"Watch your step, Your Majesty." The captain of the guard escorted Liu Jun into Hami City, holding a bright Yanling knife in his hand. "The city has not been completely cleared, and there are still many Dzungar rebels hiding around the city. These rebels were very fierce, and when the Praetorian Guard brothers entered the city, they rushed out from all corners like madmen. These people are absolutely insane, they have all been defeated, and the city of Hami has fallen, but no one will give up their weapons and surrender. ”

The Western Regions can actually be divided into three parts, with a southern Xinjiang and a northern Xinjiang in addition to the Eastern Frontier. Geographically, it can be simply summarized as three mountains and two basins.

The so-called three mountains refer to the Jinshan Mountains in the north, the Tianshan Mountains in the middle, and the Kunlun Mountains in the south. Sandwiched between these three mountain ranges are two lowlands, the Junggar Basin and the Tarim Basin, which are called three mountains and two basins. In this unique topography, especially the climatic characteristics of the entire Western Regions, which are characterized by lack of rain and aridity, the basin of the entire Western Regions, which represents the geographical form of fertile land in the Central Plains, has become a large and weak desert area here.

The Gurbantunggut Desert and the Taklamakan Desert in the Junggar Basin are more impressive in these two basins.

Compared with the continuous oases in the Hexi Corridor, the vast majority of the Western Regions are deserts, Gobi and dry lands, and among the three frontiers, the northern Xinjiang is slightly better, and the melting of the snow on the tall Tianshan Mountains makes the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains more rivers and more oases.

From a geographical point of view, the eastern Xinjiang region, which is dominated by the basins of Hami and Turpan, is actually only the mountainous side on the west and north sides.

Until the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains Dynasty entered the Western Regions, but did not develop the Hami Basin. Even in the Han Dynasty, there were many small city-states in the Western Regions, and there were many small states in various large and small basins, with a population of tens of thousands, and a small population of only a few dozen people. However, there is no country in the Hami Basin.

Hami in later generations was a very important place, and it was very important in terms of geography and geography in the entire Western Regions. But in the Han Dynasty, it has always been a marginalized place. Even now, Hami is far less important than Turpan and Yanqi Basin.

The main reason for this is that Hami has a harsher climate than the Turpan Basin, and there is a lack of natural dams such as the Flaming Mountains to help store snow water from the Tien Shan Mountains. Of course, there is also the human factor, before the development of the Silk Road in the Han Dynasty, the land transportation between the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains was a better choice than taking the Hami Basin.

It was transferred from the Yanqi Basin to Turpan and then into northern Xinjiang. Or simply do not pass through the Yanqi Basin, directly climb over the Luktag Mountain on the south side of the Dongjiang Basin, and the Jueluotag Mountain in the southern area of the Turpan Basin, and enter the Turpan Basin.

The Hami Basin was initially unseen and unexplored, mainly because of its relationship with the Hexi Corridor. The large desert Gobi with the Hashun Gobi as the core, with more access to water and oasis supplies on the first two routes, this arid road, which is closer but has to travel through the desert and the Gobi, is much more frustrating.

However, from the perspective of the geographical section of the entire Western Regions, Hami's location is very unique, he can communicate the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and he can also connect with Mobei when he goes north. In addition, it is also close to the Hexi Corridor, so although this is an arid place, the road is also arid, but it is the closest.

The early merchants were reluctant to choose this arid road, but for the military, the point of Hami was very valuable, and the road leading to various places in Hami was also of great military value.

Neither eastern nor southern Xinjiang can carry much population, nor does it have much land to cultivate and irrigate, but northern Xinjiang is much better. To control the Western Regions, it is necessary to control the Northern Frontier.

But to enter the northern frontier, Hami is the first gateway, like Wengcheng in the Western Regions. Turpan, on the other hand, is like the eastern gate of the Western Regions.

Liu Jun remained inactive at Jiayuguan for two months, recuperating.

The Khiva Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate sent troops to the Kazakh steppe, and the Kazakhs also rebelled, and Poland also took advantage of the fire to loot and sent Cossacks to the Volga Turgot. There are also Kokand and Yarkand, Qinghai-Tibet coalition army, Mobei princes and other ways to advance.

The Dzungars had to resist the left and the right, but although the Dzungars were fierce, they could only be called the last glory of Mongolia, and their cavalry and bows were difficult to dominate under the blows of cannons and muskets.

Seng Ge led 50,000 troops to attack the 80,000 Han and Qiang coalition troops in Luntai, 200 miles outside the Iron Gate Pass, but the result was almost completely wiped out, and under the counterattack of a large number of artillery and muskets, Seng Ge suffered heavy losses.

