Liu Chengzong never dreamed that Sunday Qiang actually regained Hami passively.
The trigger of this war occurred after Liu Chengzong entered Jiayuguan. Batur Hutaiji volunteered to let the quasi-unit cavalry serve as the vanguard. He took the lead in crossing the Black Mountain Pass to the north, ran through the Xingxing Gorge, and reached the city of Hami. He ordered the troops in Hami to The feudal lord prepared food and fodder for the army and dug wells.
Oirat and Yarkand are neighbors separated by a mountain.
Compared with Oirat, Yarkand's land is vast, the people who settled in the oasis are well-educated in making money, the army soldiers who are good at civil war are experienced, and the armor and strong firearms made by excellent craftsmen are excellent.
But Yarkand is not an independent country, but a group of independent countries.
Their level of looseness is even worse than that of Oirat, and the Chagatai nobles are not very united.
So let alone the small Hami, the entire eastern Yarkand, Batur Hutaiji did not pay attention to it. This was the case when he followed the national advisor Khan to the south. The 40,000 Oirat coalition troops came from Barkol, and they The city of Hami, which had a population of just over 10,000 people, was trembling with fear. The nobles huddled in the city and did not dare to say a word. They gave them whatever they asked for.
Although he came for 40,000 and returned to 10,000, Batur Hutaiji did not think that he had become weaker. On the contrary, Hutaiji, who was with his brother-in-law, thought that he was invincible.
Batur Hutaiji felt that when his Junggar tribe came, he sent more than 10,000 troops. Now back to Tianshan, although there are only more than 4,000 people left in the headquarters and the camel city is gone, his brother-in-law has two full camps in his hands. This is also an army of 7,200.
All in all, more Junggar troops returned than when they came, and their combat effectiveness was even stronger.
The problem was that the nobles in Hami didn't know Liu Chengzu. When they were heading south, a mighty 40,000 Oirat coalition force suddenly appeared in Barkol across a mountain. They didn't even have time to react. Who wouldn't tremble when they saw it?
But the situation is different now. From Chalichu to Turpan, who didn't know that Oirat was defeated in Qinghai and that the remaining soldiers dared to be so arrogant when they returned from defeat?
Besides, it's not a good time.
Just at the beginning of this year, the old man Abdullah Yin, the eastern Khan of Yarkand, passed away in the Chali Khan Court, leaving the Eastern Khan's throne vacant.
The succession to the throne of Yarkand is still based on the inheritance method adopted by the Mongolians on the grasslands by selecting the eldest member of the clan. Specifically, it is the succession of elder brothers. If all the brothers of the same generation die, the older ones will be selected from among the descendants and nephews. succession.
It is common sense for people to want their country to be ruled by their sons.
This kind of inheritance law is a helpless move on the grassland. Tribal leadership is a high-risk occupation. Tribal vendettas, wounds from swords and arrows, obesity, gout, high blood pressure and diabetes, there is always someone who can take people away.
It is expected that young people or even teenagers will succeed to the throne. When the season changes, they don't even know where the pasture is, and they don't know other tribal leaders. The entire tribe will be gone.
But with the settlement of the Chagatai Khanate, the expected age of the nobles has been rising slowly. This old tradition of selecting elders within the clan has lost its necessity. However, the reality before us is that the brothers who become princes believe in the tradition. necessity.
The previous Great Khan of Yarkand was named Ma Heima, who destroyed the time-honored tradition. In order to pave the way for his son to succeed to the throne, he appointed his twelfth brother Adu Lain to Turpan as governor, and also found the fire man and the secret as the governor. foreign aid.
As a result, after Ma Heima died in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli and his son succeeded to the throne, his twelfth brother Adura colluded with Oirat and rebelled, causing Yarkand to split into the east and west, and the internal firemen and princes became bigger, and the Khan Court Power falls away.
Over the past twenty years, due to the legacy of passing the throne to his son, there have been many pro-establishments, coups, and rebellions in western Yarkand. The Great Khan has changed several times, and the Khan family is almost dead.
On the contrary, the Eastern Khan Abdullah tried his best to ease relations in all aspects and was very calm.
Now that the Eastern Khan Abdullah is dead, he is no longer bound by the choice of elders within the clan. The old man is already seventy-seven, and his brothers of the same generation have long been buried. Even the next generation is not older than his son. big.
There is just a small problem. As the heir, the eldest son Abdullah is an old hostage. When he was seven years old, he followed his father in the Western Expedition and lost a battle. He was held hostage by the Kuqa chief of Yarkant. He has not yet return.
The remaining sons of the old man are very active at this time. The brothers themselves are feudal lords with military power. The brotherly relationship between people and the eldest brother is also very special. Generally speaking, brothers are naturally close, but in their family, Not to mention that the brothers are no longer close to each other, they are not familiar with each other at all.
never seen it.
