Chapter 1213: The Great Emperor's Slipper! (Seeking Subscriptions)

In early July 1665, envoys from Persia, Khiva, and Russia finally arrived at Samarkand, the capital of the Timurid Empire. Inside the old but still dignified and magnificent palace, the three envoys first saw 5,000 soldiers of the new Timurid army standing at attention in the palace square. These warriors from Transoxiana wore mail-and-plate armor (iron plates hung over chain mail), pointed iron helmets on their heads, matchlocks on their shoulders, and curved sabers hanging from their belts, their ranks impeccably ordered.

Even in the eyes of the Persian envoy Khalifa, who had served as a high officer in Persia's Ghulam New Army (a Western-style force trained with the help of the English adventurer Anthony Shirley, its members all drawn from the Caucasus), this army could be called elite. It could not compare with the Ghulam New Army, which employed Maurice-style pike-and-shot tactics, but it could still hold its own against the Qizilbash of the Persian army.

For an emperor of Hindustan to field such an army, this Aurangzeb was clearly no man of empty reputation!

The Khivan envoy, Prince Alim, was also a battle-tested general. What drew his attention was not the royal guard drawn up in the palace square, but the camel artillery, camel cavalry, and ordinary cavalry he had seen upon entering the city.

The camel gun, also called a zanburak, was a weapon much favored by the armies of West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia. It fell somewhere between a heavy musket and a light cannon, somewhat similar to China's jingal. But this weapon was not used by infantry; it was assigned to cavalry. The standard tactic was to bombard with camel guns first, then charge with cavalry.

Aurangzeb's empire was vast and wealthy, with highly developed handicrafts, and so it could cast camel guns in great numbers. To equip his Transoxianan household troops with camel guns, Aurangzeb had brought in as many as 1,000 camel guns from India proper, and now they were all laid out before the eyes of the envoys of Persia, Khiva, and Russia.

The Russian envoy was Lev Golovin, younger brother of Marquis Golovin, also a veteran soldier who had fought against Poland, Sweden, and Turkey, and who had taken part in translating The Training and Formations of Infantry Combat — a Western European infantry drill manual that had been introduced into Russia in 1647 to guide the reform of Russia's streltsy.

Russia's streltsy were those musketeers dressed rather like Santa Claus. Over the past dozen or so years, they too had been steadily evolving — if they had not evolved, how could they have fought strong enemies like Poland, Sweden, and Turkey for seven or eight years without losing much?

After the reforms of Alexis I, the streltsy had about sixty "new-model" regiments, with a total strength of nearly 60,000 men. Though these "new-model" regiments still could not compare with the strong troops of Europe, here in Central Asia they were a first-rate force.

Moreover, Russia had long since deployed a good number of Cossack cavalry in Central Asia, and they were the very model that the Qing vanguard battalions' cavalry imitated.

Sengge's Dzungar cavalry, for their part, drew on the Qing vanguard battalions' cavalry (many Eight Banners Mongols who had served as officers and soldiers in the vanguard battalions had gone over to Sengge), the Ming black lance cavalry, and Russia's Cossack cavalry. In practice they too were an all-purpose cavalry that fought equally well mounted and dismounted. The biggest difference between them and the Cossack cavalry, the black lance cavalry, and the vanguard battalions' cavalry was that they had more horses! They were Mongols, after all — how could they lack warhorses? So the Dzungar cavalry's mobility was superb.

The Dzungars, however, were not equipped with ultra-light guns like the camel gun. Instead they were provided with 6-jin field guns gifted by the Ming court. The power of these guns was highly satisfactory, far stronger than the earlier 3-pounder guns. They could be used to bombard enemy field forces and also to demolish the not particularly sturdy city walls of Central Asia. The only problem was that they were a bit heavy — these guns were cast of bronze, and solidly built at that! So transporting them was not very convenient.

Therefore, when the Dzungar army hauled along its cannons and possessed extremely strong field and siege capabilities, it lost its mobility. And when it did not carry artillery, it was a "Mongol iron cavalry" that came and went like the wind.

Through "friendly contact" with Sengge, the resourceful Aurangzeb had already figured out the Dzungar Kingdom's true strength. The twelve Dzungar tümens could in theory each provide ten thousand Dzungar cavalrymen, but that was a force that could only be raised by total mobilization in extreme circumstances.

