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

Chapter 540 Kublai Khan is also quite ruthless

Kublai Khan and his eldest brother Meng Ge worked hard for several years and mobilized tens of thousands of civilians to dig the moat, but they could not hold it for a day.

In ancient times, it was quite difficult to fight and siege a city, but in the eyes of the Song army, it was very easy. The Song army had almost no solution to siege the city.

This is the generation difference in weapons. He became more and more determined to learn from the Song army and build better firearms.

This time they fired at the Hongwu artillery at the top of the city with the Song army. Many of them were exploded by themselves, not by the Song army's artillery at all.

The quality of their artillery is so poor that it will easily explode after firing too many shots.

"The Song Army's firearms are so powerful that they are almost invincible. If we cannot learn from the Song Army's firearms, we will still be defeated in the future."

Kublai Khan said to Bru Hague and the others.

Generals such as Blue Hague and Yizala believed deeply.

"Guiyou is short-sighted and only cares about immediate interests. He insists on joining forces with the Song army and seeking skin from a tiger. He will definitely regret it in the future." Bru Hague said.

The rest of the elite went to the Song army, and the craftsmen returned to Tasi. The money and materials were divided equally between the two sides.

After the Mongolian army came in, they walked through the Delaman area in the north and met dozens of Persian local families. They robbed them all and then began to pass through the long Gaduk Pass.

But it was useless to say this now. Kublai Khan looked at the people at the foot of the mountain and it seemed that there were fewer and fewer people, and more and more people were surrendering: "Let's go, let's go quickly."

This slowed down their climbing speed.

At this time, only about 4,000 people could keep up with the entire army. About 200 people and 700 to 800 horses fell into the mountain stream. There were more people who were injured or tired and fell behind.

The area where they went up the mountain belongs to the dry grassland area, and there are many large beasts, including the famous Hyrcanian tiger. Of course, this tiger is almost an extinct rare beast in later generations. Snow leopards and lynx are also specialties in the mountain.

On the third day after the war, the Mongolian army gradually withdrew from the city, and Lai City was handed over to the Song army as agreed.

But now these places are similar to small fishing villages, and there are no people there.

If he could successfully return to the Caspian Shipyard, then Kublai Khan's experience could be called a legend.

At this time, all of them dismounted and led their horses. Except for the war horses and a small amount of food, some of them even took off their armor.

This allowed the Mongolian army to hunt and supply meat while walking.

A sudden heavy rain fell in the mountains, the temperature dropped, and the mud was unbearable, making it difficult for the horses to move. Kublai Khan had no choice but to abandon a large number of horses and give priority to taking people to continue climbing. He only brought a small number of horses with him for the purpose of transporting food.

It is more difficult to talk about Kublai Khan's journey than Deng Ai's surprise attack on Shu in the Three Kingdoms. He led 5,000 people into the mountains and walked a short distance of about 200 miles for ten days, averaging about 20 miles per day. It's quite powerful.

Everyone turned around and climbed up the mountain.

This section of the road was like a nightmare. From time to time, war horses would fall into the mountain stream. When the five thousand people came in, each of them had one war horse, and some even brought two. However, by the end of the first day, there were more than a hundred war horses and More than a dozen people fell into the mountain stream.

Kublai Khan sent people to encourage his men every day, and the troops desperately wanted to escape from here. In the early stage, their morale was pretty good. They chopped mountains and rocks all the way, and spent all their efforts. After three or four days of walking, they finally walked out of the Gaduk Pass.

Kublai Khan still led the horse when he entered the mountain. The mountain road at the beginning was quite easy to walk, and the horse followed suit. Judging from the previous inspections by the Mongolian army, the most difficult part was the northern direction, which was distributed in the forest.

They walked for four days with both men and horses, with almost no rest in between, and finally reached the middle section.

There are two important mountain passes: one is the Kandevan Pass formed between the Karaj River and the Chalus River; the other is the Gaduk Pass formed between the Habulia River and the Tara River. In later generations, there were some important towns in the longitudinal valley, such as Delaman and Namara on the Caspian Sea side in the north.

If it were Kublai Khan who was the Great Khan, Kublai Khan might first seize the alliance with the Song people, and then destroy Guiyou first.

However, the mountain road is rugged. The first section of the road is relatively well cleaned and familiar because Mongolian troops come to explore the road all year round. The later part of the road becomes more and more difficult to walk.

Then many roads were steep, making it difficult for war horses to climb up, so several people had to pull together.

But cavalry running for more than 1,800 miles are completely different from walking for more than 200 miles.

That day, the Song-Mongolian coalition attacked the city. More than 10,000 horsemen rushed out of the city. In the end, about 5,000 people made it up the mountain. About 25,000 of the 30,000 elite troops in Kublai Khan's city did not escape. Except for those who died in the battle, they were finally killed by Tasi. Eighteen thousand were collected and reduced.

