Chapter Eighty-Three: Ningde Li Kui Advances from the North to the North and Besieges the Ancient City of Samarkand

Li Kui and the others solved the Yarkand Khanate, and it was right that they did not immediately lead their troops across the Green Ridge (Pamir Plateau), because the road ahead was very difficult to walk, and the dilapidated plank road in the past could not pass the army at all, not to mention heavy equipment such as artillery trucks and automobiles. Li Kui, who had walked through these places, knew very well that fortunately, there were many prisoners and soldiers on Li Kui's side, and there was no shortage of food supplies. Li Kui spent a lot of effort to build the road. It wasn't until August that the road to the west was opened. Although it is a simple road, it is enough to pass cars and carriages, let alone tracked tractors.

The road was almost repaired, and Li Kui led the army from Kashgar to the west through Hatuhar and Artush to Andijan (Andijan is an important transit point from Xinjiang to Samarkand. It is also the birthplace of Babur, the grandson of Timurid the Great. At the age of 20, Babur left Andijan and headed south to Afghanistan, from where he established the Mughal dynasty. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this Grand Bazaar of Central Asia became a major hub of communication between East and West. At that time, the Xinjiang people referred to the merchants from Central Asia as "Andijan people"), from Andijan to the west of 180 miles to the city of Margalang, and then to the west 80 miles to the city of Namugan, and then 80 miles west to the city of Kokand.

The cities here are located in the plains, all close to the Narin River, and only Namugan is in the north. The land here is fertile, and the people are very wealthy. Since Yue Ji and others focused their attention on the direction of Lake Balkhash in the north, and Li Kui and his team sent cavalry to raid and advance all the way, these cities, except for a part of the troops in Kokand, resisted, all the cities broke into the city at once, and they were occupied without any fighting.

However, after Li Kui and his team entered the city, except for disarming the defenders, centralizing the officials, and taking over all public resources, they did not commit any offense to the people. Issued a notice to reassure the people, telling the people that as long as they obey the management, we will ensure that everyone has freedom of belief and the safety of life and property. If there is resistance, there is no forgiveness.

Li Kui arranged for troops and officials to take over these famous cities. These cities are the jewels of the Silk Road, and the people here are very scheming and good at doing business. Merchants started doing business normally again, and the Yaogang caravans that followed Li Kui also set up shops in various cities and started doing business. Many of the people here have been to the Ming Dynasty to do business, and they are very full of awe and admiration for the Ming Dynasty, and the people have settled down after Xuanfu.

Li Kui's army did not stop at these places, and after leaving Kokand, the army divided its troops and went straight to Dashhkent (Tashkent) in the northwest of Kokand, and the main force of the other went straight to Samarkand.

Ningde's army was also rested, and after contacting Li Kui and them by telegram, their army was also divided into two routes, from north to south, one to Dashkent (Tashkent), and the other to Samarkand.

Along the way, Ning De and Li Kui also communicated with a coded telegram. This is the solution about how to deal with the month i.e. someone else's religion.

Li Kui introduced that the few cities they captured were all unteachable, and there were no major problems now. In addition, he believes that Mr. Zhang also agrees that people of all ethnic groups have freedom of belief, meaning that there is no need to interfere, as if he does not think so.

However, Ningde sent a telegram explaining that we were about to take the city, and unlike those cities, they were not to preach the center of the area. The reason why the unspeakable forces were able to extend to the west was because the clergy here had planned to infiltrate. If we don't solve them completely, it will have an impact on the descendants of the Khorezm Kingdom to the west. When Governor Sun Chuanting was hiding in the gathering place of the descendants of the Khorezm Kingdom in Hexi, he discovered that their clergy had very mysterious connections. We're going to get rid of them once and for all this time. However, we can't help but carry out Mr. Zhang's request, we can let the Mongols go to the city to solve the problem, and then we will enter the city, of course, we will have some requirements for them, such as public property cannot be moved. After the Mongols have dealt with it, we will play the role of pacifying the people.

Li Kui doesn't have a 100% understanding of such things, but Ning De is the commander-in-chief, as long as Ning De does not rebel, Li Kui will obey Ning De's command.

