Chapter 1231: You Withdraw First, I'll Cover You

Not only did he betroth one daughter to two men, but before Alim could even take Princess Nisha's hand, he had Shaysta Khan sell out Anusha Khan and Prince Alim with a single letter.

If not for the matter of Princess Nisha being betrothed to two men, King Sengge would never have paid any attention to Anusha Khan's force crossing the Turkic Mountains... Crossing mountains and making a forced raid, they couldn't have dragged many cannons along either. And the guard cities and Stone Fort King City in Sengge's rear are all bastion forts, and Khujand has also been bastion-fortified. Even fifty or sixty thousand troops would go for nothing — bastion forts defended by muskets and cannon, could they be broken? Impossible!

Moreover, Sengge left ample troops in his old nest! If his six myriarchies of settled herdsmen were fully mobilized, a hundred thousand men could be raised! Add to that several thousand household retainers, he could mobilize at least a hundred and several tens of thousands. He has brought only thirty-three thousand troops south; the rest are all guarding the homeland. Just in the hands of Anu Khatun, who garrisons Stone Fort King City, there are thirty thousand Dzungar cavalry ready to strike at any time.

Furthermore, letters from Galdan and Baha Bandi have already reached Sengge's hands. So Sengge already knows that Prince of Dai Zhu Cijiong is leading thirty thousand troops to relieve him, and that among them 7,500 Young Guards are pressing day and night toward the Dzungar Kingdom... And this elite force did not set out from Yingtian Prefecture, but was transferred from Wu Sangui's army in Shaanxi, and can reach Stone Fort King City before winter arrives.

So Sengge's rear will have no problems. Even if Anusha Khan charges into Fergana, it hardly matters — Fergana's entrance is fairly wide, and a single Khujand city cannot seal it off. But once Anusha enters the valley, what can he actually do?

Without Fergana's grain, Sengge's several hundred thousand core followers will not go hungry. The grain they have in store will last at least two or three years!

And Samarkand cannot hold out that long... Once Samarkand falls and Aurangzeb clears out, the road to the Khwarezm oasis will be open!

To Sengge, killing everyone in the Fergana Basin would not cause him the slightest pang — Anusha Khan can ravage it as he pleases!

But can Anusha Khan let Sengge go slaughter people in the Khwarezm oasis?

So Anusha Khan's raid cannot actually draw Sengge away!

And as long as Sengge's twenty-seven thousand troops do not leave, Aurangzeb cannot leave either... What Aurangzeb must take with him is not only soldiers, but also a great many craftsmen, commoners, and the soldiers' families — at the very least four or five hundred thousand people!

With that many people moving together, the pace will surely be very slow — ten or twenty li a day at best. Once Sengge's cavalry gives chase, how could they survive? In the end, if Aurangzeb himself makes it back to India alive, it will be by the blessing of the True God.

But even if he returns to India empty-handed, he will not meet a good end. He has been away from India so long that the sons and governors he left behind have long since built up their own power!

Of course, if he returns to India at the head of a hundred thousand Central Asian Muslim fighters in full intimidating force, then none of that is a problem. Then his sons will all be filial paragons, and the governors all loyal ministers...

So Aurangzeb can only keep shamelessly using his daughter to play tricks — she is, after all, a woman Sengge presented to the Great Ming Emperor. If the matter is botched and the imperial wrath is roused, how can Sengge go on being a loyal subject of the Great Ming?

This is not merely a matter of a woman; it also bears on free trade between the Great Ming and India, and on a huge dowry!

"Old fox!" Sengge was already cursing. "He is forcing us to go fight Anusha Khan to the death!"

The Mingzhu Lama shook his head. "Great King, the one contending with the Emperor for Princess Nisha is not Anusha Khan, but his son Prince Alim... Shaysta Khan's letter says the Prince has been appointed by Aurangzeb as Governor-General of Samarkand and has already entered Samarkand city; the Princess also remains within the city."

"Then what is to be done?" Sengge was truly anxious now. "A lone man and a lone woman sharing a city — who knows what might happen?"

Mingzhu said through gritted teeth: "So we must have Prince Alim killed!"

"How do we kill him?" Sengge was gritting his teeth too — Mingzhu, can you not finish what you have to say in one breath?

"Great King, this humble monk has a scheme to take Prince Alim's head!"

