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

Chapter 462 Wo Kuotai’s decision
The surrender of Gaocheng was also of extraordinary significance to the Mongolian army.

Gaocheng is the county town with the largest number of Mongolian troops stationed in southwest Hebei and the best management.

Not only is its location relatively special, but also because it is on the Hutuo River and has a wide moat. It was originally an important town that was easy to defend but difficult to attack. The Mongolian army was also prepared to consume a large amount of the Song army here.

However, Dong Jun was killed in battle and his son surrendered, causing Hebei, an important town run by the Mongolian army for many years, to fall into the hands of the Song army.

After Gaocheng fell, all the counties and states south of Hebei surrendered. Many state cities were larger than Gaocheng and it was useless because there was no moat and they would definitely not be able to defend it.

Shunde Mansion was originally much larger than Gaocheng, but it did not have a moat. The Mongolian army in the city was breached without even holding it for three days.

Gaocheng is also an important town leading west to Shanxi. After the Song army breaks Gaocheng, they can go straight into Shanxi to the west and Zhending to the southwest.

Moreover, at this time, the Song Army's soldiers and horses from Shaanxi Hehe, led by Wang Jian, Liu Zheng and others, were aggressively attacking Shanxi and were about to reach Taiyuan.

As long as Taiyuan is reached and the Song army in Hebei fights westward for a few more days, the Song armies in Shanxi and Hebei will soon be able to form a line.

A few days after the surrender of Gaocheng, the three armies of the Song Army in Shanxi attacked simultaneously, and the armies of the left, center and right met in the south of Taiyuan.

Taiyuan City persisted for more than 250 days with the army and people deprived of food before it was finally breached.

Among them, when the Jin army attacked the city, they drove the Northern Song people in front every time, which made the Song army defenders restrained and the defenders did not dare to use their cannons, which seriously affected the Song army's defense of the city.

The magpie platform is two feet high and about five feet wide.

If these three places are lost, only the vicinity of Datong will remain in Shanxi.

The Song army supported Taiyuan with nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses, but they were all surrounded by Jin soldiers for reinforcements. They were defeated again and again, and the elite Western Army was almost wiped out.

Taiyuan City is a rectangle narrow from east to west and long from north to south. It is divided into two parts, the inner and outer city. The outer city is about eleven miles long and the sub-city is more than five miles long.

The Song army selected a group from the surrendered troops, leaving 1,500 Song troops and 1,500 surrendered troops in each city.

The Mongolian army has also strengthened many city defense facilities in recent years and repaired some aging places.

This can be said to be the most representative city in Shanxi. For example, Gaocheng, which the Song Army finally surrendered in Hebei, did not have a suspension bridge. It was a physical bridge. Because there was no urn city, the Song army could not pile explosives on the urn city under the city to blow up the city gate. method.

In addition, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song court built a parapet six feet away from the outer city. The parapet was five feet high and shaped like the word "mountain". There were crenellations in the middle of every two parapets.

The middle route army is led by Wang Jian, with about 80,000 troops, and the right route army is led by Wang Shixian, with about 60,000 troops.

Now more than a hundred years have passed, and Taiyuan City was occupied by the Jin Kingdom and fell into the hands of the Mongolian army.

Taiyuan city defense was originally a rare configuration among cities in the Song Dynasty, but now it has become stronger.

This time the Song army also used the method of attacking and occupying one place, gradually encroaching on it. Every time they occupied a place, they would leave three thousand defenders.

The Song army invaded Shanxi this time with more troops and horses, divided into three armies: left, middle and right.

It can be said that the defense of Taiyuan City at that time was second to none in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the Jin army invaded in a large scale. The general who attacked Taiyuan, Nianhan, had been invincible and invincible since he followed Wanyan Agu to fight. However, he suffered a lot under Taiyuan City.

The left route army was Liu Zheng, who led troops from Shaanxi through Tongguan. The total number of left route troops was 60,000.

Outside Qingyuan County, more than 20 miles south of Taiyuan City, the Song Army's camp covered the sky and the sun. Nearly 200,000 troops were stationed here and were discussing the attack on Taiyuan.

"We have two options now."

