In the 14th century, the Timurid Empire, a great empire in Central Asia established at the same time as the Ming Dynasty, straddled between Central Asia and West Asia.
The founder was the hero Timur, who started from scratch like Zhu Yuanzhang, and after experiencing life and death tribulations, he established a Central Asian empire as strong as the Ming Dynasty.
However, to a certain extent, he was even more powerful than the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Ming Dynasty expelled the Mongols, Timur's conquest was not limited to a specific ethnic group or region.
Timur, 69 years old, took up more than 50 years of his own life when he started the war.
In addition to his rich combat experience, he also claimed to be a descendant of the Golden Family, the heir of Genghis Khan, and always regarded returning to the Central Plains as his ultimate dream.
In 1404, in order to conquer the Ming Dynasty, Timur mobilized more than 800,000 combat troops and logistics support troops in the country, preparing to take the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
And Zhu Di, who was far away in Beijing, received the military movements of the Timurid Empire for the first time.
He also made military arrangements and entrusted the Gansu army with the heavy responsibility of blocking and destroying Timur's army.
The battle is on the verge of breaking out, so what is the final result?
In April 1336, in the hinterland of Uzbekistan, a large astrological celebration was being organized.
In the midst of the event, a baby boy was born, and his arrival was seen as a messenger from heaven, which made him a different identity.
But in reality, he was only a descendant of the Mongol aristocracy, and as for the descendant of the Golden Family, the heir of Genghis Khan, whom the boy later claimed to be and proclaimed, it was nonsense.
This baby boy is Timur.
At that time, Central Asia was full of turmoil and unrest, and Timur, who was born into a nobleman, could not escape the baptism of war, and he himself was a warmonger.
With his background and the little military merits he has accumulated, Timur, who is less than 20 years old, is already the head of a thousand households.
In 1360, his uncle, Jihad, the owner of Thirsty Stone, was expelled, and Timur saw the opportunity to take ownership of Thirsty Stone, which was recognized by the Eastern Chagatai Khanate.
However, doing things under the hands of others will inevitably suffer the faces of others, and the ambitious Timur naturally can't stand this.
So, he left his possessions and went to his brother-in-law, Huxin.
The two fought for each other, and finally conquered Samarkand and had their own base.
In order to stabilize the regime, they pushed the descendants of Genghis Khan to the fore and made them nominal monarchs, with the two directing and manipulating power behind the scenes.
However, power can make people crazy, and the contradictions between the two become more and more irreconcilable because of power.
It wasn't until 1370 that Timur took the lead and killed Khushin on April 10.
At this point, Timur completed his strategic goals and became the sole de facto controller of Samarkand, and after gaining power, his conquest plan was also implemented.
Beginning in 1373, Timur gathered his entire army, followed in the footsteps of Genghis Khan, and began to attack his neighbor Khorezm.
After four large-scale battles, he finally took the capital of Khorezm six years later, in 1379.
To reward his warriors, he allowed his soldiers to follow Genghis Khan's example in carrying out the massacre.
The ambitious Timur did not set the goal of the war on the country of Khorezm, but launched a protracted tug-of-war with the Eastern Chagatai Khanate at the same time as the battle.
By 1389, after 22 years of struggle, the Eastern Chagatai Khanate was defeated.
Of course, the Kipchak Khanate, which was in the north of the Timurid Empire, did not escape Timur's conquest.
However, Timur completed the deterrence and conquest of the Kipchak Khanate by supporting the puppet regime in the Kipchak Khanate.
At this time, Timur's footprints had spread all over the Caucasus and Siberia, and the deterrent power was as far as the hinterland of the Mongols.
After his expedition to the north, Timur set his sights on his own Western Persian Empire.
From 1381 onwards, Timur conquered many Persian princes, nobles, and kingdoms, and even extended his tentacles to Baghdad and sacked Georgia.
In the south of the empire, Timur was not idle, and India became the object of his conquest.
In September 1398, after his victory in the war against India, Timur executed 100,000 Indian prisoners at once.
In addition, in the direction of Syria and Lia in the valley of the two rivers, and even in Angra, there are Timur's footprints.
By 1402, after Timur's victory over the Ottoman Empire, he was 66 years old, but his ambitions were rekindled.
Because, he heard that the far east was experiencing a change of Jingjing, and this was the best time to attack the Ming Dynasty.
On their side, they are strong and strong, but the other side is mired in civil war.
So, in 1404, Timur recruited 200,000 infantry and 250,000 cavalry from the country, preparing to march into China from the Hindara.
In addition, he also prepared more than 300,000 logistics support troops to win the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
Although Zhu Di was busy usurping the throne, his intelligence information did not stop, and he received the news at the first moment of Timur's attack.
He asked Song Sheng, the chief soldier of Gansu, to arrange his troops and wait for Timur's arrival, and to collect troops in the country to prepare for the expedition.
It was just an accident, and it happened on February 18, 1405.
Timur fell ill and died on this day.
He died before his plan was carried out, and the Timurid Empire was replaced 90 years after his death.
It is a pity and a blessing that two powerful empires did not collide in history.
It's just that I don't know how much the Ming army was able to slaughter after encountering Timur's army.