Chapter 31 Sejong Chapter 32 Dominate Central Asia in the Sixth Year of Jianlong
In Gaozhou, Mahmud made three main arrangements for Ghazni: First, he set up camp and built a series of barriers. While staring at Gaozhou City, he looked at the river city and looked forward to the further reaction of the Anxi Army.
Second, send troops to clear out the towns and cities in Anxi that were missed during the previous advance, and stragglers, especially along the Jihun River Basin, to open and consolidate the grain roads leading directly to the country, and to prepare for a long-term fierce battle. There will indeed be a steady stream of troops in the future.
Continuous supplies of military supplies were transferred through the Balkh plain in the north of Ghaznavids, advancing by land and water to enrich the front line.
Third, when the army did not move lightly, Mahmud dispatched several elite cavalry groups of varying sizes to cross the Jihun River eastward and attack directly into the hinterland of Anxi. The mission given by Mahmud was of course not to attack the river.
Instead, we should go to the big cities in the region to kill people, kill the Han people, kill the traitors who betrayed Allah and were willing to be slaves of the Han people, and at the same time rescue those believers who were unwilling to be enslaved by the Han people, and instigate them to participate in the revenge against the Han people. This strategy,
It was obviously intended to disrupt Anxi's normal preparations for war and weaken its vitality.
Fourth, change the feinting divisions in the direction of Mingcheng in Khorasan to take the initiative, join the tens of thousands of jihadists who have come from the east, use all their strength to regain the lost territory, conquer Mingcheng, go to the east wing of the Anxi Kingdom, and completely consolidate the rear of the Gaozhou army.
Fifth, Mahmud also sent envoys north to contact the Ogusye Huguo, Kimak, Geluolu and other forces in the northern grasslands of Anxi, and invited them to go south to attack Anxi together and share the wealth, land, and population.
Mahmoud's combination of punches really created a sense of danger, internal and external troubles in Anxi in a short period of time, and even Anxi King Liu Wenze couldn't help but panic.
However, there are still many capable people in the Anxi Dynasty at this stage. There is veteran Kang Jirong guarding Gaozhou. While guarding the river, he firmly restrains Mahmud's army so that it does not dare to cross eastward rashly; in the river, when
When the dynasty faced an unprecedented crisis, the energy of the military nobles was also forced out. It can be said that they were united and united.
First of all, Yang Yi, the servant, carefully analyzed the military situation to Liu Wenze, reassured him, and made suggestions for him. In Yang Yi's view, the enemy army was menacing and earth-shattering, but the only one who truly posed a fatal threat to the country was Maha.
Maode's army was pinned to the other side of the Amu Darya River by Gaozhou.
Although the situation was critical for a while, it was far from uncontrollable. The enemy was able to carry out a temporary attack. However, Yang Yi believed that using such a large-scale army for a large-scale expedition would never be sustainable for a long time with the national strength of the Ghaznavids. Waiting for its momentum.
Weak, breaking it is like destroying it.
At the same time, soldiers and horses from all over Anxi are mobilizing and have completed certain assembly tasks. They have sent troops to strengthen the defense line of the Amu Darya River and impose martial law across the country. They focus on attacking the enemy cavalry that invade the river, burn, kill and loot, so as to first stabilize the country and then defend against foreign invaders.
As for the nomadic forces in the north, the Ogusye Protectorate has long declined and split. Kimak and Geluolu are far away from each other. They have been facing expansion pressure from the Beiting for many years. There is no need to worry. They only need to send a general.
If you lead an enemy force, you can be intimidated.
In addition to making suggestions and suggestions, Yang Yi also recommended a military commander to Liu Wenze, the deputy commander of Sa City (Samatan) Guo Ju. After Liu Wenze learned about Guo Ju's background and resume, he entrusted him with the defense of Sa City.
As a result, he will lead the army to destroy the enemy cavalry from the East.
Yang Yi was born in the Yang family in Ganzhou. The Yang family in Ganzhou had the same clan as Changwu Bo Yang Tingzhang. Yang Tingzhang was the brother-in-law of the late Xing Guogong Guo Wei. In short, although Yang Yi's background was not top-notch among the upper class in Anxi, he still had a deep connection.
, and his talents and insights can completely offset the shortcomings of his background, becoming Liu Wenze's loyal minister, and entering the Anxi decision-making circle.
