Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 584 The Wind Blows to Xizhou

In March, perhaps the heavens also wanted to hinder the Ming Dynasty's feat of recovering the Western Regions. A sudden sandstorm swept across the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Zhu Fuju was awakened by the howling wind.

When he opened his eyes, what he saw was the scene inside the tent with only a faint light.

He subconsciously glanced at the pocket watch he had put aside, and with the help of the faint light, he could see the time clearly.

"It's been three quarters... this smell..."

Zhu Fuju was a little surprised at first, then got up, squinted and frowned, trying to open the curtain of the tent.

At some point, the curtain was pressed down with stones. After a little effort, Zhu Fuju opened the curtain.

In an instant, the howling wind hit his face with cool air, and he could feel some sand grains in the wind carefully.

The earthy smell coming from his nostrils gave Zhu Fuju a lot of energy. He opened his eyes and looked around, and as far as he could see, a piece of yellow like a vintage filter came into view.

A dusky sandstorm hit the Western Regions, and Zhu Fuju went out, only to hear whistling in his ears and his cheeks hurting from the sand.

He looked hard into the distance, and saw the black wind billowing in front of him, as if a wall was approaching.

"Commander! Go back to the tent! This is a big sandstorm that has rarely been encountered in more than ten years!"

Amid the howling wind, Zhu Fuju seemed to hear someone shouting to him.

He tried to look over, but was soon hugged by a figure in a mandarin duck jacket and pushed into the tent.

When he came back to his senses, the figure had already crushed the curtain to death with stones, and at the same time stuck a few wooden nails on it.

Seeing this, Zhu Fuju lit the kerosene lamp in the tent.

The faint yellowness brought by the kerosene lamp made people feel more at ease.

Only then did Zhu Fuju see clearly who it was.

"Ma Shunguo, is this a big sandstorm?"

The figure squatting in front of Zhu Fuju and knocking wooden nails to make the tent stronger turned his head when Zhu Fuju's words sounded.

It was a face that looked about 50 to [-] years old. The wrinkles on the face were like a dry river bed, making people look older for no reason.

"Commander, this is a big sandstorm, we've experienced it before."

Ma Shunguo is not as old as he looks, in fact he is only 36 years old, and the reason why he knows so much about the Western Regions also comes from his own identity.

He is a naturalized Mongol from the Heshuo Special Department. Because he learned Mandarin in Hexi and understood the situation in the Western Regions, he was selected by Zhu Fuju as his guide.

It has to be said that Ma Shunguo's experience has indeed helped the Ming army a lot.

"We are in Xingxing Gorge, and the big sandstorm can't blow in too much. As long as we rest for a day, we should be able to set off tomorrow."

Ma Shunguo explained the impact of the big sandstorm, and Zhu Fuju also patted the sand on his body.

"I grew up in Shaanxi, but this is the first time I have seen such a big sandstorm."

"In the Western Regions, it's normal to have sandstorms at this time." Ma Shunguo explained:
"They all blow from the southwest, and they will blow in the windy season. The wind and sand in Hetao can't compare with this place."

"It's really incomparable..." Zhu Fuju nodded and admitted, and said at the same time:

"Take a day off, then can we rush to Hami within three days?"

"It should be possible." Ma Shunguo replied without thinking, and Zhu Fuju heaved a sigh of relief after hearing the words:

"That's good……"

He was so nervous because when they arrived at Xingxing Gorge yesterday, they had already seen a thousand soldiers and horses stationed here by the Turpan Khanate.

After learning that Zhu Fuju was going to Turpan instead of Mangui, they immediately withdrew the whole army to Hami, preparing to report the news to Taiji of the tribe, and then asked Taiji to tell Abu Lun the news.

In this way, Abu Lun will also come from Turpan, and Zhu Fuju will meet in Hami after a two-day rest.

Therefore, Zhu Fuju must hurry up and not be late.

"After the sandstorm comes, we need to dig out the small stream again and replenish the water before we go."

"On the way from Xingxingxia to Hami, there are only Gobi and desert, and there are strong winds."

"The supply of water is not enough. We may die of thirst on the way before we reach Hami."

Ma Shunguo talked about the hardships and dangers of traveling in the Western Regions in this era, but after he finished speaking, he also said:
"As long as you get to Hami and go further back, there are basically oases connected to oases, and the road behind will not delay the march of the army."

"Hmm..." Zhu Fuju nodded, and Ma Shunguo listened to the wind outside the tent, and judged Zhu Fuju that the wind and sand would stop in about two hours.

Zhu Fuju didn't believe it at first, but when they chatted for two hours and the wind gradually died down, Zhu Fuju became curious.

