The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 838 The Three Counties of Beiting
The Western Turkic army encountered the vanguard of the Sui army, a force of 15,000 men led by Xu Shiji.

Xu Shiji stared intently as the Western Turkic army appeared on the grasslands in a massive wave, surging towards the Sui army. Xu Shiji noticed that this Turkic army was somewhat different from the grassland Turkic army.

This Turkic army actually had a shield-bearing corps. At the very front, a long line of about a thousand men, each carrying a huge shield, charged forward. This was the enemy's vanguard, and their mission was to break through the Sui army's crossbow formation so that the cavalry behind them could charge into the Sui army's ranks.

Xu Shiji had to admire the evolution of the Western Turks' tactics; they had even developed shield-bearing troops, which was indeed an effective means of cavalry assault.

But for every clever plan you have, there's a countermeasure. The Western Turkic army never expected that the Sui army had brought a weapon to deal with shields. Xu Shiji sneered and ordered his men, "Prepare arrows and grenades!"

Two thousand Lei Jun soldiers, divided into two ranks, raised their thousand heavy crossbows with a swish, their sharp iron arrows aimed at the charging Turkic cavalry, the arrowheads radiating an aura of death in the blinding sunlight.

The Western Turkic shield-bearing troops had already closed to within two hundred paces when Xu Shiji gave the order, "Fire!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom~" The dense drumbeats sounded, followed by a series of clicking sounds, as a thousand arrows, carrying unparalleled power, shot into the secret ranks of the Western Turkic army.

A series of booming explosions were heard, followed by the screams of the Western Turkic soldiers. Fire bombs exploded in the crowd, and dense poison nails pierced through the bodies of the Western Turkic soldiers, even passing right through them.

Two thousand Western Turkic cavalrymen in the middle of the second group screamed and fell to the ground. Immediately afterwards, a second wave of a thousand arrows were released and rained down on the Western Turkic cavalrymen, killing hundreds more of them.

Three volleys of powerful fire resulted in nearly 3,000 casualties among the Western Turkic army. Because the Sui army's attack was almost swift and decisive, the Western Turkic army did not have time to react.

When the three volleys of arrows were finished, the Western Turkic army was terrified. These arrows, capable of violent explosions and piercing flesh and bone with poisoned stings, possessed a devastating destructive power that chilled the Western Turkic soldiers to the bone. The Western Turkic army turned and fled for their lives in the northwest.
Sui cavalry pursued and killed the Western Turkic cavalry, leaving their corpses strewn across the ground.

Warhorses kept falling over, a sign of the poison taking effect. The cavalrymen struggled to their feet but had only run a few steps before being beheaded by the Sui cavalry who caught up with them.

When the nine thousand Western Turkic cavalry finally reached the Cheshi Ancient Road, there were fewer than four thousand left. There were a thousand cavalrymen there to meet them, which put their minds at ease.

Five thousand cavalrymen entered the ancient Cheshi Road and fled towards the Yili River Valley.

..........
The Sui army defeated the Western Turkic army in one battle and occupied the Kingdom of Gaochang.

When the hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese people in Gaochang County heard that the Sui army was coming, they turned out of the city and sang and danced to welcome their people's army.

The proportion of Han Chinese in Gaochang exceeded that of Yiwu, reaching over 70%. Of the 500,000 people, nearly 400,000 were Han Chinese. This was mainly due to the legacy of the Han Dynasty and the chaos caused by the Five Barbarian Invasions, during which a large number of Han Chinese fled to the frontier. Gaochang, established by Han Chinese, naturally became a refuge for many people from Longyou and Hexi.

Xiao Xia also set his sights on the Han people of Gaochang and Yiwu, which is why he decided to destroy Gaochang and Yiwu and turn them into counties of the Sui Dynasty.

Li Jing summoned hundreds of gentry from Gaochang County, many of whom were officials of the Gaochang Kingdom. Li Jing announced to them the imperial court's decision to establish Gaochang Prefecture and the appointments made by the Ministry of Personnel.

Prefect Xu Lan and Chief Clerk Li Jinliang also announced the appointments of several county officials.

Gaochang Commandery consisted of five counties: Gaochang County (the commandery seat), Tianshan County, Jiaohe County, Liuzhong County, and Puchang County.

Moreover, Gaochang County is very close to Yanqi Town in Anxi. Yanqi Town is located across the Yinshan Mountain to the south, and it is not far from Kucha Town.

Therefore, one of the important meanings of taking Gaochang County was that Gaochang served as a bridge, connecting Beiting and Anxi.

Li Jing then transferred the logistics to Gaochang, but he did not intend to place the logistics there. Gaochang is north of the Tianshan Mountains, and transporting supplies across the Tianshan Mountains would be too laborious.

