Author: Chen Erhu
First, Guo Kanqi
The historical Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire can be said to be the most invincible dynasty in the world in ancient times, sweeping through Asia, shaking the world, and producing countless famous generals with outstanding military achievements, and one of them will be known as the General of the Eastern Heavens, and he will cross the line and lay down more than 700 cities and pools, invincible and invincible.
So, who is this general?
The surname Guo Mingkan (郭名侃), also spelled Zhonghe , was a Mongol monk who accompanied Genghis Khan's grandson Emperor Hulegu on his western expedition and achieved brilliant results.
Guo Kan , a native of Zheng County , Huazhou ( present-day Hua County , Shaanxi ) , was born in 1217 and was a descendant of Guo Ziyi , a famous general of the Tang Dynasty.
His grandfather was named Guo Baoyu, proficient in astronomy and martial arts, proficient in riding and shooting, originally a general of the Jin Dynasty, saw the corruption and incompetence of the Jin Dynasty, surrendered to the Mongol Genghis Khan, and was deeply appreciated and reused by Genghis Khan. His father, Guo Dehai, was also a famous Han general under Genghis Khan, who repeatedly built qigong.
(Artillery of the Yuan Dynasty)
Guo Kan is the second son of Guo Dehai, since childhood by the influence of family origins, familiar with the art of war, proficient in the battle, due to the death of his father Guo Dehai, he was adopted by Genghis Khan's general Shi Tianze, talented Guo Kan, wrestling almost no opponents, immediately kung fu is also very good, just weak crown became a small and famous centurion, with the Mongol army to fight gold, because of the battle merits to become a centurion.
Since the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, gunpowder was widely used in warfare, it is said that during the Shaoxing period, the Shandong Road Loyal Army was good at building cannons, and developed the "Thunderbolt Cannon", filling the iron cylinder with gunpowder, stuffing it with gravel, placing it on the cannon car, firing the gunpowder in the front, and the rubble could be hit to two hundred steps away, which was very lethal, and could be called the ancestor of artillery in the world.
Guo Kan's father, Guo Dehai, was good at building cannons and was appreciated by Genghis Khan, and Guo Kan successfully developed a kind of artillery that could be curved on the basis of the original artillery, specializing in dealing with castles dominating the mountains, which could be flat and curved, and could be shot for about half a mile, and the curved shot could be shot twenty or thirty meters (about one hundred meters or so) and exploded, which was quite a deterrent, which was simply a miracle at that time.
Second, the artillery of the Western Expedition shows its might
During the Mongol Möngke Khan period, the thirty-six-year-old Guo Kan accompanied Genghis Khan's grandson King Hulegu on the Western Expedition, and Guo Kan accompanied him with a hundred artillery craftsmen, starting the first artillery expedition in the history of the world, and also began Guo Kan's god-like journey.
The Mongol Expeditionary Army crossed the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Kashmir and used three years to reach the Amu Darya River, and Hulagu saw Guo Kan's bravery and good fighting, so he appointed Guo Kan as the vanguard.
The first target, the Persian Empire city of Murazi (now western Iran), south of the Caspian Sea, was once the base of the Assasinites, the famous Assassin group known to Europeans.
Guo Kan defeated 50,000 Persians and horses in a battle of 5,000 men and horses, took advantage of the victory to attack, and attacked one hundred and twenty-eight castles in one fell swoop, killing the Persian general Kudu and Wu Zhu Suantan, so that the enemy fell in the wind.
The Mongol army advanced to Qidubu, the city was built on the mountain, easy to defend and difficult to attack, Hulagu organized soldiers and horses to fail to attack several times, and suffered heavy casualties.
Guo Kan led his artillery and brought in a curved cannon he had developed, and a fierce bombardment frightened the defender Na Wan'er to obediently surrender Kaesong.
Guo Kan pioneered the army and then invaded the Abba Dynasty (present-day Iraq), whose capital, Baoda (present-day Baghdad), was close to the Tigris River.
Guo Kan then mounted the artillery on the warship, went down the river to the city, fired cannons at the city, and soon collapsed a corner of the city wall, and the defender of the city ran to the king Musitasin and reported in a panicked manner: "Your Majesty, the Mongol artillery is too powerful, only a 'bang' is heard, and a section of the city wall and the warriors are gone." I heard that this Mongol was a barbarian, and if His Majesty did not surrender, the Mongol army would enter the city and it would be all over. ”
King Musitasin was also frightened by the huge explosion, so he had to immediately bind himself, Kaesong surrendered, and Guo Kan marched all the way and took more than three hundred castles.
Third, the Eastern Heavenly General in the eyes of Westerners
In the blink of an eye, Guo Kan led the vanguard soldiers and horses into saudi territory, and the iron horses were like bamboo, and more than 180 castles were conquered one after another.
It can be said that Guo Kan gave full play to the power of artillery and the good mobility of the Mongol cavalry, adopted strategies for the enemy, what encircled points to provide reinforcements, set up ambushes to lure the enemy, and so on, swept through Asia, making the West Asians exclaim: Guo Kan "General of the Eastern Heavens, God Man also."
Soldiers and horses came to the Mediterranean region, led the army to cross the sea, encountered the famous Crusaders in the West, and the Crusaders marched west, which was rendered as an invincible existence by the West. Guo Kan was stronger, and successively defeated the mythical Crusaders in Cyprus and other places, allowing the Westerners to see the bravery of the East, and marched into the peninsula of Asia Minor, "breaking the Woodlands and marching forty thousand soldiers, Abidin counted the beaches and feared, came to descend, and got one hundred and twenty cities."
When Guo Kan was ambitious and preparing to go north into Europe, the news of the death of the Mongol Khan Möngke came, and Guo Kan returned to collect troops.
From 1253 AD with Hulagu's Western Expedition to 1260 AD, Guo Kan captured more than 700 cities and pools in seven years, which can be said to be the first in ancient and modern China and abroad, and staged countless thrilling stories.
Guo Kan was nostalgic for his homeland, and he did not stay in Central Asia with Hulagu, but returned to the Central Plains (Hulagu established the Mongolian Ilkhanate from the Amu Darya River in the east, the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Caucasus in the north, and the Indian Ocean in the south, which was the territory that Guo Kan had conquered).
At this time, Kublai Khan had become the Great Khan of Mongolia, and Shi Tianze repeatedly recommended Guo Kan's ability, but it has not been reused, and a generation of war gods, "Zhining Haizhou", died of sorrow, ending a legendary life.
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