Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 669: The Desert War Ends (Part )

At the end of March in the tenth year of Zhaowu, the Qian army marched westward. The northern army, led by General Huang Cheng, led the coalition forces of various tribes in the south and north of the desert to attack the Dzungar Khanate in the west of the desert.

Huang Cheng took Liu Kun as the vanguard and attacked day and night. In one battle, he defeated the Dzungar Khanate. In another battle, he defeated the Dzungar reinforcements and the Rakshasa camp.

In the following pursuit, Liu Kun captured more than 1,800 heads of Rakshasa. If the captives in the Rakshasa camp and the dead were included, only more than 200 of the 4,000 Rakshasa main infantry escaped. As for the vassal army, except for more than 1,400 dead, the rest surrendered.

It can be said that the Luosha reinforcements that came to support the Dzungar Khanate were completely wiped out, and Sengge led the remnants to move westward before the Qian army attacked the Luosha camp. At this time, Huang Cheng had not received any news from Sengge, but it was certain that the three Yuzi tribes must be Sengge's primary target.

After conquering the Western Regions, although Sengge bordered the Bukhara Khanate, Lin Shiqi was rushing to attack the Western Regions at that time, and Sengge was ambushed by Liu Kun in the Ili Khanate. When he was at his wit's end, the only destination for his westward migration was the three Yuzu tribes.

It is foreseeable that Sengge's entry into the Kazakh Khanate, a khanate split into three parts, will inevitably cause more trouble.

In the western region, Chalishi and Tiemenguan surrendered without a fight. Lin Shiqi then led the army westward and easily captured the two cities of Tarbugul and Kuxian.

Lin Shiqi established a frontier garrison in Tarbugur and ordered the accompanying military laborers to engage in farming operations.

Just when Liu Kun defeated the Dzungar Khanate, Lin Shiqi still sat back and focused on farming in Tarbugul.

Shache City, the capital of the Yarkand Khanate.

With the loss of Turpan, the gateway to the Western Regions, and the successive losses of Charishi, Tiemenguan, Kuxian, and Tarbugul, the Yarkand Khan Apak Khoja and many Yarkand White Mountain nobles were in a panic.

Not only the nobles, but even the common people in the city were very frightened after hearing the bad news, because Sengge had already controlled the politics of the Yarkand Khanate. In order to fight against the Qian Dynasty, Sengge spread propaganda against the Qian Army.

Sengge's propaganda was naturally not good. It was full of evil deeds of the Qian army. He said that the Qian people were pagans, cruel and murderous. They would bully the Yarkand people when they came, and even massacres were common.

At this time, rumors were spreading in the city. Lin Shiqi was still stationed in Tarbugur, but the rumor in Shache City had spread to the point that the Qian army was about to attack Shache. Many people were afraid of the Qian army and had begun to flee Shache City.

In the royal palace in Shache City, Apak Khoja was anxious and paced back and forth in the hall. Ever since the Qian Dynasty's westward expedition, Apak Khoja had been planning in his heart to let the Qian Dynasty and Sengge consume each other so that he could take the opportunity to take back all the power in Yarkand and get rid of Sengge's puppet rule.

But before Apak Khoja could start to plan his plans, he lost the strong city of Turpan, which he relied on as a strategic location. The various kinds of news that came back were too many and too complicated, and basically all of them were bad news.

Especially in the case of Turpan City, according to the defeated soldiers who escaped, it took the Qian army only two days to launch a formal siege on the city, which made Apakh Khoja very aggrieved. Moreover, it was said that his trusted and beloved general Muhalla was also killed in the city of Turpan. On the day when he received the news, Apakh Khoja ordered a generous reward for his family.

At this time, Apak Khoja stopped and asked the garrison commander who had escaped from Tarbugul, "Is the Qian army's offensive capability really that strong?"

The generals defending Tarbugul were afraid of the Khan's punishment, so they exaggerated the situation, saying that the cannons of the Qian army were louder than the thunder and lightning in the sky, that the army was huge in number and strong in combat, and that the defenders in the city were few in number and lacked equipment.

Apak Khoja looked unhappy. Although he knew that the strong city of Turpan could not hold out for a few days and it was normal for Tarbugul to fall, he was still very angry that his subordinates had lost their morale.

Apak Khoja was about to say something when he heard loud footsteps outside the palace. Apak Khoja frowned imperceptibly. Needless to say, the only person who could walk so arrogantly in the palace was Abdu, the confidant of Sengge sent to control the Yarkand Khanate.

When this person stepped into the hall, Apak Khoja took a closer look and found that it was indeed Abdu.

Apak Khoja smiled, but before he could say anything, Abdu spoke first: "Great Khan, the Qian army has been stationed in Tarbugul for so many days and has not advanced. It must be that their food supply is not keeping up. I suggest that the Khan should take the initiative to attack and harass the Qian army's food supply route in Tarbugul."

Apak Khoja already lacked confidence in defending Shache, not to mention that he had to withdraw troops from Shache to harass the food supply route of the Qian army. Moreover, the number of cavalry of the Yarkand Khanate was not large. At this time, there were only more than 3,000 cavalry in Shache city.

If this amount of troops leaves the city and is caught by the Qian army, it would be like throwing a meat bun at a dog, with no way back.

But in front of Abdu, Apak Khoja naturally could not speak out his inner thoughts. He pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "General Abdu, this plan is not appropriate. Great Khan Sengge's order is for me to defend the western cities. The Qian army has traveled a long distance to the Western Regions, and the food and grass brought with the army can only last for about three months.

When the Qian army approaches Shache, Great Khan Sengge will lead the cavalry to launch a surprise attack to prevent the Qian Dynasty from transporting the subsequent grain and grass to the Western Regions. By then, the Qian army will inevitably be in chaos due to the lack of food. Sending troops to harass the grain route at this time is not sure whether it will succeed. Even if it succeeds, it will make the Qian army alert. In this case, it will ruin Great Khan Sengge's decision!"

Hearing this, Abdu hesitated. He didn't care at all how many Yarkand people died, but if he disobeyed the Khan's order and caused trouble, he would not have a good ending.

Thinking of this, Abdu could only nod, and then asked Apak Khoja to issue another order, requiring all the troops in Shache to obey Abdu's command. At the same time, Abdu gave a list and asked Apak Khoja to reissue the order according to the replacement requirements on the list.

Apak Khoja took a look and found that all the replaced generals were people sent by the Dzungar Khanate to the Yarkand Khanate. There were a few Yarkand people, but they were traitors who had long since defected to Sengge.

Apak Khoja was very reluctant in his heart, but under Abdu's gaze, he had no choice but to sign the order.

Abdu walked out of the palace with satisfaction. He was dismissive of the words of those defeated soldiers. In Abdu's mind, those defeated soldiers were cowardly and exaggerated the combat effectiveness of the Qian army. If it were him guarding Shache, although it might not be as strong as a rock, it would at least be able to break the teeth of the Qian army.