Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 765 Strategy is about mobilization
"The above 354 people, during this national war, actually tried every possible way to evade military service. They are truly shameless! After interrogation by the Censorate, the evidence is conclusive. The court sentences them to death and executes them immediately!"
As the executioner publicly pronounced the verdict at the execution ground outside Beijing, more than 70 young men who evaded military service, their relatives who helped them evade military service, and related officials, a total of more than 300 people, fell on the execution ground amid bursts of crisp gunfire.
"This way, we can even sacrifice the flag, and save a lot of cattle and sheep." Zhu Youdong, who was personally supervising the execution, patted Zhu Youxiao's shoulder and said, "I will go to Tianjin Port to board the ship later. You will have to work hard from now on."
"Haha." After a bitter laugh, Zhu Youxiao bowed his hands and said, "I hope that everything goes well for my brother and that he will return victorious soon."
It was already August 11, the 29th year of the Tianqi reign (1647). Among all the generals who had confirmed their departure, Zhu Youdong was the last to leave. Before him, Zhu Ciyi, Zhu Ciyan and others had already set out and joined their respective troops.
Because the Indian peninsula is mostly in the tropics, although Zhu Youdong's army has more than one million soldiers, the landing time is set in September. Before that, in August, the first to take action was Sun Chuanting's group in Central Asia.
From the world map of the 21st century, the five Central Asian countries still have a large area. But if you look more carefully and remove Kazakhstan from the five countries, the remaining four countries actually don’t have much territory - the purpose of Ming Dynasty sending troops to the northwest is to contact Pashtuns and Persians in the south and enter Pakistan when the opportunity arises. Kazakhstan, located at the northern end of the five Central Asian countries, does not need to be visited at all.
If we consider that the control range of Xinjiang Province of Ming Dynasty at that time directly reached the Pamir Mountains and Lake Balkhash, it means that all of Kyrgyzstan and most of Tajikistan in later generations were already under the control of Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the goal set by the Privy Council for Sun Chuanting's group was to use 30 divisions to penetrate Central Asia. If we look at the map of later generations, it means to penetrate only Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
August 15, Andijan, Fergana Valley.
"General Wu Sangui pays respect to His Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief and the Crown Prince."
"General Wu, please don't be polite. You have worked very hard as an outpost for the army during this period. What is the enemy situation you have learned so far?"
"Yes, report to the commander-in-chief, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. At present, the 1st Cavalry Division under my command has advanced as far as Samarkand, which is about 300 kilometers away from Andijan. It has been found that the Austrian bandits have gathered Turkmen, Uzbek and other ethnic armies and stationed their main forces in Samarkand and Dushanbe. As for the size of their troops, please forgive me, Your Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. The enemy's cavalry is not weak, and it is difficult for our cavalry to conduct detailed reconnaissance, so we have not been able to estimate the approximate number so far. However, after many mutual probing and small-scale exchanges of fire between us and the enemy, it is now clear that the number of enemy cavalry is definitely not less than 50,000."
"General Wu, you have worked hard. I cannot tell the total number of enemy troops. This is not your fault."
"Thank you for your understanding, Commander."
After Wu Sangui stood aside, Sun Chuanting had someone unfold a map in the center of the conference room: "Your Highness, everyone. This is a map of Central Asia that was drawn based on the on-site survey and combined with some local maps after the reopening of the Silk Road in recent years. Simply put, in Central Asia, the place farthest from the sea, whether it is ordinary economic exchanges or our current march and battle. Water sources are always the most important. Our march cannot be separated from water sources. And the enemy's response cannot be separated from water sources either."
Yes, the whole of Central Asia is generally arid because it is too far from the sea. But the reason why this land has given birth to so many brilliant civilizations and cultivated so many brave and warlike nations in history is mainly due to two major rivers: the Syr Darya (Yaksha River) and the Amu Darya, as well as the many tributaries of these two rivers.
To be more specific, starting from Xinjiang, heading west along the valley of the Renna River, continuing westward at the source of the Renna River, and finding the source of the Syr Darya River, you will enter the Fergana Basin - a basin with a suitable climate and abundant resources, which is traversed by the Syr Darya River and nourished by the Syr Darya River and its tributaries. In the 21st century, this basin, with an area of 20,000 square kilometers, mainly relies on agriculture and animal husbandry to support a population of more than 6 million. It is a rare fertile land in Central Asia.
Since Sun Chuanting's army wanted to penetrate Central Asia, they naturally chose here as the first step of their advance.
However, before Sun Chuanting entered here, the residents and cattle and sheep here were all evacuated by Hussein, the commander of the first group of the European and Austrian coalition forces.
To be honest, this was the worst situation this Arab general had encountered since he followed Ibrahim more than 30 years ago.
Originally, according to the plan of the European and Austrian Joint Staff, his group had a total of 15 divisions and 225,000 people. Its mission was to first garrison in the Pakistan-Kashmir line. After the main force of the Ming army landed in India and formed a confrontation with the main force of Europe and Austria, taking advantage of the lack of local troops in the Ming Dynasty, he went through Central Asia and once again forced the Uzbeks and Turkmens to enter the northwestern provinces of the Ming Dynasty. In this way, he completed the stab in the back of the Ming Dynasty and forced the Ming Dynasty to withdraw its main force to fill the gap. In this way, the purpose of mobilizing the enemy was achieved.
But I never expected that the Ming Dynasty would not play by the rules. India hadn't taken action yet, but Central Asia had already sent troops. And according to the intelligence sent by the Xingyue Cultists who observed the movement of the Ming army on the way, the size of the Ming army was at least 400,000.
