On the 19th day of the eighth month of the first year of the Zhaowu reign of the Tang Dynasty, the seventh day of the Arab Empire's eastern expedition against the Uyghurs.
Despite facing pressure from both external and internal sources, the powerful Khan Moyanchuo, ruler of the Uyghur Khanate, still did not issue a royal decree to surrender to the Arab Empire.
However, the Uyghur generals besieging the cities of Meijian and Qadin, unable to withstand the intense pressure of the Arab Empire's attack, declared their secession from the rule of the Uyghur Khan, and voluntarily opened the city gates to surrender to the besieging Arab army in exchange for sparing the Uyghur people inside the cities from a massacre.
Thus, of the four major military strongholds outside the capital of the Uyghur Khanate, only Princess City remained in the hands of the Uyghur Khanate; the three cities of Black Tiger, Meijian, and Qatun all fell into the hands of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army.
After capturing the city, these three Arab armies continued their relentless march towards the Uyghur capital without taking a break.
When the news of the Uyghur commanders of Meijian and Qatun surrendering their cities reached the palace, the valiant Khan Moyanchuo was unexpectedly not furious, nor did he issue an edict to execute the commanders and their families. He seemed to accept their surrender as if it were his fate.
When faced with the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army, which had conquered the three cities of Black Tiger, Meijian, and Qadin, and was advancing relentlessly towards the capital, Harabalqas, the mighty Khan Moyanchuo did not feel fear or dread. Instead, he felt a sense of relief and ease.
At the Uyghur Khanate's court assembly that day, the mighty Khan issued his final royal edict as the supreme ruler of the Uyghur Khanate: "Lux, draft a royal edict in my name—"
"Within three days, all the people in the capital city of Harabalgash may flee the city before the enemy army besieges it. All four gates of the city shall be opened, and the soldiers guarding the city shall not in any way harass the people fleeing the city."
"At midnight three days from now, I will close all the city gates of the capital. In this royal city of Harabalqas, under the witness and protection of the ancestors of the Yakmal family, I will fight to the death against the Arab Empire's army that is on its eastward expedition, and I vow to live and die with the royal city!"
"Great Khan—"
Inside the royal palace, a host of nobles, officials, and military officers, including the prime minister Lux, offered their advice.
However, how could the valiant Khan Moyanchuo, who had already made up his mind, possibly heed their advice?
Even so, some ministers present brought up the example of how, on the advice of the previous Uyghur Khan, the old prime minister Has, the Martial Khan submitted to Chen Huai'an, the Prince of Jin, who was on a western expedition, and sent Princess Yue Qiluo of Bilge to the Han land for a marriage alliance, in an attempt to persuade Moyanchuo to submit to the Arab Empire in exchange for temporary peace, with further discussions to be held later.
Yet, the Khan remains as valiant and decisive as ever!
Mo Yanchuo said self-deprecatingly, "Gentlemen, I have already done this kind of thing—submitting to the emperor, ceding territory, and making peace through marriage—once during my reign. We can't always use this method to turn danger into safety and live a life of ignominy every time, can we?"
"Besides, I don't have any other princesses to send to Baghdad, the capital of the Arab Empire, for a marriage alliance."
"I am the valiant Khan of the Uyghur Khanate. Surely one should be valiant at least once in their life?"
Thus, the mighty Khan Moyanchuo, with his own determination, refused the advice of the court officials who tried to persuade him, and personally ordered them to go into battle in front of all the civil and military officials.
"Basi, put on the armor for me. From this day forward, I will personally stand guard on the city walls of the capital to protect the people of the city until the very end!"
"Yes, Great Khan!"
......
A hundred miles away, in Princess City, the only city in the Uyghur Khanate besides its capital, Harabalqas, that was still resisting the Arab Empire's army.
Inside the central command tent of the garrison camp.
After seven days of fierce fighting, both the Tang generals and the Uyghur generals stationed in the city were exhausted. The last Uyghur garrison with a complete formation was also sent to the city walls to defend the city yesterday.
The young Uyghur Khan royal commander, General Ababekli, had been wounded in a series of brutal battles. One of his arms was in a sling around his neck, the white gauze stained red with blood seeping from the wound, then turning brownish-black.
Meanwhile, the Uyghur veteran Mawlani, who was over fifty years old, once again donned his armor and took to the battlefield, his once kind eyes now revealing a fierce glint.
After fierce fighting, of the 30,000 soldiers defending the princess city, only a little over 10,000 are still capable of fighting.
The defending army, at the cost of 20,000 casualties, held off an enemy force ten times its size outside the city for seven days. They also inflicted more than 100,000 casualties on the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army outside the city, and forced the expeditionary general Turhong to replace his generals three times on the battlefield.
