For two hundred years from the 16th to the 17th century, the overland Silk Road was in the hands of the Bukhara people.
After leaving Xinjiang, Chinese goods were transported from the southern mountainous area to the Caspian Sea. According to later administrative maps, the general route is as follows: Gansu-Xinjiang-Tajikistan-Turkmenistan (Uzbekistan)-Caspian Sea-Russia (Persia, Ukraine).
Although the overland Silk Road has declined with the rise of great navigation, it is definitely not as withered as imagined.
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Historically, the main purpose of Tsarist Russian envoys visiting China during the Kangxi period was to open up new trade routes in Siberia and break the Bukhara people's monopoly on Chinese goods.
Kashgar.
Jiang Liang met with several Bukhara businessmen and asked about their domestic situation: "How has the King of Bukhara been doing in recent years?"
These businessmen are all from the Tajik ethnic group, which is a ruled ethnic group within the Bukhara Khan.
A businessman said: "I have never met the Great Khan, but I heard that he likes to enjoy himself. In addition to paying taxes, the caravans passing through Bukhara must also donate the most exquisite goods to the Great Khan for free in order to obtain them.
Passage.”
Another businessman said: "The Great Khan kept raising taxes, and the leaders of all ethnic groups were very dissatisfied."
Jiang Liang simply opened the skylight and spoke frankly: "If the Chinese army occupied the mountainous area where the Tajik people live, would the local leaders resist to the death?"
The businessmen replied: "If the general does not kill the nobles and imams indiscriminately and retains their power, they will not resist. If the general can lower taxes, the nobles and imams are willing to throw themselves into the arms of China."
Jiang Liang thought silently and didn't speak again for a while.
Zhao Han asked him to wait for an opportunity to seize the Tajik area and completely consolidate the defense line in the Western Region. But this did not mean death, he was just waiting for an opportunity. If it was not easy to fight, he could give up temporarily.
After arriving in Kashgar, Jiang Liang met with many Bukhara businessmen and inquired about the situation and found that the Tajik area was not easy to fight.
90% of the area there is composed of plateaus and mountains, and Jiangliang's logistics supply line stretches from Gansu to Kashgar. With such a long supply line, running into a place where 90% is mountainous can be called a military disaster.
Even if we want to fight, we must not be like in Xinjiang, where we just kill nobles and scholars when we see them.
Otherwise, the locals only need to fight guerrillas in the mountains to beat the Chinese army to the point of mental collapse.
The style of play and dominance strategy must be changed!
That is, only kill the Bukhara military and political chiefs in each city and drive away the rulers sent by the Bukhara Khan. Then, give preferential treatment to the imams and Tajik leaders, implement religious freedom and tribal autonomy, and gain the support of local religious and aristocratic leaders.
The Bukhara Khanate was once very powerful. When it was besieged from all sides, it defeated Persia in the west and drove away the founders of the Mughal Empire and Yarkand Khanate in the east.
But at this time, the dynasty had changed, the Shaybanid dynasty was destroyed, and the Astrakhan dynasty passed to its fifth king.
The third king was very powerful, ending civil strife and achieving unification.
During the reign of the fourth king, the Bukhara Khanate began to decline.
The current king is Abdullah Aziz, and he has been on the throne for 21 years. He was quite sober at the beginning, but now he is becoming more and more stupid, and he is supercilious and enjoys everything, and he levies and levies violently on all ethnic groups in the country.
The leaders of various ethnic groups began to frequently lead uprisings, but the governors of the Bukhara Khanate played a trick of supporting the bandits to respect themselves, and eventually they simply broke up and split.
Zhongyuzi Touq Khan, who married his sister to Zhao Han, not only unified the Kazakh Khanate, but also sent troops to support the Bukhara nobles in ascending to power, once again completing the unification of Bukhara. As a result, Bukhara became a vassal state of Kazakhstan, and Touq Khan
Khan also became the Great Khan of Bukhara (an existence similar to the Sky Khan, but did not actually manage Bukhara).
In a situation like Bukhara where uprisings were frequent and the governor did not obey the king's orders, it was very suitable for an attack. Jiang Liang did not want to give up this good opportunity.
Of course, China does not want to annex Bukhara, but to eat up the territory of the Tajik people. There are plateaus and mountains there. As long as they occupy it, build a few passes at the mountain passes, and garrison a small number of troops, they can ensure the security of southern Xinjiang. With the cooperation of the Kyrgyz people,
We also built passes at mountain passes to prevent foreign enemies from entering Xinjiang.
This is considered from a national defense perspective.
Regardless of whether it is Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, Zhao Han does not plan to occupy all of them. He will only occupy the best-defended areas, which is approximately equivalent to 80% of the territories of the two countries.
Jiang Liang continued to inquire about the situation, and after several days of repeated thinking, he finally decided on the target of action-to occupy the Pamir Plateau, and nothing else!
Moreover, there are excuses for sending troops, since ancient times, and to regain lost territory.
The Pamir Plateau is also called Congling and Buzhou Mountain!
In this way, it will be very easy to fight, because the Bukhara Khanate has very weak control over Congling and does not even have a decent large city.
The average altitude of Napo is over 3,000 meters, and there are high mountains covered with snow all year round. However, it is also a must-stop place on the Silk Road.
It was already the eighth month of the lunar calendar, and the weather had turned cold, making it no longer suitable to send troops because it might snow at any time.
