In the face of the threat of the Persians, Tsar Alexei I did not want to start a war with the Xia Dynasty in such a hurry, so he could only secretly mobilize troops to the west to strengthen the army, and at the same time sent someone to reply to Persia, expressing his willingness to participate in the war, but it would take at least half a year to prepare for war. Huh

At the same time, in order to appease the Persians, he ordered to send a new batch of ordnance and equipment to Persia through civilian channels, and sent small gifts to several leaders of the Persian Council.

This time and again, the time also came to the end of September, and it seemed that it was about to enter October, under the Tsar's offensive, the Persian Council was very smoothly pacified, and they took the rich gifts sent by Russia, and suddenly felt that the threat to the north was not so great, and at the subsequent meeting of the Council made their position clear, agreeing to give Russia another half year to prepare for war, and at the latest before next summer, Russia must enter the war.

After that, the Persians began to stabilize the northern defense line, and from time to time sent Persian cavalry over the mountains, deep into the territory of Khiva to explore the situation of the Xia army, the Persian Council is not all some wine bags and rice bags, they also came up with a plan to encourage the Khiva to resist, under the instigation of the Persians, some Turkmen tribes who have a blood feud with the Xia army, although they did not choose to rebel, but also migrated and joined Persia.

At the same time, the council also imprisoned the general Noft Ami Fatil, who had fled back to Mashhad, accusing Fatil of failing to command and leading to the annihilation of tens of thousands of Persian troops - although they also knew that Fatil could not be blamed for all the blame, but in order to appease the mood at home, they had to push him out and take the blame.

After ordering Fatil to be arrested and imprisoned, the council also began to discuss who should be elected as the new military commander of the war against Xia, and the court prime minister and eunuchs had their own opinions, and they all wanted to push their own faction up, not only to control the military power and enhance the voice of their own faction, but also to be able to gain prestige in the war.

With towering mountains as a natural danger, the Persians were not too worried that the Xia army would be able to easily break through the northern defense line, not to mention that in less than half a year, the Russians would hit the Xia Dynasty from behind.

After fierce debates and concessions by the council, in the end, no one could quarrel with anyone, and the only way to send Nader Mirza Aziz, a 62-year-old veteran who had fought against the Ottoman Empire, to the north and appoint him as the commander of the northern army, with full command of the Persian army. Huh

……

From then until the beginning of the eighteenth year of Wu'an, there were no other wars in Central Asia, except for the Bukhara Khanate, which was still trying to attack Mulu City and was finally defeated.

The Xia army was still trying to digest the Khiva region occupied by them, and in November of the seventeenth year of Wu'an, the imperial court's decree was finally sent to Khiva as soon as possible, and the next order was to set up the Khiva Metropolitan Division in the Khiva region, and transferred Tan Wen, the deputy protector of the Mengchi Metropolitan Protectorate, to the Khiva Commander, and transferred an official who had been an official for many years from the country to serve as the governor of Khiva.

The governor of Nashiva arrived after the decree, and by the time he arrived it was already the end of December, and immediately after the new governor named Zheng Bing took office, he began to carry out administrative reforms in Khiva, which had a primitive administrative system.

As the so-called new officials took office with three fires, Zheng Bing set up the governor's residence in the city of Khiva, which was being rebuilt, and divided the territory of Shivadu into three state capitals, one of which was Khiva, which governed Khiva, including the three cities of Urgench, Karakalpak and Yulong Chijie, with a population of about 50,000; The second is the province of Tjejan, which governs Tjejan (renamed from Kochkara), including the city of Charjui, which was returned from the Bukhara Khanate, with a population of about 15,000; The third is Dingnan Province (renamed from Kopedag), including the two cities of Kyzylsu and Karakum, with a population of about 30,000.

After setting up three state capitals, Zheng Bing also assigned the hundreds of scholars he had brought from the Han region to the grassroots level of the cities to fill the vacancies of the general shortage of officials, and with the assistance of the squires who had been temporarily promoted, he stepped up his efforts to learn the local language while handling local affairs.

