Lin Junhong treated Abdulla very enthusiastically, with snacks, hot tea and a wash water with the right temperature. Two cushioned stools could make the two of them talk huggedly, and of course, a smile was indispensable. Seeing Lin Junhong like this, Chen Duan felt relieved and bowed out of the tent.

"I heard from Lord Chen about your predicament. You should really bring me by your side to help you." Abdulla said sincerely.

"Hey, I'm worried about your safety. I heard that most of the lands in Babaiboke are Baishan Sect. I'm worried that you will be hurt when you come with me. I think you will come with the second army and wait for me to defeat the evil Babai, and you will help us stabilize the situation. After all, you are the descendants of the saints." Lin Junhong's attitude was also very sincere, just not saying that he was lying to wait.

Abdulla also knew that it was inappropriate to mention that matter again. The war had begun. The empire's army had already arrived in Hami and had already passed the most difficult time. If he still held on to that matter, he might suffer even greater losses. He smiled and said, "You are right. Hami is a lot of heretics, but there are also our believers. With me, they will definitely help you."

"Yes, whenever I mention you to the people here, there will always be someone offering cattle, sheep, melons and fruits. Your holy name is simply better than ten thousand strong troops." Lin Junhong echoed.

"Your Highness, what can I do for you now? It's a pity. If I could recruit an army in Gansu, I could do more for you." Abdulla said.

Lin Junhong said: "There are many places that need you now. There are many Mu Futi from the Baishan Sect entrenching villages and oppose us. I could have used troops to clear them out, but you know, that would hurt many innocent people. I need your advice, Hezhuo."

Abdulla was also unwilling to see Lin Junhong send troops to clear the enemy. If that were the case, he would definitely kill many ordinary believers, and believers were the flock of religious people like him who depended on for survival.

For Abdullah, heresies such as the Baishan Sect are more hateful than pagans. He is willing to use the power of the empire to destroy the Baishan Sect, but instead of letting the empire launch troops, he will take action. The difference is that the imperial army kills a Mufuti may kill a hundred ordinary people, while Abdullah, killing a Baishan Sect's Mufuti can replace him with a student without much collateral damage. What do the believers know? Don't their beliefs come from the explanations of the priests.

"My suggestion is that I will destroy them and give the people here a real Hadith so that they can support your army to attack Hami under my command." Abdulla said confidently, and he turned to it: "But I have only some students around me, and when faced with heresy, thunder and fire are often better than scriptures."

"Are the local Montenegro sects willing to pick up weapons to support you?" Lin Junhong asked knowingly.

"Of course, but the believers also need food."

Lin Junhong smiled: "That's really great. Although I didn't feed their food, I had money to buy food. Although I couldn't let God fall into thunder and fire, I had enough guns. I could give you swords, muskets and horses, and 10,000 taels of silver. Is this enough?"

"Enough to arm an army to eliminate heresy," Abdulla said.

Lin Junhong knew that he wanted more and was prepared for it, so he was unable to do it: "I'm sorry, I can't provide you with more, but I can guarantee that all the interests of the Baishan Sect can be inherited by you, temples, land, tenant farmers, and livestock. If you seized it, it's yours, and my guarantee is the guarantee of the empire."

"That's enough. As your sincere friend, how dare I ask for more? Please wait for my good news." Abdulla achieved his goal and was very happy.

Lin Junhong smiled and sent Abdulla away. When he came back, he saw Chen Duanzheng looking at him with a smile. He touched his face: "What's wrong? Is there anything wrong?"

"Your Highness, you really have the potential to become a great politician." Chen Duan said seriously.

"Is that so? You can see that?" Lin Junhong also smiled.

Chen Duan explained: "It's not that I can see it, but that His Majesty said that a person who can interpret lies as plain as eating and drinking can definitely become a politician. I originally thought you could just bear it and never imagined that you would be so happy."

"Oh, is that right? Abdulla must believe that I support him, right?" Lin Junhong asked.

Chen Duan said: "You are a little too enthusiastic, but I don't think Abdulla would doubt it. After all, you are old enough to he underestimate a lot of things."

