Sima Yida Khan of the Yarkand Khanate was a philistine and smart man. He would not allow the empire to take advantage of tribute, and the position of the Yarkand Khanate made it very easy for him to operate.

In recent years, Sima Yi Khan would pay tribute to the empire every year, but only a few war horses, most of the tributes were jade and gems, the specialty of the Yarkand Khanate. Sima Yi monopolized these goods and set a very high price. For a long time, Sima Yi would send people to Xi'an, and then bring back all kinds of porcelain, silk, gold and silver ware that the emperor gave back, and exchange treasures for treasures. No one suffered a loss. Moreover, the value of the tributes was increasing every year.

The purpose of tribute is to limit the strength of foreign vassals. Generally speaking, a Zasak would only require about one thousand taels of tribute, but the Yarkand Khanate is a country with a population of hundreds of thousands. The price of tribute soared to 400,000 taels every year. Of course, because the things traded by both parties are of high value, they often do not have much goods.

"Sima Yi Khan has always been playing with his cleverness, especially after he was close to the big tree of the Great Prince, he was even more willing to do anything. Last year, he used a box of stones to exchange for several trucks of porcelain, gold and silver ware, and he has always taken advantage of the empire, but this time, he has no chance." Chang Adae said with a smile.

Wu Liji frowned, not understanding what Chang Audai said had to do with the food he had just mentioned. Chang Audai explained: "This year the goods given by the emperor have arrived in Yili, and the tribute is here. However, the tribute the empire wants is not gems and white jade, but grain, cloth, and 400,000 taels of grain. It must be sent to Yili, which is 300,000 stones. With these 300,000 stones of grain, will all our work be carried out?"

"If this is the case, that's great, but Lord Chang, 300,000 s of grain, and 300,000 s of food that must be delivered to Yili City, will put a lot of pressure on the Yarkand Khanate, the people at the bottom will encounter heavier exploitation, the original stable order will face challenges, and may cause civil unrest. If Sima Yikhan or other real-power lords are dissatisfied, there may be rebellion." Wu Liji said worriedly.

Chang Adae smiled: "So what? If there is a collapse in the Yarkand Khan, then we can accommodate more refugees and have more labor. If they rebel, we have reason to intervene in the situation of Tianshan South Road. It would be best if Sima Yi Da Khan himself rebelled, then there will be no Yarkand Khanate, and we can have two more appeasement zones."

Wu Liji was not sure whether the Yarkand civil strife was really so good for his side, but he knew clearly the ambition of Shangguan Chang Adei. He had been planning to seize Siberia from Russia. After this plan could not be completed in a short period of time, it might be a good choice to take down Tianshan South Road to the south and complete the great cause of expanding territory.

Wuliji didn't know whether he should be glad or regretful. He just gave Chang Ade a small idea to create a famine for more than 20,000 Tajiks. Chang Ade learned from it and wanted to create a chaos for the Yarkand Khanate, which had a population of more than 700,000.

September of the fifteenth year of the empire.

Muhemaiti sat in the dim room, staring at the candlelight jumping slightly in front of him, but he could not stop the quarrels and scolding outside from the outside.

He was the most beloved son of Hamilberk Turson and the only disciple of Hezorisht in the empire. This young man who was pampered since childhood entered the imperial Scripture Academy at the age of fourteen. He saw with his own eyes that the scriptures that were regarded as holy objects were explained as textbooks, and were used by everyone, whether lowly or noble, whether poor or rich, to recite and interpret by everyone. His entire worldview was defeated, but his father expressed encouragement for his changes.

From that time, Muhemaiti was instilled with an idea that religion is a tool for ignorance and enslavement of the people. This sentence lasted for four years in the School of Sutra, but Muhemaiti did not believe it. After graduation, he did not take charge of a temple in Hami or Turpan according to his father's arrangement, but traveled to many areas from Xi'an to Kazakhstan. After comparing the traditional Han people in the empire with the lives of the Tianfang and Huang people, he deeply realized that the sentence was correct, but he also had his own concept. It was not that the Lord was wrong or the scriptures were wrong, but that people were wrong. It was those who used religion, scriptures, controlled the thoughts of believers, and controlled everything about him.