There is a horse face every sixty steps outside Taiyuan City. The horse face is the horse face wall. The wall protrudes about two feet from the city wall. From both sides of the wall, you can see the bottom of the city wall, which means you can attack the enemy at the nearest bottom of the city wall. Army, this already has the idea of ​​a bastion in later generations.

The Song army could hide inside to avoid arrows, and at the same time, leave a square hole on the wall, which they could use to shoot down the city.

When Wang Jian saw everyone arriving at the scene, he pointed to the sand table map of Taiyuan City on the ground and said: "Taiyuan City is not easy to fight. The Jin Kingdom fought for more than 250 days and it was only broken after the city ran out of ammunition and food."

Fortunately, the Song army captured Qingyuan County first and used Qingyuan County as its base camp, cutting off the water transportation between Taiyuan and Shouyang.

To attack Shanxi, Taiyuan must be taken. At this time, the Song army generals gathered together and were discussing the attack on Taiyuan.

However, Shanxi returned to Mongolia relatively late, so many surrendered, and the Song Army also received many surrenders along the way.

For example, Zhang Jun, He Shunshou, Liu Quan, Wang Min, Wang Jian, Hu Shida, Hu Xian, Li Tingyu (Li Hulanji), etc.

There are also many generals gathered at the scene, many of whom are good generals who have left their names in history.

Wokuotai also knew the importance of Taiyuan, so he first sent his confidant Chen Nayan to garrison it.

In this way, when the Song army finally came to rendezvous near Qingyuan County, including the surrendered troops, the total number was nearly 200,000.

The Song army came from all directions, including troops stationed in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Henan, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and other places. The Song army was mainly based in Henan and Jinghu.

The Mongolian army has 40,000 troops in Taiyuan, 20,000 in Xinzhou, and 20,000 in Shouyang. The three places form a triangle and rely on each other for support.

As long as the Song army breaks through these three areas, it can form a line with the Hebei Song army, further compressing the Mongolian army's living space and forcing them to retreat to the grassland.

The highest commander currently in charge on the battlefield is Wang Jian, and his deputies are Liu Zheng and Wang Shixian.

The outer city wall is about three feet high. This is an absolutely tall city wall in the eyes of the Mongols. It is significantly higher than the one or two feet of European city walls. In the entire Shanxi and Hebei regions, Taiyuan City is also relatively tall.

There are not many Mongolian troops in Taiyuan, only 40,000 to 50,000, but Taiyuan City is famous for being easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are also various horse-faced walls, female walls, sub-city, moon city, and magpie platform. The facilities are very complete. This is Lin'an, the capital city of the Southern Song Dynasty, did not exist.

In order to prevent the Song army at the top of the city from being shot by enemy bows and arrows, the Song court built a "magpie platform" on the city wall.

On this day, all the troops of the Song army came to the Chinese army's tent to discuss matters.

But these three places are also one of the most difficult places to attack in Shanxi. All three places have moats.

Taiyuan has been a fortified city since ancient times. In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the imperial court knew that Taiyuan was an important place for border defense in the northwest. General Pan Mei expanded Tangming Town to Taiyuan City, dug trenches to divert water, and first built a moat in the east of the city. Later, the Song Dynasty strengthened the city and built the moat. A circle was made along Taiyuan City without any bridges, and a suspension bridge design was adopted, and the Moon City was designed with the front of the suspension bridge as the center.

Not to mention Taiyuan City, Xinzhou was built on a branch of the Hutuo River, and Shouyang was by the Blackwater River.

The three counties and prefectures have moats as natural barriers, and ships from Shouyang can sail directly to Taiyuan.

Wang Jian also had two sets of tactics. The first was to attack by force, but the casualties would inevitably be heavy. The second was to learn from Yu Jie of Hebei, first to sweep away everything that could be fought, capture them all, and then to encircle them without attacking, which would consume the Mongolian army's food.

Some generals have been a little confused recently, because the Song army has gasoline bombs and is invincible. The Mongolian army is also watching the wind and falling everywhere. He can't help but say: "What's so difficult to attack? If we attack a small Taiyuan, not many people will die, right?" That means? storm.

Wang Shixian immediately said: "Taiyuan is different. There are quite a lot of city defenses, and our gasoline bombs are not easy to use."

