Under such circumstances, Zhungeer was actually already sunset and was about to be doomed.
Based on the overall strategic requirements to control the Ob River, and also because in the past few years, the Chu army has been very effective in the settlement of the Turpan Oasis area, Yinning Valley and other areas. Not only has it met the military food needs of a large number of local troops stationed there, it has even Some ammunition can be supplied locally.
In addition, some strategic strategic materials have been continuously transported back from the eastern region in recent years.
Now the Chu Empire has accumulated enough grain, grass, weapons and ammunition. As long as the logistics are sufficient, the Chu Empire Army can launch a large-scale war in the area east of Lake Balkhash and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River and completely kill them. The remnants of Jungar.
In the spring of the 22nd year of Chengshun, Luo Zhixue had already approved the strategic plan of the First Army to launch a large-scale offensive locally in order to annihilate the remnants of Jungar.
At the same time, it was also approved that the Second Army should use the city of Yeniseisk as a base to launch an offensive westward in order to capture the city of Tomsk and several other Russian-controlled strongholds located in the upper reaches of the Ob River.
Therefore, while the Central Plains of the Great Chu Empire was prosperous and reveling in the area of high-pressure steam engines, in the far northwest, the two armies of the Great Chu Empire Army had successively mobilized a total of hundreds of thousands of troops, mainly cavalry. The troops started a new round of Western Expedition.
The reason why so many troops were mobilized was mainly to deal with the remnants of the Jungar tribe. There was no other way. The Jungar tribe was a typical nomadic people. They wanted to use all the people as soldiers... Every man grew up on horseback. A natural horseman.
Therefore, despite the fact that they were dealing with only the remnants of Zhungeer with a total population of only a few hundred thousand, the First Army of the Chu Army actually dispatched more than 50,000 cavalry for this purpose, as well as infantry and artillery to cooperate with the battle. , baggage and heavy troops and other troops of 20,000 to 30,000 people.
The main combat mission is carried out by the cavalry, while auxiliary forces such as infantry, artillery and baggage are actually used to build new city fortresses in the rear, transport logistics and baggage, and maintain logistics lines.
In the large-scale war launched in the northwest region this year, most of the troops were used to deal with the remnants of Jungar. As for the Russians... there were only more than 20,000 Chu troops.
And the more than 20,000 Chu troops are still scattered in several places... Among them, Tomsk, the key offensive direction, only has about 10,000 Chu troops.
This is not to say that the Chu army despises these Russians... In fact, despite the small number of troops sent by the Chu army, in fact, the cost and difficulty of maintaining more than 20,000 troops in combat are no more than maintaining 50,000 cavalry and two or three cavalry in the south. With ten thousand auxiliary troops, it is easy to accurately target Geer.
Even more difficult to some extent.
For no other reason than because it was too difficult to supply supplies for combat in the Siberian region.
At the same time, the Russians seem to have few troops, but they are equipped with guns and artillery, and most of the time they defend the city. For the Chu army, if the troops sent out are just pure cavalry or light troops, they will actually have no effect on the Russians. What a threat.
In order to take out these Russian fortresses, the Chu army had to bring a lot of artillery.
Maintaining artillery mobility and combat is much more difficult than maintaining cavalry mobility.
In the army of the Dachu Empire, the artillery was the biggest gold-digger, and the cavalry could only rank second.
After all, the cavalry only needs one bite to eat. If that doesn't work, they can go out with a large herd of cattle, horses, sheep, etc., and let the animals eat grass all the way. There is no problem in marching like nomads.
But artillery... In addition to a large number of horse-drawn cannons, it also requires a large amount of ammunition.
All these ammunition had to be transported thousands of miles from the rear, which was extremely difficult.
This is also the reason why the Chu army had to build two comprehensive arsenals in the vast and sparsely populated cities of Kuhl and Yining. Instead of setting up arsenals on the front line to produce guns and ammunition, and just relying on transportation from the rear, it would be a big loss for Chu. The empire's national strength cannot support large-scale operations in the northwest region.