As for Guo Ju, he was thirty years old and also came from a well-known family. He was the great-grandson of Guo Jin, the Marquis of Bowang. Although he was not good at politics, he had a strategic mind and was very capable of commanding troops. Guo Ju, Yang Yi and Kang Jirong, who guarded Gaozhou, also
They became the three most important heroes in resisting the Arab invasion and fighting back.
By late April, Guo Ju personally led the army through strong attacks, surprise attacks, decoys and other strategies, and wiped out most of the Ghazni cavalry that invaded the east, wiping out more than 7,000 enemies. The rest fled, although Mahmud was not wedged in.
The thorn in Anxi's hinterland was completely removed, but its threat to Anxi's ruling order was basically eliminated.
In the process of expelling the bandits, Guo Ju also put down several rebellions by the church members. Guo Ju showed extremely ruthless methods towards the rebels. Regardless of their identity, gender, or age, they would all be killed without mercy.
While it greatly frightens those restless people in the country, it also inevitably makes people sigh. The Arabs' ability to bewitch is really powerful. Even Anxi has achieved such a level of decisiveness, but the legacy is still unclear.
Under Guo Ju's attack, Mahmoud's intention to disrupt Anxi failed. Of course, it was not completely failed. He paid the price of tens of thousands of casualties, but still caused major chaos, destruction and casualties to the Hezhong area. Other tribes,
They were just servants. The key was the large number of casualties among the Han people, which made the upper echelons of Anxi particularly distressed and angry. These were all members of their own family!
In fact, one enemy cavalry even crossed the important Anxi towns of Samutan, Juzhou (Leninabat), and Dazhou (Tashkent). They burned, killed, and looted all the way, and fled to the territory of Talas before being completely wiped out.
This incident also made Anxi people deeply ashamed. Since the late king Liu Min, Anxi had always been the only one to go to enemy territory to cause trouble, burn, kill and loot. Never before had the enemy invaders been so rampant, marching in and killing and looting wantonly.
The Ghaznavid army's struggles in the Hezhong area also completely woken Anxi up and down. After waking up, Anxi also completed a comprehensive mobilization in mid-April. On April 22, the 130,000-strong army
Under the personal leadership of Anxi King Liu Wenze, they marched to the banks of the Jihun River and confronted Mahmud's army across the bank.
This 130,000-strong army was almost all the Anxi Kingdom could use on the Jihun River front. Although it still had not hollowed out the country, Liu Min's family fortune, which he had worked hard to accumulate for decades, was wiped out by Liu Wenze.
came out, including almost all the elites in Anxi, including Suiye, Talos and other loyal and elite Han main forces in the old areas, who also devoted themselves to dealing with the Ghaznavid army.
From late April to mid-July, the two sides launched a landing at the Jihun River ferry in Gaozhou in the north and fought on the beaches, engaging in dozens of fierce battles, each trying to find the other's weaknesses, but both were wary.
They each strengthened river defense patrols and did not dare to rush across the river to attack on a large scale. The battlefield pattern has always been in a stalemate.
The stalemate actually reflects the different strategic intentions of each. Using Gaozhou as bait to attract the main force of Anxi to seek opportunities for a decisive battle and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop, Mahmoud and Liu Wenze are not as good as Liu Min. He is generally fearful and somewhat contemptuous.
After attracting the Anxi army to the Jihun River, Mahmud once again had to take a defensive position. With the strength he had in hand, he was even weak in terms of military strength. Therefore, in the past three months, the Ghaznavid army had become even more powerful. Most of them relied on the fortresses built originally for defense, and at the same time tried to ensure that river defenses and grain roads were not lost.
What Mahmoud was waiting for was the Arab coalition in the east of the sea. There were nearly 100,000 troops there. In this war, the war on the east side of the sea is indispensable, but in Yang Yi, Liu Wenze, the king of Anxi, In the planning, the defense of Ming City was obviously ignored or even mentioned.
There are two reasons for this. One is because the person who is in charge of Mingcheng is none other than Liu Wenze's second brother Ganhou Liu Wenli. He was originally squeezed out of the river by Liu Wenze and was transferred from the fiefdom of Gancheng where he had been operating for many years. The raw land in Mingcheng was used to resist the Arabs.
The second point is that because Leizhou fell and the enemy invaded Gaozhou, transportation was basically cut off. If you want to reconnect, you must either defeat Mahmud's army head-on, or you have to bypass the entire Karakum Desert and make a large circle from the east coast of the Caspian Sea. This is obviously unrealistic under current traffic conditions.
