Chapter 374: Every year in the year of Taiping, the dust rises everywhere
The flat sand is endless and the wind is blowing wildly.
Heading north to the hinterland of Kaerhan, Song Jiang's soldiers had long since lost the ferocity and greed they had when they first arrived, their lips became pale, and they moved with difficulty.
After capturing the city, too much property was looted, which turned out to be a burden. Song Jiang had to discuss with the generals and set up a special transportation team to keep the soldiers' loot one by one and transport it back.
At the beginning, everyone was uneasy and wanted to keep peace of mind by themselves. The further we got to the back, the harder it became.
Yu Chirong, the prince of Khotan, was already tired, upset and chattering on his horse.
Song Jiang really disliked him for being noisy, so he whispered: "Go ahead and ask when you can get to Samarkand."
Hua Rong reluctantly urged his horse forward. After taking a few steps, he shouted loudly: "Haha, brother, we are here."
Song Jiang walked up to the horse and saw cities in the sand in front of him. There were oases everywhere, full of exotic buildings and altars. This city suddenly appeared in the desert for so long, giving people a dreamlike feeling.
Feel.
Behind him, countless soldiers did not feel this way. They were more like Hua Rong, slowly touching the hilt of their own swords.
"Hi, my dear mother, we have finally arrived. Hurry up and get some rest." Hua Rong drew his sword in his hand, took the lead, and rushed down.
His words simply expressed the thoughts of the soldiers. Song Jiang waved his hand, and the flag of the central army was waved. Without any formation or tactics, tens of thousands of troops rushed down howling.
The soldiers and civilians in the city were praying, lying on the ground devoutly, feeling the tremors of the earth.
There are alarm bells ringing everywhere. Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia. It is an important hub on the Silk Road, connecting the three great empires of ancient China, the Persian Empire and India. The Sogdians who were once good at doing business took Samarkand.
Markand was built into a beautiful capital city.
In the 4th century BC, when Alexander the Great of the Macedonian Empire captured the city, he couldn't help but admire: "Everything I heard is true, but Samarkand is more spectacular than I imagined."
The Karakhan Dynasty has long controlled the trade between China and the West. For most of the Song Dynasty, they pocketed the profits from the Asia-Europe Silk Road trade.
Twenty years ago, the Karakhanid dynasty officially split into two. The Western Khan was a descendant of Ali, commonly known as the Ali line, and controlled the Transoxiana region and the western part of Fergana, with Samarkand and Bukhara as its capitals;
The Eastern Khan is a descendant of Harun Bughla Khan, commonly known as the Harun or Hasan lineage. It owns Talos, Baishui City, Shicheng, eastern Fergana, the Seven Rivers Basin and Kashgar, with Balashagon as its capital.
It is the political and military capital, with Kashgar as the religious and cultural center.
In the history of later generations, this place will be the home ground of Yelu Dashi in a few years. Yelu Dashi, who was defeated by the Jurchens and fled everywhere, will kill everyone here and establish Xiliao.
But now Song Jiang arrived before him, and the Song army's swords advanced into Samarkand. The defenders in the city were unable to resist, and the city was quickly broken into.
Under Song Jiang's deliberate connivance, Samarkand suffered a bloody baptism. Countless nobles and religious leaders were killed, and their wealth was staggering.
If these people are not eradicated, this place will always be a land of trouble. This is the case in Afghanistan, known as the graveyard of empires.
Fanatical religious beliefs will make them lose their ability to think and will not accept rule in order to seek stability.
Song Jiang fought all the way and concluded from his experience that the coexistence of multiple religions and freedom of belief promoted by Shaozai is absolutely necessary.
The troops of the Western Expedition were divided into two groups and marched hand in hand. While they were encroaching on Kalhan step by step, the weather gradually became warmer.
As soon as the weather warmed up, the Jurchens huddled in the upper capital could no longer bear it. Now they gradually understood the importance of Yang Pu, began to listen to his words, and did not persecute the Khitan slaves so hard.
Many Liao people gradually came to be used by the Jurchens and began to serve the Jin Kingdom.
The smelting technology of the Liao people has always been comparable to that of the Song Dynasty, and they were more diligent than the Song people.
In the Song Dynasty, few people dug iron ore, and the output was far less than that of the Khitan.
During this New Year, the Jurchens were quietly smelting weapons and preparing equipment in the city. Having tasted the benefits, they had no intention of stopping their conquest.
Who doesn’t want to have thousands or tens of thousands more slaves under his banner? Who doesn’t want to wantonly plunder unconquered rich areas?
For them, fighting at this time is more like hunting, a bloody and rewarding hunt.
Ever since Wanyan Aguda, the first Jurchen emperor, raised an army in Huanglong Mansion, they had to win every battle and gradually realized their great talent in fighting.
There will always be people in later generations who have doubts about the Jurchens' combat power and have narrow-minded ideas to deliberately ignore this period of history. However, as long as you open any history book of this era, you will be clearly told that they were in the cold weapon era.
The most fighting group of people.
Although the Mongols occupied more places in their conquest campaigns, they always involved countless servant armies, fighting in the north and south. At the beginning of the Jurchen army, the Tatars of the Jin Kingdom, who had not yet been corrupted, were in the process of destroying the Liao and the Liao.
The performance of the Northern Song Dynasty was actually a bit dazzling.
In the era of cold weapons, fighting relied entirely on the physical strength of the soldiers on both sides. When Wanyan Agu fought against the Liao Dynasty, he only had 2,000 soldiers, but he destroyed an empire covering thousands of miles in a few years.
Talking in a self-deceiving manner and belittling these ferocious savages is not only disrespectful to history, but also disrespectful to the countless ancestors who died fighting against the Jin Dynasty.
The Jurchens were able to show their fierce fighting power. In addition to the influence of being a fishing and hunting people, to a large extent, it had a lot to do with the Meng'an Mouke system founded by Wanyan Aguda.
This is because the foundation of the Meng'an Muke system is to gather the loose tribes of Shengnuzhen into an organization with considerable combat effectiveness.
This kind of system, which was created for war, is very strong in troubled times. Of course, after stability, it will also quickly become corrupted.
Today's Jurchen Tatars are still very good at fighting. They have been grinding their claws in the capital city for a winter, and finally it is time to move out.
Outside the capital city, there was an endless stream of cavalry running back and forth, various tribes were mobilized, and many Jurchen generals could not wait to gain more wealth.
This winter, they have tasted the fruits of victory and successfully aroused their greater desire.
At this time, they had two choices. One was to go south to Youyan and seize the richest place in Daliao;
The second was to march westward to Datong Prefecture in Yunzhou and capture Liao Emperor Yelu Yanxi alive but not completely destroy the Khitan Kingdom.
In the main hall, the Jurchen nobles gathered together and argued endlessly.