I

Moreover, as more and more information came back, Aziz was already terrified of China.

He heard from merchants that the Chinese army had destroyed the Yarkand country, and the capture of the Fergana Basin was only incidental.Only a few thousand soldiers came last year, and there are hundreds of thousands of troops, who are at Yarkand at this time.

How dare he fight?

Other countries may be unfamiliar with China, but the Bukhara Khanate is too familiar with China.The past hegemons of this land all started by controlling the Silk Road, and the Bukhara Khanate is no exception. Countless Chinese goods are transported here every year.

Aziz has heard since he was a child that China is a giant, and the emperor of China is the richest monarch in the world.

Considering the situation at home and abroad, Aziz lost Fergana by default.However, he lost his face because of the loss of the city and land. He had to find someone to vent his anger, divert domestic conflicts, and re-establish his ruling prestige.

"All the assembled troops are heading to the western border. I want to take back the lost land!"

The object of Aziz's vent was actually the Khiva Khanate next door, because he thought it was the best place to fight.

After all, 30 or [-] years ago, the Khiva Khanate was still in a state of division, and the civil war of nearly a hundred years had already destroyed the country.He ignored the hard work of the previous generation of Khiva kings, and also ignored the young heroism of this generation of Khiva kings.He, a drowsy Khan, wants to lead his drowsy army to fight against a thriving country.

This pair of neighbors and enemies, because of the emergence of the Chinese army, somehow fought the war several years in advance.

It has to be said that the Bukhara Khanate is indeed powerful, and its elite heavy cavalry are invincible.

After the war between the two countries, the Khiva Khanate was beaten and retreated steadily, losing its land all the way and retreating to the city of Derian.

Frustrated during the siege, some troops were left to besiege the city. The main force walked around the city and took the capital of the Khiva Khanate along the river.This style of play is too arrogant and does not treat the enemy as a human being at all.

Aziz marched in person, his idea was very simple, as long as the capital of the enemy country was broken, the war could be declared a victory.

Who made the capital of the Khiva Khanate, not far from the eastern border, next to the territory of Bukhara?

Tens of thousands of Bukhara troops surrounded the capital of Khiva.

Anusha, the king of Khiva, personally went to the city to boost morale, and repelled the enemy's attack many times in a row.

The people of Khiva, who have experienced nearly a hundred years of war, have finally been stable for 30 to [-] years, and there is also a benevolent king.The Bukhara army invaded, burned, killed and looted along the way, arousing the common hatred of the people, and even many ethnic minority tribes took the initiative to come to fight for the country.

These minority tribes, especially the nearby Turkmen, did not dare to fight directly with the Bukhara army, so they ran to plunder the Bukhara army's food roads.

When they saw the grain transportation team, they ran away when there were too many enemies, and robbed when there were few enemies, which almost cut off the food supply of the Bukhara army.

Aziz could only send troops back to take precautions, and at the same time urged the rear troops to take down the city of Derian as soon as possible.

This war has been fought from summer to early winter.

The defenders of Khiva City are almost running out of food, and if they continue to defend, they will only be able to eat people.Bukhara, as the attacker, was equally miserable, and the most deadly thing was the resurgence of domestic rebellion.

The domestic rebellion made it impossible for Aziz to continue fighting, but he was unwilling to withdraw directly. He sent an envoy into the city to say: "We can evacuate Khiva, but the Khiva Khanate must compensate for the losses and send all the food we consumed. And make sure that the Khiva Khanate will no longer take in defecting tribes."

Anusha's answer was straightforward: "Kill this man!"

Killing the envoy is tantamount to tearing up the face, and there is no possibility of peace.

After staying for more than half a month, the rebel forces in the country became more and more powerful. Aziz finally ignored face and ordered the entire army to withdraw to the country to quell the chaos.

Anusha did not give up. After the Bukhara army left, he collected food as quickly as possible, and led the troops of various ethnic groups who had come to King Qin to chase the tail of the Bukhara army.

The two sides fought a decisive battle on the border between the two countries. The Khiva Khanate was originally at a disadvantage, but suddenly nobles in Bukhara defected.

