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

Chapter 485: Not the Director of the Mongolian Army

With a roar, the Song army on the opposite side was fully armored and armed with sharp weapons. There were twenty-one people in total, arranged in two rows, walking in the middle in an orderly manner.

Pedestrians around him were not surprised, but they subconsciously moved to both sides to avoid it.

There was a two-foot-wide open space in the middle, which was relatively wide. Everyone seemed a little afraid of Song Jun, so they still subconsciously moved aside.

Kublai Khan and Brother Mo looked over coldly. This was the first time they had seen the Song Army at close range. They had never had the opportunity to see the Song Army at such a close distance on the battlefield before.

The Song army used flintlock guns and bows and arrows on the battlefield, and defeated the Mongolian army in repeated battles. This was the first time Kublai Khan saw the Song army without flintlock guns.

This Song army all carried cold weapons, spears, waist knives, and some even had crossbows on their backs. The weapons were very ordinary, but their military appearance was neat and tidy, and they all carried murderous aura. At first glance, they looked like elites from a hundred battles.

This wave of Song troops are patrolling the streets, and their main role is to maintain order.

Kublai Khan and Brother Mo watched them pass by, and then looked at each other, thinking at the same time that the current Song army was really elite. Just looking at their military appearance and morale, even without those firearms (flintlock guns), they would not be easy to deal with. .

After walking for a while, they met another group of Song Army cavalry, also on patrol. The horses they rode were slower and jogging on the road. At this time, they happened to encounter a large cannibal caravan carriage carrying a large number of people. There were a lot of goods. They probably met the war horses. One of the horses was a little panicked. The carriage twisted slightly and a bunch of goods fell over.

But they couldn't get through, and they were all blocked by the Song army.

"Song people are really good at pretending." Brother Mo looked on from the side and sneered.

The Song people were more barbaric than the Mongols in fighting, and they imitated the Mongols in slaughtering cities at every turn. However, Kublai Khan still admired the Song people very much when it came to governing the place. Even if Brother Mo said they were pretending, it was not easy for them to pretend to be so good.

Work on the west side has been temporarily suspended, and no civilians are expanding the construction. However, there are horse and fence barriers everywhere, and there are a large number of Song Army sentry towers. There are also various red lines and various notices on the site, and no one is strictly prohibited from going there.

Kublai Khan had already seen the threat of Persia's future division between north and south, and deeply felt the terrible dominance of the Song people in the local area.

I saw the Song Army cavalry jumping off their horses. Kublai Khan and Mo Ge thought that the Song Army was going to whip these big cannibals with whips. Unexpectedly, the Song Army actually helped them move the goods and moved the goods to the carriage for the big cannibals. The big eater nodded in thanks, and someone else took out silver coins to give to Song Jun. Song Jun shook his head and refused, and left quickly after mounting his horse.

"There seems to be a port ahead. Brother, look, there are many Song Army warships." Brother Mo found that there were many ships parked on the sea about a few hundred steps away.

If this continues, in less than ten years, the people of South Persia may completely turn to the Song people and turn to the arms of the Song people.

Kublai Khan could see a salt pond on the beach not far away, and the Song army should be getting salt.

The Persian Gulf was made so prosperous by the Song people, and the Song people would bring a steady stream of wealth and fame in the future.

Kublai Khan looked serious and said in a deep voice: "This is how you should run a country." After a pause, he added: "This is how you run an army."

He loved Chinese studies since he was a child, and before leaving Harahelin, he gathered a group of Han officials around him. However, when the Song army attacked, he lost his roots, and many Han officials also left one after another, but deep down in his heart, he still wanted to Learn from the Han people.

The shop owner is a local Persian, but he can speak Chinese. He said that there is a port dedicated to the Song army. The goods imported by the Song people from the country are all landed from there. If there are many ships, it means that there will be a lot of new goods arriving, and You can make a fortune.

Kublai Khan could see a large number of camps not far away, which might be where civilians lived or where troops were stationed. There were Song troops patrolling everywhere on site, and many Song troops were holding dogs.

"Are only the Song Army's own ships allowed to go ashore there?" Kublai Khan asked.

This commercial street is more than ten miles long, mainly because the city wall of the Song Dynasty was only built for more than ten miles. Of course, people are still expanding it. As it is built longer, the commercial street will definitely be longer, and the population will be more in the future. .

There are many civilians at the east end, which continues to expand, but pedestrians cannot go further east.

The Mongols were like bandits and robbers, grabbing everything wherever they went. As a Mongolian, Kublai Khan was quite disgusted.

Kublai Khan felt a little moved in his heart. He returned to the street and found a shop. While pretending to borrow something to buy, he asked around.

Kublai Khan and Brother Mo were very patient. They rented two horses from a shop on the street that day and walked along the commercial street, especially to the ends of the east and west sides.

