Just by hearing the name "Wanyan Shizhu", we can know that he was from a distant clan of the Jin Kingdom.
Up to now, most of the Jin clan has been killed by the Mongols, and the few survivors have changed their surnames to Han people and are hiding among the Han people.
The reason is that there has been a blood feud between Mongolia and Jin for generations. Genghis Khan's great-grandfather Hebule fought bloody battles with the Jin Kingdom for many years. After Hebule's death, the throne was passed to his younger brother An Ba'ai, who was nailed to a wooden donkey by the Jin.
to death.
After this extremely humiliating and cruel execution, the Jin Kingdom sent troops to the north to conquer Mongolia every three years, slaughtering their young and strong men and taking their women and children into slavery, which was called "Jiading".
What Yang Guo said in his previous poem, "The spring water returns to the autumn mountains every year, and the stormy rain bleeds the Golden Lotus River" refers to the past event when the Jin people bloodbathed the Golden Lotus River.
With such deep hatred, he would be merciless when cutting off the avenged butcher's knife.
Wanyan Shizhu was one of the few who could seek refuge in Mongolia and survive. His father's name was "Wanyan Nazhu", and he followed Genghis Khan to conquer the Western Regions long before he conquered gold. Hexi...
All in all, the fact that Wanyan Shizhu is still alive today is definitely not due to the kindness of others, but rather a hard-earned luck.
He deeply understood this, so he developed a cautious character. He was cautious when serving Mongolian people and cautious when fighting.
The reason why Niulin trusted him with all the navy and baggage was for his safety.
After Wanyan Shizhu settled in Luchuan County, he built a large pontoon bridge on the Tuojiang River, so that the Mongolian army could move to the east bank at any time. If the Song army wanted to attack from the Divine Arm City, they would first encounter an attack by the Mongolian cavalry on the mountain road.
He also drove the people to cut down a large number of wooden piles. Taking advantage of the flood season of the river, the driftwood could be used to destroy the Song army ships at any time.
He also ordered people to transport all the artillery carts from Yingpan Mountain in Xuzhou and arrange them at the head of Luchuan County.
For the Song army, if they wanted to go upstream and attack the city at the mouth of the Yangtze River to the west of the Tuojiang River and without the cooperation of land troops and horses, it would be as difficult as climbing to the sky.
Wanyan Shizhu still felt that it was not enough. After much thought, he thought that the Xuzhou defenders might also risk attacking Luchuan. In addition, even if Niulin defeated the Song army in Yunding City, its defeated army might also attack Luchuan.
So he sent out sentries every day to explore in the west and north directions to prevent the Song army from moving within a hundred miles.
All the defenses that could be arranged were arranged, and Wanyan Shizhu did not relax.
There is no way, with his surname, he has to work many times harder than ordinary Mongolians to settle down and live...
March 24th, the sky was clear and clear.
Standing at the head of Luchuan City, Wanyan Shizhu saw that the water levels of the Tuojiang River and the Yangtze River were still rising. This was due to the spring rains in the past few days and also because the snow in the upper reaches of the two rivers had begun to melt.
Looking far into the distance, the Wanyan Stone Pillar was touched by the majestic river view, and could not help but whisper: "The frost clears the jade barrier, the clouds fly over the Longshou, and the wind falls over the river. I dreamed of the Phoenix Terrace, and the mountains surrounded my motherland."
Although his name is vulgar, the Jurchens came out of the White Mountains and Black Waters, and had been in the Central Plains for hundreds of years. They were deeply influenced by poetry, etiquette, hairpins, and tassels, and they still read the poems.
The poem he read was written by Wan Yanxuan... although almost every sentence of the entire poem is a paraphrase of ancient poetry.
In short, when Wanyan Shizhu's heart was full of poetry, melancholy, ambition, and complicated emotions, he saw sentry horses galloping towards him from the east and west...
"Report!"
"Report!"
"General, nearly 10,000 people from the Song Army set out from the Divine Arm City downstream..."
"General, the Song army was also discovered upstream. It entered the river from the Changning River, crossed the river, marched on both water and land, and attacked..."
This is the worst case scenario Wanyan Shizhu expected.
The Song Army in southern Shu attacked from the upper reaches, and still cooperated with the Luzhou Song Army. So, if the Song Army in the upstream destroyed the defensive layout first, the advantage against the Song Army in the lower reaches would be greatly reduced...
