"Peace?"

September 20, Hexi City (Samarkand).

When Cao Wenzhao, who had just arrived in the south after recovering Western Siberia, received the news that Lin Dan Khan had sent an envoy, his first reaction was that Lin Dan Khan was cheating.

On the main seat, Cao Wenzhao looked suspicious, and below him was Cao Bianjiao, who was sitting in the position.

The place where they are located is the newly built Hexi General Military Mansion, because the Hexi city is full of Central Asian religious style buildings, not to the two of them, so the new Yamen was built.

"Uncle, the messenger is still in Huoxun City in the northwest, and there are still more than 900 miles from Huoxun City to here, so you might as well summon him over and send news to the capital at the same time."

In the first place, Cao Bianjiao told his opinion, to which Cao Wenzhao helped his long beard, and only after a moment did he mutter:

"Yes, the main thing is to ask His Highness's opinion."

"In addition, the recovery of Kandahar is only a few days, so you might as well wait a few more days and send the good news back."

Speaking of this, Cao Wenzhao also frowned and said:

"I also have to personally write a handwritten letter to send to His Highness, I heard that Sun Shoufa and Cao Meng also went to Qi by boat at the beginning of the month, and there don't seem to be many people left."

"I have to ask His Highness what he means, don't delay the future of you and my uncle and nephew."

Cao Wenzhao still has his heart in Qi State, but Cao Bianjiao doesn't think it's strange, because he also thinks so.

"Ding Jiao's side, I heard that there was a big rebellion, although it was suppressed, but more than 100,000 Yingzhou men died, I don't know if His Highness will be angry......"

Cao Bianjiao frowned and worried, obviously worried about this matter.

However, Cao Wenzhao comforted him and said: "The life of the boy in Yingzhou is like grass, since he rebelled, it is not a pity." ”

"That being said, but ...... Alas...... "Cao Bianjiao no longer thought about it, and focused on the sand table in the center of the hall.

Kandahar, a city with a history of more than 1,800 years, was the third largest city in Central Asia in the mid-17th century, after Samarkand and Kabul.

The location is strategically important as a transport hub to the Mughals, Persia and Samarkand, as well as its location on a plateau oasis at the northeastern end of the Razistan Desert.

Whether it was before or during the reconquest of Hezhong, it was the main reconquest area of the Western Expeditionary Army.

Taking this place can not only compress the strategic space of the Mughals, but also serve as an outpost of the Ming army, cooperate with the Western army to flank the Mughals, and prepare for the recovery of the entire territory of India in the future.

Here, 20,000 Mughal Mongol cavalry, 30,000 Persian mercenaries and 1,000 European gunners were stationed.

Most of the inhabitants were Pashtuns and Tajiks, but there were also a small number of Balochs, with a population of about 40,000, but after the Ming army attacked Kandahar, they fled back to the Mughal hinterland.

Therefore, at this moment, more than 70,000 troops are gathering in this oasis at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters.

However, the situation here is the opposite of numbers, the fact is that 20,000 Ming troops are besieging more than 50,000 Mughal troops, and the war is coming to an end......

"Put!"

"Bumper Bumper—"

When Cao Bianjiao was paying attention to Kandahar, the wall of Kandahar, which had been repaired for more than 1,800 years, was bombarded by an artillery bombardment that it had never suffered.

Six hundred Yanshan five-pound cannons are displayed outside the city, with one hundred guns as a group, divided into six groups, and fired non-stop.

This constant shelling has made the Mughal army in Kandahar miserable.

The reason why they did not retreat was not because they were brave and good at fighting, but because Kabul in the north had already been captured by the Ming army.

The fall of Kabul meant that the defenders of Kandahar had cut off a retreat unless reinforcements could defeat the Ming army's partial division holding the pass from the Khyber Pass, but this did not seem possible.

"Bumper Bumper—"

"...... This turtle shell is quite hard! ”

The artillery rang out again, and Li Zicheng's scolding also rang out.

At this moment, he led his generals to guard behind the artillery position, and behind him were more than 15,000 brave and skilled Ming troops.

