Chapter 610 A Night Meeting with Kublai Khan's Man
If you are trapped in an isolated city without reinforcements, you are usually doomed.
However, Diaoyucheng is different. It was able to hold out for thirty-six years, not because of the thirty-six years of food stored in it.
Rather, it was because of its special geographical location. It was located on a mountain and surrounded by rivers. The enemy army either attacked the city across the river or crossed the river to attack the city from under the city.
However, the city was only a few hundred meters away from the river, and it was not possible to deploy a large formation. If you set up a fort under the city, it would be a target and could be demolished by a few shots from the top of the city.
On the contrary, if you set up a fort on the other side of the river, it would be too far away. Not only would it not pose much threat to the city wall, it would also be particularly easy to hurt the people attacking the city.
Other places were even more rugged mountains and cliffs. In the era of cold weapons, this city could not be attacked by force.
There were only a few strategies to break the city. If you can't attack by force, then just besiege it to death.
After all, the food and grass stored in a general city is limited. As long as the siege troops outside continue to besiege, even if they are besieged without attacking, the food and grass in the city will be exhausted one day.
However, Diaoyucheng has the ability to produce grain on its own. First, Diaoyucheng is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and its outer walls include a large area of mountains, with many mountain springs and well water. Crops can be grown by reclaiming the land on the mountains.
Second, there are two large and small Tianchi in the city, and springs flow into the Tianchi. The Tianchi produces fish for fishing and eating. The Tianchi itself is also running water and can be drunk.
During the siege, the city is self-sufficient and can last for a long time with simple clothing and food, but the army outside the city cannot afford it.
Due to the geographical location of Diaoyucheng, it is impossible for the Mongolian army to besiege this mountain city anytime and anywhere, which requires a large number of manpower.
To maintain a large military force, the army must be withdrawn in a year or two, or a small number of troops must be left to patrol the surroundings of Diaoyucheng.
Once the army withdraws, it is still very simple to get out of the city. Diaoyucheng has a complex terrain. Just find a place to climb out and you can go directly to Ciqikou.
There are dense bamboo forests there, and there are many grasses on both sides of the Jialing River, which can hide people and boats.
As long as the Mongol army's surveillance is not strict, they can send people to hide during the day and go out at night, go down the river, and get some supplies and even soldiers from other places! Because there are too many people in Shuzhong who are willing to help the Song Lord.
The story of "Zhang Shijie's mighty rescue of Zhao at Yashan, and the three gods protecting the emperor for thousands of miles to establish a new king" has spread all over the country.
Everyone knows that there is an emperor in Diaoyucheng, and the emperor of the Song Dynasty is in Shuzhong.
Although the Yuan Dynasty has pacified the world, as long as the Zhao family is like a nail in Diaoyucheng, the Song Dynasty will not perish.
There are rebellions in Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hu, Shu and other places, most of which are under the banner of the emperor of Song.
Although the death of the three gods poured a basin of cold water on all the righteous men in the world, and many speculators stopped.
But there are still many places that revolted, and these people could not bear to be reduced to fourth-class people regardless of whether the three gods died or not.
You have to know that in another world, after the defeat at Yashanhai, 100,000 scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang died for their country, and 50,000 from Fujian and Jian, and there were many scattered in various places.
These scholars who should have died for their country chose to survive because of the existence of Emperor Hongguang, or hibernated secretly to make trouble, or simply raised a big flag to join the small group of rebels who were still resisting.
There were even more peasants, and the people had no plot to die for their country, and they directly gathered to riot.
Many officials in prefectures and counties were officials of the Southern Song Dynasty. On the one hand, they surrendered to save themselves and did not dare to fight against the Mongols. On the other hand, it was also because Emperor Deyou surrendered and issued an edict to let all places surrender.
The mentality of officials like them is very simple. They will follow whichever side is strong. If they see that the wind is not right, they may change the king's flag at any time.
After all, they used the emperor's reason for them to surrender, and naturally they could use Emperor Hongguang of Shu Song as an excuse to rebel against the Mongols again.
It is conceivable that they would try their best to suppress small uprisings in various places? Basically, they turned a blind eye and were very perfunctory to the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.
In another world, Kublai Khan valued Wen Tianxiang so much, but he still killed him in the end.
Because more than three years after the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were rebellions in various places. A madman in Zhongshan called himself the "Song Lord" and gathered thousands of people to rescue Wen Tianxiang.
The capital also found an unsigned letter, which mentioned burning the reeds in the city, leading the two wings of the troops guarding the capital to rebel and support the prime minister.
Although this small turmoil could be broken overnight, the prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty at that time, Liu Mengyan, said: As long as Wen Tianxiang is still alive, the Song people will not give up, and they will always think about rescuing him and restoring the world. How can this person not be killed?
So Kublai Khan had to kill Wen Tianxiang.
Three years after the fall of the Zhao Song Dynasty, a Wen Tianxiang can make people think about starting a war all the time, not to mention that there is now an Emperor Hongguang?
Without an emperor, people would rebel even under the slogan of rescuing the prime minister. It is conceivable that now that there is an emperor sitting firmly in Diaoyucheng, the Yuan Dynasty must be in a state of panic.
Now the northern kings are rebelling, and the people in the south are thinking about the Song Dynasty.
The righteous armies in various places are roaming around. No matter how fierce the Mongolian army is, it cannot withstand the uneasy people's hearts. The anti-Yuan forces are scattered in 1,800 counties in Jiangnan.
