Han Shizu

Chapter 2156: Emperor Shizong 32: Jianlong Sixth Year: Domination of Central Asia
In Gaozhou, Mahmud made three major deployments against Ghazni: first, he set up camp and built a series of barriers, while keeping a close eye on Gaozhou City and looking at Hezhong City, expecting further response from the Anxi army.

Secondly, troops were sent to clear out the Anxi towns and scattered soldiers that had been missed during the previous advance, especially along the Jihun River basin, to open up and consolidate the food routes leading directly to the country, and to prepare for a long-term battle. Subsequently, there was indeed a steady supply of military supplies, which were transported through the Balkh Plain in northern Ghazni, both by land and water, to strengthen the front line.

Third, while the army was not moving lightly, Mahmud sent several elite cavalry units of varying sizes to cross the Jihun River to the east and attack the heartland of Anxi. The mission given by Mahmud was certainly not to attack the big cities in the Central Asian region, but to kill people, to kill the Han people, to kill those traitors who abandoned Allah and were willing to be slaves of the Han people, and at the same time to rescue those believers who were unwilling to be enslaved by the Han people and incite them to participate in the revenge against the Han people. This strategy was obviously intended to disrupt the normal preparations for war in Anxi and weaken its vitality.

Fourthly, the feint movement of the troops in the direction of Khorasan and Mingcheng became active, and the tens of thousands of holy warriors who had already come to the east were joined in an all-out effort to recover the lost territory, capture Mingcheng, and go to the eastern wing of the Anxi Kingdom, and also completely consolidate the rear of the Gaozhou army.

Fifth, Mahmud also sent envoys to the north to contact the forces of Oghuz Yaphu, Kimak, and Karluk in the northern grasslands of Anxi, inviting them to come south to attack Anxi together and divide the wealth, land, and population.

With Mahmoud's series of attacks, he really created a sense of crisis and internal and external troubles for Anxi in a short period of time. Even the King of Anxi, Liu Wenzhe, couldn't help but panic.

However, the Anxi Dynasty still had many capable people at this stage. In Gaozhou, the veteran Kang Jirong was stationed there to guard Hezhong while firmly clamping down on Mahmud's army, preventing it from crossing the river to the east rashly. In Hezhong, when the dynasty faced an unprecedented crisis, the energy of the military nobles was also forced out, and they were united and worked together.

First, Yang Yi, the imperial attendant, carefully analyzed the military situation to Liu Wenze, reassured him, and gave him advice. In Yang Yi's view, the enemy's coming was fierce and earth-shaking, but the only real threat to the country was Mahmud's army, but it was also nailed to the other side of the Amu Darya River by Gaozhou.

Although the situation was temporarily critical, it was far from being out of control. The enemy could be fierce for a while, but Yang Yi believed that with the national strength of the Ghazni Kingdom, it would be impossible to support such a large-scale army for a long time. When the enemy's strength weakened, it would be easy to defeat them.

At the same time, troops from all over Anxi were being mobilized and had completed certain assembly tasks. They were sent to strengthen the Amu Darya River defense line, impose martial law throughout the country, and focus on attacking enemy cavalry that invaded the river to burn, kill, and loot, in order to first stabilize the country and then defend against foreign invaders.

As for the nomadic forces in the north, the Oghuz Yadgu Empire had long since declined and split, and the Kimak and Qarlugs were far away and had been facing expansion pressure from the northern court for many years. They were not a concern and could be deterred by simply sending a general to lead a small army.

In addition to offering advice and suggestions, Yang Yi also recommended a military commander, Guo Ju, the deputy commander of Sacheng (Samogan), to Liu Wenzhe. After learning about Guo Ju's background and resume, Liu Wenzhe appointed him as the defense commander of Sacheng and asked him to lead the army to eliminate the enemy cavalry from the east.

Yang Yi was born in Ganzhou Yang family, which was of the same clan as Changwu Earl Yang Tingzhang, who was the brother-in-law of the late Xingguogong Guo Wei. In short, although Yang Yi's origin was not top-notch in the upper class of Anxi, it was also deep-rooted, and his talents and knowledge were able to completely offset the shortcomings of his background, making him a loyal minister of Liu Wenzhe and entering the decision-making circle of Anxi.