Two hours later, the sound of the wind returned to the same as when they arrived at Xingxing Gorge yesterday, Ma Shunguo also quickly took out the wooden nails, pushed aside the stones, and opened the curtain.

This time, what caught the eye was no longer a dark wall, but a slightly yellowish sky.

"You can hurry, I will inform them."

Seeing that the sky was gradually clearing up, Ma Shunguo also went to other tents to inform the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who were sheltering from the wind and sand to leave their tents.

During this period, Zhu Fuju looked at the direction of the tent facing the wind, and saw that the sand in this direction had already piled up three feet high.

It is hard to imagine what kind of hardship Zhu Fuju and the others will face if such a sandstorm lasts for several days.

When pulling out of the camp, Zhu Fuju recorded these things in his military newspaper, and planned to submit the military newspaper after the war, so as to avoid the suffering of the Ming army who took this road in the future.

While recording, he asked Ma Shunguo what he needed to pay attention to, how to discover the sandstorm, how to predict how soon it would arrive, and other matters.

He recorded all these things in the military newspaper.

Just when he finished writing, the soldiers and horses also successfully closed the tent.

The Ming army in the canyon dug out several springs buried by the wind and sand, and after filling enough fresh water, they continued on their way to Hami.

After leaving the Xingxing Gorge, as Ma Shunguo said, what greeted Zhu Fuju and the others was the endless Gobi Desert.

The Gobi Desert stretches as far as the eye can see, making people feel insignificant.

With a radius of more than a hundred miles, it is difficult to see even animals. Apart from the vastness of the Western Regions, the only thing that can be seen and felt is the whistling wind that is surrounded by sand and dust.

Zhu Fuju was riding a rough horse and sitting on the horseback. At the end of his field of vision was a dividing line between heaven and earth.

In the meantime, everyone will feel that their small self is lost in space and time, and has no direction.

Most of the Gobi in the Western Regions is plain, and once it appears, it spreads endlessly towards the sky.

The Gobi is a combination of gravel and soil, which has been scoured, collided, split, and broken by floods and stones from the mountains for millions of years.

Some Gobi stones have been eroded by wind and sand for a long time, forming various shapes, which is very interesting.

However, although this road looked very flat, not long after the march, the knife-like debris cut the tires of many horse-drawn carriages.

Fortunately, the Ming army did not have the technology of hollow tires and pneumatic tires, so they used solid tires, and the cuts did not affect the driving of the carriage.

Not long after Zhu Fuju and the others walked away with their heads buried, a series of connected snow-capped mountains appeared on the skyline.

As the wind and sand have passed, the sky above has turned blue.

Low white clouds floated in the blue sky, flickering shadows were left on the Gobi Desert, and the pure white snow-capped mountains were clearly visible in the distance. This scene made Zhu Fuju almost think that he had returned to Hexi.

However, if you distinguish carefully, the snow-capped mountains in the Western Regions appear even more distant.

"These snow-capped mountains look very close, but they are actually very far away, and even a fast horse can't reach them."

Ma Shunguo explained the situation in the Western Regions. They couldn't explain such a phenomenon, but they knew that this beautiful snow scene was full of dangers.

With Zhu Fuju and the others, Ma Shunguo tried his best to choose some easier paths.

But even so, at the end of the day, many carriages were damaged and their wheels were damaged, which delayed a lot of time on the road.

When night fell, because they encountered wind and sand in the morning and did not hurry, they only walked less than seventy miles today.

For these cavalrymen with one man and three horses, this speed is comparable to climbing at a snail.

Before nightfall, they set up tents to rest in time, and as time passed bit by bit, when the sky was gray, they packed up and set off again.

It is still the familiar Gobi Desert, or the familiar distant snow scene.

They walked like this for three hours, until they crossed a ditch with dried red willows, they finally began to see sporadic green.

The already tired Gobi Desert began to turn green gradually. On this day, the white snow on the Tianshan Mountains melted and flowed down the mountain to form a green river. Finally, more and more rivers merged, and the green velvet gradually appeared in the field of vision. In the grassland, the cavalry of the Turpan Khanate began to appear on the grassland in the distance.

"Excuse me, is it the envoy of Daming?!"

The visitor asked in Mongolian with a slight accent, and Ma Shunguo also answered "Yes".

Hearing this, the Mongolian rode in, and he hugged his chest on the horse and saluted Zhu Fuju:
"Baihu Temur, by the order of the Great Khan, please invite the envoys of the Ming Dynasty to camp outside the city of Hami!"

