In March of the second year of Chenghua, Hami Acropolis.

Liu Juntao led the army to be stationed in Hamiwei for several months, during which he constantly coordinated with all parties, hoarded a large amount of money, food, and military equipment in Hamiwei, and let the soldiers of various departments spend a warm Spring Festival in Hamiwei, and also missed the cold and biting winter in the northwest.

The situation around Hamiwei has also calmed down with the stationing of hundreds of thousands of Ming soldiers, and the Hami Acropolis has regained its former tranquility.

At this time, it is early spring, and a little green has emerged on the ground near Hamiwei, everything has begun to recover, the chill has faded, and vitality has arrived.

At this time, the hundreds of thousands of troops led by the king of Turpan and Sutanali had been wiped out, and the news that the 500,000 Ming army was about to enter the Western Regions had also spread throughout the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

These three tribes are different from those small tribes in the Western Regions, they have no way to retreat, even if they surrender, they will be divided and disintegrated by the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty will never let any Hu people become big in the Western Regions.

Among these three tribes, Turpan's power is the weakest, after all, the 100,000 army led by Turpan King Sutan Ali has just been wiped out, and this Turpan vitality is greatly damaged, not to mention the 100,000 army at this time, even 50,000 horses can not be gathered, and the Turpan tribes are also fighting in secret, all want to inherit the throne of Turpan.

During the period when Liu Juntao led his troops to be stationed in Hamiwei, he ordered the military department and the intelligence department to unite and mobilize a large number of sharp posts and spies to go deep into various parts of the Western Regions to continuously collect intelligence from various parts of the Western Regions, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of the situation in various parts of the Western Regions.

At the beginning of April of the second year of Chenghua, Emperor Chenghua agreed to Liu Juntao's request and ordered Liu Juntao to immediately lead his troops into the Western Regions and sweep away all the departments in the Western Regions!

After receiving the holy decree of Emperor Chenghua, Liu Juntao immediately convened the chief military officers of the various ministries and the ministers of the shogunate to discuss the matter.

Liu Juntao first asked the head of the military department to explain the situation of the army to the crowd, and explained the logistics and supply of the army.

This time, the logistics supply line of the Ming army passed through Jiayuguan in detail, all the way through Suzhou Wei, directly to Hamiwei, and 28 camps were set up along the way to be responsible for transshipment and protection of the back road. Liu Juntao has ordered the officers and men of all departments in the Beijing camp to be stationed in various places and be responsible for the security of the rear of the army.

"At present, the money and food hoarded in Hamiwei are enough for the army for four months, and the follow-up money, food, and military equipment are being transported in a steady stream!"

Xiang Qun finally summed up, and then sat back to the cheers of everyone.

At this time, among the Ming army, the Tiance Army and the Hanhai Town Servant Army Iron Cavalry, the Jingying soldiers and horses, and the soldiers and horses of Shaanxi Town had all been assembled in Hamiwei.

When the generals heard that the army had sufficient food and grass and smooth logistics and supplies, they were all in a good mood.

Then, Liu Juntao asked Liu Zi'an, Minister of Intelligence, to explain the current situation in the Western Regions and the main enemies that the Ming army was about to face.

Liu Zi'an said: "Bingxian, everyone! At present, there are three main enemies facing our army in the Western Regions, namely the Turpan Division, the Yili Division, and the Duohuo Thorn Division, only these three tribes have the strength to be enemies with our Ming Dynasty, and the rest of the small tribes are all not worried! ”

The people of the Turpan Department are already very familiar with it, the soldiers of the Ming army gathered and annihilated the 100,000 army of Turpan in one battle, and beheaded the king of Turpan, Sutan Ali, and the Ming army is also an old opponent.

However, everyone is very unfamiliar with the inner part of Yili and the Duohuo Thorn Division.

Liu Juntao said: "Minister Liu will talk in detail about the situation of Yili Inside, Duohuo Thorn Department, and also briefly talk about the current situation in Turpan." ”

Liu Zi'an hugged his fists and saluted, and then said: "Then let's talk about Turpan first." Since the Turpan king Sutan Ali and the 100,000 army were wiped out, the various tribes of Turpan began to be not subordinate to each other, and the thirteen tribes of Turpan are almost evenly matched, fighting separately, although they can still maintain the title of the Turpan Khanate, but in fact they have existed in name only, and even the four sons of Sutan Ali have been killed one after another! ”

Liu Zi'an smiled and said to everyone: "So the final opinion of my intelligence department is: Turpan is currently the least threatening!" ”

"The second is that Yili put the inside, speaking of which, this Yili put the inside and Turpan still have some origins, and the Turpan department is split from this Yili inside, and at present, some people in the Turpan department have taken refuge in the Yili inside."

