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

Chapter 343 It’s better to sweat profusely
Less than a year after the death of Tuo Lei, Wo Kuotai was divided and transferred, reducing the strength of Tuo Lei Department in various ways.

In this case, although some tribes have not been divided for the time being, because Meng Ge has not officially participated in the war and Tuo Lei's other sons are still young, some tribes have already swayed. Whether they will obey Meng Ge is a question. .

Now, Mongolian tribes have always worshiped the strong. Meng Ge has not proven himself on the battlefield. How can everyone follow him with peace of mind?
When someone proposed to support Meng Ge in resisting Ogedei, Luheteni strongly opposed it immediately. He must have known that he could not get everyone's support, and also knew that Meng Ge could not obey now, so he could only give in.

The consequence of giving in was that a large number of soldiers and horses originally belonging to the mine-towing system were divided.

Wokuotai is now divided into soldiers and horses, but according to their tradition, the families of these troops will soon follow them and move to the garrison where the troops are located.

At that time, it will directly evolve into a massive loss of the population of the towed land type.

Wo Kuotai still has a few sons, Kuo Chu, He Dan and others who have not yet been entrusted. Last time he gave Kuo Duan [-] households and Guiyou [-] households. Will there be fewer sons next time?At least it starts with two thousand households.

The more Batu thought about it, the more annoyed he became. Looking at Orda's gloating expression, he said earnestly: "You can still laugh?"

"Brother Meng's today is your and our tomorrow."

O'erda and his younger brother Bierge were stunned at the same time.

"Wokuotai can do this to Brother Meng. When we die, the Great Khan will also be able to divide the territory and people we have worked so hard to build."

The expressions of the two brothers changed drastically.

Brother Bie'er suppressed his blush and thought for a while, then sternly said: "It's better to sweat profusely."

This guy understood this truth at a young age. As an official, you have to be the biggest one.

Later, Bie'erge indeed became the Great Khan of the Kipchak Khanate and obtained the Kipchak Khanate from his brother's son.

Orda originally strongly wanted to go to war with the Song people, but now he was brainwashed by Zhao Yurui's letter and his younger brother Batu, and felt that it was not worthwhile to fight the Song people.

Wokuotai selected their people at will, and those killed and wounded in battle were all the people they had worked hard to plunder and conquer.

They can then divide their territory at will.

Can't you do this?

If we defeat Wokuotai, the original emperor will be able to eliminate the feudal vassal, but if we lose, our people will be killed or injured.

No fool can do this.

"I hope the Abagas (uncles) will support us." Or'er replied: "As long as the Abagas support the eldest son's expedition to the west, Wokuotai has no choice but to negotiate peace with the Song people."

"One person must agree to it." Batu raised his head and looked deeply to the south. That is Chagatai's territory, and it is also the one with the most say in Great Mongolia except Wokuotai.

When Genghis Khan divided the territory, Chagatai obtained the area of ​​​​the original Western Liao Dynasty. Chagatai chose Alimari (near Huocheng County in Ili in later generations) to build the capital.

Alimari is the name of a kind of apple. Nearby is the Kegan Plain, which has endless prairie, rippling green forests, deep valleys, and blue lakes. In short, in this era, it is rich in grass and beautiful water. It was a good pasture, and in later generations it was known as the Flower City, the Apple City, and Jiangnan beyond the Great Wall.

It can be seen that this place is quite suitable for agricultural and animal husbandry production, and it is also very suitable for building a capital.

In the Western Liao Dynasty, this was already one of the largest and most prosperous cities in Central Asia. It was also a transportation hub on the Silk Road and a gathering place of Eastern and Western cultures. Celebrities such as Qiu Chuji and Marco Polo lived here successively. live.

From the Western Liao Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty, there was an important trade route here, which was from Danna-Salai (the capital built by Batu later)-Wulonggechi or Salai-Nyandala-Alimali-Ganzhou-China. The entire trip takes several months.

At that time, the horse trade played an important role in the trade of the major khanates. Horses from the Kipchak grassland could be transported to various countries, most of which were to India. Horse trading caravans could transport up to 6000 horses. In the first half of the 15th century, a caravan from the Kipchak grassland transported 4000 horses to Iran. Each horse was worth more than 100 dinars, and the profit from it was about [-]%.

Therefore, whether the war horses of the Kipchak Khanate in Batu want to be transported to Yilang, India or the Central Plains in the future, they will have to pass through Alimari in Chagatai.

