The small town of Navoi was about 400 miles away from Samarkand, but only 200 miles from the city of Bukhara, which made it relatively more difficult to supply the Ming army. When Li Guo raised this question, Liu Zongmin also felt a little hesitant, but Harabaha thought that this was not too much of a problem, Samarkand was a commercial center, it had a large number of merchant transport troops, and now the troops had to go forward to block the attack of Abbas I, protect their interests, and could seek their assistance.

Harabahar is still relatively popular in Samarkand, which can be seen from the order of the city, after all, he is a descendant of Timur Khan the Younger, and his rule for hundreds of years has been recognized by most of the natives. Li Hongji's men were not too far away, so Liu Zongmin took Harabaha and led 10,000 troops to quickly set off to Navoi Town.

Abbas I's men and horses were indeed assembled in Bukhara, although there were the assistance of the English generals, and there were some hired English junior officers, but their actions were still relatively slow, and the clothing, food, shelter and transportation of hundreds of thousands of troops were a big problem, especially in this era, the transportation was very bad, all kinds of supplies needed to be transported one by one, and Abbas I needed to march long distances, and the soldiers were very tired. The red-headed soldiers were made up of Turks, who rushed forward in a frenzied attempt to grab their treasures, only to be defeated by Liu Zongmin, and Abbas I, who was more cautious, planning to march calmly to Samarkand after Hawala had completely concentrated its logistical supplies.

Bukhara is an ancient city located on the banks of the delta of the Zeravshan River, through which the Shahkud Canal runs through the city, and is more than 2,500 years old, making it one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. In the middle of the 16th century, the Samanid people established their capital here, and it was known as the Bukhara Khanate. The Bukhara Khanate in the ancient Chinese books, the Wudi Kingdom in the New Tang Dynasty, and the Bi State and An Guo in the nine surnames of Zhaowu in the Tang Dynasty all refer to the Bukhara Khanate. Bukhara was once one of the important cities of the ancient Silk Road, and in the 7th century, as the * religion began to spread and prevail in Bukhara, Bukhara built thousands of mosques, seminaries and other shrine sites, and was a famous * religious and academic center at that time.

Abbas I had a certain vision of choosing this place as a base for his advance, it was very safe to hoard supplies here, and it was very difficult to attack and capture the city, which was founded by the Samanidians in the mid-16th century, and was known as the Bukhara Khanate, which was relatively prosperous and easy to raise supplies compared to other small cities in the area.

The red-headed soldier who returned from the rout told Abbas I about the defeat, which made Abbas I very shocked, he did not expect the artillery fire of the Ming army to be so strong, but he was still full of confidence in the soldiers of the English general*, especially when he investigated that the Ming army was only more than 10,000 people, he was full of confidence in victory. With the defeated red-headed soldiers as guides, Abbas I sent 50,000 soldiers to occupy the main road in the mountain valley, with the destination being the small town of Navoi.

Liu Zongmin's subordinates are mostly infantry cavalry, which means that the cavalry troops are mainly infantry combat, but under the leadership of this warlike general, both cavalry and foot combat are very powerful, and Harabaha's subordinates are mainly cavalry, and the speed of movement is relatively fast, leaving Li Guo to lead 5,000 people to defend the city, and waiting for Li Hongji's support, he took 10,000 people to Navoi Town to establish a blocking position.

The town of Navoi did not have much population now, only three or four thousand people, and under the mobilization of Harabaha, they all left the town and took refuge in the mountains, so Liu Zongmin ordered the soldiers to quickly establish a defensive position based on the town and wait for the army of Abbas I to attack. Compared to the terrain of Samarkand, it is more suitable for building defensive positions, and the narrow mountain paths do not have to worry about too wide defensive surfaces, and the layers of trenches are enough to suppress the rapid attack of the opponent.

There is no need to establish a circular position here, only need to build a few trenches that can be connected before and after, the Ming army's engineer shovel played a great role at this time, 10,000 people of earthwork, the speed is still very fast, basically it took less than a moment, to dig out more than a dozen trenches, and the excavated soil is piled in front of the trench, so that the depth of the trench is relatively increased, which is mentioned in the military academy, Liu Zongmin's staff team knows.

