Bukhara city.

One bad news after another came, and King Abdullah Aziz didn't care at first, believing that three thousand heavy cavalry would be enough to hold the Ferghana Basin.

But the soldiers and Uzbek herdsmen who kept fleeing back finally brought the news that the governor had been defeated and died.

The whole country is shaken!

Abdullah Aziz is not a pure faint monarch, he is somewhat similar to Emperor Tang Ming. In his youth, he also worked hard, and the Astrakhan dynasty of the Bukhara Khanate reached its peak in his hands.

Then, he began to be self-conscious, began to govern the country according to his preferences, and indulged in extravagance and pleasures.

"How many enemies are there? How were my heavy cavalry defeated? "Aziz personally received the fleeing light cavalry, as for the heavy cavalry, they had already been wiped out, and none of them had escaped in heavy armor.

One of the light cavalry said: "The governor told us to stop the tribal rebels, and I did not see how the heavy cavalry was defeated." ”

Several hussars said this, and at last someone said: "I see a dagger mounted in the front of the enemy's musket." All the infantry lined up with muskets with daggers, and the heavy cavalry rushed forward, and the horses slowed down and circled, and were fired at close by the musketeers. ”

Aziz was surprised: "Didn't the musketeers flee in the face of the heavy cavalry charge?" ”

"Nope." The man replied.

Aziz looked at his minister: "Who can crack this method of warfare?" ”

A minister who knew the army said: "The helmet of the heavy cavalry is completely exposed. You can modify the horse helmet to cover half of the horse's eyes, so that the horse can only see the ground one step ahead. In this way, the war horse will not slow down, and the enemy's weapon can only be seen when it rushes closer. At that time, the war horse couldn't stop if he wanted to. ”

"Yes, order the craftsmen to transform the helmets," Aziz said, "gather the armies from all over the country, and send troops next spring to take Ferghana back!" ”

The minister in charge of finance said: "Great Khan, there is not enough money and food. ”

Aziz said: "Then increase taxes." ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer reminded: "Great Khan, taxes have been raised to the limit, and if taxes are raised, there will definitely be a rebellion. ”

Aziz said, "Instead of raising taxes all the time, only for two years, shouldn't the subjects contribute to the Khanate in order to regain the land?" ”

"Yes." The Chancellor of the Exchequer stepped back silently.

Another minister said: "The Great Khan, the Khiva Khanate in the west, has been encroaching on our pastures in recent years. On the border of our country, there are also Turkmen tribes who defected to the Khiva Khanate with pastures. If a large army is to be sent out next year, it is necessary to leave some troops behind in case the Khiva Khanate takes advantage of the weakness. ”

Aziz exasperated: "Those damned Turkmen rats don't want to live in the mighty Bukhara and go to the weak state of Khiva. Are they all fools? ”

No one dared to answer.

Of course, it was the king's heavy taxation that forced the tribe to surrender to the enemy.

At this time, the Khiva Khanate was ruled by a benevolent monarch. Not only was the tax very low, but he was also committed to reconciling ethnic conflicts, and the chiefs of all tribes were very convinced of the Khiva king.

Comparing the two, fools know who to turn to.

Aziz ordered the imposition of a war tax, and when the news broke, the reaction of officials and citizens everywhere was even more exciting than hearing about the fall of the Ferghana Basin.

The governors were very cooperative, and a little too cooperative.

The king levies a penny tax, and they can collect a dime, and the officials who specifically levy the tax can levy a penny.

The northwestern part of the Bukhara Khanate was full of arid steppes and deserts. The tribes here were already struggling to survive, and they suddenly had to pay a large amount of war taxes, which directly forced them to rebel.

In particular, the tribes close to the Khiva Khanate went directly to the past with their territory.

Anusha, the Wenqing king of the Khiva Khanate, was overjoyed to receive the news, and hurriedly sent someone to reward the defectors, and ordered the troops to gather and prepare for battle.

Immediately afterward, Anusa received news that China had occupied the Ferghana Basin.

"Tell all armies not to cross the line, and not to take the initiative to fight," Anusa said happily, "and let Braha fight with China, whether we win or lose, it will be good for us." Also, send someone to contact the tribes of the Bukhara Khanate that are close to us, and tell them that I will not levy heavy taxes. As long as they run over, any race will be treated well. ”

After making a decision, Anusa took out the Persian version of the Tao Te Ching and studied it seriously in the palace.

The Chinese version of this Tao Te Ching was obtained from the envoy Xie Yuan. Anusha spent a lot of money to ask a Persian scholar who had been to Nanjing to translate, and now he has to read and understand it repeatedly every day.

One of his sons was still studying in Nanjing at this time.

Historically, it was the constant invasions of Anusha that caused the Bukhara Khanate to lose territory one after another. The prestige of the King of Bukhara was severely damaged, and social tensions intensified, and the Khanate of Bukhara began to fall apart, with governors and religious leaders separating themselves.

Now that China has taken on this role, the loss of the Ferghana Basin has disgraced the king of Bukhara, and the governor and the religious aristocracy have begun to move.

……

The rebellion of the tribes in the northwest disrupted King Aziz's plans to send troops.

He had to mobilize troops to quell the rebellion first, and it was not until the summer of the following year that the rebellion was finally put down completely. At the same time, I also obtained information that the Khiva Khanate next door was secretly gathering troops, and it was obvious that it was planning to take advantage of the situation.

Aziz did not dare to act rashly and sent people to the Ferghana Basin to seek information.

