In May of the tenth year of Hongxi, Sheng Yong stood on the ancient city wall of Khotan (later in Tian County), looking around, he saw a barren place, only many broken walls seemed to remind him that there was a brief glory here.

Khotan (232-1006 BC) was an ancient Buddhist kingdom in the Western Regions, which was annexed by the Qarakhanid in 1006 and gradually became Uighurized, and in the 11th century, under the rule of the Black Khan, the race and language gradually became Uighur.

After that, from the Yuan Dynasty to the present, the Khotanese region has been under the rule of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

However, the capital of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was in Yili Bali (later Yining City), and the ruling core stretched from the Yache region in the south to the Turu domain in the east, and the distance from Khotan was relatively far, so it was almost unattended and increasingly desolate.

Sheng Yong led his army from Shazhou at the end of January, walked for more than four months, and arrived in Khotan for more than 100 years.

At the speed of 60 to 70 miles a day, the Ming army was enough to reach Kabul, the capital of Shahru.

But they only walked more than 2,000 miles in more than four months, an average of less than 20 miles a day.

Part of the reason is that after leaving Shazhou, the road is becoming more and more difficult to walk, especially to Khotan, in the early Ming Dynasty, the envoys of Hongwu sent to the Western Regions, always to Hashihar first, and then to Khotan, because the road east of Khotan is really difficult to walk.

Sheng Yong's first wave of soldiers and horses, with a large number of carts, in addition to opening up routes, building cities, and being responsible for road repairs, so Zhu Gaoxu allowed him to go to Kabul in one or two years.

That is, you Sheng Yong don't be in a hurry, prepare for the soldiers and horses in the front behind.

After Sheng Yong came out of Shazhou, he continued to plunder all the way, collecting population, and after marching for a thousand miles, he decided to build a city by the Ruoqiang River.

After leaving Shazhou, often dozens of miles and hundreds of miles uninhabited, it is difficult to find a suitable water source, and a large number of people gathered, Zhu Gaoxu fortunately has been prepared, the past five years have been surveying the terrain, there is information to provide to Sheng Yong, Sheng Yong finally decided to build a city in the location of Ruoqiang County in the future, by the Ruoqiang River.

There were originally residential areas here, mainly the herdsmen of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, because there were more herdsmen because of the Ruoqiang River, which was named because it flowed through the Ruoqiang Oasis. It is located on the west side of Ruoqiang County in later generations, with a total length of 100 kilometers, and even in later generations, it is also one of the main agricultural water resources in the local area.

Sheng Yong caught thousands of herdsmen in the local area, got a lot of cattle and sheep, and thousands of acres of grain fields, he was in the herdsmen's gathering place, preparing to build a new city, and at the same time continuing to arrest people around, usually where there is a water source, there must be many herdsmen.

The Ming army swept along the Ruoqiang River and captured a lot.

But Ruoqiang City is not built now, Sheng Yong only designated this location, and the Ming army is now making every effort to build Shazhou and Chijin City, and will only build Ruoqiang City when the other two cities are built, or if there is enough manpower.

After the Ming army caught people, they left 1,000 Ming troops and some herdsmen to continue to prepare grain and grass in the local fields.

The remaining more than 3,000 herdsmen were taken by the Ming army to continue westward, and then began to build roads along the way.

By the time Sheng Yong arrived in Khotan, the Ming army had only more than 47,000 people.

But he brought with him more than 5,000 people who were captured.

Sheng Yong asked more than 5,000 people to re-establish the fields in Khotan, repair the ancient city, and prepare for the attack on Shache.

Shache was the core area of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, with a large population and could be replenished.

In that year, Shaharu's Mongols fled to the Turu Domain and Yili Bali, and Shaharu did not have time to take care of them and continued the westward expedition.

The Eastern Chagatai Khanate did not participate in the Shahru's expedition to the west and maintained good relations with the Ming Dynasty, and historically, they did not fall until 1680, which is longer than the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, the khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was Maha Khan, and during his reign, he traded with the Ming Dynasty many times, respected the Ming Dynasty as the suzerain, and paid thousands of tribute horses every year, which was quite a face for the Ming Dynasty.

