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Chapter 1053 – 1049【Congling Is Back】

Chapter 1053 1049 [Onion Ridge is back]

During the two hundred years from the 16th century to the 17th century, the overland Silk Road was in the hands of the Bukhara people.

After Chinese goods leave Xinjiang, they are transported from the southern mountains to the Caspian Sea. According to the administrative maps of later generations, the general route is as follows: Gansu – Xinjiang – Tajikistan – Turkmenistan (Uzbekistan) – Caspian Sea – Russia (Persia, Ukraine).

Although with the prosperity of the great voyage, the overland Silk Road has declined, but it is definitely not as withered as imagined.

Historically, the main purpose of Tsarist Russian envoys visiting China during the Kangxi period was to open up new trade routes in Siberia and break the monopoly of the Bukhara people on Chinese goods.

Kashgar.

Jiang Liang met several Bukhara businessmen and asked about their domestic situation: “How is the King of Bukhara in recent years?”

These businessmen are all from the Tajik ethnic group and belong to the ruled ethnic group in the Bukhara Khan.

A businessman said: “I haven’t seen the Great Khan, but I heard that he likes to enjoy himself. In addition to paying taxes, the caravans passing through Bukhara must donate the most exquisite goods to the Great Khan free of charge to obtain pass.”

Another businessman said: “The Great Khan keeps raising taxes, and the leaders of all ethnic groups are very dissatisfied.”

Jiang Liang simply opened the skylight and said bluntly: “If the Chinese army occupies the mountainous area where the Tajiks live, will the local leaders resist desperately?”

The merchants replied: “If the generals don’t kill nobles and imams indiscriminately and retain their power, they will not rebel. If the generals can lower taxes, the nobles and imams are willing to throw themselves into the arms of China.”

Jiang Liang thought silently, and didn’t speak for a while.

Zhao Han asked him to wait for an opportunity to seize the Tajik region and completely consolidate the defense line in the Western Regions. But these words are not dead, just wait for the opportunity, if it is not easy to fight, you can give up temporarily.

After arriving in Kashgar, Jiang Liang interviewed many Bukhara businessmen, asked about the situation and found that the Tajik region was not easy to fight.

90% of the area there is plateau mountains, and Jiangliang’s logistics supply line extends from Gansu to Kashgar. Such a long supply line to fight a place where 90% of the mountains are mountains can be called a military disaster.

Even if you want to fight, you must not kill nobles and scholars just like in Xinjiang.

Otherwise, the locals only need to fight guerrillas in the mountains, and they can beat the Chinese army to a nervous breakdown.

Must change style of play and dominance strategy!

That is to kill only the military and political officials of Bukhara in each city, and drive away the rulers sent by the Great Khan of Bukhara. Then, give preferential treatment to imams and Tajik leaders, implement religious freedom and tribal autonomy, and gain the support of local religious and noble leaders.

The Bukhara Khanate was once very powerful. When it was besieged from all sides, it overthrew Persia in the west and drove away the founders of the Mughal Empire and the Yarkand Khanate in the east.

But at this time, the dynasty has changed. The Shaybani dynasty collapsed, and the Astrakhan dynasty passed on to the fifth king.

The third king is very powerful, ending the civil strife and completing the unification.

During the reign of the fourth king, the Khanate of Bukhara began to decline.

The current king is called Abdullah Aziz, and he has been on the throne for 21 years. At the beginning, he was relatively sober, but now he is becoming more and more stupid, and he is arrogant and enjoys enjoying himself, and he imposes violent taxes on all ethnic groups in the country.

The leaders of various ethnic groups began to lead frequent uprisings, but the governors of the Bukhara Khanate played the trick of raising the bandits for self-respect, and finally split up altogether.

Zhongyu Zitouk Khan, who married his younger sister to Zhao Han, not only unified the Kazakh Khanate, but also sent troops to support the nobles of Bukhara, and once again completed the unification of Bukhara. As a result, Bukhara became a vassal state of Kazakhstan, and Toukhan also became the Great Khan of Bukhara (similar to the existence of Tian Khan, who does not actually manage Bukhara).

As Bukhara has frequent uprisings and the governor does not obey the king’s order, it is really suitable for attacking. Jiang Liang does not want to give up this good opportunity.

China certainly does not want to annex Bukhara, but to eat the territory of the Tajiks. There are plateaus and mountains everywhere, as long as they occupy them and build a few passes at will, a small garrison of troops can guarantee the security of southern Xinjiang. Coupled with the Kyrgyz territory, the same pass was built on the mountain pass, so that foreign enemies would never even think about entering Xinjiang.

This is considered from the perspective of national defense.

Whether it is Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, Zhao Han does not plan to occupy all of them. He only occupies those places that are best defended, which is equivalent to about 80% of the territory of the two countries.

Jiang Liang continued to inquire about the situation, and after several days of repeated thinking, he finally decided on the goal of action—to occupy the Pamirs, and nothing else!

Moreover, there is also an excuse for sending troops, since ancient times and regaining lost ground.

Pamirs, also known as Congling and Buzhou Mountains!

In this way, it will be very easy to fight, because the Bukhara Khanate’s dominance over Congling is very weak, and there is not even a decent large city.

The average altitude of Napo is more than 3,000 meters, and there are high mountains covered with snow all the year round, but it is also a necessary place on the Silk Road.

At this time, it is the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and the weather has turned cold, so it is no longer suitable for dispatching troops, because it may snow at any time.

