Turkistan is originally a Persian language, which originally meant the place where the Turkic people lived, and was first shouted by the Arabs in the eighth century. In a broad sense, Turkestan includes the vast Central Asian region from the Tien Shan Mountains and the Karakoram Mountains in the east, the Caspian Sea in the west, Afghanistan and eastern Iran in the south, and Western Siberia in the north.

In a narrow sense, it is the capital of the Kazakh Khanate, the city of Turkestan.

This ancient city originated from the westward migration of the Turks, and at the same time, it was the Tang Dynasty of China, from the Western Regions to the capital of the Protectorate from the East to absorb technology, culture, and goods from the East, and then to the West. Since then, Turkestan has been the richest city in Central Asia, a bustling place of both Eastern and Western cultures.

Today's Turkestan cannot be compared with a thousand years ago. Although the wheels of the times moved forward, due to the limitations of the geographical environment, the Kazakh Khanate did not make significant progress in productivity, at most it was the limited promotion of iron tools. As a trading city, now in the west of them are the Ottomans, the Oros in the north, the Mughal Empire in the south, and the newly recovered Tianshan Mountains of the Ming Dynasty in the west.

As a result, the bustling trading city naturally fell, but as a holy city for the Turks, the city's influence should not be underestimated.

If Turkestan is recovered by the Oros and Kazakhs, then it means that the Ming Dynasty's conquest of Kazakhstan has completely failed, and the Kazakh Khanate and the Great Yuz have been restored again.

All the generals of the Northwest are facing the stain of their lives: defeat and loss of land.

Yes, no one cares that this land is also newly conquered, they will only whistle lightly and say: Look, Xiao Mo Xiao Donglou is known as a famous general of the empire, what is the result? They lost Turkestan.

Yang Wei stands on the tower of the Turkestan city, a tower with a Tessi style. It is not as beautiful as the Daming City Tower, and the arrow holes left make people feel depressed.

From here, you can see the river flowing from the northwest side of the city, and the Ming Army Staff upheld the habit of secrecy and arrogance, and named it Xiliang River. The widest part of this river is only five zhang, and the narrowest point is only one zhang, and it can be crossed by wading. Only a limited increase in defense capabilities.

As the birthplace of the Xiliang River, it is a mountain range named Cuiping Mountain by the Ming army, and the locals call it "Karatau Mountain", which is located in the northwest of the city and is a mountain range that runs northwest and southeast. Because the mountains are so far away from the city, they are only of strategic importance and do not have any tactical implications.

Similarly, the Syr Darya River winds to the southwest, and the entire Turkestan city is on the right bank of the middle and lower reaches of the Syr Darya, thousands of miles away from the main battlefield of the Battle of Syr Darya, where the monks and Tulubaihu were defeated. Because it's too far from the city. Therefore, the Syr Darya River did not help much for the defense of the Ming army, but the agricultural reclamation area along the river could become a food supply area for the Ming army.

Xiao Mo knew where to find Yang Wei, and when he stood behind Yang Wei in a cloak, he couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking at?" ”

"We made mistakes strategically, but fortunately the enemy made even more mistakes." Yang Wei turned around and said, "General, we shouldn't come to save Turkestan now. ”

"The Western Regions are too vast, and the number of soldiers is really insufficient. Even the Warats have to cherish it. Xiao Mo said.

Although the Warat people do not speak Chinese, they are compared to the Chagatai and Kazakhs. At least they look closer to the Han Chinese. For the Ming soldiers who have just had the germination of the concept of nationality, those who are deep and yellow-haired are definitely aliens who cannot communicate, but the Warat people can barely be counted as compatriots.

"Let Tulubaihu and the Sangha be completely defeated, and we will attack the Oros, Kazakhs and Cossacks here, one of whom will have a greater tactical initiative. There is no need to cede this place to the Warats. Through the arrow hole, Yang Wei can see the farmland in the Xiliang River Basin in the distance, exuding an attractive atmosphere.

"The cultivated land in the Syr Darya and Xiliang River basins is enough to support hundreds of thousands of people, and if it is managed patiently, it will be an important town for China to completely rule the Western Regions." Yang Wei said: "In this way, the Ming Dynasty can radiate from here to the Far West. without worrying about losing your roots. ”

Xiao Mo admits that this idea is more tempting, but ......

"To the west of the Western Regions, our strength is still too weak." Xiao Mo said helplessly.

"It may be better to slow down, the North Korean army and tank divisions may be transferred." Yang Wei said: "And in the South Seas, our DPRK does not need to continue to retain the strength of the three armies, and the Australian garrison alone is enough to deter. ”

"Really?" Xiao Mo raised his eyebrows: "I heard the news that before the fifteenth year of Longjing, the northwest side will not increase its combat power on a large scale. ”

Yang Wei was a little surprised: "Is it reliable?" His advice to the Emperor was not the case, and he felt that the Emperor was almost obedient to him, which made him feel more and more accomplished in his work.

