When Jin Xuanzong announced his move south, the fate of the Jin Dynasty was already doomed to destruction, but in this inevitable destruction, the Jin Dynasty burst out a very dazzling scene of glory.
The last line of defense
After the Jin Empire arrived in Nanjing and Kaifeng, it began to deploy defensively, and in order to defend against the Mongol Iron Horse, the Jin Dynasty established a defensive strategy based on the Guanhe defense line to win the Hebei rebels.
In the entire defensive strategy of the Jin Dynasty, the Guanhe Defense Line was the lifeblood of the Jin Dynasty. The main body of the Guanhe Defense Line was composed of two systematic regions, namely the Guanzhong Plain and the Jin Dynasty lands south of the Yellow River. The reason why these two regions became the foundation of the Jin Dynasty's defense against Mongolia was due to the huge advantages of the local economic geography. The first major is economic superiority, which was not destroyed by the Jin Dynasty at that time, and the economic foundation of Henan and Guanzhong, although it is no longer the same as it was then, is still very good. The second is the geographical advantage, this defensive line has four plugs in the west, the Yellow River natural danger in the east to protect the defense, the west to guard the Pass, the east to strangle the Yellow River to use the geographical advantage to resist the Mongol attack.
The Guanhe defense line is closed in front, so the value of Guanzhong to the entire defense line is self-evident. Guanzhong, as the land of the four cypriots, was heavily passed, and guanzhong pass was also easier to restrain the movement of the Mongol cavalry than the Yellow River defense line. At the same time, Guanzhong also controlled the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and if it was lost, the Yellow River defense line would naturally be lost. In order to defend Guanzhong, the Jin Dynasty deployed its elite forces here, and several field victories of the Jin Dynasty against the Mongols were also born here.
The Yellow River defense line is more difficult to defend than Guanzhong, but it is also much more important. The Yellow River is not a natural danger similar to the Yangtze River, and in winter, the Yellow River will even freeze for people on both sides of the river to cross the river, so it is very difficult to defend the long Yellow River. But the Jin Dynasty had to defend the Yellow River defenses, because the south of the Yellow River was the only source of tax wealth for the Jin Dynasty at that time. Without this, the Hundreds of Thousands of Jin Dynasty's troops would collapse due to the lack of logistical supplies. In order to defend the Yellow River defense line, the Jin Dynasty actively co-opted the Han warlords in the Hebei region as a buffer zone for the Yellow River defense line, the most important of which was the Wuxian forces located in the former Wei Bo. However, the strength of local warlords alone could not resist the attack of the Mongol Iron Horse, and the Jin Dynasty had a clear understanding of this. As soon as Wuxian was attacked by the Mongol army, soldiers and horses would be immediately dispatched from the Yellow River to move north to support Wuxian.
Using the Guanhe defense line, the Jin Dynasty repeatedly repelled the attack of the Mongolian army in despair, and this narrow and long defensive line became the lifeblood of life and death of the Jin Dynasty, and around this defense line was also launched the battle of wits and courage between the generals of the two armies of Mengjin and Jin, and the fierce battle between the two armies.
Revived golden man
Since the Battle of Wild Fox Ridge, the Jin people's campaign against the Mongols can be described as repeated defeats, the land has fallen, morale is low, and the whole country is desperate. But in this dark time, there was a person who lit a torch and expelled the darkness in the heart of the Jin people, and this person was the complete Yan Chen monk.
In 1228 AD, in Dachangyuan, the monk Of Yanchen bathed and changed into a suit of armor, and led 400 Jurchen cavalry to attack the Mongolian iron horses of 8,000 people. The Jurchens were like tigers entering the flock and crushing the invincible Mongolian iron horses. Hearing the news, the whole country rejoiced in the Jin Dynasty, and the monk Yan Chen was praised by the Jin Dynasty as the God of War.
