In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 324: Seeing the Song Army for the first time in a century

After Wokuotai spoke, there was silence all around.

In fact, when Bolu was in Hebei, he asked Shi Tianze to learn how to build it, but he still had no success after so many years. At that time, the range was less than a hundred steps, and it was easy to explode, making it completely useless. He later gave up.

"Can our guns use kerosene bombs?" Wo Kuotai asked again.

This time I asked Subotai.

The hundreds of trebuchets currently in the Mongolian army were brought by Subotai's Western Expedition, but the Mongolian army called them cannons during this period.

Later it was renamed Hui Hui Pao.

The Mongolian army's trebuchets were used to throw large stones weighing hundreds of kilograms to smash into the city. They did not throw kerosene bombs, and the key point was that there was not much kerosene. If they were to throw kerosene bombs, they would definitely have to be modified.

Subotai thought for a while: "We have to find craftsmen in the west to modify it and collect more kerosene."

They knew that the kerosene bombs of the Song Dynasty were wrapped in sheepskin and cowhide, which was relatively simple.

The key is that the trebuchet can be thrown.

Their trebuchets can throw hundreds of kilograms of weight, and it should be no problem to throw dozens of kilograms of kerosene.

Wokuotai immediately ordered to learn from the Song Army's trebuchets, throw kerosene bombs, and devote all his efforts to research and build artillery.

Subotai, Yan Shi and others all said that the Song artillery was so powerful. Wo Kuotai thought that the daimyo was so close to Zhangde and that the Song army had just captured the daimyo: "Let's go and see the Song army's artillery."

He immediately decided to bring an army of [-] to Daming, not to attack the city, but mainly to see the artillery of the Song army.

The rest of the troops were divided into several groups and returned to Hebei, Shanxi, Xixia and other places.

At this time, Wokuotai had already decided to start a full-scale war with the Song army to prevent the Song army from trying to seize their territory in Shanxi, Hebei and other places.

If the Song army can attack the famous, it can attack other places in Shanxi and Hebei.

In view of the powerful artillery of the Song army, which could be pushed to the city gate to attack the city gate, Wo Kuotai asked soldiers and horses to be stationed in various places to strengthen the city defense and prepare a large number of stone bricks behind the city gate so that the city gate could be blocked in time.

At the same time, at the top of the city, prepare more fire extinguishers to prevent the Song army's kerosene bombs.

For this reason, Wo Kuotai ordered his second son Kuo Duan to be the king of Xiliang, control all local military power in Xixia and the original Xiliao region, garrison Xixia to defend against the Song army in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and mobilize additional troops in Xiliao and Xixia.

At that time, the total number of Mongolian troops stationed in the Xixia and Xiliao regions was only [-] to [-], which was very small.

After all, in the original history, no one in this area posed a threat to Mongolia. Xixia and Xiliao were Mongolia's logistics bases, continuously providing food, grass and horses for the Mongolian army's western expedition and southern invasion.

Wokuotai attaches great importance to the logistics base camp. He took this opportunity to separate [-] elite troops from the tow mine troops, including nearly [-] from the Mongolian army headquarters, including [-] Xuedi troops and [-] Suledusi troops, which are definitely considered All the generous items were brought back to Xixia from Kuoduan.

In this way, the military strength of Xixia and Xiliao is expected to reach 12. With more mobilization, it is expected to increase to about 15.

Taking advantage of the opportunity of this division of troops, many of the top ten tiger generals of the Tou Lei system were in the hands of Kuo Duan, including the four tiger generals Aotun Shiying and his younger brother, Bahe, Zhao Di, and Delbatu.

It greatly weakened the strength of the tow thunder system.

These four people all participated in the Western Expedition, and Delbatu and Aotun Shiying participated in the battle to destroy Khwarazmo.

These people are also the brave generals of the towing system who survived the battle at Fangcheng Mountain.