Beside him, Li Dingguo also looked at the battlefield with a clairvoyant mirror, and his subordinates also stood behind him.

Li Zicheng and Li Dingguo, although they are both general soldiers, their status is obviously different.

Before Hezhong was taken, Li Zicheng was canonized as the chief soldier of Hezhong, and Li Dingguo currently has no awards.

In other words, Li Dingguo is only the general army of a government, and Li Zicheng is the general army of a province, and the difference is very big.

However, everyone knows that Li Dingguo is a person from the Qi Palace, and no one dares to offend him, even Li Zicheng, who likes to scold, has to be more restrained when he sees Li Dingguo.

"Commander-in-chief! Nanyu stormed the Khyber Pass, and General Li was short of ammunition, please allocate ammunition! ”

Tang rode a horse, because of the muddy battlefield, almost slipped and fell to the ground, fortunately he was superb in equestrianism, turned over and rolled off the horse, and then took out the military information.

When Li Zicheng heard that something had happened to his younger brother, he hurriedly grabbed the military information and saw everything at a glance.

After half a ring, he put away the military information and explained to the left and right:

"Nanyu sent 60,000 soldiers and horses to try to break through from the Khyber Pass, Zijing only had 2,000 men, blocked for three days, and the ammunition was less than three days, who would like to go to the rescue?!"

"I'll go!" Man Xian stood up without hesitation.

At this point in the war, he has been promoted to a general, and he can lead a battalion of soldiers and horses alone, and it is more than enough to gallop to help Li Zijing.

"If there aren't so many people, you will bring two outposts (1,190 people) of soldiers and horses with multiple ammunition to gallop to the Khyber Pass, and let Li Zijing block the southern captives for me for ten days."

"Ten days later, Kandahar can be broken!"

"The last general commands!" Man Xian didn't say anything, turned around and left the battlefield with his lieutenant.

In a short time, an army in its early 1,000s broke away from the formation with a baggage team composed of 2,000 people.

The detachment of these 3,000 people did not make the Ming army lineup look much smaller, because there was a baggage team composed of more than 30,000 people behind the army.

The departure of three thousand men, in the eyes of the defenders of Kandahar, was more like a baggage detachment that had broken away from the ranks and returned to the rear.

"Brother Li, how long do you think it will take for this Kandahar to be captured?"

Zhu Cijiong looked at Kandahar who was shelled, and couldn't help but ask about Li Dingguo, and Zhu Cijiong next to him was also curious.

"Three days is enough to ......"

Li Dingguo put down the clairvoyant mirror in his hand, and looked at Li Zicheng next to him while saying the answer:

"Can General Li allow artillery to shell the city wall in the northwest corner of Kandahar at about three o'clock?"

"Huh?" Hearing Li Dingguo's words, Li Zicheng looked in the direction he said.

He carefully adjusted the clairvoyant magnification, and finally saw the dense cracks in the city wall.

"The muzzle of the gun is reversed! Shoot at the northwest corner of the city wall at three o'clock! ”

"Beep-"

When Li Zicheng put down the clairvoyant mirror and shouted an order, the deputy general next to him immediately blew the wooden whistle, and then asked someone to notify the muzzle to turn around.

For a time, the artillery of the Ming army stopped, and the Mughal army continued to cheer.

Just before they could cheer for too long, the Ming artillery flared up again in the sound of Li Zicheng's wooden whistle.

"Bumper Bumper—"

This time, the shelling was even more intense, because Li Zicheng divided the artillery into three groups and fired at each other.

The ferocious shelling dented and deformed the walls of Kandahar.

The original rift continued to grow, and this change was also noticed by the Mughal army, who began to riot, but there was nothing to be done.

"Boom ......"

"The wall is falling!"

"The gap is too big! Can't make it up! ”

"Woo-"

After six days of shelling, the walls of Kandahar finally collapsed.

Its collapse not only killed more than 100 soldiers, but also caused a gap in Kandahar to be three or four feet wide.

The Mughal army wanted to mend it, but the cavalry snipers of the Ming army in the distance made it difficult for them to move.