As for Guo Ju, he was only 30 years old at the time. He was also from a prominent family and was the great-grandson of Guo Jin, Marquis of Bowang. Although he was not good at politics, he had great strategic skills and was very capable of commanding troops. Guo Ju, Yang Yi, and Kang Jirong, who was guarding Gaozhou, also became the three most important heroes in resisting the Arab invasion and counterattacking.

By late April, Guo Ju personally led the army through strategies such as strong attacks, surprise attacks, and ambushes, and wiped out most of the Ghaznavid cavalry that had invaded from the east, killing more than 7000 enemies and forcing the rest to flee. Although he failed to completely remove the thorn that Mahmud had wedged into the heart of Anxi to cause chaos, he basically eliminated his threat to the ruling order of Anxi.

In the process of chasing away the bandits, Guo Ju also quelled several rebellions of Christians. He showed extremely ruthless means to the rebels, killing them all regardless of their identity, gender, or age, without any leniency. While greatly deterring those restless and disloyal people in the country, it is also inevitable that people sigh that the Arabs' ability to seduce is really strong. Anxi has done such a decisive degree, but the poison is still not cleared.
Under Guo Ju's attack, Mahmud's intention to disrupt Anxi failed, but it was not completely unsuccessful. At the cost of tens of thousands of casualties, it still caused great chaos, destruction and casualties in the Central Asian region. Other tribes and servants would have been fine, but the key was the large number of Han people who died and injured, which made the Anxi upper class particularly painful and angry, because these were all their own people!
There was even a unit of enemy cavalry that crossed the important Anxi cities of Samakan, Kuzhou (Leninabad), and Dazhou (Tashkent), burning, killing, and looting along the way, and fled to Talas before being completely wiped out.

This incident also made the people of Anxi feel deeply ashamed. Since the previous king Liu Min, it was always Anxi that went to the enemy's territory to stir up trouble, burn, kill and loot. Never before had the enemy been so rampant, marching straight in, killing and looting at will.

The Ghaznavid army's turmoil in the Central Asian region completely awakened the people of Anxi. After waking up, Anxi completed a comprehensive and thorough mobilization in mid-April. On April 22, an army of 130,000, led by Anxi King Liu Wenzhe, marched to the banks of the Jihun River and confronted Mahmud's army across the river.

These 130,000 troops were almost all the forces that Anxi could mobilize on the Jihun River front. Although they had not yet reached the point of hollowing out the country, all the wealth that Liu Min had painstakingly accumulated over decades was displayed by Liu Wenzhe. It included almost all the elite troops of Anxi, including the loyal and elite Han main forces in old areas such as Suiye and Talas, who were also deployed to deal with the Ghaznavid army.

From late April to mid-July, both sides launched landings at the Jihun River ferry and beachhead starting from Gaozhou in the north, and fought dozens of fierce battles, trying to find the other side's weaknesses. However, both were wary and strengthened river patrols. They did not dare to cross the river rashly and attack on a large scale. The situation on the battlefield remained in a stalemate.

The stalemate actually reflected their different strategic intentions. Using Gaozhou as bait, they attracted the main force of Anxi to seek an opportunity for a decisive battle and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. After all, Mahmoud was not as wary of Liu Wenze as he was of Liu Min, and he had a certain contempt for him.

After attracting the Anxi army to the Jihun River, Mahmud had to take a defensive stance again. With the power he had in his hands, he was even at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. Therefore, for nearly three months, the Ghaznavid army relied more on the forts built at the beginning for defense, while trying to protect the river defense and food routes.

Mahmoud was waiting for the Arab coalition forces in the east of the sea, which had nearly 100,000 troops. In this war, the battle in the east of the sea cannot be ignored, but in Yang Yi's planning for Anxi King Liu Wenze, the defense of Mingcheng was obviously neglected, or even avoided.

There are two reasons for this. First, the person in charge of Mingcheng was none other than Liu Wenzhe's second brother, Ganhou Liu Wenli. He was originally squeezed out of Hezhong by Liu Wenzhe, and then transferred from his fiefdom Gancheng, which he had managed for many years, and sent to Mingcheng to resist the Arabs.

The second reason is that the loss of Leizhou and the enemy's invasion of Gaozhou have basically cut off transportation. If they want to reconnect, they must either defeat Mahmoud's army head-on or bypass the entire Karakum Desert and make a big detour from the east coast of the Caspian Sea. This is obviously unrealistic under the current transportation conditions.

