"Fixed-shot reloading, three quarters and five minutes in the direction, and twelve rounds of pre-firing...... Put! ”

"Bumper Bumper—"

On the ninth day of the fifth month, when the sound of artillery sounded in the Wakhan Corridor, the city of Kumi, which was the key point of the Wakhan Corridor, was suddenly subjected to indiscriminate bombardment.

"Damn! Nanyu still dares to come and rob the city! Don't you think you didn't beat hard enough in the south?! ”

When Li Zicheng's scolding voice sounded, he also told which team was in Jumi City at the moment.

As a fortress guarding the Wakhan Corridor, the entire city is made of stone, which is small in scale, but it is enough to block the narrowest passage of the Wakhan Corridor.

Taking this place can basically stop the Ming army for a long time, so when Lin Dan Khan withdrew, the Mughal governor of Kandahar immediately sent troops to occupy the place, and wanted to further rule the Ferghana Basin, so as to restore the national strength of the Bengal region that was taken away by the Ming army.

The governor of Kandahar sent 20,000 men and 17,000 men north to try to capture Ferghana, while 3,000 men were stationed in the city of Kumi.

Three thousand people may not seem like much, but it is enough to hold the city of Jumi, which is no more than three miles in circumference.

Viewed from the sky, the city of Kumi is sandwiched between the high mountains of the Pamirs, and in front of it is a narrow valley no more than half a mile wide.

The valley goes from the city of Kumi outward, and the further out it goes, the wider it becomes, and the narrower it goes to the city of Kumi.

Li Zicheng led four battalions of more than 12,000 Ming troops and the follow-up 8,000 people to crowd outside the valley mouth, and they could enter the valley, and only less than one battalion of men and horses faced the city of Kumi, which made it much more difficult to attack the city.

Putting down the clairvoyant mirror, Li Zicheng, who was riding on horseback, looked back at his younger brother Li Zijing:

"San Lang, how much water do you have in the army?"

"There is still a half-moon for use, my brother doesn't have to worry, the snow-capped mountains around this area have not yet melted, and you can dig the snow and filter it to make water for drinking."

Li Zijing is Li Zicheng's right-hand man, and when the two brothers march to fight, Li Zijing often manages the logistics, so that Li Zicheng has no worries, and this time is no exception.

The Wakhan Corridor, known as the Green Ridge in ancient times, was part of the ancient Silk Road in Eurasia and was an important channel for exchanges between Chinese civilization and Indian civilization, Central Asian civilization, Persian civilization and European civilization.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, there was a monk Fa Xian who traveled west along the ancient Silk Road from Chang'an to seek Buddha, and during the Tang Dynasty, Gao Xianzhi sent a light horse to cross this place and extinguish the small Bolu country.

In this way, it seems that this road has been walked by many sages, and it does not seem to be difficult to walk.

However, whether it is Fa Xian or Gao Xianzhi, their description of the journey of the Green Ridge is: "There are no birds above, no beasts below, looking around, unpredictable, only looking at the sun to the right thing, and human bones to mark the way."

It can be said that such a place is a great test for how to ensure the logistics of the army.

Even though Li Zijing and they have reclaimed hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land in Shule, the food consumption on the road is still very alarming.

The army of 20,000 soldiers and civilians, including horses, had to eat more than 100,000 catties of grain, forage, and water every day.

Hundreds of wagons arrive at the camp every day carrying supplies, and hundreds more leave empty.

Although it is already May, the Pamirs still have heavy snowfall from time to time.

If the snow is too heavy, then Li Zicheng and more than 20,000 soldiers and civilians can only be buried here.

Therefore, it is normal for Li Zicheng to be anxious, not only him, but also Li Zijing.

Due to the dangerous and rugged roads, Li Zicheng and his team only brought less than 100 Yanshan five-pound cannons.

Because of this, they couldn't quickly take Kumi City.

"Bumper Bumper—"

"The artillery of the Ming army has fired! Hide!

”

The artillery position, which had rested for three minutes, flares up again, and a hundred five-pound iron shells roared and smashed into the head of the city, beating the 3,000 Mughal troops stationed here to the point of crying and crying.

Because the city was so small, it was garrisoned by 2,000 Mughal Persian mercenaries, while the remaining 1,000 Mongols were stationed in the rear of the city in the form of warlords.

