Mahu County is located in the southwest of Xuzhou, on the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, and was probably later Leibo County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
This place is named after "Ma Lake". Ma Lake is a lake on the west bank of the Jinsha River. It is surrounded by mountains and has only underground undercurrents flowing into the Jinsha River. It is said that in ancient times, dragons and horses mated in the lake, and they gave birth to different horses.
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Because of this lake, this section of the Jinsha River is also called "Mahu River".
To put it simply, Mahu River is a section of Jinsha River.
The river is turbulent, with dangerous waves and dangerous beaches. There is a poem from that time that goes, "The corner of the slanting rain towel is folded, and the bow of the small boat house is bent. The higher the stone wall, the farther the sky becomes, and the deep clouds control the state."
Zhang Shi has led 30,000 naval troops across the Mahu River to resist Wu Liang's attempt to join Tai.
This is the battlefield he specially chose.
The terrain on both sides of the Mahu River was difficult and dangerous, which was not conducive to the deployment of Wu Liang Hetai's troops. However, the Song Dynasty navy could fire arrows from the boats to severely defeat the Mongolian army.
The weather, the right location, the right people, and the people are all in the hands of the Song army.
In mid-November, Wu Liang Hetai marched to the river valley and led twelve Mongolian troops, totaling more than 10,000 people, and more than 7,000 Dali servants, totaling more than 17,000 people.
The forces of both sides spread out.
There was a fierce battle, and the sound of killing shook the sky for several days.
The sound of countless arrows piercing the air gathered together, whistling together with the river wind.
The archer fell into the river, was swept by the huge waves, and was instantly annihilated.
The screams frightened the wild beasts in the mountains and fled in all directions...
Zhang Shi is quite confident in this battle.
He is by no means a mediocre person, but has accompanied Yu Jie through dozens of battles, large and small, and has made great achievements in battle.
However, the Song army took advantage of the boats to attack when advancing and defend when retreating. It was almost in an invincible position.
Even so, Zhang Shi did not dare to underestimate the enemy and always supervised the battle personally.
However, the Mongolian army was not defeated as he expected. Instead, they built artillery carts in the mountains and forests day and night with the intention of destroying the Song army's ships.
On November 19th, Zhang Shi knew that the Mongolian army was on the verge of defeat, so he ordered a rain of arrows to attack the Dali servants.
The sky is still filled with arrows like locusts.
The banks of the Mahu River are stained with blood. From a distance it looks like red autumn leaves, but up close it looks like purgatory on earth.
Suddenly I heard a loud "Boom!"
Zhang Shi looked back from the boat and saw small bamboo rafts crashing down from upstream, slamming into the small boat in front of the Song army.
Zhang Shi had already been prepared for this.
He knew that he was not good at water warfare, and that some of his officers were not good at boating, so he had already ordered the ships to be connected with iron cables and anchored on the Mahu River.
Otherwise, the river would be strong and the ship would have been washed away by the flood.
Of course Zhang Shi knew that this method was also used by Cao Cao, and later he burned Red Cliff.
However, the Mongolian army did not have a navy and did not have the conditions to set fire. Even if they built small bamboo rafts to collide, they would not be able to carry enough firewood and kerosene.
This kind of collision was not enough to cause confusion among the Song army's ships.
More and more bamboo rafts were knocked down in the upper reaches, and some Dali servants took advantage of them to climb under the Song army's boats, but more of them drowned in the river.
"Shoot them down!" Zhang Shi ordered.
Soon, the flag was waved, and many Song soldiers turned around and fired arrows upstream.
I saw a column of Mongolian troops rushing out from the valley...
"Du Tong! It's a floating bridge! It's a floating bridge!"
Zhang Shi suddenly turned around and saw from a distance that the Mongolian army was really setting up a pontoon bridge on the riverside.
He couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
All along, he thought that Wulianghetai was building cannons, which would be used to destroy warships from a distance, but he did not expect that they were actually preparing pontoons.
"Quick! Order all ships to unchain, quick!"
"Quick! Untie the boat and row it away..."
The river wind blew away Zhang Shi's shouts.
A Song Army officer raised his head and looked at the flag order on the general's ship. He didn't realize what it meant for a moment.
They were not navymen and were not familiar with water warfare, so they felt that this flag order was so unfamiliar.
