Bringing the Railway to Daming

The vanguard general was the brave and trustworthy Gu Cheng.

Gu Cheng was only two years younger than Zhu Yuanzhang. He was brave and had extraordinary martial arts skills. He sailed between the Yangtze River and the Huai River and made friends with heroes.

After Zhu Yuanzhang rose to power, he came to join him and served as his personal soldier very early on.

Perhaps because he was so useful, Zhu Yuanzhang never sent him out in the early years. It was not until he was over 40 that he got the opportunity to lead troops outside, and he continued to make achievements and get promoted.

When the Six Gates were established, Zhu Yuanzhang transferred Gu Cheng to serve as the first commander. Two years ago, he resigned from the post of commander of the Six Gates to participate in the war to destroy the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and was finally awarded the title of Earl for his meritorious service.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that the injuries he suffered in the war to pacify the southwest had fully healed, so he appointed him as the vanguard general in the recovery of the Western Regions, giving him another good opportunity to make merit.

Gu Cheng was also using a telescope to observe the situation on the city wall.

After watching for a while, he gave the order: "Let the artillery fire five rounds first, three rounds of shrapnel shells and two rounds of live ammunition."

"Order!"

The messenger took the command flag and immediately went forward to deliver the order.

The Ming army now had a routine for attacking cities - first use the Shenwei cannon to bombard the city for a few rounds, and when the defenders can no longer withstand it, send infantry to attack the city with flying bridges, ladders and other siege equipment.

If the time is right, they will sneak into the internal support force first.

As far as Gu Cheng knew, there were many Guards of Light lurking in the city of Alimali.

However, the Guangming Guards are for intelligence purposes, so it is not impossible to use them as internal support forces, but the number of people is still small. Zhu Yuanzhang would also feel sad if too many people were lost.

So as early as a month ago, the Guangming Guards managed to bring 500 elite Ming troops into the city and hide them. Although these 500 elite Ming troops did not have the main weapons of the Ming army, such as artillery and bird guns, and did not even have much armor, they did carry a lot of short guns, swords and even grenades.

Alimali became the capital of Tukhluq Timur (the father of Hedeluhuozh, the first Great Khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate) only twenty or thirty years ago. The city walls were not as high as those of Beshbalik. It was established as the capital when the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was powerful only because it was closer to Samarkand and other places in Central Asia.

Now the Ming army has both powerful cannons and elite internal supporters, and the morale of the army is high. Even though the vanguard troops led by Gu Cheng have only more than 10,000 people, they are confident that they can capture it.

In fact, the reason why Feng Sheng, the Duke of Song who was serving as the General of the Western Expedition this time, sent him as the vanguard to come quickly was to keep an eye on Alimali and try to catch all the Eastern Chagatai leaders such as Hederhuozhe in one fell swoop.

The Ming army's artillerymen were well-trained and had considerable combat experience, and were considered quite mature and elite artillerymen.

At this time, after receiving the military order, the artillery team quickly placed twenty Shenwei cannon carriages in a very suitable position, and began to fire under the command of the artillery captain.

Boom boom boom...

One shrapnel bomb after another landed on the top of the Alimali city wall and immediately exploded again, sending broken porcelain pieces, iron pieces, and nails flying in all directions, instantly killing and wounding the defenders who were experiencing the shrapnel bombing for the first time and were not well prepared.

The black fireman who was staying in the city gate tower was shocked at this time, and then turned into fear.

Although he had heard about the power of the Ming army's artillery and even heard some generals describe its might, it was not until he experienced it himself on the city wall that he realized how powerful the Ming army's artillery was.

At this time, the defenders on the top of Alimali City were divided into two parts. One part was the ordinary royal city guards, about 5,000 people; the other part was the Khan's court guards, about 8,000 people.

However, both the Khan's guards and the city guards were panicked under the artillery attack - after all, it was their first time experiencing this, and who could withstand such fierce artillery fire?

Although several generals shouted at the troops to hold on despite the artillery fire, it had no effect.

Most of the Khanate soldiers fled down the city wall after experiencing only two or three rounds of artillery shells, disregarding military law; not only did many of the soldiers left on the city wall suffer casualties, the remaining ones didn't know what to do.

