I

  Chapter 916 912 [Zungar Split]

  There are ten fortresses around the city of Hami, collectively known as Hami Ten Forts.

  The Mongols from Qinghai came too suddenly, and many Yarkand nobles fled into the castle to hide, scattered everywhere and unable to gather.

   There are one or two hundred soldiers in this castle, and two or three hundred soldiers in that castle. How dare you come out to face the Mongolian army?

  Similarly, tens of thousands of Mongolian troops have nothing to do with these castles.

   Ozir pretended to march towards Barkol, just to lure out the enemies in the city.

  Before Muhanmaitixia and Zhuo led their troops out of the city, Batur took 5,000 cavalry and quietly turned eastward, defeating the noble reinforcements from Anxi and Yumen in one fell swoop.

  In the end, the two sides fought a decisive battle twenty miles northwest of Hami.

   There are more than 40,000 troops on Oqier's side. In addition to Qinghai Mongolian cavalry, there are also Tibetan and Yugur coalition forces. However, their equipment was relatively backward, and many teenagers participated in the battle.

   On the other hand, Muhanmaitixia and Zhuo had less than 10,000 troops, but there were 6,000 elite troops. There are even 500 heavy musketeers with a full set of armor similar to heavy infantry, fully capable of close combat, and equipped with heavy muskets that require two or three people to operate. The three thousand Balikun fanatic cavalry were all Central Asian chain armor, long spears and scimitars.

   "It's not easy to fight." Batur, who led the army back, observed the situation with binoculars.

  The binoculars were bought from Sichuan, but unfortunately the imperial court was so strict that they could not buy muskets.

   On the other hand, Hami’s army was able to buy muskets from Central Asia—smugglers were engaged in smuggling, and they lost several hands on the way. These muskets actually came from Ottomans.

  Historically, the Jungar tribe was able to rise because it fought against the Cossacks and Yarkands all the year round, gradually realized the importance of firearms, and then frantically compiled and trained firearms troops. When the Zhungeer army raided the snow area, the proportion of musketeers was as high as 12%.

  In the later battle of Ulan Butong, 20,000 Zhungeer troops faced 100,000 Qing troops, and the proportion of Zhungeer's musketeers exceeded 50%! In the first battle, 20,000 against 20,000, the Qing army was beaten to almost annihilation, and Zhungeer's casualties were negligible.

  The 60-year-old Ozil ran in front of the battle on horseback and shouted: "Warriors, we have come here from Qinghai, and there is no way to retreat. Only by defeating the enemy in front of us can the grassland thrive..."

  Some Mongolian soldiers were boosted in morale, but some were dissatisfied.

  For example, Ozil’s brothers, they thought they could win easily when they arrived in Hami, but they found it difficult to deal with them when they fought. It's better to stay in Qinghai and dedicate Kham to Emperor Zhao!

  Batur led 5,000 Mongolian cavalry and went around to the left side of the battlefield.

  He felt that he could fight, no matter how elite the Hami army was, it would be easier than fighting the Han army. He sent people to investigate the Datong Army, and both infantry and cavalry had a 100% armored rate, which made Batur dare not fight at all.

  The troops of both sides are pressing forward, and the battle is about to start.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Hami's artillery fired first, and the Mongolian army was divided into more than ten groups, and they formed a sparse formation to attack in turn. It's still the traditional way of fighting, rushing to shoot arrows, one after another, trying to disrupt the enemy's formation with charge and cavalry, and then seize the opportunity to destroy them in one fell swoop.

  The Hami army actually set up a chariot formation, with 500 heavy musketeers shooting at about 100 meters away.

  This heavy musket can easily penetrate cotton armor. If the distance is a little closer, it can even penetrate the full body plate armor. However, the Hami army obviously lacked training and had some tactical problems. They didn't know how to fire salvos, and they didn't shoot close.

   There are continuous Mongolian cavalry, being hit by artillery guns.

  Due to scattered casualties, the morale of the Mongolian cavalry has not dropped too much, and they are still taking turns to charge and shoot arrows.

