Chapter 409: A Thousand Miles of Pursuit
Genghis Khan returned to the camp and listened to the detailed report of the guard, only to learn that Zalandin, the eldest son of Mohammed, had led 50,000 soldiers and horses in his fiefdom of Ge Chening, and came to Samarkan under the stars, threatening to retake the national capital.
After hearing the report, he immediately ordered his youngest son Tulei to lead 20,000 soldiers and horses, and quickly cooperate with Getari, Yasa Wuji and others, and be sure to stop Zalandin's soldiers and horses, and Genghis Khan gave the order to attack the castle the next day.
Behind the castle is a towering cliff and facing the inner city, with a fortified basement that can accommodate thousands of people. Genghis Khan gave Jochi the task of the main attack, and the artillery of Yelu Ahai first opened fire on the defenders of the castle with ballistas, killing many of the defenders on the fort.
Then he fired rockets and fired flames with launchers, and in the blink of an eye the castle was on fire, and the defenders were so frightened that they all hid in the fort. So Jochi commanded the Mongol soldiers to rush into the fort and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy, and the two sides fought fiercely.
At this time, Albarr Khan in the fort led a daredevil, rushed out of the inner fort, cut a bloody path from the soldiers of Jochi, and galloped towards Jade Dragon Jiechi.
In order to destroy the enemy in the fort as soon as possible, Jochi accepted Yelu Ahai's suggestion and launched a fire attack on the fort, adding a large amount of sulfur and chili peppers to the firewood and grass. The smoke and smell of the fort were choking, forcing some of the enemy to come out and surrender, and the other part to retreat into the underground bunker, unwilling to surrender.
Jochi sent soldiers to carry water and pour it into the underground bunker, but due to the difficulty of water in the bunker, the soldiers and civilians in the fort could not hold on, so they had to go out of the bunker and surrender. Genghis Khan sent troops to destroy the castle and burn several mosques, and the fire continued to burn for five days and five nights, and the smoke still did not stop.
Among the soldiers and civilians who surrendered last, the Turks were assembled separately from the Khamlis, according to the orders of Genghis Khan. Because the Turks were of the same race as the Mongols, the former were pardoned for capital crimes, while the Khamli were all put to death.
Samarkandan was devastated in the war, and the city was reduced to rubble. In Persian, Samar means fertile, and Gan means city, so Isaac Malgan is a fertile city.
In Samarkand, there are parks full of flowers, and almost every house, no matter how big or small, has a garden and yard in front of it, as if all Samarkanes are lovers of flowers and plants. The canals in the city extend in all directions, providing convenient conditions for the development of horticulture. Whenever after tea and dinner, the crowd in the park is weaving, adults holding children, and the elderly holding each other, a quiet and fragrant peaceful life.
The skilled craftsmen of Samarkan were famous throughout the East. They produced fabrics interwoven with silver threads, produced the famous Samaritan fabrics, and produced tents for merchants throughout Central Asia. A variety of bronze ware and refined drinking utensils were also sold in the pot trading area, and a variety of leather harnesses were sold in the saddle trading area, from Kashgar to Shiraz, and people often rushed to buy products from Samarkand.
The cloth pulp paper produced by the craftsmen of Samarkan is even more famous, which replaced the papyrus and parchment paper used in Muslim countries at that time, and in the era of backward technology, this kind of cloth pulp paper became popular all over the world and became an important commodity to promote the development of cultural undertakings.
Therefore, Samarkan was the cultural center of Central Asia, and for a long time, it was regarded as the cultural cradle of Central Asia. With Genghis Khan's westward expedition, Yelu Chucai stayed in Samarkan for a long time, and he wrote many popular poems in the name of Hejian.
There are many poems that praise the beautiful city of Samarkand, and in the poems, Yelu Chucai writes excitedly: "The green garden is full of flowers and thousands of trees, and the green embankment is a thousand times winding water. Who knows that the Western Regions are in a good scene, and thousands of acres of green wheat are flat. ”
But after this war, the prosperity and beauty of Samarkan were gone, and it was greatly damaged. Yelu Chucai was full of pathos and wrote "Ten Songs in the River of the Western Regions".
Lonely Hezhong Mansion, the people have suffered many disasters. Avoid the soldiers to open the hole, waterproof and build a high platform. Lonely river mansion, decadent around the homeland. The city is even acres, and the market is half a mound grave. Traveling more than 10,000 miles to the west, who is called a good map.
Genghis Khan spent the summer and autumn in Samarkan to recuperate, and then appointed two friends of the local Islamic elders as governors and governors of Samarkan, and appointed a Mongol named Thebmetrib as overseer to govern the inhabitants and manage the affairs of the city.
While Mohammed's ministers, father and son were arguing about the fight against the Mongols in the city of Rysht on the southwest bank of the Amu Darya River, the Mongol general Jebe had already led the first pursuing force to the south bank of the Amu Darya River and was ready to cross the river.
