Chapter 1210: Great King, Calm Your Anger (Please Subscribe)

The stone-fortress royal city of the Dzungars was Tashkent. In Uzbek, "Tashkent" means "Stone City." The name came not from stone city walls, but from the great numbers of huge boulders found outside the city. Tashkent was also an ancient city with a long history, appearing as early as the second century BC, likely a product of the Hellenization of Central Asia. Later it became a necessary stop on the Silk Road and grew prosperous. But by the time Sengge's great army reached the walls of Tashkent, the stone walls built in the Hellenistic era had long since vanished, and the city's prosperity had likewise long become history.

Faced with the Mongol invasion, the local Uzbek nobles showed great courage, resisting to the very end, and the city was nearly razed by the fighting.

The Dzungars, who had already begun building cities and settling down, quickly discovered Tashkent's superior geographic position and climate — the city lay west of the Chatkal Mountains, in the heart of an oasis in the Chirchiq River valley, a right-bank tributary of the Syr Darya, not far from the main course of the Syr Darya, with fertile farmland and pasture on every side. If the Dzungars held Tashkent, they could control a large stretch of land rare in Central Asia, suited to both farming and herding.

Moreover, three hundred li up the Syr Darya lay the Fergana Basin, the richest and most fertile region in all Central Asia.

If the Dzungars built a new, strong fortress on the ruins of Tashkent, then built a supporting fortress at the confluence of the Chirchiq and the Syr Darya, and finally seized control of the ancient city of Khujand at the mouth of the Fergana Basin, they could firmly hold the wettest and wealthiest lands of Central Asia in their grasp.

What pleased Dzungar King Sengge even more was that the Chirchiq valley where Tashkent lay, together with the lands along both banks of the middle Syr Darya, had lost much of their population through years of endless war. Across nearly forty thousand square li (ten thousand square kilometers) of land, scarcely a soul could be seen.

So after the war that destroyed the Khanate of Bukhara ended, King Sengge decided to move his royal city from Chu River City to Tashkent, and to build a stone-fortress royal city on Tashkent's ruins as the capital of the Dzungar Kingdom.

Large numbers of commoners farming along both banks of the Chu River also moved, by King Sengge's order, to the area around the stone-fortress royal city, and all were allotted fertile land.

As for the Mongol heartland core of the Dzungar Kingdom, after absorbing large numbers of Khalkha Mongols, Khorchin Mongols, and Eight Banners Mongols who had fled from the east, its population had surpassed eight hundred thousand. These people were divided by King Sengge into twelve Chiliarchs and one hundred twenty Chiliarchs. Four of the Chiliarchs were royal-court Chiliarchs, while eight were granted to Sengge's brothers and uncles and were called feudatory Chiliarchs.

All four royal-court Chiliarchs were moved to the area around Tashkent — two along the Chirchiq River and two along the Syr Darya. Each Chiliarch received fifteen thousand square li of land (about six million mu, nearly one hundred mu per person) and began shifting from nomadism to a mix of farming and herding.

Of the remaining eight feudatory Chiliarchs, two were also semi-agricultural "garrison Chiliarchs." One belonged to Galdan and was stationed at Chu River City. The other went to Sengge's uncle Chokhur Ubashi and was stationed on the plain on the left bank of the Syr Darya, guarding the southwestern gateway of the stone-fortress royal city; he too built a castle as his seat of rule, naming it Royal Uncle Fort.

The other six feudatory Chiliarchs were nomadic Chiliarchs, placed on the Great Jüz and Middle Jüz steppes north of Chu River Prefecture (the area around Stone Fortress City was called Royal Court Prefecture, and Chokhur Ubashi's territory was called Royal Uncle Prefecture), charged with suppressing Kazakh resistance and holding back the Russians pressing eastward.

North of these six nomadic feudatory Chiliarchs lay several tribes in southern Siberia, wedged between the Dzungar Kingdom and Russia, who counted as vassals of the Dzungar Kingdom.

The largest of these was the Dörbet tribe, one of the Four Oirat tribes, who now roamed the lower reaches of the Irtysh River, their range not far from Tomsk, Russia's great stronghold in western Siberia. For decades, Russia, expanding eastward, had been trying to bring the Four Oirat tribes, including the Dzungars, into submission. Now that the Dzungar tribe had evolved into the Dzungar Kingdom, Russia naturally had no more designs on them, but the Dörbet tribe and some other small tribes were still objects of Russian courtship.