Ma Shunguo became the translator, and Zhu Fuju agreed after hearing the words.

Unless Abu Lun led more than [-] cavalry to besiege him, they would be able to successfully run into the Gobi Desert even if they could not beat him with three horses.

Even if you abandon the horse-drawn carriage, with the water bag on your body, it is not a problem to last for two or three days.

Two or three days later, it was time for Man Gui and the others to bring an army.

Therefore, after a short rest, Zhu Fuju led more than [-] cavalry to follow Temur to the city of Hami.

At dusk, they arrived at the city of Hami.

Looking at the city of Hami hidden in the evening sun, Zhu Fuju didn't know what Hami looked like in the Han and Tang Dynasties thousands of years ago, but he walked along the way, no matter whether he saw herdsmen or farmers, they were either high-nosed The deep-eyed Huihui looks, or the common looks of Mongolians.

It's just that no matter what their appearance is, they all wear hats for men and veils for women.

Temur explained the situation in Hami to Zhu Fuju. In general, in order to express his sincerity, Abu Lun only left a thousand troops in Hami.

Abu Lun had heard about the power of the Ming army's "continuous fire guns" from Lin Danhan, so he believed that this little army posed no threat to the Ming army.

The place where he camped for Zhu Fuju and the others was a piece of grassland, and Zhu Fuju was quite satisfied with this, and believed in Abu Lun's desire to submit to him.

After a brief explanation, Temur rode away, while Zhu Fuju looked at the distant city of Hami while the soldiers camped.

Under the sunlight, this obviously Muslim-style city lost a little of the Hami appearance recorded in the early Ming Dynasty.

Hami has a very long history, starting from the second year of Shenjue in the Western Han Dynasty and ending in the 19th year of Tianqi.

In the nearly 700 years, it has been under the control of the Han people for nearly 900 years, of which 120 years have been controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

In March of the fourth year of Yongle, under Zhu Di's imperial decree, Daming officially established Hamiwei.

This connects Hamiwei with the other six guards outside Jiayuguan, including Aduan, Anding, Chijin Mongolia, Quxian, and Handong, which were successively established during the Hongwu period.

After that, Zhu Di served as the commander of Hami Guards leader Ma Ha Mahuo and others, and officials of thousands of households. He also transferred Han Zhou An from the mainland to be the counselor of Hami Changshi and Liu Xingji Shan, and assisted Wang Tuotuo in Zhongshun.

Hamiwei is the bridgehead for the Ming court to manage the Hexi Corridor, fight against the remnant Yuan forces, and balance the Mongolian tribes. It has important strategic significance.

As Zhu Fuju read from the book, the existence of Hamiwei first strengthened the connection between the Ming Dynasty and the Western Regions, and secondly, it became a barrier on the western border of the Ming Dynasty.

In the end, it also served the purpose of shielding the alliance between Mongolia and the West in the north.

Its establishment and abolition are closely related to the competition between the Ming court and the Mongolian tribes.

The fourth year of Yongle was the first time that the Ming Dynasty sent Han officials to control Hami, but in the eighth year of Chenghua, Hami city was captured by Turpan, which was a loss.

In the 18th year of Chenghua, more than [-] guards including Chijin, Handong and others from the Ming army invaded Hami, and Hami was recovered.

But in the first year of Hongzhi, Turpan once again occupied Hami, which was two wins and two losses.

After that, Daming used a series of means to force it to give up Hami, and regained Hami in the fourth year of Hongzhi.

However, only two years later, in the sixth year of Hongzhi, the Turpan Khanate invaded again and captured Hami again.

After this incident happened, Zhu Youtang was extremely indignant about it, so the Ming Dynasty closed Jiayuguan and detained the Turpan envoys. In the eighth year of Hongzhi, the Ming court sent governor Xu Jin and general Liu Ning to attack Hami at night. After fleeing, Daming regained Hami again.

In the eighth year of Zhengde, Hami was lost again, and Man Suer, the leader of Turpan, led troops to invade Suzhou, was defeated by Chen Jiuchou, the deputy envoy of military equipment, and arrested the collaborators Shu Yihuxian and others.

After Jiajing succeeded to the throne, Yang Tinghe listed the crimes of writing Yihuxian and executed him. Only two years later, Turpan retaliated against the Ming court for writing Yihuxian, and then attacked Suzhou.

Under the pressure of Man Su'er, the Ming court once again had disputes over the Hami issue, while Zhang Cong and Gui E took the opportunity to eliminate dissidents, and they shifted the responsibility for failing to regain Hami to Yang Tinghe, who killed the Yihu fairy, and the rise of The "Prison of Borderlands" was established, and a large number of officials who advocated the recovery of Hami were demoted.