When the Amu Darya River flows through this area, the river is wide and narrow, and it is the late autumn and early winter months of September and October, which is also the season of high water. After walking some distance along the banks of the Amu Darya River, Jebe chose to cross the river at Bangapur, but there were no boats or bridges to cross the river.
He looked at a hillside not far from the riverbank, and saw that there were green trees there, and there was no daylight, and Jebe's eyes suddenly lit up.
He immediately ordered his soldiers to cut down wood and weave baskets, build heavy equipment, wrap them in cows, sheep and animal skins, so that they could float on the water, and then tie the leather baskets to the horse's tail and drive the horses across the river. The soldiers could grasp the leather baskets and follow closely behind, so that 10,000 horses quickly crossed the Amu Darya River. At this time, the soldiers and horses of the general Subutai also caught up, and the two troops and horses were combined in one place, ascended to the south bank of the Amu Darya River, and continued to pursue south, and soon the army arrived at the black city of Bari.
The defenders of the city were deeply affected by Mohammad's fear of the enemy's war, and in order to save his own life, he voluntarily surrendered to the Mongol army. They organized a delegation with many gifts, especially food and coins, to welcome the Mongol army into the city to rest.
According to Genghis Khan's principle of rewarding those who returned, Jebe and Subutai did no harm to the inhabitants of the city, and only sent a Sharina to govern the city. Then he found a guide from the city, and sent a general as a vanguard to continue the pursuit of King Mohammed.
It turned out that when Jebe received the order to pursue Mohammed, Genghis Khan had ordered them not to besiege the city along the way, not to delay or delay the pursuit of the mission, and to obey the goal of pursuing Mohammed. Then the soldiers and horses of Jebe and Subutai entered the Khorasan region, and after several days of galloping, they came to the city of Nisabul, sent people to find the people in charge of the city, and presented them with the proclamation of Genghis Khan.
The proclamation, written in Uyghur, said: "Commanders, lords, and people from near and far must know that God has put me in charge of this great empire from east to west. Whoever submits to my great empire will be spared death, and whoever dares to resist my Mongol army, along with his wife, children, family, and all his subjects, will be a demon under the sword. ”
Jebe and Subutai held this aggressive announcement, so they also had the power of life and death. However, in order not to delay the pursuit, they did not attack the city, and then divided their troops into two routes and continued to pursue Mohammed.
Later, when the team of Subutai arrived at Zhanwei City in the Harvey area, the defenders of the city led the soldiers to beat war drums and shouted: "Everyone should be killed, all of them should be killed, and you will never end well! You are killing people everywhere, setting fires, destroying civilization, and you are a group of devils who should be cursed!"
The soldiers and horses of Subutai immediately began to attack the city, and fought for three days before breaking through the city, and then slaughtered the city and burned it, and none of the soldiers and civilians in the city were spared, and after the dead bodies were burned, the smell was dozens of miles away. Wherever they arrived, the armies of Jebe and Subutai insisted on taking revenge on the rebels, and then plundered the grain, grass and clothing, and drove the local horses and cattle until they reached the city of Thorn, where the two armies were able to join forces.
Later, when the soldiers arrived at the city of Uda, Jebe and Subutai sent people to the city to ask for food and grass, but the inhabitants of the city closed the gates, ignored them, and refused to supply anything. In a hurry to pursue Mohammed, he did not stop there, and the army galloped away. When the inhabitants of Uda saw that the Mongol army had gone far, they beat gongs and drums on the city to celebrate their victory.
When Jebe and Subutai heard this information, they were very annoyed, thinking that this was disrespectful to the Mongol army, so they led their troops back, put the ladder on the city wall, and took the city of Uda in one go. In order to punish those people, the Mongol army slaughtered all the inhabitants of the city in a fit of rage, faithfully carrying out Genghis Khan's instructions and exterminating those who showed unyielding and rebellious sentiments.
The killing, like a major earthquake, shook the entire Khorasan region, and people were horrified when they heard the news. The news of the approach of the Mongol pursuers soon reached Mohammad's residence, and he hurriedly packed his bags and prepared to flee.
By this time, Mohammad had already left Resth and settled in Giriyang, on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where he went to the mosque every day to pray five times and have the Imam recite the Qur'an for him. In order to escape the Mongols, Mohammad moved from Giriyang to a small island in the Caspian Sea.
Who knew that Jebe and Subutai got the news, thinking that Mohammad was hiding in Harenburg, so they finally came to Haramburg despite trekking through mountains and rivers, captured all the Bald Genkedun and others, and immediately sent troops and horses to send them to Genghis Khan.
When Mohammed learned that his mother had been captured, that several of his young sons had died by the sword, that his daughters had been given to his sons by Genghis Khan, that his concubines had been humiliated by the soldiers, and that the king had lost his mind and fell unconscious.
When he woke up, he was in tears, forgot to eat and drink, and soon became bedridden. At this time, he was lying on the hospital bed, still tearfully confessing, insisting on praying five times a day. But even if he regretted it, it did not help to restore the country, let alone prevent the Mongols from chasing him.
In July 1221, Mohammed died of grief due to illness and grief over the loss of his country, and was hastily buried on this small island.