Although the city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it cannot withstand the swiftness of the Ming artillery.

In every round of shelling, there are always a few unlucky people who will be shot and killed.

The scene of his comrades being smashed to death by iron cannonballs invisibly cast a layer of gloom in the hearts of many Persian mercenaries, and their morale plummeted.

Time passed little by little, and the Ming artillery was also constantly shelling.

In the first two hours, the Ming army could also use iron cannonballs to bombard, but later on, they could only choose stones to polish in situ for artillery shelling.

Iron cannonballs are powerful, but they are difficult to carry, which is why the Ming army once liked to use stone shells.

It's just that Li Zicheng never thought that it had been twenty-two years since the Apocalypse, and he had actually returned to the days of using stone bullets.

"Is there any news from the Middle Route and the North Route Army?!"

Looking at the Kumi City, which had been unable to be captured for a long time, Li Zicheng was also angry in his heart, and couldn't help but question the situation of the Middle Route and the North Route Army.

In this regard, Gao Yigong, who was in charge of military intelligence, replied on horseback:

"The Northern Route Army has surrounded Ob City five days ago."

"The Middle Route Army has arrived in Kulan City six days ago, and I am afraid that they will soon arrive in Talas now."

"!" Hearing the speed of the other two marches, Li was angry since he set up his horse:

"Tear down the carriage! Build a ladder to siege the city! ”

"Big brother!" Hearing Li Zicheng say this, Li Zijing hurriedly stopped:

"The city of Kumi is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is a safe policy to bombard it with artillery, and attacking the city wall will cause heavy casualties, so you can't joke with the lives of your brothers!"

Li Zijing said that, but this was not the original intention of his words.

What he actually wanted to say was that it was seven or eight years ago since the last time the Ming army directly attacked the city wall.

Most of the current military recruits are recruits who have been in the army for four or five years, two or three years.

Let them attack the city without siege training, and the final effect can only be to damage their own morale.

As soon as his words came out, Li Zicheng immediately calmed down.

Li Zijing is right, forcibly letting soldiers who have not been trained in siege attack the city will only hit their morale.

In a ghost place like Green Ridge, if the morale is low, it is easy to wipe out the whole army, after all, fighting in Green Ridge is not only the enemy army, but also the changes in the natural weather.

"I shouldn't have canceled siege training back then......"

Li Zicheng sighed in annoyance, but Li Zijing comforted him:

"It is normal to cancel, in recent years, all armies and horses have canceled siege training, in the past, the siege of the city was artillery to wash the ground, collapse the city wall and then enter the city to fight."

"All armies are heavy on street fighting, and we can't be mavericks."

Li Zijing said about the change in the tactics of the Ming army, but Li Zicheng looked at the secret city and sighed:

"It's easy to say that fighting on the plains and hills, but this kind of plateau warfare, not attacking the city, has become a shortcoming of our army."

"I only hope that the power of artillery can be improved in the future, otherwise this will always be a pain point for our army."

After that, Li Zicheng turned his horse around and returned to the camp, seemingly not thinking that Kumi City could be captured in a short time.

When Li Zijing saw him return to the camp, he took the initiative to supervise the front of the battle for him.

After a while, the sound of artillery began again......

"Bang bang bang!"

"Run!"

At the same time as the city of Kumi was attacked, an encounter broke out in Samarkand.

On the vast plain, I saw an army of up to 10,000 people, which was being chased and beaten by a thousand cavalry at this moment.

Under the bright red "Li" character, Li Dingguo, dressed in paper armor, rode a horse and held a gun, leading thousands of cavalry to pursue the army in front.

It was 17,000 troops sent north from Kandahar to fight for the Ferghana Basin.

What Shah Jahan can think of, Cao Bianjiao can also think of.

The essence of the entire Transoxiana region is in the area of Bukhara-Samarkand-Ferghana.

If Lin Dan Khan withdrew, the Mughals and the Khiva Khanate would not sit idly by, and they would definitely come to rob the best part of the river.

Therefore, after arriving in Julan City, Cao Bianjiao immediately divided a battalion of cavalry and handed it over to Li Dingguo, asking him to lead his soldiers and horses to take the lead in occupying the place.

As Cao Bianjiao expected, Li Dingguo had just divided his troops to Bukhara and Ferghana, and when he arrived in Samarkand with his troops, the Mughal army also arrived in Samarkand soon after.

