Chapter 72 Khorasan Massacre

Since the capture of Samarkand, Genghis Khan began to spend summer in the suburbs of Samarkand.In the autumn of this year, Genghis Khan and his youngest son Tuolei launched an attack on the city of Termi (now Termez, Uzbekistan).Before the attack, Genghis Khan sent people into the city to persuade him to surrender.The defenders of Termi City shot arrows in the heads of those who persuaded them to surrender and threw them to Genghis Khan.They told Genghis Khan: "Half of Laozi's city stands in the Amu Darya River, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Moreover, there is an army like sand in the city and the most advanced weapons in the world. Come if you have the ability!"

The actions of the Termi defenders angered Genghis Khan.Genghis Khan was furious and said: "I will make your sand-like army become a grain of sand that is not worth mentioning, and I will make your most advanced weapons my possession!" The siege began immediately, and the two sides launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle for ten days. The stone catapult threw the big stone out of the city, Genghis Khan threw it in again, and the city threw it out again.Even so, the city wall gradually collapsed, and finally the city was broken. Genghis Khan ordered the army to enter the city for a three-day massacre and looting. It took decades for the city to recover.

During the massacre, the Mongols did everything they could.An old woman who was about to be killed called the executioner: "Don't kill me, I will give you a big pearl." The Mongol asked her for it, and she replied: "It's in my stomach." The Mongol cut open her alive. Belly, take the pearl.This incident convinced the Mongols that everyone in Termi City had a habit of hiding treasures in their stomachs, so those who were still alive were cut open, and the dead were also cut open. After turning the city of Termi into ruins, Genghis Khan attacked and plundered the nearby fortresses, killing and scorched earth followed, attacking every town.

When Genghis Khan returned to the outskirts of Samarkand, there was suddenly bad news: a rebellion broke out in the Khorasan area that had been taken by Jebe and Subotai, and the Khwarazmites killed the chief stationed by the Mongols. In between, the Khorasan region boiled again. Genghis Khan couldn't tolerate this situation, and ordered Tuo Lei to lead the main force to counter-insurgency, so the Khorasan massacre began. After Tuo Lei crossed the Amu Darya River, he sent his brother-in-law and Genghis Khan's son-in-law Tohuchar as the vanguard, bypassing Maru (now Mali, Turkmenistan) and heading straight for the city of Nasa (now Turkmenistanisa).The vanguard officer sent another vanguard to besiege the city of Nassar. The vanguard didn't even bother to persuade them to surrender. As soon as they arrived at the city, they began to attack the city.The defenders of Nasa City resisted tenaciously and shot arrows like raindrops. The fate of the vanguard was not good. He was shot in the throat by a stray arrow during command and died.Tuohuchar jumped into a rage, came to the city, and made a fierce attack with all his might. After fifteen days of strong attack, the city of Nasa was captured.According to European historical data, Tokhuchar massacred 70,000 residents after entering the city.

After killing 70,000 people, Tohuchar continued to move forward and came to a place called Hallandaer Fort. The fortress was extremely strong, so the defenders were full of confidence and refused to surrender.Tuohuchaer attacked for three days, but to no avail.Tuhuchaer had no choice but to leave in a huff, and came to your Shabuer City. The defenders of your Shabuer City heard about Tuhuchaer's incompetence under the Hallandarburg, so the enthusiasm for resistance was extremely high. Cha'er stormed for three days, and your city of Shabu'er was unscathed. On the fourth day, Tuo Hucha'er rushed to the city to direct the battle.The Tuhuchaer Corps hastily retreated and joined Tuo Lei.

When Tuo Lei saw Tohuchaer's body, he was furious and poured all his anger on Maru City.Maru City is the city with the largest territory, the most advanced civilization, and the highest quality of life for residents in the Khorasan region. It is also the residence of successive kings of Khwarazm and the center of people of all sizes.There are peaceful and auspicious birds flying in the territory.It produces as many chiefs as there are raindrops in April, and its soil rivals that of heaven. In the outskirts of the city, there is a 10,000 Kangli Corps with a considerable number and strong combat effectiveness.Tuo Lei had to deal with this corps before he could attack Maru City.

