Chapter 13 6. Ala Heisuojiang defeated Malik

In 1220, Khwarazim suddenly felt the city. Timur Malik, the brave general known as the "Iron King" in Khwarazm, was standing on the city wall watching the setting sun falling in the west and the huge shadow drawn by the red clouds, motionless like a sculpture.He had been standing like this for a long time. Genghis Khan's Western Expeditionary Army had just conquered Benakte and was heading up the river, approaching the city of Huzhi.Malik, who received the battle report, knew clearly that the Mongolian army implemented a policy of burning, killing, and looting all towns and villages that dared to resist, and many Khwarazm cities surrendered without a fight.Now, disaster has come to the city of Kuzen, how to deal with these devil masters?Malik often fell into such contemplation.Surrender is impossible, that is not my character, Timur Malik, but if you want to fight, you must use your own advantages, and if you strive to fight, you will win.Malik made arrangements, sent away the generals, and stood on the top of the city staring at the west.

In the sky, the bright orange mixed with the clouds gradually changes into a soft pink blue, and the sunset presents its final splendor.The satin-like Syr Darya is shining with pearls, like pairs of compassionate eyes, blending with the setting sun.This is the evening of the Syr Darya, quiet, beautiful, and sad. As dusk fell, the setting sun mercilessly put away the burning flames on the water, and a tired long dragon lay obediently in the night, waiting for the night to fall asleep and the dawn to come. "It's time to retreat." Timur Malik shook his head, turned around and said to the guards beside him, "Give me an order to retreat to the castle in the river under the cover of night!"

"Yes!" The guard turned and left. Timur Malik fully complied with the tactics he formulated, relying on the city wall and defending firmly, so as to defeat the morale of the enemy army and drag down the enemy army.As the "Iron King", Malik has long heard of the Mongols' tactics, avoiding their first wave of attack by himself, making the enemy lose their advantage, and then using a small mobile part to harass the enemy and kill the enemy. "Remember, take what you can, especially food and livestock." Huzhi City (now Leninabad, Tajikistan) is the capital of Fergana, and the city is divided into inner and outer castles.The inner fort is built on the sandbar in the middle of the Syr Darya, which divides the river into two. The 2,800-kilometer-long Syr Darya provides a natural barrier for it, and more than 1,300 cubic meters per second The traffic makes it a natural defense team, a castle that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.Because of this natural danger to rely on, Timur Malik decided to avoid the first wave of Arahei's attack, abandon the outer city, stick to the inner city, and use the moat of the Syr Darya to block the attack of the Mongolian army.

After Genghis Khan completed the defense of the city of Erdara, he sent four armies to sweep across the entire Khwarazmo. When the third army, Arahei, rushed to the bank of the Syr Darya, Malik had already retreated to the inner city. . Alahei found that he could not cross the river, so he sent messengers to recruit the artillery forward, and ordered: "Jatara, you boy will give me a hard blow, and I will go to the Great Khan to reward you." Jataras immediately arranged artillery to set up trebuchets, fire-shooting machines and crossbows, ready to use artillery fire to open the way and open the inner fort.

A chime flew into the sky. The archer started to shoot arrows, the trebuchet started to throw stones, and the fire machine started to shoot fire. With the loud noise of "rumbling", the cannon stones flew out in the air, but fell into the river halfway, because there was a river separating them, and the city wall was far beyond the range of the bow and arrow. Jatar had no choice but to order to stop shooting and reply to Alahei. Although the gunfire stopped, the noise on the shore was far from over.More than 20,000 horses gathered on the shore, unable to attack, unable to retreat, people screaming, A Lahei was extremely anxious.

However, Malik was fighting wits and courage with the Mongolian army. He sent twelve specially-made sealed warships, covered with a thick layer of wet felt, and then coated with a layer of clay smeared with vinegar. It was then wrapped in oil-soaked felt and covered with a thick layer of earth, with a number of archery windows left on it.Ships thus treated are strong, invulnerable to fire, and very effective against rockets.At dawn or evening, once the Mongols neglected their defense, the boats would approach the shore and shoot the Mongolian army with dense flying arrows.But when the archers and gunners of the Mongolian army came out to meet them, they had already retreated to the other side of the river.

"General, are we going to follow the old rules this time?" Every night, Malik's guards would ask like this, and they looked at Malik with respect and pride from the bottom of their hearts.Whenever Malik appeared in front of the soldiers, the courage of these soldiers would rise again. "Of course, as long as I'm here, the enemy won't be allowed to win easily." Malik said firmly.He ordered the soldiers to deliberately light a torch and drive the boat down the river. When the Mongolian army saw the torch, they immediately mobilized crossbowmen to line up, and the rocketmen set up jet trains on the bank, waiting for the enemy to approach.

Once within range, with an order, arrows, crossbows, locusts, arrows rain down, tongues of flame like giant dragons, pounce on the boat, the boat becomes a hedgehog, a sea of ​​flames, but continues to move forward, and the people inside remain the same It can shoot a life-threatening arrow. The Mongolian army was in chaos. Arrows, fire, and kerosene were all helpless against the warships, which made Alahei helpless. Alahei walked back and forth anxiously in the big tent.Heroes are useless, unable to contact the enemy, and the Mongolian army loses its advantage in combat. At this time, Jia Tara walked into the big tent. Seeing that Alahei was so anxious, he said slowly: "General, there is a story about Jingwei filling the sea in Han people. I wonder if you have heard of it? Why don't we follow suit?"