But a bigger difficulty came. It was close to the Caspian Sea and had heavy rainfall. It was a famous rainy area. It started to rain the day after Kublai Khan's troops arrived nearby.

Liu Zheng directly stationed in Lai City first. While appeasing the people, he repaired the city defenses and demolished all the unnecessary parts of the city.

They didn’t know what Meng Ge and Kublai Khan were doing near the city of Rai.

At this time, Tasi's troops were divided into three groups, two groups along the outer edge of the Alborz Mountains, and pursued them on horseback, hoping to reach the Caspian Sea as soon as possible.

As long as the Song army has artillery mounted on it, it won't work no matter who comes from the Mongolian army.

But Liu Zheng also said, you used to be your own people. Don’t you know that Kublai Khan built a city and shipyard on the Caspian Sea? This directly confused Tasi. Indeed, they didn't know.

Kublai Khan initially thought that it would be easy to cross the mountain, because the distance between Rai city and the Caspian Sea was nearly two hundred miles, but the Alborz Mountains stretched for more than 1,800 miles. Tasi's soldiers and horses went around to chase them, and they had to go around 1,800 miles. More than a hundred miles.

Tasi also blamed Liu Zheng a little before. Why didn't this situation be mentioned earlier? He could have divided his troops to go to the Caspian Sea earlier and cut off Kublai Khan's retreat.

Then they repaired briefly, first to surrender, and then to attack by force.

What can I do?
Mongolia can only have one great khan, either Meng Ge or Guyu.

Kublai Khan didn't care and continued north with more than 4,000 people. At this time, they were approaching the east of Damavand Mountain. Damavand Mountain is the main peak of the Alborz Mountains and the highest peak in Persia. The top is finally covered with snow. , there are glaciers and natural mineral water below. The Mongolian army can replenish water when passing here.

It's a pity that Tasi's soldiers and horses are not very slow.

The middle section of the mountain is the most majestic, with a length of 400 kilometers, and the widest part in the south is 120 kilometers. It includes the two highest peaks in Iran: Mount Damavand (5671 meters high) and Mount Alam (more than 4800 meters high).

Kublai Khan also took off his armor, because carrying it would be a burden.

Kublai Khan, Yizhara and others could only sigh after hearing this.

The castle outside the shipyard only held on for half a day before deciding to surrender.

Even though it was more than 1,800 miles to bypass the Alborz Mountains, Tasi's army, with one man and two horses, ran day and night and reached the seaside shipyard in only eight days.

When Kublai Khan finally saw the shipyard and city wall in the distance, he saw that they were filled with Tasi's soldiers and horses, as well as the banners of the Han army with Chinese characters written on them.

"Pounce" Kublai Khan's eyesight went dark and he almost spit out a mouthful of old blood.

The trusted subordinates around him quickly supported Kublai Khan to prevent him from fainting.

At this time, Kublai Khan was desperate. The shipyard below was occupied by Tasi, and the city of Rai behind was also captured. Now the entire army was blocked in the Alborz Mountains.

In the future, they would really be able to live in this mountain range, after all, there are two important towns in this mountain range.

But there are no people around now, and it’s not uninhabitable, but what if Song Jun and Tasi also send people in?
"Your Majesty, what should we do now?" Yizhala also panicked.

The whole army was blocked in the Alborz Mountains. Although the mountains were huge, there were large forests, and countless wild beasts and water resources, which could support tens of thousands of people, it was obvious that they could not live here.

"Retreat to the south first. There is too much rain in the north, and many soldiers are sick." Bru Hague was building Kublai Khan at this time. The north is close to the Caspian Sea, and there is more rainfall every year. They are easily sick in the mountains. Kublai Khan sighed and was still hesitating.

At this moment, he knew that his subordinates were also becoming disloyal and many wanted to surrender.

But should we surrender to Ta Si or to the Song Army?

Kublai Khan was thinking that if Tasi was surrendered, most of his elite men would survive, but he and his family would definitely be killed.

But it's different when the Song army surrenders. The Song army may not kill him?
Because there are still Meng Ge and Batu fighting against Guyu.

"Let's go back first." Kublai Khan calmly asked everyone to retreat to the south and leave the rainy area.

The north is full of forests. They just managed to walk out of the forest, and now they have to go back.

Fortunately, you can take shelter from the rain in the forest. Although there are complaints, it is still better than being exposed to the rain.

Kublai Khan spent another day and finally exited the rain area. He ordered his men to rest on the spot, light fires to keep warm, and dry their clothes. Some of them were sick. They could only rely on experience to see if there were any herbs around them to see if they could survive. Luck, counting men and horses at the same time.

Kublai Khan was also shocked after this count.

When they came in, they had more than 5,000 riders and 6,000 to 7,000 horses. Now there are still more than 3,700 people and less than 500 horses.