What's worse is that even if the city wall collapsed, the Ming army did not launch a general attack, but continued to maintain artillery bombardment.

In this battle, the cruelty faced by the Mughals was like two fighting people, the Ming army held a long sword, and the Mughal wore armor.

In this one-sided situation, when the Mughal's armor is taken off, the battle becomes that of a man with a long sword in his hand, chasing a man who has no power to slash and slash.

When the walls began to fall, it meant that the armor of the Mughal defenders in Kandahar was being taken off one after another.

When the armor is completely taken off, the long sword in the hand of the Ming army will cut off the head of the Mughal army.

The Mughal generals, of course, knew all this, so they shouted for the soldiers to repair the walls.

It's just that, compared to the speed of their repair, the speed of the Ming army's artillery bombardment was faster.

"Bumper Bumper—"

Without waiting for the Mughal defenders to repair the previous gap, two minutes later, the Ming army launched another artillery bombardment.

This time not only destroyed the place they repaired, but also directly expanded the gap.

"Bumper Bumper—"

"Bumper Bumper—"

The artillery of the Ming army shelled repeatedly at two-minute intervals, round after round, so that while the gaps in the city wall continued to expand, more and more Mughal troops were killed and wounded.

At this moment, the rumbling sound of the Ming army's artillery became the only melody on the battlefield, and every round of artillery bombardment was very rhythmic.

"Open the city gates and prepare to break through!"

Seeing that the gap could not be blocked, and the city walls would collapse sooner or later, the Mughal general Sabathong ordered to break out of the city.

Under his orders, more than 40,000 troops composed of Mongol cavalry and Persian mercenaries began to open the four gates, and the army rushed out.

Seeing this, Li Zicheng also put down the clairvoyant mirror, drew his sword and leaned forward, pointing to the Mughal army out of the city:

"Forward!"

"Beep-"

The long whistle sounded one after another in the army, and the cavalry and horse infantry of the Ming army began to turn over and mount their horses in an orderly manner.

They drove their horses forward, and the process was not hurried or slow, and the sun and moon flags and the "Xi" character flags brought psychological pressure to the Mughal army on the opposite side, but it increased with their movements.

In the late autumn sun, the neat array of Ming soldiers gave the Mughal army a creepy feel.

"Wind!"

"Gale! Gale! Gale! ”

All the Ming soldiers wore iron armor, and the iron armor hydraulically produced by the machine uniformly adopted the expression of "angry eyes and round eyes" of the Tang Dynasty stone carvings.

Therefore, when the Ming army appeared on the battlefield wearing such a face armor, it could often bring huge psychological pressure to the enemy army.

Although the Mongol cavalry and Persian mercenaries in the Mughal army had also undergone a long period of training, they could not match the strength of the Ming army after all.

In addition, their equipment was far inferior to that of the Ming army, so when the Ming army began to advance, those soldiers who were the first to go out of the city had already begun to feel weak in their hearts, and some even began to sweat on their foreheads.

In fact, they built a lot of fortifications outside the city, and even many of the fortifications were built in imitation of the Ming army.

Just like at this moment, they stood behind a two-foot-deep trench and a six-foot-high wooden fence and sandbags, and even if they rode war horses, they would not be exposed to the sight of the Ming army.

Most of them were armed with large arquebuses on sandbags, and their comrades around them gave them plenty of courage.

But I don't know why, when facing the group of Ming troops who had no support, their hearts couldn't help but weaken and tremble.

While the array was a little unstable, and there was even a buzzing chatter, a Mongol noble general in cotton armor let out a roar, and he looked at the Mughal soldiers with a slightly disdainful gaze.

"What are you afraid of! They are also human beings, and they are also the first life! ”

"The musket in your hand, the waist knife on your waist, that is also a weapon capable of killing people!"

"Now that the most difficult task of defending the city has been completed, all you have to do is prepare to break through, can't you even break through to save your lives?!"

When any collective is about to perish, there will never be a shortage of people who will stand up.

Although they are of no real use to the situation, their very existence should not be taken lightly.