As for Mingcheng, which is isolated and helpless, faced with the siege of the Arab army, it is difficult to think in an optimistic direction. Therefore, even if Mingcheng is a strategically important place, it will be sad in the big game of "Sixth World War". The earth became an abandoned child.
Judging from the results, this is indeed the case. Facing the massive attack by the Arab coalition, Ansi was first driven out of Khorasan, and could not hold it there at all. Followed closely by I Ghaznavids, the jihadists united to move northward. Siege of Mingcheng.
The Arab coalition has nearly 100,000 people, and the defenders of Mingcheng, even including the defeated soldiers in Khorasan and the temporarily recruited Han private armed forces, only have 17,000 people, among whom only the elite can be relied on. With less than 8,000 troops, the disparity in strength is huge, and the situation in which the enemy is strong and we are weak is obvious.
This second battle of Mingcheng was longer and more tragic than twenty years ago. The last time, Liu Wentao, the son of the Beiting royal family and King Liu Fang of Zhao, was killed in the battle, but this time, Liu Wenli was killed.
Speaking of Ganhou Liu Wenli, he was politically short-sighted, temperamentally irritable, and not very tolerant of others. Especially after his failure in seizing the heir, his shortcomings were further magnified. It can be said that he has many disgusting shortcomings. .
But the battle in Mingcheng alone was enough to rectify his name. He was worthy of the blood of the Han royal family, not to mention his father's ambition. Even though he was suppressed politically, when faced with the attack of the Arab army, , without any weakness or hesitation, let alone any cowardice or fear, he gathered his mood and led the defenders to defeat the coalition forces.
From the third day of May, when the Arab army besieged the city, to the day when the city fell on June 27, Liu Wenli led the Han army in Anxi to hold on for nearly sixty days. On the battlefield, he was a fearless warrior. A trustworthy comrade, by taking the lead and sharing the joys and sorrows, suddenly gained the support of the defenders from an "exiled" prince, and followed him to fight to the death.
In the end, despite being isolated and helpless, Mingcheng was captured by the Arab army. More than 10,000 Han defenders were annihilated. When the city was breached, Liu Wenli died with dozens of jihadists holding a barrel of gunpowder.
, no bones were left, and he died an extremely heroic death.
Twenty years ago in the Battle of Mingcheng, although the victory or defeat was not determined by the attack and defense of Mingcheng, the "Battle of Mingcheng" was a tragedy for the entire Arab world. The name "Mingcheng" also spread far and wide, making countless loyal Arab believers gnash their teeth.
I want to seize it urgently to avenge my previous shame.
Judging from the results of the second Battle of Mingcheng, they did it and successfully planted the Arab flag on the wall of Mingcheng that was destroyed by gunfire, but the price they paid was equally heavy. Even if they carried out repeated attacks and used
A large number of cannon fodder filled the city wall, and the direct battle losses of the Eastern Expeditionary Alliance exceeded 20,000 people.
Liu Wenli was determined to die in the late stage of the offensive and defense. He summoned his generals and made it clear that they must die, but before they died, they had to sacrifice at least two enemy lives. It can be imagined that the Han army in Mingcheng in the later period would
Crazy is no weaker than those jihadists, and many of the deaths of the coalition forces were caused in the late stages of attack and defense.
Because of the serious losses, Mahmud had to recruit troops from home to make up for the lack of troops. By mid-July, the Eastern Expeditionary Forces from Mingcheng and the reinforcements from the direction of Balkh were combined, and the Jihun River line was
, the Arab coalition forces have exceeded 250,000.
However, the strength of the troops has increased, but the combat effectiveness has not actually increased much. The coalition forces in Mingcheng have not received sufficient rest and replenishment at all, and their combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced. As for the subsequent troops recruited from the country, many of them were actually forcibly recruited.
The young men recruited were all farmers who had just picked up weapons and had not experienced much military training.
As for the Anxi Army, when Mingcheng fell and Liu Wenli was killed, and the Arabs massacred the local Han people (Mingcheng had a Han population of tens of thousands, except for a few who saw the opportunity to flee early, most of them died in the retaliatory massacre by the coalition forces)
After all the news, I was filled with indignation and rage.
The mood of "revenge" was extremely high under Liu Wenze's instigation, and quickly covered up the shock and "failure" caused by the "fall of Mingcheng". At the same time, for more than two months, after the fierce confrontation with Mahmoud,
Yu, Anxi is not slacking off at all.