Tuo Lei used the trump card of the Mongolian Corps: fight first, flee falsely, set up an ambush, surround the enemy, and wipe them out.This Kangli corps was like a stupid bull, and was dragged into the encirclement by Tuo Lei's nose.Now, Maru City can only rely on itself. The lord of Maru City is a man who knows the current affairs. He realizes that he is definitely not the opponent of Tuo Lei, so he goes to the Tuo Lei camp to surrender.Tuo Lei asked him: "Why did you kill my Mongol officials?" The lord of Maru City replied: "It aroused the anger of the people, and it was the people who killed him." There is only one way to go, and that is death, I don't accept your surrender, go back and prepare for the defense of the city and the funeral!"

The lord of Maru City brought this sad news to the residents and defenders. According to common sense, this is a last stand, which should inspire courage in his heart.However, when the defenders and residents of Maru City heard the news, they were depressed and waited to die.It took only one day for Tuo Lei to capture Maru City.He drove all the residents, regardless of high or low, to the suburbs.For four days and four nights in a row, the people kept leaving the city.Torre again ordered that the women be separated from the men.Except for the 400 craftsmen selected from the people and some virgins who were taken as slaves, all the other residents, including women and children, were killed, leaving no one behind.

After leaving the scene of the massacre in Maru City, Tuo Lei continued to approach You Shabu'er day and night, and he wanted to avenge Tuo Huchaer.Ever since your Shabuer defenders shot and killed Tohuchar, they had already expected that the Mongol Corps would come to take revenge.And they also knew that the Mongols would not accept their surrender.Unlike Maru City, everyone in your Shapur City is determined to fight the Mongols to the death. Under the same stimulus, people react very differently, which shows that people are indeed different. In order to meet the torpedoes in Shapur City, you have prepared 3,000 crossbows, 500 catapults, 1,000 oil pans, and 5,000 catties of boiling oil.Tuo Lei first swept away the outer defenses of your city of Saber, and then surrounded the city. He also prepared a generous gift for this city that was about to turn into hell: 3,000 crossbows, 300 trebuchets, There are 700 flame throwers, 4,000 ladders, and 2,500 boulders collected from nearby mountains.These stones, which are larger than wheels, are invincible after being thrown by the trebuchet.

You, General Shaburi, watched Tuolei holding a weapon exhibition in the city, and hurriedly dispatched people with strong counting skills to the city to count, and finally came to the conclusion that everyone was evenly matched, but we didn't have such a huge stone.Facing those huge rocks, the defenders of Shaburi were frightened. With the attitude of trying, the defenders sent several Muslim elders to the Tuolei camp to ask for surrender. Tuo Lei flatly refused. The Muslim elders said that the murderer who killed the Mongolian officials could be handed over to Tuo Lei. Tuo Lei replied: "Everyone is guilty, everyone is an accomplice, and everyone is a murderer."

