Chapter 1686: The Western Regions Fully Recovered

A powerful golden eagle soared through the clear blue sky, gliding over the mountaintops as it surveyed the earth below. Its brownish-yellow wings gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight, its sharp eagle eyes searching for prey. With a long cry that shook the sky, it folded its wings and dove straight down, swift as lightning, pouncing fiercely upon a wild hare foraging in the licorice fields.

This was clearly an experienced "hunter," moving like thunder, striking with lethal precision. Though the hare was agile, it could not escape its grim fate and lost its life.

The golden eagle then seized its prey and beat its wings to rise, circling for a while beneath the vast sky, sweeping wantonly across the mountains as it went straight to find its master.

On the plains at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, Prince Wei Liu Min was hunting with Yang Yanzhao, a party of several dozen riders, spirited and dashing, traveling light and fast. When they heard the golden eagle's joyful cry, Liu Min reined in his horse and said with a laugh to those around him: "Hear that sound? It seems my eagle has made a catch!"

The golden eagle flapped its wings and flew straight toward Liu Min's party. The attending falconer hurriedly dismounted and rushed to meet it, but the great eagle came in with such force that even the sturdy falconer was nearly knocked over, stumbling back several steps before he could steady himself.

The golden eagle paid no heed to the falconer's discomfiture, proudly fluttering its wings and letting out a cry toward Liu Min. Looking at the dead hare cast before him, Liu Min broke into a smile and said: "Good eagle!"

This eagle had been given to Liu Min by his fourth brother Liu Fang, and had been raised for many years, greatly cherished. Urging his horse forward, he gently stroked the eagle's powerful wings and instructed with something close to affection: "This is my eagle's prey. Dress it and feed it to him!"

"Yes!" the falconer acknowledged respectfully.

"This eagle is mighty, soaring ten thousand li—just like Your Highness at this very moment!" Yang Yanzhao offered a small flattery from behind.

Liu Min chuckled, turned his horse around, and holding his bow said to Yang Yanzhao: "Brother Yuanxian, we must not fall behind. Today let us compete—see who bags more game!"

"Since Your Highness has such an inclination, I shall gladly keep you company to the end!" Yang Yanzhao laughed heartily.

Liu Min was fond of hunting, but since the western campaign began, he had not gone out on a wild hunt for several months. This time, it was only because the fighting between the Han and the Kara-Khanids had eased and the situation had stabilized somewhat that he had such leisure.

They had a thoroughly enjoyable time. By dusk, when the day grew late, the party returned fully laden, heading toward the city of Wuchi at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. Whether out of deliberate deference or not, Liu Min emerged victorious, having bagged one more yellow sheep than Yang Yanzhao.

Following the Tuoshigan River at a leisurely pace, the party's figures reflected in the clear water. Liu Min showed no sign of fatigue, and looking around at the mountains, forests, and fields, he could not help but remark: "This land is wild, but its produce is by no means scarce. All the way west, much of the territory we have taken is suitable for cultivation. If properly developed and utilized, it could support an army of tens of thousands!"

"Indeed!" Yang Yanzhao nodded in agreement at his side: "West of Moman, there is no lack of fertile plains, dense forests, and crisscrossing rivers—another blessed land, worthy of being called a Central Plains beyond the frontier. Only the sparse population leaves something to be desired."

After two months of hard fighting, the western expeditionary army had achieved a great breakthrough. The Battle of Kucha, though it cost enormous sacrifices, was ultimately broken through by the resolute will of the Han army's commanders and soldiers.

The Battle of Kucha was fought with great difficulty, and the scene was brutal. A battlefield like a meat grinder was rarely seen in the Great Han's many wars. In terms of scale, it was nothing special, but in the history of warfare, it held extraordinary significance.

This was the first time the Great Han employed gunpowder on a large scale. Numerous instruments of war empowered by gunpowder appeared on the battlefield and achieved outstanding results. The Han army's final victory also benefited from the concentrated use of gunpowder.

No matter how sturdy a city wall, under the powerful demolition force of gunpowder, it could hardly hold out for long. The mode of warfare was quietly beginning to undergo subtle changes.

With Kucha taken, the Kara-Khanid commander Ariyaman, with the support of cavalry to receive him, managed to gather only a few hundred men and fled west in disgrace. The more than twenty thousand defenders of Kucha were completely annihilated. Under the Han army's retaliatory disposition, no prisoners were taken—not a single one survived.

The blood-maddened Han soldiers even planned to slaughter the more than thirty thousand civilians gathered in the city. It was Liu Min who retained a shred of reason, or perhaps acted out of a victor's mercy, and in the end did not carry out the killing.

Even so, the treatment of Kucha's civilians showed no kindness or softness. To appease the army's morale, those who had gone up the walls to participate in the defense were identified one by one and executed. The rest were all reduced to slave laborers, while the women were all given to the officers and soldiers as rewards. In the Western Regions, manpower was simply too scarce.