Muhemaiti silently recites the Hadith after the scriptures, which are filled with truth, goodness and beauty, peace, fraternity and equality, but those who turn these into excuses for war and slavery.

But over the past ten years, Muhemaiti has not given up his beliefs, but has become more firm, because he firmly believes that faith is the idea of ​​sublimating oneself and being cautious in one's own self. Just as scholars in the Han Dynasty use gentlemen to restrain themselves, religion and Confucianism are all thoughts, and they should not require others, but should only restrain themselves.

But the sound outside was too loud. Muhemaiti walked out of the room and climbed the stairs. He saw endless fields under the fine snow. This was the result of more than 70 people who were a farmer and a group of 5,400 Tajik men and women in the past four months. The land was leveled, weeds and shrubs were removed, the soil was deeply plowed, the ridges were raised, the cattle and sheep manure collected by the children were sprinkled on it, and there were large and straight irrigation canals. After the snow melted next year, wheat, corn and alfalfa would be planted here, and a total of 36,000 acres. Perhaps the harvest would not be very good, but this meant that the Tajiks had a new home.

But it was also for the sake of these 36,000 acres of new fields that the Tajiks had no time to build their own houses, grazed cattle and sheep, and hoarded winter forage, but they were not afraid, because the lords promised that before it snowed, there would be food, cloth and feed to everyone. The better performance in the reclamation, the greater the contribution, the more they would get. But now the first snow has fallen, what about the grain, cloth and feed?

In the shed of the farmland, thousands of men gathered together. A man stood in a cart, shouting loudly, but shouting out a miserable experience. His wives and children were hungry, the children were malnourished, the cattle and sheep were too thin, but they had no feed to raise them. As soon as he spoke, he scolded the mighty lords who lived in a warm warehouse, enjoying the stove and hot rice, but refused to give some soup to the loyal and obedient people.

When the sound stopped briefly, thousands of men raised their hoes, shovels and sickles, shouting the slogan of wanting food to survive. At this time, a cavalry of more than 100 people rushed from a distance, and two large numbers showed their identities. Murai Taiji and Sirekori Taiji were the masters and lords of everyone present.

The horse whip was piping in the crowd, the war horses neighed and rushed around, as if they were about to rush into the crowd, and they caught the people who had just delivered the speech and mobilized them. However, when the cavalry entered the crowd, they were pulled down by a hoe. The hungry men rushed forward and greeted them with all their might. After a moment, the two Taiji escaped with the help of more than a dozen guards, while the men carried dozens of tied people to the adobe house where the agricultural reclamation team lived, and in front of Muhemaiti.

The members of the farming team held all the weapons they could find. When they wanted to close the door, they were stopped by Muhemaiti. Thousands of people surrounded the large courtyard. Muhemaiti walked out without fear and said to the rioters: "Everyone, you can take away everything here. Please do not hurt these people. Although they do not belong to the same ethnic group as you and do not believe in the great Lord, they are kind and innocent. Your experience has nothing to do with them."

The man who was standing in the cart just now made a speech heard this, knelt on the ground, crawled in front of Muhemaiti, and said, "Dear sages, even if we starve to death, we cannot hurt these brothers. In the past few months, they have worked with us, shared the bread with our children, taught us the techniques of measuring and mapping, and taught us to identify the wild vegetables that we can eat. They are as respected as you. Whoever hurts them will go to hell!"

Thousands of people said that it was, and the members of the agricultural reclamation team were a little relieved. Muhemaiti said, "Then why are you here?"

The man in charge said, "We heard that the food and food allocated by the court have arrived, but Muraitaiji and others said that there is no, saying that the court is traitorous, you are a noble wise man, a kind and righteous wise man. You have witnessed our suffering with your own eyes and will not deceive us. We want to ask whether the food has arrived."

"Yes, Lord Muhemaiti, you go to the big palace every day, you should know."

Muhemaiti said with a serious expression, "I cannot lie before the Great Lord. In the past seven days, I did see four camel caravans or convoys entering Okura, but I don't know what the warehouse and sacks are."