They seized five cities south of Samarkand and left them behind to garrison them, so that the army that arrived in Samarkand was only 10,000 men.

Faced with a Mughal army of 10,000 composed of artillery, cavalry, and light infantry, Li Dingguo, who had just arrived in Samarkand, chose to go out of the city to meet the battle, not giving the Mughal army the advantage of artillery.

As it turned out, he did the right thing.

Before the artillery positions of the Mughal army could be erected, they were attacked by the devastating Ming army.

A thousand Ming cavalry armed with rifles crushed the morale of the Mughal army in just a moment on this vast plain.

With two rounds of fire and thousands of people killed, the Mughal soldiers were at first ready to assemble, but soon the Ming army's bullet rain broke down their defenses.

After only a minute of fighting, the whole army suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the Mughal soldiers began to flee, even if the Mongols, who were the overseers, continued to cut and kill them, they could not stop the momentum of the rout.

"Kill!"

"Kill, kill, kill!"

"Bang bang bang-"

Li Dingguo took the lead and arranged a pocket array to charge, so that the Mughal army was shot on three sides, and people were falling all the time.

The Mongols, who were the overseers, rode their horses, and as soon as they saw that they could not do anything, they immediately took the lead in breaking through.

Li Dingguo did not pursue them, and led people to annihilate the more than six or five thousand artillery and light infantry they left behind.

"Brother Li, there are hundreds of wounded soldiers who survived, do you want to leave a few prisoners?"

The battle lasted until dusk, and the majestic 10,000 Mughal troops were basically wiped out except for the 2,000 Mongol cavalry who broke through.

Zhu Ciyan, who was cleaning the battlefield, found many wounded soldiers, and hereby rode a horse to inquire about Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo was dismounting and sitting on the ground to rest, and when he heard Zhu Ciyan's words, he replied without thinking about it:

"The dynasty and the southern captives are national wars, annihilation is the main thing, and no prisoners are left!"

"Yes!" Zhu Ciyan was shocked after hearing this, but he quickly and decisively responded.

In terms of this performance, he is more decisive than his eldest brother Zhu Ciran.

Li Dingguo had just finished his evaluation, Zhu Ciyan turned around and rode away, and went to the place where the prisoners were guarded in the distance to explain a few words.

A moment later, the Ming soldiers guarding the captives stabbed their bayonets one after another.

With this stab, the captives died one after another.

Without the drag of the captives, Li Dingguo also ordered the left and right: "Send a message to tell General Li that the southern captives will invade the barbarians." ”

"Yes!"

The left and right generals responded and sent Tang cavalry to the city of Talas.

However, by the time Tangqi brought the news to Talas, it was already May 13.

At this moment, 9,000 Ming troops and tens of thousands of people are resting in Talas, and there is no one else in the city except them, obviously Lin Dan Khan's means of migration are very good.

Talas is close to the west of the Western Tianshan Mountains and the Kalatau Mountains, and although the city is only a stone city, it is said that the Zhizhishan of the Northern Xiongnu forced the Kangju people to spend two years building near the Talas River.

If you count it in this way, Talas is at least 1,600 years old.

It existed from the Western Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty Kangju people established the country, and then the Tang Dynasty became a subsidiary of the Tang Dynasty, and was called Talas City by the Tang people.

Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty passed through this place when he went to India to learn scriptures, and he also recorded in the first volume of his "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty":

"Suye City goes west for more than 400 miles to Qianquan...... Qianquan travels one hundred and forty or fifty miles to the west of the private city of Luo, and the merchants of all countries live together in the eight or nine miles around the city."

It can be seen that the city of Talas was also the largest city in the river in the Tang Dynasty.

However, as it was taken over by Khorezm, its doom began.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Genghis Khan rose to the steppe, and then attacked Khorezm, occupied Talas, and changed its name to Taras after the massacre.

Although Genghis Khan later moved more than 400 people from Hezhong Province to the local tuntian, and ordered Yelu Chucai to manage this place, the glory of Talas had been destroyed with the massacre.

A large number of Kangju people died, which gave the conquered Persians and many barbarians an opportunity to migrate to the region.

Although this result led to the rise of the population, the ensuing religious and ethnic struggles also began to emerge, and Talas was no longer the place of choice for Eastern and Western merchants, and it naturally fell into loneliness.

