The purpose of a certain prince letting some weapons and equipment flow to the Western Regions was simple, which was to allow the armed Li Zicheng to attract the firepower of the surrounding Menggu tribes.
Let these armed gangs fight each other, and it would be perfect if both sides were harmed.
This went relatively smoothly, but the scale was not as large as a certain prince expected.
For Moxi Menggu, because its territory is far away from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty and only connected by a Hexi Corridor, it is really difficult to control.
A certain prince's trust in Li Zicheng and Chai Shihua is even more out of the question. It would be best if they just explode on the spot to make them happy!
Li Zicheng still has some ability, Chai Shihua is a pure loser, and he may not be Li Zicheng's opponent in the Western Regions.
A certain prince only planned to support those who were useful to him, and left those who were useless to fend for themselves, or "chopping firewood with a borrowed knife."
For the place that is beyond his reach, a certain prince can only add fuel to the flames for the time being and will not actively participate in it.
In particular, feeding Li Zicheng was the top priority. It could neither allow Li's tribe to grow in power nor allow him to be destroyed by the armed forces of surrounding tribes.
Due to timeliness, specific operations are difficult.
But a certain prince believed that the armed gang with Li and others as its backbone would not be wiped out so easily, unless there was a collective epidemic...
This is indeed the case,
The Yarkand Khanate launched two military campaigns against the Li and Chai tribes in the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644) and the 20th year of Chongzhen (1647), and both ended in disastrous defeats.
Especially in the second war, Li Zicheng's troops were able to turn defeat into victory and achieve a good battle loss ratio.
Chai Shihua's troops had not been replenished for a long time, and their combat effectiveness and unity were not as high as those of Li's troops.
It was very difficult to resist the multi-channel attack of the Yarkand cavalry group, and ultimately suffered heavy losses.
Nearly 60% of the troops were damaged, and as many as 3,000 people died directly in the battle, which greatly damaged the vitality of the unit and also made Chai Shihua sick after hearing the news.
Chai Shihua was able to hold on very well, and he did not die of illness until the 25th year of Chongzhen (1652).
Before that, Li Zicheng didn't take advantage of others' danger, but after that, he didn't have so many scruples...
In less than three months, he used thunderous means to completely annex all the horses and chassis of his former partner, and completely eradicated those who resisted him.
By the 26th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng had 30,000 troops and his territory extended from Bosten Lake to Turpan.
However, considering that he was surrounded by tribal armed forces with malicious intentions, Li Zicheng continued to be hostile to the Yarkand Khanate.
The interactions with other tribes are quite acceptable. Even if there are some conflicts and disputes, they will not turn into swords and swords and end up with a group of people beating themselves up.
A certain prince's blood transfusion also played a vital role, and Li Zicheng annexed Chai Shihua's headquarters.
During these twelve years, a certain prince had sent people to deliver 120 small Buddha machines, 6,000 muskets, 12,000 grenades, and 1,200 sets of heavy armor.
These weapons and equipment are definitely not good enough for fighting in Guanhai or Liaodong, but in the Western Regions, they can be used as capital for local snakes to start a business.
Except for the Kazakh Khanate, which relied on Rakshasa, and the Junggar tribe, which was the strongest in the Western Regions, the weapons and equipment of other tribes were not as good as Li Zicheng's.
As for courage and combat power, let alone that. The Li tribe and the others all put their heads on their belts. Living for a day is a day's gain. Compared with fighting hard, the tribes in the Western Regions are far behind.
Ye Erqiang also summed up the lessons of two previous failures, so in the 27th year of Chongzhen (1654), he united with the nearby Huite and Heshuote tribes to launch the third conquest.
Due to heavy losses in the first two campaigns, Ye Erqiang could only send 10,000 troops this time. The Huite and Heshuote tribes each had 5,000 troops, for a total of 20,000 troops.
These two temporary allies could have dispatched tens of thousands of troops, but upon hearing that Ye Erqiang had been defeated twice, they became wary of Li Zicheng's troops.
The three troops attacked in three directions. As a result, after the first confrontation between Huite and Heshuote's cavalry, they realized that the other side was very strong, especially after quickly losing hundreds of people, they chose to conserve their strength...
It's okay to fight a battle with favorable winds, but if you lose soldiers and generals and you don't get much advantage, it's definitely not going to work.
Even if they capture this place, Huite and Heshuote will not be able to take over the territory, and it will eventually have to go to Yeerqiang.
In this case, it is just to grab a handful and run away. If you cannot grab it or you have to pay a high price, then the gain outweighs the loss.
With the "help" of these two false allies, the Yarkand Cavalry naturally did not get much advantage, and finally defeated Bosten Lake again.
From then on, the Yarkand Khanate was no longer able to attack Li Zicheng's troops. Fortunately, the other party also suffered a certain degree of losses in the defensive battle.
The two sides began a long-term confrontation across the Tarim River and the Tarim Basin. In the following years, Sun Chuanting sent troops from the Hami Guard once.