Under normal circumstances, the Dzungar Kingdom's "six settled tümens" (in fact both farmers and herders) practiced a rotational service system similar to the fubing system, with only one third — about twenty thousand men — on active duty.

In addition, Sengge had a force of recruited household troops numbering only 5,000, including one Ming-style infantry regiment (modeled on the New Army, equipped with matchlocks and pikes), one cuirassier lancer regiment, one artillery battalion, and one engineer battalion.

A standing army of 25,000 men in total formed the core of the Dzungar Kingdom's military strength, and beyond this core were the nomadic cavalry of the six nomadic tümens.

These nomadic cavalry were relatively traditional Mongol cavalry, but they were also fairly well equipped, possessing large numbers of matchlocks and chain mail. However, because of the organizational problems of the nomadic tribes and the internal conflicts within the Choros clan (Sengge and several of his elder brothers were born of different mothers), the fighting power of these six nomadic tümens' cavalry could not compare with Sengge's standing army. Moreover, these six nomadic tümens had to control a very large territory, and within their jurisdiction there were large numbers of half-hearted Kazakh tribes to keep down, so in the coming war the role these six nomadic tümens could play was quite limited.

While grasping the Dzungars' true strength, Aurangzeb had also figured out the strength of his several allies. The strongest of these was of course the Russian-Kazakh coalition. Besides the 6,000 streltsy brought by Marquis Golovin, Russia also had about 4,000 armed men in Central Asia (mostly Cossacks). In addition, the Kazakh tribes of the Little Jüz all stood on Russia's side. Because the Kazakhs bore a deep hatred of the Dzungars for the destruction of their state and the ruin of their homes, they would certainly fight desperately. The Russians plus the Kazakhs could field a force of about thirty thousand!

This one prong alone outnumbered Sengge's standing army!

The Khivan Khanate's forces were second only to the Russian-Kazakh coalition. After absorbing the Uzbeks of Bukhara (the Khivan Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate were relatives), Anusha Khan had at least 50,000 Uzbek warriors, and he also possessed large quantities of new firearms and military advisors provided by the Ottoman Empire — a force not to be underestimated.

The Persian-Turkmen coalition was also very strong. Abbas II of the Safavid dynasty sent at least 5,000 Qizilbash from Persia proper, and also recruited large numbers of warriors from the Turkmen tribes, for a total strength of around twenty thousand.

These three alone amounted to a hundred thousand troops, while Aurangzeb had an army of eighty thousand — including thirty thousand expeditionary troops brought from India and fifty thousand new troops recruited in Samarkand and Tajik. So the anti-Dzungar coalition had a total strength of as many as 180,000. Even if Sengge's six settled tümens were fully mobilized, the force he could raise would only be 65,000.

And these 65,000 could not all be concentrated for mobile warfare, because the Muslim believers of Transoxiana under Sengge's rule were already stirring restlessly and about to launch a great uprising.

The present situation looked unfavorable for Sengge no matter how one viewed it!

This was also the reason Aurangzeb had transformed from a good father-in-law into a Great Emperor.

Within the royal palace of Samarkand, the Great Emperor Aurangzeb had donned the chain mail that symbolized the opening of war, and sat high upon his throne, surrounded by a group of generals notorious throughout India. Before the envoys of Russia, Persia, and Khiva, the Great Emperor beckoned to one of his eunuchs.

The eunuch walked up to the Great Emperor carrying a tray, on which lay a filthy old slipper!

Aurangzeb's face was grim as he spoke in Persian: "As is well known, I am a merciful and benevolent sovereign, unwilling to see endless slaughter and suffering, even if those killed are all infidels. Therefore, before the war to chastise the Dzungar Kingdom begins, I shall give King Sengge one last chance." He pointed at the slipper. "This is a slipper I have worn. I shall send it to represent me in the Dzungar capital to demand surrender. If Sengge is willing to convert to the true God and submit to the Timurid Empire, and then withdraw from the Middle Jüz, Fergana, and the middle reaches of the Syr Darya, then the crimes committed by him and his subjects ought to be forgiven!"

(End of Chapter)