At the same time, in order to promote the sinicization of the local area and improve the recognition of other races with Bactria , he also allocated funds to build private schools in various cities, forcing the common people to enter the school to learn Chinese and Chinese characters, mainly those children, so that they could learn the Four Books and Five Classics and Confucianism, and assimilate them ideologically. Huh

The third thing, Zheng Bing also considered that the imperial army would be in the future

In order to prevent the local order from being turbulent after the garrison left, he allocated funds to recruit young and middle-aged people as militia in various places to help maintain law and order and fight crime.

The Governor of Khiva soon caused a stir in Khiva, and the scholars in long robes took up their posts, full of hope for the future, and wanted to make a difference in their ability to govern this remote and barren place as prosperous as the Han land.

With the appropriation of silver and silver, the construction of Han culture schools began to rise in the city, and under the employment of silver, many civilians who had lost their jobs due to the war signed up to become part of the construction, and at the same time, they also heard about the future use of the building they were building from the mouths of the overseers who knew something.

There is no resistance to compulsory learning of Chinese and Chinese characters for them, and there is no nationalism at this time, and for them who are ordinary people, as long as they can eat enough and live a stable life, they can be satisfied, and what makes them more concerned is that their children will also go to school to study in the future, or it is free.

The Khivas did not attach much importance to education, so they did not have special schools among the people, and knowledge was in the hands of the aristocracy, the wealthy and the clergy, but this did not mean that they did not know what it meant to be educated, and it was not impossible to be able to gain the value of those who were a class higher than them, so it was not impossible to live a better life.

Moreover, from the mouths of those overseers, it was learned that the Xia people attached great importance to education, and they often selected those who received education, and those with excellent grades could become high-ranking officials, which alone was already very attractive to them.

Because of this, the commoners are full of yearning and gratitude for this policy of the Xia people, and many of them recall the appearance of the old officials and lords showing off their might, and they can't help but fantasize in their hearts that if their son can stand out and become an official, will their family be able to follow and become the master. Huh

Thinking of the bright future, the laborers couldn't help but work harder, shouting slogans, transporting pieces of heavy stones and timber to the construction site, and piling up the materials under the guidance of craftsmen, so that the school gradually took shape.

This scene is exactly what the Xia people want to see, and the information released by the overseers is also deliberately leaked by them, so that the overseers can spread among the laborers, so as to motivate the laborers and make them work harder.

The effect is just as Xia people expected, and the speed of the school's construction is really increasing day by day.

The truce between the two sides of the Central Asian theater lasted until the eighteenth year of Wu'an, that is, in the spring of 1671 AD, when it was finally broken.

With the gradual stabilization of the order in Khiva and the arrival of more grain and grass supplies from the country, Mu Tianbo once again set his sights on the Persians in the south, wanting to launch an attack when the winter passed and the snow gradually melted after the temperature rose, and once again made war achievements.

The reason why Mu Tianbo wants to make another military exploit is because there are some bad remarks about him in the court, because he has carried out several massacres in Khiva, and has been criticized by some officials and imperial historians in the court, and the impeachment of him is too murderous, hurting the peace of heaven and ruining the reputation of the country, although they were all refuted by the emperor one by one, but it still made Mu Tianbo feel a little dissatisfied.

The object of his dissatisfaction is not the emperor, but those talkative ministers, Mu Tianbo wants to rely on his military exploits to speak, defeat the Persian barbarians, prove himself with his great military exploits, and at the same time want to ask for a hundred years later, he can be posthumously crowned the prince. Huh

Now there is one thing that is clear to the whole court, that is, those who are not from the royal family will not be crowned kings, even relatively low-level county kings will not be canonized, which is recognized by the current saints after a certain drunkenness, so the generals who are fighting abroad do not have the luxury of being crowned kings in their lifetimes, they only hope that their achievements can be posthumously crowned by the court after their deaths, which is not only for the posthumous name, but also so that their descendants can also be stained.

To get back to the point, at this time, in addition to the Sixth Town, where the Shivaxia Army was rested, there were also the Fifth and Sixth Cavalry Brigades led by Ma Jinzhong and Ma Weixing respectively, adding up to more than 55,000 soldiers.

Although the 5th and 6th Cavalry Brigades were difficult to deploy in that rugged Persian plateau

, but this does not mean that the more than 10,000 cavalry is wasted like this, they also have attached cavalry artillery, which can take advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry to rush to the road, and then use cavalry artillery to attack the fortified position and dismount to fight.

