Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 402: The Siege of Bukhara (Special thanks to the book friend Bu Aa Cha Cha for his 2 monthly tickets!)

After the New Year's Eve holiday in the 31st year of Kaixi, on the third day of the first lunar month, the commanders-in-chief of the ten corps of the Longxiang Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty that were besieging the Samanid Dynasty gathered in the commander's tent to discuss military intelligence.

Hu Yanzan pointed to the Central and Western Asia areas and said:

"As for the enemy's current situation, the soldiers of the small countries of the Star Sect have fled, leaving only the soldiers of the two large countries, the Black Arabs and the Green Arabs, stationed in Bukhara.

Judging from the current situation, it is impossible for the small countries to send troops to rescue the Samanid Empire. The Green Caliphate is far away and is unlikely to send troops to help.

The only thing to worry about is the Black Arabs, whose slave cavalry can attack very quickly, so we must be on guard against them."

Most of the generals in the tent nodded in agreement.

Jingsheng Road:
"The threat from the Black Arabs is not difficult to resolve. Our army only needs to send an army to deploy the Yansu artillery and the Hudun artillery on the southwest side of Bukhara to block the enemy reinforcements.

His Majesty ordered us to destroy the Samanids as quickly as possible with the least loss of soldiers. The Samanids were the leader of the Star Religion and the most powerful among the more than 20 Star Religion countries.

As long as we conquer it, we at Great Zhou will be assured of victory in the war against the Star Religion world!

In my opinion, if our army opens fire at full force and bombards the walls of Bukhara, they will surely be destroyed within two months!"

After the generals had discussed the matter, they ordered the entire army's artillery to concentrate fire on the walls of Bukhara the next day.

The sound of the Great Zhou army's artillery fire was deafening. Thousands of shells were constantly fired at the top of the city. The moment they landed on the city wall, stone chips flew everywhere. The shells that fell into the city hit the houses, causing them to collapse and people to die.

The artillery of the Great Zhou army flew towards the city of Bukhara from all directions day and night as if it was free of charge. After more than half a month of bombardment, the Star Sect defenders in the city, mainly from the Samanid Dynasty, had suffered more than 100,000 casualties.

King Mansur saw that the capital was about to be lost, and he deeply regretted that he should not have listened to the instigation of the exiled Karakhanid prince Ali and foolishly attacked the Great Zhou Empire.

After considering the matter for a whole day on January 21st of the 31st year of Kaixi, Mansur sent the imperial guards to bring Ali in the early morning of the 22nd.

After Ali received the report on the city wall, he was worried, but there was nothing he could do at this time. He had to follow the imperial guards to the palace to meet King Mansur.

After greeting, Mansur's face turned cold and he said:
"Prince Ali of the Karakhanid Khanate, you have been in my Samanid dynasty for more than seven years. How has the king treated you?"

When Ali heard that Mansur no longer referred to him by his official title in the Samanid dynasty, he felt even more uneasy and said in fear:

"Your Highness, I am grateful to Your Highness for generously accepting me in times of crisis and entrusting me with the important task of defending the border prefecture!"

Mansur snorted and said:
“I dare not say that I have entrusted you with an important task, but I am sure that I have never made things difficult for you.

But why did you vow to be an enemy of the Great Zhou Empire? Not only did you wantonly send envoys to the surrounding Star Religious countries to incite hatred against the Great Zhou, but you also instigated me to send troops to attack the Great Zhou? !
After more than three years of war, the Great Zhou has become so powerful that our coalition force of more than 3 million was defeated by the enemy's ten corps and 900,000 troops, resulting in the loss of more than 1.3 million soldiers.

The artillery of the Great Zhou Dynasty is so unstoppable, and you boasted to me that the "Huihui Cannon" you invented was so powerful that it would definitely defeat the Zhou army? !