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After a series of preparations, the Fourth Cavalry Army of the First Group Army of the Da Chu Empire and the Second Cavalry Army, a total of 40,000 main cavalry, set out from Yin Ning City and entered the grassland in June, killing many scattered soldiers along the way. Jungar tribe.
Finally, in late July, they reached the northeast of Lake Balkhash, which is the upper reaches of the Irtysh River.
This is already the last territory of the Jungar people.
If they cannot hold it, they will have no choice but to flee westward and enter the area controlled by the Kazakh Khanate or go down the Irtysh River and enter the area controlled by the Russians.
No matter which path it takes, it is actually not a good path for them.
Fleeing westward into the territory of the Kazakh Khanate? The Kazakh Khanate is well prepared. Several large tribes have gathered on the border, and they can summon 10,000 to 20,000 cavalry to intercept them at any time.
Zhungeer and the Kazakh Khanate have been fighting for many years. The Kazakh Khanate was bullied by them before. In recent years, they have been following the Chu army, but they have often played revenge battles. This time the Chu army is going to fight Zhungeer. When Geer started filming, they were also very concerned about it... and were on guard against it!
Not only to guard against the remnants of Zhungeer, but also against the Chu army!
Everyone in the Kazakh Khanate looks like an enemy now... Needless to say, Zhungeer is an enemy.
As for the Great Chu Empire, although there is no conflict with them now and there is even some cooperation, they also know that there is a huge risk from a powerful neighbor... There is no guarantee that the Chu army will enter the hinterland of the Kazakh Khanate at any time.
As for the Russians, the Russians have bullied the Kazakh Khanate before...
Therefore, in Central Asia, the Kazakh Khanate is very miserable. Looking at death, they are all enemies or potential enemies.
Therefore, the Kazakh Khanate has always been very vigilant. It is estimated that it will be very difficult for the remnants of Zhungar to flee westward... Although they support the war between Zhungar and the Dachu Empire, this support is also limited.
Well, the Russians themselves cannot protect themselves, so how can they have any extra manpower and material resources to support Jungar.
Once Zhungeer enters the territory of the Russians and defectes to the Russians, he might be used as cannon fodder by Russia... After all, the Russians are also resisting the Chu army's attack now, and the resistance is extremely difficult. If there can be more than a dozen They should be happy to let them use the cannon fodder tribe with a population of 10,000.
However, according to the current war situation, once the remnants of Jungar defect to the Russians and become cannon fodder for the Russians, they may be completely exterminated!
The Chu army has never been merciful to the various indigenous servants of the Russians. During the previous battle of Yeniseisk, Russia recruited many surrounding indigenous tribes to assist in the battle.
After the war, the Chu army, in order to retaliate and intimidate other tribes, slaughtered all the indigenous tribes who dared to help the Russians defend the city and provided money and people.
The Zhungar people are not a tribe with limited information on the northern grasslands. They also know more or less about the battle situation in the Yenisei River Basin from the Russian population, and they also know that after completely irritating the Chu army, they may consequences that will be encountered.
How to put it? They Zhungeer were defeated in the war to defend their homeland, and the remaining troops still have a chance to surrender.
But if you run over and serve as cannon fodder for the Russians and are defeated, you will end up being exterminated without even a chance to surrender.
Therefore, among the remaining members of Jungar's army, few people are willing to defect to the Russians and become cannon fodder.
And their escape to the west was blocked by the Kazakh Khanate... With no way out, they could only grit their teeth and try to resist.
On July 28, the First Army of the Chu Army's Western Expedition Cavalry Corps, with a total of 40,000 cavalry in its two main cavalry corps, fought against the remaining 60,000 Zhungar troops in the Irtysh River!