The spies came back to report that the Chinese army had slaughtered many Uzbek tribes. But there were also many Uzbeks who were used as slaves to build cities, and as long as the cities were built, they were freed. In addition, all the slaves who were ruled by the Uzbeks were freed and became free people around the city of Khujand.

The Chinese army not only drove hard labor and repaired the walls of Khujand, but also built the Great Wall further west of Khujand, as if trying to completely block the entrance to the basin.

After listening to the information, Aziz was completely speechless.

At this time, to recapture Ferghana, it is necessary to fight a siege at the entrance to the basin. The Bukhara army, on the other hand, was not good at attacking cities, and although they had mastered farming techniques, they were still nomadic tribes in their bones.

And, as more and more intelligence comes back, Aziz is already scared of China.

He heard from Shang Jia that the Chinese army had destroyed the Yarkand state and that the capture of the Ferghana Basin was only incidental. Last year, only a few thousand soldiers came, and there were hundreds of thousands of troops, and they were on the Yarkand side at this time.

How dare he fight?

Other countries may be unfamiliar with China, but the Bukhara Khanate is too familiar with China. Successive overlords of this land started by mastering the Silk Road, and the Bukhara Khanate was no exception, with countless Chinese goods being transported here every year.

Aziz had heard from an early age that China was a behemoth and that the Chinese emperor was the richest monarch in the world.

Taking into account the situation at home and abroad, Aziz can be regarded as losing Ferghana by default. But he lost the city and lost his face, and he had to find someone to vent, by the way, to divert the domestic contradictions, and once again establish his ruling prestige.

"The army that has been gathered, all headed for the western border, I want to regain the lost land!"

Aziz's target was actually the Khiva Khanate next door, because he felt that it was the best place to fight.

After all, twenty or thirty years ago, the Khiva Khanate was still divided, and nearly a hundred years of civil war had already collapsed the country. He ignored the efforts of the previous generation of Khiva kings, and also ignored the young heroism of this generation of Khiva kings. He, a prodigal sweater, wants to take a twilight army to fight a thriving country.

This pair of neighbors, because of the appearance of the Chinese army, inexplicably fought several years in advance.

It has to be said that the Bukhara Khanate was indeed powerful, and the elite heavy cavalry was invincible.

After the war between the two countries, the Khiva Khanate was defeated and retreated, losing its territory all the way to the city of Derian.

The siege suffered a setback, leaving part of the army to besiege the city, and the main army went around the city and went down the river to take the capital of the Khiva Khanate. This style of play is too arrogant and does not treat the enemy as a human being at all.

Aziz was on the expedition, and his idea was simple: as long as the enemy capital was breached, the war could be declared victorious.

Who made the capital of the Khiva Khanate, not far from the eastern border, next to the territory of Bukhara?

Tens of thousands of Bukhara troops surrounded the Khiva capital.

Anusha, the king of Khiva, personally ascended the city to boost morale and repelled enemy attacks several times in a row.

The people of Khiva, who had endured nearly a hundred years of war, were finally stable for twenty or thirty years, and there was a benevolent king. The Bukhara army invaded, burning, killing and looting along the way, arousing the common hatred of the people, and even many ethnic minority tribes took the initiative to come to fight for the country.

These minority tribes, especially the nearby Turkmens, did not dare to fight directly with the Bukharan army, so they ran to plunder the grain routes of the Bukharan army.

When they saw the grain convoy, they ran away when there were too many enemies, and grabbed when there were few enemies, so that the Bukhara army was almost cut off from the food route.

Aziz could only send his troops back to defend himself, and at the same time urge the rear troops to quickly defeat the city of Derian.

This war was fought from summer to early winter.

The defenders of Khiva City are running out of food, and if they continue to defend it, they can only eat people. Bukhara, as the attacker, is also suffering, and the most deadly is the resurgence of rebellion in the country.

The rebellion in the country made it impossible for Aziz to fight any longer, but he was unwilling to withdraw his troops directly, so he sent an envoy into the city saying: "We can evacuate Khiva, but the Khiva Khanate must compensate for the losses and send all the food we have consumed." And to ensure that the Khiva Khanate would no longer take in defecting tribes. ”

Anusha's answer was straightforward: "Kill this man!" ”

Killing the messenger is tantamount to tearing your face, and there is no possibility of peace.

After more than half a month, the rebel forces in the country became more and more powerful, and Aziz finally couldn't care about face and ordered the whole army to withdraw to the country to quell the turmoil.

Anusha did not give up, and after the departure of the Bukhara army, he collected food as quickly as possible, and led the troops of all tribes that came to King Qin to chase the tail of the Bukhara army.

The two sides fought a decisive battle on the border between the two countries, and the Khiva Khanate was originally at a disadvantage, and the nobles in Bukhara suddenly defected.

But it was the nobleman's own brother, who couldn't stand the king, and decided to separate himself and quietly sent a letter to contact him to do things in the army.

Aziz was defeated and fled with only a few thousand elites.

The Khiva Khanate took advantage of the situation to occupy the western border steppe of Bukhara and swallow up all of the territory northwest of Bukhara (which was of little value, either an arid steppe or a large desert).

And the king of Bukhara, Aziz, after fleeing back to the capital, was no longer able to suppress the rebellion, so he could only send officials to Zhao'an.

Zhao'an was very successful, and the rebels immediately surrendered, and what they wanted was to be self-reliant.

The governors of various places and Hozhuo divided their territories one after another, and no longer obeyed the king's orders, and Aziz could only control the capital and the surrounding areas.

Rigid and self-serving, everyone betrays their relatives and leaves!

In particular, the Governor of Samarkand actually ran the Silk Road together with the Datong Army.

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