The brothers are all in their thirties or forties. Except for the second oldest brother, no one else has ever seen the elder brother in their lives. Even the second oldest brother, Aji, only heard others say that he had met the elder brother. After all, he had not seen the elder brother at that time. Taking notes.
Under this situation, the brothers thought about it, one Khan in the east and one Khan in the west, they are all members of the same family and no one knows who is who. As a family, we can do nothing else but lay mines for our own family. That is Number one in the world.
In the current situation, the Khan of the West will definitely put his eldest brother back to inherit the throne. This is a conspiracy that goes without thinking.
Once he can cause trouble for them, the Yarkand Eastern Khan's existence for so many years depends not only on his ability to stabilize the situation, but also on adhering to ancient traditions and winning people's hearts. If the eldest brother comes back and cannot inherit the throne, the legitimacy will be lost, and It is bound to fall into civil strife.
Secondly, even if the eldest brother successfully succeeds to the throne, it will not be a bad thing for the West. At least this Khan grew up in the West and is not familiar with the East. It will be difficult for him to control the Khanate as a great Khan.
As for the third one, the brothers are not familiar with the eldest brother. The eldest brother has become the Khan. In the future, will the throne be passed to his son or to a few brothers who are not familiar with him?
Several brothers from the east got together and thought about the matter over and over again, and finally came up with a solution.
The eldest brother must succeed to the throne, and several brothers fully support it. However, the territory and benefits are forgotten. The brothers must first divide the Eastern Khanate and divide their pastures and fiefs. In the future, if the eldest brother does not want to pass the throne to them, it will be easy to say that they will go west. beat.
Take the entire Yarkand, the eldest brother's son will be the Great Khan, and the second brother will be the Great Khan of the East... We can't think that far ahead, we'll talk about it later.
The fifth brother among the brothers, named Babai, got the place in Hami. He had always had his own territory in Hami.
Although Hami is a small place with a population of less than ten thousand, it is located at the most critical stop on the Jin Road. All envoys and merchants from the west must pass through here, and the army smugglers in Gansu Town must also transport their goods here.
Although after the Anshi Rebellion, the Central Plains lost its protection of the Western Regions, hundreds of years of war and climate change have led to a sharp decline in the population of the Western Regions. The Silk Road has become increasingly withered, losing its once glorious cultural exchanges and commercial development.
But for the countries in the Western Regions, the Silk Road, which had been reduced to an ordinary trade route, was still a golden road.
Subjectively, the people in power in Yarkand did not care about the Ming Emperor who was thousands of miles away; but objectively, every noble in Yarkand must take maintaining the Golden Road as their own responsibility.
Because if you are lucky, you can do the big business of paying tribute; even if you are unlucky, you can enter Ganzhou or even Lanzhou to do ordinary business, and the wealth will be abundant, enough to become the mainstay of a country's income.
Except for being too close to Suzhou and suffering from extremely serious population loss, Hami is almost one of the first-class wealthy places in the outer northwest.
The extremely frequent trade exchanges between the two sides gave Babai a broader perspective. However, due to the long distance and multiple translation problems, Babai knew a lot about the news in Gansu Town and Qinghai. All major events that happened in this land were unknown. Can't hide it from him.
But you can't ask about the details of these major events. When you ask about the details, the information Babai has is all word of mouth, hearsay, and even many far-fetched interpretations.
There are often seven or eight Shen Weijings between this kind of news and the truth.
For example, there was a rebel army in the Ming Dynasty that entered Qinghai. Babai knew about it, but he didn't know the name of the leader of the rebel army and the composition of its armed forces.
But Babai knew that the slogan of this rebel army was to fight back to the Central Plains. Of course, after translation, the slogan that Babai understood was: Lead the army and go to the Han people! We must plant the flag on the gate of Ganzhou!
A Marshal's Mansion appeared in Hehuang. Babai knew about it, but he didn't understand the relationship between the Marshal's Mansion and the Ming Dynasty. The Grand Marshal of the Marshal's Mansion seemed to be named Liu Chengzong, and he was a Han.
There was a character called Han Khan on the Heka grassland. Babai knew about it, but he didn't know what Han Khan's name was. And even if he didn't know, Babai also knew that after a melee, the final victory was achieved. The man is called Daiqing Khitan Khan.
Putting fragmented information together to make it look reasonable requires strong reasoning skills and creativity.
Babai's reasoning ability and creativity are very strong, especially his decisiveness that is unmatched by others. After careful consideration, he believes that the plot line that happened in Qinghai and Gansu is as follows:
A rebellion broke out in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, and a rebel army poured into Qinghai. Han people did not like to run out, so they were mostly rebels.
During the battle between this group of Tatar rebels and the Huoluochi tribe, a leader named Hanhan emerged. He was probably a Mongolian noble from the Tumote tribe. His slogan was: Lead the army to rob the Han people!