Zhungeer's 60,000 horsemen, to be precise, are 60,000 men who can ride horses, ranging from twelve or thirteen years old to forty or fifty years old.
They have already drawn out all the young men who can ride war horses and draw bows.
They already knew that they had no other way out and came with the mentality of fighting to the death.
If they win, they can survive for a few more years. Maybe they can take the opportunity to negotiate peace with the Chu Empire, strive for an armistice treaty, and achieve real peace.
If they lose...then there is nothing to say, and the Zhungeer tribe will become history.
Of course, the lives of most clan members, especially the old, weak, women and children, can probably be saved.
The Jungar people came with the determination to fight to the death, and at the same time they also had some unrealistic hopes for victory in the battle.
But not long after the battle started, any hope of luck in their hearts completely disappeared.
As soon as the battle began, the Chu cavalry on the opposite side pulled out more than seventy field cavalry cannons like crazy...
Seeing these multiple cavalry cannons being pulled up and then firing at Zhungeer's cavalry array one after another, all the high-ranking dignitaries of Zhungeer were ashen-faced!
How to fight this?
There's no way to fight!
After several hours of fierce fighting between the two sides, under the fierce artillery fire of the Chu army, Zhungeer's cavalry could not complete an effective formation at all, and were then continuously attacked and divided by the Chu army's cavalry...
In a huge battle composed of tens of thousands of cavalry on both sides, they seemed to have become a backdrop, used to set off the power of the Chu army's cavalry.
The two sides fought fiercely until the afternoon, and many arrays on the Jungar side had been defeated. Now on this huge battlefield, Jungar's soldiers can only fight alone in units of hundreds or thousands of riders. .
Just looking at the situation on the battlefield, everyone knows that even if the two sides have not yet made actual short-distance contact and fought, the casualties on both sides are not large, but the victory or defeat is actually determined!
Several leading dignitaries in Jungar also knew it!
After a sigh, an order was issued from Zhungeer's central army camp for the entire army to surrender!
This battle is no longer possible. If we continue to fight, in addition to causing a large number of casualties on Zhungeer's side, the only point left is to consume the Chu army's ammunition.
The option of escaping had long been rejected by Zhungeer's senior officials. If they had wanted to escape, they would have escaped long ago and would not have gathered 60,000 troops to fight the Chu army in a strategic decisive battle.
What they can do now is to save the lives of these young Zhunge soldiers on the battlefield and the lives of more old, weak, women and children in the rear.
Although the Zhungeer tribe will become history, most Zhungeer people can continue to live.
With the surrender of the Jungar Army, this huge cavalry battle, which involved a total of more than 100,000 cavalrymen on both sides and a battlefield area of more than ten kilometers in radius, ended in an anticlimactic manner.
The total number of troops participating in the battle exceeded 100,000 cavalry, but in fact the number of casualties in the battle was not large. Even Zhungeer's side only suffered casualties of about 3,000 cavalry, which accounted for one-twentieth of their total strength.
The Chu army suffered even fewer casualties, with only more than 400 cavalry killed and wounded before and after.
This battle was very large-scale, with tens of thousands of cavalry at every turn. It looked very grand, but the actual battle process was not intense. In fact, there was not even a single large-scale cavalry confrontation between the two sides.
Most of them were maneuvering, shelling, dismounted shooting, or playing mounted shooting at Zhungeer, etc.
There was no large-scale hand-to-hand combat!
Most of the casualties of the Jungar people were caused by the intensive artillery fire of the Chu army, and some were killed by the line of muskets fired by the Chu army's cavalry after dismounting and infantry.
However, this strategic decisive battle that ended in an anticlimax did not affect its huge strategic significance in the slightest.
After this battle, the three major Mongolian forces, Monan Mongolia, Mobei Mongolia, and Mobei Mongolia, all surrendered to the Chu Empire!
If we must say it, then only the Mongolian Turghut tribe of Mongolia, which had moved westward to the lower reaches of the Ural River in large numbers in the early years, is still outside the rule of the Great Chu Empire.
