1258, Mongolian Khan Mongo (known as Yuan Xianzong in history) decided to launch a large-scale war to destroy the Song Dynasty. Meng Ge ordered his younger brother Kublai Khan to attack Ezhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), and Taghachar and Li Chao attacked Huaibei. He also ordered Uriyangqatai, a confidant partner who grew up together and the eldest son of the founding hero, to send troops to the newly occupied Yunnan and go north through Guangxi; Meng Ge personally led the Mongolian army to attack Sichuan. Mengge took Sichuan as the strategic main attack direction, aiming to give full play to the characteristics of Mongolian cavalry, which was longer than land warfare and shorter than water warfare, and then captured Sichuan with its main force, then joined forces with Uriyangqatai troops in Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan), and then jointly attacked the core area of the Southern Song Dynasty with Kublai Khan and other troops.
I didn't want to. I occupied Jianmen Kuzhuguan, Changning Mountain City, Pengzhou Yunshan City, Langzhou Hoda City and Guang 'an Daliang City successively. The Mongolian army approaching Hezhou encountered unprecedented obstacles in front of the small fishing city.
At that time, Hezhou (now Hezhou District of Chongqing) in the Southern Song Dynasty was located in Fishing City. 1254, Wang Jian, the garrison commander of Hezhou, further improved the city defense. After further improvement, fishing towns are divided into inner cities and outer cities. The outer city is built on a cliff, and the city wall is made of stone. There are vast fields and abundant water sources in the city all year round, and there are also many arable land in the surrounding foothills. All these make the fishing city have the necessary geographical conditions for a long time and the characteristics of relying on natural disasters and being easy to defend but difficult to attack. Fishing city has become a solid fortress for soldiers to eat and drink.
Under the joint command of general commander Wang Jian and deputy commander Zhang Jue, the defenders of Fishing City repelled many attacks of Mongolian army. The fishing city could not be captured for a long time, and Mongo Khan ordered the generals to "discuss the plan of making progress." It suddenly occurred to the famous soldier that it was obviously unfavorable to give up the flexible and brave advantage of Mongolian cavalry. It is better to leave a small number of troops to plague Song Jun, Sichuan, and the main force will go east along the Yangtze River to join forces with Kublai Khan and destroy the Southern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop. However, most of Mongo's generals were arrogant and conceited, urging them to storm the fishing city. Mongo Khan couldn't swallow this tone, and he didn't want to adopt the quick suggestion. Mongolian veteran Wang Dechen (1222- 1259) led his troops to attack the outer city Ma Zhai Jun at night, while Wang Jian led his troops to refuse to fight. At dawn, it began to rain, and the Mongolian siege ladder was broken and forced to retreat. Wang Dechen rode alone to the foot of the fishing city and shouted, I want to live in your city! Wang Dechen tried to surrender to the defenders in the city, but was attacked by flying stones and arrows, and soon died in the army.
As mentioned earlier, Yuzhen Fortress has cultivated land and water, so it has been besieged for several months but there is no shortage of logistics materials. One day, the defenders of the Southern Song Dynasty threw two fishtails weighing 30 Jin and 100 pieces of steamed noodle cakes to the Mongols outside the city, saying that if they stayed for 10 years, the Mongols would be at a loss. In contrast, the Mongolian army, which has been under the strong city outside the city for a long time, is in the heat, acclimatized, malaria, cholera and other diseases are prevalent in the army, and non-combat attrition occurs every day. Wang Dechen's death made Mungo feel ashamed and angry, and he was more eager for success. He personally carries stones every day and leads the Mongolian army to supervise the war in Fishing City.
One day, Meng Ge was shot and injured. It was so hot that the wound soon became infected. Meng Ge didn't last long. He died in Fishing City in August 1259+0 1 at the age of 50. The leaderless Mongolian army had to be forced to retreat and escort the coffin of Monge Khan to the north.
At that time, as planned
Breaking through the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, Kublai Khan, who had surrounded Ezhou, had to retreat to the north in order to compete with his younger brother Ali for the throne of great Khan. Uriyangqatai's army from Yunnan to the north via Guangxi is on a roll and has entered Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) as planned. At this time, I have to send Kublai Khan.
With the support of the troops, Beidu withdrew its troops from the Yangtze River. In other words, all the Mongolian troops have basically achieved their strategic goals, and only the main force led by Meng Ge lost, which made the war to destroy the Song Dynasty fall short.
