Chapter 7 7. Avoiding the enemy and retreating from Hu Shahu

After Temujin was embraced as the Great Khan (that is, Genghis Khan), he made great contributions to his officials and widely applied benevolence and righteousness.Uighurs and other ministries came to vote, and their power was further strengthened.Seeing that the time was ripe, in April of 1211 AD (the sixth year of Genghis Khan), Genghis Khan led one hundred thousand troops and marched southward in three armies to attack Jin. The pioneers of the East Road, Mu Huali and Zhebie, first crossed Jinjiehao and came to Wushabao.Wanyan Yongji, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, sent Hu Shahu, a famous general in the court, to lead 100,000 horses to station in Wushabao, assuming a decisive battle with the Mongolian army.

Wusha Castle is located at the border of the Northwest Road of the Kingdom of Jin, and it was just built in 1210.The tortuous Jinjiegou is like two iron cables connecting dozens of dangerous peaks, and a mountain path passes through Wusha Castle.This is the only passage from the Mongolian steppe to the interior.And this Wusha Castle is located precisely on this path, as if a tiger is guarding its prey.The open gate of Wusha Castle is like a tiger's mouth, tightly choking the throat of this road.This castle is built on a high mountainside, where you can overlook the entire path, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.If you don't open the tiger's mouth, even an ant can never pass through Wusha Castle.Not only that, in order to facilitate defense and enhance combat effectiveness, there are thirty flying locks and hidden arrows on the cliffs on both sides of the fort, and the ropes on the hidden arrow mechanism are connected to the replica mechanism on the road.As long as one person and one horse step on the replica, the mechanism will be triggered immediately, and all the people and horses within its range will be attacked by flying arrows.After the completion of the Wusha Castle, it is so strong that it is known as "the Wusha Castle in the sky, the gate of hell on earth".

Autumn is crisp, and the warm sun shines on people, making people feel drowsy.Mu Huali, Zhebie and his party were non-stop, with four horses each, and the horse rested without rest, traveling day and night, and suddenly appeared at the foot of Wusha Castle. In the dense forest opposite Wusha Castle, Mu Huali and the others were secretly spying on this dangerous castle. "Wusa Castle is nothing more than that, as long as you give me half a day, I can take Wusha Castle." It was the straightforward Subotai in the Mongolian army who spoke. "Don't underestimate the enemy. Since the enemy dares to relax so much, it means that they must have been prepared." Zhebie said, "Our Mongolian army is good at fighting immediately, but not good at infantry attack and defense. Such terrain is not conducive to our army's superiority. play."

"If you can't win Wusha Castle, the army will never enter the Golden Realm." Subotai said angrily. We are outnumbered, this is the most practical problem facing Mu Huali, and it is also the reason why he did not adopt the usual lightning attack.The number of vanguard troops led by Mu Huali was only one-tenth of the number of defenders in Wusha Castle. Coupled with the dangerous terrain here, the Mongolian army's war horses could not gallop at all, and lost their due role.The situation was unclear and the advantage was gone, so Mu Huali did not give the order to attack for a long time.

The guard of Wusha Castle is Hu Shahu, the deputy marshal of the Jin Dynasty, who fully understands his own advantages.He firmly believed that as long as the Usha Fort was solidly defended, the Mongolian army would not even think about taking a step beyond the city. Over time, their supplies would run out, and the army would collapse without a fight. In the large tent of the Mongolian Vanguard Department, the opinions of the generals are still not unified. After all, this is the first battle against Jin Yongbing, and he must fight with dignity.The generals of the Kingdom of Jin are treacherous and cunning, relying on danger to defend, and if they do not directly contact the Mongolian army, it will be difficult for the Mongolian army to have a chance.

Seeing that Mu Huali was still hesitating, Su Butai said angrily again: "I will lead two thousand people to rush up, if you can't take it down, you can chop off my head! How can a small city wall Stop my Mongolian iron hoof?" After saying that, he walked out of the big tent angrily, picked up the troops of the headquarters, and rushed up. Two thousand war horses are like two thousand dragons going out to sea, and two thousand sharp arrows shooting at the enemy, rushing towards the enemy at the fastest speed. Seeing that he was about to rush to the bottom of the city, and he reached the gate of the fort in less than two hundred zhang. In an instant, the mechanism was activated, and the thirty flying locks and hidden arrows set on the cliffs on both sides were fired immediately.The locust-like "long arrows" roared and shot at the Mongolian army, and the Mongolian cavalry were immediately shot down in rows as if they were cutting wheat.The narrow mountain road suddenly became a hell, people turned their backs and turned into a mess.

At this moment, a cannon rang out suddenly in Wushabao, and countless Jin Dynasty cavalry rushed out like a whirlwind.Subotai waved his knife, whistled, and patted his horse to meet him.Seeing their leader rushing forward, the surviving fighters also pushed forward.However, what they didn't expect was that these cavalrymen were all wearing thick cold-forged black iron armor, iron helmets weighing twenty to thirty kilograms, masks on their faces, and a mace in their hands.Facing such heavy armored cavalry, the mongols' scimitars seemed useless. Not only did they not have much lethality when they were cut on the thick armor, but they made the tiger's mouth numb.Even if a few people's knives can cut through the iron armor, they only leave a gap in the iron armor and cannot hurt the opponent's body.However, the golden army's mace gave full play to its advantage. Before the Mongolian cavalry came to the front and hit it with one stick, the opponent's Tianling Gai was smashed to pieces.