After this battle, it can be said that the Chu Empire completely solved the northern border troubles caused by the nomads in the northern grasslands that had troubled China for thousands of years.
After the news of the Battle of Irtysh reached Jinling City, Luo Zhixue drank heartily and danced with a group of outstanding dancers from the Royal Music and Dance Troupe for most of the night.
After getting up with sore back and legs the next day, he personally gave instructions at the staff meeting to promptly implement measures in the newly controlled areas such as the area east of the Yibo Sea (Balkhash Lake) and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River. Establish prefectures and counties for direct rule.
In addition to some recalcitrant elements, criminals who have committed crimes against the people of the empire, and a series of people who need to be eliminated, other ordinary members must be properly placed.
This proper resettlement naturally does not mean preferential treatment, but even allows them to continue to maintain independent tribes.
Instead, in accordance with the usual handling methods, all the hundreds of thousands of remaining Zhungeer troops will be dispersed and redistributed on a family basis to designated herding points in various places. The distribution areas range from the Western Region to Monan to Mobei and even Liaodong, They are all available in Qinghai and other places.
The Zhungeer Tribe and its many subordinate tribes, and even the so-called Desert Mongolia, will completely become a historical term.
This is not only the case in Mongolia. In fact, most of the earlier Monan Mongolia and Mobei Mongolia also went through this kind of restructuring. However, this kind of restructuring at that time was a peaceful restructuring, which was more gentle and respected some of their own wishes. , the distribution will not be so fragmented.
There is a big difference between voluntarily surrendering peacefully and being forced to surrender after defeat.
The biggest manifestation of this is nothing more than the powerful leaders of the Zhungeer tribe. Except for a few people who had been friendly to the empire before and received slight preferential treatment, the others did not receive preferential treatment and only saved their lives. That’s all.
A few recalcitrants or unlucky ones were also killed.
After being split and resettled, the Zhungeer tribe, which once dominated Central Asia and had a huge presence in the Western Regions, completely disappeared in the long river of history!
The destruction of the Zhungeer tribe caused huge repercussions within the Chu Empire.
Although the destruction of Zhungeer was actually an inevitable result, they were destined to surrender or perish after the rise of the Chu Empire. Even the Great Chu Empire was not a feudal industrialized country, even if it was just an ordinary feudal country. .
Most of the dynasties that have unified the Central Plains and are in the period of rising national power will turn their attention to the north and northwest in the next step. There has been no exception in the past thousands of years!
Any time the Central Plains dynasty rises, the nomadic people in the north will be beaten and unable to take care of themselves.
However, those who can directly integrate or kill the northern steppe nomads like the Great Chu Empire can directly push the actual control area northward to the Arctic Ocean and westward to Lake Balkhash and the Irtysh River, directly The roots of the traditional nomadic people in northern China have been dug up.
That was truly unprecedented.
This special, first great achievement in history was also highlighted by the Chaobao Department of the Ministry of Rites and Education of the Great Chu Empire.
The focus of propaganda is not only to solve the northern border troubles, how much territory to expand in the north and northwest, and how many foreigners to annihilate, but more importantly, to publicize the complete solution to the northern border troubles that has plagued China for thousands of years.
After a series of continuous operations of the Northern Strategy and the Northwest Strategy for more than ten years, the Chu Empire had fundamentally eliminated the problem of border troubles in the north.
After large-scale immigration, comprehensive education, and a series of measures such as the fixed herding model, large-scale intermarriage, and ancestor recognition, the Great Chu Empire can be proud to say that in the future, the northern grasslands, even Siberia and the Western Regions will not appear. What about the alien rebellion?
Because there will be no alien races in the future!
There are not even foreign races, so why talk about border troubles in the north?
At most, it would be one's own people fighting their own people, a civil war or something like that.
This series of public opinion propaganda reached the people and aroused a huge response from the people. The people praised the empire's great achievements.