Taiyuan City has a special "magpie platform" to prevent arrows, which can also prevent fire.

The key point is that the moat in front is quite wide. Filling the river will require a lot of civilians and labor. The early stage will be a huge project.

The Kingdom of Jin could drive the people of the Northern Song Dynasty to do this. If the Song army attacked by force now, they might have to drive the local people. This is an unpopular thing. If it can be done, it is better if Wang Jian does not want to do it.

"Who is the guard in the city? Can he surrender?" Wang Shixian wanted to ask if he was a Han.

"Ochen Nayan is Temujin's brother-in-law and a confidant of Ogedei." Wang Jian said: "It seems that he was the one who poisoned Tuo Lei to death."

"He is a die-hard loyalist to Wokuotai, and he will definitely not surrender." The guard general is a Mongolian and a clan king, so it is basically impossible for him to surrender.

Then everyone was talking about how to attack Taiyuan City and offered various suggestions.

Seeing everyone discussing, Wang Jian and Liu Zheng did not speak.

Wang Jian stared at the sand table, thinking about what the emperor had brought.

Zhao Yurui asked them to fight patiently, not to rush to make meritorious deeds, and to try not to make mistakes, and to figure it out slowly.

Even if they are defeated, don't worry, the entire Song Dynasty is supporting them from behind.

When fighting against Shanxi and Hebei, Zhao and Rui only have one word: "Stable."

First of all, don't make too many mistakes, don't suffer a huge defeat, and lose a lot of money. In fact, you must occupy one place after you conquer it.

You can drag it slowly.

Wo Kuotai now fully hopes that Batu will come back, but Meng Gong and Lu Wende's armies totaling three to four hundred thousand troops are waiting for Batu near Qianzhou, so the possibility of Batu returning in time is very small.

It's been eight years since Yuanzhen, and no news of Batu's return to the army has reached here.

Wang Jian thought about it and decided to be the master.

"Your Majesty is considerate of our brothers and hopes to reduce casualties as much as possible." Wang Jian finally said: "We might as well follow the original plan and capture the easy-to-fight areas in the surrounding areas first, so that Taiyuan becomes an isolated city."

Liu Zheng immediately agreed: "We can lay siege to the city and call for reinforcements. Just like in the Jin Dynasty, if any Mongolian troops came to rescue us, we would attack other Mongolian troops first. We have so many soldiers and horses that we are not afraid of the Mongolian troops in field battles."

As long as it doesn't come back, Liu Zheng and Wang Jian have nothing to worry about.

Zhao and Rui both told them not to rush and fight slowly. The entire Song Dynasty would provide them with continuous support in terms of logistical supplies. Since the court had money and food, Wang Jian discussed with the generals and decided to focus on encirclement. The strategy of conquering them one by one, and finally attacking Taiyuan City.

Zhao Yurui negotiated peace with Mongolia for several years and accumulated large amounts of money and grain just for this bulldozing campaign.

Zhao Yurui has always been opposed to storming a fortified city. If you can reduce casualties, you must reduce casualties. The soldiers are also people, they are all people of the Song Dynasty, and they are all Zhao Yurui's people.

After the agreement, the Song army used Fenyang as its base camp in Shanxi. A steady stream of supplies were transported here from the Song Dynasty. The nearly 200,000 troops were divided into 150,000 troops to surround Taiyuan City, and then 50,000 troops attacked other counties one by one.

In less than half a month, everything south of Datong in Shanxi and below Shuozhou, except Xinzhou and Shouyang, was captured by the Song army.

In the middle, Chitai led troops from Xinzhou to attack the Song army of 50,000, hoping to defeat the Song army in a field battle.

As a result, they were given a good lesson by the Song army's flintlock guns and returned in a disastrous defeat. After this defeat, the Mongolian army retreated to Xinzhou and never dared to come out again.

At this time, everything below Shuozhou in Shanxi was occupied by the Song army. The Song army did not attack Xinzhou and Shouyang. They occupied all the counties near the three places and were consuming the military supplies of these three places.

In order to defend these three places, the Mongolian army stationed a large number of troops.

Before the war between Song and Meng, these three places combined did not have 50,000 troops.

After the war between Song and Meng began, Wokuotai gradually mobilized troops and horses.