In the end, Emperor Jiajing listened to the suggestion of Hu Shining, Minister of the Ministry of War, and decided to abandon Hami and never regain it.

This is the whole process of Hami's four establishments and four losses. In the 120 years since the establishment of Hami Guard, Ming lost and regained Hami repeatedly, but finally lost in this battle due to the outbreak of the Great Ritual Discussion.

After leaving Jiayuguan and before arriving in Hami City, Zhu Fuju didn't even know why he wanted to regain the Western Regions.

Because all he saw was the desolate Gobi Desert and the sight of thousands of miles of uninhabited people.

But after arriving in Hami and hearing what Ma Shunguo said about the situation in the northern and southern borders of the Tianshan Mountains, Zhu Fuju changed his mind.

The entire western region is almost oasis connected to oasis, grassland connected to grassland.

Maybe there are some Gobi deserts, but they are all intermittent.

As long as the railway is built, Ming's rule in the Western Regions will be stable, and the local high-quality iron ore in the Western Regions will be used by Daming, and Hexi will also become a hinterland, which will no longer suffer from wars.

Zhu Fuju recorded his feelings in the military newspaper, and experienced the customs and customs of the Western Regions in the next two days.

It's just that the Thousand Miles Buddha Kingdom of the past is no longer there, and what's left is only the endless green.

In the records of the Ming Dynasty, Hami is obviously a place with a strong Buddhist atmosphere, but after the destruction of the Hami Kingdom, less than 100 years later, it is already green here.

"If you let it go, I'm afraid hundreds of years later, there will be no place for a man in the Western Regions to stand..."

Zhu Fuju recorded his feelings in the military newspaper, and after he finished writing this sentence, a conversation in Mongolian came from outside the account.

After a while, Ma Shunguo opened the curtain, bowed to Zhu Fuju inside the tent and said:
"Commander, Abu Lun has arrived in Hami City..."

"Let's go, settle the matter earlier, the governor and the others have already arrived at Xingxing Gorge, not far from here."

Hearing that Abu Lun had arrived in Hami City, Zhu Fuju closed the military newspaper, got up and prepared his armor.

Seeing this, Ma Shunguo told Laishi that his group would go to Hami City in a while to discuss surrender matters with Abu.

After speaking, he went into the tent to help Zhu Fuju put on his armor, and went back to the tent to put on the armor himself.

The Western Regions in mid-March was already hot and dry, and wearing the cloth face armor of the Ming army inevitably made people sweat a little.

"This armor, I think it's time to change it..."

Feeling the touch from his hand, Zhu Fuju said with a little sigh.

After all, all countries are now equipped with flintlock guns, and the Ming army is even equipped with percussion guns. Simple cloth face armor seems to be unable to withstand the impact and penetration of bullets.

If it is not improved, then on the battlefield, the armor pieces in the armor may cause secondary damage to the soldiers of the Ming army.

It's time for the Ming army to change their outfits, but Zhu Fuju only has the power to make suggestions from Shangshu, not to change them.

With this in mind, he led more than a hundred cavalry and followed a hundred Temur into the city of Hami.

This was the first time they entered Hami City after arriving in Hami, and the scene inside the city was similar to what Zhu Fuju imagined.

On the street, in the house...

In the city of Hami, which was once supervised by Ming Dynasty, Zhu Fuju did not see any traces of the Han people.

The Muslims and Mongolians on the streets, as well as the mosques in the distance, all express who the owner of this place is.

This made Zhu Fuju feel unspeakably uncomfortable.

Fortunately, after today, Hami City will become a complete Han city, which made Zhu Fuju slightly relieved.

Led by Temur, they came to the former royal palace of the Hami Kingdom. Although it was called a royal palace, the scale was pitifully small, not as big as the mansion of a fourth-rank official.

So after entering, without going through a few doors, Zhu Fuju saw Abu Lun sitting on the throne in a so-called palace in Bailaiping.

Abu Lun, whose father, Abdullah, was named the governor of Turpan when he was in Mahema Khan because he was the 12th son of De Khan, ruled Turpan for more than [-] years.

In the late Wanli period, Abdullah was independent from the Yarkand Khan court because of his continuous attack to the west, and called himself Khan.

As his eldest son, Abu Lun went west with his father when he was seven years old, and was taken hostage by Kuqa Aqimu. It was not until the death of his father Abdullah five years ago that he was able to return to Turpan to inherit the Khan throne left by his father.