The location of Chagatai is quite good, as it is directly at the heart of the trade route.

After Chagatai obtained the fiefdom, he used a large number of craftsmen to expand Alimari City.

There was not even a city wall in Hara Helin. When Batu was still considering building a capital city, he had already expanded and strengthened the original city to build the most powerful capital city in Central Asia at that time.

According to Chagatai's design, the completed Alimari City will have a circumference of fifty miles and will become the largest capital city in Central Asia.

You must know that in the Central Plains and Southern Song Dynasty, there are only a handful of cities with a circumference of fifty miles.

This guy Chagatai should be the one who likes the big city the most among the Mongolian kings. I don't know if it's because he didn't become the Great Khan, so he wants to dominate the capital.

Of course, building such a huge capital requires a lot of manpower and resources.

Over the years, Chagatai worked hard to build Alimari City, and borrowed craftsmen from his younger brother Ogedai's fiefdom. There were more than 3 craftsmen involved in the construction of the city, and [-] ethnic minority households were helping, with the total number exceeding [-]. .

After completion, Alimari City can accommodate millions of people living in it at the same time.

So does Chagatai's fiefdom have such a large population? It certainly doesn't exist now.

At their peak, the four khanates were said to have a combined population of 5000 million, but this number is estimated to be a bit watered down. A population of 3000 million is not bad.

The population of the four major khanates is ranked from largest to smallest: Kipchak, Chagatai, Ilkhan, and Ogedai.

The population of the Kipchak Khanate at its peak was only 1000 million, so the total population of the four major khanates should be around 3000 million.

Now Chagatai is in the process of development. He learned from his elder brother Jochi and expanded while fighting, grabbing and embezzling everywhere.

In the beginning, Genghis Khan only gave him [-] households. After obtaining the fiefdom of Xiliao, his population suddenly increased sharply.

When Yelu Dashi first arrived in Yemil to establish the city, there were 20 tribes (equivalent to households) who came to seek refuge, and the total number of his subordinates exceeded [-].

In 1151, a census was conducted in Xiliao, and it was found that "for those with registered residence or above, there were [-] households."

That is to say, there are more than 8 households if there are more than 40 households in the household. If we include the family members, we estimate that there are about [-] households.

After that, he successively conquered many areas of the original Khwarezm, and his peak number was estimated to be around 50.

After the fall of Western Liao, there were about 30 people who remained in the territory.

Therefore, after Chagatai obtained the Western Liao fiefdom, he immediately had more than 30 people.

Then he also fought everywhere and continued to expand his territory. Now there are nearly 60 subjects in the entire territory.

According to the algorithm of drawing one out of five, you can get 10,000+ elites.

However, there are a large number of Khitan soldiers in the Mongolian army, many of whom are drawn from their fiefdoms, and the tribesmen are too far away. Currently, the whole territory can only collect 4 to [-] people.

In April, news that the Song army had conquered Shazhou first reached Alimari.

At the same time, Wo Kuotai's letter and Zhao Yurui's letter arrived at Alimari two days later.

Two pieces of news reached Chagatai one after another. Chagatai was shocked and couldn't believe it.

After hurriedly reading the letter, he immediately chose to go to war with the Song army with all his strength, and first drove the Song people back to Sichuan and Shaanxi.

On the sixth day of April, Chagatai began to gather troops and horses throughout the territory. In addition to a small number of left-behind troops, he recruited a large number of men over the age of 15 and under the age of 50, just to gather an army of [-].

The Mongolian army recruited men over the age of 15 only when it was competing with the Jin Kingdom at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It has not been done for many years now.

There is nothing Chagatai can do.

Although the population under his rule is close to 60, he is building Alimari, and this aspect alone uses a lot of labor, of which [-] households are dedicated to helping him do this.

Of course, many strong men from these [-] households have already gone out with the Mongolian army and are not in Xiliao.

In addition, the Xiliao area is relatively large, and many tribes are in far away places, so there is no rush to recruit in a short period of time.

In order to cooperate with Kuoduan as soon as possible, Chagatai attacked the Song army from both sides. In only half a month, he gathered 5 troops from a relatively close place as soon as possible.

On April [-], the news that Shazhou was captured by the Song army reached Alimari again.

On the [-]th, ten thousand Mongolian troops came from the north.

These ten thousand Mongolian troops came from Wokuotai fiefdom.