Moreover, there is still a lot that needs to be done to conquer half of Xinjiang.
Nearly 100,000 civilians, half men and half, all couples, signed up voluntarily and were resettled one after another in various places in the Western Region. The resettlement sites were all the best places suitable for agricultural reclamation.
The freed serfs of various ethnic groups were placed in slightly worse places.
Sending troops, fighting, garrisoning, immigrating, building cities... the whole process to recover half of Xinjiang will cost about 40 million taels of silver. The Datong court is again burdened with debt. Judging from the current financial surplus, even the capital and profits are ten
It takes years to pay it off.
The Datong Army was fighting in southern Xinjiang, and in the vast northern Xinjiang region, a war broke out again between the Junggar Tribe and the Heshuote Tribe over pastureland.
The previous alliance was meaningless, and the Datong Army was killing them right before their eyes, but it could not stop the two armies from fighting. The weather was really bad during the Little Ice Age, and there was a heavy snowstorm last winter, which froze countless people and animals to death. Rather than fighting for pasture, it was more about fighting for pasture.
Competing for food and population.
In another time and space, Junggar crushed Heshuote, and Heshuote had already become a vassal of Junggar.
But in this time and space, the Heshuote tribe of Qinghai and Tibet returned with 30,000 to 40,000 tribesmen. And the Junggar tribe was killed by the Datong army in Mobei. So the two sides were evenly matched, and they fought back and forth for less than ten years.
After eight years, there was no way to tell the winner.
In the spring of the next year, the first batch of 2,000 monks and Taoists, under the arrangement of the imperial court, crossed Jiayuguan and came to the Western Regions.
It is often a senior master with several apprentices.
Some were resettled in cities, and most were resettled in villages. Each teacher had a special fund to receive money and food to help poor people of all ethnic groups. While providing relief and treating diseases, they also spread Buddhist and Taoist beliefs, and there were always
The people will be influenced by them.
Jiang Liang had already gone to the imperial court last autumn, requesting for more money and food. He planned to capture Congling as well, and by the way, Urumqi and Barkol.
When the snow melted in spring, Jiang Liang immediately divided his troops.
Five thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry marched towards Congling. These troops were enough to eat up the Pamir Plateau.
In addition to the city defense troops from various places, the remaining troops went to attack Yangji Bali (Urumqi) and Barkol respectively. These two places were both arable and grazing, and Jiang Liang wanted to build cities after defeating them.
The vanguard general Liang Zhen was responsible for recovering Congling.
He first led his troops to the southeastern valley, which is Taxkorgan County in New China.
There is no city built there, only some Tajik tribes live there.
Eight thousand Datong troops arrived, but no one dared to resist. The tribal leaders came to surrender one after another. Whether they surrendered to China or the Bukhara Khanate, it didn't matter to these Tajiks.
"Sir, there is an ancient city over there!"
The river valley here is very wide and has a low altitude. There are tens of thousands of acres of grassland along the river and even farmland in some places.
Liang Zhen rode on horseback and found the ruins of the ancient city, and it was also a stone city wall - Taxkorgan, which in Turkic means Stone City.
Liang Zhen walked around the city and complained: "The King of Bukhara did not send troops to garrison such a river valley with rich water and grass, and even allowed the perfectly good stone city to be abandoned."
Lei Zhiji, a military missionary officer, said: "This should be the Congling Shouchu City of the Tang Dynasty."
"What is Shouzuo?" Liang Zhen asked.
Lei Zhiji explained: "It is similar to the military town of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the big one was called the army, and the small one was called the Shoujue. The ruins in front of you are the Congling military town castle of the Tang Dynasty."
Liang Zhen, a Mongolian descendant who had been a Korean, suddenly realized: "The governor said that he wanted to recover the lost territory. He was not making it up. This used to be our Chinese territory. Hehe, you missionaries do have knowledge in your stomach. You can tell it at a glance.
Know the origin of the abandoned city in the Western Region."
Lei Zhiji couldn't help but rolled his eyes: "The governor has been collecting intelligence from the Western Regions two or three years in advance, and the imperial court has also sent out ancient messages from the Western Regions. I seem to remember, you should also have received a copy, right?"
"Hehe, hehe, I saw it but forgot about it." Liang Zhen said with a perfunctory smile.
Lei Zhiji said: "The Congling Shouzhou City was smaller in the Tang Dynasty, and was expanded in the Yuan Dynasty. The city wall in front of me should have been expanded in the Yuan Dynasty. Troops could be stationed here, and food could be grown. The city had to be restored.
."
Liang Zhen said: "Do you think that if we stay to garrison and occupy the pastures around the city, will the local tribes be willing to move away?"
"If you don't move away, we will fight!" Lei Zhiji said coldly.
Liang Zhen sighed: "Oh, it would be easier to fight now. It's a pity that all the local tribes have surrendered."
Leaving behind a thousand infantry and two thousand civilians, Liang Zhen led the army to the northwest.
There is a very long and narrow river valley there, which is the only place that the Silk Road must pass through. A small city developed at the intersection of the two rivers. The name of the city is Salitash.
Although it is said to be a city, it is actually a small town, but it is already the largest city in the Pamirs!
By the way, in the Tang Dynasty, this place was called Chihe Station and it was a station affiliated to Congling Shouchu.
Datong China did not invade other countries, it really just recovered its lost territory. From now on, there will be no Pamir Plateau, only China's Congling and Buzhou Mountains.