"Each camel caravan has more than one hundred camels, and there are more than forty four-wheeled carts, right?" Someone obviously saw them.

Muhemaiti nodded: "It's true."

"The court has already given away food, but they deliberately refused to give it to us. This is to starve us to death. We have worked hard to reclaim the wasteland for so long, don't we even have any food? We need food and live!"

"If you want food, you must live!"

The Great Palace.

This is actually a military warehouse built during the empire's Western Expedition. However, because of its large area and wide and tall buildings, it was considered by the half-tribal Tajiks to be a palace built specifically for nobles, so it was called this. When the Tajiks passed by, they would salute because not only the masters were the elders of religions lived in it.

But now, this place has become a battlefield. Three days have passed since the first gunshot after the breakdown of the negotiations. The two Taiji, Murai and Sirekori, who are in charge of the battle command, have lost a quarter of their soldiers, but the number of mobs siege them has continued to increase, and even some women have participated.

They pushed the fence with a large cart, and the Tajik archers lost most of their function, while the mobs could use pickaxes to smash the walls of the military warehouse. The agricultural reclamation tools that were originally asked for from the office of the Minister of the Xinjiang administration have now become weapons that threaten their lives. Both Taiji felt that fate was aroused.

But no matter what, they could not make the mob believe that the food agreed to by the court had not arrived. The camel caravans and convoys transported the stoves for burning fire, coal, iron farm tools for adding them, iron horseshoes issued according to the combat readiness standards of the Lifan Court, and cotton in bags. There were only two kinds of food that could be eaten, thousands of kilograms of salt, but this thing could not be eaten as food. There were two thousand kilograms of carefully selected wheat seeds, which were used for sowing in the spring of next year. These wheat seeds were accidentally scattered all over the ground and were seen by the untouchables, which made them think that the macaque and cargo boxes were full of grain, and no one believed it no matter how they explained it.

As a wave of attacks was repelled, Murray and Sirekori joined the flat ground where the food was dried. The two were covered in blood, but the worst was not them. The flat bottom was full of soldiers who were moaning and waiting to die. Because the arrows had already shot, the bows and crossbows were thrown everywhere. The soldiers picked up spears and guarded the gap. The sounds of women and children crying everywhere, but no one thought it was quarrel. The woman and children who could still stay here were relatives of noble people.

The Taiji people knew the current situation. People and slaves who were shocked by religious control and authoritarianism generally would not resist, and there were fewer organizations to resist. However, if they really had one, they would never die. When the thugs rushed in, they would definitely kill all the lords and their relatives as soon as possible, so as not to encounter a counterattack in the future.

"Why haven't the reinforcements from the court arrived yet? Why, why?" Murai cursed loudly.

Sirekori knew that he was not asking, but complaining. At the beginning of the conflict, they sent envoys for help to the nearest Turpan and the distant Yili, and the people who were urging food to be stationed directly in the two places. It was impossible for the court to know what happened in Luntai, but no one cared about it.

"Maybe this is a trap. It is the Han people, not the ministers stationed in Xinjiang who are cheating us?" Murai said. He wanted to blame the Han people, but this matter was managed by Wu Liji and Chang Adei, and none of them were Han people.

"Why do you harm us?" Sirekori didn't believe it. Maybe he couldn't believe it, because if it was caused by the Office of the Ministers in Xinjiang, he would have only one way out.

Murai cursed: "Greed, you are too greedy. Not only do you want food, but you also want cotton, farm tools, and animals, you want everything!"

"I want it, but I haven't given you any one!" Sirekori replied, and the two pushed each other and saw that they were about to fight, and suddenly they heard a tide outside shouting.

“Ala…Ikebai…”

The long religious slogan sounded, and the two knew that something was going to be bad, so they climbed a wall according to the sound, but found that the thugs were farther away than before. Not knowing what was going on, Murai looked down and saw smoke coming from the drainage channel under his feet. He widened his eyes and before he could shout, he heard the last sound of his life.
Chapter completed!