The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 741: Cold Air Blows, East Wind Arrives

The cold wind was howling, and the weather began to drop rapidly.

The city of Bukhara has never been as crowded as it is now. Every street and every house is packed with people. Even that is not enough to live in. A large number of people are crowded under the eaves of houses on the street corners, shivering in tattered blankets.

No one knows how many people there are in the city. Some say 1.5 million, some say 1.2 million, but the general consensus is that the city's population is no less than 1 million.

One million!
In today's Dayu, there are only three cities with a population of over one million: Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, Nandu Guangzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture.

In addition, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing, Xingang, Kaifeng, Xi'an, Edo, etc. only have a population of several hundred thousand people.

With such a large population, even in Nanjing and Guangzhou, the government needed to recruit a large number of urban construction personnel, such as constables, patrolmen, strong squads and a large number of laborers (sanitation workers) to maintain order, clean the streets, supervise the disposal of garbage and prohibit the dumping of sewage.

As for Bukhara, even if you spliced ten brains of these Karluk people into one person, they would not be able to figure out an effective city management system.

Therefore, the current situation in the city can be imagined.

Without planning, human and animal feces were dumped onto the streets at will.

After being trampled by countless people and animals and wheels, the feces blended perfectly with the mud on the street, forming a thick black crust, as if the earth was wearing a layer of armor.

However, this layer of armor is not a good thing.

On sunny days, the foul smell of feces rises from the bottom under the scorching sun, and the light gray poisonous gas can even be seen with the naked eye.

The whole of Bukhara, from south to north and from east to west, was filled with stench. Even the Ark Emir Palace, the highest point in Bukhara, was not spared. The whole city was like a large dry toilet.

When it rains, although there is little rainfall in the river, there is still some rain. As a result, the dry and hard feces are slowly dissolved after being soaked by the rain, and sewage flows freely in the streets and alleys. The scene is no longer a dry toilet, but a cesspool.

Under the attack of this double threat of ice and fire, small-scale epidemics have been spreading throughout the city of Bukhara, and people suffering from diarrhea and being emaciated can be seen everywhere on the roadside.

What’s even more terrifying is that the epidemic is not the most deadly thing. The most deadly thing is the shortage of food and water.

Under the constant attacks of the 15,000-strong army led by Fu Kangan, the supply line from Ashgabat to Mary to Chalju and finally to Bukhara has been very unstable.

This resulted in at least 500,000 of the more than one million people in the city being in a semi-starved state, and another 200,000 being in a state of extreme hunger.

"Son, my son, my son, is he only worth twenty naan?" On the street, a hunched Qarlug man named Taqi cried to the sky with a handful of silver coins in his hand.

"He is only sixteen years old. I have raised him for sixteen years. Is he only worth twenty naan bread?" Tachi continued to cry, but no one could answer his question. Some people even had hidden greed in their eyes.

"Get lost! If it weren't for His Majesty the King's pity on you, even a pariah like you, raised by an old bitch, would be worth fifteen silver coins!"

The warrior who brought the pension kicked the crying Tachi to the ground. While scolding him, he nodded at several unfriendly-looking guys in the crowd.

This is quite true. If it were not for maintaining basic stability, the Bukhara Emirate would not have given pensions no matter who it went to war with.

Moreover, fifteen silver coins were not a small amount on ordinary days. However, when Bukhara was extremely short of food and a coarse flour naan cost almost one silver coin each, it did seem a little too little.

The onlookers gathered in three layers, but no one dared to say a word for Tachi who had lost his child. They all lowered their heads and did not dare to resist the noble master.

Only a few of Tachi's relatives noticed the warrior's eyes and hurried over to persuade him to quickly exchange the silver coins for naan so that everyone could share it to avoid being robbed at night.

"Catch the Peach Blossom Stone Man, catch the Peach Blossom Stone Man!" At this moment, someone shouted loudly, and the crowd seemed to be ignited at once. They instantly turned red and roared, and walked towards the city gate.

At the city gate, Li Gawa from Longzhou and a Hui warrior had their hands tied and were dragged behind horses. Their team was ambushed and surrounded by more than 500 Turkmen red-headed cavalry. In order to cover more than 30 comrades who broke through, Gawa and his six companions chose to fight back with rifles on the hill.

It was too dark, and the Red-headed Cavalry thought that the main force of the Dayu Cavalry was the one with fierce firepower on the hill. They were also afraid of the precise killing power of rifled rifles, so they chose to surround it but not attack, and wait for it to come up at night.

Then, taking advantage of the night, the Ga Wa drew lots and allowed three people to successfully break out during the chaos. Two others died in the battle, while he and the Hui warrior were captured.