In the shouts of the Mongol generals, the Mughal soldiers reacted that what they had to do now was not to defend strictly, but to wait for the follow-up soldiers and horses in the city to leave the city, and everyone would break through together.

Once the breakthrough is successful, they can save their lives, they should be happy, right?

Thinking of this, many soldiers secretly gave themselves an atmosphere, and the originally low morale of the army began to gradually rise.

It's just that the Mughal army, which was cheered up at this time, will soon realize one thing.

That is, no matter how the small universe erupts, the iterative gap in weapons and equipment is the gap, and it will soon be taught to be human on the battlefield........

On the battlefield, more than 10,000 Ming troops began to march in parallel from four directions, forming a long horizontal formation, approaching the position of the Mughal army, from two miles to one mile, and then to a distance of one mile to two hundred paces.

The Mughal artillery had already been destroyed by the continuous collapse of the city walls, and at this moment they had no other means of long-range attack except the muskets in their hands, so they could only watch the Ming army approach them.

"I still want to break through...... What wishful thinking! ”

Li Zicheng squinted at the Mughal army opposite, and after sneering, he slashed down with the Yanling knife in his hand.

"Attack!"

"Beep!"

After hearing the order, the flag officer waved the command flag, and when the armies saw this, they immediately waved the flags of each army and blew the wooden whistles of each department.

The 4,000 Ming horse infantry attacking due north sat on horseback, and the rifles in their hands were loaded in unison.

After more than a dozen seconds of reloading, they pulled the trigger a hundred paces away from the Mughal army.

"Bang bang bang-"

With a burst of gunfire, accompanied by thick white smoke, a row of bullets poured directly in the direction of the Mughal army.

I saw that in the position of the Mughal army, fence sawdust, sandbags and sand were splashed everywhere, and many unlucky ghosts were shot and fell down one after another.

After the Ming army opened fire, there was a riot among the soldiers in the direction of the Mughal army, but it was quickly quelled by the Mughal army generals.

However, unlike the traditional three-stage shooting method, the rifle fired at a very short interval, so for a long time, the dense rain of bullets from the Ming army weighed down the Mughal army.

Just three salvos had already caused thousands of casualties, but this made the generals of the Mughal army anxious.

"The whole army broke through in the direction of Kabul! Reinforcements are approaching the Khyber Pass! ”

"Woo ......"

Some Mughal army generals shouted loudly and even released "fake news" to boost morale.

"Kill!"

After hearing that it was possible to break through, more than 4,000 troops who had successfully left the city began to open wooden fences in the direction of Kabul to break through.

The Mongol cavalry rode war horses, and the Persian mercenaries rode horses, horses, and even on foot.

At the moment, they just want to break through, they just want to save their lives.

But for the Ming army, they only wanted the reward for killing the enemy......

"Bang bang bang-"

It was not the muskets of the Mughal army breaking through that rang out, but the Ming army's firing was continuous.

This is a clear indication of the current inadequacy of the Mughal army's muskets, which were too complex to reload and slow to match the Ming army's rotational fire.

"Bang bang bang-"

In the continuous shooting of the Ming army, the Mughal army soldiers fell one after another.

Eventually, amid thousands of dead and wounded, the Mughal army began to pull the trigger.

However, before that, the Ming soldiers had begun to fight while retreating, and kept a distance of more than 150 paces from the Mughal army.

Therefore, even if the Ming army was occasionally shot, the projectile from the arquebus of the Mughal army, even if it could penetrate the paper armor, could not break through the defenses of the inner cotton armor.

There were also many projectiles that could not penetrate even paper armor at this distance, so the Ming army only suffered skin wounds.

If it is a little more serious, that is, the horse is shot, and the soldier falls off the horse and is injured.

At this time, the blows inflicted on each other by the two sides were completely different, but anyone with a discerning eye could see the current decline of the Mughal army.

If they continue to fight like this, I am afraid that before they can break through, they will be completely wiped out by the Ming army.

"You can't continue to fight like this, the cavalry must rush!"

Sabatong's brows furrowed slightly, he had already seen the current decline of the Mughal army clearly, if he continued to fight like this, he was afraid that it would be useless to die.

