When he arrived at Gongbu, Lin Chengxiang learned from the Ming army guarding the city that Mu Qiyuan had left Gongbu five days ago, and he rested in Gongbu for a night, and early the next morning, the army immediately set off, chasing Mu Qiyuan's footsteps, and approached Lhasa.

From Gongbu to Lhasa, there is a small city of Jiangda in the middle, and what Lin Chengxiang encountered in Jiangda was not Tibetan soldiers and Tibetans, but a small number of Han people, no need to ask, they must have been temporarily armed by Mu Qiyuan.

Lin Chengxiang hurried and hurried, and when he arrived in Lhasa, Mu Qiyuan had already encountered the sixth, seventh and eighth armies of Danzhen Wangbo outside the city, nearly 10,000 elite troops, which were completely annihilated by the Ming army, and the Ming army also blew up the southwest corner of Lhasa with artillery.

Mu Qiyuan was separated from Liu Zhenyu's 55th Army to seize Gyantse, and there were only 20,000 siege troops left on his side, and when he saw Lin Chengxiang returning, he was unceremonious, and immediately commanded Lin Chengxiang's army to enter the city.

The defenders in the city are already less than 20,000, all of them are local troops in Lhasa, half army and half people, and their combat effectiveness is only stronger than that of ordinary Tibetans, they have been frightened by the artillery of the Ming army, and when the army of Mu Qiyuan and Lin Chengxiang entered the city, they immediately scattered like birds and beasts, and they no longer looked like an army.

The Ming army pursued the Tibetan army in the city with flintlock pistols, in fact, they could not distinguish whether it was a Tibetan soldier or a Tibetan person, as long as they saw a Tibetan strong man, they would shoot at all times.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the city, the Ming army began to search for gold and silver again.

It was not until Hai that the city gradually settled down, and the people were so frightened that they hid in their own houses, not even daring to probe, and washed the people of Lhasa, who had been baptized by the fire, and knew how to protect themselves in the war.

Early the next morning, Mu Qiyuan led the soldiers of the 19th Army to Gyantse to meet Liu Zhenyu, while Lin Chengxiang's 20th Army was to set off two days late, and he wanted to settle the people in the city first and establish a temporary military government in Lhasa.

The Tibetans all believed in Buddhism and were largely indisputable, and if they were not controlled by political and religious figures, they would not oppose the ability of the Ming army to be stationed in the city, as long as the Ming army did not threaten their lives.

The temples near Lhasa City are the key targets of the soldiers' search, the famous Drepung Monastery and Sera Monastery have been destroyed in the flames of the Dan Zhen Wangpo last year, because the Tan Zhen Wangbo is extremely hostile to the Yellow Sect, these two famous temples have not been rebuilt, outside the city of Lhasa, the temples represented by the Ganden Monastery of the Yellow Sect and the ancestral temple of the White Sect Bu have been thoroughly investigated by the Ming army.

When the soldiers came to Ganden Monastery, the monks, who knew that they could not resist the Ming army, came out of the temple in batches, blocking the temple gate and preventing the Ming army from entering. Because of the language barrier, the two sides could not communicate directly, and the soldiers of the 20th Army shot the monks who stopped in front of the temple with flintlock muskets.

The monks were also stubborn, a group died, and another group came out, they did not resist, and there was no hatred in their eyes, but they rushed to dedicate themselves to the temple and the Buddha, and let the Ming army shoot them, which was quite "non-violent, non-cooperative".

Most of the soldiers of the Ming army did not believe in Buddhism, at least they were not devout Buddhists, they naturally could not understand the hardships of the monks, and they had killed more than 3,000 monks, so that no monks in the temple came out to sit in the way, they thought that the monks in the temple had been killed, and they robbed the temple together.

After entering the temple gate, the soldiers found that there were more than 1,000 young monks cleaning the temple, as if they had not seen the Ming army.

The soldiers of the Ming army did not care about these monks, as long as they did not prevent themselves from collecting gold and silver treasures, and some greedy soldiers even took away the golden Buddha in the temple.

Lhasa is called Qianzang by the Tibetans, is the center of Tibetan activities, and is also the place where the population of Wusi and Tibet is most concentrated, there are as many as 150,000, Lin Chengxiang left the 58th Division to garrison Lhasa, and he took the rest of the soldiers to go to the direction of Gyantse and Shigatse.

To the north of Shigatse, is the Brahmaputra River that almost traverses the east and west of Wusi-Tibet, and the south is the Gangri Mountain Range that runs from east to west, the traffic is dangerous, the road is difficult to travel, Gyantse is the only canyon trail between Lhasa and Shigatse, it is a hundred times more dangerous than the Tongguan of the Yellow River, once Gyantse is occupied by Tibetan soldiers, the Ming army's westward expedition is likely to end.

Therefore, before Mu Qiyuan attacked Lhasa, he desperately had insufficient troops, and he also ordered Liu Zhenyu's 55th Division to occupy Gyantse first, paving the way for the army to continue its westward expedition.

When Mu Qiyuan arrived in Gyantse, most of Liu Zhenyu's 55th Division had already crossed Gyantse, and set up a defensive formation in the south to cover the follow-up army Tongguò.

Shigatse is almost the second largest city in Uszang, second only to Lhasa in population, and as the de facto ruling center of Tenchen Wangpo, he now resides in Shigatse.

After the Ming army entered Wusizang, four of the eight elite troops formed by Dan Zhen Wangbo had been annihilated by the Ming army in Gongbu and Lhasa, which made Tan Zhen Wangbo so frightened that he hardly knew how to deal with the Ming army.

Of the eight elites of Tanzhen Wangpo, three are stationed in the Shigatse region, and another is stationed in the Ali region of the northern Tibetan plateau.