Dashkent (Tashkent) is also known as the stone town, which has been famous for commerce and handicrafts since ancient times, and is a must-stop on the Silk Road. It is named because it is located in the area of the alluvial fan at the foot of the mountain, and there are many huge pebbles.

However, in order to concentrate his forces against the Ming army, King Yuejibekhan transferred all the troops in Tashkent, but the smart Yueji others were not exposed, and they arranged a lot of suspicious soldiers on the city of Tashkent, so that the scouts sent by Ningde always thought that Tashkent was heavily guarded and had heavy troops. Therefore, when the troops sent by Li Kui and Ningde surrounded Tashkent in front and back, used infantry artillery, blasted open the city gates, and rushed into the city, basically no decent battle ended the battle.

The Yaogang army that entered the city found that not only did there be no army in Tashkent, but the people had almost withdrawn. There was hardly anything left in the city to eat. Completely left an empty city for the kiln people.

When Ning De heard the news, he was so angry that he almost pulled out the officer who was in charge of the investigation and killed him.

However, Samarkand, surrounded by the main forces of Ningde and Li Kui, met the army of Yue and others. On the outskirts of Samarkand, the armies of Li Kui and Ningde were attacked by the cavalry of Yue.

The defeat of the others at Lake Balkhash was completely unexpected. King Yue, who had returned to Tashkent after defeat, was afraid that the Yaogang people would soon chase him, so he did not spend the night in Tashkent, but consulted with the ministers who had fled back together, and fled to Bukhara overnight in makeup.

When he arrived in Bukhara, the Khan stabilized his mind and consulted with his ministers on how to deal with the Ming army, which was united with the Mongols. The ministers who did not participate in the battle with the Ming army did not know why the usually extremely proud Khan King was so frightened that he did not even dare to stay in Tashkent, and ran directly to Bukhara. I don't understand how King Khan could be defeated so badly when he went out with hundreds of thousands of elite troops.

Someone couldn't help but say: "King Khan, if we mobilize with all our might, we can still gather three or five hundred thousand troops." We can completely reorganize the army and fight the Ming army! ”

The ministers who had followed the defeat of the Khan were on fire when they stared at him. They knew the power of the Ming army's terrifying shells, not to mention being hit by shells, even if they were close to the shell explosion point, they were easy to be shocked to death, and there were too many soldiers with deaf ears. To confront the Ming army in this way is to send them to death. These things that have not been on the battlefield and don't know whether they are alive or dead can say these bastard words.

However, the king of Khan did not say anything about the situation on the battlefield, because he did not want to shake the morale of the army, and they did not dare to say it. One of them advised: "King Khan, we must mobilize at once, and all those who can join the Khanate in battle must be assembled." However, the minister suggested that we should not directly confront the Ming army and the Mongols, because our Khanate is vast, and we can clear the wilderness and deal with them on the steppe Gobi. Their army came from afar, and logistics supply was a weak point, so we took advantage of the rapid advantage of cavalry to attack their logistics food fleet. After a long time, they naturally retreated! ”

Someone immediately said, "No, King Khan, we can't easily give our cities to those infidels." We have seminaries, mosques and castles and palaces here, and we can't give them up easily! It took many years and generations for everything we have to be built like this. This is the foundation of my khanate, without which the foundation of our khanate will be shaken! Khan King think twice! ”

What they said, how can the Khan not be clear, the problem now is that the Khan is difficult to choose, and the opinions of both sides are reasonable. In fact, intellectually, the king of the Khan knew that there was no chance of winning a hard fight with the Ming army, so he gave up everything to deal with the Ming army, which temporarily avoided the edge of the Ming army, but the loss was too great, and this kind of loss was unbearable for the khanate. As soon as the king of Khan gritted his teeth, he decided to use the two fortified cities of Samarkand and Bukhara to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, but if the city was broken, it could also consume the strength of the Ming army. At that time, the rest of the army will go to the grassland to fight the Ming army! Even, there is still a thought in the Khan's mind that he didn't dare to say, but in fact, it is what many ministers want to say but don't dare to say, that is, surrender. However, the Khan, who can now mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands, will definitely not surrender like this.

The men sent by the Khan rushed to the steppe Gobi, mobilized all the men who could participate in the war, and concentrated them in Samarkand and Bukhara.

