Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 766 This is an unexpected encounter
"Commander, I once again strongly make a final request to you. If you are unwilling to send troops to support us for various reasons, then at least, please allow Hasim and I to lead our troops to leave!"
"Oh, Sayid, are you an idiot? I have told you many times that it is the cunning Chinese who are manipulating us, and we cannot be fooled! After you and Hasim's 50,000 cavalry leave the solid defenses of Samarkand and are exposed in the wilderness, you will soon be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy!"
"I'm not an idiot. I know the most basic tactics. But sir, the enemy is wreaking havoc on our land! The lands taken by the Chinese are the hometowns of most of the soldiers here. The soldiers' parents, wives, and children live there! What if I don't agree to lead the soldiers to attack, and the angry soldiers mutinied in Samarkand? Will you kill us all with your Hotchkiss?"
On August 15, after Andijan was settled, Sun Chuanting left a small number of troops to maintain the logistics supply point in Andijan, and led the army to Khujand in two days. After that, the troops were divided.
For Hussein, Sun Chuanting's journey was not a big deal: due to the terrain restrictions, the Ming army's advance was extremely slow. He had plenty of time to continue to strengthen Samarkand's defenses, pull a large amount of supplies from Lahore, and wait for reinforcements from the rear.
But Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong gave him a headache along the way.
These two natural guerrilla warfare experts, when they separated from Sun Chuanting, the 150,000 troops only brought 20 days of supplies, and the rest of the carrying capacity was used for ammunition. Then this army did not carry any heavy equipment, and traveled lightly, but it took only ten days to cross the southern edge of the Kyzylkum Desert and capture Bukhara, another famous Central Asian city built on the delta of the Zeravshan River, a tributary of the Amu Darya River.
Hussein did not care about this move of the Ming army at first: Bukhara is west of Samarkand, and it seems that the enemy is going to attack Samarkand from the west and north. Is this Chinese commander stupid? Does he think his logistics pressure is not big enough? He wants to let a troop take such a big detour to flank him? The more you walk, the more you consume. How can your logistics keep up?
Anyway, I'm just standing here without moving. If you have the guts, come and hit me.
Unfortunately, for people like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, you can ask them to attack. But that is definitely not the way they like to fight. After the army led by the two obtained a large amount of food in Bukhara, they had no intention of turning eastward to Samarkand. Instead, they continued to move westward towards Chalju!
This made Hussein uncomfortable: Chalju was a city built on the right bank of the Amu Darya River. If the enemy took this place and crossed the Amu Darya River, it would mean that the traditional territory of the Uzbeks and Turkmens would be basically broken through. It would be a smooth road for the enemy to enter Persia.
Although Hussein's intuition told him that the Chinese would not rashly enter Persia before annihilating the Samarkand heavy troops led by him, what if the enemy commander went crazy?
"Damn it, isn't the main battlefield of this decisive battle in India? Aren't the Spanish the first to bear the brunt? Why are these Chinese attacking us first? The main force of the empire, a full twenty divisions, 300,000 elite troops, are now led by Boris to help the Spanish defend the Ganges Delta. What should we do with our limited forces?"
In addition to the fact that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were recklessly advancing westward, he was also upset because Li and Zhang were "collecting food" everywhere in the lands of Uzbeks and Turkmens, which also made the more than 50,000 Uzbek and Turkmen soldiers stationed in Samarkand anxious.
Because of their beliefs, the permanent residents of this area believed that although there were some brothers in the Ming army, most of them were pagans. So emotionally, they were naturally more inclined towards the Ottomans.
Thus, on the one hand, Hussein's group had a great advantage in intelligence - it was almost impossible for Sun Chuanting's army to conceal intelligence from the enemy in this land. But on the other hand, this advantage also formed a double-edged sword: Li and Zhang rarely killed people in the Ukrainian and Turkic ethnic groups, and basically did not rob money or burn houses. But when they passed through the border, they were like locusts, blowing away all the food along the way.
Thanks to the "powerful" national intelligence system, such news quickly spread to the two strongholds of Samarkand and Dushanbe - Hussein could not hide it even if he wanted to.