In response to Han Khan's expansion, Emperor Chongzhen, the long-lived master of the Ming Dynasty, carried out reforms in the northwest and established a marshal's palace. The marshal was Liu Chengzong, the loyal general of the Han emperor.
After Lin Dan Khan and Guo Shi Khan entered Qinghai, a war broke out between Liu Chengzong and Guo Shi Khan against Han Khan and Lin Dan Khan. In the end, all sides were defeated. Lin Dan Khan died, Guo Shi Khan disappeared, and Liu Chengzong was missing. But Han Khan was still there, and a supported Khitan Khan, Daiqing, appeared in Qinghai.
Putting these 'reliable' intelligence together, Babai looked at the karez caves and the endless melon fields outside the city in the building of the small Hami town, thinking about only one truth: the rebels were the ultimate victors.
Han Khan defeated all his enemies, became Daiqing Khitan Khan, established Dunta Ulus, and had 200,000 men under his command, which was reasonable.
In this case, Batur Hutaiji led his remaining defeated soldiers through the Xingxing Gorge in a hurry, and there were more than 7,000 Han troops chasing him behind.
Babai believed that this was Junggar's support of Daiqing Khitan Khan in exchange for the freedom to return to Tianshan, and Ming Dynasty's general Liu Chengzong was chasing him.
This is an opportunity for Hami.
In Gong, he can destroy Yarkand's rival in the north, Batur Hutaiji; in private, he can gather the quasi-cavalry to strengthen the armament and vent his grievances; in Nei, he can go out for the eastern Khan's next western expedition. Greater strength; externally, he could sell favors to Ming Dynasty general Liu Chengzong and open the market in exchange for greater benefits.
This was a big gamble. He was eyeing Batur Hutaiji's more than 4,000 quasi-cavalry numbers.
To be honest, Batur Hutaiji's soldiers are defeated at first glance, and they are relatively elite defeated soldiers in the nomadic army. Although the armor is in bad shape, they are still wearing armor after all; the majestic camels are gone, but they are still alive. There are thousands of war horses.
What's more, they were driving a yak cart. Even if they lost the battle, they still looked relatively wealthy.
If he didn't give him a beating, Babai wouldn't be able to bear the surname of his own son!
Without any hesitation, he first ordered his subordinates to go to various places in Hami to draw out all those who could fight, and then sent someone to send a message to his second brother Aji in Turpan, exchanging the information he had and the next solution.
As this letter reached Aji, the entire Turpan began to mobilize.
This matter has nothing to do with other people's analysis, because the information all came from Babai. Turpan is separated from Hehuang by four thousand miles, which is about the same distance from Xining to Beijing. It's almost a black eye. What did Babai say? What, others think it makes sense when they hear it.
However, Aji mobilized troops from Turpan not to support Babai in attacking Batur Hutaiji. The distance was too far for him to support him. If Babai could not defeat Hutaiji, by the time the mobilization was completed, the bones of the fifth brother would be cold.
Aziz mobilized troops mainly to defend Gansu. He sent someone to send a message to Babai: "In recent years, the Han people have become terribly poor in the area. They have become more and more shameless. We must be prepared for both."
Naturally, the preparation was that if his efforts were not rewarded, Babai would have to abandon Hami and run west. At the same time, he would send people to complain to Gansu officials and the central court to seek justice.
During the process of filing a complaint, if the Gansu government troops pursue him, the troops mobilized by his second brother Aji can come in handy to respond to him.
Everything was ready. Babai had 600 standing troops under his command. He also recruited all the people in Hami who could fight. He gathered more than 3,000 men and prepared wine and meat outside the city. He asked General Buyan Timur to lead the army in a mighty manner. Drive to the northeast of Hami and set up an ambush in the mountains, just waiting for Batur Hutaiji to come and enjoy it.
Unexpectedly, Babai underestimated Batur Hutaiji's respect for his brother-in-law.
When people came to Hami City to ask for something, they just wanted to let Liu Chengzu, the son-in-law of Wala, have a good meal on the way. Grapes and wine and slaughtered cattle and sheep were placed in front of them, and eight hundred horsemen were sent in advance to stay motionless.
Babai watched the quasi-troop troops growing more and more on the city. More than 4,000 people gathered together, but they were still motionless. Then...he saw the Han army coming with flags. There were Han soldiers greeting Hami at the bottom of the city. The city lord went down to eat meat and drink wine first.
After being called out three times in a row, the Han soldiers under the city didn't say much and started preparing to attack the city.
The Hami army waiting for the attack signal in the mountains was a little embarrassed. Babai had no other choice. There were only old men, children and women under the age of six and over sixty-six years old left in the city. He could only bite the bullet and go down to the city. The leading general asked the interpreter to tentatively call out: "General Liu?"
Liu Chengzu nodded in response. Babai thought it was bad, so he became more decisive and surrendered on the spot.
good afternoon!
(End of chapter)