Bahe participated in the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain in history. It snowed heavily at that time, and both the Mongolian and Jin armies were hungry and cold. Bahe killed his own horse and shared the food with the soldiers, and finally survived. After the snow stopped, Bahe took the lead in attacking The Jin army launched an attack, thus defeating the Jin army, and then supported the tower to defeat Dangzhou. Due to his meritorious service, he was promoted to the rank of coastal wing commander of ten thousand households, General Huaiyuan, and Marquis of Nanjun.

Zhao Di, a Han Chinese, was from Zhending. He was very strong since he was a child. In the last years of the Jin Dynasty, he was a rebel with ten thousand households. He later surrendered to Mongolia and followed the Mongolian army in the western expedition. He made many contributions. His horsemen had great ejaculation, just like the Mongolian army. tactics, I am good at the two-stone strong bow, and can pierce a Yang with a hundred steps.

Zhao Di managed the army strictly and loved the people. His subordinates never participated in plunder. He was a rare righteous man among the Mongolian army.

During the Western Expedition that year, the Mongolian army invaded the inner fort of Samalgan. The defenders of the inner fort refused to surrender. Both sides used kerosene barrels to fight fiercely. The mosque was burned to ashes by the fire, and the city of Samalgan was greatly damaged.

After the city was broken, Genghis Khan was furious. He first divided the [-] craftsmen in the city among his sons and senior generals, then organized tens of thousands of strong men into the "signing army", and then ordered the massacre of the city.

At this time, Yelu Chucai, Zhao Di and others tried hard to persuade. After the local imam paid a ransom of 20 dinars for other residents, Genghis Khan ordered their release without massacre.

A few years ago, Zhao Di and the Mongolian army broke through Zhending of the Jin Kingdom, which was his hometown. As soon as he entered the city, he looted and looted all the property of the people in the city, which caused dissatisfaction with other generals of the Mongolian army.

Zhao Di said, I have grabbed this and it should belong to me. The Mongolian army generals have no choice but to leave.

After the Mongolian army left, Zhao Di gathered the people and returned all their property. He was afraid that the Mongolian army would steal the people's property first, so he did this in advance.

After these generals were transferred to Kuo Duan's hands, Kuo Duan's strength greatly increased. He did not stop and immediately took [-] elites, [-] of whom were from the Mongolian headquarters, directly to Shanxi and back to Xixia.

The army slowly moved to the west, with Aotun Shiying, his younger brother, Bahe, and Delbatu walking behind. Zhao Di was not far away.

Aotun Shiying looked around, but couldn't hold it in anymore, and finally said: "I suspect that Yake Nayan was poisoned to death by a shaman."

Bahe, Delbatu and others' expressions changed slightly, and then they looked at each other, not daring to speak.

"Brother, be careful what you say." Aotun Baohe said quickly at this time.

Aotun Shiying was furious, but before he could speak, Delbatu persuaded him: "The matter is already here, why bother with extraneous matters."

"..." Aotun Shiying.

"Now the people of Song Dynasty are our great enemies." Bahe also said solemnly: "Be focused on facing the outside world."

Aotun Shiying was ashamed and angry. He didn't expect that after Tuo Lei died, these confidants would actually say so.

He couldn't help but look back at Zhao Di not far away.

He was afraid that Zhao Di was Han and untrustworthy, so he did not call Zhao Di.

But looking at it now, maybe these people are not as good as Zhao Di.

However, since Zhao Di followed the Mongolian army, he almost never looted or participated in massacres. Tuo Lei often ordered massacres, and Zhao Di not only resisted orders, but also persuaded them.

Therefore, Aotun Shiying believes that Zhao Di will definitely not stand on his side.

"Hey." Aotun Shiying sighed, and could only say: "What you said is that you should focus on Song Dynasty."

After these people left, Wokuotai asked his eldest son Guiyou to go to Liaodong, preparing to continue to attack the Puxian slaves in the Eastern Xia Dynasty, and at the same time, he asked two thousand households in Yinchitai to follow him.