When the army arrives, all the people are obedient. When the army leaves, they raise their flags and rebel.
Kublai Khan is in a state of panic and wants to give up Jiangnan.
It is easy to conquer the world. The Mongolian army swept across Jiangnan in a few years, but the subsequent governance found that it was not the case. Local officials pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed, and people's hearts were floating everywhere.
Jiangnan has already held back his 200,000 troops. If he transferred these 200,000 troops and went north to suppress the rebellion, he suspected that the battle in the south would be basically in vain.
"Mobilize Alihaya's army and Fan Wenhu's army, don't worry about the local chaos, join Ashu, and break Diaoyucheng first!" Kublai Khan said angrily.
"Think twice, the fake emperor of Diaoyucheng is not able to send troops. If the world is stable, it will be destroyed without attack!" Hearing that Diaoyucheng was going to be attacked again, a civil official hurriedly advised.
Are you kidding? Is Diaoyucheng so easy to attack? If it was going to be broken, it would have been broken long ago.
The combined forces of Ashu, Alihaya, and Fan Wenhu were only 200,000, and when Mengge attacked Diaoyucheng, he used 400,000 troops, and the final result was that Mengge died...
If Mengge hadn't died, how could he, Kublai Khan, have anything to do?
"Then how can the world be stable if the Hongguang Emperor takes root in Shu?" Kublai Khan said angrily. He knew very well that the emperor was the root. Otherwise, the people in the south would be dead, how dare they rebel, and who could they support?
Only when the Yuan Dynasty was on the decline, would people like Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang support themselves. But at this time, the Yuan Dynasty was at its peak, and the anti-Yuan forces in various places were just small forces. If everyone supported themselves and there was no unified object of support, they would be a mess and not worth worrying about. The only thing to worry about was that they all had one goal.
Kublai Khan was indeed a great leader, and he knew that if he didn't take over Diaoyucheng, Jiangnan would not be stable.
He knew it would be difficult to fight, but he had to fight no matter how difficult it was: "Move Bayan's 200,000 troops south! I will personally stay in Dadu, and there will be no trouble in the north!"
The ministers were in an uproar. Bayan was suppressing the rebel kings in the north, leaving the rebel kings who were in danger in Dadu alone, and mobilized 200,000 troops to the south to join Ashu, a total of 400,000 to fight Diaoyucheng.
What a bold decision this was, how could an ordinary emperor make it?
Any emperor would pay attention to the major concerns of the capital, concentrate his forces to solve the ones around him, and temporarily let go of the enemies in the distance.
Kublai Khan, however, did the opposite. He regarded a city in the southern Shu as a threat to his heart. Instead, he was confident that the many rebel kings in the north were not a concern, and he transferred his army to a distant place.
Seeing that he had made up his mind, everyone dared not stop him.
In fact, Kublai Khan seemed to be confident, but he was also worried in his heart: "Another 400,000... I won't be defeated in Diaoyucheng like my brother, right?"
He couldn't sleep at night, looking at the map and calculating how long he could last without Bayan's 200,000 troops.
At the same time, he looked at the gate from time to time, as if he was expecting someone.
Sure enough, in the second half of the night, someone walked into the Purple Pavilion in a dignified manner, but no one noticed him.
"Don't think about it. If you insist on making this choice, the Yuan Dynasty will be finished." A voice said.
Kublai Khan hurriedly looked up, and only then did he realize that a Semu man had unknowingly stood in front of his table.
The eunuch serving on the side seemed to have just seen it, and his mouth twitched, but he didn't shout.
Because this man was not here for the first time. When he came here for the first time two months ago, he was knocked unconscious just as he was about to shout. Later, no one knew what this man talked to the Khan. After that, the Khan often met him here at night.
This Seljuq man regarded the imperial palace as his own backyard. He never left any traces when he came in and out. Kublai Khan had secretly asked people to ambush and thoroughly investigate this man's whereabouts, but nothing was found. He always stood in front of him unknowingly.
Kublai Khan simply maintained his Khan's demeanor and chatted with him about this and that.
This man had explained the situation in the south clearly two months ago. After a long time, his people rushed to deliver intelligence, and he realized that what this man said was not wrong at all.
And it was the version of the truth, not the version circulated among the people. Not only that, including some things that were happening in the west at the same time, he could tell them even if they were thousands of miles apart.
It seemed that this man had the ability to travel to Cangwu in the morning and rest in the East China Sea in the evening. He was still in the south in the morning, and came to the north to tell him stories in the evening. Sometimes he would bring some fresh lychees from Jiangnan or fresh grapes from Tubo...
Not only that, he often told stories, and the stories he told were extremely attractive and beyond his imagination. They were completely different from the stories in operas and folk legends.
His vision often took the whole picture and was extremely high-level. He would talk about world affairs at every turn, which was completely different from stories like "The Khan bends his bow and shoots the eagle" and "Yue's army defeats Zhuxian Town".
In particular, he often cited some examples of the end of the world, which made Kublai Khan seem to have opened the door to a new world.
Doomsday wasteland? There are such stories?
Kublai Khan was somewhat addicted to listening to stories. He loved and feared this mysterious man who was unique.
If the other party seemed to have something to do and didn't come for a few days, Kublai Khan would wait in this room all night, and then angrily skipped the next day's morning court.
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