Li Jing then turned his attention to Jinman City, located north of the Tianshan Mountains. This city had once been the capital of the Cheshi Kingdom and was built by the Han Dynasty army. The Tang Dynasty established Tingzhou with Jinman City as its administrative center, and the Beiting Jiedushi Prefecture was located in Jinman County. The Sui Dynasty had long realized that it was necessary to establish an administrative region north of the Tianshan Mountains, and Jinman City thus came into the court's sights.

After resting for three days, the army continued north, heading towards the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains along the ancient Cheshi Road.

The Cheshi Ancient Road is actually a canyon passage that runs through the Tianshan Mountains and is also a necessary route on the northern Silk Road.

If the caravan wanted to travel through the Yili River Valley, it would have to cross the Cheshi Ancient Road to enter Beiting. If it wanted to take the southern route, it would have to go south, cross the Yinshan Mountains, and travel along the Yanqi and Kucha line.

Therefore, the Kingdom of Gaochang was also a dividing point on the Silk Road, making its geographical location extremely important.

On the other hand, Gaochang was located in a basin surrounded by mountains. Once it was controlled by the Sui Dynasty, it would basically not be lost again, unless it was like the late Tang Dynasty, when it lost the Hexi Corridor and the entire Western Regions and was divided up by the Tibetans and Uyghurs.

Strategically, Gaochang was better suited to be a rear base, with a focus on defense. If the war were to be in an offensive and expansionary phase, then Tingzhou, located on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains, would be more important.

Several days later, the main force of the Sui army arrived at Jinman City. There were also Han Chinese in Jinman City, but their numbers were far fewer than those in the Kingdom of Gaochang, around 10,000. Since the Kingdom of Cheqian had long been destroyed, Jinman City belonged to the territory of the Kingdom of Gaochang.

Li Jing immediately announced the establishment of the third prefecture, Beiting Prefecture, and changed Jinman City to Jinman County. He also changed the other two small cities, Qitai City and Pulei City, to Qitai County and Pulei County respectively. At the same time, Xu Shiji was appointed as the general manager of the Beiting Army.

However, the jurisdiction of the Beiting General Headquarters was very extensive, encompassing not only the three prefectures of Gaochang, Yiwu, and Beiting, but also the Yili River Valley and Suyab.

Next, the real tough nuts to crack for the Sui army were the Ili River Valley and Suyab, which were essentially the decisive battles against the Western Turks.

Li Jing regarded Jinman County as a crucial logistical base and ordered General Wang Xiaoshi to lead 5,000 troops to garrison Jinman County.

Li Jing continued to lead his 40,000-strong army and 50,000 camels toward the Ili River Valley.

To the north of the Yili River Valley lies the Cheling Mountains, which run from northwest to southeast, and to the south lies the Tianshan Mountains, which run from southwest to northeast. The two mountain ranges meet at an angle, which marks the starting point of the Yili River Valley.

However, there are two routes to enter the Yili River Valley: the southern route and the northern route. The southern route is the Wusun Ancient Road, which crosses the Tianshan Mountains to Kucha. The other route is also called the Wusun Ancient Road, which crosses the Tianshan Mountains to Gumo.

The northern route was called the Gongyue Ancient Road, which passed through today's Sayram Lake and Duku Highway. The Sui army encountered a blockade of 500 Turkic soldiers at Gongyue City, but even the most treacherous military cities were a piece of cake for the Sui army.

After an hour of fierce fighting, the Sui army easily captured Gongyue City, annihilated 500 Western Turk soldiers, and obtained some important intelligence from the Turk soldiers there, such as 50,000 herder tents, 30,000 soldiers, and millions of cattle and sheep in the Yili River Valley.

After capturing Gongyue City, the Sui army continued south, passing through the Cheling Grand Canyon. Ten days later, the army finally entered the Yili River Valley.

This is the most fertile land in all of Central Asia, covering an area of ​​150,000 square kilometers. What appeared before the Sui army was an endless oasis, with vast forests and grasslands everywhere. To the north and south were snow-capped mountains. The area received abundant rainfall, and countless river valleys converged to form the Ili River, which flowed westward to the Yibo Sea.

However, the situation facing Li Jing was also very serious. He not only had to defeat the Western Turks, but also had to build a city in the Ili River Valley and garrison there, which required a lot of supplies.

The logistical supplies from Jinman County were far from sufficient; he had to seize the cattle and sheep of the Western Turks in the Ili River Valley and prevent them from escaping.

After entering the Ili River Valley, Li Jing ordered the entire army to speed up and engage in a decisive battle with the main force of the Western Turkic army as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)