The most lethal thing is that the Han army also deliberately deliberately set up two loops of barbed wire in the outer baggage cart of the camp. At nightfall, the monks and the others didn't notice it at first. When they braved great casualties and desperately broke through the periphery of the horse rejection and baggage cart encirclement, and sighed happily that they finally entered the camp of the Han army, and finally could be slashed and killed, they found that there were two barbed wire fences in front of them that they had not seen before.

Behind the barbed wire, there were more than 1,000 artillery pieces and tens of thousands of muskets aimed at them.

Huge camp, the Han army is not chaotic at all.

Although the Dzungars had already broken up and crushed the Yarkand army, and even cut down the Heshute Mongol army and the Tibetan army on both flanks, the Han army in the central camp did not panic at all, they seemed to have expected them to come, and even had been expecting their arrival.

Never use cavalry to storm a barbed wire array with a large number of artillery and muskets behind it, this is the last cry of the monk to God before he dies.

Two barbed wire, plus more than 1,000 mountain grenades and 30,000 muskets.

In less than an hour, the Dzungar army launched a continuous charge, but soon they were defeated like a tide, and when these Dzungars came to their senses, they found that they had lost nearly half of their men. At this time, the Yarkand and Wusi Tibetans, who had been routed and fled by them before, actually surrounded them from all directions, even the Heshute tribesmen who had been part of the Oirat Alliance.

At that time, the Sangha realized that the situation was not good and wanted to retreat.

But it was too late.

If his father, Batur, had personally commanded the battle, he would have retreated immediately after his first failed assault on the barbed wire, but the monk was too young to think that these two thin barbed wires would be able to break through if he was willing to pay a few more casualties. As long as they can fight into the formation, those artillery guns are useless, and those muskets can't compete with the Mongol cavalry at close range.

To add insult to injury, the monk realized that something was wrong after being surrounded, and finally ordered to retreat, but he was hit by a cannonball, and he fell under the horse, his legs were crushed under the horse, and it was difficult to break free. Then, before he could break free, he was killed by a shrapnel that exploded in the air overhead.

The Dzungars were very fierce, they never got the monk's retreat order, and thought that the monk still wanted them to break through the Han army's barbed wire array, so they continued to attack, and when the situation became worse and worse, and finally they couldn't wait for the monk's retreat order and took the initiative to retreat, they had not many people left.

Raid battles turned into breakout battles.

The Yarkand soldiers, Wusizang soldiers, and Heshuo special soldiers who were scattered by them before, were stubbornly blocking them at this time. In addition, the Han army behind also took the initiative to rush out of the barbed wire array, and rows of muskets came over, and every time the exhausted Dzungar cavalry lagged behind.

The battle lasted until dawn.

A small number of Dzungar cavalry broke out of the encirclement, but the Han cavalry then followed closely and pursued for a day and a night.

The last defeated army of Dzungar fled to twenty miles before the Iron Gate Pass, but still did not flee, they were caught up, surrounded, and finally completely annihilated.

The monk and his 50,000 men were killed or captured, except for a few defeated soldiers who fled into the desert and the Gobi.

As the commander of this 80,000-strong coalition army, Zhang Huangyan, the commander-in-chief of Qinghai, reported the results of the battle to the emperor, and after the battle, more than 17,000 corpses of the Dzungar rebels were counted, more than 23,000 rebels were captured, and about 5,000 wounded soldiers were taken prisoner.

Most of these wounded soldiers were seriously injured, and Zhang Huangyan did not have so many doctors and doctors to treat them, and there was no time to leave them behind. He had to rush to the Iron Gate, so the wounded and captured the rebels were ordered to be executed without asking the emperor. Of the 5,000 wounded soldiers, only about 1,000 wounded soldiers could still keep up with the march, and Zhang Huangyan spared their lives.

In addition, there were about 4,000 Dzungar rebels, who eventually fled into the desert and the Gobi.

For these rebels, Zhang Huangyan left a 5,000-strong Han army to be stationed in Luntai, on the one hand, to take care of the wounded wounded soldiers of the coalition army, and on the other hand, to be responsible for chasing down these rebels.

The 80,000 allied troops also suffered heavy casualties in this battle, and the Qinghai Army and the Southern Tibetan Army were the main forces of the Han army, with a total of 30,000 people, and more than 1,000 casualties in this battle. The 30,000 Yaerqiang soldiers, although they were trained by the head of the Han army and equipped with a lot of Han-style firearms, still suffered heavy casualties, they were mainly chaotic when they were just attacked, and lacked organized defense, and as a result, after the war, the casualties reached more than 8,000, of which more than 5,000 were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded.