This very philosophical statement confused the Muslim elders. When they returned to the city and told this sentence to the defenders, even the Shapur defenders were puzzled, but they were sure of one thing: the war was about to begin. At the beginning, what awaits them will be ominous. On April 7, 1221, the tow mine corps launched a general attack on Youshapur City. The crossbows and catapults of both sides fired at each other. Not a city wall.After a day and night of onslaught, in the early morning of the next day, more than 70 openings were cracked in the city wall of Shapur City, and the Mongolian army rushed forward and rushed into the city.You Shabuer garrison and the Mongolian army fought fiercely in the streets. After another day and night, the Mongolian people completely wiped out the resistance force, dragged thunder into the city, and the massacre began. It is said that the entire massacre was directed by Genghis Khan's daughter, Tokuchar's wife.After the woman who had just experienced the pain of losing her husband ordered the massacre of the city, she divided the heads of the dead people into men, women and children, and piled them into three different pyramids.She then ordered the execution of cats, dogs, and all other living animals in the city, so that, it is said, no living animal would survive to harm her husband. After turning your Shapur city into ruins, Tuo Lei divided his troops to attack the secondary cities in the Khorasan area, while he himself commanded the main force and marched eastward to besiege the famous city Yeli in the northwest of Afghanistan today ( present-day Herat, Afghanistan).Yeli City is the hub of transportation and trade between Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia, and its strategic location is quite important.Tuo Lei sent people to the city to persuade him to surrender, but the answer given by the guard of Yeli City was to kill the envoy of Tuo Lei, throw the head out of the city, and at the same time encourage the defenders to stick to it, not for Mahamo, but for the dignity of Yeli City . Tuo Lei had no choice but to attack by force. After eight days of attack, Yeli City stood still.However, in the face of the powerful offensive of the Mongols, part of the defenders in Yeli City had lost their will. After Tuo Lei got the news, he sent people into the city for the second time to persuade him to surrender, and promised to the defenders in Yeli that as long as they surrendered, they would be spared all the troubles. The city is devastated.The defender of Yeli believed in Tuo Lei, opened the city gate and surrendered.Tuo Lei did not keep his promise and slaughtered more than 10,000 defenders, but he also kept his promise and did not slaughter the people in Yeli City. After Tuo Lei captured Yeli City, his partial division also achieved great results, capturing all the small cities in Khorasan, and the entire Khorasan region was regained control by the Mongols. For a long time, the massacre of Genghis Khan in Khorasan has been a big stain in his life. Western historians gritted their teeth when describing this incident, wishing to describe Genghis Khan and his army as beasts. Naturally, Khorasan The death toll of the Holocaust has been exaggerated beyond bounds. In the 13th century, the Persian historian Jufeni said in his book "History of the Conquerors of the World" that the Mongols slaughtered 1.3 million people in the city of Maru.Zhifeini also told a "true" story in a serious manner: after the Maru massacre, there was a respectable man named Ye Suding who survived the massacre in the city. He spent a month counting the dead bodies, and finally came up with the number 1.3 million.This obviously goes against common sense, because if a person is not buried for a month after death, he will rot. This kind of rotten smell cannot be compared with rotten fish and rotten shrimp.Besides, as soon as the Mongols left, this Ye Suding ran out to count the corpses. He was really bold. Wasn't he afraid that he would be turned into a corpse by the Mongols who suddenly returned? In the 19th century, the orientalist Dosang expressed great doubts about this number in "Dosang's Mongolian History", and finally came up with a figure angrily and rationally: the Mongols massacred 700,000 people in Maru City. In fact, these two figures are nonsense. At that time, the population of the Western Regions was not large. The total population of Samarkand, the largest city in the Khwarezm Empire, was only 200,000. The population of other cities would not exceed 100,000. Could it be that the Mongols Can do magic, first conjure hundreds of thousands of people, and then kill them? It's not to defend Genghis Khan's massacres in Khorasan and even the Khwarazm Empire, but he didn't kill that many people.European historians and East Asian historians hate Genghis Khan deeply, saying that he is a murderous butcher and cruel destroyer. In fact, as long as he is compared with other conquerors in human history, Genghis Khan is still kind. Alexander the Great destroyed five famous cities successively, and slaughtered most of the people in the city, and the remaining women and children were sold as slaves; Caesar conquered Gaul (now France), and it is said that he slaughtered two million Gauls; During the reign of Emperor Hadrian, the Roman army destroyed more than a thousand villages and towns in Palestine. At the beginning of 1212, Genghis Khan, the "Bodhisattva", raged on the outskirts of Samarkand because of reliable news that Zalandin had returned to Yulong Jiechi and was ready to challenge him. Genghis Khan was worried about the resurgence of the ashes, and immediately ordered Shuchi, Chagatai and Wo Kuotai to attack Yulong Jiechi.In fact, Genghis Khan was too worried, and Zalandin did not have such good luck. To be precise, his luck was very bad.