The Ming army was nearly three miles away, and even the best Huihui cannon on the city wall could not reach that far - although it was the ultimate version of the catapult, its maximum range was only one mile, which was no match for artillery.

So many Khanate soldiers fled from the city walls, not only because they were afraid of the Ming army's artillery fire, but also because they could not do anything if they stayed on the city walls, as if they were killed in vain by the artillery shells.

outside the city.

Gu Cheng saw that after three rounds of artillery shells, a large area of ​​the defenders on the city wall was empty, with almost no one showing up, so he immediately issued an order to attack the city.

Under the attack horn, the sound of cannons continued.

Although some generals on the Eastern Chagatai side realized that it was time to send soldiers to the city walls for defense, it was difficult to mobilize the fleeing troops. In this way, when the Ming army crossed the moat and arrived at the city walls, there were still not many Khanate defenders on the city walls.

"Kill!"

"The day will come when my wife and son will be honored!"

"Broken city! Broken city!"

Under the loud shouts of the generals and the cries of the soldiers, ladders were set up on the city walls.

At this time, five rounds of artillery fire had passed, but the bombardment of the Shenwei cannon did not stop. Instead, under Gu Cheng's order, it extended into the city. Although this might harm the residents in the city, in this era, how could wars be fought to ensure that civilians would not be harmed?
If they don't drive the people to be cannon fodder and don't loot or massacre after breaking into the city, they will be a disciplined army of the king.

"Send a signal and let the internal support troops open the east gate." In the Ming army formation, Gu Cheng calmly issued a new military order.

At this time, he only felt that this battle was boring - with Alimali's attack, almost half of the cities of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate were taken by them, and the only big cities left were Khashahar and Yaerkan (later Yarkand) in the southwest, and at most Khotan.

This made Gu Cheng feel that none of the cities of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, which monopolized the Western Regions, seemed capable of being attacked.

Zhu Chong and Zhu Tan, still within the army, watched through their telescopes for a moment, then lowered them and looked at each other in bewilderment. They had originally thought that Alimali, the capital of the Eastern Chagatai, would be able to hold out for a day or two against over ten thousand Ming troops. Perhaps then, they would have a chance to achieve great success.

Who would have thought that Alimali would be so weak and it looked like it would be captured within an hour.

If they don't take any action, they can only take some credit.

Although Zhu Chong was a bit of a bastard, he was quite courageous and immediately came to Gu Cheng to ask for orders.

"Lord Yongxin, I request to lead my two thousand guards to join the siege!"

Gu Cheng recalled Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions on the matter and asked seriously, "Once on the battlefield, swords have no eyes. Your Highness Prince Yong, have you thought it through?"

Zhu Chong said without hesitation, "Think it over carefully—it's not like I haven't been on the battlefield before, and I have guards and escorts with me. What's there to be afraid of?"

"Okay." Gu Cheng nodded, then took out a command flag, handed it to Zhu Chong, and said, "Please ask His Royal Highness Prince Yong to lead the guards to participate in the siege on the left wing!"

"Order!"

Although Zhu Tan felt that siege warfare was more dangerous than field battles, seeing that Zhu Chong had participated, he also came to ask for orders.

"Lord Yongxin, I also want to join the siege!"

Gu Cheng had worked with Zhu Tan before, and knew that since Zhu Tan had said so, he would not go back on his word. He immediately gave Zhu Tan a flag and asked him to participate in the siege from the right wing.

After receiving the military order, Zhu Chong and Zhu Tan led their guards to participate in the siege as quickly as possible.

Unexpectedly, the defenders were so weak that as soon as they reached the city wall, some Ming soldiers who had participated in the siege earlier climbed up to the top of the city wall, and then bursts of Mongolian shouts came from the top of the city wall.

"The city is broken!"

"The Ming army has entered the city, run away!"

In fact, there were only a few Ming soldiers who climbed the city wall first. They were outnumbered and weak, and the defenders could easily drive them down.

However, the defenders had already lost their morale due to the bombardment of artillery fire and had no will to fight. Seeing that the situation was not good, many of them fled.