For the Ukrainian and Turkish warriors, it was no problem to conduct jihad under the leadership of the leader Osman when pagans invaded. But the old and young who stayed at home must also be protected. When the two conflicted, for most ordinary people, family was still put before jihad - this is Central Asia, not a tropical rainforest with fruits and wild animals everywhere in the wild, this is Central Asia with a harsh natural environment. Not long after the autumn harvest, when the next season's grain had not yet been planted, the enemy looted all the food. If the family members did not get help, wouldn't they all starve to death?
Therefore, starting from August 25, the leaders of the Uzbek and Turkic tribes repeatedly asked Hussein to lead his troops to attack and annihilate the mobile fighting detachments of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. Later, seeing that Hussein was really unwilling to give up Samarkand, an important strategic stronghold, he lowered his demands: You Ottomans don’t care about the families of our Uzbek brothers, and we won’t sit here with you. Our troops will go out alone and fight Li and Zhang.
In fact, Hussein knew that Sayyid and Hasim, the leaders of the Uzbek and Turkic tribes, did not really want to lead their troops to find Li and Zhang alone: the other side was armed to the teeth, with no less than 100,000 elite troops. And now that the intelligence had gathered, Hussein already knew that the other side was led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong - these two had been famous in America for many years, and even the Ottoman senior generals had heard of them - such famous generals and elite soldiers, how could the Uzbek and Turkic cavalry, who were only equipped with rifles and a small number of submachine guns and had not received systematic modern military training, fight against them?
In fact, Sayyid and Hasim used this method to force Hussein to send out the main force to help the Uzbek and Turkmen fighters to eliminate Li and Zhang: If you really dare to let us face the Chinese on our own, then we Uzbeks and Turkmens will not care about jihad or not, and will directly stand on the side of the Chinese. Although the Chinese policy on freedom of religious belief states that "people have the freedom to believe in religion first and then not believe in religion. They have the freedom to believe in this religion first and then change to that religion." However, the Chinese did not say that they were not allowed to believe in religion. When it comes to the life and death of the nation, we still have to take care of reality first and then faith.
Therefore, on the one hand, there was internal pressure, and on the other hand, they really did not dare to take the risk of letting the enemy enter Persia. After a painful struggle, Hussein asked the cluster staff to send a long telegram to the general staff in Delhi.
In addition to explaining the dire situation he was facing, the content of the telegram also reported his next deployment: First, ask the General Staff to urge the ten Indian divisions heading north to speed up and directly garrison in Dushanbe. Second, the five divisions originally in Dushanbe must immediately leave Dushanbe and rush to Samarkand as soon as possible, no matter when the Indian division arrives. Third, seven of the ten divisions stationed in Samarkand will be divided to unite with the 50,000 cavalry of the Ukrainian and Turkish peoples, go out of the city and march westward, looking for the Chinese Li Zhang Detachment, and strive to win the battle - in this way, it can not only prevent the Chinese from entering Persia, but also appease the Ukrainian and Turkish peoples. Fourth, after the five divisions in Dushanbe arrive in Samarkand, they will jointly defend Samarkand with the three divisions left behind. Given that Samarkand has formed a complete defense system, and the main force of the Chinese infantry has to cross the Tianshan Mountains and the Gissar Alai Mountains, the advance speed is very slow, and the logistics support is also very difficult. So if Allah blesses us, our westward detachment will be able to quickly return to Samarkand for support after defeating Li Zhang's detachment.
On September 3, the General Staff in Delhi replied: They agreed with Commander Hussein's arrangement and urged the ten Indian divisions that had set out earlier to speed up their advance. At the same time, another ten Indian divisions had also set out north to the Khyber Pass as a backup. Good luck!
On September 5, when the five divisions from Dushanbe had not yet arrived, Hussein, who saw that the emotions of the Ukrainian and Turkish soldiers in the city were on the verge of breaking out, led seven Ottoman divisions and more than 50,000 Ukrainian and Turkish cavalry out of Samarkand and headed west to search for Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's detachment.
Because they were fighting in a foreign land that was generally hostile to them, the intelligence sources of Sun Chuanting's group were very limited and slow. Therefore, he was unaware of Hussein's adjustments. At this time, the main force of the 20 infantry divisions he led was still advancing slowly along the Gissar Alai Mountains. According to the calculations of the logistics officers of this group, it would take about half a month for the army to accumulate enough logistical supplies...
At this time, hundreds of kilometers to the southeast, another Ming army was slowly approaching this area with complex terrain.
"General, the scouts ahead have returned. There are only a small number of local soldiers stationed in the direction of Leh City, and no enemy troops have been seen."