He was forced to gather the 1st, 3rd, and 4th armies near Shigatse, and to concentrate the stragglers in the nearby castle in Shigatse in a vain attempt to defend the city.

Shigatse was made by the Tibetans as Houzang, and the status of Lhasa in the former Tibet is almost the same, and it is the nest of Dan Zhen Wangpo, Mu Qiyuan knows the significance of this battle, once Shigatse is broken, the task of quelling the Wusi-Tibet riot is basically over, and the next thing is to clean up the remnants of the militants.

The Tibetan soldiers are all concentrated in the city, and there must be a lot of them, Mu Qiyuan did not attack rashly, he was waiting for Lin Chengxiang's twentieth army.

Lin Chengxiang finally came to Shigatse, and nearly 50,000 Ming troops quickly completed the encirclement of Shigatse.

In fact, Dan Zhen Wangpo was not ready to abandon the city and flee, he was unwilling to give up the Uszang and Shigatse that he had painstakingly managed, otherwise, before the Ming army surrounded Shigatse, he could completely leave Yadong from the southern city gate and flee to the Mara Dynasty (now Nepal), and he would have to confront the Ming army in Shigatse.

Just as he did last year against the Gelugpite and Mongol coalitions, he finally defeated them and regained control of Uszang.

But Dan Zhen Wangbo also knew that the strength of the Ming army was comparable to the strength of the non-coalition army, so he did not rush out of the city to fight, he wanted to use the city wall of Shigatse to block the pace of the Ming army.

He warned his generals that the Ming army had come from afar, and it was advantageous to fight quickly, and the confrontation lasted for a long time, and the grain and grass transportation could not keep up, so they would inevitably retreat.

However, the Ming army did not attack with common sense like the Mongols.

The Ming army did not prepare a ladder to attack the city, but concentrated all the twenty artillery pieces of the two armies outside the relatively open south gate.

"Throne, the artillery has been commissioned, will it be fired immediately?"

Mu Qiyuan looked at the lively defenders at the head of the city, and there was a strange excitement in his heart, "Immediately open fire, target the city, first scare and scare these Tibetan soldiers who have never seen the world, and let them know the consequences of using the mantis arm as a car." ”

"Yes, Throne." The herald saluted Mu Qiyuan, turned around and gave the order.

The gunners began to reload, which was much easier to aim thanks to the front of the barrel with a crosshair and a cover door.

"Boom...... Long ......"

"Boom...... Long ......"

"Boom...... Long ......"

……

Twenty artillery pieces, all aimed at the head of the city occupied by the defenders, twenty flowering shells, drawing a streamline, dragging a long exhaust gas, flew towards the head of the city quickly.

The defenders had never seen artillery, and when they saw the flowering bombs flying towards the city, they thought that the Ming army had released carrier pigeons, goshawks and other flying birds into the city, and they did not understand the intentions of the Ming army, so they each drew their bows and arrows, preparing to shoot down these flying birds.

The speed of the "flying birds" was too fast for the defenders to imagine, and before they could finish their bows and arrows, the "flying birds" had already reached the top of the city and swooped down into the air.

The defenders were so frightened that before they could escape, the "flying birds" had exploded at the head of the city.

The defenders were suddenly in chaos, for a while, only to see the severed limbs and wreckage flying around, the air was like a rain of blood, and when the explosion of the flower bomb was completed, the city was full of defenders with missing arms and legs, this was not the worst, the worst was the wounded soldiers with only arms and thighs.

The loud explosion made the defenders living at the head of the city temporarily lose their hearing, I don't know if this is considered an injury, if this is also an injury, then the defenders on the head of the city are almost all killed or wounded.

The Ming army continued to shell, and the defenders who complained about the sky at the head of the city once again appreciated the ruthlessness of the flowering bombs, and only a few defenders had already run away when the flowering bombs flew to the city again.

The defenders who did not run away no longer had to run, or rather, they no longer had the ability to run anymore.

"The artillery fire extended three hundred paces, two rounds of shelling."

"Yes, Throne."

The artillery fire extended three hundred paces, enveloping the vicinity of the city, and the soldiers who had just fled, or who were about to come to see the excitement, became new targets.

What happened in the city, the Ming army outside the city could not see it, and they didn't need to see it, the defenders could no longer be seen on the city, and the Ming army could guess with their toes what kind of casualties had happened on the city.

Mu Qiyuan saw that the goal of deterring the defenders had been achieved, so he ordered the gunner to adjust the muzzle: "Target the city wall, multiple rounds of shelling." ”

All the flowering shells are aimed at the city wall, and now the hit rate of the artillery is very high, more than half of the flowering shells fall directly on the city wall, even if they do not fall on the city wall, they also fall not far from the front, and when the flowering shells explode, they can still shake the base of the city wall.

At first, the walls were not moving, only a small amount of dust fell from the explosion of the flowering bomb, and was shaken far away by the shock wave.

More and more flowering bullets fell on the city wall, and Mu Qiyuan could see with the naked eye that the city wall had trembled slightly, and he didn't know if it was the entire city wall or the upper part of the city wall.

"Keep shelling and don't stop."

As if the flowering bomb didn't need money, it was flying towards the city wall all the time, Mu Qiyuan knew that once the city of Shigatse was broken, Wusizang would no longer have a big city, and he might no longer need artillery, so he no longer cared about the flowering bomb.

"Boom ......"

Just when Mu Qiyuan was sleeping, the south city wall collapsed, a large piece of earth collapsed from the middle of the city wall, the soil above was still there, and there was still half a zhang high below, as if God had opened a door to victory for the Ming army.