More people and resources were organized under Anxi's military system to participate in this "Patriotic War", and various military supplies were continuously transported to the camps set up by the Anxi Army along the Jihun River. By mid-July,
In addition to the garrison of Gaozhou City, Anxi has also mobilized an army of 200,000 people to join the war, and its performance is much brighter than that of the Arab coalition.
You know, even those servant armies, under the training of the Han people, are much more powerful than the aristocratic private armies of Ghaznavids. And nearly four months after the war broke out, the two sides have also improved in terms of strength and morale.
A huge reversal, in the eyes of Anxi's top management with Liu Wenze as the core, the offense and defense had changed, and it was time to counterattack.
In fact, it was not that there were no capable people on the Ghaznavid Army side. Some people sensed the danger and suggested to Sultan Mahmud that it would be too dangerous to go on an expedition in Gaozhou for a long time due to the fatigue of the troops and veterans.
This campaign has already dealt a major blow to Anxi and captured a large area of land on the west bank of the Jihun River, including Leizhou. At the same time, Mingcheng, a thorn in the eyes of the believers, has also been conquered, so we can stop.
This kind of advice is very pertinent and objective, so that Mahmoud can listen to it and accept it when it suits him. Even if he cannot completely hold on to all the fruits of victory, this Han-Iran war can be declared to end with an Arab victory from an overall perspective.
However, Mahmoud, like many monarchs with outstanding talents, committed the taboo of underestimating the enemy. Although he attached great importance to the Anxi Army in tactics, he did not take their commander Liu Wenze seriously from the bottom of his heart. If Mingcheng
If he can't defeat it, that's it. Now that Ming City is down, he will be more confident about achieving greater victory.
For Mahmoud, as long as he defeated the main force of the Anxi Army on the other side of the river, he would be free to take possession of the fertile water and soil in the river and the civilized place that he dreamed of, taking his dynasty to a higher level.
However, as good as the hope was, the result was as bleak as it was. Strategically, he had become passive, and tactically, Mahmoud also made a mistake. Without an obvious advantage in strength, he ordered a fierce attack on Gaozhou City.
.
Gaozhou was a must-win location for both sides. Mahmud saw this clearly, and the purpose of attacking Gaozhou City was to attract the Anxi Army to cross the river for reinforcements, so that he could attack halfway across the river.
In planning this matter, Mahmoud only thought of half of it, and he only succeeded half of it. Half of this was that Gaozhou City was difficult to attack. After all, the city defense was solid and the troops were well-equipped. Five days after the fierce offensive and defensive battle of Gaozhou broke out,
, the Anxi Army indeed took the initiative to launch a river-crossing battle towards the Jihun River.
As for the other half that Mahmoud did not expect, it was the Han army's powerful combat effectiveness and determined fighting will. Under the cover of rumbling artillery fire from the east coast, tens of thousands of elite Han soldiers marched westward from five beachheads on pontoons to launch an attack.
The mid-crossing attack did cause heavy casualties to the Anxi Army, but the blood was not wasted. After paying nearly half of the casualties, they successfully captured two tidal flats on the west bank and established defenses, buying time for the subsequent army to cross westward.
The bloody battle on the West Bank was a head-to-head contest, involving hand-to-hand combat, relying on bravery and organization. In these two aspects, only Mahmoud's Guards could compare with the main force of the Anxi Army that entered the battle.
This battle lasted for three days and nights. The battle line moved westward step by step. Blood filled the river and dyed the river red. Ghaznavid's front was also broken through in large numbers. However, the forts built in advance still played a role. Facing the tide of Han troops,
Such attacks led many Ghaznavid troops to form strongholds to protect themselves, but the war situation had already developed in an unfavorable direction.
The attack on Gaozhou City had long since stopped. Except for some of the siege troops left for surveillance, Mahmoud mobilized the rest to the west bank to respond to the Anxi Army's offensive across the river. Three days of hard work and tactics
The terminology changed from "annihilate" to "respond".
The defenders in Gaozhou City, under the command of veteran Kang Jirong, went out to attack and fought fiercely with the tens of thousands of coalition troops under surveillance, regardless of casualties, to help relieve the pressure on the main army.
What decided the direction of the battlefield was the 10,000 elite cavalry led by Guo Ju. Liu Wenze gave him the most elite cavalry in Anxi, including the royal court's forbidden cavalry. He led them and chose to wade across the river and make a detour of more than 300 miles.
, attack the Arab army from behind.