Ogedai's own fiefdom has always been the smallest, least populous, and weakest military among the four great khanates.

He has never returned to his fiefdom since he became the Great Khan.

Ogedai's fiefdom was connected to Chagatai's fiefdom. Chagatai specially sent people to ask for troops, and Ogedai's close confidant Ha Zhibu personally came to help with an army of [-] people.

Hajibu was one of Ogedai's most important confidants, and Ogedai's youngest son, Boljijin Mili, was raised by him.

Early in the morning on the [-]th, Chaghatai was standing at the east gate of Alimari City. He looked at the dark cloud-like tribal warriors outside the city and the non-stop busy work of tens of thousands of craftsmen and civilians inside and outside the city. He felt extremely proud in his heart. .

Since the first western expedition of the Mongolian army, Chagatai has not participated in any major battles. When Wo Kuotai attacked gold, he only sent his son to participate.

He will personally fight in this battle and lead the army to the east, striving to destroy the Song army in Xixia.

However, Chagatai looked to the north from time to time. Batu, whose fiefdom was connected to Wokuotai, should have received the news. Why haven't there been any troops coming?
Chagatai was observing the north when he suddenly saw a group of cavalry running towards them in the distance.

Soon, Haraxulie appeared on the top of the city.

Haraxuleh was the son of Chagatai's eldest son, Mu'atugan. Chagatai's eldest son died early, and he loved this grandson very much. His grandson Haraxuleh was talented in literature and military, and had the ability to drag thunder and draw capital. In the end, Chagatai also passed the throne of Khan to this grandson in history.

Haraxulie came to the city with an unhappy face and reported to Chagatai.

They rode three horses per person, traveling day and night, running hundreds of miles every day to Batu's territory. As a result, Batu said that he wanted to negotiate peace with Song Dynasty in Wokuotai and launch a eldest son's westward expedition, because the Jin Kingdom was going to be destroyed by the Song people, and the Mongolians The feud has been avenged, and there is no need to fight with the Song people for this boring Central Plains.

"He refuses to send troops?" Chagatai was furious after hearing this.Haraxulie said again: "Ba wants to march westward and does not want to fight the Song people."

"What a bastard." Chagatai said angrily: "Did Tuo Lei die in vain? Tens of thousands of our Damon elites were killed in vain?"

He still doesn't believe that Tuo Lei was poisoned by Wo Kuotai, and he still wants to avenge Tuo Lei's [-] troops and fight to the death with the Song people.

Haraxulie lowered his head and thought for a while. In his heart, it didn't matter whether he went to the west or attacked the Song Dynasty. Anyway, he just had to fight.

But although he is young, he is very smart, and he knows that he must support his grandfather.

Chagatai obviously wants to start a war with the Song people now, so of course he has to side with his grandfather.

"Batu is short-sighted and ignorant. We Mongolians should unite like an arrow." Haraxulie raised his head decisively.

"Very good, you are right to think so." Chagatai patted his shoulder with satisfaction: "Batu's knowledge is not as good as yours, you have grown up."

Next to him stood his youngest son Hedahai.

Heda Hai is about the same age as Hara Huleh, only one year older than Hara Huleh, but his generation is different.

However, the Mongolians have always had the tradition of young sons guarding the stove, but Hedahai did not feel his father's care from his father Chagatai.

Chagatai liked his eldest grandson Haraxule the most, and Chagatai was quite depressed.

Later, Chagatai indeed passed the throne of Khan to his eldest grandson, but did not give it to his youngest son.

Hedahai thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and said: "What Batu said is not unreasonable. How can the Central Plains be as beautiful as this colorful grassland -"

"Bastard, what did you say?" Chagatai glared at his youngest son: "This is not a matter of fighting for the world. The Song people betrayed their trust and ambushed our Dameng warriors. How can we just let this debt go?"

He Dahai also tried his best and continued to say bravely: "There are rumors outside that He Khan will cancel the clan king's fiefdom in the future. We must be on guard against this matter."

"..." Chagatai glared at his son: "Where did you hear this? Can you believe this? It's obviously a Song people's plan to sow discord."

Do you still need to listen? Zhao Yurui's letter has been spread everywhere. He Dahai said helplessly: "He Khan trusted Yelu Chucai, reused Han Confucian scholars, and imposed a large number of taxes north of the Yellow River. Many nobles were very dissatisfied. of."

