Usurpation of Mongolia: My father-in-law is Genghis Khan

Chapter 36: Strong Impact, the First Awakening of the Mongols

"It's more than just not going well." Temujin sighed and said, "Let me tell you the truth. In the past month or so of attacking Xixia, we have lost over five hundred warriors. We lost over three hundred in Lijisi City, and over two hundred in Qilingu Gusa."

Don’t think that 500 people are too few.

Years of war had drastically reduced the number of males on the grasslands. Now, including the recently surrendered Naiman people, Temujin only had about 70,000 males under his command.

From this we can see how generous Temujin was in allocating another 500 households to Zhao Shuo.

It also shows how painful it was for Temujin to lose more than 500 soldiers.

As for the capture of several thousand Xixia men and women? What does that even mean?
Temujin had already understood the fighting power of these Xixia people. Compared with the grassland warriors, they were nothing.

Zhao Shuo said, "The Xixia city wall is nearly three meters high, making it difficult to attack. My Black Cavalry's heavy bows wouldn't be very effective. By the way, has the Khan fired his cannons yet?"

The conversation between Zhao Shuo and Temujin was, of course, in Mongolian.

At this point, Zhao Shuo suddenly realized that there was no word for "cannon" in Mongolian. He subconsciously used Chinese instead.

Perhaps, in the era of the Turks, Rourans, and Uighurs, the people of the grasslands were able to make stone cannons.

However, after more than two hundred years of the Dark Ages, not only were there no craftsmen on the grasslands who could make stone cannons, but even the word for "cannon" had completely disappeared.

Zhao Shuo quickly explained, "A cannon is a catapult, a weapon that throws stones to attack the enemy."

As he spoke, he drew a simple catapult on the ground.

The catapult has been around since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in China. The Shuowen Jiezi (Shuowen Jiezi) records that "a large wooden structure with stones placed on top is used to launch a mechanism to repel the enemy." "Jing" is the original name for the catapult. Later, it became known as "speculation machine," "stone-throwing machine," "catapult," and "stone cannon."

However, the catapults at that time were very simple. They simply placed stones on one end of the lever, and suddenly raised the other end to launch the stones out.

Later, during the Battle of Guandu in the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao's skilled craftsmen improved the catapult and named it the "Thunderbolt Cart". The so-called Thunderbolt Cart was a chassis equipped with four wheels on the most primitive catapult.

As the intensity of the Three Kingdoms War continued to increase, the catapult continued to improve. The original catapult was a "stone nest" made by digging a hole in the wood to load stone bullets. At this time, it was improved to a leather bag tied with a rope to load stone bullets.
During the Jin, Tang and Song dynasties, the catapult made further progress. It was originally a lever made of a single piece of wood, but later it became a lever made of three, five or even more than ten pieces of wood tied together.

At this time, the power of the catapult was very considerable, and it became the most important weapon for attacking and defending cities.

Having said that, catapults are important, but the technical difficulty is not really high.

Historical records show that in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin army built 5,000 catapults in a single night in order to capture Bianliang. How difficult could this be? Did they really require specialized craftsmen?

The image Zhao Shuo was drawing for Temujin was a catapult from the late Three Kingdoms period—a frame was built first, and then a wooden lever was placed on top of it. A leather bag held a stone bullet at one end of the lever, and several people pulled a rope at the other end to launch the projectile.

Then the technical difficulty is even lower.

Temujin pondered the matter carefully and said, "Wood is easy to come by, as there are many mountains and forests around Ligis City. Leather bags are even easier to come by, as we have plenty of sheepskin. We also have no shortage of manpower. Stone can be obtained locally. But can such a simple thing really break through the stronghold of the Western Xia?"

Zhao Shuo smiled slightly and said, "Father, you'll know once you try it."

……

Just do it.

At Temujin's command, the Mongols built more than a hundred stone cannons within a day to test their effectiveness.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
Boom boom boom!
More than a hundred stone cannons fired at the same time, and more than a hundred stone bullets weighing more than 20 pounds, carrying huge kinetic energy, whistled towards the walls of Ligis.

In just a moment, a war tent on the wall of Lijisi was destroyed, and the Xixia soldiers were frightened to tears.

That’s right, I was scared.

There were only more than a hundred stone bullets, and they were not very accurate. Only five or six Western Xia soldiers were actually killed or injured in this volley.

However, the psychological impact on the Xixia soldiers was too great.

When did the barbarians on the grassland start using stone cannons?

If we can build more than a hundred stone cannons today, we can build five hundred tomorrow!

If the bombardment continues for a few more days, the small city of Ligis will definitely not be able to withstand it!
Immediately, some soldiers panicked and got down from the city wall to report the news to the city lord Yelido.

In fact, Yelido has been very depressed recently.

He was sent to guard this small border town, which was bad enough in itself. But suddenly a group of barbarians came and asked him to hand over the Naiman prince Qu Chulu.

Who knows whether Qu Chuli is tall or short, round or flat?
Isn't this just a matter of looking for something?
Yeliduo simply gave the order to shoot arrows at will to drive away these grassland barbarians.

Unexpectedly, it caused such a huge disaster.

That group of barbarians actually started to attack the city.

Their bows and arrows are also very accurate.

In just over a month, more than a thousand soldiers in Ligis City were killed or wounded!

