Bringing the Railway to Daming

Zhu Tan was actually very jealous of the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang specially equipped Zhu Xiongying with a luxurious medical team.

After all, he was originally favored by Zhu Yuanzhang among all the princes, but unfortunately, Zhu Yuanzhang's love for him seemed to have disappeared later.

At the same time, through the deployment of a medical team, Zhu Tan became more certain of his previous guess: it turned out that most of the heroes in the history of the Ming Dynasty died young due to illness.

Otherwise, why would his father and elder brother be so worried about Xiongying when he goes on a long journey?

However, if Xiongying's eldest nephew really died young, who would take the throne after his eldest brother?
Nephew of Yunwen, or nephew of Yunhu?
As Zhu Tan secretly speculated about the original history, Zhu Biao pretended not to hear what he and Zhu Chong had said. He looked at Zhu Xiongying seriously and said, "Xiongying, you really should know the importance of this matter. You are now the crown prince. Your safety is not only related to yourself, but also to the stability of the Ming Dynasty."

Hearing this, Zhu Xiongying, who knew that he had died young in the original history, finally nodded seriously and replied, "My son will remember this."

After saying this, Zhu Xiongying boarded the ship with Zhu Chong and Zhu Tan and left the capital.

To go to Shaanxi, they could have taken a train from Beijing Railway Station to Xuzhou, and then taken a boat to Xi'an.

However, because the three of them were each responsible for inspecting the troops and transporting supplies, they had to go to Yangzhou City first, so they chose to leave Beijing by water.

When Zhu Biao saw the official ship carrying Zhu Xiongying sailing away, he put aside his worries and turned to go into the city.

As the crown prince, he has a lot to take care of now, but he doesn't have time to be immersed in worrying about his children...
···
On the ninth day of the third month in the twenty-second year of the Hongwu reign, the Ming Emperor, citing the examples of the Han and Tang dynasties, issued an edict ordering the Eastern Chagatai Khanate to submit a letter of surrender within a specified period of time.

The black boy was angry and refused.

The Ming Dynasty sent out 100,000 troops in two routes from the seven guards of Guanxi and the grasslands. Within ten days, they captured Turpan, Chalishi, Liucheng, Tiemenguan, Kuxian and other cities and passes in the Turpan Basin.

On March 25, the Ming army captured Beshbaliq, an important town of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.

Although the capital of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate is not here today, Beshbaliq has been an important city in the Western Regions since the Han Dynasty (it was the capital of the Gaoche Kingdom in the Han Dynasty), and the Beiting Protectorate was established here in the Tang Dynasty.

In other periods, Beshbaliq was also an important city in the Western Regions.

Today, Turpan and Beshbaliq can be said to be located in the south and the north, and are important cities for the Eastern Chagatai Khanate to control the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains and the Turpan Basin.

The current capital of Eastern Chagatai, Alimali (Huocheng).

In a royal palace that combines Islamic and Mongolian architectural styles, Heierhuozhe Khan (transliteration) was shocked and angry when he received the news of the fall of Beshbaliq.

"The walls of Beshibali are over 30 feet high. It's a first-class fortress, yet it was breached in a single day? How did Shamichagan manage to defend the city?!"

Shamicagan was the most trusted son of Heierhuozhe at present, and the general who came to report the news was Shamicagan's confidant. Upon hearing the news, he began to explain for Shamicagan.

"The Khan has wronged the Second Prince. The fall of Beshbalik was not due to the Second Prince's incompetence. It was simply because the Ming army was too powerful."

"Not only are the Ming army's artillery extremely powerful, but their soldiers are also incredibly brave. Even if five of our warriors were to fight one of them, we wouldn't necessarily be able to win, let alone the fact that there are at least 30,000 Ming troops attacking Beshbalik."

"The Second Prince had less than 8,000 soldiers and horses under his command at the time. Their armor and firearms were inferior to those of the Ming army. How could they have defended the city?"

The Black Fireman said angrily, "Even if he can't hold on, he should at least hold on for a few more days, at least until I send reinforcements!"

How many more days can you hold on?
In fact, Beshbalik was not able to hold on for half a day and was captured by the Ming army in less than an hour.

The general who reported the news thought so in his heart, but did not dare to say it out loud.

Heidehuozhe also knew that it was useless to blame his second son who was nowhere to be found, so he sent someone to summon the high priest of the Islamic religion in the country.

Hederhuozhe has succeeded to the Khan throne for six or seven years and has a good relationship with the current Islamic high priest - if it were not for that, he would not be able to hold on to the Khan throne.