The main force led by Abbas I soon set out from the city of Bukhara, and the journey of two hundred miles was not too far for the army, and two days was enough time to arrive. When these Persian troops arrived at the town of Navoi, the trenches of the Ming soldiers had not yet been repaired, and the soldiers were resting, but fortunately, Liu Zongmin arranged sentries more than ten miles ahead, discovered the arrival of the Persian army in time, and quickly transmitted the news back to the Ming soldiers who were doing earthwork, and Liu Zongmin immediately ordered the soldiers to prepare for battle.

There are 10,000 people, boundless, and hundreds of thousands of Persian soldiers have formed a strong momentum, but these Ming troops, especially the 5,000 people under Liu Zongmin, were reorganized after eliminating some construction corps, and they have very good experience, and they are not very worried about the enemy who is ten times their size, and they are quickly ready for battle. The front of the position is mainly defended by infantry, supplemented by hand-cranked machine guns in the middle, and the important thing is that most of the machine guns are arranged on both sides of the position, so that the machine guns have a very wide field of vision and can better strafe.

More than 10,000 Persian soldiers came to the front of the first line of position, and they were surprised by the trench in front of them, which was not a mode of battle they often encountered, and the forward troops who did not know what to do were still engaged in a tentative attack. When they advanced to a distance of 100 zhang, they were attacked by the Ming army's cold guns, and many grassroots officers were constantly shot, making the soldiers a little puzzled, and they did not know how the Ming army did it at such a distance. After entering the distance of 60 zhang, most of the Ming soldiers began to shoot in an organized manner, and at the distance of 30 zhang, all the Ming soldiers opened fire, and the casualties of the Persian soldiers increased rapidly, but this was still some distance from the range of their muskets, and they still had to brave the dense bullets to advance. The Ming army was no longer giving them a chance, the hand-cranked machine guns began to roar, and a large number of soldiers fell.

It was a tentative attack, and the soldiers were not ready for a battle to the death, and soon after the hand-cranked machine gun fire, the Persian army's tentative attack retreated. Liu Zongmin immediately ordered the soldiers to retreat to the second line of trenches, leaving only a few observers in the first trench, who were responsible for observing the movements of the Persians.

The English officers of the Persian army analyzed the battlefield situation in front of them a little, and then there was an overwhelming artillery attack. But unfortunately, this shelling did not cause any harm to the Ming army, they have returned to the second line of trenches, and the soldiers who stayed in front to observe are all veterans, they are very experienced, unless there is an accident, under normal circumstances, this kind of shelling will not cause much damage.

After the end of the shelling, the second offensive of the Persian army began, and more than 10,000 soldiers divided into several brigades rushed towards the Ming positions in turn. Under the command of the front-line observers, the Ming soldiers quickly entered the first line of positions, and the dense bullets quickly fired at the attacking Persian soldiers, and people kept falling in the advance, but there were still a large number of soldiers who kept approaching the Ming positions, knowing that the hand-cranked machine guns on both sides began to shoot, and finally suppressed the momentum of the attack, but this time the attack of the Persian soldiers still did not enter the range of their muskets and was defeated, leaving a corpse.

After two failed attacks, the English officers were very angry at the failures of these Persian soldiers, believing that they were slack in battle and lacked courage, and then let the artillery bombard the Ming positions again, so as to arouse the courage of the Persian soldiers. Looking at the artillery preparations that were denser and lasted longer than the previous shelling, the Persian soldiers finally decided that this time the Ming army should have been almost stoned to death, and only then began the third offensive under the leadership of the junior officers of England.

The strength of this attack is more, and the soldiers who have learned a little lesson are no longer lined up in dense ranks, but are somewhat scattered, and the offensive line is also relatively long, which makes the role of the Ming army's hand-cranked machine guns somewhat less efficient, but this is not a problem, the machine gun shooters of the Ming army will replace the combo with point fire, and the artillery position behind has been built, when the Persian soldiers enter the limit distance of thirty zhang, * will hit over, and the barrage is constantly moving back and forth, with the help of telescopes, the artillery of the Ming army can see very clearly, It was possible that any small group of soldiers would have been attacked by mortars, and in a not too long the offensive failed again.