The Chu Imperial Army dispatched large armies from the western part of Monan and the Mobei area at the same time. The two armies combined forty thousand cavalry and continued to sweep westward.
This made the vast grassland instantly tense.
Zhungeer did not blindly fight, but chose to gradually withdraw the local tribes westward in order to lengthen the Chu army's logistics supply line, and use the vast grassland terrain and long distance to tire the Chu army.
But they can still do it here, but they can't do it in the Turpan area.
Because Turpan is a city and the most important large-scale oasis in the surrounding area, its strategic position is even more important than the previous Hami.
If the Chu army gains the Turpan area after losing Turpan, then the Chu army can rely on the large oasis of Turpan as an advance base to directly attack the Tacheng area and even the Yinli River Valley area.
The Yinta area is the real home base of the Jungar people. If they lose this place, they will really have no choice but to retreat to the Kazakhstan area in the west.
Therefore, in the Turpan area, the Jungar people have no plans to retreat. Even after the Hami area fell a few years ago, they spent a lot of manpower and material resources here to build the so-called defense line.
With Turpan City as the central stronghold, the city defense system was rebuilt, a large number of forts were set up, dozens of artillery pieces of different calibers were deployed, and more than 30,000 troops were stationed for a long time.
After hearing that the Chu army had launched a large-scale offensive, Zhungeer, who felt the danger, continued to mobilize troops from the western region to reinforce Turpan.
According to the scale of their troop mobilization, they may eventually be able to deploy a total of more than 50,000 troops in Turpan.
This also shows their determination:
No matter what, the Chu army must be held back in Turpan, and the Chu army must not be allowed to cross Turpan and threaten Tacheng or Yinning further behind.
Otherwise, the Jungar people may not perish, but the Jungar's hope of trying to establish a real country will be completely gone.
In the process of Zhungar building the Turpan defense line, the Russians also contributed a lot. The Russians not only sent people to help Zhungar build guns and cannons, but also directly sold a batch of guns to Zhungar.
In addition, Jungar continued his western expedition before and also plundered a large number of craftsmen and wealth from Kazakhstan and other Central Asian regions.
Otherwise, Zhungeer itself will not be able to build the so-called Turpan Defense Line.
However, Zhungeer's move to defend Turpan made the Chu army very happy.
The Chu army is not afraid of you holding on. What the Chu army is afraid of is Zhun Geer running away and then going deep into the grasslands and Gobi desert to play hide and seek with them.
They are also worried that the Jungar people will simply abandon Turpan and even the Yinli Valley and Tacheng areas, and go directly to the vast grasslands in the west. Although the Chu Empire may occupy Yinli Valley and other areas without paying any price, the problem Yes, they have to face the harassment of tens of thousands or even more Jungar cavalry at any time.
Therefore, if there is a chance to kill the main force of Zhungeer, the Chu army will be very happy.
In order to allow the Jungar people to gather more troops in Turpan and strive for a final strategic decisive battle plan, the First Army of the Chu Army even postponed the time of the main offensive plan.
Originally, according to the plan, the main force of the First Group Army should march from the Hami area towards the Turpan area in late June, and should arrive at the gates of Turpan in July and launch siege operations.
However, because the Turpan people continued to increase their troops and pretended to defend Turpan City, the First Army postponed its plan.
Although a cavalry corps was sent as the vanguard to start marching westward, they moved slowly.
The main siege forces such as the infantry and artillery in the rear moved even slower. They basically rested for a while after arriving at a city along the way. They said they were waiting for supplies, but in fact they were just to allow the Jungar people to mobilize more troops to reinforce Turpan. time.
As for your question, after Zhungeer accumulated heavy troops in Turpan, could the Chu army still capture the city of Turpan?
This is just too much worry.
So far, what is the most powerful thing about the Chu army?
Firepower!
The firepower is powerful in field battles, but the firepower is even more powerful in offensive operations.
Especially after a large number of medium and large howitzers continued to be in service, the Chu army's ability to attack difficult problems has actually far exceeded this era.
The power of the explosive grenades with wooden sabots fired by a large number of howitzers is indescribable.
The most important thing is that the Chu army has a lot of artillery and more ammunition.
There is no way, the Chu Empire is very powerful. While the armies of other countries only have dozens of artillery pieces in a large-scale battle, when the Chu army fights, they use hundreds of artillery pieces in any large-scale battle. Artillery.
Not to mention that many of these artillery pieces are epoch-making howitzers.
The comparison of firepower between the two sides is not from the same era at all. ,
Even for Zhungeer people, it is actually difficult to accurately judge how powerful the Chu army's powerful artillery firepower is.
They knew that the Chu army's guns and artillery were sharp, but they didn't have a clear understanding of how sharp they could be.
