While Shang Bing was presiding over the public sacrifice and burial ceremony, Timur stood in his camp, holding clairvoyance in his hands.

Shaharu was standing behind him, also looking with clairvoyance. When he saw Shang Bing tinkering in the cemetery, he suddenly felt a chill rise in his body, and he couldn't help but say to Timur: "Great Khan, you should send someone to attack and disturb them immediately, so that they can carry out this ritual smoothly." I think that after this ceremony, these Ming troops will definitely be more difficult to attack. ”

"Even if they send people to make trouble now and make it impossible for them to complete the ritual smoothly, it will be more difficult for these Ming troops to attack. Do you know what ceremonies they perform? Timur asked Shahru.

Shaharu shook his head. He had been guarding the west before Timur officially decided to send troops to the east, either Ashgabat or Rai (Tehran), and had also been stationed in Basra and Hormuz, and never thought that he would come to the east, so he knew very little about the Ming Dynasty.

"They are holding a public memorial ceremony, that is, to commemorate the people who have been beaten to death by them for more than 20 days."

"The Khitans in the East are a people who care very much about the deceased, and in history in the East, one side killed the people of the other side in the war, and a public memorial ceremony can eliminate the resentment of the remaining people on the other side, except for being slaughtered."

"So they take this ritual very seriously, even for people who have nothing to do with the person being sacrificed. If we send troops to disturb, it will make the Ming reinforcements who have just come to Hami City and have no grudge against us have a grudge against us, and they will fight harder in the war with us in the future. ”

"And the people of the Ming Kingdom have been guarding against us. Their cavalry had been operating outside the camp since early this morning, and the 50,000 or 60,000 garrisons in the city had not moved at all, and it was impossible for them to take Hami City by surprise. At the same time, our camp is thirty miles from the cemetery, and even the most elite cavalry will not be able to stop Shang Bing before he retreats into the city. ”

"So now, if you send troops to attack and harass them and don't let them successfully complete the public sacrifice, it will be impossible to capture Hami City, and it will be impossible to defeat most of the Ming army, and at the same time, Zhu Shangbing can't catch it, so he can only kill a few people who participated in the public sacrifice, and most of these people are old, weak, sick and disabled, and it will not do much good to kill, but it will give the Ming army a chance to break our army."

"So you can't send troops to attack them." Timur finally concluded.

After listening to Timur's words, although Shaharu still couldn't understand it, he also knew the reason, and muttered: "But just watching them show off their might, I always feel unhappy in my heart." ”

"Since you're not happy, don't look any further." Timur put down the clairvoyance in his hand, no longer looked at the public sacrifice in front of him, and turned back to his tent. Shaharu hurriedly followed.

No sooner had he returned to the tent than Jesb hurried in and saluted him.

Timur, seeing that his face was not very good-looking, said, "Peace be upon you by Allah" and asked: "What happened2?" Make your face so ugly? ”

"Great Khan, I received two things, one good and one bad. The good thing is that the second group of conscripts from the country has already departed, and about 100,000 of them will arrive here in ten days. ”

"And the bad thing is that the army led by Bermu to attack the Iron Gate Pass in the south has still not captured the Iron Gate Pass."

"Why? There are only about 1,000 Khitan soldiers in Tiemen Pass, and Bermu leads nearly 10,000 soldiers, as well as a small number of siege equipment, how can it not defeat Tiemen Pass? He suddenly thought of a possibility: "Could it be that the Mongols from the nearby Eastern Chagatai Khanate helped him?" ”

"Great Khan, it is true that the Mongols helped him, but the number was very small, only a few hundred, not because the Iron Gate Pass has not been captured so far. Instead, the Khitans who defended the city adopted some unbelievable methods to defend the city. ”

"What kind of weird method?"

……

……

More than ten days ago, on the first day of the sixth month of the Ming calendar.

"Lord Qianhu, the soldiers of Samarkand have reached twenty miles north of the city, and they will be able to reach the city by tonight." The soldier bowed and said.

"What do the Mongols outside the city say?"

"My lord, the Mongols outside the city said that these 10,000 men should be the front of the army of Samarkand, and even if they defeated these 10,000 soldiers and horses, they would not be able to stop the army following behind, so they decided to continue to retreat south. However, in order to help our army garrison the Iron Gate, it was decided to leave more than 100,000 cattle and sheep. ”

"Where else do they want to retreat?"

"They say that there is still water in the Tarim River this season, which is barely enough."

"Humph! Where are they doing this to help our army garrison the iron gate and leave hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, but it is just because the water of the Tarim River is not enough for cattle and sheep to drink. Someone couldn't help but say.

However, the person who was asking did not pay attention to this sentence, but asked a few more words, and waved his hand to let the shop go down.

Waiting for the shop soldiers to walk down, the man who was the leader just now looked around: "Brothers, this is the situation, what do you think should be done?" ”

The above conversation takes place in a small courtyard in a small house. There was not much decoration in the room, only two tables and more than a dozen chairs, one of which was placed in the middle seat facing south, and this chair was placed on each side. From this table to the south, there are six or seven chairs on the left and right.

At this time, on one of the chairs at the middle of the table sat a man in his forties with a beard. This person is wearing the military uniform of a thousand households, and it is Qin Shouye of a thousand households stationed in the Iron Gate Gate. At this time, he glanced at the people sitting on the chairs on either side, wearing military uniforms ranging from the fifth rank to the seventh grade.

"What else is there to discuss? The soldiers of Samarkand are coming with great momentum, so naturally they want to resist them, can't they escape without a fight? Anyway, I Wang Cheng can't do such a thing. A hundred households said quickly.

Hearing this, two people's faces suddenly became not difficult and beautiful. One of the men in the military uniform of the deputy thousand households said: "Wang Cheng, you can't say that. First, our army was originally sent to supervise the construction of the Iron Gate Pass and to guard against the Mongols who were plotting against the neighbors, but His Royal Highness did not order us to hold the Tiemen Pass. ”

"Second, our army now has only 1,000 households, and counting the people sent over, there are less than 2,000 people, how can we defend against more than 10,000 soldiers of Samarkand? Especially now, the city can only be said to have been built hastily, and it cannot prevent artillery bombardment. ”

"So according to the subordinates," the man turned to Qin Shouye, "our army should temporarily retreat with the Mongols, and deal with the Samarkand people nearby, that is, the lives of the soldiers have been spared, and they have not violated His Highness's original order." ”