"Yelü Chucai acted exactly like a Han emperor in the Central Plains. He Khan trusted him so much. If he aspired to the Central Plains in the future, Abu, do you think he would do this? Did the Jin Dynasty and Liao Kingdom ever have fiefdoms?"

This sentence is really murderous.

What the Mongolian aristocrats in the original history would do after they aspired to conquer the Central Plains must have never thought about it.

But now that Zhao Yurui proposed it decades in advance, it is indeed a big killer.

Mongolia, will you learn from the Central Plains Dynasty?If you want to learn, then surely there will be no enfeoffment?
Look at our previous Jin Kingdom and Liao Kingdom, who had any enfeoffment?
At that time, our territory will be harvested and we will have to pay taxes.

No one knows at this time that there will be four great khanates in the future.

When Chagatai heard this, his expression changed slightly.

The scene fell into a brief silence.

But after all, Chagatai had a good relationship with Wo Kuotai. He hesitated again and again, and finally said in a deep voice: "We will talk about the future matters later. The top priority is to destroy the Song army that entered Xixia first."

Chagatai did not listen to the advice and decided to continue attacking the Song army.

But he was already quite irritated. When his father Genghis Khan was in the past, he was very united internally. He conquered the Jin Dynasty, destroyed Liao Dynasty and Xixia Dynasty, and was invincible.

Now that the Song people have risen and are good at using intrigues and intrigues, Mongolia is quite unstable internally. In addition, since Ogedai took office, he has not achieved any major victory. If he cannot defeat the Song people again this time, he might really Separation and disintegration.

In any case, let's get over the immediate difficulties first, first destroy the Song army that entered Xixia, and then the brothers and uncles behind us can sit together and discuss whether to go to the West or start a full-scale war with Song Dynasty.

"Send the order, have a good night's rest, set off tomorrow, and notify other places. Anyone who dares to spread rumors about the Song people will be killed." Following Chagatai's decision, [-] Mongolian troops in the Western Liao region decided to set off tomorrow.

On the 3th, Chagatai personally led the army, taking his grandson Halaxule and leaving his son Hedahai to garrison Alimari. With [-] troops and [-] horses, they headed east in a mighty manner.

The army passed through Yili and Xinyuan, and troops and war horses joined them one after another on the road.

When they were approaching Hezhou, the Mongolian troops from Solimi and Changbala also came to gather. When they finally arrived at Hamili, Chagatai had gathered [-] troops and [-] horses.

The army entered Xixia from Hamili, and then turned south to Shazhou.

In early May, Chagatai led his army to Shazhou City. At the same time, he also received a lot of news from the front, and suddenly felt a headache.

The Song army surrounded Suzhou in late April, and then did not attack the city. They sent a large number of civilians to dig holes and build walls around Suzhou City, besieging the entire Suzhou, and it seemed that they were going to fight a protracted war.

On the day the Song Army attacked Shazhou, they did not send out all their troops. Instead, the Song Army dispatched [-] horses and rode in all directions, frantically plundering the herdsmen guarding outside the city from all over Shazhou and Guazhou.

At that time, the battle against Shazhou had not yet begun. The Song army's cavalry went out in all directions, arresting herdsmen and plundering cattle, horses and sheep.

After capturing Shazhou, the Song army had captured thousands of herdsmen and seized tens of thousands of horses, tens of thousands of cattle, and 10,000+ sheep.

At this time, the Mongolian troops in Guazhou, Suzhou and other places realized that something was wrong and moved the surrounding herdsmen into the city.

But there is also a problem here, which is the same as when the Mongolian army came in to attack Xixia.

The local herds a large number of cattle, horses, sheep, yaks, even camels, and especially war horses, which number in the tens of thousands. If you usually graze outside, it is impossible for them all to move into the city when foreign enemies come.

Firstly, there is not so much grass to eat in the city, and secondly, there is not such a big space for millions of cattle, horses and sheep.

Xixia raises 50 war horses and millions of other cattle and sheep every year. It is unrealistic to move them all to the city.

Therefore, after the Mongolian army came in, Xixia could only try to move the population into the city. Many cattle, horses and sheep outside were occupied by the Mongolian army.

Now the Song army came in. The Song army first robbed cattle, horses and sheep, and then captured thousands of people.

Other prefectures and cities immediately moved their population to the city, and many cattle, horses and sheep had to send a small number of people to move to distant places.

But the Song army sent cavalry everywhere to capture them, and first caught a batch for food.