How should I put it? The contemporary Chu army has actually reached a level equivalent to that of the early 19th century, but the Jungar army is still at the level of the early 17th century.
There is a technical level difference of several hundred years, so it is no wonder that Zhungeer has difficulty in effectively and accurately judging the true combat effectiveness of the Chu army.
Judging from the power of artillery, there is actually some hope for the Jungar people if they choose to fight the Chu army in the field... After all, field battles are full of surprises. If the Jungar generals are good enough, they can even make the Chu army's artillery unable to do so. Expand your firepower in a timely manner.
But in an offensive and defensive battle, especially in a battle that allows the Chu army to slowly expand and pull up a large number of large-caliber artillery, the Zhungeers will not have the slightest chance of winning.
Unfortunately, there are not many senior Zhungeer officials who can clearly understand this, otherwise they would not choose to defend Turpan.
They only saw the important strategic role of Turpan, and one-sidedly believed that as long as they defended tenaciously, they could rely on the courage and flesh and blood of the soldiers to defend Turpan, and then defend Tacheng and Yinli Valley and other places.
This may be a competition of courage and guns!
Under such circumstances, time passed day by day. In mid-July, the forward force of the First Army, the Fourth Cavalry Army, walked slowly for nearly a month and finally arrived outside Turpan across a distance of more than 400 kilometers. .
However, these are cavalry units, and they cannot attack the hedgehog-like Turpan City.
The Fourth Cavalry Corps that came forward was not here to attack the city, but to clear the way for the infantry and artillery units in the rear and provide cavalry cover.
Three days later, the main siege force of the Chu army arrived, namely the Second Infantry Division, the combat-ready first-class division of the Chu army and the old rival of the Jungar people.
The division previously marched westward from Jiayuguan, captured Guazhou along the way, and then captured Hami City. Since then, it has been stationed and cultivated in the Hami Oasis.
This infantry division is, well, one of the main forces of the Chu army in attacking the Turpan army...
In addition to the Second Infantry Division, there was also a Seventh Infantry Division reinforced from Guazhou in the rear.
In addition to the two infantry divisions, there is also an independent heavy artillery brigade, the Eighth Heavy Artillery Brigade, which has dozens of 150mm howitzers and some 130mm field cannons.
Two infantry divisions and a heavy artillery brigade are the offensive troops prepared by the Chu army for Turpan. The total strength is about 35,000 people. This strength is not as large as the defending troops of Jungar opposite.
Zhungeer has successively mobilized troops and reinforcements, and now there are at least 40,000 defenders in the city.
In addition to this attacking force, there are also more than 20,000 cavalry troops such as the Fourth Cavalry Corps and the 19th Cavalry Division that provide cavalry cover. They are also stationed in cities along the rear to maintain logistics supply lines and also serve as strategic reserves. The 37th Division, which can be transferred to the Turpan front line when necessary, has been strengthened in maneuverability and is actually no different from the combat readiness A-level division.
Three infantry divisions, four cavalry divisions, and one heavy artillery brigade are the main force prepared by the First Army of the Chu Army for the Jungar people in the direction of Turpan.
There are also a large number of heavy transport groups that are not included in the field army. They are formed by recruiting young and strong civilians. These transportation groups are deployed on the long supply line in the rear, from the Hexi Corridor to Jiayuguan, then to Hami, and then to Turpan. Basically There will be a transportation group in the cities at a certain distance. These transportation groups continuously transport materials from the Shaanxi-Gansu region in a relay manner.
And these transport personnel are much more than the number of troops fighting on the front line.
Just such a logistics supply line alone has more than 200,000 people, and tens of thousands of various carriages!
Not to mention the light two-wheeled carriages, there are more than 30,000 four-wheeled heavy-duty and light freight carriages alone!
This is a very scary data, because this is only the number of personnel and carriages on this supply line, and does not include the large number of carriages owned by the frontline army.
If added up, this data will directly make the opposite Junger people despair!
To put it bluntly, the total personnel mobilized by the Chu Empire for this war, including frontline combat troops and logistics personnel, totaled more than the population of the Zhungeer Department.
With so many people participating directly or indirectly in the war, the cost is naturally huge.
In the contemporary world, only the Chu Empire can sustain such a large-scale expedition.
Under the powerful national power of the Chu Empire, the main siege troops under the First Army gradually arrived at the gates of Turpan.
And with the arrival of the main force of the Chu army, especially when the hundreds of artillery pieces outside the city appeared one after another, anyone who looked at the Zhungeer defenders in the city would feel numb.
Damn it, how can you resist so many artillery pieces?
In fact, they really can't resist it.
When they chose to defend Turpan, when they gave the Chu army time to calmly mobilize their troops and supplies, when they gave the Chu army's cavalry troops to intercept their subsequent reinforcements or even retreat.