Subutai was named the King of Shanxi (originally, Subotai was posthumously crowned the King of Henan after his death). This time, I wonder if it was because he wanted to win over people after killing Tuo Lei, so Wokuotai made Subutai the King of Shanxi in advance. He was stationed in Taiyuan Prefecture, Shanxi, and was responsible for all affairs in Shanxi. He defended the Song army from Shaanxi to the west, connected with the Kingdom of Jin to the south, and connected with Hebei to the east. In the future, he would be able to provide support on three sides.

Hu Shengsun and Tuochala are both here in Subutai, and there is also Liu Heima, the newly appointed Han Dynasty general in charge of ten thousand households in Wokuotai, who is stationed in Xinzhou to respond.

Yitasi (the eldest grandson of Muhuali and the successor of King Muhuali Lu) was stationed in Yanjing and was fully responsible for the war in Hebei.

Mongolian generals such as Kou Wenbuhua and Chongxi followed Tasi, as well as Shi Tianze, Yan Shi, Shi Tianlu and others from the Han army.

Yelu Chucai was still in charge of political affairs north of the Yellow River, and worked hard to prepare taxes, grain, grass and soldiers for various places.

Wokuotai made some arrangements and divided his more than 20 troops into several units, mainly to quickly go to various places to guard against the Song army.

At the same time, all regions were required to recruit and train soldiers. One year later, Xixia and Xiliao regions required 20 soldiers, Shanxi required 20, and Hebei required 30.

At this time, the Mongolian army is here, with more than 50 troops in total, which means that the number will increase by 10,000+ in the past year.

After the spring of next year, after the supplies and food are prepared, we will consider using troops against the Song Dynasty. Of course, we will also have to see how the situation in the Jin Kingdom is determined later.

This time he re-employed several Han army members, such as Shi Tianze, Yan Shi, Liu Heima, Shi Tianlu, etc., who all received Mongolian attention.

Because there are still a large number of Han people north of the Yellow River, Mongolia is in urgent need of Han soldiers to fight the Song army.

After some distribution, various ministries left one after another. Wo Kuotai took the remaining 10 horses, Arruda, Yan Shi, etc. to the Daiming on the morning of the fifth day of the first lunar month.

It snowed heavily that day, and the Mongolian army surrounded Daming City. They did not attack the city first and set up camps.

After the snow stopped in the afternoon of the next day, Wokuotai led Ochen Nayan, Yan Shi, Aruda and other generals to ride forward slowly on their war horses.

It had only been a few days since Peng Yibin captured Daming. The snow had just stopped and the people coming and going at the top of the city were very dense. It was obvious at a glance that the Song army was taking a break for fortifications.

"Hehan, be careful." Yan Shi saw Wokuotai moving forward and quickly reminded: "The Song Army's artillery fired very far."

"How far?" Wo Kuotai asked.

"It can be as far as one mile away." Yan Shi said.

Wo Kuotai turned around and looked at his two sons behind him, the third son Kuo Chu and the sixth son He Dan.

Guyou and Kuo Duan were both sent out by him, preparing to defend their side.

Wokuotai disliked Guyu the most, so he sent Guyu to Liaodong. Historically, Guyu also went to Liaodong this year.

Kuoduan went to Xixia, just like in history.

And he loved his third son Kuo Chu the most and kept him with him. After all, he wanted to pass the throne to Kuo Chu.

Liuzi Hedan is still young and strong now, but he has excellent riding and ejaculation, and has high martial arts value. Wo Kuotai originally liked him, but He Dan is a bastard and there are so many older brothers, so Wo Kuotai can only take him with him. Side first.

"How far can our cannon (trebuchet) hit?" Wo Kuotai asked his two sons.

Kuo Chu immediately said: "The furthest is three hundred steps, but about two hundred steps is the best."

If it's too far away, it won't have much power, and if it falls, it won't be destructive enough.

Kuo Chu thought for a while and then said: "It also depends on whether the city structure is stone or mud brick."

The advantages and disadvantages of the Mongolian army's trebuchets can be seen in the recent attacks on Shaanxi and Nanjing.