Now, nearly half of the Samanid Kingdom has been captured by the Zhou army, and even the capital Bukhara is in danger. What crime should you be punished for? ! "

Ali suppressed his anger and pleaded for a long time, saying: "Your Highness, my Xingxing Sect's coalition forces still have nearly 700,000 troops defending the capital. As long as the soldiers fight hard and hold on for another three months, the Zhou army will continue to fire every day and will be short of military supplies. By then, they will retreat!"

Mansur rebuked:
"You are still trying to shirk responsibility after all this? It's not like you haven't been on the city wall before. Haven't you seen the mountains of Zhou army supplies shipped from Central Asia?
I’m afraid that the Zhou army’s artillery fire has not stopped and our Bukhara city has already run out of food!
"I regret that I listened to your instigation, which led to the crisis today! Soldiers, take down Ali immediately!"

Dozens of imperial guards standing in the hall immediately took action, disarmed Ali and tied him up with tendons.

Ali was furious, knowing that he had no chance of escape, and he cursed:
"Stupid ruler! Didn't you make all the decisions yourself? Who forced you to do that?
Now that the war is going badly, you blame it on me? How much money have I paid to you over the years? ! "

After the two men had argued with each other for a while, Mansur became furious and ordered the guards to stuff Ali's mouth, beat him severely, and then take him away and imprison him.

The next day, January 22, the king of the Samanid Dynasty wrote a letter, which was shot from the top of the city wall to the ground, and ordered his soldiers to shout to the Zhou army besieging the city, expressing his intention to negotiate peace.

Huyan Zan and other generals read the letter and saw that Mansur begged the two countries to negotiate peace and withdraw their troops. He was willing to tie Ali up and hand him over to the Great Zhou, and to pay an annual tribute of one million taels of silver, ten thousand horses, one hundred thousand cattle and sheep each, and a hundred beautiful women, and asked to become a vassal state of the Great Zhou.

The generals circulated the letter and started to discuss the matter.

Zhe Yuxun smiled and said:
“This Mansur is really funny!
Their Xingxing Sect instigated a war, which made our Great Zhou Emperor very anxious. He mobilized the entire country to fight back, and nearly 200,000 of our Longxiang soldiers died in the battle alone!

This does not include various expenses for the national treasury.

Mansur actually wants to hand over the escaped Prince Ali of the Karakhanid Khanate to us and ask us to withdraw our troops in exchange for annual tribute?"

Lin Renzhao said:

"How could Your Majesty agree to Mansur's unreasonable request?
Seeing that our Longxiang Army has conquered Bukhara within a month and occupied the entire country, won’t the territory, population, and beauties all belong to our Great Zhou?"

Gaohua Road:
"Your Majesty's decree orders our Longxiang Army to completely conquer the Star Religion world. How can we negotiate peace and withdraw our troops?
The war has already begun, how can it be stopped just like that? Mansur is dreaming! "

Although the two major fronts of the Western Expedition were led by Jingsheng and Huyanzan respectively, Huyanzan had the longest seniority, the greatest military achievements, and the highest prestige. Therefore, the other nine corps commanders all looked at Huyanzan, waiting for his decision.

Hu Yanzan pondered for a while and said:

"Negotiation and withdrawal are of course Mansur's wishful thinking, but if the traitor Ali can be captured and brought to Bianjing, Your Majesty will definitely be pleased.

He wrote back: Our army will accept Mansur's surrender of Ali and in return, our army promises not to massacre the people in the city and the royal ministers' families.

After receiving the reply in the city, Mansur sighed for a long time. Considering the royal family, he had to agree. On January 28th of the 31st year of Kaixi, he sent soldiers to escort Ali out of the city and handed him over to the Zhou army.

Huyan Zan and his generals would immediately send people to escort Ali to Bian Jing to meet the emperor. Also going there would be the military supervisor eunuch Meng Ming, who would lead a thousand Wudesi soldiers to escort six million taels of silver and more than a thousand rare treasures copied from the Ghazni treasury and all over the country.

Because when Huyan Zan conquered Ghazni, he sent troops to hunt down the more than 2,000 concubines of the palace who had escaped, but this time he did not send any captive beauties.

(End of this chapter)