Why were the Jin able to defeat the Mongol army with a weak force in Dachangyuan? In fact, as a fishing and hunting people, the Jurchens were far stronger than the fighting peoples of the Mongols. The most important comment of the Southern Song generals when evaluating the Jurchen army was "tenacity". On the battlefield of cold weapons, the army that does not retreat from the battle is an invincible army, and the Jurchen of the fishing and hunting nation is born with a tenacious and indomitable character. However, the peaceful environment wiped out the blood, but the humiliation and war brought by the Mongols made the Jurchens who had emerged in the white mountains and black waters gradually awaken. As long as the Jurchens' blood had not dried up, the war between Mengjin would continue.
After learning of the fiasco of Dachangyuan, Wokoutai who was far away in Helin raised his spirits, as the Great Khan of Wokoutai was not stable at this time, the ability of his brother Torre was too strong to be an opponent, and now he urgently needed a major victory to stabilize his Khan position.
In 1229, Wokoutai led the entire Mongol army to attack the Jin Dynasty's Guanhe defense line. The first target of the Mongol army was wuxian as a salient, and the Mongols and Jin engaged in a tug-of-war around wuxian for dozens of days, and the Mongol army was finally defeated and had to retreat. However, the Jin Emperor Jin Aizong was still frowning, and the main Mongol army was still stationed in Qingyang, west of Guanzhong. In order to prevent the army from fighting on two fronts, Jin Aizong repeatedly sent peace documents to Qingyang, but these documents had no effect in sinking into the sea.
The Mongol army finally set out from Qingyang to attack Dachangyuan, but the Mongols once again encountered the Jin army led by the monk Yan Chen, and the Mongol army was once again defeated at Dachangyuan, and the whole army had to return to northern Mobei with defeat. In the face of this defeat, Wo Kuotai summed up the lessons learned and attacked Guanzhong with the main army, and sent the first Mongolian general Su Butai to lead a large army to participate in the battle against Guanzhong, leading a large army to besiege Fengxiang, the western gate of Guanzhong, and sending a partial division to continue to besiege Wuxian.
The Jin Dynasty immediately took over, and the Jin Dynasty concentrated its national strength to first use it to besiege the Mongol partial division of Wuxian, and the Mongol partial division was unable to defeat the main force of the Jin Dynasty and had to retreat. The Great Khan's Nest Kuotai, who was far away in Fengxiang, was also trapped under Fengxiang City, and the Mongol army continued to form a stalemate with the Jin army. Wo Kuotai lost his proper sense in the face of successive defeats, and he led an army of 400,000 to attack Tianjian Tongguan, but the two-month siege of the Mongolian army was fruitless, and in the face of the stalemate on the battlefield, Wo Kuotai used the first Mongolian general SuButai.
He ordered Subutai to detour from Lantian Pass on the south side to encircle Tong pass behind the Jin people, and Subutai led 40,000 cavalry into Lantian Pass. The Mongol army dug stones at the abandoned Lantian Pass to detour to Tongguan, but the large army soon encountered Yan Heda who was waiting for work in the valley of falling back, and the 40,000 Mongol army suffered heavy losses under the siege, and the Mongolian army lost more than 10,000 horses and horses, and in the face of the battle situation, Kuotai had to lead the army to retreat.
Wo Kuotai was not willing to fail to continue to besiege Fengxiang, and sent Subutai to attack Tongguan. SuButai detoured from the trail this time, and finally reached the back of Tongguan. However, the monk Yan Chen led the loyal and filial army to the rescue, and su but was defeated, so he had to lead the army to escape. This time, the Mongol army was once again intercepted by the Jin army in the valley of the fall, and the large army suffered heavy losses, and the Mongols were no longer able to attack Tongguan.
After this confrontation, both sides suffered damage, and although the invincible Mongols took Fengxiang in the battle, they suffered heavy losses in soldiers and horses, which was an unacceptable loss for the already sparsely populated Mongolia. The Mongols must find a way to break the Jin people's defense line against the Guanhe River, otherwise the Mongols will never be able to eliminate the Jin Dynasty' feud.