Today, the general commanding the siege outside Princess City is General Aini under Turhong, the third such general after King Tibis of Wusun and General Caesar, yet he still has not been able to gain the slightest advantage over the defending soldiers.
Inside the main tent, the Uyghur generals Aba Baikli and Mawlani, who had already received the edict from the mighty Khan of the Uyghur Khanate, were in particularly low spirits, but they had no choice but to bite the bullet and truthfully report the contents of the edict to General Lan Yu.
This time, it was the older Uyghur general, Mawlani, who stepped forward.
Mawlani said, "General, we just received a royal decree from the valiant Khan this evening. Apart from Black Tiger City, which fell to the enemy the day before yesterday, the garrisons of Meijian City and Qadun City surrendered to the enemy this morning."
"Apart from the capital city of Harabaqas, only our Princess City remains in this vast Uyghur Khanate, still resisting the Arab Empire's eastward expeditionary army!"
After a pause, Mawlani continued, "The mighty Khan has issued a royal decree, allowing the people of the capital to flee before the enemy besieges the city."
"The mighty Khan has also issued a royal decree to us, allowing us to decide for ourselves whether to surrender the city?"
"And the mighty Khan will personally lead the royal guards to defend the capital, vowing to live and die with it!"
After speaking, Mawlani lowered his head with a guilty look, not daring to meet General Lan Yu's eyes.
The young Uyghur general, Ababakri, turned his head away with a sense of guilt, but his resolve to live and die with Princess City only grew stronger.
The news that the vast Uyghur Khanate, apart from its capital Harabalqas and Princess City, had lost its cities to enemy forces or surrendered by their defending generals, did not stir any emotion in General Lan Yu's heart.
It seems he had long anticipated this day.
Lan Yu slowly rose from the main seat of the general in the central command tent, came to the side of Mawlani who was bowing his head, gently patted his shoulder, and then "heavily" punched Ababekli in the chest with two fists.
Only when the two of them looked up or turned their heads and met Lan Yu's gaze did they reveal satisfied smiles.
Immediately afterward, Lan Yu met the gazes of the two Uyghur generals directly and said firmly, "Generals, your valiant Khan would rather die than surrender to the Arab Empire."
"As the Marquis of Anxi of the Great Tang Dynasty and the former Deputy Military Governor of the Anxi Protectorate, I, Lan Yu, bear the responsibility of protecting the safety of the Silk Road in the Western Regions. I would never surrender to the Arab barbarians outside the city, much less do anything that would dishonor the dignity of the Great Tang Dynasty."
Then, Lan Yu changed the subject, speaking each word clearly and forcefully: "All generals, heed my command—"
"Your subordinate is here!"
"This general is determined to defend Princess City to the death, until I am killed in battle!"
"A fight to the death!"
Inside the central command tent, the roars of both Tang and Uyghur generals echoed in unison.
The next day.
On the 20th day of the eighth month of the first year of the Zhaowu reign of the Tang Dynasty, the eighth day of the Arab Empire's eastern expedition against the Uyghurs.
Outside the Princess City, more than 100,000 troops of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary force had gathered, along with a total of 50,000 troops from a coalition of 35 Western Regions states that had already submitted to the Arab Empire.
The 150,000-strong army spread out in an assault formation, their target the Princess City, which stood between two mountains of the Uyghur Khanate and whose walls had long been dilapidated.
Judging from the posture of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army and its allied Western Region forces outside the city, they were planning to achieve their goal in one battle and take down the city that had delayed the army's advance for eight days.
In this battle, the Arab Empire's vanguard commander, Aani, even shouted the slogan, "Tonight, we will set up a victory banquet for the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army in the central command tent of the Tang Dynasty's garrison, and respectfully welcome General Turhun into the city."
The wind howls, and the Yi River is cold.
Today, dark clouds loom over Princess City, with only the sky-covering clouds and howling winds causing the battle flags of both armies on the city walls to flutter in the wind.
Al-Ani, the vanguard general of the Arab Empire, rode a tall white horse and stood proudly at the front of the army, shouting loudly to the soldiers trapped on the city walls.
Aini roared at the top of his lungs, "Lan Yu, I am Aini, the vanguard commander under the Great General of the Eastern Expedition of the Arab Empire. Listen to my words and surrender!"
"The commanders of the two cities of Meijian and Qatun, which were guarded by the Uyghur Khanate, have already surrendered their cities to the Arab Empire. The vast Uyghur Khanate is now left with only its capital, Harabalqas, and this Princess City fighting alone."
