The Sun and the Lion

Countless siege engines stood under the city wall of Samarkand. Trebuchets poured stones at the Guregani defenders at the head of the city. The siege towers and siege ladders slowed down under the cover of arrows and stone bullets. Advance slowly. Looking forward, I saw an unknown number of siege engines damaged by kerosene and stones.

The irony for the defenders at the top of the city was that the siegeers who operated siege equipment under the city and brought them death were also the Guregani army, but they were loyal to different monarchs and belonged to different palaces. This farce has been going on for the past few decades.

At this time, observing the battlefield from the rear was a young man who was a few years older than Ismail. He was the commander in charge of the coalition operations today, but most of the people responsible for the charge today were from Fergana.

The coalition forces have been sieging the city of Samarkand for nearly half a year. The fierce confrontation between the two armies has never stopped from the beginning. To this day, hundreds of trebuchets built by military engineers have transformed the city wall of Samarkand from masonry. Turned into rubble.

Repeated attacks by the coalition forces also put great pressure on Baisong Huoer. He even sent a messenger to Turkestan to seek help from the Uzbek leader Muhammad Shaibani.

However, Shaibani did not bring the main force, which resulted in him being defeated as soon as he arrived near Samarkand. The coalition's surprise attack directly forced the Uzbeks into the city of Samarkand. Later, Song Huoer and Shaibani clashed for unknown reasons. In the end, Shaibani returned to Turkestan with all the Uzbek cavalry to watch the civil war between Timur's sons and heirs.

This completely cut off the foreign aid of Song Huoer, and also cut off the hope of the defenders in the city. Whether it was Husin Baihara or Ulugh Beg II, their bases were too far away from Samarkand, although they could stage It was a good show to surround Wei and rescue Zhao, but by the time the messenger arrived and the two had prepared their rescue troops, Song Huo'er might have already lost hope.

Although Song Huoer's defeat is a foregone conclusion, no one knows what price the coalition forces will pay for victory.

Just when Babur thought that today would be another bloody and fruitless tug-of-war, a herald ran over on horseback, and Babur recognized him - Huslao's companion.

Emir of Fergana, we have won. Song Huo'er tried to break out of the encirclement by taking advantage of the chaos. No less than 300 people, including himself and his family members, were captured by our lord Hus Lao. Our lord has won!

Then the herald continued to convey Huslao's wishes. After the victory, the most important thing was naturally to divide the spoils. Whether it was Huslao, Masud or Babur, they all used their own capital to besiege Samarkand. It is impossible not to have loot.

Thinking of this, Babur was not in a happy mood. He knew very well that he was at a disadvantage in the coalition. The two strange uncles, Hus Lao and Masud, who had strong soldiers and horses, might chew Song Song Huo'er down to the bone. At most, I can eat some scraps and then return to Andijan to continue living a mediocre life with a high probability.

But Babur had no reason not to go, as he wouldn't even be able to eat any leftovers.

As he expected, two adults openly and secretly abused the children at the spoils-sharing meeting. Without strong soldiers to rely on, Babur's staff could not play a role for their master.

After marginalizing Babur, Huslao and Masoud still had conflicts. The two men were at odds with each other, and the verbal exchanges were very fierce. Babur who was listening just wanted to cover his ears.

We can discuss slowly how to deal with Song Huo'er, but how much will be allocated to redeem the city of Samarkand and how will it be divided specifically? This is the most urgent issue.

Under Massoud's inquiry, Huslao dropped the topic of worshiping Song Huo'er and planned to talk about something else. In order to divert the fire, he also took the initiative to say to Babur: Does the Padishah of Fergana have any ideas on how to deal with Samarkand?

Babur embarrassedly put aside Huslao's question, then found an excuse and left the tent.

He mounted his horse and looked back at Huslao's tent: Let's go back to the camp first. It seems like we won't be able to talk about anything today.

For Babur, the only good news today is that the defenders loyal to Song Huo'er saw that the situation was irreversible and defected to the Fergana troops attacking the city. He took this opportunity to seize the opportunity to control the defense of Samarkand. .

Perhaps, this is an attractive bargaining chip.

In the next few days, the coalition forces wasted time in the siege camp. The rift between Masoud and Huslao became wider and wider, and Huslao finally chose to have a showdown with Masoud. He publicly declared his loyalty to Songhuo'er and took the initiative to propose that he respect Songhuo'er as the master of Samarkand and Masud as the master of Hisar. At the same time, both of them upgraded their titles from emir to padi. sand.

This suggestion naturally angered Masud, and he immediately led his troops to leave the coalition camp, built additional camps and fortifications to confront Huslao, and made preparations to take the initiative to attack.

Babur received letters of solicitation from both parties at the same time, hoping that the other party would side with him on the carving up of Samarkand, and promised to share the spoils equally afterwards.

But both Khosrow and Masud failed to do so. The glue that held Babur's army together was the wealth of the big city of Samarkand. As soon as possible, Babur was carried into the city of Samarkand by his subordinates.

Under the control of the Fergana generals, the remnants of Song worshipers and other dignitaries in the city all turned to Babur. With the support of the two forces, this 14-year-old boy became the leader of the Hezhong region. The titular monarch.

Until the end of the ceremony, Babur felt as if he was in a dream. Become the master of the river? This was something he never dared to think about when he was in Andijan.

Somewhat dazed, he immediately began to reward his subordinates for their merits under the control of the generals. Burke Tanbal, who performed the most bravely in this battle, was named the Great Burke, and the ranks of other Burkes were also raised.

However, in terms of economy, what Babur could offer was very lackluster. The coalition forces besieged Samarkand for more than half a year. Song Huoer did not hesitate to maintain his power at any cost. Today, the city of Samarkand is worthy of looting. Even the Ganna army could not be satisfied.

This cold reality directly poured a basin of ice-cold water on Babur. The Burkes had previously performed actively in the siege, and the contrast at this time was definitely not small. This cannot be made up for by promotion.

For a kid with little prestige in the military and unable to come up with the money to reward his subordinates, the situation would be over no matter how hard he thought about it.