Liu Chengzong never dreamed that Zhou Qiang actually regained Hami passively.
The fuse 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 armors and sharp 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. When he followed the national adviser Khan to the south, 40,000 Oirat coalition troops came from Barkol, and they
The city of Hami, with a population of over ten thousand, 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 with 40,000 and returned with 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 is that the nobles in Hami don’t know Liu Chengzu. When they were heading south, a mighty 40,000 Oirat coalition 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 Chalihu to Turpan, who didn't know that Oirat was defeated in Qinghai, and how dare you be so arrogant when the remaining soldiers came back after defeat?
Besides, this is 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 Yerqiang 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 to younger brothers. If all the brothers of the same generation die, the older ones will be chosen from among the descendants and nephews.
Succession.
Everyone has common sense and hopes that his country can be ruled by his son.
This kind of inheritance law is a helpless move on the grassland. Tribal leaders are a high-risk profession. Tribal vendettas, wounds from swords and arrows, obesity, gout, high blood pressure and diabetes, there is always someone who can take people away.
Expect young people or even teenagers to succeed to the throne. When the season changes, you don't even know where the pasture is, and you 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 called 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 Adurain to Turpan as the 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 be divided into two parts.
Power has fallen by the wayside.
Over the past twenty years, due to the legacy of passing the throne to his son, there have been many provocations, 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 Khan of the East, Abdullahin, has died, he is no longer bound by family selection. 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. The eldest son, Abdullah, who is the heir, 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
Come back.
The remaining sons of the old man are very active at this time. The brothers themselves are feudal lords with military power. The brotherhood 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 and forties. Except for the second brother, no one has ever seen the eldest brother in his life. Even the second brother Aji only heard others say that he had met the eldest brother. After all, he had not seen him at that time.
What about taking notes?
Under this situation, the brothers thought about it, one is in the east and the other is 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
The best in the world.
Under the current situation, the Khan in the West will definitely put his eldest brother back to inherit the throne. This is a conspiracy that you don’t even have to think about.
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 like a big 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, but forget about the territory and benefits. The brothers must first divide the Eastern Khanate, and divide their pastures and fiefdoms. In the future, if the eldest brother does not want to pass the throne to them, it will be easy to say, go west.
Hit.
Take down 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 has 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 the Central Plains lost its protection of the Western Regions after the Anshi Rebellion, 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, this Silk Road, which has been reduced to an ordinary trade route, is still a golden road.
Subjectively, the people in power in Yerkang do not care about the Ming Emperor who is thousands of miles away; but objectively, every noble in Yerkang 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 main source of income for a country.
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, Babai knew that a rebel army entered Qinghai during the Ming Dynasty, but he did not know the name of the leader of the rebel army or 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 to rob the Han people! Be sure to plant the flag on the gate of Ganzhou!
There was a Marshal's Mansion in Hehuang, and 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.
Integrating 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:
There was a rebellion in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, and a rebel army poured into Qinghai. Han people didn't like to run out, so they were probably the rebel army.
During the battle between this group of Tatar rebels and the Huoluochi tribe, a leader named Hanhan emerged. He was probably a Mongolian nobleman from the Tumote tribe. His slogan was: Lead the army to rob the Han people! In order to cope with the 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 is still there, and a supported Daiqing Khitan Khan has 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 town of Hami, thinking that there was only one truth: the rebels were the ultimate victors.
Han Khan defeated all the enemies, succeeded Daiqing Khitan Khan, established Dunta Ulus, and commanded 200,000 men, which is reasonable and reasonable.
Under such circumstances, Batur Hutaiji led his remaining defeated troops across the Xingxing Gorge in a hurry, and there were more than 7,000 Han troops behind him 'chasing him'.
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 can 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 the more than 4,000 quasi-cavalrymen of Batur Hutaiji.
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 yak carts. Even if they lost the battle, they still looked relatively wealthy.
If he hadn't given 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 his fifth brother would be cold. p>
Aziz mobilized troops mainly to defend Gansu. He sent someone to send a message to Babai saying: "In recent years, the Han people have become terribly poor in the area, and they have become more and more shameless. They 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 the 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 drinks 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.
They came to Hami City to ask for something, just 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 him, and eight hundred horses were sent in advance to stay still.
Babai watched on the city as the quasi-troop army grew more and more. More than 4,000 people gathered together, but they were still motionless. Then... he saw the Han army coming with flags, and 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 did not say much and began to prepare for the siege.
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 had no choice but to go down to the city.
The leading general asked the interpreter to tentatively call out: "General Liu?"
Liu Chengzu nodded in response. Babai was convinced that it was bad, so he became more decisive and surrendered on the spot.