Chapter 1229: The Bravest Prince Alim (Please Subscribe)

Time to Screw Over the Allies! "The Turkestan Mountains... the Turkestan Mountains..."

Aurangzeb leaned over the map table with both hands, half-bent, his gaze sweeping again and again across the map of the eastern Transoxiana region. At the very bottom of this map lay the Samarkand oasis, with the city of Samarkand at its southeastern corner, and a river of moderate size flowing past the northern side of the city.

To the north of the river that flowed past Samarkand's northern side, two tents were drawn, and above the tents were written in Persian the names "Allied Army" and "Dzungar Army."

The allied army, composed of troops from the Timurid Empire, the Persian Empire, and the Khanate of Khiva, had been entrenched in a standoff for over two months on the plain north of this river, called the Zeravshan. From early autumn all the way into late autumn!

When the standoff first began, whether it was Aurangzeb, Anusha Khan, or General Khalifa, all felt that things were going exactly as they wished.

The Dzungar Mongols, having come from afar, did not seek a quick decision but instead built fortifications beneath Samarkand — was this not sheer foolishness? Who fought wars like that?

So at the time, the allied army never even considered proactively seeking a decisive battle to break up the Dzungar Mongols' entrenching and trench-digging.

But when the Dzungars worked day and night and, in just half a month, piled sandbags and earth into an enormous bastion fort, only then did Aurangzeb, Anusha Khan, General Khalifa, and the others sense that something was wrong. Khalifa in particular, who had studied Western-style fortification under British military advisors, saw at a glance that the Dzungars had built a bastion fort that would be extremely difficult to storm!

The Dzungar Mongols had actually learned to build bastion forts... This progress was truly astonishing! Were these really the same Dzungars who had been herding sheep on the steppe not long ago?

However, the Dzungar army's subsequent conduct proved that they were genuine Mongols through and through!

After completing the sandbag bastion, the Dzungar king Sengge began dispatching large squadrons of cavalry to plunder the oasis plains north of the Zeravshan!

What was even more infuriating was that these Dzungar cavalrymen did not simply plunder — after looting they set fires, not burning houses or people, but only burning the ripened wheat in the fields!

After burning the wheat, these Mongol cavalrymen did not carry out any wheel-of-death executions, nor did they kill many people. Instead, they led away the farmers' livestock, loaded up the farmers' stored grain, and swaggered off. They left the grainless farmers to Aurangzeb... This was plainly meant to use them to drain Aurangzeb's grain reserves!

Once they understood the Dzungars' intent, Aurangzeb and Anusha Khan hurriedly dispatched cavalry to stop the Dzungar cavalry's depredations — Aurangzeb's Rajput cavalry and Anusha Khan's Khivan cavalry were actually not weak at all. They were feudal warriors who held fiefs, every one of them highly skilled in arms. Moreover, the warhorses beneath them were also excellent: the Rajput cavalry rode Indian-bred Marwari horses, while the Khivan cavalry had Turkoman horses.

By comparison, the mainstay of the Dzungar cavalry were Ili horses and Mongol horses, which would count as decent in the Central Plains, but against the fine horses of the Rajput and Khivan cavalry they fell considerably short.

Yet the results of the two sides' clashes on the Samarkand oasis plain left Aurangzeb hopping mad — his Rajput cavalry had been mauled by the Dzungars with heavy losses! These Dzungar Mongols fought with every trick in the book: not horse archery, not couched-lance charges, not open-field pitched battle, but luring the enemy into ambushes, fighting dirty, and night raids!

What made Aurangzeb even more furious was that the Khivan cavalry, which had sortied together with his Rajput cavalry, suffered only light losses. They had clearly ridden out shoulder to shoulder. Why did the Rajputs suffer grievous casualties, with even those who fled back having thrown away their armor and weapons, while the Uzbeks mostly returned intact? This was simply too unfair! Could it be that the Dzungars discriminated against Hindus?

As the Rajput cavalry suffered one crushing defeat after another at the hands of the cunning and ferocious Dzungar Mongols, the attitude of Anusha Khan, ruler of the Khanate of Khiva, grew increasingly insolent. He no longer addressed Aurangzeb as "Your Majesty Alamgir," but instead called him the Sultan of India.