With Wanyan Shizhu's cautious temperament, he would be very unhappy if his advantages were reduced.
…
"boom!"
The artillery carts threw huge rocks, some of which fell on the Yangtze River, stirring up water jets.
Occasionally, a few of them hit the warships of the Changning Army. If they could sink the ship, they would take away the lives of dozens of Changning soldiers.
Yi Shiying stood on the ship battle and looked around. He saw that the Qingfu army, which had landed first, was slowly marching in formation, with spears standing in a row, and was gradually approaching the Mongolian army.
Changning County belongs to Xuzhou. In the upper reaches of Luchuan County, the ships of the Changning Army went along the river at a very fast speed.
But sometimes fast speed is not necessarily a good thing. The speed of the boat must be controlled to cooperate with the troops and horses on land. This is a great test of the general's command ability.
Yi Shiying kept giving orders, waving his flag and pointing it to the north bank, asking the Changning army to fire arrows at the Mengqi on the bank.
This is the advantage of traveling on both land and water. Ships can help infantry suppress the enemy's mounted fire.
"Shou Chen! Look...the Mongolian navy has moved. They are going to release driftwood to attack the Luzhou army..."
Yi Shiying squinted and saw the big flag on Luchuan City.
Wanyan Shizhu used his troops cautiously and did not give the Changning army a chance to cooperate with the Luzhou army. He actually released the driftwood in advance.
This kind of rigid fighting style was not brilliant, but if there were few mistakes, Yi Shiying knew that even if the combined strength of the two directions was twice that of the Mongolian army, it would be impossible to win this battle without paying some price.
"Pass my order, march at full speed, and sink the Mongolian ships!"
The sound of war drums.
"Dong dong dong dong dong!" After five sounds, each warship also beat drums in response, indicating that it had received the order, and the Song army's warships raised their sails one after another.
The sound of the sails was fierce, the speed of the boat suddenly accelerated, and it attacked the Mongolian ships spread out on the river.
Yi Shiying looked back at the land again, and saw six hundred Qingfu troops and four hundred Changning troops side by side, colliding with more than five hundred Mongolian cavalry...
"prick!"
As Liu Jinsuo roared, his deputy generals and generals roared one after another, and the spears in the first row went straight towards Meng Qi.
"Xunlulu..."
Some war horses fell down neighing sadly, while some Mongolian cavalry wielded sledgehammers and scimitars, condescendingly knocking Song soldiers to the ground.
The task of the Mengqi was to intercept, and they did not want to fight the Song army here. They turned their horses and retreated backwards, trying to distance themselves, and then used their bows and arrows to consume the Song army. After all, the ships on the river had already left.
But soon, the sound of gold ringing came from Luchuan City, and Wanyan Shizhu had ordered these Mongolian cavalry to withdraw their troops.
This is another difference between Wanyan Shizhu's fighting and ordinary Mongolian generals.
The Jurchens have long lost the bloody bravery of more than a hundred years ago, and have begun to pay attention to military tactics and formations in battles.
In other words, the Mongolian people did not like to defend the city, but Wanyan Shizhu would defend the city. There were city walls to defend, and he did not want to fight in the field with the Song army.
"Don't let them escape!" Liu Jinsuo shouted, almost chasing after them himself with his spear drawn.
After running for two steps, he remembered that he was now a general in charge of an army of two hundred. He quickly grabbed the flag again, waved it himself, and called Xu Kui, Mao Yi'er and Changning's army to pursue them.
"kill!"
The Song army on the east road swept towards Luchuan City.
Their troops were not large, and their purpose was not to capture the city, but to contain the Mongolian army and connect with the Luzhou army downstream.
The chance of winning this battle lies in this subtle cooperation.
"quick!"
Zhu Xusun had shouted until his throat was on fire.
He led an army of 8,000 men, which was far more powerful than Yi Shiying. However, going upstream and facing the drifting trees on the river kept bumping into each other, it was extremely difficult to move forward.
Countercurrent attack and countercurrent defense are two completely different concepts.
Although Zhang Shi was defeated in many battles, he was an experienced general. He only dared to defend against Niulin's offensive because he knew that it would take too much physical strength to order the soldiers to go up the river.
Exhausting your strength before fighting is a taboo for military strategists.
Therefore, when he entrusted his troops and horses to Zhu Susun, he told him that if anything unexpected happened, he could only rely on the Divine Arm City to defend the Yangtze River and never dare to counterattack.
