Yuan Chonghuan, the administrative director of the Western Regions, has been immersed in the development of local production and economy here for nearly two years since the five years of the Apocalypse, and the population of the Ming Dynasty is still migrating here, because there is a great degree of freedom to live here, the vast land, the rich products, basically do not have to pay taxes, and the only requirement is that they must participate in certain military training, which has formed a practice in various parts of the Ming Dynasty.

Yuan Chonghuan also did a big thing here, that is, here began to fallow, fallow grazing, afforestation, all the areas near the desert are strictly forbidden to open up and graze, only by the river can plough land and grazing, after all, the population of the entire Western Regions is now less than two million, and the tens of millions of people in later generations are much different, these populations are also counted those scattered living here who did not flee the population of the Yarkand Khanate, but now there is no such title, all have become Ming people, Even the clothes are the same as ordinary people.

Afforestation and grass planting and animal husbandry are what Yuan Chonghuan and Yuan Yingtai learned, and now the population living here is an organized migration, that is, those scattered small ethnic groups, Yuan Chonghuan also let them settle down, so that a number of villages and small towns have been formed, these villages and towns are in the riverside area, Yuan Chonghuan called on them to plant a large number of trees by the river and around the village, and plant grass in a distant place, planting grass suitable for growing in the desert area, according to Yuan Chonghuan's estimate, if this is planted steadily for decades, you can conquer large areas of desert, form large oases, and even change the climate here.

As the governor of the entire Western Regions, Yuan Chonghuan promoted this method to Xinjiang Province, Frontier Province and Western Regions Province, and Hong Chengchou, as the No. 1 official under Yuan Chonghuan, naturally spared no effort to promote it. So in less than two years, the entire Western Regions has undergone great changes, and in the summer, everywhere is full of life.

To the southwest connected to the Western Regions was the Safavids, a powerful kingdom on the Iranian plateau, whose king was now Abbas I, and during his reign the Safavids reached the height of their power. In the campaign against the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman army, armed with artillery and muskets, repeatedly defeated him, and the Portuguese warships seized large islands in the Persian Gulf. Having learned the hard way, Abbas I befriended the English, and he hired an English general to reorganize his army, turning it into a salaried, well-trained, similar to the regular armies of Europe, which he introduced in large quantities*.

He first went to war against the Uzbeks and recaptured Herat and Mashhad in 1598. He then began to fight back against the Ottoman Empire, and by 1622 he was able to retake Baghdad, eastern Iraq, and the Caucasus provinces. He expelled Portugal from Bahrain in 1602 and reoccupied Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in 1622 with the help of the English navy. He expanded trade relations with the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company. In this way, Abbas was able to get rid of his dependence on red heads internally and strengthen the central government.

But now it has begun to decline, the original Silk Road is the only way to connect Europe and China, but with the continuous development of the sea route, the Silk Road gradually declined, and the dynasty on the Iranian plateau also began to decline, and Abbas I's friendship with England made his dynasty strong, but after the Ming fleet defeated the English fleet several times, his sea trade became a dead end.

Central Asia was originally a transportation hub for exchanges between the East and the West, the strategic location is very important, since the Ming army controlled this area, the trade between the Ming Dynasty and the Safavid Dynasty has been relatively smooth, the trade of commodities is very frequent, although there are some religious skirmishes, but basically there are no major contradictions, even if there are some horse bandits, they were almost wiped out by Yuan Chonghuan's troops, not to mention that there are many armed forces of the nature of the construction corps, but because of the poor sea routes, Abbas I was greedy for Yuan Chonghuan's efforts to bring the region into his sphere of influence, and conflicts began in many places, leading to a major war.

Samarkand is located in the center of Central Asia, and Timurid the Great once intended to make it the largest metropolis in the world, the hub of the land Silk Road. Abbas I's goal was to capture the city, and then expand further eastward, or at least the nearby fertile plains, which would feed the entire Safavids.