Of course, many people and horses may not have died, but were either abandoned by them or left behind.

If they turn back, they will encounter these people and horses again.

Kublai Khan did not speak on the first day, but only met alone with a few close guard generals who had grown up with him.

On the second day, he summoned his subordinates who were centurions and above to discuss matters.

"There are only two paths before us now."

"Either continue north, descend the mountain and surrender to Tasi."

"Either turn back to the south, go down the mountain and surrender to the Song army."

"What do you think? Where do you want to surrender?"

As soon as Kublai Khan finished speaking, someone shouted: "Of course we will surrender to our own people. How can we, the great Mongolian people, surrender to the people of Song Dynasty?"

Blue Hague glanced at this man calmly, then turned his head.

One of Kublai Khan's guards also immediately said: "Guiyou wants to kill us all. At the last meeting of Kublai Tai, even the king's younger brother, Prince Alibuge, was killed."

Another Suwei also said, you were not at the scene that day, Guiyou was very cruel, he wanted to kill all our thunder-traveling elements, and Mongolia is now torn apart, Guiyou will be destroyed by the Song Dynasty sooner or later.

The crowd suddenly fell silent.

Some people saw what Kublai Khan meant. He probably wanted to surrender the Song Dynasty people, otherwise the two guards would not have said this.

Yizhara beside him thought for a while and said in a deep voice: "The city of Lai to the south may also be occupied by Tasi. If we go back, we may not be able to surrender the Song army?"

Blue Hague said: "If we go back suddenly, we can catch them off guard, and then go to surrender to the Song army."

Then he added: "If there is a chance, maybe we can grab some war horses and escape to other places."

This is just a fantasy. Whether it is the Tasi or the Song army, they will definitely deploy heavy troops and defenses at the entrance to the southern part of the Alborz Mountains.

But when people are in a desperate situation, they need to draw a big picture. Think about it this way, if you fight back south, you still have a chance to escape?
Kublai Khan waited until everyone had finished talking, and then said: "Let's do this. Everyone stands in line to vote. Those who support the surrender of Tasi stand in the west, and those who support the surrender of the Song Dynasty stand in the east. We will surrender to whichever side has more people. This can be done. good?"

After listening to Kublai Khan's words, everyone looked at each other a few times, and some people walked east and west one after another, indicating their agreement.

The crowd suddenly parted, and there were people standing everywhere.

Kublai Khan and Bru Hague looked at the number of people silently.

There were almost the same number of people on the east and west sides. At last count, there was one more person who wanted to surrender to Tasi.

The people in the west were overjoyed and thought they could lower Tasi.

But Kublai Khan said calmly: "I and Bru Hague have not been included yet."

After saying that, they both stood to the east. Now there was one more person on the east side.

The entire army surrendered to the Song people, and Kublai Khan decided the way out by voting.

But some people are dissatisfied and unwilling.

"Please, Your Majesty, go your separate ways." Nahiko Sento, who was opposite, was very courageous and suddenly suggested that we go our separate ways.

His meaning is very clear, you want to surrender the Song Army, and we want to surrender Tasi, and we must surrender Tasi.

Kublai Khan was secretly angry, then nodded and said: "Is this what everyone thinks? Do you want to go our separate ways?"

Someone on the opposite side hesitated for a moment and then walked to Kublai Khan's side, but most of the people stood still, obviously wanting to go their separate ways.

There was no way, Kublai Khan had only a short time to lead troops, many of them were former subordinates of Meng Ge or Batu, as well as people who stayed after their worship. Kublai Khan did not have enough prestige, so he could only control his own confidants.

"Okay, then let's go our separate ways." Kublai Khan said and began to retreat.

"Kill." Yi Zhazha shouted loudly.

From one side of the forest, a group of armored soldiers rushed out.

You must know that many people in the Mongolian army abandoned their armor in order to walk on the mountain road. The total army of more than 5,000 people had less than 1,000 sets of armor left.

This time, more than a hundred people wearing armor rushed out, crackling, and were met with a hail of arrows.

"Ah!" The officers on the other side who were centurions and above were killed and turned to their left.

No one expected that Kublai Khan also ambushed a large number of troops and killed all those who wanted to surrender to Tasi.

After Tasi surrendered his troops, he still had to fight Meng Ge and Batu. How could Kublai Khan increase their strength? He would rather kill them than let them go.

People all over the scene died quickly. After dealing with these people, the remaining grassroots sergeants will be easier to manage.

Even if someone is dissatisfied with these things, without a leader, ordinary low-level sergeants would not dare to speak out.

At that time, Kublai Khan reorganized and promoted a group of new centurions, Qianhu, and continued to go back with more than 3,000 people.

After such a killing, their morale was actually extremely low, but everyone still wanted to live, so they could only follow Kublai and continue south.

(End of this chapter)