While Russia was chipping away at the Dzungar Kingdom's foundations, Sengge, now King of the Dzungars, began chipping away at Russia's — sending a lama mission to the Torghut tribe, who had migrated to the lower Volga, to persuade them to submit to the Dzungar Kingdom.

In addition, the Kazakhs of the Little Jüz, pressed hard by the Dzungars, were also contested between Russia and the Dzungar state — though the Kazakhs had lost battle after battle, they had not stopped resisting, so the Russians had been supporting the Kazakh resistance, while the Dzungar Kingdom hoped to force the Little Jüz Kazakhs to acknowledge its overlordship.

Because the Dzungars and Russia clashed in southern Siberia, on the Little Jüz steppe, and on the lower Volga, the conflict between the Dzungars and Russia seemed hard to reconcile.

And the conflict between the Dzungar Kingdom and the local Islamic powers of Transoxiana was equally hard to reconcile. When they joined forces to destroy the Khanate of Bukhara, everyone assumed the Dzungar Kingdom would just grab what it could and leave — for ages the tribes of the Moghulistan steppe had followed that pattern: when they had nothing to eat or drink, they came to the rich oases of Transoxiana, seized a little, and left.

But this time the Dzungar Kingdom changed the rules, intending to settle permanently in Transoxiana, and moreover to fence off the richest land in the region. This infuriated the Khanate of Khiva and the Turkmen tribes (originally subject to the Khanates of Khiva and Bukhara), who had already agreed among themselves how to divide the territory now occupied by the Dzungar Kingdom.

In particular, the ruling houses of Khiva and Bukhara were kinsmen. They had been preparing to inherit, only to have the Dzungar Kingdom snatch everything away — how could they not hate them?

And because the Khanate of Khiva lay close to Persia and the Ottomans, it could obtain aid from those two advanced Islamic states, so its military strength had never been weak. Now was the heyday of the Khivan Khanate: Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur Khan, who had recently died, and his successor Anusha Khan were both capable warriors. Once it was certain that the Dzungar state meant to put down roots in Transoxiana, Anusha Khan began making peace with his old enemies the Turkmen, sent envoys to Persia and the Ottomans seeking aid, and also contacted Aurangzeb, who held Samarkand, hoping to launch a holy war to drive out the Dzungar Kingdom.

As for Aurangzeb, who held Samarkand — however ferocious he might be in India, once he came to Transoxiana he was all amiability. Every few days he sent gifts to Bukhara (the Khivan capital had already moved from Khiva to Bukhara) and to the stone-fortress royal city, and with feigned sincerity urged Anusha Khan to make peace with King Sengge.

So when Shaysta Khan arrived at the stone-fortress royal city with lavish gifts, Sengge Khan received him with the highest honors, going out of the city in person to welcome the Wazir (Grand Vizier) of the Indian Timurid Empire into the newly completed, very austere royal palace.

Seeing this palace built of timber and stone, with excellent defensive qualities but certainly no comfort to live in, Shaysta Khan thought of that Hindustan emperor — it seemed Aurangzeb and Sengge were both penny-pinching misers!

"What? Alamgir wants Us to submit to him, and wants Us to convert to Islam? Has he gone mad? Does he want war with Us?"

King Sengge, who had cheerfully welcomed Shaysta Khan into the palace, flew into a rage the moment the interpreter in the Timurid mission finished relaying Shaysta Khan's words.

"Great King, calm your anger," Shaysta Khan said. Hearing Sengge's roar, he needed no translation to know the Mongol was furious, but he still had things to say. "Great King, calm your anger. Alamgir does not truly wish to make you his servant; he wishes to reconcile the conflict between you and the Muslims under your rule. Please allow me to explain properly.

First, the Timurid Empire is the legitimate sovereign of Transoxiana. Once you become a vassal of the Timurid Empire, you can rightfully rule Fergana and the Syr Darya valley.

Second, Alamgir also wishes to marry his most beautiful daughter, Princess Nisa, to you, Great King. And after your marriage to Princess Nisa, he is willing to provide an annual allowance of ten million silver rupees.

Third, your conversion to Islam is merely a formality. It is only to placate the Muslim populace of the Fergana Basin, and also to avert a holy war. The Khanate of Khiva is now plotting a holy war; if you outwardly become a believer, the pretext for holy war disappears.

At the same time, conversion is also to make it convenient for you to wed the beautiful, wealthy, and wise Princess Nisa."

(End of Chapter)