Timur's marriage-seeking team set off carrying a large amount of property. They went to Mongolia Stan, Chagatai, Ir, Golden Horde and other places to propose marriage to the powerful chiefs of the Mongolian tribes for many of Timur's grandsons.
Er was powerful, but deterrence by force alone was obviously far from enough. He hoped to consolidate his ties with the various Mongolian tribes through marriage during his expedition.
Envoys sent to Tartar and Oara also set out, and they brought Tamerlane's oath: "How can the descendants of Timur be compared with the descendants of Genghis Khan? When I live forever, I will choose among the descendants of Genghis Khan.
The virtuous people have established themselves. This eastern expedition to the Ming Dynasty will be successful once it is over. The beautiful scenery will belong to all the Mongolians. In the future, it will belong to the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, not to Timur..." [bsp; It is late autumn, chilly,
Early that morning, all foreign missions in Samarkand, and even foreign business groups from various places, received orders from Timur Khan: "All of them must leave Samarkand that day. Early the next morning, if anyone is found who has not yet left,
Kill without mercy!" This was a tough measure taken by Emperor Timur to prevent anyone from spying on intelligence and finding out what was true in Samarkand.
Immediately, Timur called the Ming envoy to the Khan tent again. The Ming envoy's surname was Ding, and his name was Dingyong. He was the nephew of Ding Baolu, the commander of Wuchang Guards, because he was from the Hui tribe and believed in Yihui and Huilan.
Therefore, Zhu Diqin decided to be a suitable candidate for a return visit to Timur's empire.
Not long after the Timur Empire's envoys Gesuyedin and Altusa left the Ming Dynasty, he set out on the road. Unexpectedly, he was controlled and not allowed to leave as soon as he arrived in Samarkand. Because of the long distance, it was difficult to determine the return date.
Bian doesn't know yet.
When Dingyong walked into the palace of Samarkand, he saw the civil and military officials of the court and the crowds of people. Only a path was left for him on the thick carpet in the middle. Dingyong didn't know what was going on. He was very worried and didn't want to
The majestic power of the Celestial Kingdom was weakened, so he had to force himself to calm down, walked up to Tamerlane, and said to Timur with the country's etiquette on his chest: "Great Khan, Dingyong returned to your country on the order of the Ming Emperor in order to conclude the two countries.
The close and friendly relationship between them was also to urge the Great Khan to resume tribute to our Ming Dynasty as soon as possible. But the Great Khan imprisoned the foreign ministers, such a rude behavior..."
Before he could finish speaking, Emperor Tamerlane, who was nearly seventy years old and still extremely strong, interrupted him loudly: "I called you here today because this Khan is going to let you return home!"
Dingyong was overjoyed when he heard this, his eyes lit up and he said, "Seriously?"
Timur said loudly: "Listen, go back and tell your Khan that he betrayed his father and killed his nephew, and is a big bastard! I, Timur, am a minister of the Great Khan of Hongwu, and I want to fight for my father.
To fight back against the rebels, we will send troops to conquer the Ming Dynasty soon! Let him wash his neck and wait to try my Tiemu'er's precious sword!"
Dingyong was shocked and angry when he heard this, and retorted sternly: "How dare you be so rude to the Emperor of Ming Dynasty? Once His Majesty the Emperor knows about it, he will definitely not forgive you lightly..."
Timur sneered: "Timur is about to compete with him! Blow him out!" Several strong and powerful guards immediately rushed up from the left and right, picked up Dingyong and left. Dingyong was lifted out of the khan.
After a while, all the members of the Ming Dynasty envoy got on their horses, discarded all the heavy supplies, and rode away from Samarkand.
Dingyong was not an idiot. With all the changes that had happened in Samarkand in the past few days, combined with Tamerlane's words today, he knew that what Tamerlane said must be true. After he arrived in Samarkand, he also realized He understood Tamerlane's military strength thoroughly. He knew that even if His Majesty the Emperor now knew of Tamerlane's ambitions, it might not be too late to deploy emergency defenses.
What's more, Timur was about to send troops. He pretended to be generous at this time, but immediately followed him to send troops. By the time he sent the letter to Nanjing, Timur's army had already reached Shaanxi. This was not the case. It doesn't make much difference to declare war, so he can seize every moment. The earlier he calls Ming to be on guard, the more opportunities he can gain for his country.
Since they had received the order from Timur Khan, the defenders of Samarkand did not make things difficult for them. The soldiers and horses guarding the city opened the city gate to them with ridicule, and deliberately kept them with them in a blackmail-like manner. They carried most of the dried meat, cheese and drinking water before letting them go.
In Tamerlane's palace, after Dingyong and others were blasted away, Tamerlane walked to a huge gauze curtain facing the wall, stretched out his hand and pulled hard, and the gauze curtain fell to the ground, revealing a huge map. A blood-red arrow, from west to east, like a sharp curved horse, cuts straight to the end of the east. At the end of the east, the first blood-red circle encircles a place name: Khotan!
The first stop of Emperor Timur's Holy War in the Far East was right here.
More than ten years of careful preparations have made him fully prepared in all aspects. He has even calculated clearly that if his cavalry advances from Khotan at full speed, it will take one hundred and sixty-one days to reach Nanjing. , the time is accurate to the day!