It was difficult to be optimistic about the outcome for the isolated and helpless Ming City facing the siege of the Arab army. Therefore, even though Ming City was a strategic location, it sadly became a discarded piece in the chess game of the "Sixth World War".

Judging from the results, this was indeed the case. Facing the massive attack of the Arab coalition, Anxi was first driven out of Khorasan, where it could not be defended at all. Then, the Ghazni and the Mujahideen marched north together and besieged Mingcheng.

The Arab coalition had nearly 100,000 troops, while the defenders of Mingcheng, even if the defeated soldiers from Khorasan and the temporarily recruited Han private armed forces were counted, had no more than 17,000 people. Among them, there were less than 8,000 elite troops that could be relied upon. The disparity in strength was huge, and the situation of the enemy being strong and us being weak was very obvious.

The second Mingcheng battle was longer and more brutal than the one 20 years ago. The last time, Liu Wentao, son of Liu Fang, the prince of Zhao, was killed in the battle, and this time, Liu Wenli was killed.

Speaking of Gan Hou Liu Wenli, he was short-sighted politically, had a bad temper, and was not very tolerant of others. Especially after his failure in the fight for the throne, his shortcomings were further magnified. It can be said that he had many disgusting shortcomings.

But the battle of Mingcheng alone was enough to justify his reputation. He was worthy of the blood of the Han royal family and lived up to his father's ambition. Even though he was suppressed politically, he showed no weakness or hesitation when facing the Arab army, nor was he cowardly or afraid. He gathered his temper and led the defenders to fight against the coalition forces.

From the 3rd of May, when the Arab army laid siege to the city, to the 27th of June, when the city was captured, Liu Wenli led the Anxi Han army to hold out for nearly 60 days. On the battlefield, he was a fearless warrior and a trustworthy comrade. By leading by example and sharing the hardships, he went from being an "exiled" prince to gaining the support of the defending soldiers and following them to fight to the death.

Finally, the Ming City was breached by the Arab army due to its isolation and helplessness. More than 10,000 Han defenders were wiped out. When the city was breached, Liu Wenli, holding a barrel of gunpowder, died together with dozens of jihadists. No trace of his body was left. His death was extremely heroic.

Twenty years ago, although the victory or defeat of the Battle of Mingcheng was not determined by the attack and defense of Mingcheng, the "Battle of Mingcheng" was a tragedy for the entire Arab world. The name "Mingcheng" also became famous, making countless loyal Arab believers grit their teeth and eager to seize it to avenge the previous shame.

Judging from the results of the Second Battle of Mingcheng, they did it and successfully planted the Arab flag on the walls of Mingcheng that were destroyed in the smoke of gunpowder. But the price they paid was also heavy. Even though they launched repeated attacks and used a large number of cannon fodder to fill the city walls, the direct casualties of the Eastern Expedition coalition forces exceeded 20,000.

Liu Wenli was determined to die in the late stage of the attack and defense. He summoned his officers and told them that they must die, but before they died, they had to exchange at least two enemy lives. It is conceivable that the Han army in Mingcheng in the late stage was no less crazy than those holy warriors, and many deaths of the coalition forces were also caused in the late stage of the attack and defense.

Because of the heavy losses, Mahmoud had to recruit troops from the country to make up for the shortage of manpower. By mid-July, the Arab coalition forces joined the Eastern Expeditionary Forces from Mingcheng and the reinforcements from Balkh. On the Jihun River line, the number of troops had exceeded 250,000.

However, although the number of troops increased, the combat effectiveness did not actually improve much. The coalition forces in Mingcheng did not get enough rest and replenishment, and their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. As for the troops subsequently recruited from the country, many of them were actually forcibly conscripted young men, who were farmers who had just picked up weapons and had not received much military training.

As for the Anxi Army, they were filled with indignation and fury when they heard the news of the fall of Mingcheng, the death of Liu Wenli, and the massacre of local Han people by the Arabs (there were more than 10,000 Han people in Mingcheng, and except for a few who took the opportunity to escape early, most of them died in the retaliatory massacre by the Allied Forces).

The emotion of "revenge" was extremely high under the instigation of Liu Wenze, and it quickly overshadowed the shock and "failure" brought about by the "loss of Mingcheng". At the same time, in the more than two months of confrontation and fierce battle with Mahmoud, Anxi did not slack off at all.

