The news of the retreat spread quickly, spreading through the streets of Khiva, where the wealthy fled the city first, and their departure made the city even more chaotic, so that for a time many criminal gangs appeared, forcibly breaking into the homes of the rich to rob, and even affecting the middle-class citizens and the lowest level of the common people. dense

All this, Anusa Sultan has no heart to manage at all, his attention is all focused on the matter of retreating south, giving up the capital is not a trivial matter, not only the money and grain accumulated by the Khiva royal family for several generations must be taken away, but also those nobles and bureaucrats, take them with them, and prevent them from falling behind or joining the enemy.

As for the civilians in the city...... They don't care.

With the urgency of the Xia reinforcements on the way, and the urging of General Fatil, it took only a few days for the Sultan of Anusa to get the royal family to pack up their things, take the gold and silver from the treasury, and leave the city of Khiva under the escort of the Praetorian Guard.

Before leaving the capital, the Sultan brought his wife and sons to the city's Deyuma Mosque, the most famous religious site in the city and a key relic of the ancient city of Khiva, to pay homage to the supreme Allah.

Inside the mosque, the Sultan and his family knelt reverently on the ground, praying that Alapius would bless the Khiva army to defeat the Xia invaders, and that they would be able to return safely to the bustling city and continue the Khiva Khanate.

The old imam watched the Sultan praying, and although he was in a sense an outcast, he did not feel fear, unless he encountered an army of heretics of the same sect, the clergy would not have much to worry about their lives, and even the conquerors would win them over in order to appease the people.

After the worship, under the stop and onlookers of the citizens of Khiva, the Sultan led the team to leave the capital, and many civilians looked at the back of the royal family leaving, with a sad look on their faces, and even directly hid their faces and wept bitterly, their hearts were full of fear, fearing that after the Xia army conquered the city, they would launch a retaliatory massacre against them. dense

Listening to the crying from the crowd, the Sultan's heir Ishak felt a little relieved, and he wanted to question his father in front of everyone, asking him why he had abandoned his people and evacuated here.

But his awe of Xia Jun made him unable to ask, and he knew that once he asked this question, his father, who had been dismissed in public, was likely to choose to let him stay and resist Xia Jun, and then his younger brother, who had always coveted the position of sultan, would be able to take advantage of the opportunity.

So, Ishak chose to remain silent, he hardened himself not to look at the weeping civilians, and left the city with his father under the escort of the Praetorian Guard.

After arriving at the military camp outside the city of Khiva, the Sultan of Anusa could not wait to consult with General Fatil on the details of the retreat to the south.

In order to prevent the Fourth Brigade of the Xia Army from actively pursuing after their withdrawal and disrupting the withdrawal plan, the coalition high-level decided to withdraw in batches, with the Khiva and Persian high-level retreating first, and the rest of the troops then slowly withdrawing.

However, how could such a big movement of the coalition army escape the eyes of the Fourth Brigade of the Xia Army, they quickly discovered the movement of the coalition army retreating south, Guan Qixun rushed to the wall to look out as soon as possible, and he saw a long line leaving the gate of Khiva City, extending to the far south.

"What are they doing here?" dense

A deputy staff general asked.

"Are they going to evacuate Khiva?" Deputy General Li Qingshan hesitantly expressed his views.

"Quite possibly." Guan Qixun nodded, "But why did they suddenly evacuate Khiva, isn't that their capital?"

After expressing his doubts, Guan Qixun instantly thought of a possibility, Li Qingshan, who was standing beside him, seemed to be the same as him, the two looked at each other, and said in unison, "Our reinforcements are coming!"

If it weren't for the fact that their reinforcements were on their way, why would the superior enemy take the initiative to evacuate the city of Khiva?

Realizing this, the mood of the two suddenly rose, and in order to boost morale, they hurriedly told everyone the news, and the soldiers listened to it

, all of them were overjoyed and couldn't help cheering.

As long as reinforcements come, they will not only be able to get out of the desperate situation of being besieged, but they will also be able to join the army of revenge and avenge the tragic death of the generals and comrades. dense

Although they realized that the reinforcements were on their way, the officers and men of the Fourth Brigade did not have the idea of taking the initiative to attack because of this, they were not carried away by the joy of the reinforcements coming, and the generals and deputy generals knew very well that they did not have enough gunpowder reserves for the battle, and rashly went out of the camp to attack, but might give the enemy a chance to counterattack.

Under the watchful eyes of the soldiers of the Xia army, the siege camp outside was full of people, some soldiers began to dismantle the camp tents, they carried a large number of personal belongings onto the carriage, and the whole camp was in a chaotic commotion, full of people's shouts and horses' cries.

