius and summoned all the Baishan sect armed forces and serf soldiers in Kashgar in the name of holy war.

As the Great Hezhuo of the Baishan Sect, he did still have some prestige. After the jihad call was issued, in less than half a month, he successfully gathered nearly 100,000 troops in Kashgar, most of whom were serfs and whose weapons were only farm tools.

Then, Mahmut looked at his huge "army" and decisively decided to take the initiative.

The Western Region is really too poor, and most of it is desert Gobi. Kashgar has long been the front line against the Mongolians of Junggar, and the Montenegrin sect was killed here due to religious disputes. The loss of population and serfs was extremely serious, and even the nobles and landlords did not have much surplus food.

If you want to support an army of 100,000 people, it won't last long at all, so taking the initiative is the best option.

After spending almost a few days marching, Mahmut soon collided with the Ming army's forward troops who were also killing Kashgar.

As the forward general, Zhou Chong wanted to retreat and join the main force, but he soon discovered that although the enemy troops were large in number, they were uneven, and even the appearance of the troops was in disarray.

This is not a problem of Mahmut's ability, but that his army is too ragtag. Eighty percent of it is a slave soldier, and the rest are either nobles from various places summoned by religious beliefs, or a group of fanatical believers who only know how to shout Allah. .

It is simply a joke to impose orders and prohibitions on these people.

"The whole army will charge with me!"

Without any extra military orders, Zhou Chong took the lead and led three thousand cavalry to charge directly against the 100,000 jihadist army.

There is no need to choose a flank direction, because those on the outside are all serfs in ragged clothes carrying farm tools, aristocratic armed forces and Mahmut's fanatic cavalry, all surrounded inside as the main force.

A group of serfs were originally called by the nobles, and with a little religious blessing, when they saw the Ming army rushing towards them on horseback with dazzling knives, they instantly remembered the murderous Mongolian cavalry in northern Xinjiang before.

Then, the serf soldiers dispersed without waiting for the noble officers to issue military orders.

The people of Mahmut were dumbfounded. He wanted to order the army to counterattack, but it was useless.

Because the peripheral serf army collapsed too quickly, the Ming army cavalry only dispersed one side. Like a plague, the mood of defeat quickly swept through all the serfs.

The serfs squeezed the nobles and the noble Da Hezhuo inside, and they couldn't even get out, let alone fight back.

This battle was simply worse than that of a mob. Religion can quickly gather troops and make soldiers fearless of death, but it can also make the army chaotic and uncontrollable. electricity
"Setani, it's Setani!"

"Run quickly! Ibris is back with the Setanis."

"..."

Some nobles shouted, took their private soldiers and ran away.

The army fell like a mountain.

Mahmut wanted to revive his morale in the name of his great master, but found that there was no way to do it.

In addition to the loyal fanatic cavalry, even his direct "elite soldiers" began to think of ways to escape from the battlefield.

After being at a loss for a while on the battlefield, Mahmut finally realized what he was doing. He immediately pulled up the reins and brought his cavalry of more than a thousand fanatical believers, ignoring the chaotic serf soldiers on the battlefield.

Following the example of the nobles, he cut down all the serfs blocking the road and broke out to the west in a flash. He wanted to take his troops to Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Bukhara...anywhere was good, but he didn't want to wait in this ruined place in the Western Region anyway. .

When Zhou Haizhong led the main force of the infantry to arrive belatedly, he was left with the battlefield mess to clean up.

Zhou Chong only used 3,000 cavalry, and they didn't even fire muskets. Instead, they cut down several of them with knives.

The Ming army asked several captives of noble soldiers to find out that the defeated army in front of them was the so-called holy war army in Kashgar.

Now that Kashgar was extremely empty, he quickly led his army to attack Kashgar and captured this important town in southern Xinjiang without any effort.

Along the way, there were no real tough battles fought by the Ming army. The enemies they encountered were either vulnerable or simply a mob.

The reason why it is so easy to fight is that the Western Region, especially the southern Xinjiang area, has long been destroyed by religious disputes and internal fighting among various ethnic groups.

When the Mongols went south, the White Mountain Sect was able to join forces with the Black Mountain Sect because the White Mountain Sect was tricked by the Mongols.

But even so, the cooperation is extremely limited, and the White Mountain Sect has only been restored to rule in Kashgar for a few years. The internal factions are very mixed, and many nobles are descendants of the Black Mountain Sect.

As for areas such as Turpan, Barkol, and Aksu, they all went their own way and only nominally surrendered to the Yarkand Khanate.

With such a large number of factions, the ability to hold back the Mongols was all due to the barrier of the Tianshan Mountains, the sharp decline in the Mongols' combat power, and the internal instability of Galdan Celing.

When the Ming army came over, they could easily defeat them one by one as long as they fought all the way to the west.

Kashgar was captured by the Ming army, and Yarkant actually had very little territory left.

Daniel, who is both the nominal co-leader of southern Xinjiang and the leader of the Montenegrin faction, Dahe Zhuo, couldn't believe this: "What are you talking about? Aksu and Kashgar are gone. How long has it been?"

The noble who reported the news said: "The invading generals of the Han army are all Ibris. They can summon thunder and fire..."

Daniel did not curse, but asked carefully: "How powerful are the thunder and fire of the Han army, and how many artillery pieces do they bring?"

The noble said in horror: "There are many, many, at least hundreds of them. Moreover, as long as the thunder and fire they summon hit us, the whole land will explode. No matter how brave the soldiers are, they will not be able to resist it."

