choke element

Chapter 1014 Destruction (Part )

In front of a cavalry of tens of thousands marching at high speed, all living creatures are prey, and no matter how hard the prey try, no matter how they want to resist or escape, there is only one result.

The rows of corpses piled up along the road at this moment proved this.

Behind the road, black smoke rose in the morning sun. That was because a group of farmers hiding in a hidden shack were discovered early this morning, and the Mongols tried to set fire to smoke them out. As a result, the dry weather caused the fire to quickly get out of control and burned half of the village.

The villagers fled in all directions. They were familiar with the surrounding terrain, so it took the fifty cavalrymen who were ordered to chase them some time to round them up. To vent their anger, the cavalrymen tied the men's arms with ropes, tied them to the horses' tails and dragged them to death. The women were treated better. No matter old or young, they all experienced happiness with the Mongolian warriors and were then shot to death by bows and arrows.

When they returned to the village to report, the centurion leader was whipped several times by the captain because he did not leave anyone alive. Fortunately, after the tempering of the Western Expedition, the Mongols had a lot of experience in how to plunder. Even without guidance, they could find hidden cellars and the like through the echoes of the horses' trampling, and search out the food hidden by the villagers and some copper coins or cloth in jars.

As the cavalry marched, Tolui saw some Mongols walking back, talking and laughing, carrying some of the last property and food they had found.

Everyone's face was filled with ease, comfort and contentment, without any sense of fatigue after a long journey. This was certainly due to the Mongols' naturally strong physique, but also from the strong self-confidence they developed from conquering countless countries in the Western Regions and constantly proving their own strength.

They felt that the people who were killed were no different from animals. The lives of these people, the wealth they had accumulated, or anything else, would eventually be enjoyed by the Mongols. And war was a natural process of taking these things, no different from slaughtering cattle and sheep on the grasslands of their hometown.

This idea is absolutely correct. This is what a strong person should be like, and this is also the purpose of this trip.

"Fourth Prince, a part of the Song army is watching us ten miles to the south. Should we send some people to drive them away?"

"No need. They won't move. The most powerful person in Song State has strictly ordered them not to conflict with us under any circumstances."

"But……"

"Don't worry, even if the soldiers kill people and slaughter villages, it's the same. Song officials care about their own official positions and how the central government views them. They don't care about what happens below."

Having said that, Tolui sat by the bridge and waved to the cavalry, signaling them to cross the bridge quickly and not waste time for a few trivial benefits.

This is Xiaoshang Bridge.

Tolui had heard of this place.

Looking back in time, this was the place where a brave general of the Song State fought a fierce battle with the Jurchens; and looking back in time, this was the important road that Zhao Fang, the Song State commander in charge of the area west of the capital, passed through when he led his troops to the Central Plains last time.

Four years later, another army crossed here and headed rapidly northward, but it was not the Song army that was always timid, but the Mongolian army that had marched thousands of miles and was still full of fighting spirit.

The weather was very cold, and it was said to be colder than in previous years. There were traces of snow on the roads before and after Xiaoshang Bridge, and the river was frozen, enough for loaded horses to pass. In the eyes of the Song people, this was probably a very harsh climate, but for the Mongolians, this weather was no different from what they were used to, and could even be called comfortable.

In such an environment, everyone was full of energy and felt full of strength. They couldn't help but draw their swords and wave them while marching, shouting loudly, and even the horses were running vigorously.

Ordinary armies would not easily allow soldiers to scatter and plunder. Once the soldiers' pockets were filled with other people's property and their hands were stained with blood for the purpose of venting and abusing others, the army would not be able to gather in a short period of time and wait for orders to fight.

But the Mongolian army was different from ordinary armies. The Mongolians came from the barren grasslands, where no one had real industry and no one knew how to manage and accumulate wealth, so their desire for plunder and seizure was much stronger than anyone else. The only support for the Mongolian army was conquest and plunder, like a wolf that could never fill its hungry stomach and could never stop killing.

When Tolui participated in the Western Expedition, he felt that this was not a good thing.

He and his subordinates, the Khitans, Jurchens and Han people, all felt that they should find a way to establish a sound system in the newly conquered lands, and then build a country that could generate continuous wealth while allowing everyone to be in their proper place.

But the idea was only half implemented before it came to nothing.

Genghis Khan did not want Tolui to over-expand his power, nor did he allow Tolui to really establish a national system, so as to consume the murderousness and tyranny of the Mongols in the operation of the system. In the two years after returning to the East, Tolui figured out more truths and found that it was too difficult to establish a perfect country.

When it comes to improving the system, no country in the world can compare with the Song Dynasty. But the Song Dynasty definitely has problems, and they are already in a state of terminal illness.

