Although Haidar retreated, Ma Shouying did not go out of the camp to pursue, and he took advantage of the retreat of the Andijanites to begin the reorganization of the Yarkand army.

Although Yarkand Khan expressed his submission to the Ming Dynasty, he also invited the Ming court to send people to rectify the administrative structure and army composition of Yarkand. However, on the surface, the Yarkand Khanate was still an independent state, so this administrative and military reform did not go all the way through, and the emirs still maintained a strong voice in the administration and the army.

But with the death of Shahbaz Berk and a large number of emirs who fought with him, the army that went to the Bukhara Khanate changed subtly.

The Yarkand soldiers in these expeditionary forces had never fought such a cruel war. Although there were conflicts between the eastern and western lords of the Yarkand Khanate, in this kind of internal war, the casualties of the soldiers were not large, as long as the situation on the battlefield was unfavorable they could surrender, and the generals of the opposing army were also happy to accept the surrender, or turn them into their own serfs, or add them to the servant army.

At the end of the day, we all come from the same country, the same people, and most people have the same religious beliefs, so it's easy to digest them and turn them into our own strength.

But for the Andijan people, the Yarkand people are out-and-out outsiders, and even if they believe in the same religion, it does not change the fact that the Yarkand people have come to occupy their land. In such a mood, the Andijan soldiers were not merciful to the Yarkands, and rarely took prisoners of the living.

Under the slaughter of the Andijanians, the Yarkand army was soon divided into two divisions, and the military leaders led by the emir were frightened away by the brutality of the Andijans and retreated. And the Yarkand soldiers at the bottom, because their fellow villagers or family members were killed, began to become strong and wanted to avenge the victims.

Ma Shouying took advantage of the revenge of the low-level soldiers, and his advantage as the commander of this army after Shahbaz Berk's death, and completely took the command of this army from the hands of the emirs.

The defenders of the Yarkand battalion, together with the newly arrived rear army and the remnants of the returning soldiers, soon recovered the number of men and horses in the battalion to 5,600 or 700. An army of this size was probably not enough to attack the city of Andijan, but it was more than enough to defend a large battalion.

After Ma Shouying seized the command of the army, he used the pretext that the bodies of the dead in the war were not easy to preserve under the pretext of the hot weather, and Kreich Khan needed to know about the death of Shahbaz Berk and others, so that he could continue to send reinforcements and instructions to them, so he ordered the emirs in the battalion to return to Kashgar with the bodies of Shahbaz Berk and others to report and ask for help.

The strength of Ma Shouying, the inclination of the soldiers, and the ferocity of the Andijans made these emirs fiercely opposed, but after Ma Shouying gave the order, they still set out on the return journey without delay.

After most of the emirs in the camp were sent away, Ma Shouying divided the Yarkand army into seven battalions according to the battalion system of the Ming army, with each battalion numbering between 700 and 900. Each battalion was divided into five teams, each of which was divided into five sentry posts, and each of which was divided into five sheds. There are 6-10 people in a shed, and the brothers in the shed must eat and live together to deepen the relationship and understanding between each other and avoid the situation of fleeing on the battlefield again.

The newly formed seven battalions are more or less numerous, and their combat strength is also high and low, so Ma Shouying divided them into left and right wings. The four battalions with strong combat effectiveness were organized into the left wing, and he personally led them. The three battalions, which were weaker in combat, were organized into the right flank, led by Emir Yarrag, who had followed Shahbaz Berk but was able to retreat with his whole body.

Ma Shouying detected that Haidar had retreated to a village about sixty miles northwest of the camp and rested for ten days, and had not been able to wait for his own attack and retreated to Andijan again, so he consulted with Yarage that he would lead the three battalions of the right flank to send troops to sweep the villages within a hundred miles of the camp and move them to the rear of the camp to be guarded.

In this way, it would not only be possible to obtain sufficient supplies from these villages, but also to cut off Andijan's continued access to intelligence and manpower from the region, thus making Andijan deaf and blind.

When the three battalions of Arrag set out to sweep, Ma Shouying also stepped up the training of the four battalions in his hands, turning this amateur army into an army that could obey the command on the battlefield.

It should be said that this is not a difficult task for Ma Shouying, after all, there are a large number of personal guards from the border army of the Ming army under him, as well as more than 20 low-ranking officers of the Ming army who have hidden their identities.

After abandoning the emirs' positions in the army, these vacant officer positions were not only used by Ma Shou to install his own people, but also promoted a large number of soldiers who performed well on the battlefield, which made his reorganization of the expeditionary force supported by the soldiers at the bottom. After all, in the past, these low-ranking officers held positions that were not held by civilians.

Ma Shouying's strategy soon had an impact on the tide of the war, and although there were some herders in the villages of Uzgen who could fight, it was still not enough to face an organized army.