Those soldiers who were selected to follow the generals and nobles as the first to retreat were overjoyed, and they were unwilling to continue to participate in the siege, for fear that the higher authorities would order the siege again, so that these big-headed soldiers would brave the enemy's javelin arrows and artillery bombardment, and wait for their death to be "built" into the corpse wall by the Xia army.

"We'll withdraw first, and we'll meet at Kochikala then."

The soldiers who withdrew first said happily to the other robes, and then carried the spear with the packed armor on their shoulders, and followed the team retreating south, leaving the other soldiers in place with envy and hatred.

When the news of the retreat spread throughout the siege camp, the mood of the coalition soldiers was undoubtedly more joyful than that of the Xia army, or the previous reason, the heavy losses filled their hearts with fear of attacking, and it was not good to be able to evacuate here now without continuing to fight?

At the same time as the coalition army withdrew, in the city of Khiva, more rich people in the city also fled here, and the middle-class citizens who followed the flow saw this, and finally pressed the hesitation in their hearts, packed up their homes, and left the city with their wives and children without hesitation. dense

The journey south from Khiva was very long, and on the way there might even be robberies by horse bandits who came and went, and families moving south on their own would only die without a place to be buried, and they could only follow the convoy of the rich to ensure safety.

And the rich people did not bother to disperse the civilians who fled with them, and they also feared that the civilians who were not bound by the law would be angered by their expulsion and unite to loot their convoys.

Regardless of those who fled for the time being, there are still the majority of people in the city who have not escaped, most of them are the lowest civilians who have no way to escape, and some of them are middle-class citizens and rich people who are reluctant to give up everything they have, they want to gamble, bet that Xia Jun, who has always had a good reputation, will not do anything to them.

On the fifth day of the second month of the 17th year of Wu'an, the coalition forces finally retreated, because the supplies and everything were withdrawn one day in advance, so the remaining soldiers were able to retreat lightly, they covered each other to withdraw the army, and there were Turkmen cavalry cruising nearby to prevent the Xia army in the camp from coming out to pursue.

Guan Qixun looked at their guarded appearance, and the original idea of wanting to go out of the city to pursue was suddenly dispelled, mainly not because they were covering each other to withdraw the troops, but because they were worried that those Turkmen cavalry, pure infantry and no gunpowder, would die if they fought with cavalry in the field, even if they formed an anti-cavalry hollow phalanx, without artillery support, it would be in vain.

Soon, the last coalition troops also withdrew from here, and the Xia army did not leave the camp immediately, but waited for another half an hour to make sure that the enemy was not cheating, and then boldly left the camp.

Guan Qixun looked at the city gate of Shiva City, and soon had an idea in his heart, he sent several horsemen to look for reinforcements, wanting to determine the distance of reinforcements to this side, and at the same time ordered the whole army to assemble, ready to take Shiva City directly. dense

The soldiers of the 4th Brigade had already prepared in advance, so they quickly assembled, and then left the camp they had held for more than a month under the leadership of Guan Qixun and headed for the city of Khiva.

The defenders of Khiva City had already evacuated with them, and now the role of the city defense force was temporarily played by the militia that the Imam called on civilians to organize, and the purpose of forming the militia was not to resist the attack of the Xia army, but to maintain law and order and prevent more vicious incidents.

Therefore, when the Xia army was heading towards the city of Khiva, the militia did not hesitate at all, took the initiative to open the city gate, and together with the civilians under the leadership of the imam, stood on both sides of the street behind the city gate and faced the Xia army

Surrender.

The civilian's actions were quickly reported to Kwan Kai-xun by the soldiers who were exploring the path, and after some thought, he decided to go directly into the city, he waved his hand, shouted "enter the city", and then led the way into the city gate, and the heavily armed soldiers followed closely behind him, stepping into the city together in neat steps.

The city of Khiva then fell into the hands of the Xia army, who dispersed the pretended welcoming civilians in the streets and sent them back to their homes, Guan Qixun did not understand the local language, and he was just a pure soldier who did not know how to govern the city.

Therefore, after some consultation with several other lieutenants, he decided to impose full military control over the city of Khiva until reinforcements arrived, prohibiting civilians from taking to the streets without permission and not allowing them to gather without permission.

The military administration lasted until February 13, and as the reinforcements finally arrived in Khiva, the civilians who had been "imprisoned" in their homes finally came to trial. dense

Slaughter the city.

