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Chapter 1054 – 1050【Field Investigation Is Reliable】

Chapter 1054 1050 [Field investigations are reliable]

The entire Congling is under the jurisdiction of Governor Osh of the Bukhara Khanate.

However, there have been several governors in a row who have never set foot in the land of Congling—a plateau with an average altitude of more than 3,000 meters. Who would come here to wander around?

Congling is different from what Jiang Liang imagined. Although it believes in the Green religion, it is a secular tribal society.

The Yarkand Khanate and the Mughal Empire believed in Sufis at this time. On the other hand, in the vast plateau and mountainous area of Congling, people believe in the Ismaili sect, which also incorporates primitive totem worship, and they are extremely tolerant of pagan beliefs.

When Jiang Liang communicated with the Tajik businessman, the two sides were purely talking about each other.

Jiang Liang’s goal is Congling, but Tajik businessmen think that China wants to take down Fergana and Osh. Both belong to the territory of the Tajiks, but there are great differences in religion and culture, and even the sects of belief are different.

Fergana and Osh are on the north side of Congling, which is the core area of Tajikistan. Religion, customs, and culture were heavily influenced by Central Asia, and power was held by nobles and imams.

The Congling that China intends to seize is all plateaus and mountains, and the economy is very backward. In this case, religious leaders have very little right to speak, so the leaders of each tribe have the final say.

You can see Green believers worshiping totems in the mountainous area of Congling, just like the Green believers in Java island worshiping Mazu… The style of painting is extremely strange, and they are all products of the fusion of beliefs.

Liang Zhen seized Stone City River Valley. The governor of Bukhara didn’t even know about such a big event.

It was not until the Chinese army approached Salitash, which was the Chihe Station in the Tang Dynasty, that the garrison of the Bukhara Kingdom woke up from a dream.

For King Bukhara, the only function of Congling Ridge is to collect tolls for caravans. They didn’t even bother to build checkpoints at the mountain pass, because the environment at the mountain pass was harsh, and it was not as convenient as collecting taxes at Chihe Station, which was a must pass on the Silk Road anyway.

Thousands of troops came to kill, and the guard Said was completely dumbfounded.

He knew that Yarkand was at war, so from last year to now, business travel has almost stopped. But I never thought that the Chinese army actually crossed the mountain pass and led troops to kill the city where they were stationed.

Said is called the defender, but he is actually a road tax collector.

The number of soldiers under his command is not enough to make up 500—here is too poor, and it is not cost-effective to transport food long distances, so there are too many soldiers and he cannot afford it.

Besides the castle, there are many merchants from Central Asia.

They came last year, but the Chinese army blocked the mountain pass and temporarily prohibited the caravan from passing through. They had to retreat to Chihe Station and wait for the opening of the trade route.

Whether they are defenders or merchants, they have heard the rumors of the Chinese army and know that it is a group of soldiers who can summon devils.

At this moment, merchants outside the city ran away one after another.

But they don’t want to travel too far. They also want to go to Kashgar to buy Chinese goods and ship them to Central Asia.

Liang Zhen only brought four cannons, and the military order above was to try not to fire them. If the defenders are willing to surrender, allow them to safely withdraw from Congling, so that they will not completely tear themselves apart with the Bukhara Khanate.

“What? Make me surrender?” Saeed asked.

The envoy said: “Yes, as long as you surrender, you can safely withdraw from Pamir.”

“Impossible.” Said shook his head.

Chihe Station is very important because it can collect tolls.

All Chinese goods transported to the West by land must pass through here, and a huge amount of road tax can be collected every year.

If Saeed dared to surrender, let alone the king would not let him go, even the governor would cut him down. How many people rely on the toll booth here for their money.

The envoy went back to report, Liang Zhen was too lazy to bombard slowly, and ordered: “Let’s go up the hot air balloon.”

This river valley is located at the confluence of two rivers, and the castle is surrounded by mountains, so there is no fixed wind direction.

Observers measured for a while and found that the wind direction was all chaotic.

The southeast wind blows for a while, and the north wind blows for a while, and the wind strength also fluctuates.

Faced with this situation, we can only go up to the sky first. When hot air balloons are raised all around the city, there will always be one or two hot air balloons with the right wind direction.

“Jennie! Jinny!”

The defenders heard the rumors from the merchants, and at this moment they really shouted the devil.

“Boom boom boom!”

When thousands of enemies threw themselves at the top of the city and exploded, these soldiers finally collapsed.

They only have more than 400 people defending the city, and their morale is already low. Rather than being frightened by the “devil”, it is better to find a reason for himself to flee. The soldiers rushed towards the city gate, and no matter how Said stopped him, it would not help.

So Said also ran away.

The Datong Army’s hot-air balloon bombing gave Said an excuse to escape, because the Chinese army summoned the devil, so he really couldn’t beat it. It should… be forgiven by the governor.

Liang Zhen smiled and said: “Catch up, don’t chase too hard.”

China does not want to fight a big battle with the Bukhara Khanate, it just needs to drive the enemy out of Congling.

The defeated soldiers all fled north by boat, and the Datong army also grabbed some merchant ships and followed them northward to catch up.

