The main force of the Han army is still stationed in Jiayu Pass, but the situation has slowly tilted towards the Han Dynasty.

The Jiayuguan fortress had already built a palace for the emperor's arrival, and although it was far less large than the Forbidden City, it also had ninety-nine rooms and a hall. There were also hundreds of palace maids and chamberlains in the palace, and there was also a special team of imperial food and imperial doctors to serve the emperor.

Liu Jun summoned several of his generals under a grape trellis.

The right privy envoy, the chief of the general staff, the secretary of the military department, the commander of the army, the commander of the left theater, the chief of staff of the left theater, and the general army of Gansu knelt down in front of the emperor and saluted.

"Everyone, love Qing Ping." Liu Jun asked, "Would you like some chilled bayberry soup?" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." The right privy envoy Zhang Shan and others thanked him.

"Well, then give all the generals a cup of chilled bayberry soup." Liu Jun turned his head to the chamberlain next to him and said, "I know they definitely want to drink cold wine under this grape trellis, but you are not allowed to drink alcohol in the army, although it is not a war time, but since it is in the army, it is better not to make an exception." ”

"Your Majesty, we are all idle and moldy, I really want to go to the battlefield early." Liu Yunsheng, the secretary of the military department, said, "The current situation is very favorable to us, and the north and south are attacking, and now the Dzungars are forced to divide their troops to meet them, and there are only 100,000 horses left in Hami."

"The time has not come. Hami still has 100,000 horses, and we don't need to hurry. The soldiers and horses of the north and south are still far away from Hamike, and my plan can be told to you directly, and I am ready to wait a little longer, and wait for the Yarkand army and the Qinghai-Tibet army to converge and advance to Tiemen Pass. After resting in Altan, the Mobei cavalry continued to move south to Hami. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a few more good news for you, that both the Bukhara Khanate and the Khiva Khanate have sent troops and that they will attack the Kazakhs, and that the Dzungar backyard is about to catch fire. The Poles also made a deal with us, and the Don Cossacks were sending troops to the Turks in the lower Volga. In addition, the Uzbeks in the valleys such as Kokand have also made a deal with us, and they have sent troops to attack the Dzungar people who are dog-legged Kyrgyz south of Mount Eli. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Jun was full of smiles, he picked up a cup full of Hetian jade, and took a long sip of cold sour plum soup.

"It's a good situation, guys." Liu Jun said with a smile, "We don't need to do anything now, just sit here, and we can contain the Dzungar army in Hami and make it difficult to move." If we don't move, they won't dare to move. But if they do not move, they will be surrounded on all sides. If they dare to divide their forces to support all parts of the country, then we will take advantage of the situation and send troops to attack Hami. In any case, now the Dzungars have fallen into an extremely passive situation in this game of chess. ”

"The Dzungars and Tsarist Russia have formed an alliance, will they send troops?" Fu Shan asked.

"Tsarist Russia doesn't care about them. The Don Cossacks sent troops, although they were directed at the Turghut Mongols in the lower reaches of the Volga, but they also directly threatened the middle and upper reaches of the Volga region of Tsarist Russia, which could only keep an eye on Poland at this time. And according to our intelligence, the Tsarist Russians are not willing to be lonely, they have already secretly been at odds with the Ukrainian Cossacks, and are planning the Cossacks to fall to Tsarist Russia. According to the intelligence analysis sent by Jinyiwei, the Ukrainian Cossacks are very likely to be divided, with the Dnieper River as the boundary, and the Cossacks on both sides of the river will vote for one master, how will the Poles tolerate it then? It can only be said that the great war between Poland and Tsarist Russia will begin. Tsarist Russia is simply unable to meddle in the affairs of Dzungaria, an ally, and he will be too busy to take care of himself. ”

Chief of General Staff Cai Yuan looked at the emperor, "Your Majesty, please allow the minister to ask, can the attack on the north, south, and west meet expectations?" The Iron Gate Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, although the north road has taken Altan and won the hole road to Hami in the south, but there are still hundreds of miles away. As for the troops sent by several small countries in the west, I am afraid that it will not be able to play any role for a while, if we keep waiting, what if the Dzungars are defeated individually? ”

"How easy is it to break each one?" Liu Jun listened but didn't care, this was not his conceit, but he had carefully studied the situation. "We have 50,000 soldiers and horses in the north, mainly the Mongol cavalry of Mobei, although this is not the regular army of the imperial court, but the strength is not to be underestimated, they are not only good at riding and shooting, but also equipped with a lot of firearms, and the armor is also much better. Their fighting power can be seen only by the fact that they captured the city of Altan, which was defended by thousands of men with hundreds of casualties, and annihilated all the defenders in the city. ”

"The 50,000 soldiers and horses on the northern road, with the castle of Altan as the backing, can be attacked and defended, even if the Dzungars send 50,000 soldiers and horses over, but 50,000 against 50,000, do you think the Dzungars can win?"