   On Hami's side, more than 2,000 infantry were temporarily recruited. Under the repeated baptism of the arrow rain, the formation has become chaotic. If it wasn't for the chariots and refusal horses to block it, the Mongolian cavalry would have taken the opportunity to overwhelm it.

  Suddenly, the Balikun fanatic cavalry was dispatched.

   These people held their bows and arrows and rushed straight to Ozil's home formation. Thousands of Mongolian elites came to resist, and the two sides shot arrows at each other, and the cavalry hedge began.

  Due to inferior equipment, the Balikun cavalry was desperate, and the battle was almost one-sided. More than 400 Balikun cavalry were killed and wounded, and thousands of Mongolian cavalry were defeated. Uzir took the opportunity to lead his troops around and shot arrows at the Balikun cavalry who had smashed through the battlefield.

  The Barkol fanatic cavalry rushed to the other side, chasing and killing those Mongolian routs. After chasing for a while, he suddenly killed the enemy next to him, which was the coalition of various ethnic groups newly recruited by the Mongols.

  The equipment and morale of the coalition forces of all ethnic groups were even worse.

  At this point in the battle, the side with fewer soldiers actually had the upper hand, and the tens of thousands of Mongolian troops showed signs of collapse.

"kill!"

   Ozir personally led the Mongolian cavalry to hunt down the Balikun cavalry.

  Batur took thousands of Mongolian soldiers to attack the car formation regardless of the cost. His entry point was Hami's temporary recruitment of troops. The formation there was already chaotic. The Mongols shot with bows and arrows, dismounted and moved away the rejected horses and wooden carts.

   There was a gap in the car formation, and Batur immediately led his army to kill.

  More than 2,000 Hami infantry were killed and defeated. Muhan Maitixia and Zhuo were shocked, and asked their son to lead the elite infantry to the top.

  These Hami elites are all heavy armored infantry, armed with long axes or spears. There are also a small number of shield hands, holding a large shield half a person's height in front of them.

  Batur could only be forced to retreat, he had nothing to do with these heavy infantry. Archery can't penetrate armor, and close combat is even more blind. Within a few minutes of fighting, the Mongolian cavalry suffered nearly a thousand casualties. While retreating, the Mongolian cavalry was shot dead by dozens of heavy muskets.

   "Withdraw!"

   "Woooooooh~~~~"

  The horn sounded, and the Mongolian army retreated. At this time, there were only more than 36,000 horses left.

   "Come back, blow the trumpet quickly, let them come back!" Muhanmaitisha and Zhuo shouted.

   But I saw more than 30,000 Mongolian cavalry retreating, and less than 3,000 Barkol cavalry were dead, chasing and killing them alone like that.

   Muhanmaiti Xia and Zhuo blew their horns frantically, but the Balikun cavalry seemed unable to hear them. They were all from southern Xinjiang, and they were invited to fight jihad. When encountering heretics on the battlefield, they always wanted to drive them out.

   And the more than 30,000 Mongolian cavalry, facing the pursuit of more than 3,000 enemies, were really panicking and running for their lives.

  Especially among the Mongolian cavalry, there are a large number of children in their teens. Many of them have never been on the battlefield, and they have been killed to their wits at this moment, and they only know how to escape farther by whipping their horses.

  Ozier and Batur brothers, one in their sixties and the other in their fifties, did not panic at the moment. They have always maintained the organization of the headquarters, allowing the enemy to kill those who escaped slowly, and escaped for nearly ten miles all the way.

   "Blow the horn!"

   Ozil personally blew the horn.

  The horn sounded, Ozir and Batur each led their own cavalry to bypass the two sides. As for the other seven brothers, they really collapsed and continued to be chased and killed by the enemy to escape.

   "Shoot the horse, shoot the horse!"

  The cavalry under the command of Ozil and Batur shot arrows at the enemy around the sides, and shot indiscriminately together with the hunted people.

  More and more Balikun cavalry fell due to injuries to their horses. These fanatics were not fools either, they quickly gave up hunting and rushed towards Ozil's troops.