Even the very few people who still cherish the future have to admit at this time that the Chu Dynasty has achieved what the Ming Dynasty dreamed of doing but has been unable to do for more than two hundred years.
However, despite admitting this, this very small number of people still believe that the Chu Empire was an extremely cruel and brutal dynasty with harsh governance everywhere.
Not to mention anything else, the mere fact that the gentry should pay taxes is the most ridiculous thing in the world.
In addition, the empire has opened a large number of so-called government-run enterprises to compete with the people for profit, and has implemented a monopoly system on salt administration and grain, etc. This has made many people very unhappy.
Your government has made all the money, so what do we make?
Some scholars sometimes miss Qianming when they look at the dilapidated Yangzhou. Thinking back to that time in Qianming, how good the thin horses in Yangzhou were, and the prices were reasonable and pleasant...
Nowadays, all of them are unworthy of the market, and it will be very expensive to pay them back!
Often after elegant people spend money to enter the Sage's Hour, they will sigh with a look of concern for the country and the people: The world is getting worse!
Of course, this does not prevent them from working hard to learn mathematics, physics, and chemistry, practice eight-legged prose repeatedly, and strive to pass the imperial examination as soon as possible and become officials of the Chu Empire...
Including this third Western Expedition, they also felt a common sense of honor for this, and believed that the country was still very powerful in external expansion.
The only thing that makes them dissatisfied is that the Western Expedition costs too much. I heard that fighting a war costs millions of Chu Yuan. Since the Zhungeer people are all half-buried remnants, they definitely can't spend so much money. Whatever. Giving tens of thousands of Chu Yuan would probably be enough for the frontline soldiers.
The money saved can be used for the country's people's livelihood. How great would it be to provide concubinage subsidies to the gentry...
The Third Western Expedition to the Northwest carried out by the Great Chu Empire in conjunction with the later plan of the Northern Strategy, namely the Ob River Strategy, aroused huge public repercussions in the Great Chu Empire.
Although there are still some people who complain about many things, the overall public opinion is very positive, and the people's sense of identification with the Chu Empire has been further enhanced.
This is of great positive significance to the long-term and stable rule of the Chu Empire.
While the country was reveling in the overthrow of Zhungeer, the war in the northwest was still going on...
In the upper reaches of the Irtysh River, dozens of kilometers north of Zhaisangbo Lake, more than 10,000 Chu troops are gathering here!
When the Chu Empire attacked Jungar before, some of its troops moved down the upper reaches of the Irtysh River from the Altai region to put pressure on logistics and transport, and at the same time to divide the power of the Jungar tribes.
After killing Zhungeer, more than 70,000 troops gathered in this area and then began to disperse!
Among them, more than 10,000 Chu troops went out to the mouth of the Irtysh River north of Zhaisangbo Lake and its tributary Uliba River to build a city and garrison troops.
And the fortress was named Hetong City. By the way, the Turpan Governor's Yamen simply established Hetong County here to govern the huge area nearby...
Although there are currently no people in this area, the original Zhungeer herdsmen will be dispersed and resettled in other places, but it won't be long before herders' families from Monan, Mobei, Qinghai and other places will move here. Live a fixed pastoral life.
At the same time, according to the consistent reclamation measures of the Da Chu Empire, the reclamation will be carried out wherever the fortress is built. In addition to military reclamation, the government will also organize official immigrants to carry out agricultural reclamation in these places.
Therefore, there will definitely be more and more ordinary people in this place in the future. After all, the natural conditions of this place are not bad, the terrain is relatively flat, and the water resources are abundant, so they can be properly cultivated and grown. In addition, this place itself is Jungar. The former grazing land can also be used for grazing.
To the south of the city is Zhaisangbo Lake, which is rich in freshwater fish resources. Coupled with the freshwater fish resources in the Irtysh River itself, fishery can still be developed.