Cai Yuan nodded, "The two armies are equal in number, and it is better to equip the soldiers and horses of the Mobei princes, especially with a lot of muskets and artillery." In addition, after the Mobei army captured Altan, they had time to rest and recuperate, and there were cities to defend, on the contrary, the 50,000 people in Dzungaria had to travel hundreds of miles to reach Altan. ”

The generals also have this kind of thought in their hearts, no matter how you look at it, the 50,000 people who went north to Dzungaria will not be able to defeat the cavalry of the Mobei princes. The biggest possibility is that the Mobei princes waited for work, defeated the Dzungar army with the advantage of equipment, and then took advantage of the situation to go south.

Liu Jun continued, "Jinyiwei has spent a lot of effort to secretly contact the Kazakh nobles, and now many Kazakh nobles have taken the opportunity to rebel, pull up the tribal soldiers and horses, set up a counter-flag, and attack the Dzungar camps and tribes everywhere. Although these Kazakhs are relatively scattered and their strength is relatively small, they are in the rear of Dzungaria, but they are a problem for their henchmen, and as long as these people are in chaos for a long time, there will be big problems in the logistics supply of Dzungaria. ”

Yarkand, Khiva, Bukhara, Kokand, Kazakh, Poland, these forces one after another, all joined the camp besieging Dzungaria, plus the Qinghai-Tibetan army in the south, the Mongol army in the north, and the Dzungars were enemies on all sides.

The 100,000 main forces led by Liu Jun seemed to be standing still at Jiayuguan, but in fact, they were already tightly eyeing the main army of Dzungaria.

With the main force of the 100,000 Han army staring at them, Dzungaria is now unable to advance or retreat. As soon as he moved, the main force of the Han army moved.

"Wait, as long as Hami's Dzungar army hasn't moved, we can continue to wait." Liu Jun has the chance to win.

Kashgar, southern Xinjiang.

This is Shule Town, the four towns of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty, which is Kashgar in later generations.

Shahak, the leader of the Kokand Mingge tribe, led a group of valley Uzbeks to cross the Tulugart Pass, a mountain pass between the southern vein of the Tianshan Mountains and the Green Mountains, and came to the city of Kashgar. This important town under the Yarkand Khanate was stationed in a large number of Han troops at this time.

Large quantities of ordnance were transported here through Usizang, partly to Yarkand, and partly to the valley Uzbeks, as well as to the Khiva, Bukhara, and the rebellious Haksa. There were even ordnance that would pass through the mountain pass, enter the river, and then be transported to Poland.

Zhang En stood in front of the boxes of ordnance and said to Shah Rukh with a smile, "Five thousand muskets, fifty mountain howitzers, all the numbers are here, please send someone to count them." ”

Many Uzbeks have been eager to open the wooden box, and the brand-new muskets with the smell of gun oil are lying inside.

"New guns!"

"It's all new guns."

"It's still a flintlock musket."

The surprise made Shah Rukh unable to calm down, and he personally opened a box, which was full of pistols, also brand new. Picking up one, he expertly checked the reload, and it was extremely smooth.

With a bang, Shah Rukh shook his hand, very satisfied with the shot. Looking at the effect of his own test shot, thirty paces away, he accurately hit the position of the humanoid head on the board. The bullet pierced through the plank, accurately and ruthlessly.

"Good gun." Shah Rukh said to Zhang Endao with satisfaction.

"The Great Han has always said that if you give 5,000 guns, you won't give 4,999. On the contrary, we gave 5,000 muskets this time, and 500 pistols, and 200 rounds of ammunition for each gun. ”

Shah Rukh stretched out his thumb, "The big man is amazing. ”

"Hahaha, the big man has already given what he promised, and now you should also fulfill your promise, right?" Yuan En asked.

"Rest assured, we have formed a coalition army in the valley, ninety-two Uzbeks united, an army of 20,000 men. The first group of 8,000 people had already crossed the Kyrgyz Mountains and fought against the Kyrgyz people from outside. Now that we have this batch of ordnance, the remaining 12,000 of our men will march in at once and destroy them. ”

"Happy working together!" Zhang En smiled.

Shah Rukh also smiled, "Lord Zhang, we still want to ask for some more of these firearms, don't worry, it's not in vain, we are willing to trade." ”

"Patriarch Shahuk, we have already agreed in advance, when you conquer the territory of the Kyrgyz, we will exchange land with you with arms."