At that moment Prince Alim still did not know that someone was already coveting the head on his shoulders. He was now safely behind Samarkand's towering walls, and moreover would soon win the hand of the most beautiful and wealthiest Princess Nisha in the world!

Princess Nisha's annual allowance alone was 400,000 rupees! Her dowry must surely amount to several million rupees, must it not?

Alim, that loser prince from the Central Asian deserts, was on the verge of winning the fair, rich, and beautiful maiden! With the fair maiden's dowry and the territory of Samarkand, how far could he be from the true peak of life — becoming King of Transoxiana? Just thinking about it made him happy...

Just as he was rejoicing, a subordinate came to report — the Wazir of the Timurid Empire, Shaysta Khan, sought an audience, saying he had a great happy event to report!

Great joy? Could it be that the Dzungars have withdrawn? Prince Alim thought to himself: if they have withdrawn, can I then marry Princess Nisha? I must ask this Shaysta Khan.

"Your Highness, those Dzungars have not withdrawn completely. Only about thirty thousand have pulled back; several thousand remain to hold that bastion fort!"

Shaysta Khan's answer disappointed Prince Alim. These Dzungars do things sloppily — since you are all running away, why not run away cleanly in one go? What are several thousand men staying behind for?

"Your Highness," Shaysta Khan continued, "His Majesty Alamgir has sent me to ask whether you are willing to command your Uzbek warriors, together with the warriors of the Timurid Empire, in a sortie to attack the bastion fort the Dzungars left behind. Princess Nisha will then watch the battle from the south bank of the Zeravshan River... This is a fine opportunity for you to display your valor to her!"

"But I have heard that this kind of bastion fort is very hard to storm..."

Shaysta Khan smiled. "Rest assured, General Kalifa knows how to take it. He learned the arts of fortification and siege from the English... He will not waste the lives of Uzbek warriors on a frontal assault."

"That is good!" Prince Alim nodded heavily. "I can send out ten thousand Uzbek warriors. Will that be enough?"

"Enough, enough!" Shaysta Khan nodded repeatedly.

Anusha Khan had brought fifty thousand Uzbek cavalry in total to Samarkand. About thirty thousand of them he had already led off to raid the Fergana Basin, and the remaining twenty thousand had now all marched into Samarkand. Prince Alim was a cautious man, so he left ten thousand to hold the city and took only ten thousand out.

Aurangzeb, for his part, transferred thirty thousand Timurid new-model troops from the camps outside the city and placed them under Shaysta Khan's command to sortie together with Prince Alim. In addition, General Kalifa's five thousand Persian Qizilbash would also sortie — forty-five thousand troops in all.

These forty-five thousand troops were nominally commanded by Prince Alim, but in practice were under the Persian military expert General Kalifa.

According to General Kalifa's plan, the sortie force was divided into two parts. The thirty thousand Timurid new-model troops and five thousand Persian Qizilbash deployed on the eastern and western sides of the Dzungar fort, digging trenches and building gun emplacements, putting on a highly professional siege posture.

Prince Alim, for his part, would lead his ten thousand Uzbek cavalry to deploy on the northern side of the fort — if the Dzungars tried to break out, the Uzbek warriors would teach these eastern barbarians a harsh lesson with scimitars and lances!

"Your Highness, fire has risen inside the Dzungars' bastion fort!"

The brave Prince Alim had just led his ten thousand Uzbek cavalry across the Zeravshan River by a pontoon bridge north of Samarkand city when his great general Arif pointed at the black smoke rising above the distant Dzungar fort and shouted to him: "The Dzungars inside the bastion must be burning their baggage and provisions... They are going to break out!"

Prince Alim looked up — sure enough, it was so!

Arif said to Alim: "It seems the Dzungars inside the bastion are few in number. They were bluffing, and now that they see our great army about to storm the fort, they have no choice but to abandon it and flee!"

"Right, right, I think so too!" Prince Alim asked, "Then what should we do?"

Arif advised: "Prince, if the enemy is few, let us pursue and kill them all. That will surely make Her Highness the Princess very happy!"

"Good!" Alim laughed. "So be it!"

Just then, the Uzbek vanguard had already sent back a rider to report — the Dzungars had indeed broken out. They were few in number, only a little over 1,000 men, and each man had several horses. Apart from the one each warrior rode, the others all had large bundles of baggage strapped to their backs! Clearly, these Dzungars were not fleeing empty-handed, but making off with the treasure they had looted from all over the Samarkand oasis!