"Devils, you devils, my son, he is only sixteen years old!" Tachi, who had just bought naan, rushed over, grabbed Gawawa's collar and started crying.

Other Karluks in the crowd also began to curse.

"The Peach Blossom Stone Man will not die well, and you will not die well. All of you pagans should go to hell!"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, I want revenge, the Peach Blossom Stone Man killed my whole family!"

"I want revenge too. They took away my beautiful Fatima and my sister!"

"Tell me, tell me, where are my two daughters, the sisters Asiye, who can sing like nightingales? Where have you taken them?"

"Why are you so cruel? My mother was already fifty years old, and you burned her to death in the temple!"

Li Gaowa was very depressed. He wanted to commit suicide with his last bomb, but it misfired, making him a despised prisoner.

But now, seeing the miserable plight of these Karluk people and their extremely painful expressions, Li Ga Wa's heart was filled with joy and he laughed loudly towards the sky.

"Hahahaha, you deserve it, you deserve it, your family is destroyed, you know the pain now, right? When you were madly preaching eastward, did you ever think about this day?

Hahahaha, don't worry, His Majesty will not forgive you. Things a hundred times more painful than today are still waiting for you in the distance!"

Li Gaowa knew a little bit of Karluk language, which was necessary so that he could be promoted to an officer quickly. Therefore, his shouting of key Karluk words mixed with Chinese language instantly aroused the anger of the Karluk people.

Countless people pushed the guards aside and rushed over, their fists raining down on Li Ga Wa, leaving him covered in bruises, but the smile on Li Ga Wa's face never disappeared.

In the evening, after venting his anger, Tachi returned home and felt a little better. Looking at his two daughters wolfing down naan without even taking a sip of water, he felt a little better.

At least compared to his fellow tribesmen who were howling in pain outside the city gate today, his family was still intact. Except for his two sons who were conscripted into the army, no one was captured by the Peach Blossom Stone Man.

Looking at the bright moon in the sky, this 'old' Karluk man, who was less than forty years old and already had two sons and two daughters, sighed softly.

Only now did he understand that the missionary work to the East that had made them cheer in the past, the stories of the holy war against the East that had been passed down from generation to generation, and the elimination of pagans would now bring retribution upon all of them.

Outside the city, a larger-scale raid and food shortage war began, aimed at starving at least one-third of the millions of people in Bukhara. Li Xingtai even resisted the pressure and released thousands of Kazakh cavalry from the Navoi Fortress.

There were more than 40,000 cavalrymen on both sides, fighting back and forth in thousands of oases, hiding from each other.

The cavalry of Dayu completely destroyed all the oases they passed by. Especially since the amount of hay had increased recently, they set fire to everything that could be ignited in the desperate eyes of the Qarlug people.

At the same time, in Samarkand, Chen Guangyao also repelled the Durrani Dynasty's attack from the plateau.

However, the battle was not fierce because the chaos of the Durrani Dynasty had not ended. They were just frightened by Dayu's cruel policy towards the Bukhara Emirate.

These guys who had finally gathered together saw that they could not gain any advantage by going down the mountain, and Chen Guangyao had no intention of attacking, so after a few hundred people were killed or injured, the mighty army of 20,000 returned to the plateau.

At the end of October, the temperature in Bukhara dropped to around ten degrees Celsius, and a strict rationing system was implemented in the city. Many families who could not spare able-bodied men to join the army to perform various tasks had no access to food at all.

Two months ago, Taqi, the Karluk man who lost his son, had to join the militia organized by the sect in order to provide food for his wife and daughter. Although he was almost forty years old and could not go to the battlefield, he was still very useful as a civilian.

After bidding farewell to his wife and daughter with tears in his eyes, Tachi pushed open the door with difficulty. The bodies outside that had died of starvation and cold were already stiff. The oxcarts transporting the bodies in the distance never stopped, but the number of bodies seemed to be increasing.

People are still very fragile. Temperatures of ten degrees during the day and three or four degrees at night can easily freeze people to death, especially if they cannot get enough food.

In the Ark Emir's Palace, the Persian King Agha Muhammad Shah watched all this with indifference. He waved his right hand, feeling the cold air, and said slowly:
"Thank God, winter has finally arrived. The epidemic will be much alleviated, and the army can be assembled again."

"Have the divine warriors been gathered in place?" asked Agha Muhammad Shah.

"Great Shah Shah, your 20,000 divine warriors have been recruited. Each of them serves you with infinite courage and loyalty." Mirza Mahdi, the leader of the divine warriors, replied.

"Not enough!" Agha Mohammad Shah ordered briefly, "I authorize you to recruit another 30,000 people from the civilian population of Bukhara.

