Chapter 34 7. Take Jingjiang in a roundabout attack

In 1276, after Boyan occupied Lin'an, Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie, Chen Yizhong and others of the Southern Song Dynasty supported Yi Wang Zhao Shi as emperor in Fuzhou in order to restore the Song Dynasty.In order to quickly annihilate the regime in exile in the Southern Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan established Shangshu Province in Ezhou and Lin'an, appointed Zhang Hongfan as the "Marshal of the Mongolian Han Army", and gave him a sword and armor. Li Heng was the deputy commander and went to Fujian to pursue the two kings; Thirty thousand soldiers marched into Guangxi from the two lakes, and ordered the officials of Jingjiang Mansion and other large and small officials in Guangxi to surrender.

The guard of Jingjiang (now Guilin) ​​Mansion, Ma Qian, was the successor of Ma Yuan, a famous general in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and he had made great achievements in many battles.He was originally the prefect of Yongzhou. Because of his meritorious service in controlling the frontiers, he was recruited into the court as General Zuo Wuwei. It happened that the Song court surrendered, so he was stranded in Jingjiang. Ali Haiya entered Guangxi from Hunan, first conquered Quanzhou, and then sent the general manager Yu Quan to Jingjiang to surrender.Ma Qian didn't say much, and immediately killed the envoy to show his ambition.Lin'an fell, the Song Dynasty surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty, and Boyan coerced the Empress Dowager Xie Daoqing to issue an edict to persuade all states and counties to surrender. Song Mian, a monk in Xiangshan, went to Jingjiang to surrender with an edict in his hand. Ma Qian was furious: "There is no one to persuade people to surrender , I can't trust you!" Then he burned an imperial edict to kill the emissary, as an answer to Ali Hague.

Ali Hague was furious, and immediately led a large army to conquer Guangxi by force, and the striker pointed directly at Yanguan (now southwest of Xing'an, Guangxi). Strict pass, as the name suggests, the strict one, "strict as a narrow road and dreadful"; the pass, the pass also.There is a saying that the north of the pass is cold and snowy, while the south of the pass is hot and rainy.There is a local folk saying that "the north snow and the south rain can't fly", the north snow and the south rain are cut off from here, and it is strictly controlled by this place, so it got its name.Yanguan is an important throat from Hunan to Guangxi.To the west is Fenghuang Mountain, which stands on a wall and has jagged rocks; to the east is Lion Mountain, which is steep and full of huge rocks, which is daunting.Lion Mountain is connected with Matou Mountain, Zhutou Ridge, Qingshidou and other mountains, forming a natural barrier.This strict pass is located on the bird path between the two mountains. The terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack. It has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times, and it is called "Natural Danger in Northern Guangxi".

Hearing that Ali Haiya led an army of 100,000 troops to attack Guizhou, Ma Qian was not panicked. He knew that the soldiers should not be many but should be fine, and the generals should not be broad but brave, so he immediately organized two thousand soldiers from the army and the ethnic minorities in Zhudong. People guard Jingjiang, and they lead three thousand soldiers and horses to guard Yanguan.Ma Qian knew that Yanguan was the throat of Gui, and if Yanguan was lost, Jingjiang would not be guaranteed.After arriving at Yanguan, he ordered the walls of Yanguan to be strengthened. On the high mountains on both sides of the pass, he set up more than a dozen cannons, and sent people to block the Lingqu with huge stones and build battlements to prevent Yuan soldiers from entering the waterway. go south.At the same time, Ma Qiang also ordered people to dig many pits to stop the horses in front of the formation to prevent the Yuan army's cavalry from attacking like mercury.Everything is going on in an orderly manner.Ma Ji, on the other hand, never leaves his sword and gun, and his horse never leaves his saddle. He waits for work at leisure, ready to meet the Yuan army's attack.