   Ozir did not fight at all, and led his troops to flee and shoot.

  The battlefield is further north, and Galdan is also fleeing. But he soon realized that the enemy was no longer chasing him, so he reined in his horse and shouted: "Kill back, kill back!"

  No one paid attention to him, and the surrounding Mongolian cavalry had already been scared out of their wits.

  Galdan, who was only twelve years old, rode a horse to pick up a flag and waved it immediately: "I am Huo Buddha, follow me to kill the enemy! I am Huo Buddha, follow me to kill the enemy..."

   This slogan really works, because the Mongols have long known that there is a little Huo Buddha in their army.

   One after another, more than ten riders gathered around Galdan. They went upstream among the broken soldiers, shouting "God is here" along the way, and the broken soldiers kept stopping to join their counter-charge ranks, and finally they gathered into a team of more than 4,000 people.

  The addition of this fresh force has completely established the victory.

  The Barkol fanatic cavalry could only break through the siege to the south, and when they fled to the city of Hami, there were only more than 1,600 cavalry left.

  Muhanmaitixia and Zhuo were furious: "Why didn't you obey the military order when you were told to withdraw your troops?"

  It's useless to say anything, the battle is like this, and the next thing is to defend the city.

  The Mongols also suffered heavy losses. After gathering the defeated troops, they did not dare to besiege Hami again. They took their troops and livestock and headed straight for Balikun, where the grassland of Heshuot Mongolia used to be, and now they can finally take it back.

On the way, Batur found his eldest brother: "Firearms, we need to get firearms, otherwise we will not be able to fight in the future. The firearms of the Han people are powerful, and the firearms returned by Hami are also powerful. We are still using bows and arrows, and we can shoot for a long time." Impenetrable armor!"

   Ozil said unhappily, "I also know that firearms are powerful, but where can I buy them?"

  Batur didn't speak, he could only feel anxious.

  The battle was very fierce, but it was also anticlimactic. Thousands of Mongolian cavalry were killed and injured, and they finally recaptured Balikun and joined forces with the Heshuote troops in the north.

  In the next few years, it will definitely be the war between Turpan and Hami by the Heshuo Special Forces, and repeated competition around the Barkol area.

  …

  North.

  Has already taken advantage of the vacancy to occupy the Zhungeer Department in Mobei, and is attacking the Cossack outpost.

  These Cossack bandits, dozens of people set up an outpost, and dared to tax the Tieliangguti Department. The Tieliangguti tribe was a subordinate tribe of Zhungeer, and Sengge was so angry that he immediately led his troops to conquer.

  The battle did not start at all. As soon as the Zhungeer army arrived, the Cossacks had already fled by boat.

   "Destroy everything here!" Seng Ge said, pointing to the Cossack outpost.

   Just as the soldiers dismantled the outpost, a horn sounded suddenly.

  Sengge's eldest brother, Chechen, led his troops to kill Sengge. Immediately afterwards, Sengge's second brother, Zhuote Babatur, also led his troops to kill Sengge.

  These three are Galdan’s older brothers.

  Sengge was killed by surprise, and he had no time to escape, and soon died among the rebellious army.

  The Zhungeer Ministry, which was on the rise, fell into a state of division.

  Chechen ruled the vast area in northern Xinjiang, and Zhuote Babatur ruled the Mobei region, and allocated pastures to their sons and cronies. As for Sengge's cronies, some went south to seek refuge with the Heshuote Department, and some went to seek refuge with the Datong Army.

  Even Sengge’s son Tsewang Alabatan took all his followers to Raoledu Hufu, asking Emperor Zhao to settle down a pasture.

  This Zewang Arabutan has made Galdan miserable in history. His father was killed by two uncles, and Galdan came back from Tibet to help him avenge the murder of his father. As a result, Galdan marched east to Khalkha, and this guy took the opportunity to jump back, blocking Galdan's retreat, and forcing Galdan to commit suicide in defeat. Afterwards, he dedicated Galdan's ashes to Kangxi.

  (end of this chapter)