There are hundreds of cannons, and mysterious weapons that can make the land explode, and are suspected of evil magic. How can we fight this?
"Great Khan, something's wrong!" Another trusted minister came over to report.

Daniel frowned: "What's the matter?"

The minister replied: "There are nobles who escaped from Yiliqi (Hotian), and there are also Han cavalry there. It is said that there are tens of thousands."

There should not be tens of thousands, only more than 10,000 at most, and the main force is the Qinghai coalition cavalry. They are making good progress in the south and have captured Hotan a few days ago.

The Hotan jade here has been developed by local noble lords many years ago. In the future, we can start with jade to develop and build cities in Hotan.

Zhou Haizhong's main infantry marched from Kashgar and the southern cavalry marched to Hotan, attacking Yarkand from both sides.

The White Mountain sect in Kashgar has been defeated, and only Daniel of the Black Mountain sect is left. What a slap in the face!
Daniel thought for a moment and then said: "I am ordering all the nobles who do not want to be killed by the Han army to leave with me. Let's go to Dayuzi in the west."

Surrender is impossible. Others can surrender, but he cannot.

Because he is the Great Khan of Yerqiang and the Great Hezhuo of the Black Mountain Sect, the double buff is deepened, and Emperor Zhu cannot let him go.

He planned to run directly to Central Asia. Unlike Mahmut, this guy did not even have a tentative encounter with the Ming army. He directly gathered all the "elite" troops and left Yarkand City for Central Asia.

Today's Central Asia is not peaceful. Semek Khan of Zhongyuzi has been canonized by the Ming Emperor and has launched a unification war in Kazakhstan.

If the remnants of the Yarkands, the Black Mountain Faction, and the White Mountain Faction all come over, Kazakhstan and even Central Asia will be thrown into chaos.

Zhou Haizhong led the main army to kill Yerqiang, only to find that all the nobles and Zhuo here had fled.

Although a large number of civilian serfs were left behind, it saved him from looking for excuses to kill nobles and fulfill the head quota set by Emperor Zhu.

Zhou Haizhong did not continue the march, but called his son Zhou Chong: "You take eight thousand cavalry to recruit the Jilijisi tribes. Tell them that as long as they surrender to my Majesty, the Emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, they will no longer be subject to Yarkand and Junggar. Oppression, His Majesty the Emperor of China will protect them."

The Gilijisi people have been part of Chinese territory since ancient times. From the Jiankun Dudufu in the Tang Dynasty, they were forcibly moved to the Issyk-Kul Basin by the Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty.

Then, the Qing Dynasty ceded this place to Tsarist Russia, and Kyrgyz became the current Kyrgyzstan.

The Ming army's cavalry rushed to Lake Issyk-Kul, where the Gilghis people were all frightened, but did not dare to resist.

After all, they couldn't even defeat the Yarkand people. They could destroy the Yarkant people and force Yarkant Khan to run away from their land to Dayuzi. There was no way they could provoke them.

The recruitment and surrender of the various tribes of Jilijisi was extremely smooth. Zhou Haizhong immediately issued a military order and three days later convened the leaders of the tribes for an alliance at the old site of Suiye City in the northwest of Issyk-Kul Lake.

This also reassures the leaders of various ministries that after all, they are meeting at Lake Issyk-Kul, not going to Yarkand City.

About half a month later.

Standing at the birthplace of Li Bai, all I can see is the ruins under the wind and sand.

Yu Xiaomin was quite emotional: "The hometown of the poet Li Bai, now only a windswept old site remains..."

Zhou Haizhong didn't feel much, because he was not a scholar, so he just said: "The old site is the old site! This is a suitable place for building a new city. Later, you can report to Your Majesty to build a military city here to govern the Jilijisi tribes here."

While the two were talking, the leaders of the various tribes of Gilgis quickly arrived. Hundreds of people came, all accompanied by the leaders of each tribe.

The army interpreter conveyed Zhou Haizhong's words to the leaders of the ministries: "From now on, Jilijisi will be the territory of Ming Dynasty China, and all Jilijisi people are also the subjects of the Chinese emperor. The imperial court will build a new city here and station troops. Officials will come here to manage the reclamation, and some Han people will be immigrated.”

As soon as these words came out, the leaders of various ministries exploded, and some even clamored to go to war with the Ming army.

Fortunately, the Ming army brought enough troops and barely suppressed the Huimeng tribes.

Zhou Haizhong said: "Everyone be quiet and listen to what I have to say. The imperial court will not deprive you of the land on which you live. You, the leaders of various ministries, will be transferred to the title of mayor of Tu town and magistrate of Tu county in the future. The official county magistrate sent by the imperial court only manages the city. , will not interfere in the internal affairs of your tribe.”

"Moreover, the tribute you will pay in the future will be much less than before. The imperial court will also send merchants to transport salt, iron pots and other supplies to trade with you, and the price will not be expensive."

"Finally, the court will not force you to convert to your religion."

Although the Gili Gith people have become green at this time, their main belief is still totem animal worship, which is similar to shamanism and does not cause much harm.

As for the Green Religion, the nobles who could preach the scriptures were either killed or ran away. The Green Religion in southern Xinjiang has become insignificant.

Next, as long as the monks and Taoists from the Central Plains are moved here, they can quickly and subtly occupy the religious void in southern Xinjiang and gradually eliminate the influence of greening.

After hearing Zhou Haizhong's conditions, the leaders of the various tribes of Jilijisi agreed on everything from religion to land.

The leaders of various ministries can only choose to believe it. If they don’t believe it, they have no choice. They can’t really start a war, right?

Li Bai's hometown, Suiye City, was captured by the Ming army.

(End of this chapter)