"Submitted?" Zhang Ke looked at Alsey, "This is the submission? You tens of thousands of people have not fought well yet!"

Alsey said: "General, under the artillery fire of your army, our army cannot be arranged at all, so how can we fight?"

Zhang Ke thought for a while and said, "Forget it, if you don't want to fight, then forget it. After you go back, you ordered the troops to be arranged in an orderly manner, and the weapons will be handed over by others. I will send someone to collect them. There is another one. If your front is surrendered, what should you do if tens of thousands of people in the back?"

Alsey said: "The king's meaning is naturally to surrender together. But whether they surrender or not is difficult to say."

Zhang Ke smiled and said, "What's hard to say? Are you lucky enough to expect to run as much as you can. Let me tell you that our army has nearly 10,000 cavalry, and as soon as they retreat, they will know that they are powerful."

After saying that, he sent a general to his army and told him to follow Alcy to guide the Black Khan Army to surrender. At this time, the Song army in front was eyeing him. If something was wrong, he could kill him immediately, and he would not be afraid that the Black Khan Army would not surrender.

In the tent of the commander, Du Zhongxiao looked at the paper handed over by Zhang Ji and said to Fu Bi on the side: "The Black Sweat Army cannot resist the artillery and has already surrendered. But the army behind us was intercepted and said that it was going to surrender, but we didn't know the result."

Fu Bi patted his hands and said, "It's a pity that we separate the front and back, and there is no communication between the two sides. Otherwise, if Irik surrenders, how could the Black Khan army behind them not surrender? Now they are always unwilling to give in outside the encirclement and will find a way to escape."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Deputy envoy, we only have 40,000 troops. If we don't separate the Black Khan army, we can't cover them or encircle them. In that case, we will eventually become a defeated battle. These people ran back to Kucha and the army attacked the city, which was another hard battle. As long as Irik was captured in this battle, would we still be afraid of the Black Khan army behind us resisting? In this way, it will be worth it no matter what."

Fu Bi thought for a while and said, "Jie Shuai said that. Hei Sang was more than 70,000 soldiers and horses, and was destroyed in one battle, most of them were captured and the remaining troops were defeated. This was an amazing victory. When it was passed back to the court, it would be a great joy for the whole country."

Du Zhongxiao stood up, paced back and forth for a few steps, and said, "The important thing now is to take advantage of the new victory here and immediately advance westward to take Kucha and Shule. As long as Shule is occupied, Hei Khan has no place to gain foothold in Shannan, it will be considered a great victory."

Speaking of this, Du Zhongxiao smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's more than a thousand miles. For Zhang Ji, this battle is not easy."

Fu Bi nodded: "Yes, this may be the only real battle, but every time you occupy a land, you have to run hundreds of miles, which is a very important task for the army. When you go to Shule, there will be no more battles. You can order Zhang Ji to select the horse riding troops in the army, with fewer people, and occupy the place first."

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while and said decisively: "If the Black Khan army outside the encirclement is solved smoothly, this is feasible! Most of the Black Khan army has disappeared here, and the remaining Kucha and Shule are empty cities. As for the small number of troops, they can be occupied. As for the Khotan in the south, they will be placed there first. When the army stabilizes Shule, they will send people to surrender."

For the Hei Khan, 70,000 or 80,000 people can almost be said to be the soldiers of the whole country. If they are lost here, it will be difficult for them to raise a large army in a short time. It does not take many people to occupy Kucha and Shule. Within these thousands of miles, there are only a few big cities, with more than ten thousand people in each city and one or two thousand people, and there are no large troops. Since the Middle Tang Dynasty, the Western Regions have first sent Tubo to capture it, and then ruled by the Uighurs and the Hei Khan, and lost a large number of people.

After confirming that Ilik surrendered, Zhang Xiao immediately sent people to the Black Khan army outside the siege in the rear to negotiate. If he did not surrender, he would be regarded as still resisting the court and would send troops to wipe it out. With the insistence of the Song cavalry not far away, most of the Black Khan army surrendered, with only about 2,000 people, and took the opportunity to escape into the Tianshan Mountains dozens of miles north. Zhang Xiao just ordered the cavalry to track it, and did not send a large army to chase it.

At night, the generals gathered in Du Zhongxiao's tent and waited for instructions.

After asking about the war situation today, Du Zhongxiao said: "The two most important things are now. One is to send cavalry to advance westward and quickly occupy Kucha, especially Shule. As long as Shule City is occupied, the south of Tianshan Mountain will be owned by the court. Another thing is that these nearly 70,000 prisoners of war must be sent back to Yizhou first. When we arrive in Yizhou, we have enough troops to take care of them, and the railway can also be transported to replenish supplies. Here, it is a problem for these people to eat. We are the royal army of the court, and we cannot collect grain from the local people like the Hei Khan army."

Zhang Ke crossed his hands: "Jing Zheng is at ease. The general will send 12,000 horse-riding infantry tomorrow, with only light cannons to occupy those cities. According to the general's estimate, Kucha does not need to send many people to garrison. The rest of the cities such as the sound, Moman, and Wuchi could not have stationed troops. Ten thousand troops will be fully engaged in the efforts of Zhan Shule. As long as the Black Khan army is defending Shule to the death, it should not be difficult to occupy it."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Don't worry, Ilik has already said that in the cities behind, there is no Hei Khan army except for the small number of troops that supervise the people to transport food and grass. The most important thing is to be fast and not let Hei Khan send people from the north of the Tianshan Mountains. As long as they occupy Shule and cut off the place where Hei Khan settles south of the Tianshan Mountains, they can only stay in the north of the mountain."