And that Prince Alim was even more detestable — he had actually taken a fancy to Princess Nisha and wanted to marry her as his fourth wife... He was nothing but a prince of a desert oasis, whose entire national income added together probably did not amount to 400,000 rupees — Princess Nisha's annuity alone was that amount! Did a penniless prince like him deserve Princess Nisha?

Moreover, Princess Nisha was a tool for strengthening Ming-Indian friendship. Could Prince Alim compare with the Great Ming Emperor? The Sengge who was currently giving everyone such a headache was nothing more than the Great Ming Emperor's running dog!

At the thought of the faces of Anusha Khan and Prince Alim, Aurangzeb let out a cold snort, then heaved a troubled sigh: "This cannot go on. If it continues like this, those damned Uzbeks will be riding on top of my head!"

"Your Majesty Alamgir, you are truly most wise!" Mirza Raja Jai Singh, who had been battered black and blue by the Dzungars, chimed in from the side. "These Uzbeks are truly hateful. Every time, they rely on their fast horses to flee ahead of our warriors, leaving our men to be slaughtered by the Dzungars!"

Aurangzeb turned and glared at him viciously: "That is because your men are useless... they cannot even outrun others in retreat!"

Mirza Raja Jai Singh wore a look of grievance. "Your Majesty Alamgir, the people here in Transoxiana are too cunning. Whether enemy or friend, they are all cunning, far more cunning than Indians!"

His words were not wrong. If his Rajput knights were matched against Uzbek knights or Dzungar knights in single combat, they would not necessarily lose by much.

But the Dzungar knights and the Uzbek knights of the Khanate of Khiva were veterans of endless wars on the steppe and desert. That kind of vigilance and combat awareness was something the Rajput knights simply could not match.

So every time they encountered a Dzungar ambush, the Uzbeks would invariably make the Indians go ahead to scout the way. The moment danger appeared, they would invariably run faster than rabbits, leaving the honest, simple Hindus to be slaughtered by the Dzungars.

Furthermore, the Uzbeks were natives of Samarkand, so when fleeing they could find fellow countrymen to guide them. The Rajputs, however, were outsiders and Hindus to boot, so they were often mistaken for Dzungar Mongols. Once separated from their unit, far from receiving help from the Samarkand populace, they were sometimes attacked by them — dying deaths more unjust than one could describe.

After twenty or thirty days of fighting, the Rajput cavalry's casualties and missing had exceeded 1,500...

"Your Majesty Alamgir," Shaysta Khan said to Aurangzeb, "we truly cannot delay any longer. While we can still make use of the Uzbeks, we should march out at once!"

"March out for a decisive battle?" Singh frowned. "The Dzungars' bastion looks very strong!"

"Of course we cannot attack their bastion," Aurangzeb said, turning his gaze toward the Turkestan Mountains. "Any word from the Turkomans?"

"There is," Shaysta Khan said. "The area from north of the Turkestan Mountains to the Syr Darya has basically been cleared out by the Dzungars. Only one bastion in the eastern part of the Hungry Steppe is heavily garrisoned. In addition, Khujand at the western exit of the Fergana Valley is also heavily garrisoned. I estimate that the Dzungars have not carried out a scorched-earth policy inside the Fergana Valley. If the Uzbeks and Turkomans can break through Khujand... the Dzungars will certainly withdraw!"

The middle reaches of the Syr Darya, which the Dzungars now occupied on both banks, counted as good land in Central Asia, but it could not compare with the Fergana Valley... That place was a cornucopia! Fertile soil, humid climate, and virtually no worries of flood or drought.

As long as grain production within the valley was unaffected, the several hundred thousand core Dzungars under Sengge would have no need to worry about food.

"Fergana is the Dzungars' soft underbelly!" Aurangzeb declared. "As long as the Uzbeks can take it, the battle of Samarkand is won. If they cannot take it, Sengge will certainly pull troops back from the Samarkand oasis to reinforce it... and then we can withdraw once our grain runs out!"