The Mongolian army used the trebuchets brought by the Western Expedition to fight successfully in the Shaanxi area, and the attack was invincible. However, it was of no use when they attacked Tongguan. They fought for several months to no avail because Tongguan used a lot of bluestone. , very strong.

Nanjing was the ancient capital of eight dynasties. It was reinforced and built by each dynasty. In the original history, the Mongolian army used [-] trebuchets to surround Nanjing for sixteen days. In the end, there were no more stones and they had to withdraw.

This time I also fought for six or seven days, but it also had no effect.

When the Mongolian army attacked Sichuan, the Sichuan Song Army discovered that the Mongolian army's trebuchets had a destructive effect on most Sichuan cities, so they began to rebuild the city and built stone cities on the mountains. Many county towns were also reinforced with large stones. Later, the Mongolian army's trebuchets It's of no use.

Hearing that trebuchets were not effective in attacking fortresses, Wo Kuotai frowned. Many cities in Hebei were made of masonry and were difficult to attack.

Liuzi Hedan beside him also said at this time: "We still have to see if there are any stone bullets."

The biggest problem with the trebuchet is the source of the stone bullets.

The Mongolian army's trebuchets can throw large stone projectiles weighing more than [-] kilograms, and the heaviest ones can throw two to three hundred kilograms. It is not easy to mine and make such large stone projectiles.

So don’t look at some history books that say the Mongolian army used hundreds of cannons to besiege for several months without success. It sounds like they fought for several months, but the stone bullets were limited and the output was slow, so they fought slowly and might throw them away. I haven’t thrown much away for several months.

The same thing happened when the Mongolian army attacked Xiangyang. After several years of fighting, there were not enough stones and bullets. Later, they simply threw the dead people and animals into the city of Xiangyang after they decomposed.

I don’t know who came up with such a sinister trick. In the end, Xiangyang had no choice but to surrender as no reinforcements came.

So when Wo Kuotai heard it, he felt that using a trebuchet was much more troublesome than using an artillery piece.

A large number of civilian craftsmen were required to quarry the stone.Or did the Song Dynasty people do it, using kerosene bombs?
He couldn't help but think of the time during the Western Expedition, when the Mongolian army threw barrels of kerosene at each other at the inner fort of Samalgan, burning the city to ashes.

At this time, the Mongolian army basically had no kerosene production in Hebei, Shanxi and other places. Only in the Persian region could there be a large amount of kerosene.

"Send a messenger to Persia and ask Choermahan to transport a large amount of kerosene for us." Wogedai immediately thought of Choermahan.

After Ogedai came to power, he sent Choermahan to fight in Persia. Since then, Choermahan has been near Persia and is now stationed in the grasslands of Tabriz (still the largest urban area in Asai Baijiang in later generations).

There is a lot of kerosene there. After Wo Kuotai finished speaking, there was silence all around, and many people looked at it with strange eyes.

Wokuotai didn't react yet because it was too far away.

How do you transport kerosene over these thousands or even tens of thousands of miles?

The key is that this thing is heavy and unlucky.

But the Khan gave the order, and no one dared to say anything.

Afterwards, Orchen Nayan reminded him that Persia was too far away from here and long-distance transportation was inconvenient.

Although Wokuotai reacted, they now only occupy Hebei and Shanxi areas north of the Yellow River, which is completely different from the original historical territory, and there are many fewer resources. This made him feel serious shortcomings when fighting against the Song army. .

"How are the preparations going?" Wo Kuotai didn't care at this time and asked first how the preparations were going.

The subordinates said they had some stone bullets, but not many.

"Let the trebuchets come forward, I want to see the Song army's artillery." Wo Kuotai gave the order, and the Mongolian army quickly launched fifty trebuchets.

The Mongolian army's trebuchet was larger than the Song army's. Wo Kuotai frowned when he saw it. This kind of trebuchet cannot be placed on the city wall.

If it can be placed on the city wall, it can help defend the city, and the effect will definitely be good.