The soldiers and civilians in the fishing town killed Meng Ge and made the Southern Song Dynasty last for 20 years.
Meng Ge ordered his younger brother Xu Liewu to lead the troops to the Western Expedition after he was in a great sweat. 1257, the Mongolian army leveled Murahida (south bank of Caspian Sea in northern Iran), marched westward, captured the newspaper (Baghdad), and destroyed the black grain (Abbasid dynasty) that lasted for more than 500 years. Later, Xu Liewu led his troops to capture the Arab holy places of Mecca and Damascus. His striker once crossed the sea to collect rich waves (that is, the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean). He was supposed to attack Egypt further. Because of the news that Mongo was killed, he led the main force to dispatch troops. The Mongolian army has never been able to enter Africa, and Mongolia's large-scale external expansion has since reached a low point, because the Mongolian army has been called "the whip of God" by westerners, and the fishing city has therefore been called "the land where God broke the whip", which has also left an important mark and a prominent reputation in world history.
Of course, there are more than a dozen stories about Mungo's death in all kinds of history books at home and abroad, including those who died of illness, those who died of arrow wounds or gunshot wounds, those who died of fright, those who drowned and so on.
According to Liu Kezhuang's Shu Jie and Meng Ge's poem Forty Rhymes by Ye Luzhu (the son of Ye Luchu) in the Southern Song Dynasty, and referring to the records of He Zhou Zhi and Fishing Mountain written by the descendants who stuck to the fishing city after entering the customs in the Yuan Dynasty, Meng Ge is most likely to die of the "cannon wind", which is recorded in Song Miscellaneous Knowledge in detail.
Related literature and analysis:
At first, "Veal South" was said to be insulting, and Russia was tired of listening to it. Under the strong crossbow, the ghost chapter sometimes enters the threshold car.
Zhong You's poems are unprecedented. Who will inherit Ban Guming's poems? A corrupt scholar with white hair has a thin heart, and waves in the spring forest are eyebrows.
-Liu song ke Zhuang "Shu Jie"
Liu Kezhuang compared Meng Ge's death to the battle of Zhangzhou in the first year of Jingdezhen (1004), when Xiao Talan (LiLin Xiao), commander-in-chief of Liao army, was shot to death by Song Jun with a crossbow.
There is no thunder in the east, the butte ①, and the flagpole ② rolled by the wind. Longqiao suddenly learned that he had won, and he was still looking for it. -Yuan Ye Lvzhu's Narrative Record Forty Rhymes
(1) the royal camp Dongshan no thunder; ②? Royal camp west army wind folding flagpole ③? Attack the fishing mountain and get off the pontoon bridge. Although I heard dozens of miles at first, I couldn't hear the drums.
Yeluzhu described the incredible scenes that happened in the battle, such as the flagpole being blown off by the strong wind, and then the pontoon bridge erected on the Jialing River to attack the fishing city suddenly broke. What is even more amazing is that when Meng Ge personally supervised the war, the drums spread to dozens of miles away, but suddenly it was silent. Combined with the following poem "Endure flying in Dinghu Dragon, pull the dragon to fall into the dust", it is obvious that something happened on the battlefield that surprised everyone.
Although Mongo was the great Khan of the greatest empire in history, he was good at bowing horses since he was a child. He followed his grandfather Genghis Khan and his father Tuo Lei on several expeditions. Eight fights to explore Europe, made great achievements, and spent his life on horseback, invulnerable. At this time, he became a great man, but he didn't panic. He took an arrow with a bow, his legs tightly clamped on the horse's belly, and turned back to Yang Guo like an arrow. Yang Guo ducked his head and flew to grab it. His left hand had already picked up a stone the size of a fist and threw it with a shout, right in the middle of Mungo's back. Yang Guo's throwing strength was so strong that Mungo broke his bones, was knocked down and died. -Jin Yong's "The Condor Heroes" 39th Back to Xiangyang War
This is, of course, what the novelist said. In fact, it was Wokuotai's son who died in Xiangyang, and Lv Wende, who was weak under Jin Yong's pen, led an army to rescue Hezhou in the battle of Fishing City. Although he was obstructed by Meng Jun, he formed a strong strategic support.
It is worth mentioning that according to western literature, Mungo is a great Khan who is good at Euclidean geometry. His interest in geometry is definitely not because he wants to be a mathematician, but because he is interested in the principle of trebuchet. Paradoxically, his middle gun may have been fired by the defenders of Fishing City with a trebuchet.