Before the people in the middle of the Song fleet had time to row, the pontoon had already been built up to the side of the ship. The Mongolian army threw out a hook rope, hooked the ship, and climbed up desperately.
"boom!"
The boat at the front of the fleet was hit hard by a bamboo raft again.
More and more bamboo rafts were stuck in the middle of the fleet, with many corpses of Dali's servants lying on them.
Another bamboo raft bumped into it, and the Mongolian soldiers jumped onto the bamboo raft stuck in the middle of the fleet, threw out the hooks and climbed to the boat.
The water battle involving iron cables, boats, and boats across the river was finally turned into a "land battle."
More and more Mongolian soldiers boarded the Song army's warships.
…
"Kill him!"
The roar of the Mongolian army echoed in the valley.
"Plop!"
Another Song soldier screamed and fell into the river.
Broken wood and floating corpses were in a mess on the Mahu River, and then one corpse after another flowed down the river...
Chongqing Prefecture.
On a large map, someone pointed at Shunqing Mansion with his finger and went down the Jialing River.
"Nan Yongzhong, the guard of Longqing Prefecture, surrendered noblely. He was the pioneer of Tiege Huoluchi's group. He defeated Jiaoda and obtained all the supplies he had transported. Now he has forced Shunqing Prefecture and plans to attack via the Jialing River.
Hezhou."
After hearing this, Pu Zhezhi, the newly appointed envoy of Sichuan's pacification system, became calmer and asked again: "Where is the leader?"
"Take Ta'er to enter from Micang Mountain, intending to go through the Bahe River, enter the Qujiang River, and follow the Qujiang River to attack Chongqing."
Pu Zhezhi murmured: "Tiege Huoluchi went to the Jialing River; he took Da'er to go to the Qujiang River; Wuliang joined Tai and went to the Jinsha River... This is to jointly attack Chongqing and Hezhou."
"Yes, Wang Dechen also frequently attacks in western Sichuan."
Pu Zhezhi was very decisive and said: "We will defeat them all at once. First we will fight Dai Da'er with all our strength. I will personally supervise the battle in order to defeat Dai Da'er as soon as possible. Then we will fight against Tie Gehuo Luchi and Wu Lianghe Tai."
"Shuai Pu, is it certain that Zhang Dutong will be defeated?"
Pu Zhezhi sighed slightly and said: "It's good if you can win. If you lose, write me a memorial to apologize. I just took office. I don't know that Zhang Shi is not good at water warfare, so I hired him inappropriately."
"Shuai Pu, this..."
Pu Zezhi waved his hand, with a determined and unquestionable expression on his face.
"Victory and defeat are common matters for military officers. Zhang Shi is a good general. I, the commander of Shu, can't do anything else. I can at least take away the blame for the soldiers and let them have no worries. Mo Duo said, make arrangements as soon as possible."
"yes……"
October 21st.
Two dilapidated warships crashed into the Sanjiangkou Pier.
Zhang Shi, who was covered in wounds, was helped by his own soldiers to stumble off the ship.
"Quickly, notify Shi Jun..."
Shi Jun didn't sleep all night.
Yesterday, he discovered corpses floating on the Jinsha River, and there were more and more soldiers from the Song Dynasty. So he already felt something bad in his heart.
Finally, he welcomed Zhang Shi into the city. He looked at the river, but he couldn't react for a moment.
"Zhang Dutong...just...just these two ships are coming back?"
Zhang Shi was speechless and choked, with blood and tears streaming down his red eyes, and nodded.
"Failed...defeated?"
"A big defeat."
Shi Jun pouted, not knowing what to say.
It was not that he had never thought that Zhang Shi would be defeated, but when it came to the end, he still couldn't believe it.
"Then... all 30,000 soldiers were killed in the battle, and more than 300 ships were destroyed?"
Zhang Shi raised his head.
The big, fierce man had tears streaming down his face.
"Officers... numerous people were beheaded... the rest including sailors... were all captured."
Shi Jun was stunned again, his face turned pale and bloodless.
Zhang Shi couldn't bear to look at him anymore, so he turned his head and said: "There are more than two hundred ships, all of which were acquired by Wu Liang Hetai."
"this……"
Shi Jun's feet went weak and he could hardly stand.
"Zhang Dutong is saying...Wulianghetai gained a navy after this battle?"