On the eve of the war, the Xia army sent a large amount of grain and grass supplies to the southern region, and they used Jiezhan Province as the main supply center and headquarters station, Mu Tianbo personally sat in Jiezhan Province, and the scouts he sent drew a topographical map of the border between the two countries several months in advance, and after reviewing the map, he decided to attack from two directions at the same time.

The first is the western offensive route, the western part of the Caspian coastal lowlands between the northern Alborz Mountains and the Caspian Sea is flat, belonging to the more densely populated and prosperous areas, although the Persian army also deployed heavy troops here, but as long as the Persian army's defenses are broken, the Xia army can drive straight into the entire flat coastal lowlands.

Mu Tianbo handed over the task of attacking here to Tan Wen and ordered him to lead an infantry brigade, plus the troops of the fifth and sixth cavalry brigades to be responsible for the offensive operations on the western road.

The eastern offensive battle plan is personally led by Mu Tianbo, who will lead the infantry directly over the Khazar Masjed Mountains and storm the important town of Mashhad in northern Persia - this battle plan is mediocre, completely relying on strong forces to push it over, of course, before they launch an attack, they will first take the city of Mulu alone in the north of the mountain range, liberate the strength of the Bukhara army, and let the Bulha people go south from the relatively gentle area to attack the Persian plateau. Huh

At the beginning of March of the eighteenth year of Wu'an, the Xia army once again showed their fangs.

With the participation of the Xia army, the lonely Mulu City in the north of the mountain range also ushered in a greater threat, the Mulu defenders were horrified to find that a large number of Xia troops wearing red robes suddenly appeared outside the city, the Xia army brought dozens of artillery, in the awe-inspiring eyes of the Bukhara soldiers, the artillery was lined up, and launched a fierce artillery bombardment towards the sandy yellow city wall.

Mulu City is not a metropolis with strong walls, and its walls have been eroded by sandstorms from the desert for many years, although they will not fall into disrepair and collapse, but in the face of fierce artillery bombardment, the structure of the city wall will soon be damaged, and the city wall will make a bad cracking sound, and there will be several cracks on the surface.

The defending soldiers on the city wall who were shivering and avoiding the shelling took advantage of the moment when the artillery stopped hearing the sound coming from inside the city wall, and they reported the incident to the commander in horror, and the general defending the city immediately realized the seriousness of the gaffe, and hurriedly ordered the soldiers on the city wall to be withdrawn to avoid being buried together after the city wall fell.

The defenders were ordered to withdraw from the wall as if they had been granted amnesty, and shortly after they had withdrawn, the wall finally could not withstand the artillery bombardment, and collapsed under the horrified gaze of the soldiers, and the fragments of the wall flew in all directions, and the dust raised in the sky also enveloped the surroundings.

"Whew—"

Just after the city wall collapsed, the Xia army's fierce attack horn sounded outside the city, and the defenders who remained on the city wall and towers saw the Xia army rushing towards the gap in the city wall like a sea of red, and the Bukhara soldiers armed with swords, spears and large shields also followed closely to attack, and the two sides compared with the same frame, as if they were divided into two centuries of armies, one side was advanced and the morale was high, the other side was not only primitive and backward in equipment, but also completely incomparable. Huh

There was not much suspense in the ensuing battle, after the Xia army poured into the city along the gap in the city wall, the Persian defenders inside only symbolically resisted for a while, and then surrendered to the Xia army in a structured manner, and Mulu City also fell.

After capturing Mulu City, the Xia army took over the city, and Mulu City was originally the territory of the Khiva Khanate, both the mainstream culture and the inhabitants of Mulu City, so it was natural for the Xia army to claim this area and annex it to the Khiva Dusi Tezhan Province.

The Bukharans did not dare to oppose this, the strong force of the Xia army directly shocked all of them, so no matter what unreasonable demands the Xia army made, they did not dare to say anything against it, no way, the Xia army was so terrible, they did not dare to imagine how long they and their country could hold out under the attack of the Xia army if they were to fight with the Xia army.

But although the Bukharans did not dare to object,

Mu Tianbo also knew that he had to take care of his younger brother, and he agreed to distribute half of the supplies in Mulu City to the Bukhara army as their hard work for besieging the city for a long time, and these hard work expenses also successfully calmed the emotions of the Bukhara people, at least they were not in vain.