(Mongolia from a tall and handsome one)
The Mongols were recognized worldwide as the strongest army of the 13th century, and the empire they created was unsurpassed in the modern era. However, according to archaeological findings, the Mongols also had a tragic period when they could only use bone arrows.
The Mongols' path of counterattack
As a dick, you can be materially poor, but you cannot be spiritually depraved. After the Mongols had suffered from the pain of inferior early equipment, they attached great importance to this piece. All the cities destroyed by the Mongols, all the inhabitants will be slaughtered, but the craftsmen will be able to survive with their craftsmanship. After destroying the Central Asian cities headed by Farazim, the Mongols went from di si to rich and handsome.
In the past, the Mongols were known only for their riding and archery skills. It is no wonder that the traditional Mongolian horse is only about 1.3 meters, not only can not be compared with the Arabian horse and the Perb horse, the world's famous horses, but even the river horse next door can crush them without pressure. Many people read too much of the text and think that the Mongolian horse is stronger than other horse breeds in terms of hard work, which is a misunderstanding. The Ming Dynasty's "Saiyu", a military book written against the Mongols, mentioned that the Mongolian horse was not as able to endure hardships as some people thought, and it was still impossible to fight when the grain and grass were not good in winter.
(In the eyes of many people, Mongolian horses simply have nuclear power))
The Song Dynasty, on the other side of Eurasia, also experienced the desperate impact of the Mongols. When the Southern Song Dynasty was negotiating with the Mongols to attack the Jin Dynasty, the envoy Peng Daya took the opportunity to record the way the Mongol army fought at that time. In the eyes of the Song people, the most terrifying thing about the Mongols was not their riding skills and compound bows, but the shining ringed knives in their hands. This knife came from the hands of Muslim craftsmen in the Western Regions, and was light and sharp, and was very suitable for cavalry. The Mongols charged with ringed knives impressed the whole world, and all the major civilizations chose to imitate it after fighting with it. European craftsmen imitated the ringed knife and created the "Mongolian Tatar Sword", the earliest sabre.
(The earliest Mongol Tatar sword)
(Sabre standard 1853)
With a good horse and a good knife, it is natural to have a good armor to become a good armored cavalry. In addition to being rich in good horses and knives, Central Asia is also the homeland of armorers. In addition to the traditional armor and lock armor, central Asia also has a kind of armor that nails pieces of armor nailed to cloth or skin - cloth face armor commonly used in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
All armor has an eternal puzzle of how to be as light as possible while being defensive. Except for the plate armor that appeared after the 14th century, which was integrated and light and good in form, the rest of the armor could not overcome this problem. However, cloth face armor still has advantages over old-fashioned armor, by nailing the armor pieces to the cloth, wearing armor can be as simple as wearing clothes, and the armor is no longer as complicated as in the Song and Jin dynasties.
(The picture above is the Ming Dynasty armor, the bottom picture is the Song Dynasty, even laymen can see that the number of armor on both sides is different)
This easy-to-wear and protective armor soon became popular among the Mongol armies and replaced the traditional armor during the reign of the Yuan Dynasty. Later Generations of Ming troops also wore this kind of armor imported by the Mongols from the Western Regions to fight against the Japanese army, which showed its practicality.
Mongolia's decisive weapon across Eurasia
Now we know that the Mongols' equipment was almost all Western goods, and even their proud war horses were not lacking in Central Asian breeds such as sweat and blood. However, these left the Mongols invincible in the wilderness, but they could not conquer the enemy's fortresses and towns. If field battles can still be compensated by virtue of advantages such as "hard-working warfare" and "skill", then fortress attack and defense is a pure technical competition.
(The castle of Guédelon in the Bokendi region of France, even if it is broken, it is not easy to fight)
The most well-known Mongol siege Chinese was the Battle of Xiangyang. As a bridgehead against the Mongol army, the Song Dynasty made a bloody defense of Xiangyang City. It is not only a rare brick and stone city in China, the defensive power is far stronger than the ordinary rammed earth city wall, but also completely abandons the past bed crossbow defense method, and adds four artillery platforms and eleven slow roads to Xiangyang. I believe that readers who have seen "The Lord of the Rings" or "Heavenly Dynasty" should understand the advantages of the defending side if it has a trebuchet.
Coupled with the natural environment of Xiangyang City's water ring, the traditional siege technology in East Asia is indeed helpless. Because in Zeng Gongliang's "General Outline of the Martial Classics", it is recorded that there were sixteen kinds of trebuchets used in China during the Song Dynasty, of which the system and range of seven kinds of trebuchets are detailed in the book. When they are used, they are too much force, and the weight of the cannon stones thrown is very small, only a few pounds, dozens of pounds. Judging from the more powerful "seven cannons" alone, the number of draggers when shooting is as high as two hundred and fifty, and the weight of the cannon stones is only ninety pounds, and the range is only fifty steps. For the Song Dynasty defenders, who had the dominant projection position and the city wall structure was masonry, this degree was no longer a problem.