"Huh? Such good luck? Could it be that Sun Chuanting has already transferred the enemy's main force away?"
"I don't know about this."
"Never mind. We finally got out, but the yaks that transported food in the team are almost all dead. Hurry up and let Qu Duoga, who is leading the team, take Leh City with his division! Note that the results are not important, but we must fight quickly! We must not let the enemy set fire to the warehouse, I want the food inside!"
"Yes, sir!"
According to the deployment of the Ming Privy Council, Man Gui's army group had five divisions and 75,000 people.
Among this army, three divisions were traditional Ming infantry divisions, one was the Gurkha division that won unanimous recognition from the Ming military for its bravery in the last Indian expedition, and another was a plateau division composed entirely of young and strong Tibetans.
It has been more than ten years since the Ming Dynasty entered the snowy region. The minister stationed in Tibet has changed three times, but the highest military commander has always been Man Gui.
Over the years, the Ming Dynasty had completely eliminated the serfdom here and established the golden urn drawing system. While the Ming Dynasty greatly restricted the religious power here, it also liberated more than one million serfs here and won the heartfelt support of the people here.
Therefore, this time when Mangui sent troops from the snowy area, he not only received strong support from the people in the snowy area in terms of logistics support, but also the recruitment here was very smooth. Finally, after careful selection, he simply formed a plateau division composed entirely of Tibetans.
Along the way, this division served as a pioneer, clearing the way through mountains and building bridges over rivers, and no one in the division had altitude sickness. It led the army through the southern foothills of the Himalayas very smoothly - so much so that the Manchu-Guizhou Army joined the battlefield about half a month earlier than Sun Chuanting expected.
In short, on September 15, the Mangui Army successfully captured the city and entered the Kashmir region. The first group of the European and Austrian coalition forces was firmly attracted by the Sun Chuanting group near Samarkand. The entire Kashmir is now almost empty.
"Hey, there are no enemy troops in Leh, so we were able to capture it smoothly and get enough supplies. That's great, but what should we do next? Should we go south or north?"
"What does the General mean?"
"That's right. We don't have the radio developed by Europeans that can transmit sound over thousands of miles without wires, as reported in the court bulletin. So we can only guess how Sun Chuanting in the north, the emperor in the south, and Cao Wenzhao are fighting. So, I can't decide whether to go south or north."
"General, I think we should go north."
"Oh? Why do you say that?"
"According to the European intelligence sent by the Privy Council before departure, the Western bandits have also prepared a million troops on the Indian peninsula. I think, although the emperor will lead the army in person , it will definitely be unstoppable. But there are more than one million people after all. It will probably take more than a short time to break through the peninsula. Although we can mobilize the enemy troops by going south now, we are too few in number after all. It is possible that we will be surrounded by the enemy before we can even make a splash. Why don't we go north first and try to contact the Pashtuns. Then take them with us to find Sun Chuanting. If our two armies can meet, then if more than 500,000 troops go south together, we can provide enough help to the emperor."
"Old Sun, what you said makes sense. Let's do this. The whole army will rest for two days and then head north. Um, Qu Duoga, send out scouts... Captain Wang? What's wrong?"
"Report~ General, generals, we, the Jinyiwei, have just finished interrogating the city lord here. The other party confessed that about three days ago, a small-scale local Indian army came here to collect grain. According to the officer leading this army, they have a total of 150,000 troops and are about to go north to support the Ottomans in the direction of Samarkand. In addition, the officer also said that this time the Indian Corps has a total of 20 divisions and 300,000 people. In addition to the 150,000 people in front of them, the 150,000 people behind them will also go to guard the Khyber Pass. Therefore, the entire Kashmir region, including Leh, is required to prepare another batch of food... The reason why we have a good harvest this time is that this batch of food is prepared for the ten Indian divisions behind. I roughly estimated the time through the interrogation records. If the city lord is not deliberately lying and misleading us, the second batch of Indian troops will arrive in Khyber in about twelve days."
"Huh? Hahaha~ It seems that Sun Chuanting is doing well in the north . My goodness, how bold are these white people in Europe to dare to use local Indians as soldiers? How stupid are they to send troops to guard Khyber now? Order, cancel the previous order, and don't go north for now. All troops move west, we are going to seize Zhang Xunzhai in Khyber!"
