Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 867 God Arm City

Beginning in 1235 AD, the Mongolian army invaded the Southern Song Dynasty. After the fall of northwest Sichuan, it was a defensive war. In the early third year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty.The famous official Yu Jie went to Sichuan as the Minister of the Ministry of War, served as the envoy of Sichuan appeasement system and also knew the Chongqing government, and took Chongqing as the base camp to lead the defense of the whole Sichuan.

After arriving, Yu Jie adopted the advice of his staff and formulated a strategic plan to rely on mountains as a fortress and set up dangers to defend Shu. In the entire mountain city defense system, with Hechuan Diaoyu City as the center, Luzhou "God Arm City" was built in Sichuan. More than a dozen mountain cities including Pengxi "Dahuo City", Wanxian "Tiansheng City" and Jintang "Yunding City" supported each other and fought against the Mongolian army.

Among them, the God Arm City is the "snake head" of the long snake array built by this fortress complex, and its position is very important.

The city was built along the Longtou Mountain according to the danger. The entire city is 1000 to 800 meters long from east to west, [-] meters wide from north to south, with a total area of ​​five square miles. The terrain is high in the east and low in the west.Except for the cliffs, there are stone walls of different heights around the city, and five city gates have been built.

On the slope outside the east gate, there are also two stone walls with a word for the city, sandwiching an "ear city".

Parallel to the east gate, there are forts at the left and right ends of Ercheng.200 meters away from Ercheng, there is the only small road into the city. There are moat pools on both sides of the road. The left side is called Hongling Pond, and the right side is called Bailing Pond.

This constitutes the layout of building the city outside the city, digging pools under the city, and fortifying layers.

After the city was repaired, the state government was moved here, so it is also called "Old Luzhou". To this day, the village located on the site of Shenarm City is also called Laolu Village.

This is the most complete and spectacular ancient battlefield site in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River during the Mongolia-Song War in Central Shu.

After disembarking at the river beach outside the city at the foot of the mountain, there is only a narrow land road that passes through two large ponds and connects to a city gate.

The river bank here is steep, with jagged rocks, almost all cliffs, with no road to climb, only the east side is connected to the land road, but there are also several stone walls that go directly to the river.

After passing Hongling Pond, there is a slightly open area [-] meters to the south, which is a place for soldiers, named Xiaochangba.

However, there is a dam to the west of Xiaochangba, which is called Yizi City, also known as Duoshui City.In addition, there are fort guards above the school field dam.

The fort is on a cliff, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is called "Cat's Mouth Rock". There are also underground tunnels around the fort and the city wall.

There are two such one-character city walls, which are built on slopes. The two city walls, cliffs and river banks form an "ear city".

The northern end of Ercheng is connected to the cliff of Shenarm City, and the southern end extends to the Yangtze River. In the south of the city, a natural cliff is formed. Cut off the enemy's lateral traffic on the south bank of God's Arm Mountain.

The two one-character city walls were built using the Ding masonry method. The wedge-shaped city wall stones have uniform specifications, regular shapes, and obvious inclinations. Not only are they difficult to attack, but it is also difficult to destroy them.

Pass through the narrow city gate and there is a yamen in the city, and then start to climb the mountain. When you reach the mountain road, you can find that this is a military platform-like city defense facility.

It can be said that a mountain is a city, and a city is a mountain.

"There are many types of defensive facilities here." Fang Wenyu entered the role of a military observer and explained to everyone the exquisite design of this city: "The first type is forts, which are not located on the walls like ordinary cities, but are located A place with a wide view inside and outside, and a dangerous location, this is a typical pattern of 'fortifications on the platform'."

"The second type is called the enemy tower. The enemy tower is located at one end of the city wall or on the tall platform at the corner of the city wall. The platform and the city wall are connected as one, and the masonry style is the same as that of the city wall. There may be enemy towers built on the enemy tower, which are called turrets."