A few brave warriors stepped forward to fight with the Ming army, hoping to turn the situation around, but they were no match for the Ming army at all - the Ming army now had not only sharp guns and cannons, but also excellent armor, and the steel knives in their hands were comparable to precious swords that had been tempered for more than thirty times.

In addition, they had good food, sufficient training, and were even taught to read and write. They knew how to use their brains, so they were naturally not someone that a few Eastern Chagatai warriors could stop.

At the same time, a burst of shouting and killing sounds, as well as a special rumbling sound, erupted from the east gate of the city - that was the sound of Ming army grenades exploding.

It turned out that the elite spies who had been hidden in the city by the Guards of Light received the signal and attacked the East Gate from the inside.

The defenders were not prepared for internal support, and their morale was low under the bombardment of the Ming army. Then they were suddenly bombed by the elite Ming army with grenades, and they collapsed immediately.

In this way, the Ming army's escapades easily captured the East Gate city wall and opened the city gate.

At this time, Zhu Tan, who was slower, had not yet crossed the moat. Seeing the Ming army near the east gate rushing in, he was stunned and thought: I haven't really joined in yet, and the city is already broken?

Hei De'erhuozhe had not expected that the capital city he had run for decades would be conquered by the Ming army so quickly. When he came to his senses, he didn't even bother to return to the palace. He took hundreds of guards and went to the west gate, ready to escape directly.

Who knew that just after leaving the city for a mile, they encountered a thousand cavalrymen that Gu Cheng had deployed in advance to the west, and were caught red-handed...
···
On the second day of April in the 22nd year of Hongwu, the Ming army captured Alimali, the capital of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, and captured Hederhuozhe Khan, the high priest of Islamic religion, and many other Eastern Chagatai dignitaries below the rank of two.

On the ninth day of April, Hudaida, a nobleman who held actual power in Hashhar, Yaerkan and other places, took the initiative to surrender to the Ming army and expressed his willingness to unconditionally submit to the Ming Dynasty.

At this point, the entire Western Regions nominally became a place directly ruled by the Ming Dynasty.

If we don't count the regimes established by ethnic minorities such as the Mongols and the Western Xia, the Central Plains dynasty lost control of the Western Regions during the middle Tang Dynasty. Now, six hundred years later, the Western Regions have finally returned to the embrace of the Central Plains dynasty.

Because the army carried a wireless telegraph, on April 12, after Feng Sheng confirmed that Hu Daida was sincere in surrendering, Zhu Yuanzhang, who was far away in the capital, received the news.

Fengxian Hall.

After reading the telegram, Zhu Biao smiled and said, "Father, since Hudaida has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, even if Timur leads his army to attack, there will be no one in the Western Regions to support him."

"I'm afraid not." Zhu Yuanzhang stepped down from the throne and walked to the map of the Western Regions. He said, "We have conquered the Western Regions in less than two months. It's fast, but there are still many Mongol nobles and Islamic forces in various places who are unwilling to submit to the Ming Dynasty."

"According to the intelligence of the Bright Guards, the Islamic religion in the Western Regions is deeply intertwined with the Mongolian nobility, and can almost be considered one and the same."

"They will certainly not be willing to lose their former power and interests just like that. If that lame Timur really leads a large army to attack, they will definitely seize the opportunity to stir up trouble and think they are the accomplices."

"If we want to stabilize the situation in the Western Regions, I'm afraid we'll have to continue sending more troops there until we establish a systematic system of garrisons there, divide it into provinces, prefectures, and counties, and send itinerant officials to govern for at least ten years before we can truly win the hearts and minds of the people."

After hearing this, Zhu Biao also realized that truly ruling the Western Regions was more difficult than conquering them, and governing them well was even more difficult.

He frowned and said, "The Western Regions are crucial to the great Ming Dynasty's century-long plan. Now that we have conquered the Western Regions, we still need to invest a lot of troops, money and food to maintain our rule, so we cannot give up."

"That's what I think," Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile. "In the end, it all comes down to how much money and grain we have to spend. We in the Ming Dynasty are not short of money and grain now." (End of this chapter)