More manpower was organized under Anxi's military system and thrown into this "Patriotic War". Various military resources were continuously transported to the camps of the Anxi army along the Jihun River. By mid-July, together with the garrison of Gaozhou City, Anxi had mobilized an army of 200,000 to join the war, and its effectiveness was much better than that of the Arab coalition.

You know, even those vassal armies, under the training of the Han people, were much more powerful than the private armies of the nobles of Ghazni. And nearly four months after the outbreak of the war, there was a huge turnaround in both strength and morale between the two sides. In the eyes of the Anxi high-level officials with Liu Wenzhe as the core, the offense and defense had changed, and it was time to counterattack.

In fact, the Ghaznavid army was not without capable people. Some of them sensed the danger and suggested to Sultan Mahmud that a long expedition with tired soldiers and a long stay in Gaozhou would be too dangerous.

This expedition has already dealt a heavy blow to Anxi, and seized a large area of ​​land on the west bank of the Jihun River, including Leizhou. At the same time, Mingcheng, a thorn in the eyes of the vast majority of believers, has also been conquered, so it is time to stop.

Such advice was very pertinent and objective. If Mahmoud had listened to it and stopped while he was ahead, even if he could not completely retain all the fruits of victory, the Han-Iranian War could have ended with an Arab victory from an overall perspective.

However, Mahmud, like many other talented monarchs, made the mistake of underestimating the enemy. Although he attached great importance to the Anxi Army in terms of tactics, he did not take their commander Liu Wenze seriously from the bottom of his heart. If Mingcheng could not be conquered, it would be fine. After Mingcheng was conquered, he was more confident of achieving a greater victory.

For Mahmoud, as long as he defeated the main force of the Anxi army on the other side of the river, the fertile soil and water in the river and the civilized place that he had been dreaming of would be at his disposal, allowing his dynasty to reach a higher level.

However, the higher the hope, the lower the result. Mahmoud had already lost his strategic advantage, and he also made mistakes in tactics. Without a clear advantage in military strength, he ordered a fierce attack on Gaozhou City.

Gaozhou was a must-take place for both sides. Mahmoud saw this clearly. The purpose of attacking Gaozhou City was to attract the Anxi army to cross the river for assistance and then attack them when they were halfway across the river.

Mahmoud only thought of half of the plan and succeeded only half of it. The half of it was that Gaozhou City was difficult to attack, after all, the city defense was solid, the soldiers were well-trained and the food was sufficient. Five days after the fierce battle of Gaozhou broke out, the Anxi Army did take the initiative to launch a battle to cross the Jihun River.

As for the other half that Mahmoud did not expect, it was the strong fighting power and firm fighting will of the Han army. Under the cover of the rumbling artillery fire on the east coast, tens of thousands of elite Han soldiers floated westward from five beaches and launched an attack.

Attacking halfway across the river did indeed cause heavy casualties to the Anxi army, but the blood was not shed in vain. After suffering nearly half of the casualties, they successfully seized two shoals on the west bank, established defenses, and bought time for the subsequent army to cross the river to the west.

The bloody battle on the west bank was a head-on confrontation, a close combat that relied on bravery and organization. In these two aspects, the only one that could compare with the main force of the Anxi Army involved in the battle was Mahmoud's Guards.

The battle lasted for three full days and nights. The battle line moved westward step by step. Blood was everywhere, dyeing the river beach red. The Ghaznavid line was also breached in large numbers, but the forts built earlier still played a role. Faced with the Han army's overwhelming attack, many Ghaznavid soldiers chose to build strongholds to protect themselves, but the battle situation was already developing in an unfavorable direction.

The attack on Gaozhou City had long been stopped. Mahmoud had moved all the troops to the west bank to deal with the attack of the Anxi Army crossing the river, except for a part of the troops left for surveillance. Within three days, the tactical terminology changed from "annihilation" to "response".

The defenders in Gaozhou City, under the command of veteran General Kang Jirong, went out of the city to attack and fought fiercely with the tens of thousands of coalition forces who were monitoring them, regardless of casualties, in order to help relieve the pressure on the main army.

The direction of the battlefield was decided by the 10,000 elite cavalry led by Guo Ju. Liu Wenzhe gave him the most elite cavalry of Anxi, including the royal cavalry, and led him to wade across the river at Qiantan, detour for more than 300 miles, and attack the Arab army from behind.