The cold word came out of Mu Tianbo's mouth, and he rushed to the grave of He Zhen and the others who were hastily buried by the Khiva people as soon as possible, looking at the humble cemetery, the anger of this big protector could not be suppressed.

As early as on the way to Khiva, the Turkmen herdsmen and other civilians of the Khiva Khanate encountered along the way were ruthlessly slaughtered by the Xia army, Mu Tianbo made up his mind to completely destroy the Khiva country, exterminate its seedling, and exterminate its race, which is not only to comfort the souls of He Zhen and others in the sky, but also to make the surrounding countries frightened!

Therefore, after Mu Tianbo personally arrived in Khiva City, he looked at the uneasy civilians and did not hesitate to give the order to slaughter the city, he demanded to kill all the Khivas, destroy the buildings and walls of the city, and let this sinful city be in ruins.

With Mu Tianbo's order, the soldiers of the Sixth Town all rushed into the city, they broke into one civilian house after another with guns, forcibly dragged the people inside, gathered and shot them, and killed anyone who dared to resist on the spot.

The soldiers also broke into the Mosque of Deyuma, where they forced the elderly imam to leave at gunpoint, and then destroyed the famous religious site with artillery.

「…… They broke into the homes of civilians, drove the people inside into the square, stabbed them with bayonets or shot them with muskets, and the corpses were strewn all over the ground in the back, and the blood flowed like rivers, and many of the soldiers' bayonets were dulled, and the barrels were hot and could not continue to shoot, this was a terrible massacre, according to incomplete statistics, at least 110,000 people died in the city of Khiva, but this is only the beginning, the beginning of the revenge of the Chinese." - "History of the Conquest of Central Asia by the Celestial Empire".

"On the thirteenth day of February in the year of Gengxu, the Duke of Qianguo ordered the army to slaughter the city, Shiva ten rooms and nine empty, blood flowed into a canal, the temple was destroyed, and the city was set on fire, turned into white ground, Shiva has not crowed for thousands of miles so far, and the sky wave said: Eliminate its seedling, destroy its race, and offend my Great Xia, although it is far away, it will be punished!" - "The Legend of Mu Tianbo"

……

News of the Xia army's bloody massacre in the city of Khiva spread quickly, and when the news reached the ears of the Anusa Sultan, who had fled south to Kochikala, the sultan who had abandoned the capital and fled fainted instantly.

When he woke up, he learned more cruel details from his attendants, the entire city was slaughtered, palaces, mosques, chapels and other buildings were destroyed, the city walls were overthrown, and the Xia army finally set fire to the city, burning the corpses of more than 100,000 civilians along with the ruins of the city.

After listening to these cruel details, Anusa Sultan fell down again, he was lying on the bed and could not afford to get sick, according to the doctors, the Sultan was so frightened and psychologically overshadowed that he fell ill, and they did not have the right medicine to treat the Sultan's condition.

The news also quickly spread throughout the Khiva Khanate, and the common people everywhere were terrified, and they thought that the Xia army's revenge would only be directed against the royal family, but now it seems that their thinking is very wrong.

For a time, under the great fear of the Xia army, the civilians spontaneously took up arms and joined the ranks of the city defense army in their respective cities, while the civilians close to Khiva City fled south like crazy, for fear that if they moved slowly, they would become the ghosts of the Xia army. dense

Mu Tianbo had been mentally prepared for this reaction, and he had already ordered the slaughter of the city

He had already made preparations beforehand, and the purpose of his personal coming here was to destroy the Khivans, and whether the Khivans would take the initiative to resist or not had nothing to do with the final result.

When he slaughtered the city before, Mu Tianbo did not forget to commend the soldiers of the Fourth Brigade who had stuck to the present, and he promoted Guan Qixun, who served as the temporary commander, to the brigade commander, and his subordinate Li Qingshan and other deputy staff generals also took advantage of the situation to make up for the generals.

The soldiers of the whole brigade were richly rewarded, and Mu Tianbo originally considered that they had been fighting until now, and wanted to use an excuse to let them escort the remains of He Zhen and the others back to China, so that they could go back to rest.

But his idea was rejected by Guan Qixun, and Guan Qixun said on behalf of the soldiers of the brigade: "Lord Duhu, the hatred between the Fourth Brigade and the Khiva people has not been resolved, and the Fourth Brigade will never withdraw from the battlefield until it completely avenges Deputy Du Hu, the brigade commander and several generals!"

Facing Guan Qixun's determined gaze, Mu Tianbo finally agreed to let the Fourth Brigade continue to participate in the war, and ordered the Fourth Brigade to replenish ammunition and prepare for the follow-up war.