The Battle of Turpan has actually lost any suspense.
On July 27, the First Army officially launched a general attack on Turpan City!
Hundreds of artillery pieces began to take turns bombarding the enemy's defense line in front, focusing on destroying the enemy's forts and fixing the defensive positions.
Under the intensive shelling of the Chu army, the Zhungeer defenders deeply felt what real war was.
It was clear that the infantry of the Chu Barbarians had not rushed up yet, but the continuous falling of explosive bombs knocked them out of their wits.
Especially during the first day's bombardment, they underestimated the intensity of the Chu army's bombardment. More importantly, they failed to build a complete series of anti-artillery fortifications against grenades. Instead, they used a plan to defend against solid artillery shells. fortifications.
However, these fortifications to protect against solid artillery shells are of little use when the trajectory is curved and the explosive grenades are barely useful.
The intensive shelling completely stunned Zhungeer.
The general offensive failed on the first day, but the Zhungeer garrison suffered at least a thousand casualties, all of them killed or wounded under the fierce shelling.
This number of casualties may seem small among the more than 40,000 defenders, but this was only the first day of the war, and the Chu army had not even sent out infantry.
In the following days, the Chu army continued bombardment, especially severely suppressing Zhungeer's defensive artillery.
And began to cover the infantry units on a small scale to clear some defense nodes outside the city, that is, some protruding fortresses, forts, and firepower points at fixed points one by one.
It seems that there are not many infantry dispatched, basically a few hundred people, no more than a thousand people, but the supporting artillery fire is very fierce.
Often before an infantry battalion launches an attack, there will be at least dozens of artillery pieces behind to provide fire support.
Amidst the roar of cannons, the Chu army's infantry successfully captured many defense points outside the city.
Five days after the war began, the Chu army's infantry had advanced the battle line to the Turpan city wall.
There were no surprises in the subsequent attack on the main fortifications of the city wall. The Chu army launched an attack on three lines at the same time. The heavy assault troops that had been prepared long ago broke through at fixed points, and then expanded the gap to cover the entry of more friendly troops.
On the eighth day, the Chu army had fully captured the eastern city wall and began to advance toward other walls and even the hinterland of the city.
By this time in the battle, the Jungar people's plan to defend Turpan City had actually completely failed.
Turpan has been captured.
The subsequent stubborn resistance will not change the overall situation.
It was even difficult for them to break through. After all, the city of Turpan at this time had been strategically surrounded by the Chu army, and there were tens of thousands of cavalry outside the city watching eagerly.
More than 20,000 Zhungeer cavalry in the outer area once wanted to rush in to meet the defenders in the city, but they were blocked by the Chu army's cavalry.
Under such circumstances, the remaining defenders in Turpan City were annihilated one by one. They either surrendered or were killed or injured, but few of them were able to escape.
On August 9, all fighting in Turpan City ended, even sporadic fighting ended.
The engineering troops in the Chu army have begun to build the city defense fortifications of Turpan City. The leading troops of the First Army have left Turpan City and are heading towards the Tacheng area and the Yinli Valley area.
During the same period, the Second Cavalry Army fighting in the north had also reached a place only a few hundred kilometers northeast of Tacheng.
In other words, even if the First Army of the Chu Army did not achieve a breakthrough in Turpan City, the Chu Army's cavalry units headed by the Second Cavalry Army and coming from the Monan Grassland could still reach the home base of the Jungar people.
There is no way, the Chu army has more troops, more money and food, and can advance on several fronts at the same time. No matter which front has a breakthrough, it can pose a great threat to the Jungar people.
After the fall of Turpan, Zhungeer also completely gave up on fighting a head-on offensive and defensive battle with the Chu army. They began to voluntarily abandon almost all the cities they had and returned to the traditional warfare of their nomadic people.
They exited the Tacheng area directly and returned to the Yinli Valley area.
But in fact, they retreated too late.
In the Battle of Turpan, they lost more than 40,000 troops in one breath. Although these more than 40,000 troops were not elite cavalry, they were also their elite infantry and artillery.
After the Battle of Turpan, Zhungeer can't even get dozens of field guns...
There were not many arquebusiers left.
If this didn't change their tactics, they wouldn't be able to continue fighting.
Zhungeer took the initiative to retreat, and the Chu army was naturally rude and continued to control many places in the Western Region, especially the Tacheng area, like an armed march. Then tens of thousands of troops rushed straight to the Yinli Valley, which is now Zhungeer. Yin Ning, the administrative center of people, left.
Naturally, there was a battle with Zhungeer's cavalry on the way.
Speaking of cavalry, Zhungeer's cavalry is much better than their infantry and artillery... No matter how bad it is, Zhungeer's cavalry can't be beaten and can still run away.