Ningde and the others did not immediately follow the Khan to attack, and also left time for the Khan to mobilize his army.

People from all over the world quickly gathered.

The powerful Yue-bebe Khanate concentrated more than 400,000 cavalry. With the addition of the original soldiers and horses, the Khanate had more than 600,000 soldiers and horses, and these soldiers and horses were simply overwhelming outside the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.

The month is that others quickly showed very strong organizational skills. The officers of their standing army were all very professional, and these officers, together with the cavalry that had been gathered, were quickly organized into legions. The training of all the soldiers in peacetime also played a role at this time, and they inherited the tradition of the Mongols.

The Khan's strategy was very clear, which was to abandon all places and hold on to Samarkand and Braha.

However, the moon is still very good at fighting, and they know that cavalry is more effective in the field. So they sent a lot of cavalry to attack Ningde and them. They knew that when the Ming army and the Mongols marched, the line would be very long, and the baggage would basically be behind. The focus of their attack was on the baggage in the back.

But Ningde is also scheming, the baggage of the Yaogang people is guarded by cavalry, and more importantly, many of the carriages and cars in the baggage team are equipped with machine guns.

When they encountered the attack of other cavalry, their front and rear vehicles immediately gathered together, fired at them with machine guns and rifles, and when they rushed over, the cavalry behind the kiln gang also pressed over. With the firepower advantage of the Yaogang cavalry, chasing the moon is like fighting a yellow sheep.

Later, the Yaogang cavalry looked around for the moon as a regiment, that is, other people's cavalry, and if the Yaogang cavalry acted as a regiment, they would dare to rush over and scatter them when they encountered tens of thousands of months.

Later, Yue was someone else's conclusion, and it was better not to provoke the Ming army. So they gathered their armies around Samarkand and Bukhara.

Ning De and Li Kui met outside Samarkand.

Ning De, Li Kui, and Sun Chuanting were all very excited after they met. Some time ago, they all completely exceeded the original plan to complete the tasks that were originally set. Now the moon is the other people cowering in the city of Samarkand, and to them it is like a lamb to the slaughter.

There were not so many troops in Samarkand, and 100,000 men had set up a defensive line outside the city, which was a fence made of a lot of wood, a wooden stake, and a lot of ditches. There were more than 100,000 soldiers in the city, and 200,000 or 300,000 religious fanatics who wanted to wage holy war for Allah. One by one, they were boiling with blood and wanted to fight the infidels to the end.

After Ning De, Li Kui, and Sun Chuanting summarized the situation, Sun Chuanting said: "The most troublesome thing is this kind of battle, and in the end, if it starts, the military and civilian departments must be killed, otherwise the battle will not be finished." ”

Ning De nodded and said, "Religion is the thing that is most likely to make people confused. Looks like it's going to be a river of blood again! ”

Li Kui touched his head and said, "Fuck! Lao Tzu fought down several cities along the way, and the people were very honest, why did they get here so troublesome? ”

"Huh!" Sun Chuanting said with a smile, "Those city troubles are behind!" During the Yuan Dynasty, there were many descendants of the Khorezm Kingdom in Hexi, Gansu, and Yuan Taizu ordered them to be driven away, about 2,000 people, who came to this Samarkand. Their religion is very strict with the rule of believers. There are a lot of people outside of our church who don't know. They can't just be so honest and obedient to our management. Now the people on your side are afraid of wartime and dare not make trouble. When it's stable, it's time for them to act! ”

"Hmmm! I'm really going to send a telegram to the people they left behind to remind them so that they don't suffer! Li Kui said.

Ningde pointed at the city of Samarkand with his horsewhip and said: "Today we can surround this place, and tonight, our artillery will be in place." The Mongols arrived long ago. I think we'll make a plan tonight and take it down tomorrow!" Don't dream too much at night! ”

Li Kui said: "I think it's okay! There are no problems with our army. ”

"Well, let's divide up the work tomorrow, and we will do the work of cleaning up the outside of the city, and the Mongols will fight to do the work of entering the city. I'll leave it to them! Ningde said.

