The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 521 Running away
"The Western Expeditionary Army achieved a great victory in its first battle!"

"The Western Expeditionary Army captured six cities of Kucha in succession!"

"The Western Expeditionary Army has annihilated the Western Tatars!"

"."

The fighting is raging in the west.

As the capital of Guanzhong, news often came out of Hami City.

The children of the military households brought out the game of killing Tatars again.

They fought several battles over who should impersonate the Western Tatar.

Fu Bao, by virtue of his status as the youngest son of the Western Expeditionary General and his position as the youngest brother of Gan Lu Chuan, obtained supreme command.

Poor Orlando and his foreign friends were directly chosen as Tatars because they looked different from the Han Chinese children.

How could the foreign children know the significance of the Tatars to these children from the border town?

As they put on the hats representing the Tatars, they were chased and beaten by a group of dozens of Han Chinese children, some four or five years old.

They were beaten so badly!

After the foreign children understood that "Tartar" meant "bad guy," they turned pale at the mention of "Tartar."

After that, no foreign child was willing to play this annoying role again.

The children of military households were endlessly entertained by the game of fighting the Tatars.

The adults in Kansai, especially the men, are very passionate. The first question they ask each other when they meet is:
Do you know where we are now?

"You didn't know? Then I'll have to explain it to you properly."

Then, those in the know immediately report from the front lines and make predictions that take no less than half an hour.

What are you predicting?
Whoops!
Everyone is predicting how many days it will take the Western Expeditionary Army to reach Shache, the capital of the Hu people!
Some people assert:

"Aksu is only a little over a thousand miles from Kashgar. As long as the aftermath is handled promptly, good news will surely come back within a month."

Those familiar with the distances between the cities in the Western Regions responded:

"Don't even mention a month, it won't even take half a month! It's over a thousand miles, but Ilima can get there in five or six days!"

Many others, however, made malicious speculations:

"Are those Hu noble leaders who robbed foreign merchants perhaps shirtless, carrying bundles of thorns, on their way to Aksu to kneel and beg for mercy?"

"Tsk tsk, they only apologize when they're being attacked at their doorstep. What good does that do? Even if they apologize, will those eight thousand foreign merchants come back to life? Our General has already been very restrained in letting them live like this for the past few years!"

In other words.

The Kansai Army had the capability to take over Shache several years ago.

The Great General who was the talk of the town in Kansai was indeed quite restrained on this westward expedition.

She did not personally engage in combat; instead, she coordinated and directed operations from the rear, providing ammunition supplies to the firearms battalion and arranging first aid for the wounded.

The artillerymen were completely fired up.

Is there a shortage of artillery shells?
Do not!
It's endless!
It's impossible to finish!
Gan Minglan would glance at the boxes of artillery shells piled up as tall as the sacred tree on the three acres of land in the space from time to time, keeping her merits and fame hidden.

With the Great General's Cannon leading the way and the Second General's Cannon bringing up the rear, the city walls and gates of the Hu people's cities that the Western Expeditionary Army passed through were all left intact.

Definitely battle-damaged!

Kill the stubborn elements in each city, the Burkes (chieftains) and the noble lords.

Anyone who is armed and refuses to surrender shall be killed.

The civilians who prostrated themselves on the ground to surrender received the treatment due to prisoners of war.

The Kansai Army quickly issued the same decrees to these war zones as it had done in the Iri Valley.

The process involved confiscating weapons, conducting a census, regulating commercial activities in the city, and standardizing the currency.

Reassurance efforts are underway.
The Guanzhong army made no attempt to conceal its marching route or its actions in the places it visited; Shache City received several waves of reports from scouts every day. The capital of the Hu people was in complete chaos.

Most people are like ants on a hot pan.

Who wants to be the lamb to the slaughter?

In particular, the culprits who robbed and killed more than 8,000 foreign merchants had already fled with their wealth and people after the Western Expeditionary Army had ravaged the outpost of Kucha.

Where can it run to?
There was no place for them in the Western Regions.

However, to the west of Kashgar, one can enter the snow-capped mountains via the Torugart Pass and travel another 600 li along the southern branch of the Silk Road to reach Leh, the capital of the Bukhara Khanate.

The Khanate of Bukhara and Kashgar had long-standing trade relations, and their languages ​​and religions were similar to those of the Hu people.

Leh became the best refuge for these people.

They packed their bags and left. When the current Khan, Morigen, learned the root cause of this war, he was so angry that he almost had a stroke.

I can't lead them; I really can't lead these idiots.

They have no recollection of the peaceful years that they have enjoyed, which were obtained by him, the Great Khan, by groveling and stealing from the Kansai Army.

Instead of secretly rejoicing, they dared to hand over such a huge handle against the other party?!

They can escape abroad, but where can this Khan go?

Despair like Morgen.

When he learned that the chief beggar and his associates, along with the White Hat faction leader Khoja and others, had all perished under the artillery fire of the Guanzhong army in Kashgar, two hundred miles away, he was heartbroken.

That night.

The palace in Shache City was engulfed in flames.

The Guanzhong Army scout squad that infiltrated Shache found the fire too intense to be contained and could not provide any assistance. They could only send a message by flying eagle to General Gu, who was still reorganizing his troops in Kashgar.

General Gu was almost driven mad by this news.

"Ah! Ang's greatest wish in this life was to storm the capital of the Hu people, open their treasure trove, and make a fortune! That damned Morigen, he cut off Ang's path to wealth!"

Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents!

The Kansai army, which regarded the God of Wealth as their parents, was furious.

After they arrived in Shache, they quickly arrested all the nobles in the capital.

Don't kill.

Review only!

What are they reviewing?
Interrogation was conducted to determine who had possession of the stolen goods and money belonging to the more than 8,000 foreign merchants.
This trial lasted for a whole day and night.

After the burning of the Shache Royal City, they finally got the answer they wanted.

Gan Minglan, revisiting Shache, chuckled as she looked at the interrogation documents in her hand:
"Ran away? They're quite good at running away. Did they think that once they crossed the border into the Khanate of Bukhara, that blood debt would be wiped clean?"

The Western Expeditionary Army was at the height of its morale.

That's truly unstoppable!
Bukhara Khanate, you are blessed to dare to harbor fugitives!

Not to mention that Leh is only about 600 kilometers away from Kashgar.

Even if these Uyghur nobles fled to Europe, they would all be arrested!

Gan Minglan:
"We must capture these culprits alive and send them to Venice, then ask Marcoli to vindicate our Kansai Army! Any sensible member of the foreign merchant families who were killed should do something to appease them."

Soldiers: We can see it now, the general is planning to make two birds with one stone.

It is said that the sound of a cannon is worth a fortune.

How many shells have we fired to avenge your dead?

Anyway, Marcoli had the ledger in his possession.

When Marcoli heard Gan Minglan tell him that the culprits had fled to Leh in the Khanate of Bukhara, he only asked one question weakly:
"General, is it possible to get my stolen perfumes back?"