Therefore, upon meeting him, he asked directly, "Your Excellency, the Ming army is advancing westward, and our Khanate warriors are simply unable to stop it. In less than two weeks, they have lost two major cities, Turpan and Beshbalik. What should we do?"

The high priest didn't think twice and said directly, "Great Khan, the Ming Hongwu Emperor sent an edict to ask the Khan to submit. He only promised to give the Khan a small earldom, and also required the Khan's family to move to the Ming capital, where their lives and deaths would be controlled by him. He also asked us to obey his management of the Islamic religion and appoint the high priest. He didn't take us seriously at all."

"If they were to occupy the Western Regions, the glory of God would vanish from this land. Even after we die, our souls would be interrogated and tortured by the True God." "For now, the only way to stop the Ming army is to seek help from the Western Chagatai Khanate."

Heidi Erhuozhe hesitated when he heard this. "We have been fighting Timur for more than ten years. How could he be willing to send troops to help us?"

The high priest smiled, performed a salute, and said, "He will—although the two countries have been at war for years, they are both believers in the true God, and the Khan and Timur are the true God's favorites."

"The Han Chinese have a saying, 'Brothers are close to each other within the walls, but we must defend ourselves from external humiliation.' Timur is a hero, and I believe he would understand this."

"Of course, the two countries have been at war for many years and have accumulated deep hatred. Even if my sect were to mediate, I'm afraid the hatred between the two sides would be difficult to eliminate."

"In order to build mutual trust and work together to fight the Ming army, I suggest that the Khan marry the third princess to Timur."

Heidehuozhexian nodded repeatedly, but after hearing the last sentence, he couldn't help but glared and said, "Uyasuqige is only nine years old, and Timur is already over fifty years old and a cripple. How can I marry my beloved little princess to him?!"

The high priest said, "Great Khan, age is not important, and Timur's lameness is not important either. What is important is that he and his army are the only ones who can help you resist the Ming army right now."

"And you must hurry. Otherwise, before Timur's army arrives, you will be forced by the Ming army to flee the capital and become exile."

When his brother was killed by a powerful official and the throne was usurped, Heierhuozhe fled and hid for more than ten years before he seized the opportunity and, with the help of others, regained the throne and avenged his brother. He was by no means a hesitant person.

Therefore, he struggled for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I'll listen to the high priest. I also ask the high priest to send someone to accompany my envoy team and try to invite Timur's reinforcements as soon as possible!"

The high priest reminded, "It would be best for the Khan to send the third princess directly."

The dark-eyed man thought of Uyasuqige's pretty face and softened his heart, then hardened his heart again: "Okay!"

At this critical moment of life and death, both the court and the Islamic side acted quickly. They formed an envoy delegation in just one day, and all members left the city the next day, riding fast horses westward.

However, on the third day after Heidehuozhe received the news of the fall of Beshbalik, an army flying the red flag with a dragon, sun and moon appeared outside the city of Alimali.

"Ming army!"

"The Ming army is coming!"

When the Khanate soldiers guarding the city saw the flags of the army outside the city, they immediately shouted loudly.

Soon, warning drums sounded, and more soldiers of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate climbed up the city walls in groups. The residents in the city closed their doors and windows and only dared to watch the situation outside through the gaps. For a time, the atmosphere of war enveloped the entire capital.

Soon, Hei Er Huo Zhe also came to the top of the east city gate wearing luxurious armor and looked at the army outside the city.

Seeing that there seemed to be only more than 10,000 Ming troops outside the city, he breathed a sigh of relief - although the Khanate had few soldiers and generals, it still had more than 10,000 troops in the capital.

More than 10,000 against more than 10,000. Even if the Ming army was powerful, they were the ones defending the city, and the advantage was still on the Khanate's side.

Realizing that the soldiers' morale was somewhat low due to the various reports of the Ming army's strength in recent days, Hei Er Huozhe said, "Tell all the soldiers that we only need to hold out for a few days, and reinforcements will arrive. By then, the Ming army will surely retreat!"

Several guards took the order and passed on the message, and sure enough, the morale of the soldiers defending the city improved visibly.

The ideas of these Khanate soldiers were roughly similar to those of the Heierhuozhe - even if the Ming army was powerful, with the same number of troops, they were always confident that they could defend the capital for a few days.

outside the city.

In the Ming army formation.

Zhu Chong and Zhu Tan were each holding a telescope, looking at the situation on the top of the city.

This time they joined the vanguard troops to attack Alimali, but it was something the two of them had fought for, so they naturally hoped to capture Alimali as soon as possible to avoid delaying the battle and letting the army behind catch up, thus diluting the credit.

Unfortunately, the two were not the vanguard's main commanders. (End of this chapter)