"Some barbarians dare to grab food in my bowl?!"

At the head of Talas City, Cao Bianjiao clenched the military report sent by the Tang Cavalry in his hand, and then turned to look at Talas City behind him.

The buildings in the rammed earth city are full of religious elements, which makes Cao Bianjiao very unhappy.

"A group of ignorant people who worship religions also dare to come and offend me."

"Since the tigers and rabbits have squatted and moved west, let us take their heads and give the brethren a reward for silver...... Sparse! ”

Cao Bianjiao's words made many generals standing beside him look surprised, followed by ecstasy.

They rejoiced that there would be wars and silver rewards.

The main source of income for the soldiers of the Ming army was decapitation silver, and although they entered the era of rifles, the rules of rewarding silver according to corpses remained unchanged.

Even if the rules of the imperial court have been changed to five taels and one head, there are hundreds of thousands of barbarians in the land in the river......

"Cao Bianjiao Shangshu wants to sweep the cave of Shiva and other barbarians, what do you think?"

On May 15, when the military information of the flying pigeon arrived in the capital, Zhu Ciran, as a prisoner of the country, immediately raised his head and asked about the person in front of him.

In front of him were Sun Chengzong, the first assistant of the cabinet, and seven cabinet ministers, including Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Li Changgeng, Wen Tiren, Zhou Yanru, and Yang Wenyue.

In addition, there are Sun Kewang, Du Yinxi, Lu Yuangao, Liu Shun, Zhang Xiu and others in the Chunhe Palace.

With so many ministers and assistants, Zhu Ciran also began a more labor-saving "multiple-choice question".

"The barbarian Ming is a traitor, and not killing is not enough to vent his anger!"

The person who spoke was Li Changgeng, who seemed to feel the most distressed about the silver, and his words were recognized by Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou.

However, when Sun Chengzong heard this, he frowned and refuted:

"The subjects of the world are all pure sons who live forever."

"Defeat and destroy the two countries, and the people who are surrendered can be the people, and the killing will only be increased to make the heavens disgusted."

"What the hell?" Li Changgeng's expression on his face was flat, but every word was fine:

"If there is a heavenly disgust, then the drought of the country for so many years may have been tired of it."

Although Li Changgeng is a traditional scholar, after all, he is in the inner circle of the Qi Palace, and he knows a lot about the armament institute.

In his opinion, His Royal Highness the King of Qi has already thought of something that can make people fly into the sky and make the caravan travel hundreds of miles a day, so if God has eyes, he should punish his Highness for violating the rules of Tianwei.

Since God can't do it, it means that it doesn't exist.

Fifteen years of drought have tempered Li Changgeng, and now he only believes that man will win the day, and he doesn't care about the so-called theory of disgust.

His thoughts are actually the thoughts of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting.

Therefore, after he said it, Hong Chengchou also said to Zhu Ciran:

"Your Highness, the western and southern captives are cunning and repeated, if you don't get rid of them in one go, if you repeat them in the future, I'm afraid it will make the place uneasy."

"If the country wants to operate the river, it is only possible to transport tractors over, but if the place is uneasy, then the tractor has the risk of leaking."

"Therefore, I suggest that when it is decided, it should be decided, and it should be supported to Cao Bianjiao plough the court to sweep the hole."

After Hong Chengchou's words were finished, Zhu Ciran nodded, and then subconsciously looked at Sun Chuanting.

In his heart, the weight of Hong Chengchou's three is heavier than that of Sun Chengzong's three, and among Hong Chengchou's three, Sun Chuanting has the heaviest weight in his heart, so Sun Chuanting's opinion is very important.

"Your Highness, what Hong Gechen said is right, and the minister seconded it."

Sun Chuanting noticed Zhu Ciran's gaze, and immediately expressed his agreement with Hong Chengchou's idea.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran didn't wait for Sun Chengzong and others to speak, and was ready to take a break from this matter.

However, at this time, Sun Kewang said to Zhu Ciran:

"Your Highness, the minister thinks that the western and southern captives should be destroyed, but before they are destroyed, they need to determine whether there is any remaining silver in the dynasty to pay the reward."

Sun Kewang's sudden opening made the ministers who were accustomed to lavish expenses a little embarrassed, and then they remembered the problem of this year's exemption of Tian Fu and the lack of taxes in the country.

