Han Du looked at Xu Chengfei's expression and lowered his head to ponder a question. He said that he had to choose to join the army because he was not good at school. He understands Mongolian and can read Uighur script. Does this mean he is not good at reading? Then who do you think you are?
As if he heard what Han Du was thinking, Xu Chengfei raised his eyes and said: "It's not as complicated as you think. If the army has more contact with General Meng Yuan, it will come naturally."
There were also many Meng Yuan generals who surrendered in the Ming army. Not only did Lao Zhu not be harsh on these people at all, but he also trusted them very much and allowed them to continue serving in the army.
"What does it say?" Han Du asked curiously when he saw that Xu Chengfei had been reading the letter and had not responded for a long time.
Uighur text is inherently difficult to decipher. Although Xu Chengfei recognized it, it still took a lot of energy to decipher it, so he had to take his time.
"Oh, it says here, ask us where we come from and why we want to attack them."
"Ah?" Han Du's eyes widened and he pointed at the letter in disbelief and asked, "There is such a long thing written on it, but only these two sentences?"
Xu Chengfei curled his lips, raised the letter, and said: "The main thing is these two sentences, the rest are just nonsense. For example, he said that he is the younger brother of the great Sultan of the Timur Empire and the supreme leader of Yili. City Lord, wait, do you want to hear them one by one?"
"Then forget it." Han Du shook his head repeatedly. Han Du had no interest in asking about this self-proclaimed rainbow fart.
But after hearing that this man was Timur's younger brother, Han Du suddenly had an idea.
"Since he is Timur's younger brother, if we capture him, will Timur submit obediently?"
Xu Chengfei sneered, "Don't say he is just Timur's younger brother. Even if you catch Timur's son, it will be of no use."
Han Du nodded and understood that the people in the Western Region did not value the Zisi brothers at all as much as the Ming people did. In their eyes, even brothers are their biggest threat. Because their brothers are also qualified to inherit the throne. Maybe in Timur's heart, it would be best if his brother died.
"Since he wants to know, then tell him our origins openly."
Xu Chengfei nodded slightly and asked, "What's the reason?"
Han Du smiled and said, "Then tell him to hand over the Ming Dynasty's envoy. Those who dare to detain us are simply eating the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard."
Xu Chengfei nodded, then wrote a reply and sent his cavalry forward to shoot an arrow into the city wall.
Shasu Chagan opened the letter and took a look, his face suddenly darkened.
Of course he is no stranger to the Ming Dynasty. Although he has never been there in person, whether it is from his brother's mouth or from the mouths of Ming merchants, he has a far better understanding of the Ming Dynasty than ordinary people.
Even with the current strength of Timur's empire, it did not dare to provoke the Ming Dynasty easily.
As for what happened to the Ming Dynasty's mission, Shasu Chagan happened to know. The first Ming Dynasty sent a mission six years ago. At that time, the Timurid Empire was using troops against the West and continuously winning victories. By the time the Ming Dynasty envoy arrived in Samarkand, the Timurid Empire had already defeated Tokhtamysh.
Thus, Tamerlane himself began to float.
When the Ming Dynasty envoy informed the "minister" Timur in the name of the emperor, Timur arrogantly believed that the Ming Dynasty was too far away from the Timur Empire and that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was inferior to him.
Next, Timur detained the Ming envoys, refused to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and sent people to take the Ming envoys to travel around the Timur Empire to show off how big the territory of the Timur Empire was.
As for the second Ming Dynasty mission, Sha Suchagan was even more clear about it. Since knowing his brother's attitude towards the Ming Dynasty, Shasu Chagan immediately arrested the Ming Dynasty delegation and sent it to Samarkand as soon as he saw another Ming Dynasty delegation coming.
Shasu Chagan never expected that the Ming Dynasty would use so many troops to attack just for two missions.
Just a few people for two missions, is that enough?
While Shasuchagan was making excuses with the Ming army and stepped up his deployment of troops to respond, he immediately sent people to Samarkand to inform Timur that the Ming Dynasty was attacking with troops to demand news of the Ming Dynasty mission.
Yili closed all the city gates in Liduo, instantly isolating the inside and outside. People in the city also received news that a large army was coming, and some people even knew that it was an army from the Ming Dynasty.
The locals are relatively familiar with Daming. Originally, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was extremely respectful to the Ming Dynasty, and people were extremely interested in the products of the Ming Dynasty.
Demand generates trade. At that time, many Ming merchants walked on the Silk Road and came to Yilibali to trade with people of various ethnic groups. The prosperous trade naturally brought all kinds of news about the Ming Dynasty to Yili.
