Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 641 Preparations for the Deployment of Military Forces in the Western Regions

Hearing this, a group of nobles accused Liu Xunchun and accused him of talking nonsense. Although Li Weita opposed it, he stood on the side of military food supply, while Liu Xunchun started writing in the style of the Spring and Autumn Annals, saying that they were thousands of miles apart.

Those who agreed to use military force were all nobles. These warriors had fought for so many years. After the world was at peace, they had leisure time. At the beginning, they were quite happy. However, the longer time went on, the more these warriors longed for the thrill of destroying cities and strongholds on the battlefield.

At this time, Bai Yongfu stood up and made an impassioned speech: "Your Majesty, I think we should make a decisive decision and send troops. The Junggars are ambitious and will become a great threat to our dynasty in the future. If we don't curb them now while they are still weak, do we have to wait until the Junggars step into Guanzhong before sending troops?"

The first day's court meeting ended in failure. Neither those who opposed sending troops nor those who supported sending troops could convince each other. However, Meng Jun had already anticipated this result. He brought up this matter at the court meeting in order to prepare the ministers mentally.

In the following days, Meng Jun summoned important officials from various departments in turn to discuss privately the feasibility of sending troops to the Western Regions. The officials opposed the use of troops simply because the Western Regions were too far away, and with the weakening of the Silk Road, it seemed that conquering the Western Regions was no longer cost-effective. In addition, the cost of sending troops to the Western Regions was too high.

In response to this, Meng Jun persuaded the important officials of various tribes one by one, saying that once the Dzungars stabilized the Western Regions in the future, they would inevitably threaten the northwest and the south of the desert. At that time, the court's expenditure in the northwest and the grassland would inevitably be greater. As long as the Dzungars were defeated, that would be a once-and-for-all matter.

Moreover, Meng Jun also stated very confidently that only 10,000 to 20,000 troops would be needed to dispatch troops from Guanzhong. The main force would be the cavalry recruited from various tribes in the south and north of the desert, and the court would not spend too much money.

The Minister of Revenue Li Weitai was somewhat skeptical about the emperor's words. The emperor was good in every way, but in recent years he seemed to have become less sincere. Just like last time, he clearly said that he was helping Brunei to quell a rebellion, but after the army went out to sea, they inexplicably went to attack Batavia.

However, the civil officials had served under Meng Jun for so many years that they knew the emperor's temper well. If the emperor was determined to use military force, they would be unable to stop him.

Especially after they heard that the Mongolian tribes in the south and north of the desert would be the main force, the voices of opposition from these civil officials seemed to be smaller. Although the emperor is still the Great Khan of Tengerit Gugechi of the Mongolian tribes, in the hearts of these civil officials, they still secretly regard the Mongolian tribes as unstable factors.

After roughly pacifying the important officials of various departments in the court, Meng Jun immediately sent people to U-Tsang and Qinghai to try to contact the leaders of various tribes and send troops together.

At the same time, he ordered Gulbuha in Guanzhong to return to the capital. Meng Jun wanted to make Gulbuha the commander-in-chief of the northern army to coordinate the armies of the Mongolian tribes in the south and north of the desert.

Later, Yang En was demoted to the governor of Shaanxi. During the secret discussion between the two, Yang En knew clearly that his mission was to go to Guanzhong to coordinate food and wages for the army and assign laborers.

Following Meng Jun's deployment one by one, the war machine of the Qian Dynasty began to turn. This time, it was very different from the previous expedition to Burma, the march into Annan, the attack on Southeast Asia and Russia in the Far East. Those wars did not actually affect the domestic situation for the court and officials.

This time, the deployment of troops to the Western Regions, the transportation of grain and fodder, the recruitment of laborers, and the collection of supplies, all of which will be on a massive scale.

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Junggar Basin, Wang Ting.

At this time, Sengge, the Great Khan of Dzungar, did not know that Meng Jun had decided to regard him as the next opponent. Although Sengge had returned to the royal court in the Dzungar Basin, the 40,000 elite cavalry of Dzungar were still in their old home in Yarkand.

Sengge has already decided that the next step, after the situation in Yarkand is stabilized, he will depose the puppet Khan and incorporate the entire Yarkand Khanate into Dzungar. Once the Russian firearms arrive, he will train them well and cooperate with the cavalry. By then, they will surely be able to unify the grassland, and the grassland will surely be unified. Genghis Khan's great cause will be just around the corner.

However, speaking of firearms, Sengge became a little angry again. These Russians were really unreliable. They sold him muskets, which came with a complete set of gunpowder and bullets, but they didn't specify how much gunpowder to use.

As a result, when Sengge asked the guard to test the gun, perhaps too much gunpowder was stuffed in it. At the moment of firing, there was a loud bang, which scared Sengge. When he looked more, the target was intact, but the guard who was testing the gun fell to the ground with blood all over his face, wailing.

In fact, this was not what Bogdan intended. On the one hand, he was busy going back to report that he had made a big deal. On the other hand, he probably did not expect that such a huge Dzungar Khanate did not know the amount of gunpowder to be loaded at this time.

Historically, when the Dzungar Khanate and the Qing Dynasty were at war, Galdan had already sent envoys to each other with Tsarist Russia. In terms of firearms, the firearms of the Dzungar Khanate were even more advanced than those of Kangxi in some aspects.

This is mainly due to its geographical advantages and trade channels. Dzungar is located in Central Asia, which is closer to Russia. In addition, Kangxi and Russia also fought a war in the Far East. In order to balance the Qing Dynasty, the Russians also chose the Dzungar Khanate as a force to curb the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, the Dzungar Khanate was able to obtain advanced firearms equipment. In addition, because it had captured Yarkand and had rested and recuperated for many years, the Dzungar Khanate at that time already had the handicraft capabilities and was able to produce and repair firearms on its own.

However, at this time and space, the Dzungars had just destroyed Yarkand and had not yet completely digested the Yarkand Khanate. Although the Rakshasa had contacted the Dzungars in advance, the firearms of the Qian Dynasty were no less powerful than those of the Rakshasa.

Even when matchlock rifles were still being used on a large scale in Luosha, the Qian Dynasty had already equipped its army with flintlock rifles. However, it is worth noting that Luosha also began to equip its domestic army with flintlock rifles during this period.

Sengge saw that firearms exploded so easily just like in the Central Plains decades ago. For a moment, Sengge doubted whether he was deceived by these Rakshasas. Could it be that these Rakshasas were holding some old weapons and deliberately deceiving him?

Sengge spent a lot of money to buy firearms, which also caused a lot of controversy among the Junggar generals. Many generals said: "This firearm has so many processes. The fuse will go out when the wind is strong, and it can't be fired when it rains. It is not as practical as a wooden stick in the grassland."

Sengge had naturally heard about the rumors among his subordinates. In fact, there had never been a real battle between Dzungar and Qian Dynasty. In that pursuit battle, both sides used cavalry. Sengge had just heard that Qian Dynasty's firearms were very powerful, so he wanted to buy some firearms to see if it would increase the combat effectiveness of Dzungar. However, the results of the test gun were indeed not satisfactory.