It was the brother of the nobleman who couldn't stand the king and decided to separate himself from the kingdom and secretly sent a letter to contact him to do things in the army.

As a result, Aziz was defeated and fled with only a few thousand elites.

The Khiva Khanate took advantage of the trend to occupy the western border grassland of Bukhara, and swallowed up all the territory in the northwest of Bukhara (there is actually no value there, either it is a dry grassland or a large desert).

However, King Aziz of Bukhara, after fleeing back to the capital, was unable to suppress the rebellion, so he could only send officials to Zhao'an.

Zhao'an was very successful, and the rebels surrendered immediately. What they wanted was to separate themselves.

The governors and Hezhuo all over the country separated their regimes one after another and no longer obeyed the king's orders. Aziz could only control the capital and surrounding areas.

Self-willed, all betrayed relatives!

In particular, the Governor of Samarkand flirted with the Datong Army, and happily managed the Silk Road together.

Chapter 1056 [New Guinea and Australia]

When Liang Zhen led his army to attack the Fergana Basin, the main force of the Datong Army was splitting up to attack Urumqi and Balikun.

Both places are fertile soil that can be cultivated, but at this time they are all nomadic tribes, and the cities built in the Yuan Dynasty have long been abandoned.

When the Datong army reached Urumqi, the local tribes fled directly.

Among them, the Kuben Nuo Yat tribe fled to the northwest to join Junggar.Galdan Dorji tribe fled to the northeast to join Heshuote.

The Datong Army did not chase after it, and directly placed [-] civilians here, and rebuilt a new city on the site of Bali City in Yangji in the Yuan Dynasty.This is the bridgehead for the attack on northern Xinjiang. The Datong army is on an expedition, and they are unable to go north in a short time. Controlling the Urumqi area is for the future.

Another Datong army that attacked Balikun also encountered no resistance.

The nine brothers who had fled from Qinghai back then had died of old age and sickness, and only four remained.They had been terrified by the Datong army for a long time, so they directly abandoned the Balikun Basin and moved further north to avoid the front of the army.

The Datong army also did not pursue, and immigrated and built a city in Barkol as a bridgehead for future attacks on northern Xinjiang.

Seeing that the Datong army stopped in the two places, Galdan, who was nested and Buxer, moved.Balikun's Heshuote tribe moved northward, and inevitably competed with the northern tribe for pastures. As a result, the Heshuote tribe fell into civil strife, and Galdan led his army to attack immediately.

Galdan won three battles and three victories, and the Heshuo Special Department was forced to surrender.After this guy unified northern Xinjiang, he actually declared the establishment of the Junggar Khanate, blatantly ignoring the existence of the Nanjing court.

Northern Xinjiang has not yet been captured, nor has the Yinli River Valley, but the money, food and immigrants have been almost consumed.

Jiang Liang applied for the allocation of money and food, and at the same time applied for an additional [-] immigrants.

When the cabinet ministers received the news, they all felt that the Western Regions were a bottomless pit, and when tens of millions of taels of silver were thrown in, there was nothing to see. In addition to military expenses, immigration and city building were too expensive.

The imperial court was heavily in debt and owed a huge amount of loans to Datong Bank, much of which came from private deposits.

Zhu Shunshui retired from his old age and returned to his hometown. Before leaving Nanjing, he privately advised in the palace: "Your Majesty, most of the Western Regions have been recovered, and the rest can be slowly worked out. The debt owed by the imperial court today is huge, which has never been heard of in ancient times. It must not... . . . militaristically!"

"It must be done once and for all." Zhao Han replied.

Zhu Shunshui sighed secretly, it is not good to persuade, because persuasion is useless.

He doesn't understand the current financial model. The imperial courts of the past dynasties fought wars, and if they didn't have enough money, they levied additional taxes, or collected salt and iron to make a fortune, and the civilians also expropriated without pay.The current Datong imperial court actually borrowed money from the bank to fight the war, and did not use the money in the treasury, and even paid a small amount of wages for recruiting civilians.

However, people's livelihood in China has not been greatly affected, except for a slight increase in food prices.