Timur Khan, the governor of the border province, naturally knew the importance of Samarkand, so he sent his son Harabahar to garrison Samarkand with troops. Yuan Chonghuan is a suspicious person, otherwise he would not have killed Mao Wenlong, although the little Timur Khan was loyal to the Ming Dynasty, but in the face of the powerful Safavid Dynasty in the southwest, he did not dare to bet on whether the little Timur Khan would take risks in front of the interests, especially the tribe of the little Timur Khan has moved here more than 100,000 people in the past two years. So he asked Li Hongji to send a force to garrison the city of Belbad in the east of Samarkand, the military commander of this force was Liu Zongmin, but Yuan Chonghuan thought that Liu Zongmin was a little rough, so he asked Li Guo to come and help, so there was a military center of 10,000 horses. Little Timur Khan naturally understood what Yuan Chonghuan meant, but he himself knew very well that if Abbas I's army attacked, his son's 5,000 men and horses would definitely not be able to resist it.

The rebellion of Abbas I of the Safavid dynasty began as early as the sixth year of the Apocalypse, when Zhu Changhao, the king of Duan, led the fleet to clean up the English forces on the coast of India, and the English general who helped Abbas I train the army had a bad feeling, and asked Abbas I to prepare to capture Samarkand. Although Harabaha looks rude, he is also a very shrewd person, he also knows what Yuan Chonghuan means, and he knows that the military power of the Ming Dynasty is strong, he will not rebel, even if he dies here, it is worth sacrificing himself for the prosperity of the family. With such an idea, Harabaha will not be restrained, in the face of the powerful Safavid Empire, he must try to be fully prepared, even if he dies in battle, he will make the Safavid Empire pay a heavy price, this is his lowest goal idea.

For this lowest goal, Halabhahar was like Timur the Younger, who asked for the greatest support, and asked a large number of his people to build strong fortifications. Through the dealings of merchants, Li Guo naturally knew this information, as a subordinate, he could not judge Yuan Chonghuan's right or wrong, but as a military general, he knew that suspicion was the biggest enemy. Li Guo told Liu Zongmin his opinion, and as a result, this rude man immediately asked Li Guo to help Harabaha, sent him a group of cadets who graduated from the Daming Military Academy, and also wanted Li Hongji to apply for more artillery fire and bullets. Little Timur Khan was very moved by this incident, and in order to express his gratitude, he tried his best to ensure Liu Zongmin and Li Guo's logistics, so that they would not starve because the logistics supply line was too long.

The officer corps who came to Samarkand thoroughly looked at Harabaha's defensive design, after all, these were regular military staff officers, and they quickly found out many loopholes, and made up for these loopholes, so that Harabaha felt the sincerity of Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, the two military generals, and dispelled his dissatisfaction with Yuan Chonghuan in confidence.

The small actions of the Safavid Dynasty continued, the preparations for war were in full swing, and Yuan Chonghuan's suspicion made Hong Chengchou, the governor of the Western Regions, feel the crisis, it should be said that Yuan Chonghuan's death achieved his reputation, it is undeniable that he was one of the most accomplished military strategists in the late Ming Dynasty, but he was indeed inferior to Hong Chengchou in terms of military strategic vision. When he saw the continuous actions of the Safavid Dynasty, Hong Chengchou decisively negotiated this matter with Li Hongji, and asked Li Hongji to lead Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu to immediately lead 30,000 horses to support. As for the pressure he himself had to face from the Ottoman Empire, he asked Lu Xiangsheng for help.

Lu Xiangsheng's pressure is relatively smaller, because the pressure on his opposite side has been borne by Sun Chuanting, Sun Chuanting and Mao Wenlong's three fierce generals in the north have been encroaching westward, their method is very simple, that is, keep building castles, castles named after generals are all over there, and there are even village forts named after brave soldiers, these fortresses form a group of fortress circles, and then supplemented by mobile battle groups, small groups of Cossack bandits are not a threat, and large groups are dragged by fortresses, Waiting for the help of the fighting group, they gradually approached Tobolsk, making the Russian governor of Siberia very nervous.

After seeing Hong Chengchou's request, Lu Xiangsheng did not hesitate to bring his subordinates Yuan Chongdi, Tulu Baihu, and Batur with more than 10,000 elite soldiers to assist, which made Hong Chengchou feel a little relieved. In order to prevent a surprise attack by the Ottoman Empire, Hong Chengchou gathered 30,000 elite soldiers in Turkestan City, but this place has now been renamed Hongcheng, and then sent scouts out to strictly defend it.