Faced with this question, Li Changgeng, who is the secretary of the household department and the deputy assistant of the cabinet, also answered properly:

"The tax payment of the dynasty is indeed insufficient, but this year, Qi bought 80,000 tractors and 2 million treasury bonds, so there should be 10 million taels of silver entering Taicang at the end of the year."

"In addition, the people and subjects of the dynasty bought more than 16 million national bonds, and the southern provinces mined more than 7.2 million taels of silver ingots, which totaled more than 33 million taels."

"It's only five months now, and the court still owes nine million taels."

"With the current situation, it is estimated that after the autumn harvest, there will be people who will buy treasury bonds, and it is not a big problem to make up 9 million taels."

"If you really can't make up enough, you can issue another 15 million taels of banknotes, after all, the dynasty still has 7 million taels of gold at the bottom of the box, and the overissuance of half should not have much impact."

"As long as the tax silver in the next year begins to be handed in, the banknotes issued in the past two years can be recycled, and it will not affect the price for too long."

Li Changgeng proposed to print banknotes to make up for the finances, which would also issue an excess of 8 million taels, which made Zhu Ciran, who did not know much about the economy, subconsciously look at Sun Kewang.

Seeing this, Sun Kewang stood up and asked Li Changgeng:

"Dare to ask Li Cifu, did the population of the last dynasty increase or decrease?"

Sun Kewang suddenly asked about the population issue, which made the ministers confused, but Li Changgeng showed appreciation after listening to it, and calmly responded:

"Last year, 920,000 people died normally, and 1,740,000 people from other countries migrated abroad."

"However, last year, the new population of the country was 4.97 million, a net increase of about 2.3 million."

"In terms of population, the excess issuance of 8 million taels of banknotes, plus 17 million taels of silver, although the amount is somewhat large, should not be a problem in terms of the size of the dynasty."

"The people of the dynasty love to save, even if these silver taels flow into the market, I am afraid that most of them will be saved, which will not affect prices."

Li Changgeng tried his best to explain that although his economic knowledge is not as good as Zhu Youzhen, it is at least better than the vast majority of politicians in this era.

Therefore, after Sun Kewang got the answer, he also turned to Zhu Ciran: "Your Highness, the minister thinks it is feasible, but it is best to ask His Royal Highness King Qi again." ”

"Well......" Hearing Sun Kewang's words, Zhu Ciran also bowed slightly, saying that it was good:

"The cabinet first gave Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao an order, and they were allowed to plow the court and sweep the holes."

"As for Uncle Qi and my father's side, I will naturally be suspicious of them."

Speaking of this, Zhu Ciran asked Sun Kewang, "Where are my father and Uncle Qi?" ”

"Back to His Royal Highness, Long Live and His Royal Highness King Qi should still be in Taiyuan Mansion." Sun Kewang replied and explained:

"Although the drought in many northern provinces has subsided this year, the drought in Taiyuan and Datong in Shanxi Province is still continuing."

"Long live and His Royal Highness want to visit the people's livelihood, and if you want to come to the territory, you will go deep into the territory of Taiyuan Mansion, and you will not leave easily for a while."

Sun Kewang explained, and Zhu Ciran, who heard the words, couldn't help but think of the various situations he saw in Taiyuan Mansion back then.

In the adobe house with broken eaves and broken walls, there are seven or eight people who are poorly clothed and eating corn lakes.

Male owner with thin ribs and belly puffy and slender limbs at home......

These are Zhu Ciran's memories of the remote people in Taiyuan Prefecture.

It's just that after so many years, Zhu Ciran himself has never understood how the people there live.

"With the drought subsiding this year, how many fields can be recultivated?"

Zhu Ciran asked about Li Changgeng, and Li Changgeng had already prepared for this, and he said unhurriedly:

"According to a rough survey by the local yamen, about 70% of the land will be restored, and the contract will not be less than 300 million mu."

Li Changgeng's words made Zhu Ciran breathe a sigh of relief, the Ming Dynasty has more than 150 million mu of cultivated land, and now it can restore 300 million mu of land, which is good news for the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world.

The fields were replanted, and the world was spared, Zhu Ciran only felt that his uncle had grasped the time very accurately, which was admirable.

Looking at the thick music on the table, Zhu Ciran took a deep breath:

"This drought ...... Let's get over early......"