In the next half month, Abdulla and Zhuo became the most resounding name around Hami. He used the believers of this sect to use his students as the backbone and many supporters from all directions to form a messy army, which launched a war against heresy in the Baishan Sect.

At the beginning, the war was very fierce, but it was just killing the chicken to warn the monkeys. Abdulla besieged a village and almost killed everyone inside, which shocked the surrounding areas of Hami. So when Abdulla's army appeared in another rebellious village again, Mufu inside had already abandoned his believers and fled to Hami City with gold and silver. Abdulla immediately appointed a student as Mufuti to take over, pardoned everyone's sins, and accepted them into believers of the Montenegro. The second village became a fixed model for Abdulla to rule this area.

In this war, the imperial army also played an important role. They did not approach the village, but always lie on the way to the target village of Hami, ambushing the army out of Hami City. After two successes, Babai completely lost control of the outside of the city.

Half a month later, another good news came. Sima Yiboke, who received the news, dispatched a large army and occupied Cha Wu to the east and entered Turpan. Although no decent battle broke out, it attracted at least part of the enemy's strength. At the same time, reinforcements led by Wei Yunfeng also arrived and brought two thousand infantry, two thousand five hundred cavalry, and a large amount of supplies, especially the winter cotton jackets needed by the army. At this time, Lin Junhong issued an order to march towards Hami.

Hami is not a big city. It is only three miles in circumference, and only two city gates in the north and south. Due to lack of water, there is no moat, only dry moats, the city walls are made of stone, soil, and the height is more than enough but the thickness is insufficient. The history of this city can be traced back to the era of the Seven Guards of the Ming Dynasty in the former Ming Dynasty, but it has experienced the Turpan Khanate and the Yarkand Khanate several times. It has become like this. No matter which dynasty, the city has never encountered powerful firearms, so it is particularly insufficient in preventing firearms.

By the end of October, the weather was already very cold. Tursun came to Hami City. During this period, he was the quarantine and envoy of the imperial army. He would go to every village and town taken over by Abdulla to recruit strong men, purchase grain and forage. By the time he arrived before the touchdown, the army had been besieging Hami for half a month. Tursun was a little panicked because he clearly saw that the imperial army had brought no less than fifteen artillery pieces, so why hadn't he captured Hami City yet?

But when he arrived in Hami, he saw that the field artillery and some infantry were arranged at the north and south gates of Hami City. A village was established in these two directions. The infantry's flintlock guns and artillery's heavy firepower blocked the route out of the city, while Lin Junhong's camp was established in the east of Hami City.

"Mr. Tuerson, you are such a lucky person. The attack began soon. You came in time." Lin Junhong warmly welcomed his friend and took him to visit the main firepower of the siege in the camp - the siege fort.

The fort was standing on a dirt platform four hundred meters away from the east of the city. The top of the dirt platform was flat and a shed was built. From a distance, it looked like a blacksmith shop. Under the dirt platform there were trenches, chest walls, and cavalrymen who were waiting to go to the dirt platform. When they climbed onto the dirt platform, Tursun was shocked. Six cannons had been set up there, but these were like water tanks with muzzles facing the sky. The cannon shells were larger than the footbasin they used. They must have not been transported from Jiayuguan.

In fact, this is a twelve-inch siege mortar made by the Lanzhou Guns and Cannon Bureau using local copper and iron. However, because the material is too rough, in order to ensure that the barrel is not blown up, the barrel wall can only be cast thicker, and the weight is more than four tons. This thing must be unable to move. In fact, I never thought about moving it. As long as the city wall in front of me can collapse, their tasks will be completed.

Amid the deafening sound of cannons, heavy solid shells were fired from the mortars into the sky. The shells could fly to more than 200 meters high. Then, they used gravity to hit the city wall, which was not thick. Six artillery fired one after another. Whenever the shells fell, the royal family stirred up dust and formed a ball of smoke. When the solid shells hit the city wall, they were full of holes and were shaking, and then replaced with grenades, and the city wall would be difficult to support it.

"People, please raise your glasses and celebrate this wonderful moment." A joyful atmosphere spread in the city of Burke's mansion. Babai and his secret subordinates and various religious officials gathered around the long table in the restaurant. At this moment, no one talked about the method of banning wine. What they need now is a glass of celebrating water wine.