Now there are 40,000 in Taiyuan, 20,000 in Xinzhou, and 20,000 in Shouyang.

These 80,000 horses eat and drink at an astronomical rate every day.

The Song army defeated everything they could in the surrounding areas. Every day, five thousand riders went out to search for the Mongolian army's food routes and reinforcements, and cut off their transportation lines. Now 80,000 horses and horses were crowded into three cities. It wouldn't take long for the Mongolian army to be defeated. Food shortage.

When the Song Army does not attack the city, they will have no choice but to come out to fight with the Song Army.

The Mongolian army used to be famous for its field battles, but now it was beaten by the Song army and could only retreat into the city and did not dare to fight in the field.

There are several main reasons.

First, in Shanxi and Hebei, the Mongolian army is dominated by Han troops. There are too few Mongolian soldiers and horses. Most of them followed Batu in the westward expedition, and some are now hiding near the Altai Mountains.

Second, Wokuotai cannot concentrate too many troops now.

In the early days of Mongolia's founding, it was fought with the whole country's troops. Now the territory is getting bigger and bigger, there are more and more places to defend, and the troops are distributed everywhere.

Wokuotai wanted to concentrate a large-scale army of more than 100,000 people in Shanxi or Hebei, but he was unable to do so.

Even if they were concentrated, there wouldn't be so much food that could be supplied for a long time.

The army on the grasslands and the Central Plains are two different concepts.

Just as the Song army was surrounding Taiyuan and attacking other places in a leisurely manner, Wokuotai, who was not far away from here in Datong, was already discussing with the nobles whether to retreat to Guanshan or to gather the remaining soldiers and horses for support. The decisive battle between Taiyuan and the Song army.

But the Song army also has its main force in Hebei, and Tasi in Hebei can't withstand it anymore. The Song army has already entered Gaocheng, and the front has reached Zhending.

Seeing that both Shanxi and Hebei were devastated by the Song army, Wokuotai, with the limited troops in his hands, did not know whether to fight with the Shanxi Song army or the Hebei Song army.

The Mongolian nobles all suggested that Wang Jian and other troops in Shanxi should be eliminated first.

Because Hebei was occupied by Mongolia earlier, northern Shanxi earlier, and the southern part of Shanxi now occupied by the Song Army was only occupied by Mongolia before and after the destruction of the Jin Dynasty. The people there voted back and forth and could not be occupied by the Song Army for a long time.

There are more Mongolian troops in Hebei and their foundation is deep, so they can still hold on.

In June of the eighth year of Yuanzhen.

When the Song army surrounded Taiyuan and other places, Wokuotai, who was far away in Datong, was preparing to return to Guanshan.

Guanshan is the Zhuozi of Inner Mongolia in later generations.

It is only more than two hundred miles away from Datong, which is not too far, but it is considered a grassland, a place suitable for Mongolian cavalry. The Song army has been winning in various places. Wo Kuotai is no longer interested in the Central Plains. This kind of fighting method, It was not something he was familiar with and confident about. Only when he returned to the grassland could he have the confidence to show off with the Song Army.

But Yelu Chucai and other ministers strongly opposed it. They believed that once the Mongolian army retreated to the grassland, they might never be able to fight back again.

But regardless of whether the Mongolian army retreats or not, Wokuotai himself must return to Guanshan first.

The Song army arrived at Shuozhou, which was not far from Datong.

After hearing some bad news in a row, the good news finally came yesterday.

The reinforcements from the kings of Northeast Mongolia finally arrived in Datong yesterday under the leadership of Chitai, adding a new force to Wo Kuotai.

The Song army was fighting everywhere in Liaodong and Hebei. The kings of northeastern Mongolia were all Temujin's brothers, and they could not stop the Song army's large number of troops. In addition, Wokuotai recruited them, so they gathered all the troops and horses. About 30,000 people came to Datong.

Most of these 30,000 Mongolian troops are of Mongolian origin, and are the people of the kings in the Northeast. They are also the last elite of Mongolia in Shanxi, Hebei, Liaodong, and the Northeast.

At this time, Wokuotai still had 100,000 Mongolian troops in Datong, which was also the last mobile force in his hands.

Whether to fight or retreat, everyone is waiting for his decision.

(End of this chapter)