Li Kui nodded and said, "Just listen to you!" ”

Sun Chuanting said: "The cannonballs we transported this time are enough, and if we use the cannonballs to fight for the Mongols, their work will be easy to do!" Entering the city to grab things makes them especially willing to go into the city. Hehe! ”

Together with the staff officers, Ning De, Li Kui, and the staff officers further determined and adjusted the battle plan.

Now, Ningde and they have two planes participating in the battle, and they have taken a lot of photos of Samarkand and its surroundings from the air, and the enlarged photos show the moon as someone else's fortifications clearly.

Based on these, Ningde Li Kui and his staff officers made a plan for tomorrow's siege.

As soon as the morning dawned, the officers and men of the kiln gang had breakfast early and were ready to go. The Mongols were even more active and got up earlier.

Ningde said to Li Kui: "Now the Mongols have a very good relationship with us. The seized month, that is, a lot of things from others, were given to them. They now have very good leather tents in every house, and all kinds of utensils such as chariots and horses are very well prepared. As soon as the battle ended, the Mongols completely turned over. These Mongol cavalrymen were especially eager to fight! ”

"Huh! The Mongols fought profitably, and their enthusiasm was naturally high! Li Kui said.

At this time, Sun Chuanting came over with a telegram and said, "Command center telegram!" ”

Ning De took the telegram, glanced at it and handed it to Li Kui, and couldn't help but say: "Mr. Zhang is really unpredictable sometimes!" Why did he insist that we must not have the Emir Mausoleum? ”

Li Kui looked at the telegram and said: "Since Mr. Zhang sent this telegram at this time, there is naturally a reason that we don't know. We must restrain the Mongols from doing this. Our army will not do this lightly. No one would dare to do this without our orders! ”

In fact, due to the time difference, it is early in the morning here in Samarkand, and it is already very early in the kiln. When Zhang Zhimu heard that Ningde and they were attacking Samarkand today, he suddenly thought of something he had heard before. There is an Amir Mausoleum in Samarkand, located in the city of Samarkand, which is the tomb of Timur and his heirs, where Timur, his two sons, two grandsons (one of whom is Ulugh Beg), two of Ulugh Beg's sons, Ulugh Beg's religious teacher, and an unidentified surname. The most striking is the dark green jade sarcophagus built for Timur by Timur's grandson, Ulugh Beg. On the tomb of Timur it is written: Whoever digs my grave will suffer. On June 8, 1941, Timur's tomb was excavated, and two weeks later Hitler began his attack on the Soviet Union. Zhang Zhimu didn't want to be cursed by this spell! So remind Ningde that they are absolutely not allowed to touch this mausoleum.

Of course, Ningde immediately conveyed this order, and specially reminded the Mongols to pay attention to this matter. The Mongols also pledged absolute obedience to this order.

Samarkand has a total of six gates, six main streets, and the center of the city is the Legistan Square complex, which consists of a group of religious buildings, and a huge bazaar (bazaar) is formed near the north gate. However, this Grand Bazaar is now a large military fortification.

The shelling of the Yaogang people began from outside this north gate.

The Yaogang people concentrated a heavy artillery division, as well as the heavy artillery infantry guns and heavy mortars of various armies, and the 60 artillery did not use them to participate in the battle this time.

Hundreds of large and small cannons roared at the same time, and in an instant, Yue, the fortifications that others had carefully arranged that they thought could not be breached, immediately collapsed. All kinds of wooden tents, as well as concealed artillery, along with the body parts of officers and soldiers, were constantly thrown into the sky. The moon was soon covered with smoke, and the earth trembled. The fanatical religious believers thought that the end of the world had come and that there was nothing they could do but pray incessantly.

After the fortifications of the other people's camp outside the north gate were covered by artillery fire, the muzzles of more than 100 130 heavy guns of the heavy artillery division were directly pointed at the rammed wall north of Samarkand, and a salvo basically collapsed the northern earthen wall. Then, large and small artillery shelled the city indiscriminately. The Kiln Gang infantry rushed over, and at the same time, the artillerymen bombarded the outlying positions in the other directions of the city of Samarkand, as planned. After occupying the Yue, the other people's positions outside the northern city wall, the Yaogang infantry did not enter the city, but gave way and let 40,000 Mongol cavalry rush into the city!