In the original history, he would first stabilize his rule over the territory, then concentrate his efforts to develop westward, and four years later, he would move westward, reunify the Yarkand Khanate that had been split for 30 years, and board the Khan, known as Abdullah Khan.

However, under Lin Danhan's disruption, he had almost no chance to go west, and was firmly stuck between Daming and Lin Danhan.

Especially when Lin Dan Khan destroyed Yarkand in the west, his desire to unify Yarkand in his heart failed, and he could only live in his own territory in panic all day long.

Therefore, when the news came that the Ming army sent troops to the Western Regions, he, who had nothing to ask for, was not ready to resist, but was ready to accept the orders of the Ming Emperor and King Qi, and surrender honestly.

"Khan, if..."

On the palace, in addition to the thousands and hundreds of households guarding the various cities, more than a dozen thousand and hundreds of households from the Turpan Khanate gathered here.

Here, Zhu Fuju also opened his mouth to convey the specific surrender treatment that Daming had given to everyone.

As a great Khan, Abu Lun could be granted the title of Boss of Xizhou, while his heirs and the two ten thousand households of the Turpan Khanate were awarded the rank of military honors of the second-rank Shangjun.

Except for them, Qianhu in the army was awarded the fourth-rank Shangqi captain, and Baihu was awarded the fifth-rank Xiaoqi captain. No one was treated badly.

Worried that they didn't understand the weight of these official positions, Zhu Fuju even made a special explanation.

Earl's annual salary is 3000 taels, the annual salary of the second rank is 2000 taels, the fourth rank is 200 taels, and the fifth rank is 800 taels.

In addition to these scattered salaries, Abu Lun, who is a great Khan, can also live in the Huining County Prince's Mansion under the Suwang Mansion of Lanzhou, and get the actual position of the fifth-rank Lanzhou military envoy.

Although the fifth-rank soldiers and horses are not big, there are also five hundred to one thousand soldiers and horses that can be driven. For Abu Lun, this can be regarded as a guarantee for his safety.

Calculated in this way, Abu Lun's annual salary is 800 taels, and he will also get 20 mu of Qinghai grassland, and his heirs will get [-] mu each, and [-] mu per person for ten thousand households, one thousand households, etc. Households and civilians are [-] mu per household.

The conditions for surrender offered by Daming were not insignificant.

Although many thousands and hundreds of households who are doing this know that the grasslands in Qinghai are fragile and not as beautiful and fertile as the grasslands in the Western Regions, but they cannot support the large number.

Since Lin Dan Khan moved westward, he has occupied most of the pastures in the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains and southern Xinjiang, and the Turpan Khanate can only dwell in the southern Xinjiang to the east of Kucha and west of Hami.

Although there are thousands or hundreds of millions of acres of grassland here, it is impossible for them to own all the grassland. Herdsmen and soldiers who join the army also need to graze and support their families.

Three thousand eight hundred taels of silver is enough for Abu Lun to buy hundreds of cattle and thousands of sheep every year, not to mention the 800 mu of pasture.

Even if it is extremely fragile, it is not a problem to slaughter three or four thousand sheep every year.

The income of these sheep alone is thousands of taels of silver. If they are driven to sell in Shaanxi and Sichuan, they can be sold for thousands of taels.

Five or six thousand taels of silver per year, counting his heirs, a Xizhou Bofu can earn nearly 6000 taels a year, and it can support more than 2000 people when it is used to raise soldiers.

After a few years, he can even pull out another Turpan Khanate's troops.

Facing Lin Danhan, who is not obvious in the west, it is hard not to be tempted by Daming's conditions.

Therefore, before Abu Lun could make a decision, many thousands and hundreds of households in the hall looked at him.

After all, according to the actual situation, if Daming offers generous conditions to Abu Lun's family, then the conditions offered to them will be fatal.

How much can they earn a year as a hundred households?Dozens of cattle and sheep?

But what about Guishun Daming?Not to mention the output of the 800-mu grassland, the salary of [-] taels of silver alone is enough for them to buy hundreds of cows and thousands of sheep.

Compared with the treatment given by Daming, the treatment given by Abu Lun is not shit.

Facing their gazes, Abu Lun had no doubts that if he dared to refuse or fight Daming, the group of his subordinates would directly chop off his head and submit to Daming, taking away his "Uncle Xizhou".

Therefore, facing this group of wolves-like gazes, Abu Lun took a look at the content of Mangui's handwritten letter that Zhu Fuju handed over to him, then got up without thinking, and hugged his chest:

"I am willing to bring 12 people from Turpan to the Ming Dynasty..."

　PM update 04:30

　　
　
(End of this chapter)