Chapter 68 sweeping the darya

When Okuotai and Chagatai were attacking frantically under the city of Eidala, Jochi was also frantically sweeping the Khwarazm strongholds in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya from east to west. Jochi's start was extremely smooth, and wherever the corps went, it was as if there was no one in it. He didn't encounter a little trouble until he arrived at the black city of Sygna (southeast of Qiyili in today's Kazakhstan).Sygna Black City is a small city in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River, with no more than 30,000 residents. It should have been guarded by a 1,000-strong Kangli corps. It doesn't matter, so this Kangli corps was transferred to other places to help defend, so there was only a small motley army left in the city.When the Jochi Corps arrived at the city, due to the heavy pressure of the atmosphere of terror, the army dispersed without a trace.Jochi believed that there was no need to launch a military attack on a city without regular army guards, so he sent a Khwarazim man named Hasan into the city to negotiate, hoping to liberate the black city of Sygna peacefully.

Hasan was a devout Muslim who had made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and was also an outstanding businessman. When Genghis Khan unified the Mongolian plateau, he took the initiative to join Genghis Khan and became one of Genghis Khan's most trusted foreigners.Before Hasan entered the city, Jochi told him to persuade them to surrender at the gate of the city, and withdraw immediately if the situation changed.Hasan didn't take this concern seriously. He thought that the city was full of his own compatriots, and they were all Muslims. He was one of the very few Islamic pilgrims. You have to give him some face.

This arrogant thought killed him.After he entered the city, he went straight to the square in the center of the city, stood on a high place and delivered a speech to his compatriots, saying: "I am also a citizen of Khwarazm, and I am here to advise you on the order of the commander-in-chief of the Mongolian Empire." Surrender quickly to ensure the safety of your life and property, if you don’t surrender, I’m afraid only Allah will know the consequences.” Hassan's words angered his audience. These people are all proletarians in the black city of Sygna. They have only a humble life and no property, so they are all desperate.This group of people roared and dragged Hasan down from the high place. You kicked and punched each other, and Hasan soon fell into the ocean of punches and kicks, and died.

In order to show their determination to be loyal to the motherland and Mahama, these people cut off Hasa's head and kicked it out of the city like a ball.Jochi jumped into a rage and ordered a hundred ways to attack the city.The Mongolian army continued to attack day and night for seven days and seven nights, and the black city of Sygna fell.After Jochi entered the city, he first brutally gouged out the eyes and nose of the murderer who killed Hasan, and then chopped off his limbs until he died in pain.Then he ordered the massacre of the city, and even those who were shorter than the wheel were not pardoned.

Jochi's brutal massacre of cities had a good effect. In the next march, all the cities they passed surrendered one after another. Most of these cities that surrendered without firing an arrow were merchants. They had property, families, and money. People cherish life, so it is impossible for them to contribute to a country because of its false name.When the Jochi Corps arrived at the city of Ershanas (the ruins are located in the southeast of Zylorda, Kazakhstan today), due to the different national identities, the reactions were naturally different. The atmosphere of the rivers and lakes in Esinasi City is extremely strong, and the people in the city mainly practice fighting and climbing walls, so many of the people are from the martial arts. The Western Region martial arts masters who came to China at that time may all come from this city.When Jochi sent people to the city to persuade him to surrender, the people who received the envoy were these martial arts masters. Before the envoy could speak, they each performed their own special skills, dismantled the envoy into many pieces, and threw them to the Jochi army.Unexpectedly, there were such overreaching people in the world, Jochi immediately ordered a general attack, and declared in advance that after the city was broken, no one would be left behind.

As you know, martial arts masters have strong individual combat capabilities, but when faced with an army that must unite to fight, they become monkeys in the circus, only for viewing but not for actual combat.What's more, they don't know anything about the basic common sense of defending the city. Some experts even suggested that the Mongols should be put into the city, so that everyone can compete in a ring.As expected, the city of Esinasi fell quickly. The martial arts masters found that the Mongols were immoral and liked to fight in groups, so they immediately prepared to escape.But at that time, the city had been completely surrounded, so they could not succeed and were all slaughtered.

After the fall of Esinasi City, the city of Zhan was close at hand, and everyone expected that a tragic offensive and defensive battle would be staged just like under the city of Erdala.But when Jochi was seriously preparing for the attack, a news came that the commander of the garrison of Zhandi City fled with his guards.Jochi was overjoyed and sent people into the city to recruit him to surrender.The surrender envoy said to the people in Zhande City: "Either surrender voluntarily, and the Mongols will not harm innocent people, or stick to it, and the Mongols will definitely break through the city. At that time, only Allah knows what will happen."

Although Zhan's city has lost its general, the people are not vegetarians. As the second largest city in the Syr Darya Valley after Aldar City, the people here have a sense of honor. When they found out that the messenger who asked them to surrender When it was their compatriots, they became angry and called him a "traitor" of Khwarazmo - a traitor, eager to kill him.Fortunately, the envoy was quick-witted. He told the excited people about the massacre of the black city of Sygna because of killing the envoy, and at the same time told them about the safety of several cities that voluntarily surrendered. The contrast calmed down the common people.The envoy hurried out of the city and reported to Jochi that there was no decent army in the city, only a group of inexperienced people who were ready to defend to the death, so it was easy to fall.

Jochi ordered to prepare for the siege, and the soldiers began to fill the trenches, setting up ramming machines, trebuchets and ladders.The people of Zhanzhi City all rushed to the city wall, seeing how busy the Mongolian army was, they were very strange. They asked each other: "How can they climb up such a high city?" After asking, no one knew the answer, so they concluded , this is a rhetorical question, the Mongols can't climb up at all.After receiving such good news, the people of Zhanzhi City ran down the city wall and continued to live their peaceful lives. It wasn't until the Shuchi Corps erected the ladder to the side of the city wall that the people of Zhandi City realized that the thing called the ladder had such power, so they rushed up the city wall to meet the enemy.This is the most absurd scene in human military history.They kept shouting, hoping to use their voices to call the Mongols off the ladder to the ground. They drew their bows and shot arrows without looking at the target at all.When they were shocked by the power of the Mongol trebuchet, they accidentally discovered that there was also a trebuchet on the city wall. They learned and sold it now, and put a huge boulder on the trebuchet. Several people shouted and let go of the rope.But the boulder did not fly to the target, but flew vertically, and then fell vertically, smashing the trebuchet to pieces.Just as they were "entertaining themselves", the Mongols had already climbed towards the city wall from all directions, opened the city gate, and the felt city fell inexplicably.

Jochi couldn't believe it was true, such an important city fell in an instant.Probably it was this easy success that made him feel compassionate. Except for a few people who offended the envoys who were recruited and surrendered, all the people in Zhan's city survived. While Jochi was celebrating his victory in Zhan's city, one of his detachments also captured Yangjigancheng, an important military town two days away from Khwarazmo in the west (the former site is located at the mouth of the Syr Darya River into Aral Lake in Kazakhstan today. Office), all the cities of Khwarazm in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya were occupied by the Mongolian army, and Jochi successfully completed the task.