While he was thoughtful, the Mongolian army's trebuchets began to push forward.

Subotai, Susheng Sun and others who participated in the battle of Dashan Pass today are not here.

Wokuotai also had no experience. Many Mongolian nobles present had never seen the artillery of the Song Army. Only Yan Shi and Aruda had seen it.

Yan Shi felt that pushing it up slowly like this wouldn't work.

The ground is covered with snow, and the trebuchet is slow to push. If it is pushed within the shooting range, it will probably be fired by the Song army two or three times.

But he was a new member of the Han family, so he spoke softly and did not dare to say anything.

None of the Mongolian troops at the scene had any experience. All fifty trebuchets were concentrated at the west gate of Daming City. Everyone pushed them up together. The formation was a bit dense, with a total of five rows of ten trebuchets in each row.

There were even hundreds of people in the middle.

Wo Kuotai and other Meng people who had never seen artillery stared.

Finally pushed to about [-] steps.

There was a loud "bang", and the Song Army fired as expected.

They first saw a puff of white smoke rising into the sky from a distance, and then, whoosh, a black shadow flew out of the sky.

Wokuotai watched the cannonballs flying out and thought to himself, this thing can also be predicted. When the cavalry rushes up, they can see the direction of the cannonballs and avoid them.

He thought quite simply, the shells were already falling like meteors.

The Mongolian army pushing the trebuchet in front also screamed in surprise, and many people subconsciously fled in all directions.

Everyone really feels that they can predict and avoid.

But human speed can never keep up with the speed of cannonballs.

The first shot hit the trebuchet group accurately.

In Kacha, a trebuchet in the third row in the middle was shattered almost instantly, and the shells jumped forward.

Chi la, many screams suddenly sounded from the scene.

The ground was originally covered with snow, but after pushing the trebuchet along, the back was already pressed into ice.

The shells that landed rolled forward, and the scattered crowds screamed everywhere.

After the shells stopped, the Mongolian army suffered five or six casualties.

The casualties of this cannon were not great, but it shattered one trebuchet. It rolled to the back and hit the row of trebuchets behind it. Although it was not broken, it was destroyed.

The Song Army's first shot stunned the Mongolian nobles at the scene. It was indeed much more powerful than their trebuchets.

A moment later, a Mongolian army wrapped Song artillery shells in cotton clothes and came to Wokuotai.

Wokuotai and the nobles each lifted the heavy iron cannon shells, feeling that they were still extremely hot.

Chen Nayan finally threw the cannonball to the ground and exhaled the hot breath in his mouth: "It's so heavy, it can hit people."

There was a look of panic all around. No matter how fierce the Mongolian army was, if their flesh and blood bodies were hit, they would definitely be shattered.

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly became a little depressing.

Arruda said quickly: "Fortunately, the Song army's artillery fired slowly, and it was not powerful enough in the field."

This is true, but they were defeated by the Song Army in a field battle in Shandong, and now they are just trying to boost morale.

Wo Kuotai said with a gloomy face: "Is Peng Yibin a local military leader or a general of the Song Army?"

"On the surface, he was granted a title by the Song court, but he should be a local military leader - I can't say for sure, the Han people are too insidious -" Arruda said.

Yan Shi's face was slightly red, and there weren't many Han people there.

After the Battle of Fangcheng Mountain, everyone in Mongolia believed that the Song people were too insidious and could not be trusted.

In the past, they all thought that Peng Yibin was the local military leader, but now no one is so sure.

"Why did Peng Yibin name me?" Wo Kuotai asked again.

Peng Yibin and Mongolia have been at peace with each other in recent years, so why should they fight?There has to be a name, right?

Yan Shi's face turned even redder, and he said angrily: "Peng Yibin said that several of his soldiers were missing, and he suspected that he had fled to the Daimyo from Shandong and defected to us."

"Let us hand it over." Yan Shi said: "But we didn't receive Peng Yibin's soldiers at all."