The 20,000 Heshute and Wusi Tibetan armies also suffered heavy casualties. When they were encamped, they were placed on the left and right flanks of the Han army by Zhang Huangyan, and were on the periphery like the Yarkands. Dzungar raids, they were the first to withstand the attack, although these two armies were incorporated by Zhang Huangyan and brought to the west, but they did not fully trust them, they have always been wary of them, and their army has few firearms.

In terms of equipment, even the Yarkand army is inferior, and after the war, there were 20,000 horses and more than 10,000 casualties.

Of the 80,000 allied troops, nearly 20,000 were killed in the First World War, and nearly 30,000 were attritioned in the battle.

In this battle, if it were not for the mainstay of the Han army, it was indeed possible for the monk to defeat the coalition army.

80,000 coalition troops against 50,000 Dzungaria, the result was 30,000 casualties among the coalition forces, in exchange for nearly 50,000 Dzungar annihilation, on the surface it was evenly matched. But in fact, the main force of the 30,000 Han army, with only more than 1,000 casualties, remained intact, while the Dzungar army only had a few thousand defeated troops and fled into the desert, which can be said to be a complete victory.

After Zhang Huangyan's victory in Luntai, there was no obstacle along the way, and he quickly killed until the iron gate was closed.

The forty-mile canyon of Tiemen Pass is indeed dangerous, but the Sangge army was not in Luntai, resulting in only 3,000 defenders left in Tiemen Pass at this time. In the face of nearly 40,000 allied troops killed at the pass, they could only retreat.

But Zhang Huangyan dragged more than a thousand artillery pieces over, even if these cannons were only mountain grenades, they were still artillery.

The messenger for help at Tiemen Pass had just left the pass and rushed to Turpan, but it only took Zhang Huangyan half a day for countless shells to break through Tiemen Pass.

After breaking through the Iron Gate Pass, more than 40,000 allied troops entered the Yanqi Basin.

The Yanqi Basin is not large, but it is a transit point connecting the Turpan Basin, the Junggar Basin and the Ili River Valley.

When Liu Jun received the good news from Luntai, he immediately ordered the army to leave the customs.

The 15,000 cavalry of the three associations took the lead out of the pass, and the light cavalry went to Turpan, and Liu Jun personally led the infantry artillery to follow. As soon as the Iron Gate was lost, the balance of the war situation in the entire eastern Xinjiang was broken.

Now Batur's heavy troops are assembled in Hami, and Turpan is his rear, where a large number of grain and grass equipment are gathered. Now that the Iron Gate Pass is lost, Zhang Huangyan's more than 40,000 allied troops will be killed directly to Turpan, Batur's grain, grass and livestock will not be guaranteed, and his army in Hami will not only lose grain and grass, but may also be surrounded.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we can't let Batur run this time." Liu Jun rode on the horse, and couldn't help but be excited.

"The 50,000 troops of the monks are all submerged in Luntai, so the Iron Gate Pass is extremely empty, and Zhang Huangyan will definitely be able to quickly take the Guancheng. In this way, he can be caught off guard by Batur, which is great, Zhang Huangyan has made a great contribution this time. Liu Yunsheng, the secretary of the military department, slapped his thigh excitedly.

This breakthrough is really like a sharp knife directly stabbing into the ribs of Dzungaria.

It was a fatal blow.

If the monk does not attack and defend the pass, there are 50,000 troops, even if Zhang Huangyan has artillery and muskets, it is still difficult to quickly take the Tiemen Pass, and it will take a hard battle, and it is likely to take half a month's effort. But now, the Han army was able to catch Batur off guard.

There are also staff officers who persuade Liu Jun to wait for Zhang Huangyan to capture the Iron Gate Pass before sending troops.

"When the news came from the Iron Gate, Batur had already learned that if he wanted to run away, we would not be able to stop him. Now is a great opportunity, a good opportunity to contain Batur. If we can surround Batur and his 100,000 army, then we can settle the Western Regions in one battle. If such an opportunity is missed, it will never come again. Liu Jun believes in Zhang Huangyan, and he is not willing to miss the opportunity.

Therefore, after receiving the news of the great victory in Luntai, he immediately led his troops out of the pass to attack Hami, and he wanted to surround Batur and the main force of Dzungaria.

"Immediately send an order to the Mobei princes of Altan City, let them bite the 50,000 Dzungar troops who went north for me, drag them down, and don't let them return to Hami." Liu Jun took out the will of his own handwriting, and asked the messenger to hurry to Altan. (To be continued.) )