First, cooperate with Kang Jirong's army to defeat the enemy forces under Gaozhou City, and then join forces to launch a fierce offensive against the Ghaznavid army. In this world, there are not many armies that can be attacked on both sides in a field battle. Against the huge scale and complex composition of the Ghaznavid army,
For the Nigerian army, it is even more difficult.
So, after twenty years, the Arab Eastern Expedition failed again. After the Battle of Mingcheng, Mahmoud tasted the bitter pill again, and this bitter pill was obviously more bitter. After all, it was the "unknown" Liu Wenze who brought him
.
The outcome of this war also profoundly affected the development of history in Central and Western Asia.
Mahmoud was in danger at the end of his life, and his aura of hero and victor completely faded. There was nothing left to cleanse. Not only did Mahmud lose his fame in his lifetime, but he also took away the strong cloak of an Arab dynasty.
Although Mahmud was able to escape the battlefield and eventually returned to the capital city of Ghazni, his troops and horses were completely destroyed. Of the more than 200,000 troops, less than 30,000 of his army of more than 200,000 finally escaped back to Ghazni alive, and most of them were cavalry.
Those who were killed were either killed or captured, either sank in the mighty Jihun River, or disappeared in the vast central desert.
This battle was undoubtedly another major setback for the Arab world. Even if they believed so wildly, the Han people were about to have a psychological shadow. Leizhou and other places to the west of the Jihun River were quickly recovered, and the dilapidated Mingcheng was once again prosperous.
The Han flag in Anxi, the memorial ceremony for the soldiers who fought to the death, and tens of thousands of Arab heads were used as sacrifices. Even the Ziyar Dynasty entrenched on the south bank of the Caspian Sea was also used by Guo Ju in the process of regaining the city of Gorgan.
They sent out troops and destroyed them.
This battle shattered the courage that the Arabs had accumulated over the past twenty years, and the raging anger and noise in Baghdad came to a halt.
As the leader of the Abbasid Dynasty, the Ghazni Kingdom also fell into the abyss and lost a large area of land in the north. The fertile Balkh Plain was captured by Kang Jirong's army across the Jihun River. To the northeast, it was
Kang Juguo took advantage of the dangerous passes and key passes at the northern foot of the Hindu Kush Mountains that had once daunted the Kang army and were easily breached. Not only did they lose the Badakhshan area, Kunduz, the core of the northeastern border defense, was also captured by the troops sent by Kang King Liu Wenqian.
As far as Ghaznavids were concerned, Mahmud's prestige plummeted and the strength of the central government was severely weakened, which led to the rapid rise of local forces, especially the rapid rise of separatist forces in Persia and India, forming a separatist situation.
Although Mahmud did not completely sink, for the rest of his life, he had been working hard to quell the civil strife and maintain the rule of the Ghaznavid dynasty. As for the Three Kingdoms of Anxi, he was no longer powerless and could only adopt a complete contraction of defense.
That is to say, with Mahmud's painstaking support, the Ghaznavid dynasty's reign was extended to a certain extent, but its decline was inevitable. By the time Mahmud died, the dynasty's rule was already very fragile. To Persia,
The Indian region is only in name only.
Compared to the miserable Ghaznavids, Anxi, as the victor, had a much better life. After all, he captured countless things, expanded his territory, and had no rivals in Central and Western Asia. However, the price paid was also quite heavy, tens of thousands.
The planned casualties were enough for the Anxi Army to lick their wounds for several years, and the severe population and production damage caused by the war in the vast land from the Caspian Sea to Sa City would take longer to recover.
In name, Anxi became the strongest country in Central and Western Asia, but in a short period of time, it actually lost its ability to make progress. Under the depletion of the war, its national strength actually declined.
At the same time, the performance of the two brother countries of Beiting and Kangju in the war also caused Anxi to have doubts, especially Kangju, who was too ambitious and not a son of man. On the other hand, the nomadic Ogusye in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River
The Seljuks who were protecting the country and rebelling against them also took the opportunity to attack the delta area downstream of the Jihun River, and gradually grew and became a serious problem for the Anxi Kingdom.
The glorious victory gave Anxi a bright coat, but the future of the dynasty was not so stable. But no matter what, the Anxi dynasty after the battle in Gaozhou truly stood at the pinnacle of the Central and Western Asia. Han civilization was still there.
The roots in this land are getting deeper and deeper.
The reputation of Anxi King Liu Wenze, like his father Liu Min, spread as far as Europe