Seeing that Subotai couldn't hold on anymore, Mu Huali immediately ordered Jin to withdraw.Subotai retreated with less than a thousand remnants. Everyone's heart was very heavy, and Mu Huali didn't say much, just arranged to treat the wounded as soon as possible.It should be said that this was a serious defeat, but in the view of the wise Mu Huali, this defeat contained many more valuable things. Time passed day by day, and Wusha Castle was still impregnable. On this day, the soldiers who went out to hunt brought a prisoner from the Kingdom of Jin.Seeing the people from the Kingdom of Jin, Su Butai drew out his waist knife "swipely", and raised the knife to chop.

"Slow!" Mu Huali hurriedly stopped him. "What's the use of keeping this enemy?" Subotai asked puzzled. "Wouldn't it be better to take something out of his mouth?" Mu Huali asked back. When Subutai heard it, he suddenly realized. "Okay, leave it to me!" As he said, he picked up the prisoner with one hand and walked out of the big tent.After a while, he ran in excitedly. "Okay, there is a way!" The generals are puzzled. "It turns out that all the supplies for Wusha Castle come from Wuyue Camp." Subotai said excitedly, "No wonder I didn't see them out hunting. How can the small Wusha Castle supply so many horses? It turns out that Wuyue Camp is a golden The place where the military rations are hoarded, Wusha Castle and Wuyue Camp are connected by a secret passage, and all the supplies are provided by the Wuyue Camp."

The generals suddenly realized. "Okay! Then let's go around and take the Wuyue Camp first. Then the Wusha Castle will have no support and no support, and the Wusha Castle will be chaotic without a fight." Jebe said excitedly, "I will lead 5,000 troops, and I will go to Jiezhai tonight and take down Wuyue Camp." "I'll go too!" Subotai's eyes lit up when he heard that he was going to sneak attack on Wuyue Camp. The blood debt half a month ago still prevented him from facing Mu Huali. Isn't today a good opportunity to take the blame and make meritorious service? ?

Mu Huali immediately spread out the topographic map of the border defense of the Jin Dynasty that Genghis Khan had given him, and repeatedly studied the plan of sneak attacking Wuyue Camp with Jebe and others. In the past few days, Hu Shahu has not been idle in the fort.The Mongolian army attacked several times, but the Wusha castle was difficult to overcome, and they only left pieces of corpses.For more than half a month, although he was not worried about the Mongolian army breaking the city, but the Mongolian army kept harassing him, which made him quite tired.Tonight, the moon is dark and the wind is high, and the Mongolian army's camp is quiet, so they won't come to attack again, right?Standing at the top of the city, looking at the Mongolian army camp in the distance, Hu Shahu showed a hint of ridicule on his face.Go back, you should be able to sleep soundly tonight. Back at Shuai's mansion, Hu Shahu ordered wine to be prepared and served, and he drank and flirted with the beauty at ease. After drinking for three rounds, it was reported that Wuyue Camp was on fire.He hastily pushed away the banquet and beauties, dressed neatly and came outside the mansion.At this time, seeing flames rising into the sky from the northwest, Hu Shahu complained incessantly, and urgently organized troops and horses to go to the rescue.However, at the same time, under the command of Mu Huali, the Mongolian army launched an attack on Wushabao.Mu Huali took the lead, and when he approached Wusha Castle, he stabilized his position, opened up his formation, and shot towards the city wall with the Mongolian army's oil-carving arrows.Before the sound of the bow fell, there was a scream, and a person fell from the wall over there.With a wave of his hand, these masters of eagle shooting shot out rows of revenge arrows. In an instant, thousands of arrows were fired, screams burst out, and golden soldiers fell down the castle one after another. Hearing that Wuyue Camp was robbed, the golden soldiers guarding the city panicked. Hu Shahu urged his horse to come to the gate of the city, and the golden soldiers defending the city were retreating like a tide.Hu Shahu tried to stabilize the morale of the army, but the army was defeated, and the Jin soldiers who were only fleeing for their lives did not listen to his command at all.Hu Shahu was angry and regretful.He didn't expect that the Mongolian army would leave Wusha Castle alone and attack Wuyue Camp first.In particular, he couldn't figure out why the Mongolian army was so familiar with the terrain and troop deployment of Wushabao?Months of hard work turned into dust and smoke in an instant, and some of those well-designed hidden weapon devices lost their effect before they could exert their divine power. Look at the loss of fighting spirit of the soldiers, and after losing the Wuyue Camp, Wusha Castle has no supply base and has become a dead city. Rescue cannot be rescued, and there is no way to escape. There can only be trapped to death here.Hu Shahu had no choice but to withdraw from Wusha Castle with the defeated generals and fled.Mu Huali didn't send anyone to chase after him, but called Jin to withdraw his troops, waiting to join Genghis Khan. The Battle of Wushabao was the first large-scale confrontation of the Mongolian army fighting gold. Through this battle, the morale of the Mongolian army was greatly boosted, and the combat effectiveness was further enhanced. The first gate of the Kingdom of Jin was opened, and the Mongolian army drove straight in. One goal is Yehu Ridge.