"What is Jingwei reclamation? What does it mean?" "Jingwei reclamation is a myth of the Han people. It is said that the daughter of the Han emperor was swallowed by the sea when she crossed the East China Sea. She turned into a Jingwei bird, carrying wood and stones from the Western Mountains, determined to fill up the sea." "Haha, don't be ridiculous, how can we have so many people in such a wide river? When will it be filled?" "We can 'give food to the enemy and borrow troops from the enemy'. We mobilize the whole army and go to the towns and villages we pass to gather local people. Each soldier can gather ten people, and our 20,000 soldiers can be organized into one hundred thousand horses. The Harsha'er team (servant army acting as cannon fodder), this team can transport earth and rocks, which is enough to fill up this big river. By then, why worry about not being able to attack the top of the city?"

Hearing this, Ah Lahei patted Jatar's shoulder: "You really have it! This is a good way!" "In addition, in order to prevent the enemy from escaping, we have to let the artisans accompanying the army make iron locks to lock the river at the narrowest point. At the same time, we cut down trees on the spot and erected pontoon bridges to block the enemy's retreat, and strive to wipe them out on the spot." "it is good!" "In order to prevent the iron chain from being cut and smashed by the enemy, the iron chain must be thick. At the same time, a copper bell should be tied to the iron chain, and stone throwers and artillery groups should be arranged on the shore. Once the enemy tries to destroy it, shake the copper bell to send out The crossbowmen stopped and bombarded the enemy ships with artillery and catapults."

"Okay!" Alahei nodded approvingly, and immediately dispatched troops to forcibly incorporate the young and middle-aged men from Kuzen City into the army, and transferred 50,000 Hashar troops from the cities and villages occupied by Erdala City and other cities and villages, plus the accompanying army About 100,000 slaves, under the supervision and coercion of 20,000 Mongolian troops, brought stones from distant mountains and filled them into the river. At the same time, Alahei sent 2,000 light cavalry to search for crossing points along the river bank, trying to cross the river, and trying to achieve a double attack. Malik stood at the top of the city, observing the opposite bank in surprise. Looking from a distance, dense crowds brought sand, rocks and soil from nearby hills and hills, and filled them into the Syr Darya by carts and baskets. Inch narrowed.Timur Malik, standing at the top of the city, understood the intention of the Mongols. He didn't expect the Mongols to have this trick, so he immediately ordered warships to be sent to harass and archers to shoot. Twelve specially-made ships hurriedly went to battle, but the trebuchets were already in full swing, and the huge special-made round stone bullets roared and flew towards the enemy ship, smashing the deck of the ship in one fell swoop.Seeing that the situation was not good, the rest of the people immediately turned the bow of the boat and fled in embarrassment. The river became narrower and narrower, and the Harsha'er team gathered more and more on the bank. Seeing that it was within the firing range, Jatarra set up his cannon carriage again.This time, his artillery fire played a powerful role.With the loud bang, the defenders on the castle were shot with arrows one after another, and the city was also on fire, and the castle was pierced through several gaps by huge stone bullets. Seeing that there was no danger to defend, Malik panicked and immediately ordered to abandon the fortress in the river and retreat downstream. More than 70 large ships carried Malik's remnant soldiers and retreated downstream. However, after the ships traveled not far away, they heard a loud "bang", and the fleet stopped and did not move.It turned out that the long river lock cable set up by Arahei blocked the fleet, and Timur Malik hurriedly ordered the engineers to try to cut off the cable with a giant axe.However, the iron chain is too thick, and it is wobbly in the water, so it takes a lot of effort to cut off one chain, let alone 12 chains? On this side of the bank, the Mongolian army saw that the enemy was trying to cut off the iron chain with a giant axe, so they immediately blew their whistle and sounded the alarm.The crossbowmen, artillery machines, and trebuchets who had been waiting for a long time shot together. The arrows were like locusts, impenetrable, and the enemy engineers fell into the water one after another, and were swallowed in a flash in the waves. Under this fierce attack, Marik's fleet burst into flames, and huge stone bombs whizzed towards the wind, some fell into the water, and the splashed water curtain slammed down; It landed on the boat and made a dull sound.Accompanied by the screams, the big boat slammed into the water, blocking the way of several boats behind. Malik knew that he was in a dilemma, so he ordered the ship to approach the right bank, abandoned the warship and landed, and retreated while shooting at the enemy on the opposite bank.Unexpectedly, when they met the Mongolian light cavalry who had crossed the shore, they slashed like a gust of wind and swept away fallen leaves. Almost all Malik's troops were killed, and only Malik was able to escape. In this campaign, Ara Heibu skillfully used strategy, took advantage of the large number of people, took the method of filling the river and locking the river, took advantage of the artillery battle and the Mongolian cavalry's advantages in long-distance raids, made up for its weakness and shortcomings in the war, and finally conquered the city. Defeat Malik. After occupying Kuzen City, Arahei took a short rest and then continued to attack in the direction of Fergana.