From Turkestan to Gansu and Shaanxi, the biggest challenge is not the Ming army, but Tianwei. There is a lack of water there. Even his invincible cavalry cannot survive without water, so the main offensive is marked on this map. All water sources on the route and several preparation routes are replaced by green symbols. These water sources were compiled by his scouts posing as merchants for more than ten years.
Even if we have mastered the exact location of these water sources, it is still a serious problem to supply their food, grass, and water sources to a huge army. Once there is a problem with the supply, the more troops there are, the heavier the burden will be, and the faster the defeat will be. This was the biggest taboo of the expeditionary force. Therefore, Tamerlane decided to set the number of elite cavalry vanguard troops led by himself at 200,000.
Considering that he had to pass through a long area with little cultivated land and sparsely populated areas, and the plundered grain and grass might not be able to supply the needs of the army, he also drove a million cattle and sheep with him at the ratio of two suckling cows and ten suckling sheep per person, and the accompanying shepherds There are more than 600,000 in number. They are not just shepherds, but also excellent warriors. Along the way, they will be scattered along the road and stationed at key passes along the expedition route.
They stay in the local area and can be mobilized at any time when more troops are needed ahead. After they are stationed in the area, they can farm along the road and continuously plunder the local people's food and grass to supply the military supplies ahead. At the same time, the smooth flow of this road is ensured to ensure that from Soldiers recruited from all over Central Asia were continuously sent to the East.
Troop strength was an issue for Timur. He used 800,000 troops in the Indian war, 300,000 in the Russian war, and more than 500,000 in the Turkish war. What's more, "the Yuan Dynasty returned to the world", Xinhui Xinjiang The Muslims and Mongols in Gansu, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Sichuan and other places are all his potential sources of soldiers. As long as his fire comes, he can ignite a prairie fire.
Tamburlaine had been preparing for so long, and when he spoke about his military deployment, all the generals could hear their blood boiling with enthusiasm. Emperor Tamburlaine's powerful words and confident demeanor had infected them, and they believed that in the future
Under the leadership of the Khan, they will conquer the great empire in the east and increase their wealth exponentially.
Timur's sonorous and powerful voice continued: "Our first step is to occupy the entire Mongolia. Now, the eastern part of Mongolia belongs to the Ming Dynasty, the northern part belongs to Oara, and the western part is our territory, and the other two parties are stationed here.
If the Tatar, Oara and Mongol tribes are willing to cooperate with me, and the Ming army is vulnerable, we will march eastward along the Yellow River, cut off the Grand Canal, and capture it first with the Tatar, Oara and Mongol tribes.
Its Beijing.
The Yellow River Basin has been determined, and we will continue to plan for the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. Because the rivers there are crisscrossed and crisscrossed, it is not suitable for our elite riding movement. We may encounter relatively strong resistance here. At this time, we must adopt some other strategies to cooperate with our military operations. We will
Find a young Chinese man, prove that he is the missing Emperor Jianwen, and make him Emperor of China to confront Zhu Di.
Before considering victory, consider defeat first. This is especially true for an expeditionary army. If our diplomatic measures against Tatar, Oara and other countries in the Western Regions fail, and the war is unfavorable, then we will change the urgent strategy into a slow strategy.
, enter Hexi first, seize Guanzhong, and consolidate Shaanxi, Gannan, and Ningxia first. Most of the Ming troops in these areas are Mongols, Tibetan Hui people, and Muslim Hui people. They are not loyal to the Ming court. On the contrary, they are very friendly to us. We
When the envoys come and go, they often take the initiative to reveal information about the Ming court to us. Therefore, we can easily ask them to rebel before the battle and join our camp!
Let's talk about the troops of the Ming Dynasty returning to their headquarters. The Ming army was divided into armies based on the capital command divisions, namely Beiping, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Fujian, Huguang, Guangdong, and Guangxi.
Liaodong, Henan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Daning, and Wandu Division were all under attack. The only front-line armed forces that could resist in time were the Shaanxi Dusi Army Corps and the Shaanxi Xingdu Division Army Corps.
Shaanxi Dusi and Shaanxi Xingdusi have a total of twenty-seven guards and five thousand households. If their soldiers are full, there will be about 155,000 people stationed in various castles, and they will not be able to gather together to fight us.
, so, although they have a tall and solid city, they are scattered and unable to concentrate, which is their biggest disadvantage!
The Ming court's second-line troops were mainly concentrated in Shanxi, Henan, and Sichuan Dusi. There were a total of thirty-three guards and fourteen thousand households in these three places, with a total strength of about 200,000. The remaining armies were too far away and it was difficult to reach them.
We rushed to the front lines of Shaanxi and Gansu within half a year. Unfortunately, we learned that in each of their guard posts, there were injuries, old illnesses, and non-combatants who had completely turned into soldiers, so their actual strength in these places was
There’s also a big discount!”
When Timur said this, he dragged his lame leg and turned around slightly. Using the most elegant posture he could do, he glanced at his generals with a smile: "Now, are you clear?"
The generals raised their arms excitedly and shouted: "The Great Khan will win! The Great Khan will win! The Great Khan will win..."
Timur raised his hands slightly and pressed down. The overwhelming sound immediately stopped. Timur's voice was as cold as an unsheathed steel sword: "Let's go! Now!"