However, those businessmen who came here from Samarkand did not have a clear concept of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, in recent years, the Timurid Empire has continuously won victories in the west, and its territory expanded for a time. In addition, Timur himself promoted himself as the only true god in the world of Yin Silan in the empire, and the hearts of ordinary people were extremely inflated, and they did not pay attention to the country at all.
People below a certain level simply don’t understand the power of Ming Dynasty.
Facing the troops approaching the city, the people in the city had two reactions. Originally, people in the Eastern Chagatai Khanate closed their doors and windows tightly to protect themselves.
The merchants from Samarkand shouted arrogantly, and some even expressed angrily that they would implore the Sultan to summon a large army to march eastward.
Han Du looked at the prosperous city surrounded by him, put down his telescope, and said lightly: "Order the army to rest for the night and attack the city tomorrow."
"Attack the city? Timur is a big country, shouldn't it be more serious?" Xu Chengfei advised.
Han Du said indifferently: "What's so important? Two Ming envoys went to Timur, but there was no news about them. If Timur was not responsible for this, who would believe it? Or Timur imprisoned the envoys , or kill the envoy. For the following crimes, the Ming Dynasty should treat Timur no matter what. Even if it immediately sends troops to capture the city of Samarkand, that is what Timur asked for. "
"But if we attack the city, will Timur take revenge on the mission?" Xu Chengfei was a little worried.
Han Du laughed loudly, pointed to Yilibaili City in the distance, and said: "These barbarians from the Western Regions worship the strong and despise the weak. If our army of hundreds of thousands comes here and goes back without doing anything, Then Timur thought that the Ming Dynasty was afraid of him, and the people in the mission had no chance of survival. On the contrary, if we could capture this city, Timur would not kill the mission, and would even eat and drink well. Provide for them.”
"It makes sense." After hearing this, Xu Chengfei smiled slightly. Turn around and go down to make arrangements for the camp and tomorrow's siege.
Sha Sucha spent a night on tenterhooks. He didn't see the Ming army's night attack, and thought he had successfully held back the Ming army.
But he didn't expect that before he could be happy, the shrill horn sounded again throughout the city.
"Who! What happened?"
Shasu Chagan quickly ran up the city wall on horseback and saw the movements of the Ming army at a glance. "What do they want to do?"
The subordinates next to him were extremely speechless at the city lord's words. The Ming army had already pressed forward in force. If they didn't want to attack the city, what else could they do? I can’t ask the city lord to treat you to dinner, right?
However, in view of Shasu Chagan's reputation for cruelty in the past, his subordinates did not dare to say anything and could only lower their heads to prevent the city lord's anger from venting on them.
Sha Suchagan suddenly thought of something, quickly wrote a letter, and delivered it to the Ming army again.
Seeing that Xu Chengfei was checking the letter that had just been sent from the other side, Han Du couldn't help but ask: "What does he want to say?"
Xu Chengfei shook his head, "Asking why we want to attack the city, the others are still shouting arrogantly as always."
"Then don't worry about it." Han Du waved his hand, "Cannon forward, attack the city!"
Following Han Du's military order, ten cannons were pushed out by the Shanzi Battalion and placed in a row in front of the formation.
Since a lot of gunpowder and shells were consumed on the grassland, the current inventory no longer allowed Han Du to pull out all the cannons and fire them in a salvo.
In addition, Han Du wanted to test the strength of the defenders first, so he only used ten gates.
"Boom~"
A cannonball drew an arc and hit the city wall directly. The gravel splashed and the sand flew down.
"Cannon, the Ming army has cannon!"
Hearing the shouts of his subordinates, Shasu Chagan's face turned pale. He is no stranger to cannons. Sieges with cannons and sieges without cannons are two completely different concepts.
Timur's empire also had cannons, but the bulky cannons could only be used to defend the city. Using artillery to attack the city, Sha Suchagan never even thought about it.
Moreover, Sha Suchaqian still knew how far away the Ming Dynasty was from here. How did the Ming army move the cannon over such a long distance?
"Fight back! Fight back!" Sha Suchagan couldn't care less, pulled out the scimitar from his waist, and kept shouting.
But after shouting several times in succession, his subordinates looked at him motionless.
"Lord City Lord, the Ming army's cannons are too far away and we can't attack them..."
...Sha Suchagan felt numb after hearing this.
What's the meaning? That means the Ming army could bombard him with artillery leisurely, but he couldn't fight back? In other words, even if we fight back, it won't be of much use?
"Fight back! I order, fight back!"
Shasu Chagan waved his scimitar again and looked at the subordinates in front of him fiercely.
The subordinates felt as if they were being targeted by the Black Mamba. They were shaking violently and shouted to the soldiers under their command: "Fight back, fight back immediately!"
咻咻咻~
Rows of bows and arrows were shot out from a high position, but they only flew less than a hundred and fifty steps before falling down weakly.
Duh duh duh... densely packed on the ground.