In order to prevent the Yuan army from going south, the local people spontaneously organized and formed a rebel army, and together with the Song army, they attacked the Yuan army everywhere.It is said that the people of a village near Yanguan poured medicine into the well in the village, and the medicine turned dozens of Yuan troops. When Ali Haiya came to Yanguan, he thought that this place would be like other lands, and the Song army would flee in anticipation, but Ma Qian resisted to the end.So they arranged for the army and horses to attack, but due to the narrow terrain, it was not conducive to deploying a large group of troops. Although the firepower was strong and the number of people was large, they could not pass the strict barrier of the 3,000 guards.After several days and nights of fierce fighting, all methods were exhausted, but there was still nothing to do.

Ali Hague frowned.At this time, one of Ali Haiya's counselors suggested to him to abandon Yanguan, enter Guizhou from Longhuguan, which is more than a hundred miles away to the east, go up the Li River, pass Lingui, and then turn around and go northward, with the village before Yanguan, The main force of the Yuan army, which was facing a stalemate with the Song army, attacked back and forth.In this way, the strict barrier can be won in one fell swoop. Ali Haiya was overjoyed when he heard that, and immediately ordered Shi Ge, the Xuanfu envoy of Guangxi, to take a partial teacher to follow the plan, but he feigned an attack before the strict pass.

Ma Qian didn't take into account that the Yuan army's cavalry was fast, and it took less than a day to detour for more than a hundred miles, so he only focused on the front of the Yanguan formation.Unexpectedly, when he was fighting fiercely with his former enemy today, a sharp arrow was shot from behind unexpectedly.Seeing that the sneak attack was successful, Ali Haiya ordered the former army to attack desperately. The Yuan army attacked from both sides. Ali Hague took the opportunity to capture Yanguan and went straight to Jingjiang. The city of Jingjiang is solid. There are two inner and outer cities. The outer city is more than seven hundred feet long, four feet wide, eight feet wide, and three feet high. It is thicker and higher than other city walls; Defensive military buildings; more than 500 feet of trenches were dredged. These trenches were 25 feet wide and 2 to 2 feet five feet deep. They were connected with Yangshui and Rongshui. They were easy to defend but difficult to attack. Forge a strict pass, and iron will strike a quiet river," said.

Seeing that Jingjiang was so strong, Ali Haiya wrote to Ma Qian personally, promising that after the other party surrendered, he would immediately be awarded the post of governor of Guangxi.Seeing that the plan would not work, fearing that Ma Qian would not trust him, Ali Haiya sent someone to Dadu to ask Kublai Khan to "drop his hand and order it", and wrote to Ma Qian, "Now that the Song court has surrendered, Kublai Khan is about to For the destiny, the four seas are united, all the peoples surrender, a small Jingjiang, even if you are a hero, how long can you last? Even if you have a good location, but there are few people and no reinforcements, how can you be like a car and stop it? Live under the iron hooves of our 100,000-strong army? Understand the overall situation and be a hero who understands current affairs! The general’s enthusiasm is admired by Ali Hague; the general’s patriotism is known to the people of Guangxi. Today, the emperor Kublai Khan The imperial edict, I guarantee that you will be the Marshal of the Guangxi Region, that Jingjiang City will be destroyed, and that the Yuan army will not commit any crimes!"

Ma Qian acted resolutely, and once again burned the imperial edict and beheaded the emissary, resolutely not surrendering. In a rage, Ali Haiya commanded the Yuan army to attack the city. The Jingjiang River was solidified by the water, and it was indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack.Ma Qian defended the city for three months, in full clothes, and fought on the front line all the time. Although the Song army suffered many casualties in the city, they still insisted on defeating the Yuan army without the slightest intention of surrendering. Finally someone offered a plan.One person said: "The men and horses in Jingjiang City are only five thousand, which is no match for your one hundred thousand army. Those who rely on are all in Haoshui."

Ali Haiya said: "Yes, but the ditch is wide and the river is deep, and our army can't approach the city. Although we bombarded the city wall with artillery, the Song army took advantage of the gap to make up for it because we couldn't climb the city in time. Although it is easy to fill, the Haoshui overflowed. , the entire ground will become a vast ocean, which is even more unfavorable for our army to attack the city. Therefore, it will not fall in three months!" The man said: "Yes! Yes! When the city was designed, it relied on water to build the city. Once the water of Haoshui is drained, the city will not be difficult to destroy!"