But we encountered a flood halfway through...
In this regard, Sun Chuanting could only think that it was God's will, and withdrew his troops and horses to the station.
Then he waited until a certain new emperor defeated Shunji and completely recovered the southern region of Nurgandusi.
Only then did he free up his hands and let Zhou Yuji lead an army of 200,000 people to take the northern route and attack the Junggar tribe in the Tianshan Mountains.
Sun Chuanting took his own troops and 20,000 men from the Wanli Division, took the southern route, passed through Turpan, invaded Bosten Lake, and finally entered the hinterland of the Yarkand Khanate.
Li Zicheng only learned about the previous troop dispatch three months later, but it frightened him greatly.
Even if Sun Gou Thief's troops were comparable in size to Yerqiang's troops, their combat effectiveness would not be the same.
And it is conservatively estimated that Sun Gou Thief will lead no less than 50,000 people to attack his camp.
Fortunately, the floods from heaven scared off the Sun Dog thieves. Li Zicheng believed that this was really God's will.
In the following years, there was no news of the Dog Officer Army sending troops, so Li Zicheng and others relaxed their vigilance.
Until the thirty-ninth year of Chongzhen (1666), news came from within the pass that the Dog Officer Army would send 300,000 troops to attack various parts of the Western Regions.
Now, not only will Li Zicheng's territory be lost, but the lands of other tribes may not be left either.
Although it was a rumor, Li Zicheng heard that the braided troops of the Qing Dynasty were defeated by the former Dog Prince and the current Dog Emperor Zhu Cixiang.
The war in Liaodong has subsided, and it is revealed that the dog emperor Zhu Cihong has millions of dog officers and soldiers with nothing to do. Isn't it possible that he will be stabbed?
The four kings and many generals under Li Zicheng refused to comment on whether the news that the Gouguan Army was about to send troops was true or false.
Just fight, I'm afraid I won't be able to beat you.
The Dog Officer Army is not what it used to be. I heard that it is equipped with a large number of invulnerable armored chariots, which even the Donglu cavalry can't do anything about.
If 300,000 people were to press forward, how could the area in the Lake District be completely destroyed under the fierce attack of the Gouguan Army?
If you don’t fight, you must find a way out in advance.
To the south is the desert, and beyond the desert is the plateau, where even breathing is difficult.
To the east is Gansu after passing a series of mountains. Going back will undoubtedly lead to a trap.
To the north is the territory of each tribe. Before the dog officers and soldiers come to kill them, they will have to fight with each other.
The only way to go west is to go west, where there is only the Yarkand family. After the Yarkand Khanate, there is the Kazakh Khanate.
Even if there is no way, you have to fight your way out, otherwise the dog officers and soldiers coming out of seclusion will have to eat you alive.
The criminal records of everyone in Li Zicheng's unit were all crimes committed in the pass. Naturally, they were most afraid of the Gou Guanjun coming to settle old and new accounts together.
Now we must prepare for a rainy day. When the situation is critical, we must run as far as we can, otherwise our lives will be in danger.
According to Tandegou Guanjun's troop dispatch plan, it is expected to arrive in the lake area in autumn, which happens to be the harvest season.
From this point of view, the dog officers and soldiers are still cruel and ruthless, and the dog thief Sun Chuanting is still vicious.
This is obviously because they want to eat ready-made food, so that the people in the lake area cannot harvest crops!
But he couldn't make the dog officers and soldiers change their plans. After thinking about it, Li Zicheng could only ask the generals and soldiers to prepare for harvesting crops in advance.
As long as the troop dispatch information of the Dog Officer Army is verified, all kinds of crops must be harvested quickly, and regardless of whether they are mature or not, they must be loaded into trucks and shipped.
In addition, you must fish a lot, regardless of black and white. It is best to catch all the fish in the lake and leave no fish for the Sun Dog Thief!
Li Zicheng thought so and asked his subordinates to act accordingly.
Even if there are too many fish to eat, they can be dried and used as military rations.
Li Zicheng's previous plan to increase his military strength by having children finally took shape after settling in the Lake District for more than 20 years.
The dolls of those days have now grown up, and the number of soldiers they have given birth to is as high as tens of thousands.
His eldest son Li Tianci is twenty-three years old, and his youngest ninth son Li Tianfu is also six years old.
Among them, the eldest son Li Tianci, the second son Li Tianen, the third son Li Tianba, and the fourth son Li Tianwu can all lead troops into battle.
This made Li Zicheng very happy. He was almost in his 70s and was running out of energy.
He still has ten or twenty years to live at most, but seeing his sons grow up day by day, I feel that my life has not been in vain.
Legend has it that the dragon has nine sons, and he himself has nine sons. When heaven and earth are unified, he is the real dragon emperor!
Thinking that Ye Erqiang, who was so bullying, dared to attack him three times, Li Zicheng planned to avenge him in his lifetime, even while running away!
Reliable news from the inside came from inside the pass. The imperial court had issued an order. Sun Chuanting and Zhou Yuji's troops were divided into two groups.