Tell these people that if they are willing to charge at the front for me, they will receive five naan breads for each charge, and if they die in battle, I will give these to their families.

"As you wish, great Shah Shah, I will go down and do it right away." Mirza Mahdi touched his chest and saluted, then retreated.

“My nephew, the time for a decisive battle has arrived. The Taohuashi people must have thought that we were running out of food, but in fact, it was the Bukharans who were starving to death. My soldiers were not starving at all.

Go down and tell the soldiers that from today on, each person will be given an extra pound of meat every day."

Nephew Lesoman was shocked. He looked at his uncle Agha Muhammad Shah and said, "Uncle, we don't have that much meat. If each of us adds a pound of meat every day, all the cattle and sheep will be killed soon."

At this time, the Persian king was also under great pressure, because in addition to the more than two million Bukharians, there were also 50,000 Persian troops, 80,000 religious militia, 30,000 divine warriors and 15,000 Khivan cavalry gathered in and around Bukhara and still firmly controlled the oases.

Of the 175,000 troops, except for the 15,000 Khivan cavalry, the rest needed to be supplied with a certain amount of military rations transferred from Turkmenistan.

Now, the cavalry in the field are generally at a disadvantage against them. Of the 10,000 kilograms of food that departs from Ashgabat, only 3,000 to 4,000 kilograms can reach Bukhara, not counting the loss along the way.

If the food for people and horses is included, perhaps only 1,000 kilograms could reach Bukhara. Moreover, the loss of mules and horses along the way was very alarming, which made Bukhara not only short of food, but also of livestock, and there was not much meat at all.

"Without meat, we won't have the strength to fight. Don't worry about it. Just go down and make the announcement!" Agha Muhammad Shah still looked calm, as if he had been prepared.

After everyone had left, Hodada Isfahani, Agha Muhammad Shah's personal servant, who was roughly equivalent to the chief steward of the palace, came in.

Agha Muhammad Shah stared coldly at the servant who should have been the most caring one around him. His eyes became more and more crazy because he was at a disadvantage in this huge gamble against Taohuashi.

"Remember, start with a small amount and gradually increase the amount so that people can't taste it right away. You have to personally inspect all the meat to make sure there are no hairs, nails, or anything else that could reveal it.

Even if something is exposed, you must always pay attention and calm it down before it gets out of hand. If you delay military operations, you know how I will treat you."

Hearing the king's cold words, Isfahani couldn't help but shudder. He knew how cruel and vicious his master was.

"Great Shah Shah, please rest assured that I will see to it."

. . . .

In a small town called Karal, southwest of Bukhara, the headquarters of Dayu’s 20,000 cavalrymen is located.

In the room, Fu Kang'an had lost twenty pounds compared to when he went to war. His eye sockets were sunken and his waistline was gone.

The five-month raid was extremely difficult, because the Dayu cavalry only had enough supplies for one month, and the rest had to be obtained from the Bukhara people. At the same time, they could not contact Li Xingtai in Navoi frequently, as this would put them in danger of being discovered.

The core area of Bukhara could not be reached, and after repeated tugs of war in the surrounding areas, the residents either fled or died. The supplies available were very limited, and in order to ensure combat effectiveness, at least half of the supplies had to be reserved for war horses.

This resulted in many people, including many frontline soldiers, fighting when they could only eat half full or even half full.

As a rich kid who had never suffered hardship since birth, Fu Kang'an experienced hardships north of the Greater Khingan Range. At this time, his state of mind was sublimated again.

Around him, whether they were real Han people, bannermen like him, Mongols from the north and south of the desert, or Koreans and Japanese from the East, they were all enduring desperately, and no one complained or felt tired.

And behind all this is the emperor, the emperor who gives everyone an unlimited future.

Because the emperor made the soldiers and generals believe that their hard work today would be rewarded tenfold or even a hundredfold.

It was also the emperor's meticulous planning that made the soldiers and generals believe that all the emperor's goals could be achieved and would never fail.

Of course, what made Fu Kang'an even more emotional was that the emperor gave everyone a sufficient reason.

That is, no matter how many bad things they do now, they are all for obtaining a paradise on earth for their descendants where they will not suffer hardships, and they are all for solving the worries of their descendants.

It is precisely because of this unity and the heroic spirit of being a great ancestor that they can endure so many hardships.

"Commander-in-Chief, Navoi has urgent news: Duke Wu Mo Ziling has arrived in Samarkand with 45,000 Western Expeditionary Force troops. The Grand Marshal has ordered us to halt our raids, lie low, rest, and await summons."

"Great!" Fu Kang'an slammed the table and stood up. He had finally waited for this moment. The decisive battle was finally about to come.

(End of this chapter)