After Yarlag led his army to slaughter two villages that refused to relocate, the remaining villages in this area did not dare to try to resist these Yarkand people anymore, and moved to the east of the Yarkand camp with their families and food and belongings according to the army's orders, creating a no-man's land of nearly 100 miles between Andijan and the Yarkand camp.

Unable to secure Andijan's protection, the Uzgen region finally submitted to its new masters. Of the 129 villages in this region, 89 sent emissaries and grain trucks to the Yarkand camp, expressing their willingness to surrender to the Yarkand Khanate, begging them not to destroy their homeland.

The rest of the village either moved according to the orders of the Yarkand army, or simply fled to Andijan with the whole village, wanting to wait for the end of the war before returning.

As for Andijan Burke, there was no good way to deal with the shameless behavior of the Yarkand army. Without the information provided by the local villagers, it was difficult for Andijan to grasp the movements of the Yarkand army in the Uzgen region.

The Yarkand army was scattered into more than 100 men to sweep through this area, and it was difficult for the Andijan troops to catch up with each other when they gathered together, and if the scattered forces pursued and lost the power of the heavy cavalry, only the light cavalry could catch up with the light cavalry.

However, the Yarkand were clearly cunning, and they set up a number of assembly points in this area, and when the Andijan troops scattered to pursue them, they would always fall into the trap of the Yarkand army, and be surrounded by superior forces.

After losing more than 100 cavalry for three days, the Andijanians finally gave up on the idea of protecting the villages. They also had no choice but to let the villagers move to the vicinity of Andijan to avoid harassment by the Yarkand army.

In August of the 11th year of Chongzhen, the two brothers, Prince Ibraim and Prince Ismayil, arrived at the camp of Uzgen with 6,000 elite cavalry and 3,000 servants to join the Ma Shouying army, the Yarkand army had already controlled the southeast of Andijan, and the Yarkand rangers had reached a place 50 miles southeast of Andijan.

After Prince Ibraim learned about Ma Shouying's response in the past month, he also recognized his achievements in the past month, so he put down his body and asked Ma Shouying to discuss with his brother the plan to attack Andijan.

After Ma Shouying learned about the troops and weapons and equipment brought by the two princes, he also said with some sorrow: "According to our inquiries these days, Andijan City is an important town in the eastern part of the Bukhara Khanate, and its city size and defense facilities are second only to Kokand City.

Since the castle was built on the river, the water in the moat was also drawn from living water, so it was difficult for us to cut off the water source and then fill in the trenches.

The most troublesome thing is that Andijan, like Kashgar, is a trading city on the Silk Road, and there are quite a lot of supplies in the city, even if we carry out a siege battle, I am afraid it will be difficult to starve the city of food before the arrival of the Bukhara army..."

Prince Ibraim and his brother glanced at each other before he said to Ma Shouying, "Then according to your statement, isn't this Andijan city difficult to capture?" ”

Ma Shou touched his forehead with his hand, and after a while, he said, "That's not true, I've been thinking about how to attack Andijan City these days. After thinking about it for a long time, I had a little idea, in fact, we don't need to attack this city, what we need to deal with is the army defending the city, as long as the army is destroyed, this city will not be attacked. ”

The younger Prince Ismailil was suddenly a little confused, and he eagerly asked, "How can you destroy the army defending the city without attacking the city?" Can you still fly into the city? Or let them run out on their own? ”

Ma Shouying looked at the two princes and said, "Fly into the city, I don't have the ability." But let them run out on their own, I think there's still a chance. ”

Prince Ibraim stopped his younger brother, who was still trying to open his mouth, and looked at Ma Shouying calmly and said, "Tell me, how to let them run out by themselves." ”

Ma Shouying poured a plate of walnuts on the carpet, and then simply laid out a map and said: "Our army camp is here, Andijan City is here, and the distance between the two places is about 200 miles now.

One of the closest strongholds to us in Andijan is the village of Osh, which is 8 or 90 miles away from the city of Andijan. It is said to be a village, but in fact it is no different from a small city. Formerly known for its silk production and processing, it is now the most important centre of cotton weaving in the region, with about 1,000 families and 6 or 7,000 inhabitants.

This is the most important village in the southeast, after the city of Andijan, where at least 500 cavalry were placed. We hadn't touched it before, because if we did, the army of Andijan would inevitably come to the aid in a big way, and our forces would obviously not be enough to deal with two battlefields at the same time.

But now with you joining, it is different, before the city of Andijan has not received the news of your arrival, I will send troops to attack the village of Osh to attract troops from the city of Andijan, and then when the troops of Andijan fight our army, you will attack from the flank, as long as the reinforcements of Andijan remain, the city of Andijan will naturally be difficult to protect itself. ”

Prince Ibraim looked at the walnuts that Ma Shouying laid out for a long time before he nodded and said, "My army needs to be repaired for three days, and in these three days, let my men and your rangers survey the terrain around Osh to find suitable battlefields and valleys to hide their armies. If your strategy succeeds, the first credit for conquering the city of Andijan will be yours..."