"Why are you so determined to act alone, disregarding the lives of the soldiers and civilians in the city?"
Aini continued, "I promise you, if you lead your troops out of the city and surrender now, I guarantee I will not harm the people inside."
"Lan Yu, stop fantasizing about reinforcements coming to your rescue. The Tang Dynasty's Anxi Iron Army under the Anxi Protectorate is already trapped in the city by my eastern expeditionary Arab army and is too busy to help themselves. How could they possibly spare any troops to come to the aid of Princess City?"
"Lan Yu, surrender!"
"Lan Yu, surrender!"
In an instant, tens of thousands of soldiers in the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army outside Princess City began to repeat the words of their vanguard commander, Aini, urging Lan Yu to surrender, which resounded throughout the entire Princess City.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
Clang, clang, clang—
However, the only response Aini received was three arrows, each as thick as a spear shaft, whistling through the walls of the princess city and striking the ground in unison less than fifty paces from Aini.
Aini could tell at a glance that these were arrows fired from ballistae on the walls of the Princess City.
It also represents Lan Yu's answer to him.
snort!
Aini on horseback snorted coldly, then decisively drew his crescent-shaped scimitar, the blade pointing directly at the princess city standing before him.
Immediately, an order was given: "All troops, attack!"
"Kill them!"
In an instant, the Arab Empire's siege army, which had been prepared, surged toward the Princess City from all directions like a tidal wave.
The large catapults and ballistae in the formation also began to hurl huge stone balls and thick arrows at the walls of Princess City as if they were free.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
In an instant, flames flew everywhere inside and outside the princess city, and arrows rained down.
On the city wall of Princess City, General Lan Yu personally commanded the troops from the top of the wall, holding the ring-pommel sword that had already killed at least a hundred Arab soldiers. His cold gaze was fixed on the enemy army swarming in from outside the city like locusts.
Until the two sides clashed in close combat, another day of brutal fighting ensued.
......
On the eighth day of the bloody battle between Lan Yu and the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Iron Army and the Uyghur garrison at Princess City, Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an of the Tang Dynasty, who was personally leading the expedition, finally led several thousand elite cavalrymen, bypassing the layers of blockade and scouts of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army, and secretly reached the rear of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army.
At this time, Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an was leading his troops to rest less than fifty miles away from Chigu City in Wusun Kingdom, one of the grain storage and transit points of the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary army.
"Report—"
"Your Majesty, Marquis Huo Qubing has sent a messenger to report that the Tang Anxi Iron Cavalry, which is heading towards Chesha Kingdom, has entered Chesha Kingdom territory according to the pre-arranged battle plan and will launch a surprise attack on Chesha Kingdom at dawn the following day."
"Report—"
"Your Majesty, General Zhao Zilong has sent word that the 100,000 Imperial Guards sweeping through the northern deserts have completely annihilated a small group of Arab Empire troops attempting to infiltrate eastward from the northern steppes. They are now advancing at full speed towards Harabalqas, the capital of the Uyghur Khanate, and are expected to arrive in three days."
"Report—"
"Your Majesty..."
One urgent military report after another was brought to Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an's camp without delay, and the movements of the entire Tang Dynasty army in the Western Regions were under Chen Huai'an's control.
The war situation in the Uyghur Khanate, as well as all the movements in the Uyghur Khanate court, were all planned and executed by Chen Huai'an, who was thousands of miles away.
The reason he was reluctant to send troops to reinforce the Uyghur Khanate and watched helplessly as many of the Uyghur Khanate's cities fell into enemy hands was not because he lacked troops, but because Chen Huai'an had other plans.
His goal for this western expedition was not merely to quell the unrest in the Western Regions, but to annihilate the Arab Empire's army that was marching eastward, and to take advantage of the momentum to continue westward and bring the Arab Empire into the territory of the Tang Dynasty's vassal states.
Furthermore, he wanted to use the Arab Empire's eastern expeditionary force to purge the disloyal ministers and armies of the thirty-six kingdoms in the Western Regions for the Tang Dynasty, with the aim of completely controlling the Western Regions.
As far as Chen Huai'an was concerned, he had no shortage of elite troops and generals. Why not take this opportunity to replace the armies of all thirty-six kingdoms in the Western Regions with his private soldiers, who were summoned from the [Born to be an Emperor] system and were absolutely loyal to him, Chen Huai'an?
In this way, there will be absolutely no possibility of any rebellion in the Western Regions for at least the next twenty years!
For Chen Huai'an, who aspired to be an emperor comparable to Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han, what was wrong with sacrificing the rulers, subjects, and people of the Western Regions at the right time?
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