Tuolei successively used multiple identities to go deep into the Song Dynasty. He worked as a guard, a merchant, and a local official, which exposed him to all aspects of the Song Dynasty. In his opinion, whether it was taxes, household registration, or the management of officials and localities, or the training and use of the army, the Song Dynasty had proper systems everywhere, but it was a mess everywhere.

If you go to the upper levels, it’s even more ridiculous.

The officials were only concerned with their verbal quarrels, the emperor hid in the palace pretending to be deaf and dumb, and the prime minister was so desperate for his position that he would do anything at any cost.

What is the difference between this kind of country and Khwarezm, which was crushed into mud by the Mongols?
The Mongols' great enemy was in the Central Plains, so they had no time to deal with him for now. After they destroyed the Zhou Kingdom, they would only need to kick the Song people to pieces and make them all kneel down and become slaves.

If the system that Tolui perfected in the Western Regions eventually made the Mongols as weak-willed as the Song people, then it would be the end of them.

Therefore, when Tuolei was in Song, he was more concerned about the Great Zhou Dynasty, which was entrenched in the Central Plains. Of course, compared with Song, the Great Zhou Dynasty was much stronger.

The Great Zhou Dynasty was similar to the Yeke Mongol Ulus in one respect. That is, the Great Zhou Dynasty was also a country founded by the army, and the army was also at the core. The Great Zhou army was well-trained, and the warriors of the Great Zhou Dynasty were well treated and full of pride. They were terrible enemies of the Mongols.

But the Great Zhou also has weaknesses that it cannot avoid.

Although their army is strong, it is deeply rooted in the land and cannot exist apart from the land and people of Da Zhou. In order to maintain this army, the emperor of Da Zhou, Guo Ning, has to spend a huge amount of wealth every year; in order to obtain wealth, they must promote the development of trade, which will bring prosperity to all industries.

Although he had not personally set foot in the territory of the Great Zhou for a long time, Tolui learned information from the merchants and continued to outline the current appearance of the Great Zhou.

Tuolei has always been concerned about how the roads, warehouses, workshops, trading posts, post stations, horse farms, carriage yards, docks, shipyards, etc. were built, distributed, and operated. So he understood that these things formed the foundation of the Great Zhou. Once they were destroyed on a large scale, it would be fatal to the Great Zhou.

This situation is completely different from the last time the Mongolian army invaded the Central Plains.

The last time the Central Plains was under the rule of the Jurchens, the Jurchens used harsh policies and severe punishments to tie the peasants to their fields, and the Jurchen nobles did not pay anything, they only needed to suck the blood of the peasants. This led to the people becoming increasingly impoverished and miserable, while the Jurchen nobles became increasingly rich. The wanton destruction of the Mongolian army at that time was like cutting weeds for Guo Ning's military group; no matter how many people the Mongolian army killed and how many cities and villages they destroyed, it actually gave the Great Zhou room to maneuver.

This time there are no weeds to block the knife.

The Great Zhou had built too many things in the courtyard, and all of them were weak points when the Mongolian army attacked. The harder their tortoise shells were on the northern border, the softer their weak points were, and the more plump and delicious the flesh and blood under their weak points were.

The Mongolian army could easily destroy so many targets, and then destroy the livelihood of the people of the Great Zhou, destroy their trade with the Song Dynasty, destroy their possibility of providing supplies to the army, and destroy their large and sophisticated transportation routes. In addition, it could destroy the family business accumulated by many soldiers of the Great Zhou, and make the officers and ordinary soldiers of the Zhou army lose all their money, leaving them penniless.

When the main force of the Zhou army rushed back to the Central Plains and saw the Central Plains destroyed into ruins, would they become weak?

Can they still fight? I am afraid that the strongest enemy will become the weakest enemy in an instant. By then, maybe Tolui's troops will be able to win a great victory without the help of Genghis Khan's main force!
"The one standing in front of us is our old rival, Guo Zhongyuan, the Nanjing garrison commander of the Great Zhou. Because his deputy Yin Changnian disobeyed orders, many officers were implicated and dismissed. After the turmoil, poor command is inevitable. At this time, the defenders of various cities are fighting on their own. The number of troops that Guo Zhongyuan can freely mobilize to fight against us in the field is at most two to three thousand. If such a small number of people dare to show up, they will die! I will personally lead people to deal with him!"

"As ordered!"

"As for you, you are not allowed to stay after you break into the Great Zhou territory. All the tribes must follow the previous instructions and disperse to kill and plunder everywhere within a limit of 300 miles. The army is not allowed to gather in one place, and there is no need to capture any city. I only want you to completely wipe out everything outside the city, kill people, and set fires, like a sandstorm covering the grassland, like a pack of wolves rushing over a herd! This is a mission ordered by the Khan himself. Anyone who violates the order will be executed immediately!"

"Please rest assured, Fourth Prince!"

Seeing that the entire operation was going so smoothly, Tolui became more and more majestic, and the centurions became more and more respectful to him.