It is necessary to rest here, because the next step is to cross the desert area, you must bring enough drinking water, and you are getting closer and closer to Hotan, and you must be prepared for a big battle. This period of march made the Ming army suffer a lot, especially when it encountered strong winds, and after a whole day's rapid march, they finally arrived in the small town of Niya in the evening, rested for the night, and went straight to Khotan the next morning. Khotan met the official army of the Yarkand Khanate, and Khotan is close to the mountain, Khotan is the capital of Khotan in ancient times, so the city wall is made of stone, very strong, the soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate saw that there were many Ming soldiers, so they went directly into the city, looking at the impregnable Khotanese city, Yuan Chonghuan had no good way, he could only storm it, it was absolutely impossible to climb the city wall, it is estimated that it is enough to fill in these tens of thousands of people, and the only one who can enter is the city gate. Of course, Yuan Chonghuan was not afraid of being difficult to attack, but he was afraid of losing men and horses, and the cavalry would not be able to use it, so he let them surround them from all sides, not allowing the enemy to break through, and choosing a gate at the east gate for attack, which was just as strong anyway.

On the high east city gate, Dai Qin, the general guarding the city of Khotan, sat on the chair, looked at the Ming army under the city and pointed and said, probably he thought that the Ming army could not capture this fortified city at all, thinking that in this era without artillery, if you want to capture such a fortified city, there is basically no other trick except for the siege, like the ancient siege of the city for several years of warfare abounds, the final result is not to capture the city, but the people in the city are starving to death. In Dai Qin's view, it is basically impossible for the Ming army to besiege Khotan, and it will not be long before the reinforcements from Yarkand City will arrive, and the logistical supplies of the Ming army will also be scarce.

In the open space outside the east city gate, Yuan Chonghuan and Li Hongji, Xi Lingsetaiji and others were preparing to attack the city, rows of mortars were placed fifty zhang away from the city gate, rows of soldiers stood thirty zhang away from the city gate, and the morale of the Ming army who had just finished breakfast was full.

When everything was ready, Yuan Chonghuan waved his hand, and immediately the mortars opened fire together, and within twenty zhang on both sides of the city gate, they immediately fell into a sea of fire. Dai Qin, who was sitting on the city tower, seemed to have a natural instinct for danger, and at the moment when the Ming mortars fired, he left his seat, turned his head and ran inside, which escaped with his life, while the others were not so lucky, and they were either killed or injured after the artillery was fired. In fact, Li Hongji had already aimed at Dai Qin with a firing pistol just now, but Yuan Chonghuan did not give an order, and he did not shoot, it was the direction of his gun that made Dai Qin feel like he was being targeted, which may be the premonition that veterans often say, in short, now Dai Qin has escaped.

Next, the Ming army's firing rifles fired freely within a distance of fifty zhang on both sides of the city gate, and no Yarkand Khanate soldier dared to show his head on this section of the city wall. At this time, more than 20 Ming soldiers rushed to the city gate with a special *, and then put * under the city gate, pulled out the fuse, ran to a safe distance and lit it, after a stick of incense, an explosion sounded like the sky was cracking, and the entire city gate was blown to pieces. Yuan Chonghuan was also shocked when he saw this effect for the first time, not to mention that he had never seen a Yarkand Khanate who had never seen a city gate with a *.

After blowing up the city gate, the Ming soldiers waited for the smoke to clear before sending out an attack formation and starting to enter the city. The soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate who tried to block the door hole when the Ming army entered the city gate died as early as the explosion, and the soldiers within 20 zhang on both sides of the city gate were also shocked, and the Ming soldiers who entered the city quickly shot the nearby enemy, and then set up a simple blocking position, and the soldiers who came in immediately began to expand the range of attack, adding down to five hand-cranked machine guns in the middle of the street.

The Ming army blew up the east city gate, Dai Qin was frightened, and quickly ordered all the horses to start mobilizing to the east gate, and for a time the soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate gathered here, after all, this is the official army of the Yarkand Khanate, and the action is very fast, just after the forward position of the Ming army was built, the first batch of Yarkand Khanate soldiers rushed up. In the narrow streets, in the face of five hand-cranked machine guns, no matter how fierce the charge is, it is futile to charge, in less than a quarter of an hour, there are no more charging Yarkand Khanate soldiers on the street, as long as the soldiers in this straight line of the street, all are torn apart by machine gun bullets, so frightened that the soldiers have to hide in small alleys.