Zhang Ke crossed his hands and said, "At the end of tomorrow, I will bring my own horse-riding infantry and go west. The festival coach will be at ease."

Du Zhongxiao nodded, thought for a while and said, "Okay, you and Zhang Sheng go to Shule. There is no big battle along the way. The key is to go quickly and handle things properly. The remaining Black Soldiers are willing to surrender and can treat them well. Another thing is that you should not occupy the homes of the native people on the road to avoid losing people's hearts. The royal army comes to the west and cannot let them down. The road is too far and the army cannot keep up. Your supplies, especially food, must not be enough. Collect grain from the local area and write IOUs with them. When the army comes up, repay them according to the order."

After hearing this, Zhang Ji was silent for a while and said, "Jingshou, is it necessary? I just need to restrain the soldiers and not disturb the people."

Du Zhongxiao said: "What is needed. In the past, the army would inevitably collect grain and service from the local area and transport food and grass. We can collect grain or recruit food and grass, but we must give them compensation. General, the imperial court is not short of this amount of money now, just do as it should."

Zhang Ke crossed his hands: "Everything is based on the command of the commander, and the last one will obey the order!"

Du Zhongxiao said, "The rest of the troops will be led by me and Deputy Envoy Fu, and will go to Kucha to wait for your news. Then send 8,000 people to escort the Black Khan prisoners of war and return to Yizhou. Zhao Zi is there, but his people will be taken care of first. By the way, Ilik will be with our army first. When you need him to come forward, send someone back to deliver the letter."

Fu Bi said: "It's better to let General Zhang take Ilic with him. If there is a city, he will not open the city gate. You can use him."

Du Zhongxiao thought for a while and said, "Yes, 12,000 people, no one can defeat the Western Regions now, and there is no risk. After your army arrives at Shule, you will first station in Shule and wait for our army to arrive. As long as you occupy Shule, you can talk to Hei Han slowly."

Except for Shule, most of the territory of Hei Khan was in Central Asia in later generations, with a complex terrain. When the Song army first came, they would definitely not be able to cross the Tianshan Mountains to attack them. The risk was too great. Shule was the Kashgar region in later generations, the western edge of the Shannan Basin, and at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, the intersection of Hei Khan entered the Shannan Basin. After occupying Shule, the connection between Hei Khan and the Khotan region was cut off, and the Black Khan power was squeezed out of the Western Regions.

The next morning, Zhang Ke and Zhang Sheng ordered 10,000 infantry riding horses, plus two thousand cavalry, and went west. Du Zhongxiao and Fu Bi arrived at the commander's tent and ordered to take Yilik over.

Last night, Irik had both wine and meat, so I slept soundly and looked better.

After entering the commander's tent, Ilik saluted Du Zhongxiao and Fu Bi, saying, "I have met the commander and deputy envoy of the court."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Master, sit down. The war is over, let's talk some gossip together."

Ilic sat down below and said in a deep voice: "Since I am a prisoner of war, I will fight and kill you, so why bother to talk nonsense!"

Du Zhongxiao said: "The king is so exaggerated. The imperial court entered the Western Regions this time because Gaochang did not cultivate ministerial etiquette, sent envoys, and blocked the trade route. After destroying Gaochang, he fought with the king here. Speaking of which, I still don't know why the king brought troops?"

Ilik said: "If you destroyed Gaochang, you will naturally plot other things. Is there any need to say? And I heard that you found descendants of the Yuchi family and said that you wanted to rebuild the Kingdom of Khotan. Not all these came towards our Hei Khan. Gaochang was defeated so ugly that he ignored you. He was led by your troops and suddenly attacked and lost the power to fight back. With them as a lesson, I naturally need to prevent it in advance!"

Du Zhongxiao looked at Fu Bi and smiled and said, "You're so careful! Then he came to inform you of a war?"

After hearing this, Ilik was speechless for a moment, and turned his head away and stopped answering.

Du Zhongxiao shook his head and said, "My king, let me tell you that things have come to this point. We are determined to win the land here in the Western Regions. Hei Khan's heavy troops have been eliminated and there is no resistance to going all the way. After occupying Shule, Hei Khan's troops could not cross the mountain."

After hearing this, Ilik hurriedly said, "You are just going to occupy Shule?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "Of course not, there is also Khotan. In the past, you used to pay tribute to the Central Plains, and people thought Khotan was still there, but they didn't expect that it had been destroyed by Hei Khan. In addition, Hei Khan wanted to send envoys to the capital to pay tribute and pay tribute!"

Ilik responded and said, "My Black Khan is the local Khan King, and he is also an emperor. How can I submit to him?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "The army comes today. Those who do not submit to the emperor are afraid that their lives will not be easy in the future. Of course, it is the court's decision to do the specific things, but as the governor of Hequ Road, I will naturally not let you have good fruits to eat. Also, if Hei Khan does not submit to the emperor, the king will not go back."
Chapter completed!