First, they would cooperate with Kang Jirong's army to defeat the enemy troops under Gaozhou City, and then join forces to launch a fierce offensive against the Ghazni army. In this world, there are not many armies that can be attacked from two sides in a field battle, and it is even more difficult for the Ghazni army, which is large in scale and has a complex composition.

So, twenty years later, the Arab Expedition failed again. After the Battle of Mingcheng, Mahmud tasted the bitter fruit again. This time, the bitter fruit was obviously more bitter, after all, it was brought to him by the "unknown" Liu Wenzhe.

The outcome of this war also profoundly influenced the development of the history of Central and West Asia.

Mahmoud lost his integrity in his later years. The halo of a hero and a victor was completely tarnished, and there was nothing that could be washed away. Not only did he lose his reputation, but he also shattered the powerful cloak of the Arab dynasty.

Although Mahmud managed to escape the battlefield and eventually returned to the capital city of Ghizni, his troops were almost completely destroyed. Of the more than 200,000 soldiers, less than 30,000 managed to escape back to Ghazni alive, and most of them were cavalry. The rest were either killed, captured, drowned in the surging Jihun River, or disappeared in the vast central desert.
This war was undoubtedly another major setback for the Arab world. Even the fanatics were almost traumatized by the Han people. Leizhou and other places west of the Jihun River were quickly recovered. The broken Ming city once again raised the Han flag of Anxi. The memorial ceremony for the soldiers who died in the battle included more than 10,000 Arab heads. Even the Ziyarid Dynasty entrenched on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea was destroyed by Guo Ju during the process of recovering Gorgan City.

This battle shattered the courage that the Arabs had accumulated over the past twenty years, and the anger and clamor that had been raging in Baghdad was extinguished.
The Ghaznavid Empire, the leader of the Abbasid Dynasty, also fell into the abyss and lost a large area of ​​land in the north. The fertile Balkh Plain was captured by Kang Jirong's army across the Jihun River. In the northeast, the Kangju Kingdom took advantage of it. The dangerous passes and key passes in the northern foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains that once daunted the Kang army were easily breached. Not only did they lose the Badakhshan area, but Kunduz, the core of the northeastern border defense, was also captured by the Kang King Liu Wenqian.

As for Ghazni, Mahmud's prestige plummeted and the central power was severely weakened, which led to the rapid rise of local forces, especially separatist forces in Persia and India, which rose rapidly and formed a separatist situation.

Although Mahmud did not completely sink, he spent the rest of his life working hard to quell civil strife and maintain the rule of the Ghaznavid dynasty. As for the three Anxi kingdoms, he was no longer able to do so and could only adopt a completely defensive strategy.

It was with Mahmud's efforts that the Ghaznavid dynasty was able to prolong its reign, but its decline was inevitable. By the time of Mahmud's death, the dynasty's rule had become fragile, and its control over Persia and India was only nominal.
Compared to the miserable Ghazni, the victorious Anxi had a much better life. After all, they had captured countless trophies, expanded their territory, and had no rivals in Central and West Asia. However, the price they paid was also very heavy. The tens of thousands of casualties were enough to make the Anxi army lick their wounds for several years, and the severe population and production damage caused by the war in the vast land from the Caspian Sea to the city of Sa would take even longer to recover.

In name, Anxi became the strongest country in Central and West Asia, but in a short period of time, it actually lost its ability to advance. Under the consumption of the war, its national strength actually declined.

At the same time, the performance of the two brother countries of Beiting and Kangju in the war also made Anxi suspicious, especially Kangju, who had wolfish ambitions and did not behave like a human being. On the other hand, the Seljuks, a rebellious tribe of the Oghuz Yadgur State who were nomadic in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River, also took the opportunity to attack the delta area in the lower reaches of the Jihun River, gradually growing and becoming a major threat to Anxi.

The glorious victory gave Anxi a bright coat, but the future of the dynasty was not so stable. But no matter what, after the battle of Gaozhou, the Anxi Dynasty truly stood at the top of the Central and West Asian world, and the roots of Han civilization in this land became deeper and deeper.

The reputation of Anxi King Liu Wen Ze, like that of his father Liu Min, spread far and wide across Europe.
(End of this chapter)