Next, the soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate began to sneak attack the Ming army in the small alleys and residential courtyards facing the street, and the Ming army began to suffer casualties, after all, the opponent's bow and arrow were also very powerful. Yuan Chonghuan immediately ordered the soldiers to change their tactics, leaving some people to guard the machine gun positions, and the rest of the people scattered to form groups and began to clear alleys and small courtyards one by one. Each squad of 30 people, five people guarded an alley entrance, in a straight line of sight to prevent the enemy from showing up, and then surrounded and suppressed one courtyard by one, the soldiers always maintained a shooting posture, and killed directly if they encountered the intention of resisting. Xi ordered the Tumut soldiers of Setaiji to understand the Chinese language of Yarkand Khan, so they shouted and told those they met to lie down, and if they did not lie down, they would be killed directly. The soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate mainly used sabers and bows and arrows, and the Ming army used muskets, arm crossbows, and then equipped with sabers, so that the combat effectiveness was obviously different, the musket was faster than the bow and arrow, and the arm crossbow was faster than the saber. This is also Zhu Youxiao's tactics summed up from modern street battles, the Ming army's cooperation is very tacit, and it can always win more and less in local battles.

The Ming army slowly advanced towards the city in an orderly manner, Dai Qin had no choice but to watch his soldiers being beaten and retreated, as more and more Ming troops entered the city, the speed of cleaning up the soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate became faster and faster, and gradually the Ming army occupied half of Khotan. Seeing that defeat was no longer avoidable, Dai Qin had no choice but to lead the remnants of his subordinates to open the west gate and escape.

Just out of the city gate not far away, met Li Hongji waiting here, Li Hongji in front of the arrangement of cavalry, behind the cavalry, each team of infantry cavalry left in the middle of the cavalry charge, so when the Yarkand Khanate soldiers rushed to a distance of thirty zhang, Li Hongji waved his hand, the cavalry gate under his command began to accelerate the charge, in the face of the opponent who was beaten by the musketeers, Li Hongji's cavalry was like a tiger into the flock, rampage. Dai Qin was killed by Li Hongji's own soldiers, and the soldiers of the Yarkand Khanate, who rushed over, were besieged and killed. The story of the other two city gates is similar.

After almost a whole day of fighting, when it was almost dark, except for occasional sporadic resistance, the entire city of Khotan was occupied by Yuan Chonghuan, and the soldiers of the Ming army were extremely tired. This was a brutal street battle, counting the dead and wounded soldiers, Yuan Chonghuan found that there were more than 2,000 casualties, and he was distressed, it seemed that this street battle was really like a meat grinder. Of course, a 1:10 ratio of casualties on the besieging side is still acceptable, as the ratio of casualties to the besieging side is usually 10 to 1 in this era.

In the dark night of Khotanese City, countless crimes occurred, but this was not done by the Ming army, the logistics soldiers who came with the army rushed to the small courtyard in the city like hungry wolves, and then the next day, these people killed and injured more than 100 people, especially the group led by Hao Yongzhong. Before Yuan Chonghuan could know, Hao Yongzhong's subordinates and Xi Lingsetaiji's subordinates, who had not yet eaten breakfast, began to slaughter the city, and all men were killed regardless of size, leaving only young women. Yuan Chonghuan, who learned the news, was a little unbearable, and ordered Hao Yongzhong and Xi Lingsetaiji to be beaten with twenty military sticks each, and then assigned these women to those logistics soldiers, and some formed more than 5,000 pairs of mandarin ducks. Hao Yongzhong and Xi Lingsetaiji, who were beaten, each covered their buttocks and picked two women, these two guys went to recuperate by themselves with painful smiles, in fact, Yuan Chonghuan didn't really fight, just pretending, and it was okay not to let the order be banned.

After conquering Khotan City, after investigation, it was found that Zhu Youxiao's order was wrong, and Khotan City was the target of the attack, and Hotan was now just a jade mining site. No wonder the city here is strong and populous, and it turns out that this is one of the six cities of the Yarkand Khanate. After Yuan Chonghuan occupied Khotanese City, he began to clean up the surrounding area, and found that there were nearly 10,000 clansmen with Han blood in this generation, and there were houses in the city anyway, so he let them move into Khotanese City, plus the captives gave them slaves, which quickly restored the prosperity of Khotan City.