But the Mongols, unlike all previous enemies, had more sources of technology. As early as the time of Yuan Taizu, he had ordered Xue Ta to be a gunner, "to return to Hui and fear Wu'er to make meritorious contributions with cannons". In the third year of the Central Unification (1262), Li rebelled against Jinan, and the son of Xue Ta Lahai was ordered to destroy his city with artillery. This shows that before the Mongol army launched a full-scale war against the Southern Song Dynasty, there were already Hui gunners entering China.
(Counterweight trebuchets in the Islamic world are far more powerful than human trebuchets in East Asia.)
In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1267), the Southern Song general Liu Zhen suggested to Shizu that if he wanted to destroy the Song, he must first take the Song military towns xiangyang and Fancheng. The next year, the Yuan soldiers came to xiangyang and the outskirts of Fancheng. In the third year, the two cities had been tightly besieged by the Yuan army, but because the two cities were Hanshui (Xiangyang was south of Hanshui and Fancheng was north of Hanshui), and there were pontoon bridges communicating, the Song army was across the river as horns, and they could still echo each other. The Yuan army could not attack for a long time, so it ordered the demolition of the Hanshui pontoon bridge, and then built a high platform in the Hanshui, placed crossbow cannons on it, and set up stone hoards under it.
In this way, the connection between Xiangyang and Fancheng was cut off, and the two cities were isolated, and the Song army could no longer be assisted by water. However, the Yuan army attacked continuously for many years, but due to the stubborn resistance of the Song army, it failed to take the second city, and the Mongols were forced to build a long siege in an attempt to make a long-term dilemma. At this time, the commander of the Yuan Army, who was familiar with the situation in the Western Regions, Ali Hague, a fearful Wu'er, was very powerful in returning to the cannon, and suggested that the Yuan Dynasty ancestors march back to the Western Regions to return to the cannon to help in the battle. So Kublai Khan "sent conscripts to Persia." In the eighth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1271), Kublai Khan's envoys arrived in Persia and asked the Ily Khan Abaha to send gunners to support the yuan army's military campaign to finally annex the Southern Song Dynasty. Ah Baha then sent a Hui hui gunner who was a family of cannon makers and was famous for his good at making cannons in the western region, Hu lie (Herat), Yi SimaYin, and Alao Waddin, a Mufari, to China. Since then, a large number of Western Hui gunners have begun to conscript china one after another.
(In the legend of the Eagle Shooter, Lu Wenhuan, who guarded Xiangyang, was hacked very badly, but in fact, he still resisted for a long time)
When SimaYin and Alaowadin arrived in Dadu at the beginning of the ninth year of the ninth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1272), Kublai Khan "gave the official house", and the two were ordered to make a return cannon. When the first cannon was built, Shizu ordered it to be test-fired in front of the noon gate of Dadu, and watched it in person, that is, when the test was completed, Kublai Khan praised it greatly, and gave the two people silk clothes as a reward. At that time, Ali Hague had been unable to attack Fan and Xiang'ercheng for a long time, and Sima Yinnai was ordered to use his artillery skills to assist in the battle. At this time, the Song army of Fancheng "covered the city with a fence" and still put up stubborn resistance. At this point, Sima Was killed by "returning to the shelling and setting fire to its fence", and in the first month of the tenth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1273), Fancheng was attacked by the Yuan army. "Ali Hague broke the fan and moved its attack gear to Xiangyang", Yi Simayin, after careful observation outside Xiangyang City, installed a return cannon that could fire a hundred and fifty pounds of boulders in the southeast corner of Xiangyang City according to the terrain, and waited for the order to shoot into the city. When Ali Hague ordered the cannon to be fired, "the sound shook the heavens and the earth, and all the blows were destroyed, and they fell into the ground seven feet." Due to the fierceness of the artillery attack, the Pacification of the Song army defending the city made Lü Wenhuan helpless, and finally knew that he was invincible, and decided to sacrifice Xiangyang City to surrender to the Yuan army.
epilogue
After the Tang Dynasty, Central Asia was gradually Islamized, and it was almost impossible for the Central Plains Dynasty to obtain such high-quality cavalry as the Shatuo or Uighurs from Central Asia, which was also an important reason why the Song army was suppressed by the Khitans and Jin. Taking advantage of the political disorder in Central Asia, the Mongols occupied Central Asia in one fell swoop and brought a wave of comprehensive equipment upgrades to their troops, laying the foundation for world domination.
For the Central Plains, the Mongols' entry into the Central Plains objectively brought the last wave of upgrading of armaments from Central Asia, and the Ming army we see today is obviously more like the Mongols than the Song.
So when the Mongols withdrew from the Central Plains and the Verats jammed the Western Passage, did the Central Plains completely cut off foreign support? Of course not, the strongest legion of the Ming Army is the result of another passage input, who is this legion? Where are the new input channels? Let's find out next time.