It was the first time that Kublai Khan saw dogs in the Song army's barracks. Later he realized that these dogs were of great use.

"of course."

Kublai Khan remained calm, thinking that he couldn't see anything on the ship at such a distance. If the Song army brought a large number of troops and horses, wouldn't he not know about it?
He asked the boss if there was a location close to that place. He wanted to see what goods Song Jun was transporting and he could reserve a spot first.

The boss shouted, do you want to die? After saying that, he looked at them suspiciously, because both of them were dressed as Mongolians.

The boss suspected that they were doing it carefully.

The boss said that it was a military restricted area and you would be shot if you approached. He also warned Kublai Khan that the Song Dynasty people could see far away. (With telescope).

Kublai Khan did not believe in evil, and wanted to take a detour with Brother Mo to take a look. He found that the Song army was guarding the perimeter and controlled almost all the ten miles from the shore to Heping City, making it impossible to enter.

The only hope of getting in is to approach from the sea, which means you have to be good in water and swim over to check it out.

Neither he nor Brother Mo had any water skills, so naturally they didn't dare to test it.

Fortunately, there are two of them with good water skills.

Kublai Khan asked his two followers to find a place to go into the sea, and then swim there to observe the size of the port on the Song Army's side and what kind of cargo was on the ship.

The two followers had no choice but to go into the sea and swim all the way forward.

Kublai Khan was watching not far away, but when he was still several hundred steps away from the outermost Song Army warship, there was a sudden boom, and a cannon fired from the Song Army's ship hit the water, right at the two swimming ships. Kublai Khan was shocked.

Then I saw a small boat released from the Song Army's large ship and drove quickly towards the two Mongolian troops.

"Hiss" Brother Mo took a breath, with a look of disbelief on his face.

It was so far away from there now. Not long after the two of them entered the sea, Song Jun actually discovered them.

Kublai Khan's expression changed drastically, and he waved his hands desperately, signaling the two of them to come back quickly.

At the same time, the Song Army on the construction site to the east also heard the sound of artillery, and soon several groups of Song Army ran to the beach with their dogs. "Let's go." Kublai Khan didn't dare to stay, so he quickly ran away with Brother Mo and others.

These two followers were not Mongolians, but Turks. Kublai Khan believed that as long as they were loyal to him, they would not tell them.

He wanted to get on the boat and leave quickly, but Aqili's goods had not been sold out, and the people were not on the boat. Their boat had parked elsewhere, and the docking position was given to other boats, which meant that Kublai Khan had to live on the shore. One night to go.

Otherwise, they would have to hire a small boat to take them back to the big ship.

Kublai Khan was also very courageous. After thinking about it, he decided to stay for one more day because he had not yet seen the Song Army's Peace City.

Going north from the commercial street is towards Heping City, which is about ten miles away from the commercial street.

There are only three main passages from the commercial street to Heping City, all of which were built by people sent by the Song Army. The rest are either farming or buildings. The buildings are basically warehouses, which are rented by the shops in the commercial street to store goods.

In many places, there are barricades blocked by horses and even sergeants patrolling, making it difficult to walk.

Kublai Khan found that the most common thing was the sentry tower. The Song army had sentry towers everywhere. You could basically see one within a few hundred steps. There were not many people on the sentry tower, maybe one, maybe two, but if you stood high up, you could see. Far away, Song Jun could clearly see everything below, and he didn't dare to run around.

At noon, Kublai Khan and Aqili met in the agreed-upon restaurant. Aqili said that he could finish shipping the goods tomorrow morning and would find a hotel to stay today.

Kublai Khan agreed, and after eating, he took two followers, each with a horse, and headed towards the City of Peace.

The road to Peace City is full of people and carriages, and all kinds of pedestrians and goods are entering and leaving Peace City.

Judging from the information received by Kublai Khan, Heping City was a large city where the Song army was stationed. In addition to the civilians who participated in the construction, the city was mainly composed of Song people and slaves of the Song people (mainly local Persians), and there were also a small number of foreign merchants. The city was divided into inner and outer cities. , Song people are all in the inner city, some slaves are in the inner city, some are in the outer city, and the rest of the foreign merchants can only live in the outer city.

The main commercial point here is still in the commercial street of the port, so Heping City is not a commercial center, and there are few large-scale commercial transactions. As a military town, only daily necessities for the Song Army will be traded in Heping City.

Kublai Khan soon figured it out, because there were many carriages on the road carrying beef and mutton to Heping City, but the mountains of silk, ceramics, iron pots and other items piled up at the port were almost invisible, which proved that they were heading to Heping City. The merchants in the city may all be merchants specially provided by the Song army.

He found a carriage at random and wanted to have a few words with the escort by asking for directions. Unexpectedly, the other party did not speak Chinese, let alone Mongolian.