The artillery is gone, and after all, the cavalry has to rely on the cavalry to solve the problem.

In the breakthrough team, Sabathong quickly gathered a large number of cavalry, and the movements of the Mughal army naturally could not hide the eyes of Li Zicheng and other generals watching the battle.

In the plan formulated by Li Zicheng and Li Dingguo, there are naturally relevant countermeasures.

"Beep-beep-"

After a burst of commands, only three melodious whistles were heard.

The generals of the Ming army who heard this whistle began to pass on the military orders, and the Ming troops on the battlefield also began to gather under their command and close the formation.

Naturally, it is not something that can be completed in an instant, it will take a long time to adjust.

However, the Ming army could adjust and fight back at the same time, but the Mughals couldn't.

Therefore, after seeing that his own number was getting smaller and smaller, Sabatong directly gave up the idea of cavalry charging:

"Break through to Kabul!"

He let out a loud roar, and then took the lead, leading the cavalry around him to break through.

This scene caught many people off guard, whether it was the Mughal Mongols, the Persians, or the Ming army, almost all of them were a little dazed by him.

But fortunately, Li Dingguo reacted very quickly, and he shouted and urged:

"Four-part encirclement and pursuit! Don't let any of the Nan captives go! ”

"Kill!"

Li Dingguo raised his gun to cheer, and even led more than 100 cavalry around him to start pursuit.

When the Ming army, who was in a daze, saw this scene and looked at Li Zicheng one after another.

"Look at what Lao Tzu is doing?! Hurry up and pursue! Don't let this group of bounties run away! ”

Li Zicheng scolded, and the war horse also joined the pursuit.

For a time, there was a riot in both divisions, and more than 10,000 Ming cavalry and horse infantry began to pursue the fleeing 20,000 Mongol cavalry in Shabatong, and the remaining Ming army was also the light infantry in the Mughal army.

In the process of encirclement and suppression, the Mughal soldiers finally had the opportunity to fight the Ming army at close range.

It's a pity that because too many people are too nervous, many people forget to take off the stabbing strips, resulting in a large number of projectiles that were originally thought to be launched one by one into stabbing strips and hitting the body of the Ming army.

The stabbing made the armored soldier feel a pain in his chest, but there was no more damage, and he recovered after taking a breath.

Seeing such a scene, the soldiers of the Ming army were naturally overjoyed, and they knew that the mentality of the Mughal army had gradually collapsed.

So they resolutely began to press forward, and there was no longer the slightest concern about the muskets of the Mughal army.

At a distance of dozens of paces, they held their muskets in unison, and then pulled the trigger.

"Bang bang bang-"

Only a fierce gunfire was heard, coupled with a thick white smoke filling out, and the pungent smell of gunpowder smoke finally became a symbol of hell.

Thousands of bullets fired at such close range, with unspeakable speed, easily pierced through the armor and burrowed into the bodies of the Mughal troops, bursting countless blood from their backs.

In just one moment, almost more than three thousand people fell to the ground.

After such a round of blows, the Mughal abandoned light infantry completely collapsed, and they began to be easily harvested by the Ming army.

Looking at the fallen Mughal soldiers, the Ming soldiers couldn't stop smiling on their faces.

A young soldier who seemed to be a recruit was even more proficient in loading ammunition while muttering: "Five taels... Five taels... Five taels ......"

Under their encirclement, the tens of thousands of abandoned Mughal light infantry all fell.

Before Li Zicheng, who had failed to pursue Sabah Thong, had time to rejoice at the destruction of the light infantry corps, he saw a group of men and horses returning from the direction of the Mughal cavalry pursuing in the distance.

After they got closer, Li Zicheng saw that the people who came back were Li Dingguo, Zhu Cizhuo, and Zhu Cijiong.

"The man is dead, and the southern cavalry is being chased and suppressed......"

Li Dingguo rode his horse to the front of the generals and threw a head in front of them.

The head rolled twice on the ground, and finally revealed Sapathong's angry and round-eyed face with a hint of horror......

(End of chapter)