"I know, it's just that I want to trade some arms right now. We have the best war horses, and we exchange them for horses. ”

"Our Mongolian horses are actually not bad." Zhang En smiled.

"How can Mongolian horses be as good as our valley horses."

"I heard that you have a famous horse in the valley, sweat and blood. If we can trade the Sweat BMW, we are very willing, and if we can trade the Sweat BMW stallion to us, we are willing to pay a high price, and as many as we want. ”

Shah Rukh didn't hesitate at all, although there weren't many real sweat and blood horses in the valley now, as long as he could trade it for a good price, he didn't mind trading it.

After seeing the sharpness of the Han army's firearms, he couldn't stop wanting more firearms.

When Zhang En and Shah Rukh were bargaining, the 50,000-strong Qinghai-Tibet coalition army led by Zhang Huangyan and Ma Wannian had already left Kashgar.

This combined army, composed of the Qinghai Army, the Southern Tibetan Army, and the Heshute Mongols and the Wusi-Tibetan Tibetans, traveled all the way to the west and finally reached southern Xinjiang.

After passing through the northern Tibetan plateau and crossing the Kunlun Mountains, the next road was much easier, and they only needed to go north along the Yarkand River.

Wheel table.

One of the 36 countries in the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty, it was destroyed by the Han general Li Guangli during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Later, the Western Han Dynasty set up the Western Regions Protectorate here, ruling the Western Regions for 72 years.

Located at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, it has a large oasis with millions of acres of arable land.

After a long journey, the Qinghai-Tibet coalition finally joined up with the Yarkand army here.

On the oasis, camps were all over the place, and an army of 80,000 troops was gathered here.

It is only 200 miles away from the Iron Gate Pass.

Dozens of miles outside the oasis, Sangge, the favorite son of the Dzungar Great Khan Batur, was pacing in the tent.

He led 50,000 soldiers and horses from Hami to Tiemen Pass for reinforcements, and then, according to his father's wishes, took the cavalry out of the pass, preparing to attack the Yarkand people on the 800-mile road from Asu to Tiemen Pass, and wipe them out halfway.

But until now, he has not found a chance to make a move, and several times he forcibly attacked, but he returned with a feather, killing 800 enemies and losing 1,000 himself.

And now, the Yarkand people have joined forces with the 50,000 soldiers and horses who have arrived from Wusizang, and their strength has reached 80,000, which is far more than him. In particular, this Han army, whether marching or camping, was very vigilant and vigilant, and the defense was excellent, and there was no chance at all.

"It's only two hundred miles away from the Iron Gate Pass, and if we don't do it again, we won't have a chance." A general persuaded.

There are still 200 miles left from Luntai to Tiemen Pass, and there are three large oases in the middle, and there are also many small oases. With so many oases, it will be easier for the Han army to march.

"Do it?" The monk was upset.

"If we don't do it, we won't have a chance, and if it's only the Yarkand people who come, maybe we can still hold on to it. But Taiji, you have also seen that the new Han army is pulling a lot of artillery and is equipped with a large number of muskets. Although those cannons seem to be small, we have inquired, that kind of cannon is called mountain howitzer, it can be disassembled and assembled, three mules or two horses can pull a disassembled mountain grenade to run, after assembly, since it fires solid shells, it can also fire explosive bombs, which is extremely powerful, and the Han army has brought at least a thousand of these cannons this time. Even if there are no thousand-pound cannons, but with these thousands of mountain grenades, when the time comes, a thousand cannons will be bombarded, and no matter how strong the iron gate is, it will not be able to withstand it. ”

"But they marched and camped, and they were heavily defended." The monk is now like a wolf catching a hedgehog, trying to eat it but not having a bite to eat.

"Taiji, it's better for us to attack now than to wait for them to reach the gate."

Another general also said, "I see that there are many Tibetans and Heshute people in the Han army, these people are by no means sincere to surrender to the Han people, if we raid the Han army camp, these people are very likely to defect to the battle, and then we should cooperate with the outside world, and it is not a problem to defeat the Han army." ”

"Even if we can't annihilate this coalition army, we have to find a way to destroy the Han army's artillery."

"Yes, as long as those artillery pieces are destroyed, the Han army will not be able to break through the dangerous iron gate."

Raiding the Han army and destroying their artillery, the monk smiled bitterly in his heart, this is not easy to say. But what the generals said was right, if they didn't do anything, the Han army would be close to the iron gate, and when the time came, the iron gate would become a rotten wooden gate, and the Han army would not be able to stop it at all.

"Then do it." The monk gritted his teeth, and finally made up his mind that no matter what, he could only fight against the water. (To be continued.) )