Aqili was not around, there was no translator, and Kublai Khan was also quite depressed.

Later he learned that the Song Army held tenders every year, dividing various supplies of meat or vegetables from the local garrison into several bids and giving them to local businessmen.

Businessmen would bid one after another. For example, a nearby lord bid for the right to supply three thousand kilograms of mutton in Heping City at a price of twenty copper coins per kilogram of mutton. The lord provided three thousand kilograms of mutton to the Song Army every month. Then give him 60,000 Persian copper coins, or the equivalent of Song Army copper coins, or silver. Some will also ask for goods provided by the Song Army directly without money, such as sugar, iron pots, or silk.

Kublai Khan believed at the time that the number of soldiers and horses stationed by the Song army in Heping City could be calculated from the number of items provided by merchants.

However, many of the supplies of the Song Army were divided into several sections, even more than ten sections, and dozens of sections were marked. They also maintained a large number of civilians to help with the construction work. There were tens of thousands of civilians working for the Song Army alone. In addition, the Song Army itself also had Cattle, sheep, fishing, etc., so it is really difficult to judge how many garrison troops the Song Army had.

Along the way, the people Kublai Khan saw most were the local civilians, all of whom worked for the Song army.

These people had relaxed expressions, some were chatting and laughing, and were traveling in groups inside and outside Peace City.

The Song Army's Heping City has not yet been built, and it is getting bigger and bigger. Tens of thousands of local people participated in the construction of Heping City. Outside Heping City, the Song Army continued to build and expand the port, and tens of thousands more people participated in the construction of other fortifications. and construction, there is a busy work scene within dozens of miles.

After approaching Heping City, you can see a large number of Song troops on the road.

The Song army mainly patrolled and maintained order, and listed many places as forbidden areas, and no one was allowed to pass through.

The road Kublai Khan took was directly to the south gate of Heping City. He wanted to go around the south gate to see other locations in Heping City, but he was not allowed. There were construction sites on both sides of the south gate, and civilians were digging a moat, and Build a bastion outside.

Kublai Khan stood outside the south city gate and took a look, and was very shocked.

Heping City was built taller than Lai City where they were stationed, and there was a wide moat outside. Later he learned that it was said that the Song Army wanted to dig the moat directly to Heping Harbor and lead it into the sea.

This moat connected to the seaside was more than twenty miles long and about ten feet wide. At that time, the warships of the Song Army could sail directly from the sea to the Heping City. Kublai Khan was incredible.

The Song Army planned to use 20,000 civilians to complete this moat alone, which would take at least three to five years to complete. It was a huge project.

After the completion of this project, the Song Army's ships can directly enter Heping City from the sea. Like Hanzhou City (Manila) City in Hanzhou Province, it will be quite easy for the defenders.

Unless the opponent has a navy stronger than the Song army, it will be impossible for the Mongolian army to capture Heping City again.

"Fourth brother." Brother Mo said to Kublai Khan at this time: "If you want to attack Heping City, you must attack it as soon as possible. When the Song army builds Heping City, they will not be able to attack it at all."

After Brother Mo saw the appearance of Heping City with his own eyes, he also felt that the city was easy to defend but difficult to attack.

There were many bastions outside Peace City embedded with the main city. They only saw a short section to the south and found dozens of cannons. Wasn't there hundreds of cannons in the entire Peace City?

Of course, artillery is still a trivial matter. The Heping City has a unique shape and perfect configuration. The Song Army has not completed it for three years after it was built. When the Song Army completes it, let alone the Mongolian Army, even if it has the same advanced firearms troops as the Song Army, it may not be able to fight. Come down.

When Kublai Khan heard this, he sighed: "The kings of the clan have already agreed that when Zhao and Rui march to the west, they will grow their beards (referring to Yelu Chucai). It is calculated that Zhao and Rui will definitely march to the west."

During the last high-level meeting of the Mongolian army in Salai City, Choermahan suffered a stroke and died within a few months. Mongolia lost an important general.

At the last meeting, Subotai opposed all opinions and asked the Mongolian army not to march eastward, but to wait for the Song army to march westward, and then received the support of Yelu Chucai.

Finally, all the kings decided to rest and train their troops, waiting for the Song army to march westward.

Kublai Khan believed that from a tactical point of view, there was nothing wrong with Subutai's suggestion. The Song army was good at defending. It was obviously uneconomical for the Mongolian army to travel thousands of miles to attack the Song army's fortified city, and the chance of another disastrous defeat was also high.

But the same characteristics of the Mongolian army are mobility and offensiveness. From the founding of the country to the present, the Mongolian army has always been on the offensive side.

Now refusing to defend in place and waiting for the Song army to attack is actually not the strength of the Mongolian army.

(End of this chapter)