After taking Kucha, the Han army rested in place for half a month, repairing the city defenses, replenishing food and weapons, and consolidating the vast region east of Kucha. Then they led the army westward once more, advancing toward the Moman region at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

The Kara-Khanids maintained their resilience. Though they had suffered a disastrous defeat and their morale had plummeted, they did not fall into complete collapse. The Han army's rest at Kucha likewise gave them some time to adjust, however brief.

At Moman city, Ariyaman gathered all the Kara-Khanid forces south of the Tianshan Mountains, combined them with ten thousand reinforcements from the homeland, added the remaining ten thousand-plus cavalry, and conscripted able-bodied men from the local population—thoroughly exhausting the nation's resources—to barely organize an army of more than forty thousand.

However, even if this army of forty-odd thousand could not be called a rabble, its fighting strength was absolutely inferior to the twenty-odd thousand defenders of Kucha. The fall of Kucha was a tremendous blow to the Kara-Khanids, especially the heavy casualties among their elite soldiers—a wound to bone and sinew.

When facing the Han army's renewed and ferocious advance westward, perhaps the shadow of the failure at Kucha caused the Kara-Khanid commander Ariyaman's judgment to go astray.

He no longer dared to hold the city and passively absorb blows. Their strategy at Kucha of defending in place and using cavalry to counter the enemy had been completely seen through by the Han army and was essentially declared a failure. Moreover, the Han army's formidable city-fighting capability told the Kara-Khanids clearly that defending cities could not defeat the Han army—it would only leave them passive.

And Kucha, built up over many years and famed for its sturdiness, could not withstand the Han army's assault—how much less a small city like Moman? Therefore, this time Ariyaman chose to lead his entire army out to take the initiative, advancing east to meet the Han army.

Compared to city fighting, the Kara-Khanid army was better at field battles, and among the forty thousand troops scraped together without regard for consequences, the most reliable fighting force was still the ten thousand-plus Kara-Khanid cavalry.

Whatever his considerations, Ariyaman's near-burning-the-boats decision suited the wishes of the Han army's commanders. The Kara-Khanids had lost confidence in defense, and they too were haunted by the bloody battle at Kucha.

The two sides met in battle at Bashi town, more than a hundred li east of Moman city. In this battle, both sides deployed their formations and actively attacked. The Kara-Khanid army employed their most accustomed tactics, bringing out everything they were best at: volunteer soldiers, mainly Muslim believers, charged madly, the regular army held the rear, supplemented by cavalry roaming and striking.

The Han army countered tit for tat, likewise bringing out their combined infantry-cavalry tactics. Interestingly, both sides independently set up ambushes, each dispatching elite cavalry to circle around and strike the enemy's rear.

On the Han side, Prince Wei Liu Min personally led five thousand iron cavalry, riding several dozen li around to charge the Kara-Khanid rear formation, ultimately resulting in a great melee.

When the battle fell into a stalemate, the Kara-Khanid army's weakness of lacking follow-up strength was magnified. The Han army, relying on more elite soldiers, superior command, and efficient organization, won the Battle of Bashi.

The defeated Kara-Khanid army collapsed in a rout spanning hundreds of li. Aside from a small number of cavalry who managed to escape, the rest were either killed or surrendered. Commander Ariyaman, this time, did not manage to flee—he perished amid the chaos of the routed army.

Even more devastating was the complete annihilation of the three thousand heavy cavalry—these were the elite guard troops sent in support by Bala Saghan, the most elite army of the Kara-Khanid state.

Of course, eliminating this Kara-Khanid heavy cavalry cost the Han army enormous casualties. It could even be said that most of the Han army's losses at the Battle of Bashi were inflicted by this Kara-Khanid heavy cavalry.

After achieving the decisive victory, under Liu Min's command, the Han army pressed westward, sweeping across the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains and occupying the Tuoshigan River and Yunhu River basins. The towns large and small in the region, chiefly Moman and Wuchi, were taken easily by the Han army—the Kara-Khanids could no longer organize any effective resistance.

At this point, the Han army's western campaign, lasting more than three months in total, at the cost of over ten thousand casualties, had expanded territory by eight hundred li, eliminated more than fifty thousand Kara-Khanid troops, and fully recovered the former lands of the Western Regions Uyghurs.

This also proclaimed that, under the Han army's blows, the fruits of the Kara-Khanid state's more than twenty years of eastward expansion were all vomited out at once. In the vast region south of the Tianshan Mountains, the Kara-Khanids retained only the Shule region at the southwestern foot.

And the Shule region, after several rounds of troop withdrawals, had virtually no defense left. Even most of the routed Kara-Khanid soldiers from the Battle of Bashi did not choose to retreat west to Shule, but instead fled north into the Bada Pass, the strategic mountain defile of the Tianshan.