Merchants from Central Asia hid on the shore ahead and witnessed this “chasing battle” throughout.

Mission officer Lei Zhiji led his troops to chase after him personally, and he wanted to investigate the situation along the way. He stopped halfway, grabbed a few merchants to accompany the army, and asked them to introduce specific information.

When I came to a village called Gulica, the river was divided into two. The merchant accompanying the army said: “Follow the river to the west, you can go to Osh, where the governor is stationed. Follow the river to the north, you can go to a A city called Uzgen. No matter where you go, as long as you leave the river valley, it will be much lower and flatter.”

The two rivers diverged, Lei Zhiji took a boat tour, and finally returned to Gulica: “You can build a city here, get stuck here, and only need three to five hundred defenders to resist tens of thousands of enemy attacks.”

Lei Zhiji drew a simple map based on the merchant’s description and his own field investigation.

Then, draw a circle in Gulicha and another circle in Chiheyi. Both places need to build cities, with three to five hundred troops stationed in each city, and this large area will be stable.

In the next three months, Lei Zhiji visited other areas of Congling.

Only then did I finally know that geographically speaking, there are eight regions in the Pamir Plateau, referred to as “Eight Pa”. However, from the perspective of ethnicity and culture, it can be divided into six regions. Divided in terms of language, it can be divided into two major sections.

Ethnic composition is extremely complex, not only Tajiks.

Some came from India, some from Persia, some from Siberia, and of course some from Xinjiang.

The only link between various groups is the common belief in the Ismaili sect. Moreover, beliefs are also internally differentiated, with each region incorporating unique religious traits.

Lei Zhiji returned to Kashgar and handed in his investigation report.

He said to Jiang Liang: “The governor, the land of Congling, is isolated from the world, just like Tibet. The sects here are much gentler and more tolerant than those in Yarkand. There is no need to use iron fists.”

“Continue to talk.” Jiang Liang nodded.

Lei Zhiji said: “The local tribes in Congling are also similar to those in Tibet, but they are slightly different. The religious leaders here do not have much secular power. The central area of Congling is not suitable for farming, and it is more like Mongolia. The nomadic tribes on the border. The other areas of Congling are semi-cultivated and semi-pastoral, which is very similar to Kham.”

“There are big nobles in Kangzang, but there are no big nobles in Congling. They are all nobles from small and medium tribes. Surrender as soon as you come here, the Datong court is the same as the Bukhara Khanate.”

“Moreover, the external forces occupying here are all for the commercial tax of the Silk Road, and the oppression of the local tribes is not serious. After all, no matter how bullying the poor tribes in the mountains, they will not be able to squeeze out oil. If you send troops to urge Taxes, the mountains are high and the roads are far away, and the transportation of military rations is difficult, and the taxes raised are not enough to cover the military expenses.”

“The great nobles and imams mentioned by the merchants before are not in the land of Congling, but in the large area of Osh. It is also the territory of the Tajiks, but the religious beliefs are different, and they are much richer than Congling.”

“The local tribes in Congling also have slaves, but the number is not large. Often, wars between tribes, prisoners of war become slaves, and slaves are born slaves.”

“You can free the slaves, but you can’t stop the tribal wars. The tribes here fight because they’re too poor, and fight over pasture and farmland. Unless you can make them all rich, there will always be wars, and prisoners, and there will always be slave.”

“Cong Ridge has eight pagodas, which can build eight big cities, each with 500 troops. There are also five key locations, where small castles can be built, and each castle has dozens to hundreds of troops. The entire Cong Ridge garrison The total number should be around five or six thousand people.”

After finishing speaking, Lei Zhiji looked at Jiang Liang.

Jiang Liang shook his head and said, “There are too many garrisons of 6,000, and the transportation here is difficult. It is impossible to transport military food from Kashgar for a long time. If you want to obtain food locally, you can only garrison a small number of troops, otherwise it will intensify the conflict with the local tribe. After all, the food produced is So much, even if we spend money to buy it, it will cause a shortage of food in Congling. The garrison in Congling has a maximum of four thousand.”

Lei Zhiji said: “Four thousand are unstable.”

Jiang Liang said: “It’s safe, you said it yourself, the local tribes are scattered, and even the language is divided into two parts. Eight big cities, each with 400 troops. The remaining 800 troops are stationed at each checkpoint.”

“It’s not enough.” Lei Zhiji said.

Jiang Liang said with a smile: “Since the local tribes are poor, they should collect less tax. If they pay less tax, they have to fight for the court. If one tribe rebelled, let other tribes send troops to follow our Datong army to quell the chaos. If all All the tribes are rebelling, which means that there is a problem with the Han officials, who have forced all the tribes that were scattered in the sand to rebel.”

The imperial court is also going to build a school in Congling. At the beginning, it only recruits the children of tribal nobles, and then slowly extends to the common people.

Since the sects here are relatively moderate and do not interfere in politics, let them retain their faith.

To be honest, as long as the imperial court does not extort violently, the Tajiks are very docile, because they are used to submitting to the suzerain in order to obtain a relatively stable living environment.

The Tajik brothers in New China, how many border guards have come out, they are voluntary to patrol the border for the motherland, and even sacrificed their lives for it.

(end of this chapter)