How much did the Mongols lose? Two hundred or three hundred?

Outside the city, there are tens of thousands of Mongolian troops!

If there was no place to run to, these soldiers guarding the city would have probably fled long ago!

Fortunately, the Western Xia had the foresight to implement a technical blockade of the grasslands. They did not place catapults in cities close to the grasslands to prevent the barbarians from learning their tactics.

Otherwise, this small city of Ligis would have been destroyed long ago.

"Well, those grassland barbarians didn't attack the city like ants, so it seems they still value their lives. Bodhisattva, I hope they can't hold on any longer and retreat voluntarily! Otherwise, even without the catapults, this city won't hold out for much longer." Ye Liduo prayed silently in his heart. But now, not even the Bodhisattva could save him.

"City Lord, something terrible is happening! This is terrible! The barbarians from the grasslands have built catapults and are bombarding our city walls!"

"Ah? A catapult? It's over! It's all over!"

Yelido let out a desperate cry and collapsed in his chair.

The soldier who had brought the news saw this and said in even greater despair, "City Lord, please cheer up! Please make a quick decision on what we should do!"

"What else can we do?" Ye Liduo said weakly, "Raise the white flag, open the city gates, and surrender."

A quarter of an hour later.

Zhiwuwu~~
The north gate of Ligis City opened.

Yeliduo led all the soldiers and civilians in the city, waving a white flag, and went out of the city to surrender!
"Is this... so easy?"

To put it bluntly, the Mongols and the Xixia people are now in a situation where they are afraid of both ends.

The Xixia people had never seen such a brave army, and they just relied on the protection of the city walls to hold on.

What about the Mongols? Having just emerged from the grasslands, they had no clear understanding of their own combat capabilities, let alone the many terrifying tactics they would later employ. They thought the Xixia fortress before them was simply impenetrable.

Temujin could hardly believe his eyes when he saw that the city of Ligis had opened its gates and surrendered within less than two quarters of an hour of the catapult attack.

At this moment, Temujin and many Mongolian generals realized the powerful role of tools.

They had besieged the border town of Western Xia for over a month without success, but once the catapults appeared, the Western Xia were routed and surrendered.

This brought them a strong shock and made the Mongolian high-ranking officials pay special attention to advanced siege equipment.

They no longer blindly believe in the scimitars and bows and arrows in their hands. If they get advanced tools in the future, they will quickly accept them and use them for their own benefit.

Zhao Shuo carefully reminded him, "To be frank, Lijisi City is just an ordinary little town on the border of Western Xia. When we attack a large Western Xia city, they still have many ways to defend it, and it won't be so easy."

"That's quite remarkable! Ah Shuo, you are truly the best gift that Changshengtian has given me!"

Temujin was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling.

Zhao Shuo reminded him again: "Father Khan, please be careful. Don't rush into the city now, in case the enemy pretends to surrender and uses some tricks."

This sentence made Temujin calm down quickly. He said, "Then what do you think we should do, Ah Shuo?"

Zhao Shuo said, "First, send a small number of troops into the city to control the key points. Then, accept the enemy's surrender, disarm them, and disperse their organization. Finally, Father Khan will reenter the city to taste the fruits of victory. Also, we are here to conquer, not simply to kill. It is better to avoid killing if possible. The craftsmen in the city are very useful to us."

"I'll listen to you, Ah Shuo."

Temujin nodded.

It must be pointed out that the Mongolian army was very different during the reign of Genghis Khan and later during the reigns of Ogedei Khan and even Kublai Khan.

Although Temujin committed many massacres, they were simply military means, not for venting his anger.

It is obvious to give an example. During the reign of Temujin, there was only killing, and not a single example of killing for pleasure.

But after Temujin's death, the Mongolian army gradually became lawless, causing many human tragedies.

After all, Temujin was a man of great talent and strategy with strong self-control, and the grassland people of this era had just emerged from the Dark Ages and did not have so many cunning ideas. With the mutual support of these two people, a relatively good situation was formed.

But later, the upper class gradually became corrupt and decadent, and the lower class became accustomed to the world of pleasure, so military discipline was broken and it became difficult to control.

Now Zhao Shuo has to influence the Mongolian army subtly and make it develop in a positive direction.

To put it briefly, today, the city of Lijisi opened its gates and surrendered.

Two days later, the city of Qilin Gugusa opened its gates and surrendered.

The Mongolian army plundered a large number of people, livestock and property and left leisurely.

Naturally, this news quickly spread to Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia.

……

……

Xixia Palace.

"Quick! Summon Prime Minister Li Anquan to the palace to discuss matters!"

The person who said this was Li Chunyou, the emperor of Western Xia.

Li Chunyou, to put it in a positive light, is a flower in a greenhouse, a good guy. To put it in a negative light, he is a complete waste.

His father, Li Renxiao, was one of the wisest rulers of Western Xia. He ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and served as emperor for fifty-four years.

Li Renxiao had a son, Li Chunyou, in his old age. He only had this one heir, so of course he doted on him very much.

Li Chunyou lived happily until he was seventeen years old. When his father, the emperor, passed away, he inherited the throne of the Western Xia emperor without any trouble.

Since he ascended the throne, the national policy he implemented was called "attaching to Jin and making peace with Song."

(End of this chapter)