But Zhu Gaoxu didn't care about him, the war horse tribute was still collected, and now it is correct, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Ming army are on an expedition, and the population and resources outside are urgently needed by the Ming army.

"How much food do we have left?" Sheng Yong asked people while looking at the map.

Someone next to him immediately replied: "There are about 10,000 stones." ”

When the Ming army set out from Shazhou, each car brought five stone grain, a total of 50,000 stone, and the cavalry rode one person and two horses, each riding brought about 20 catties of dry food.

By the time it reached the Ruoqiang River, it had already consumed one-third, but it had replenished part of it locally, and it had also eaten a large meal of meat.

After crossing the Ruoqiang River, there were fewer people, and the Ming army could not grab anything, all the way to Khotan, only more than 10,000 stones of grain remained.

Their whole army is probably enough to eat for about half a month.

Fortunately, they can pass through the grassland from time to time along the way, and the horses do not need supplies, despite this, their war horses have lost a lot of weight, and there are war horses dying in the middle, but fortunately, they can also plunder a part, and the total number does not decrease but increases.

If you can lay down near Shache, food, war horses and even meat can be replenished.

"Your Majesty is right, I still want to thank Timur and Shahru." Sheng Yong laughed and patted the map.

The generals looked at each other and smiled.

In order to go on the Eastern Expedition, Timur had people go around the Eastern Expedition several years in advance, and although the Eastern Expedition was not successful later, the foundation was laid.

Then his son Shaharu had to go east again, and again along the road to the fields, which is equivalent to the Ming army's westward expedition, some of the fields have been abandoned, but there are still a large number of operations, some of the Ming army can be directly cultivated after coming, and then sow seeds, such as the current Khotanese area, many wasteland after ploughing, can be sown, this is the foundation laid by Timur's father and son, and the first batch of Ming troops came to the seeds and other things, but also to lay a good foundation for the later westward expedition.

The Ming army marched west with seed hoes, probably for the first time in history.

"Pingfu."

"The end will be."

"In the early hours of tomorrow morning, you will take 10,000 cavalry first." After finishing speaking, Sheng Yong paused, and his face showed a fierce look: "Tell the brothers, you should enjoy yourself - be happy." ”

"An Guogong." There was screaming all around.

His son Sheng Zhen was even more shocked: "Your Majesty's thousand instructions--"

"Shut up." Sheng Yong said sharply: "Outside, the king's order is not granted, and His Majesty has full authority to deal with it by this father, you don't need to say more." ”

After that, he looked around and said loudly: "My brother has been out for almost half a year, sleeping in the open air, how can he only suffer hardship and have nothing to gain?" ”

"Back then, the Mengyuan Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, Shaharuru went east, and the Northern Yuan Dynasty entered the Kou, how could they have shown mercy to my Ming people?"

Sheng Yong is here to indulge the Ming army and make them happy.

Pingfu is a pioneer general, and he is the happiest at this time, and his eyebrows are dancing: "Special mother, I have already suffocated Lao Tzu." ”

Teng Ju hurriedly said: "I'm afraid that after I go back in the future, the officials of the court will impeach An Guogong to death." ”

The Ming Dynasty is a big country of etiquette, and the Celestial Empire is a state, how can it learn from what these barbarians do?

But Sheng Yong knows that Zhu Gaoxu, the emperor has always supported a tooth for a tooth, and the relationship between the Eastern Chagatai Khanate and the Ming Dynasty is now good, but what will happen in the future, no one knows, Sheng Yong believes that the emperor will definitely not pursue it.

Moreover, it's okay if he really makes a mistake, after the rebellion, Sheng Yong's credit is getting bigger and bigger, and he always has to do something wrong, so the emperor can rest assured.

With Sheng Yong's order, in the early morning of the next day, the cavalry of the Shangwan Ming Army slaughtered the hinterland of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

What their ancestors did to the Han people in the past, what kind of disasters they will suffer now.