Then they surrounded Suzhou City, as if they were going to be besieged for a long time.

It is spring now, and the water and grass outside the city are lush. The Song army is raising cattle, horses and sheep, and eating beef and mutton. It is estimated that they can spend a year and a half with the Mongolian army without any problems.

When the Mongolian army attacked Zhongxing Prefecture, they fought for nearly a year and finally surrendered after running out of ammunition and food. Therefore, when foreign enemies came here, they could completely consume them with the defenders. Many times, the defenders ran out of food, and the foreign enemies could not eat them. Can't finish it.

Apart from anything else, if your garrison has tens of thousands of horses and one hundred thousand cattle and sheep in the city, do you want to eat grass?

You were surrounded in the back, and even the war horses couldn't get enough to eat, and they even fought hard.

But the Song army surrounded Suzhou and did not attack, and Chagatai was not afraid. He could choose to capture Shazhou and then attack the Song army in Suzhou City, or he could not ignore Shazhou and directly attack the Song army.

But there is also bad news.

In early April, nearly 7 troops were gathered at Kuantuan of Zhongxing Mansion, preparing to attack the Song Army in the west. Unexpectedly, they left Zhongxing Mansion and received urgent reports from sentries. The Song Army sent tens of thousands of troops from Fengxiang, Sichuan, and crossed the Yellow River. Take Zhongxing Mansion.

Kuo Duan was shocked. There were two voices among his subordinates at that time. One was to ignore the Song army and let people defend Zhongxing Mansion. They would go to Suzhou to defeat the Song army first. The other was to go back and defeat the Song army from Sichuan and Fengxiang. .

Zhongxing Mansion must not be lost. Not only does it contain a large amount of Mongolian army's wealth, most of the Mongolian army's family members are here.

Kuoduan kept sending sentry cavalry to investigate, but the Song army's sentry cavalry was also powerful, and each team of sentry cavalry was twice as strong as the Mongolian army.

After killing and injuring a large number of sentinels, Kuoduan Sentinel estimated that the Song army numbered at least [-], of which nearly [-] were infantry camps, carrying a large number of heavy artillery, and at least [-] civilians.

This is the largest number of civilians the Song Army has brought since the war began.

There were almost 10 Song troops on this route. Kuo Duan knew that the Song army's artillery was powerful, and he was afraid that Zhongxing Mansion would suffer losses, so he decided to return to attack the Song troops on this route first.

In this case, he and Chagatai's original plan to encircle and annihilate the Meng Ying tribe of the Song Army under Suzhou City would have to be postponed.

When the news reached Chagatai, Chagatai had a headache.

He was also in a dilemma, whether to attack Shazhou first or go to Suzhou alone to attack the Song army.

On the second day of May, Chagatai came to the foot of Shazhou City. He looked at the flags of the Song Army on the wall in front of him and felt very annoyed.

The Song army is said to have 6 to [-] people. In the small city of Shazhou, only a few thousand people will be left at most. But Shazhou is not easy to attack. When the Mongolian army came in, they fought for more than a month.

However, the Song army defeated it in one day, and they don’t know how they captured it.

When he saw the West City Gate, he found that the West City Gate seemed to be newly built, and then he realized that the Song Army should have destroyed the West City Gate before.

The people of the Song Dynasty had limited time, so the newly built West City Gate was just built with large pieces of bricks and stones. The gate was very small, and could only accommodate three riders abreast. There was no urn, just like the gate of an ordinary house. In this way, the Song army on the wall, You can also attack the Mongolian army under the city gate.

Chagatai observed it and found that he could continue to attack the city from the west gate that the Song army had breached. It was easier to climb here because there were still gaps between the new stones.

"Come here, shoot a letter of surrender." Chagatai still uses the old routine. First send people to shoot a letter of surrender to attract surrender. If they don't surrender, they will be slaughtered after they break through.

Hara Xulie took the lead and quickly approached Shazhou City with Jiang Shu in person. When he got closer, he found that there was no one on it.
He was also arrogant. When he arrived at the foot of Shazhou City, he immediately ran to the left parallel to the city wall. While running, he looked around and saw a man's head sticking out from the top of the city, with a bow and an arrow.

An arrow was thrown onto the city.

Phew, the head above shook slightly, obviously being hit by an arrow.

"Hahaha." Hara Xulie laughed wildly, turned around and rode away quickly.

(End of this chapter)