Based on the current research results of geopolitical affairs, the key to whether the Ming Dynasty can become a thousand-year-old empire that establishes world hegemony lies in the vast territory west of the Western Regions. Once the Ming Dynasty has obtained this frontier position, it is unlikely that in the next thousand years, there will be no country that can challenge the Ming Dynasty.

Xiao Mo said firmly: "Reliable." ”

This is a hint given by Yudu, there will definitely be no bad cuò, but you can't sue others. It is precisely because of this news that Xiao Mo cherishes the combat power of the Warat people even more, and does not want to see meaningless attrition.

In the earliest strategic arrangement of the Northern Expedition, the Western Regions was prepared to increase the size of the army to 500,000. It's just that the plan can't catch up with the changes, and at that time, the Ming Dynasty has not yet started the war with Spain, let alone thinking about intervening in the Americas. Now that Da Ming sees that the opportunity for the Americas is rare, and if he wants to divide his combat power to pass, the direction of the Western Regions has to stop.

Although it seems that the scale of the division is only 100,000 people, considering the supply lines on both sides, the people and material resources that need to be mobilized, the expansion of the Western Regions can only slow down.

In the end, the Chinese officials of the DPRK believed that the Americas could bring back more wealth to the Daming, and that the Far West of the Western Regions was just a new penal colony.

This is also the reason why the new geopolitical doctrine has not yet become the mainstream understanding.

"In this way, this battle will be the last battle of Longjing fifteen years ago." Yang Wei said: "If you can't cut off the arms of the Oros, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult to conquer the entire Kazakh Khanate in the future." ”

Now that Oros has ended its war with Sweden and is still fighting against Poland, it hopes to keep the annexed Ukraine. This made it difficult for the tsar to mobilize a large army on the southern front, but due to the lack of intelligence, Xiao Mo and Yang Wei could not guarantee whether Oros would go berserk, and sent troops to fight for Kazakhstan regardless of it.

In the end, they have already pocketed the Kazakh Little Yuz Department, and they are coveting the Big Yuz and the Middle Yuz, just like a wild wolf in the feeding, and they must not tolerate others to interfere.

"This battle is really blind, we don't even know who their generals are." Xiao Mo sighed in a low voice after a short cold moment.

"Judging by the information received from the Varat side, the enemy consisted of three parts, of which the Cossacks had the strongest combat effectiveness, followed by the Oros musket army, and the Kazakhs could only fight a tailwind battle." Yang Wei said: "As long as you can contain the Oros fire army and concentrate superior forces to strike at the Cossack cavalry, the Kazakhs have nothing to worry about." ”

"This time, our army is twice as large as the enemy, and if we can't win beautifully, we really can't explain it to the saint." Xiao Mo expressed the pressure in his heart.

From the first-hand intelligence gathered by the Northwest Army in the immediate battle, the General Staff had already analyzed the basic tactics of the Oros. In terms of equipment, they have lagged behind the Ming army by half an era, the rate of firearms is far lower than that of the Ming army, and there is no standard equipment. The army was equipped with axes to arquebuses and flintlocks, and because of the lack of iron in Oros, many of the guns were made of bronze, and the number was far inferior to that of the Ming army.

As for the Cossack cavalry, it was still in the era of cold weapons, charging with a skirmisher line, except that the horses were better than the Ming army, they were already behind this era at all.

The Ming army has already occupied an advantage in terms of combat effectiveness and the number of soldiers, and it is really ironclad to win.

The key is to win the beauty.

Tulu Baihu and the monk were beaten by this enemy army, and Tulu Baihu even fell ill because of this, if the Ming army can deal with this group of people lightly, it will naturally form a psychological suppression of the Warat people, making them more obedient to the Ming.

On the other hand, there is a habit of "speeding up" and preferring to concentrate a little bit of superiority to create a greater advantage. Therefore, in the previous army expansions, in addition to the needs of the theater, the more important thing is whether the generals can show themselves well. As long as this battle is well fought, it may allow the imperial court to refocus its attention on the Far West and draw some strength from the American strategy.

In March of the 10th year of Longjing, when Turkestan was still dripping into ice, the Oros army wearing gray, red, and green military uniforms appeared outside the city of Turkestan. Encouraged by the fact that they had already "routed" the Warat and Ming armies that had appeared in front of them and captured three cannons, they changed their previous habit of being led by Cossacks and hoped to be the first to enter Turkestan.

Legend has it that the city was filled with grain, gold and silver, as well as centuries-old treasures of the Kazakh Khanate.

Just as the Oros fire army crossed the Xiliang River during the dry season, the Ming artillery on the other side of the river roared.

This was not the three or five guns they had encountered before, but the long-term bombardment of dozens of artillery. Whenever the Oros thought that the artillery had stopped and was ready to march in formation, the artillery always raised the battle horn again.

"God, what kind of army is on the other side!" Colonel Alexander? Seeing his formation torn apart by the artillery, Clavert roared for his lieutenants to pack up and reorganize into battle formation. (To be continued......)