Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 670 Shache Crisis

The city of Tarbugh.

This small city, known in ancient times as Luntai, was peaceful and tranquil at this time. The peasants who worked in the fields worked from sunrise to sunset. Outside the city of Tarbugul, a large army gathered, and the baggage and food transported from Guanzhong had piled up like a mountain.

At this time, the development of the city of Tarbugul by the Qian army was in full swing. With 30,000 troops and tens of thousands of civilians, the construction speed was astonishing. Before long, Lin Shiqi built one manor after another at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and a large amount of land had been planted with the new season's grain and fruits.

Since the chaos in the Central Plains at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Western Regions have also been in chaos. Tubo, the Arab Empire, the Guiyi Army, and grassland forces have taken turns to come to power. In the following hundreds of years, the Western Regions has been a barren and chaotic place.

Since the Han people officially withdrew from the Western Regions in the late Tang Dynasty, there has been no serious construction on this land. However, when the Central Plains forces, who were good at farming, arrived in this land again, manors, fields, and networked ditches quickly appeared like mushrooms after a spring rain.

The local people and some passing caravans were deeply shocked when they saw this scene. The local people didn't know, but some people in the caravan had seen this kind of farming operations in the plains of Qian Dynasty. They just didn't expect that one day they would be able to see highly developed farming technology in the Western Regions.

At this time, Lin Shiqi, his deputy general Song Wuque, Chu Zhangyin and a group of generals were standing outside the farmland, watching the busy scene of the farmers. Everyone couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

Chu Zhangyin stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes sweeping over the lively and vibrant scene of military farming in front of him, his heart filled with emotion. At this moment, as if a blessing had come to his heart, he chanted: "The fertile fields are covered with brocade, the canals and rivers are connected to the rich food, the Hujia no longer spreads the beacon fire, the Qiang flute will now sing the praises of Taikang!"

When this poem came out, everyone was stunned at first, and then they nodded in praise. A group of rough people said that Mr. Chu was indeed a scholar, and they could not understand what he said.

Just as everyone was inspecting the farmland, a burst of hurried horse hooves broke the tranquil atmosphere.

Everyone looked over and saw a messenger galloping into the Tuntian camp and heading straight to where everyone was. The messenger came hurriedly and knelt on one knee when he saw Lin Shiqi, panting and reporting: "General, urgent news! The northern army, the vanguard Liu Kun led the army to raid and destroyed the Dzungar Khanate. Sengge fled west and then broke through the Rakshasa camp, chasing and killing them along the way, and annihilated all the Rakshasa reinforcements!"

Lin Shiqi was startled at first, his eyes slightly widened, as if he couldn't fully digest the news for a while, but soon, Lin Shiqi reacted and said urgently: "Bring the battle report over!"

Chu Zhangyin, who was standing by, quickly walked to the messenger, took the letter from his hand, and then handed it to Lin Shiqi.

Lin Shiqi unfolded it and soon, a look of great joy welled up on his face. He clenched his hands, looked up to the sky and laughed, "Good! Very good, very good, very good, Liu Kun is a good general of our dynasty for accepting orders in times of crisis and making prompt decisions!"

Everyone was surprised to hear such a great victory. At this time, Wang Fugui said excitedly: "General, the Junggars have been defeated. The Yarkand people must be like a frightened bird. If they are frightened, they might collapse!"

Lin Shiqi heard this and did not continue Wang Fugui's words, but said with emotion: "Since the founding of our dynasty, whether it is the war against Burma or the war between the navy and the Western Barbarians, we have been successful. Now the two armies are marching westward, and I have captured Turpan and conquered several cities in Yarkand. I thought it was a great achievement, but I didn't expect that Liu Kun could defeat the Dzungar Khanate in one battle. The great achievement of the Western Expedition must go to Liu Kun!"

The generals felt a little jealous when they heard this. As warriors, who doesn't want to achieve military exploits that will attract the world's attention? However, everyone was happy to hear the news. After all, it is better for a friendly army to win a battle than to be defeated.

The Battle of Ili Khanate meant that the Qian army had made a major breakthrough in the northwestern border area. The war was coming to an end. Only the Yarkand people of Shache were left, and they were simply unable to fight against the Qian army.

………………

Shache City.

After Abdu left the palace, although he thought deep down that Sengge Khan was too cautious, he was confident that he would be able to defeat the Qian army.

But the good times did not last long. In April, some news from the Ili Khanate began to reach Shache. Of course, much of the news was released by the Qian Army.

Among these news, some said that the Qian army raided the Dzungar Khanate and Great Khan Sengge led the remnants to migrate westward. Others said that a traitor betrayed the Khanate and led the Qian army, so the Khanate was breached by the Qian army. In short, there were a lot of news and it was very complicated. The Yarkand people in Shache could not confirm whether it was true or false. However, most of the information was bad news.

At first, Abdu thought these were just rumors spread by the Qian people. To Abdu, who was Sengge Khan? He was a powerful ruler who unified the western desert and swept across the Western Regions. If he worked harder, he could almost be on par with Genghis Khan. How could he be defeated so easily by the Qian army?

However, as the days passed, all kinds of unfavorable news became more and more overwhelming. Not only were the people on the streets whispering about the various changes in the Ili Khanate, but even Abdu's trusted subordinates looked at him with more worry and uneasiness in their eyes.

The doubts in Abdu's heart began to grow like weeds. Although he was still unwilling to believe that Sengge Khan would be so vulnerable, the news that came in continuously made him, who was originally full of confidence, no longer have confidence.

It was not until late April that several herdsmen fled from the direction of Yili and brought more accurate news.

Abdu gave an urgent order to control those people and bring them into his own residence, not allowing them to contact the outside world. However, in that short period of time, these people had spread the news of Sengge's defeat.

At this time in Abdu’s mansion.

The six herdsmen, in ragged clothes and with faces full of fear, knelt before Abdu, who asked in a sinister tone, "Are you spies sent by the Qian army?"

When the herdsmen heard this, they were all stunned, and then immediately shook their heads frantically, talking in a flurry, either making excuses or swearing, saying that they were not spies of the Qian army and that they had really escaped from the Khan's court.

Abdu stopped their conversation and asked in a deep voice: "How is Khan Ting now? Where is the Khan?"

One of the herdsmen cried, "General, I saw it with my own eyes. A large number of cavalry rushed into the Khan's court. They burned down the camp of Khan Sengge. Many warriors died in the battle. Later, the Khan fled with some people. We also took advantage of the chaos to escape. All the cattle, sheep and horses are gone..."

Listening to the herdsmen's stories, Abdu's face became increasingly gloomy, and his fists clenched unconsciously. He didn't know whether the news was true, but if Sengge Khan was really defeated and moved westward, then Shache City would definitely not be able to be defended.