Everyone heard that they were all in spirit, and Liu Zi'an continued: "In the autumn and July of the 24th year of Hongwu, the eight tribes of the Western Regions established the Samarkand Khanate (Timurid Empire), and successively called the tribute five times in September of the 21st year, September 22, March 25th, September 27th, and September 29th year of Hongwu. But later, the Samarkand Khanate annexed the Ilkhanate and subdued the Kipchak Khanate, and its ambitions swelled dramatically, and they were ready to send troops to conquer our Ming Dynasty. ”

In the second year of Yongle, Timur, the Great Khan of the Samarkand Khanate, led 800,000 troops to attack Ming, but he died of illness in the middle of the way, and his army returned. After Timur's death, his grandson Hari succeeded to the throne and re-paid tribute to our Ming dynasty in the fifth year of Yongle. ”

"In the sixteenth year of Yongle, Crooked Si became the Great Khan of his tribe, and moved west to the Ili River Valley, so far his tribal name was changed to Yili Jiangli." "Yili" should be another transliteration of Ili, and "put li" is suspected to be eight miles. Crooked thoughts continue to pay tribute to my Ming Dynasty, and pay tribute every year. ”

A few years later, his descendants were at odds with each other, and his khanates were divided. At that time, Yili divided it into three kingdoms: Yili Lili, Yarkand and Turpan. ”

Hearing this, everyone, including Liu Juntao, understood the relationship between Turpan and Yili Jiangli, and the two clans were originally from the same clan.

"The Turpan Department is hundreds of miles west of Hamiwei, and this Yili is eight hundred miles west of the Turpan Department, on the north bank of the Lie River, with 400,000 troops and 150,000 soldiers and horses, which can be described as a strong clan in the Western Regions!"

"Finally, there is the Duohuo Thorn Division, this clan is the strongest Hu clan in the Western Regions!"

Liu Zi'an said: "The Duohuo Ti tribe is the name of the Mongolian tribe, which is a descendant of the Burul Lerzar - Duo Huo Rain (Bhutanese Zar - Duo Huo Lan) or Duo Huo Ra, and the Mongolian Tatar Temujin is close to the blood, and the people are fierce! ”

"There are millions of people in the Duohuorati tribe, of which the Mongols account for the majority, and there are 300,000 iron horsemen in the tribe, which can be said to be no less powerful than the Warat and Tatar tribes. However, his ambition is not great, and he has always been circling in the Western Regions, and has no ambition to move eastward. ”

"The sweat tent of the Duohuo Ti Department is set up in Kuxian, located in the south of Turpan City and Yili Jiangli, located at the foot of the mountain across the Qi'er, the water and grass are abundant, and there are pastures everywhere, it is said that the Tartars of the Ministry have set up a city on the south, north and west sides of the sweat tent, which are Baicheng, Xinhe, and Shaya, which are quite large-scale!"

After Liu Zi'an finished speaking, everyone began to discuss, discussing how the battle should be carried out below.

Some people believe that the Ming army should divide its troops and divide the army into three routes: attack the Turpan Department all the way and completely wipe out its troops; All the way around Turpan from the north, straight to the west of the Yili Inside; The third route was to go south, set up a defensive line south of Turpan, and be ready to intercept the Duohuorati troops who were going north to support.

This plan advocated that the Ming army should wage war with the three major tribes at the same time, and strive to end the war in the Western Regions in the shortest possible time, after all, the strength of the Ming army gathered in Hamiwei has reached 500,000, and even if the imperial court has money, it will not be able to maintain this war for a long time, and the army can only fight as quickly as possible.

There is also a plan that advocates the first difficult and then the easy, and it is also divided into three ways, but unlike the first plan, the second plan advocates using two flanks to feint the Turpan Department and the Yili Inside, and contain the two forces, and then the Ming Army will go south with the main army to invite the Duohuo Rati Division, as long as the Duo Huorati Department is defeated, the remaining Turpan Department and the Yili Interior will not be worried, and this battle may even be decided!

However, Liu Juntao immediately rejected these two plans: the first plan is too radical, once the soldiers and horses that go south to block the failure fail, the soldiers and horses besieging Turpan and the raid will be attacked by hundreds of thousands of iron cavalry of the Duohuo Rati Division, which will be a copy of the defeat of Tumubao!

The second plan is to underestimate the Duohuorati Division, after all, its troops have hundreds of thousands of iron cavalry, and occupy a favorable position, if the army cannot defeat it in a short time, the rear feint Turpan and Yili will isolate the soldiers and horses inside, once these two roads are defeated, the main army going south will fall into the dangerous situation of being attacked by the enemy.

Liu Juntao said: "Although our army has an advantage in this battle, we must also be extremely careful, the more dangerous the battle is, the more obvious the advantage of our army, the more we cannot divide the troops and make idle!" ”

Everyone clasped their fists and received their lives.

Liu Juntao said: "In this battle, Benxian decided to leave the soldiers and horses of the Beijing camp to garrison Hamiwei, for the army to break off, transfer money, food, and military equipment, and the rest of the Tiance Army, Shaanxi Town Divisions, servant army, and captive army gathered westward, hundreds of thousands of troops were huddled together, and did not give the Tartars any opportunity to take advantage of, so they advanced like a wall and entered the Western Regions!" ”

When everyone heard this, their blood boiled, and all the commanders asked to be the vanguard of the army, and the ministers of the shogunate also asked to go west with the army, which was a great opportunity to go down in history!

Liu Juntao smiled and said, "Okay! In this battle, our army will all be pressed, and let those Hu people in the Western Regions know that Han Tang is back! ”

On the same day, Liu Juntao ordered the troops of all departments to start mobilizing, and three days later, except for 30,000 soldiers and horses of the Beijing battalion stationed in Hamiwei, the rest of the 470,000 troops of all departments marched westward!

And the first stop of the 470,000 Ming soldiers marching west was the easternmost forward defense line of Turpan City: Huozhou City!