Moreover, after half of Xinjiang is defeated, there is still a lot to do.

Nearly 100,000 civilians, half male and half male, are all husband and wife. They signed up voluntarily and were resettled in various places in the Western Regions one after another. The resettlement sites are all the best places, suitable for agricultural reclamation.

The freed serfs of various ethnic groups were placed in slightly worse places.

It will cost about 40 million taels of silver to go through the whole process of dispatching troops, fighting, garrisoning troops, emigrating, and building a city to recover half of Xinjiang. The Datong court was once again in debt. Judging from the current fiscal surplus, it would take ten years to pay off the principal with interest.

The Datong army fought in southern Xinjiang, and in the vast northern Xinjiang area, the Junggar tribe and the Heshuote tribe broke out again to compete for grassland.

The previous alliance was meaningless, and the Datong army was under their noses, and it could not prevent the two parties from fighting. It was really bad weather during the Little Ice Age, and last winter there was a heavy snowstorm, which froze countless people and animals to death. Rather than competing for pastures, it is better to compete for food and population.

In another time and space, Junggar is crushing Heshuote, and Heshuote has long been a vassal of Junggar.

But in this time and space, the Heshuo Special Department of Qinghai-Tibet returned with 30,000 to 40,000 people. And the Junggar tribe was killed in half by the Datong army in Mobei. So the two sides were evenly matched, and they fought back and forth, and it was impossible to tell the winner in ten or eight years.

In the spring of the second year, the first batch of 2,000 monks and priests, under the arrangement of the imperial court, crossed Jiayuguan and came to the Western Regions.

is often a teacher and father with several apprentices.

Some were placed in cities, and most were placed in rural areas. Every teacher and father has a special fund, which can receive money and food to help the poor people of all ethnic groups. When giving relief and curing diseases, they spread Buddhist beliefs along the way, and there will always be people who will be influenced by them.

Jiang Liang went to the imperial court last autumn to ask for more money and food. He planned to take Congling, and Urumqi and Barkol by the way.

When the snow melted in spring, Jiang Liang immediately divided his troops.

Five thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry marched towards Congling. These troops were enough to eat the Pamirs.

Except for the defending troops in various places, the rest of the troops went to attack Yangji Bali (Urumqi) and Barkol respectively. These two places are both arable and grazing. Jiang Liang wanted to build a city after he captured them.

Pioneer general Liang Zhen is in charge of recovering Congling.

He first led his troops to the southeastern valley, which is Taxkorgan County in New China.

There is no city built locally, only some Tajik tribes live.

The 8,000 Datong army killed until no one dared to resist, and the tribal leaders came to surrender one after another. It doesn’t matter to these Tajiks whether they surrender to China or the Bukhara Khanate.

“Master, there is an ancient city over there!”

The river valley here is very wide, and the altitude is low. There are tens of thousands of acres of grassland by the river, and there are even farmlands in some places.

Liang Zhen rode his horse and ran, and he found the ruins of the ancient city, and it was still a stone city wall—Tashkurgan, which means Stone City in Turkic.

Liang Zhen walked around inside and outside the city, and complained: “The king of Bukhara didn’t send troops to garrison such a valley with rich water and grass, and even the good stone city was left to be abandoned.”

Military Propaganda Officer Lei Zhiji said: “This should be the Congling Shouzhuo City in the Tang Dynasty.”

“What is Shouzhuo?” Liang Zhen asked.

Lei Zhiji explained: “Similar to the military towns of the Ming Dynasty, the big ones were called the army at that time, and the small ones were called the guards. The ruins in front of us are the castles of the Congling military town in the Tang Dynasty.”

Liang Zhen, a Mongolian descendant who used to be a Korean, suddenly realized: “The governor said that he wanted to recover the lost land, but he was not just making it up. This was really our Chinese territory before. Hehe, you missionaries, you really have knowledge in your stomach. Know the origin of the abandoned city in the Western Regions.”

Lei Zhiji couldn’t help but rolled his eyes: “The governor was collecting information on the Western Regions two or three years in advance, and the imperial court also sent out ancient messages from the Western Regions. I seem to remember, you should also receive a copy, right?”

“Hehe, hehe, I saw it, but I forgot.” Liang Zhen smiled perfunctorily.

Lei Zhiji said: “The Congling Shouzhuo City in the Tang Dynasty was smaller, and it was expanded in the Yuan Dynasty. The city wall in front of me should have been expanded in the Yuan Dynasty. It can be stationed here, and food can be grown. The city must be restored. .”

Liang Zhen said: “You guess we stayed to garrison and occupied the pastures around the city. Would the local tribes want to move?”

“If you don’t move away, you will fight!” Lei Zhiji said coldly.

Liang Zhen sighed: “Oh, it’s much easier to fight now, but it’s a pity that all the local tribes have surrendered.”

Leaving one thousand infantry and two thousand civilian husbands behind, Liang Zhen led the army to fight to the northwest.

There is a very narrow and long river valley, which is the only place where the Silk Road must pass. A small city developed at the confluence of the two rivers. The name of the city is Salitash.

It is said that the city is actually a small town, but it is already the largest city in the Pamirs!

By the way, in the Tang Dynasty, this place was called Chihe Station, which belonged to Congling Shouzhuo Station.

Datong China did not invade other countries, it really regained the lost land. In the future, there will be no Pamirs, only China’s Congling and Buzhou Mountains.

(end of this chapter)