Zhu Shunshui retired and returned home, and Wu Yingji was also weak and sick. They both retired, and Zuo Xiaoliang and Wang Tiaoding moved into the cabinet to assist in the administration.

The imperial court once again issued an order to encourage people from the southern provinces to immigrate. They also advertised in the newspapers that the Yinli River Valley and the Fergana Basin were praised as the pearls of the Western Regions and filled the south of the Yangtze River.In the past, the land was allocated to immigrants, and they could work as officials after graduating from elementary school, and bachelors could also be assigned to wives of different races.

In the southern provinces, the conflict between people and land has become apparent, and there are always people willing to immigrate.

Especially bachelors with too many brothers in the family, the land they used to share can only maintain food and clothing.After they immigrated, they were able to leave a sum of money to settle down and improve their family's living conditions, so they might not have thought of going to the Western Regions.

In the year when immigrants were encouraged, tens of thousands of people signed up one after another.

Five thousand of them immigrated to the Fergana Basin, where the name has been changed to Dawan Military and Civilian Mansion.The remaining thousands are planned to be placed in Yinli, and next year they will attack the Yinli River Valley.

Although the battle was not over yet, the imperial court had officially established the Anxi Protectorate.

Among them, Dunhuang and other places were placed under Gansu Province.

In the Hami and Balikun areas, the Yihe Military and Civilian Mansion was established, which is subordinate to the Anxi Duhu Mansion.

In the areas of Turpan and Urumqi, the Cheshi Military and Civilian Mansion was established, which was subordinate to the Anxi Duhu Mansion.

In Aksu, Hotan, Kashgar, Yarkand and other places, Shache Military and Civilian Mansions were established, which belonged to Anxi Duhufu.

In the Congling and Dawan areas, the Dawan Military and Civilian Mansion was established, which was subordinate to the Anxi Governor's Mansion.

The Kyrgyz and Yinli river valleys are planning to set up the Yinli Military and Civilian Mansion, which belongs to the Anxi Governor's Mansion.

After winning the northern border and operating it for another 20 years, the Anxi Protectorate may be divided into two.On the east side, establish Xinjiang Province.The area to the west will continue to be governed by the Protectorate's Mansion, and then consider the establishment of a province.

The household registration offices in various provinces have been open to immigration business for a long time.

As long as you are willing to immigrate to the Western Regions, you can go to the county government to register.Each province, prefecture, and county will provide special immigration funds according to the number of immigrants each year. This policy will last for ten years.

It can not only enrich the population of the Western Regions, but also ease the contradictions between people and land in the country. Only the imperial court has been losing money and throwing money.

There are three to five thousand immigrants a year, sometimes even tens of thousands. After ten years of persistence, even the Fergana Basin is enough to support four Han cities.

What's more, there are businessmen who take the initiative to run over.

There is the Silk Road, and merchants are willing to go no matter how far away they are after profit.There are always some who want to stay in the Western Regions, first open a trading station, and then engage in various store operations.

……

Shanghai.

A fleet sailed north, and Prince Zhao Kuanghuan was on board.

We chose a season with smooth wind and water, and we had to dock before summer to avoid the prince from encountering a big storm.

The prince toured the north, first to increase his knowledge, and second to visit his mentor on behalf of the emperor.

Pang Chunlai has been ill for several years, with ups and downs, and it is estimated that he will not last long.

"vomit!"

For two whole days, Zhao Kuanghuan vomited on the boat, but the symptoms of seasickness were obviously relieved.

The ministers were opposed to this trip, thinking that the prince should not go there, and they could choose other princes instead.After all, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Prince Zhu Biao went to inspect Xi'an, and died of illness shortly after returning to Nanjing.

But Zhao Han insisted on letting the prince go, and stayed in Nanjing all day, how could he do it without seeing the outside world?

"Your Highness, are you more comfortable?"

"It's okay, I didn't faint yesterday."

Although seasick, Zhao Kuanghuan was very happy. Who would not want to take a long trip among young people?

After another day, Zhao Kuanghuan fully adapted and stood on the deck to enjoy the sea scenery.The vast and boundless sea made Zhao Kuanghuan feel relaxed and happy, and he felt a sense of pride. He even wanted to visit the Mongolian grassland. He heard that the scenery of the grassland was also very magnificent.