Sun Chuanting's 100,000 troops will directly take the lake area, which is Li Zicheng's territory.
This made everyone in the Western Tang Empire fearful, and hundreds of thousands of dog officers and soldiers came to kill him!
If you stay where you are and fight the dog officers and soldiers, there will only be two outcomes.
If our side wins, it will only attract more dog officers and soldiers.
If our side loses, we will die without a burial place.
Instead of doing that, it would be better to start breathing hard in advance...
It is exactly the same as the strategy used in fighting in the pass back then. If you can't defeat, just run. If you don't run, you are a fool.
Although many people are reluctant to leave the fertile lake area, it is obvious that staying here means dying.
After pondering for several days, Li Zicheng finally ordered the entire army to harvest crops and then march westward.
If Ye Erqiang sends troops to stop it, he can just destroy it in one go.
Otherwise, you can have a tooth ceremony while passing through the border, and then go to the Kazakh Khanate.
At the same time, news came from the north that the Donglu braided army was fighting with the Junggar tribe.
This made Li Zicheng feel that it was even more difficult to stay in the Western Regions for a long time. The future would be a bloody battlefield.
Preparing in advance is absolutely the right thing to do, and it will be too late to rush into things now.
Sun Chuanting did not let the cavalry go first, but asked the cavalry, infantry, artillery, chariot troops, baggage and airships to go together.
This is not because they are afraid of being disconnected, but because they are worried about unexpected events. If they get together, they can at least take care of each other.
The march route is fixed, which is from Hamiwei through Turpan to the commercial road of Chalimi.
There is no desert on this road, it is mainly next door and serves as a business road, so it is not difficult to walk.
To a certain extent, this left relatively ample time for Li Zicheng to move.
By the time Sun Chuanting arrived at Bosten Lake, Li Thief's troops had already fled.
Although Sun Chuanting hated Li Zicheng very much, he was sending troops according to the order and he did not intend to disobey the order.
Since he was equipped with new weapons, he was not afraid of Li Thief's troops.
Mainly because arriving at Bosten Lake is only the first step of the entire plan.
Next, our troops will continue to advance westward and capture the territory of the Yarkand Khanate.
If conditions permit, we should also cooperate with Zhou Yuji's troops to jointly attack the Kazakh Khanate.
Before leaving, Sun Chuanting received a private message from a certain new emperor.
The content is very simple. I hope that all the soldiers from the Western Expedition will return triumphantly.
Although it was just an extravagant hope, Sun Chuanting understood that he had the courage and courage to be wrapped in horse leather, and his soldiers may not want to die thousands of miles away from home.
In this western expedition, it is within my ability to lose as few soldiers as possible.
If we could capture the Yarkand Khanate without any blood, just like we captured the Bosten Lake area.
Sun Chuanting could accept it. This was equivalent to picking up fifty taels of silver for nothing on the way to court!
At this time, the Yarkand Khanate only knew the news about the battle between the Qing army and the Junggar and other tribes. It had no idea about the Ming army's westward advance and the rapid attack of Li Zicheng's troops on its own side.
Liu Zongmin, the king of Zhenxi, led the Tang army's westward march with two thousand cavalry and became the vanguard of the Tang army's westward march. Wherever he went, he killed those who needed to be killed and robbed those who needed to be robbed. He was not even polite to this old enemy.
Behind him were nearly 3,000 people from Zhennan King Li Guo and Zhendong King Yuan Zongdi. The three formed a formation and headed towards the hinterland of the Yarkand Khanate...
The second batch of attacking teams is led by the five tiger generals Tian Hualong, Tan Shousu, Liu Xiyao, Liu Fangliang, and Liu Tichun. They will clear the way for the Chinese army led by Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng's eldest son Li Tianci, second son Li Tianen, third son Li Tianba, and fourth son Li Tianwu each led a thousand people to guard the four directions of the Chinese army, while the remaining generals led their troops to break up the rear.
Li Zicheng believed that this arrangement was more appropriate. As long as he could successfully enter Yarkant territory, he would be able to turn the corner.
No matter how fast the Sun Dog thief comes, he still has to at least pack up the loot in the lake area.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, our troops can quickly advance westward and escape...
The Yarkand Khanate's troops were mainly placed in the north and east to defend other Menggu tribes and Li thieves.
However, the sudden attack launched by the Tang Army was so fierce that it was difficult for the Ye Army in the eastern region to resist and was quickly defeated.
Three days after the war, Tang Army cavalry appeared hundreds of miles across the hinterland.
Moreover, the Tang Army's offensive was divided into two waves. Ye Jun gradually began to focus on one thing at the expense of the other, and eventually the defense line collapsed completely.
The chiefs of each small tribe could only lead their own troops to defend on the spot, but they were still defeated by the Tang army one by one.
In less than half a month, Li Zicheng's army entered the Yarkand Khanate.
While looting a large number of livestock, they continued to advance westward...