Zhu Xusun and Yi Shiying were both literati, but Yi Shiying had been serving in the Changning Army for a long time, while Zhu Xusun had been serving as the commander of Xuanfu Army for many years. After two years in Lu, this was the first time he personally commanded the army.
Although he understood the truth, he had little experience in water warfare. He was full of enthusiasm and sent troops, but he saw the warships spinning on the mighty Yangtze River, spinning around in panic.
He also did not dare to order the people to stretch themselves, fearing that they would be shot dead by the Mongolian cavalry on the shore and the ship would lose control.
The wind direction is wrong today...
As if Zhang Shi's bad luck had fallen on him, he yelled at the top of his lungs, but in fact it was an invalid military order.
Standing on the high platform on the warship, I saw the broad Yangtze River connecting with the sky, and the Changning Army and the Mongolian Navy in the distance were like black spots.
But they seemed to have started fighting fiercely in order to join the Luzhou Army.
"Yi Shifu has tried so hard. If this battle is defeated by me, what should I do?! What should I do?!"
After all, it is a scholar's habit, and the offensive is not going smoothly, and Zhu Susun is already full of sorrow...
The river is vast, the arrows on the river are like locusts, and the cannonballs are like rain.
The difference between water battles and land battles is that you can't see much blood. Ships and ships, ships and cities are far apart, and all you can see are distant views, so it doesn't look so tragic.
But in fact, it is far more cruel than land war.
In a land battle, even if an arm is removed and the man screams loudly, he still has the possibility to survive. In a water battle, a cannon stone or a fireball may take away the lives of a boatload of people...
It's just that the accuracy of arrows and cannons was not high, which prolonged the battle.
The Song and Mongolian armies fought fiercely for more than two hours.
Wanyan Shizhu was a little nervous, so he turned around and saw that the Song army's progress downstream was still slow, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
At this point in the battle, he could see clearly that the outcome of this battle depended on whether Mongolia could defeat the Changning Army before the Luzhou Army arrived.
Fortunately there is still time.
"Don't worry, the Song army from the lower reaches can't get through."
Wanyan Shizhu ordered the shrinking navy to move closer to Luchuan and slow down the speed of the artillery carts in order to accurately destroy the Song army's ships.
He is obviously calmer than Zhu Susun and gives orders in an orderly manner.
This battle has given him confidence.
Although he has five thousand men, and although he is not the main force of Niulin, he is not a weak force that the Song army can manipulate at will...
"General, there is an emergency report from the north!" Suddenly, a soldier shouted.
Wanyan Shizhu frowned. At this time, he had no time to listen to the news, and he was worried about delaying the important military situation, so he turned to his second brother Wanyan Zhentong and said: "Go and see if the marshal has given the order.
"
After that, he solemnly explained.
"There is no need to open the city gate."
…
Luchuan County faces the Yangtze River in the south, where the Mongolian and Song Dynasty naval forces fought fiercely;
To the west is the direction of Xuzhou, Qingfu County is still preparing to attack the city;
To the northeast is facing the Tuojiang River, and there is still no war at this time...
Wanyan Zhentong rushed to the north city and looked around. He saw several fast horses galloping along the Tuojiang River to the bottom of the city. They were the sentry horses sent to the north by his brother.
"The sentry horse returned to camp and discovered the Song army's soldiers and horses!"
Six knights reined in their horses outside the city gate and let them spin, wanting to go into the city to report.
"The Song people are attacking the city and cannot open the city gate for the time being." Wanyan Zhentong shouted: "How many reinforcements does the Song army have?!"
"There are more than a thousand troops, already fifty miles away..."
Up and down the city, both sides were shouting in Mongolian. Others confirmed the identity of the sentry horse and opened the door to let him into the city. However, Wanyan Zhentong obeyed the order and did not open the city gate. He only asked: "What are you targeting?"
banner?"
The sentry horse didn't know Chinese characters, so he had to dismount and use a machete to draw a character on the ground.
Wanyan Zhentong couldn't see clearly, so he had to lean out and squint to see.
"Whoosh!"
A sharp arrow suddenly shot from below the city, hitting his stretched neck, and shot out through his neck with a "pop" sound.
Before the Mongolian troops at the top of the city could react, they saw Wanyan Zhentong lying dead on the battlements. The blood on the arrow clusters was still very clear.