Ali Hague said: "The question is how to drain the water?" This person said: "This is easy to handle. Haoshui connects Yangshui and Rongshui. If the general sends troops to build a big weir here, 'cut off the Dayang and Xiaorong rivers to contain the upper flow', and dig the southeast dam to divert the Jingjiang moat." The water dried up the moat around Jingjiang City and lost the barrier of the moat, so the Yuan army could enter Jingjiang City." "Okay! Good way!" Ali Hague sneered and said loudly, "Come here, give this person a big reward!" The man said with a smile: "Don't dare, dare not, the villain just wants to be an official..." Ali Hague despises this kind of traitor who eats inside and outside the most. "Haha, you become an official, and when our army leaves, you can offer a plan to the enemy to destroy me. Such a villain, what's the use of keeping it? Come, behead!" This is the fate of traitors! At the end of 1276, Ali Hague sent an army up along the Haoshui River, built two dams to block the Yangshui and Rongshui, and then opened the dams in the southeast of Jingjiang City to drain the Haoshui in the moat.Then send Scott to attack the city with chariots.Shi Ge sent the main force to attack the west gate in advance, attacked the east gate with elite soldiers, and bombarded the city wall with artillery fire. Then the Yuan army rushed forward like a tide, shouting loudly. Helplessly, the Yuan army engaged in crowd tactics, and the Song army was few and outnumbered, so they had to retreat to the inner city.The people in the outer city set fire to their houses, and many of them went to the water to die. Seeing that the outer city was broken, Ma Qian led his army to retreat to the inner city to continue fighting, but the inner city was bombarded and destroyed again.Ma Qian still led more than hundreds of soldiers to fight in the street with the Yuan army.The soldiers and horses of the Yuan army flocked to them, and they started to compete with them in various houses and alleys.Ma Qian's arm was cut off, dripping with blood, but still leaning against the broken wall, he fought desperately with the enemy, constantly killing the Yuan army.Seeing the strong men around him fall down one by one, Ma Qian's liver and gallbladder were torn apart, and when he was left alone, he looked up to the sky and sighed: "I, Ma Ji, really intend to kill the enemy, and I can't return to heaven!" Then he wanted to raise the knife He killed himself and was killed by the swarming Yuan army.Huang Wenzheng, the general of the Song Dynasty in the city, fought for a whole day, hacking and killing countless Yuan troops. In the end, he was exhausted and captured alive, still yelling.The Yuan army killed him cruelly, and Huang Wenzheng continued to scold him until his death, with such loyalty. After the war, Ali Hague came to Jingjiang, and saw that the whole city of Jingjiang was in ruins, with blood stains everywhere, and the unextinguished fireworks were still emitting black smoke everywhere.Looking at the handsome flag with the word "horse" flying high above the Jingjiang Mansion, he couldn't help learning from the Han people, and sighed up to the sky: "Both Jingchen and his son are porridge dogs, and they should be like Sun Zhongmou when they have children!" Cao Cao praised Sun Quan in the past. To express my respect for horse cum. After Jingjiang City was broken, the gates of Guangxi were opened, and the Yuan army took advantage of the situation. The fifteen prefectures on Guangnan West Road were all occupied by the Yuan army.When the Yuan army attacked Yongzhou (Nanning), the main general Ma Chengwang and his son Ma Yinglin were timid, and surrendered the city before Ali Haiya attacked the city.Only General Lou Qian of the Maqian Ministry led 250 Song troops to guard Yuecheng.Ali Haiya adopted a strategy of siege, and the siege lasted more than ten days. In the end, the Song army used the plan to earn food for the Yuan army.In the end, due to being outnumbered, the Song army gathered around a giant cannon, ignited the gunpowder, and then there was a loud "bang" and died together with the enemies besieging the city. In the battle of Jingjiang, the Yuan army avoided the dangerous pass with a roundabout attack strategy. After circumventing the Song army, they attacked on both sides and won the strict pass in one fell swoop.Under strict control, the Jingjiang River lost its support, and the Yuan army adopted the strategy of drawing fire from the bottom of the pot and attacking the west.The heroic feats performed by the Jingjiang people headed by Ma Qian deeply moved everyone in the Yuan army.