Because there was too much good news outside the city, one oral message and two valuable secret messages.

As Babai expected, any force in the northern desert, even if he had coveted Babai's territory, even if he had been enemies with Babai, would choose to support him at this moment, because neither side could accept a powerful opponent like the Empire intervened in the Western Regions.

The most active one was Apak Hezhuo in Yarkand City. Especially after he knew that the empire had chosen Abdulla Hezhuo's Black Mountain Sect, he immediately dispatched all the main forces to advance eastward regardless of everything, and had occupied Ush, not far from Aksu, and approached Sima Yiboke's Aksu City. It is said that Sima Yi's family had fled eastward into Chalim.

The Qing court, who received the news of Babai, had mobilized the cavalry stationed in the old place of Zasaktu Khan, claiming to send 20,000 troops to support before the snow fell. The Sengge of the Junggar tribe, in line with the title of the imperial vassal state, was inconvenient to be enemies of the empire, but he also made a promise. The message he sent promised that, first, would not encroach on the territory of Babai through this war, so that he would welcome the enemy with confidence. Second, he would increase troops to Kashgar and Yarkand to help Apakhezhuo suppress the place and allow him to support with confidence.

Babai felt a never-before happy happiness. After a glass of wine, he happily announced to everyone that he only needed to enjoy food and women in the warm room to wait for reinforcements to encircle and annihilate the arrogant Han people under the city of Hami. However, as soon as this declaration was said, a deafening explosion came from outside the city.

"What happened? Did the enemy's gunpowder depot explode?" Through the window, Babai couldn't help but guess in a better way.

He no longer had the interest to continue the banquet, put on his armor, and wanted to leave Burke's mansion to observe, but when he saw a general dragging his injured body in, he said in pain: "Mr. Burke, the enemy has fired artillery to attack the city, and used shells larger than horse heads to bombard our city walls!"

"No, where cannons can fire such a large shell!" Babai could not believe it at all, but he was already standing in the yard with a wider vision. He could clearly see a black dot suddenly flying high from outside the city wall, and then hit the top of the East City Wall at a speed visible to the naked eye, directly smashing a small cannon. In an instant, smoke and dust spread everywhere, and when some smoke and dust dissipated, a huge gap appeared on the city wall. Babai's eyes widened and almost sat on the ground.

The general struggled to get up and asked, "Mr. Burke, what should I do?"

Babai rubbed his face with his rough hands and forced himself to calm down. Seeing groups of soldiers running away from under the city wall, he said angrily: "Get the guards together, suppress the soldiers, and drive the cowards to the city wall!"

However, Babai's order was not well implemented. When the soldiers returned to the city wall, they were immediately attacked by howitzers. Five-point five-inch grenade landed on the top of the city, causing the unblocked soldiers to blow up and rolled down immediately. The soldiers said that the enemy did not attack at all, but just bombarded the city wall. Standing at the top of the city was meaningless except waiting to die.

Babai could only gather the soldiers, build barricades in the direction of the east city wall, set up artillery and clamps, and prepare to face the enemy's impact after the city wall was broken. He stood in front in military uniform, faced the city wall, and stabilized the morale of the army.

Whenever there is a cannon outside the city, a huge mortar shell will fly up and fall. Some fly directly over the city wall, smashing the buildings in the city to pieces, but more of them will directly hit the city wall, making a dull sound. Most of the shells cannot be seen. He can only hear the muffled sound of shells hitting the city wall, one by one, very regular. The solid wall that has been around for hundreds of years seems to be peeling off and shattering, as if it may collapse at any time. Babai's thoughts returned to his childhood.

Babai still remembers that when he was seven or eight years old, he once stole his brother Sima Yi's favorite telescope and played with it. After being discovered, he hid back to the bedroom and put a door bolt on the wooden door, but he was still discovered. Sima Yi found a helper and hit his bedroom door with a log, dong dong dong! The sound, the feeling of breaking through the door at any time, was exactly the same as now.

Sima Yi found a helper again and hit his door again, but this time it was not like he came in and beat him up, but to take his own life!
Chapter completed!