"The turret is a weak area of ​​the city's defense, because although it can attack the invading enemy at 270 degrees, it must also withstand the siege of the enemy at 270 degrees, so it needs to be made particularly strong."

"And the best defense is offense. Therefore, there are often three-dimensional shooting holes and secret passages for attacking under the turret. Taking advantage of the geographical advantage and combining ambushes, it can cause huge damage to the incoming enemy."

"The third type is the offensive and protective surface of the city wall, which is called the pier. Because it is specially thickened, it is shaped like a shield protruding above the city wall. There is also a square hole for shooting in the middle. People can hide on the sides and below. Also known as 'horse face'."

"The fourth category is the sentry post. It is usually located on both sides or above the city gate. It is a processed platform and plays the role of observation and guarding the city gate."

Walking all the way along the mountain road, you have to pass the Bell and Drum Tower, Jiaodiao, secret door, yamen, and warehouse along the way.

There are also rice fields and villages.

"This place is completely self-sufficient," Fang Wenyu said when he came to the highest point and had a panoramic view of the entire Xingsheng land: "There are springs, wells, and rice fields here. Once the city gate is closed, the cavalry of the large army will be able to get away from the lotus ponds on both sides. The existence of it is considered useless, and we can only use the refueling tactics through the narrow passage in the middle of the lotus pond, and become a living target for the defenders in front of us."

"Don't even think about the other three sides, the cliffs are so steep that monkeys can hardly climb up." Zhang Lu nodded in agreement.

Yang He looked around: "With the terraced fields on the mountain alone, it is not a problem to grow rice to support thousands of people."

From south to north, everyone chatted and took pictures while playing, and finally rested under the Shamao Rock in the northern suburb of the Shenarm City ruins.

There is a stone dam here. On the dam is a huge sculpture of the Song Dynasty, which is shaped like a huge stone turtle with a circumference of more than [-] meters and a back height of nearly two meters, lying on the ground, as if about to crawl.

On the back of the big tortoise, there is a giant python more than [-] meters long, coiled around the belly and back of the tortoise.

The head of the tortoise is raised up, and it is a statue of Xuanwu, the mythical beast guarding the north.

"Let's rest here for a while and wait for someone." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "Commander, if you were to defend such a city, how long would it be able to withstand the Yuan army?"

"For 3000 people, prepare some boats, fish and grow rice, and train soldiers and horses..." Fang Wenyu thought for a while: "If you have enough soldiers and food, you can defend for as long as you want?"

"Is it useful to defend like this?" Zhang Lu was a little strange: "I just leave you there and don't care?"

"Paepartout, you don't understand military affairs." Fang Wenyu said: "In ancient wars, the most important thing is the food road. How much food can a soldier carry? Even if we have a hundred catties per person, how much can we go with it?" Fast? How far can it effectively fight?”

"Therefore, there must be another force and channel for transporting food. Once such a force and channel are destroyed by the enemy, unless there is a way to 'rescue the enemy with food', the army in front will have only one end, and that is to collapse without attack."

"The south of the Yangtze River is not the north. The Yuan army can march with cattle and sheep. Therefore, apart from raiding the capital with naval forces, it can only be eaten away, but it is difficult to swallow it." Fang Wenyu said.

"However, water warfare is the strength of the southern regime. The battle of Caishiji can explain the problem. And there is more than one river defense project here, and there are many Austrian aid in the rear. Therefore, even if the enemy is ten times more numerous, there is no one in this checkpoint. Before you take it down, you will never dare to go south.”

"Is this the truth?" Zhang Lu asked Zhou Zhi.

"It's almost the same." Zhou Zhi said: "After the completion of God's Arm City, Song and Mongolia competed for this strategic fortress. In the 34 years from Song Lizong Chunyou's third year to Song Duanzong Jingyan's second year, the most brutal tug-of-war took place here. , changed hands five times successively, and many epic deeds have taken place.”

"But it was still destroyed in the end?" Wei Fei asked.

(End of this chapter)