Moreover, the Zhungeer cavalry has learned their lesson long ago. They will not engage in large-scale formation charges with your Chu army cavalry at all. Instead, they will engage in small and medium-scale harassment operations. If they have a chance, they will take a bite. If there is no chance, they will directly Run away.
In terms of maneuvering speed, the Zhungeer cavalry, as nomadic cavalry, is not much worse than the Chu army cavalry.
Therefore, in the cavalry battle, although the Chu cavalry had a strategic advantage, there was not much difference in the casualty ratio between the two sides in the actual battle.
However, the cavalry losses did not seem to be much, but after a while of fighting, the Chu army's cavalry reached outside the Yinli Valley.
If it weren't for the fact that the northern, eastern and southern areas of the Yinli River Valley are covered with mountains, making it inconvenient for troops to carry supplies and artillery, and if small and medium-sized light-armed troops rashly penetrate deep, they would be easily attacked by the enemy's superior troops and firepower. The army has already entered the Yinli Valley.
Now, the Chu army plans to wait for the main infantry and artillery forces of the First Army to come up and then coordinate operations.
Anyway, the strategic victory of this war is certain, and the army does not want to have a quick victory, and then act rashly to cause any problems.
On September 23, although the weather had begun to cool down, the Chu army, which had been fully prepared several years in advance, still did not stop and reached the Yinli Valley hundreds of kilometers away in one breath.
However, in the Battle of Turpan, the Jungar people were directly frightened by the Chu army's powerful offensive capabilities. Even if the Chu army reached the Yinli River Valley, even though the Yinli River Valley was already their home base, they still I don't have the courage to stand here.
Instead, he packed up his tent and drove the horses and sheep to the west!
If you can't beat me, you can't run away?
The Yinli River Valley continues to the west, which is the truly endless Central Asian prairie. Do you, the Chu barbarian, have the ability to chase after it?
As for whether Jungar will have nowhere to go when he moves west, there is no need to worry, because the Kazakh Khanate in the west itself was defeated by Jungar.
Zhungeer couldn't defeat the Chu army in the east, but if he went to the west to attack the Kazakh Khanate, he would be able to hit them one by one...
Zhungeer ran away quickly... but it was just his headquarters and a few closely related tribes who ran away together. In fact, there were many tribal people who had previously surrendered to them who did not run with them, or who resisted the Chu army sporadically. Either surrender and surrender.
Therefore, the strength of Zhungar who moved westward has dropped a lot compared to its peak period a few years ago. After moving westward, it will continue to fight with the Kazakh Khanate. The future is no longer optimistic.
In this regard, the Da Chu Empire was no longer too concerned.
Anyway, the Yinli River Valley has been captured, and the Tacheng area in the north has also been captured. Although some cities in the south have not yet been captured, this is due to time constraints. The partial division going south is still on the way... but it is expected that there will be sporadic losses in the south. The city could not resist the king's army of Chu.
To a certain extent, the Western Region in a narrow sense has been fully recovered by the Chu Empire.
The Dachu Empire has completed the strategic plan formulated before the war: seize the Western Region!
The only fly in the ointment is that although they severely damaged the Western Regions, wiped out tens of thousands of their main forces, and caused a large number of tribes that had previously surrendered to Zhungeer to switch to the Chu Empire.
However, the Zhungeer tribe and several closely related tribes, with a total of more than 200,000 tribesmen, fled westward. They may still pose a certain threat to the Western Front to the Chu Empire in the future.
But there is nothing we can do about this kind of thing... They are nomads, they have no place to defend, and they have a large number of mules and horses on hand. Their fighting skills are hard to say, but their ability to escape is first-rate.
If Zhungeer didn't want to play a decisive battle with the Chu army, the Chu army would really not be able to find their main force and then gather together to annihilate them.
After capturing the Yinli River Valley, the local weather has cooled down significantly. Especially since October, the local mountains and plateau areas have become extremely cold.
Winter is coming!
In this case, the Chu army's top priority was not to pursue the enemy's remnants, but to take advantage of the last window of time when the mountains were blocked by heavy snow to urgently transport a batch of supplies to the garrisons on the western front as much as possible.
The war in the Western Region is, to some extent, over.
After the news came back to Jinling City, Luo Zhixue was not too happy, because this was something that was expected.
After spending several years preparing, spending so much money and food, and mobilizing so many troops, if the Yinli Valley and Tacheng and other areas cannot be successfully captured, then Luo Zhixue will be held accountable...
The military victory was expected, but whether the Western Region could be completely integrated into the rule of the Chu Empire in the future and avoid all kinds of turbulence in the future would require Luo Zhixue to further implement various policies.
To this end, Luo Zhixue officially decreed the establishment of Turpan Province.