This made Hussein very depressed: the logistics base of his group was located in Lahore. If he wanted to lead the troops northward to defend the enemy outside the country, it meant that he had to cross many mountains and walk a long way - this was an impossible task for the First Group, which had a small number of troops and was the last to be dispatched according to the previous plan, and did not get many civilians.
Therefore, after repeated discussions within the group and repeated communications with the Joint Chiefs of Staff via radio, Hussein made the decision to abandon the Fergana Basin and retreat in large strides, thus lengthening the enemy's supply lines and reducing the logistical pressure on his side.
Of course, this big step back is not without principle. In any case, Samarkand, the main transportation route connecting Persia and Central Asia, must be defended. Otherwise, if the Chinese army enters Persia, it will be a small matter to cut off the land route of the Ottoman army. Anyway, the main supply of the European and American alliances is from the sea. The key is that the Ottomans have sucked Persia's blood too hard in recent years, and the proud Persians have long been resentful . It is just that the Hotchkiss machine gun is powerful, which makes the Persians dare not speak out. What if hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops are put in? This scene is really unimaginable.
Samarkand cannot be abandoned. Similarly , Dushanbe, which is at the same latitude as Samarkand, cannot be abandoned either. This is the main route from Central Asia to Afghanistan. Although the Pashtuns have established their own country, they were also sucked dry by the Ottomans. What if the Ming army was put in?
Therefore, after repeated communication with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hussein made the following response: 225,000 people in this group, plus about 50,000 Turkmen and Uzbek cavalry troops, focused on defending Samarkand and Dushanbe, and waited for the ten Indian divisions to come to the rescue from India.
In short, this large-scale decisive battle had just begun, and the Ming Dynasty took the lead in mobilizing the enemy strategically.
However, although they had taken the rich Fergana Basin without a fight, Sun Chuanting's group was faced with difficulties as the main force of the Ottoman army retreated to Samarkand, which was built on the tributaries of the Amu Darya River.
Since it is a basin, it is naturally surrounded by mountains. The Fergana Basin is surrounded by the Tianshan Mountains to the north and east. To the south is the Gissar Alai Mountains and the Pamir Plateau. There is a small opening in the west, which is the valley formed by the Syr Darya River flowing out of the basin. But after leaving this valley, you will enter the Kyzyl Kum Desert...
Therefore, even though it is easy to enter Kashmir and Afghanistan if Dushanbe is taken, and it is easy to enter Persia if Samarkand is taken, to take these two places, either more than 400,000 troops must cross the Gissar Alai Mountains and take the Pamir Plateau. Or, after following the Syr Darya out of the Fergana Basin, cross the desert, go to the Amu Darya River, and then go upstream along the Amu Darya River, making a big detour before attacking Samarkand.
No matter which option was chosen, it would be an extremely heavy burden for Sun Chuanting's group, which had river valleys to use but ultimately had to cross the Tianshan Mountains to maintain logistical support.
"The enemy's commander was very smart. He actually gave up the fertile land of Fergana and retreated to Samarkand and Dushanbe. Although this made our original plan of fighting a decisive battle with the enemy in the Fergana Basin fail, this situation was also within our expectations. After all, how stupid a commander would be to transport logistical supplies from a thousand miles away to fight a decisive battle with me?"
"Hahaha, Commander is absolutely right. We never expect the enemy's commander to do anything stupid."
"It's only fun to fight against an enemy general who has some ability."
"Haha, I think so too. However, our mission along the way is really not easy. After all, we have to attract the enemy's main forces in Central Asia and Kashmir first. Otherwise, when the five divisions of Mangui finally cross the Himalayas in September and October, they will look out and see that there are still dozens of enemy divisions blocking the mountain pass. What is Sun Chuanting doing? This is not good."
"Hahaha, the commander is right. In order to prevent the Snow Region Army from being wiped out, we have to work harder."
"So, although the enemy forces in Samarkand and Dushanbe are separated by mountains, we still have to fight. This is my plan. Divide the troops. The main corps will be 20 infantry divisions, led by me personally, and slowly cross the Gissar Alai Mountains from the front. Although Dushanbe is connected to Kashmir and Afghanistan, it is more important from a geographical point of view. But the road there is more difficult to travel, so I will not go there. These 20 divisions, 300,000 people, will only go one way, to Samarkand.
The second route consisted of five cavalry divisions and five infantry divisions, led by Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng. After leaving Khujand (which was called Leninabad during the Soviet era. "Nabad" means "city" in Persian), the main force continued southward, crossing the Gissar Alai Mountains. The special forces headed westward, across the desert, and headed straight for the Amu Darya River, pretending to be heading into Persia.
"This is a brilliant plan, Commander. This will put the enemy commander in a difficult position. He can either leave Samarkand and fight me in the wilderness, or stay in the city and watch us enter Persia without any hindrance."
"Yes, isn't the highest level of the so-called art of war to mobilize the enemy and make them dance according to our ideas?"
After seeing that all the generals agreed to this plan, Sun Chuanting said to Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng: "This arrangement will be relatively easy for the main force. If the logistics can't keep up, I will just move slower. But for you, it will become a mobile operation without a rear base and supplies."
"Hahaha, don't worry, Commander. This kind of mobile warfare with no logistics support is what Lao Li and I endured for many years when we first arrived in America. We are most familiar with this type of warfare!"
"It is precisely because the two generals have this natural talent for mobile warfare without a rear base that I dare to make such a deployment."