Li Quan also accompanied him, and Zhao Han wanted the prince to get in touch with the Four Seas Trading Company in advance, after all, it was a semi-royal company.

"I heard that you went on an expedition to Nanyang, and you only returned to China last winter?" Zhao Kuanghuan asked.

Li Quan said, "Exactly."

Zhao Kuanghuan asked curiously, "Where did you go and what happened?"

Li Quan narrated: "First, we went to a big island called New Guinea. The name was given by the Portuguese. I dared to change the name to Nanman Island."

"Why this name?" Zhao Kuanghuan asked.

Li Quan said: "The natives of this island are all black, and they have the custom of headhunting. When it comes to headhunting, women and children are men, and men go to attack enemy tribes. They often attack at night to hunt the enemy's head. Some tribes, Hunted human skulls are made into various decorative objects. There are also some tribes that have the custom of cannibalism, and also eat the corpses of relatives, thinking that they can carry the souls of dead relatives.”

Zhao Kuanghuan said in amazement: "Headhunting and cannibalism are so big that there are no surprises."

"It is located in a remote area, mostly in hot and humid rainforest, and does not produce spices and food. Even Europeans are unwilling to colonize the island." Li Quan said.

Zhao Kuanghuan asked again, "Apart from Nanman Island, where else have you been?"

Li Quan said: "Further south, there is a big island called New Holland. It can't even be called an island, but a continent. I sailed along the coast, and it took five months to complete the journey. On the way, I can only replenish fresh water. , The food was almost consumed, and it was all maintained by fishing and hunting, and finally had to return to Java Island."

New Holland is Australia. It is said that the coastline has not been covered in five months because of frequent landings to check the situation.

Several suitable habitats have been identified, mainly on the east coast of Australia.

Zhao Kuanghuan laughed and said, "If I wasn't the crown prince, I would have wanted to explore the sea with you. By the way, what name did you change to New Holland? Are there any natives on the island?"

"I can't think of a good name, so I ask the crown prince to choose one." Li Quan cupped his hands and said.

Zhao Kuanghuan asked, "Is it further south than Java Island?"

"Exactly." Li Quan said.

Zhao Kuanghuan thought for a while: "Why not call it Changsheng Island, or Changshengzhou."

"Good name!" Li Quan immediately flattered him.

The name "Longevity" comes from the Taoist "Antarctic Emperor of Longevity", also known as the so-called Antarctic Immortal and Longevity Old Man, who is said to live in the extreme south.

Li Quan said: "There are also indigenous peoples on Changsheng Island. The people there have dark skin, but they tend to be more reddish-brown. The people on Nanman Island (New Guinea) are already darker than those in Africa. Negroes are better."

"Do the natives of Longevity Island have headhunting and cannibal customs?" Zhao Kuanghuan asked.

Li Quan shook his head and said: "I haven't encountered cannibals yet, and Changsheng Island is too big, and the indigenous tribes are very different. Some tribes already know how to build stone houses; some tribes still live in thatched huts and caves. Once, Frightened by some native tribe!"

Zhao Kuanghuan asked: "But want to attack outsiders?"

Li Quan explained: "No, they are very hospitable. When we went ashore to look for fresh water, we met a tribe who used stone tools. They seemed to be holding some kind of ceremony. The man broke open the frog's belly with a stone knife, and the woman took the giant frog Just bite. Except for the internal organs and frog skin, the rest is swallowed alive by the woman."

"Ru Mao drinks blood." Zhao Kuanghuan sighed.

"Those women are looking for children," Li Quan said. "Frogs lay a lot of eggs, and the local indigenous people worship them very much. They think that women can have more children by eating giant frogs. We went up to ask the water source, but we couldn't figure it out after a long time. The aborigines took us back to the tribe and invited us to dinner. They served snakes, lizards, and geckos soaked in blood. Some aborigines came over with sharp spears, pointing at the pregnant women and chattering. We were all scared When we arrived, we thought we had encountered cannibals, so we hurriedly fled back to the seaside.”

Zhao Kuanghuan asked, "Aren't they cannibals?"