"..." Wo Kuotai was speechless.

Arruda added: "It is said that several soldiers among Peng Yibin's subordinates clashed with Shangguan, then killed Shangguan, and then fled together."

"But we are sure that they did not flee to our daimyo."

When Chen Nayan heard this, he was also furious. What do you think of the Mongolian Empire now?Just find any excuse to start a war?

"How did you reply?" Wo Kuotai asked again.

"We didn't reply. Peng Yibin asked to send 500 people into the city to search. Of course we didn't agree, so he sent troops directly to fight."

"..." Why does Wo Kuotai feel a little ashamed?Now all cats and dogs can search the territory of Mongolia?

"The people of the Song Dynasty are sinister. This must be an excuse." Or Chen Nayan said angrily: "Peng Yibin must be a general of the Song Dynasty."

Everyone nodded.

Everyone was talking about it, and bang, there was a gunshot in front, and the Song Army's second artillery fire sounded again.

This cannon fired relatively quickly, and it was only a few minutes away from the front, but everyone could still see that white smoke was rising in another place, and it should be a different cannon.

Perhaps the trebuchets were too dense, and this gun hit another trebuchet.

Wokuotai came to Daming not to attack the city. In the current situation, the gain or loss of Daming was not important. He mainly came to see the artillery of the Song army.

Seeing that the artillery of the Song Dynasty was really powerful, the thought of building artillery was even more embarrassing.

"Let's go back to the grassland." Wo Kuotai flicked his riding whip: "Gather all the craftsmen and find a way to build Song artillery."

In the first month of the eighth year of Baoqing, due to heavy snowfall, Wo Kuotai did not lead his army to attack the daimyo. After seeing the artillery of the Song Dynasty, he immediately went north.

Seeing Wokuotai leaving, Peng Yibin, who was guarding the city, also breathed a sigh of relief.

Just a few days after the Song army entered Daimyo, not all of the thirty heavy cannons brought with the army reached the city.

Peng Yibin was also panicking now.

This time he raised 2 troops to attack the daimyo, including only 150 cavalry, more than [-] infantry camps, and six artillery battalions with [-] cannons.
According to the imperial court's plan, 5000 men will be stationed in the future and three artillery battalions will be left.

So he only had 75 cannons that could reach the top of the city.

I've been working overtime these days, but I'm only half done.

Fortunately, Wokuotai did not attack by force. He left immediately after seeing the Song people's artillery. This made Peng Yibin breathe a sigh of relief and quickly built fortifications frantically, especially the fortifications on the city head to prevent arrows and trebuchets.

Since seeing that the Mongolian army had trebuchets, Zhao Yurui also began to add new fortifications at the top of the city.

Daiming can also be regarded as an important town in Hebei. The two countries of Meng and Jin have been fighting for the two places before. There have been many battles. One is Zhending and the other is Daiming.

The daimyo guarded the west of Shandong, and could attack Shandong to the east. To the west, they could attack Zhangde, Henan, and even Changzhi, Shanxi.

This place is quite close to Henan and Shanxi. The cavalry starting from the daimyo can reach Changzhi, Shanxi in one day.

So when Zhao and Rui started fighting Jinmeng in Henan, they immediately asked Peng Yibin to make a name for himself first.

At this time, the Song Army had just entered the city for a few days, and the locals were still not used to it.

The daimyo were ruled by the Jin and the Mongols successively, but most of the time they were ruled by the Jin.

After the Wuxian of the Jin Kingdom retreated to Weizhou, the Mongols only ruled the area for a year or two.

Many local powerful and wealthy officials turned around and surrendered to the Mongols.

Of course, this was also a common thing during the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was basically the same for officials and powerful people from all over the country.

When the Mongols come, surrender to the Mongols; when the Jin comes, surrender to the Jin.

Those who were unwilling to surrender to the Mongols followed Wuxian and retreated to Weizhou. They are all now in Nanjing.

But this is the first time in hundreds of years that we have seen the Song Army.

(End of this chapter)