Although the Jurchens were less than 10,000, the crowd of 10,000 was difficult to defeat the Mongol iron cavalry.
The Kingdom of Jin, the most powerful dynasty on the East Asian continent in the 12th-13th centuries, was founded by the Jurchens in the white mountains and black waters. In just a few decades, they used their scimitars to create a vast land, stretching from the sea in the east, the Hetao in the west, the desert in the north, and the Yellow River in the south.
The Jin State had defeated the Liao and Northern Song dynasties with great strength, and brought the Southern and Western Xia and Mongol tribes into submissionThey also captured Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao State and the Huiqin Emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, and even killed Genghis Khan's great-grandfather and uncle, which is an amazing achievement.
Genghis Khan (Temujin) rose to prominence in the Mongolian steppes and became the deadliest enemy of the Jin state. The Jin State carried out brutal oppression and exploitation of the Mongol tribes, and even carried out large-scale purge operations on a regular basis to reduce the population, which was known as "reducing the Ding".
The hatred between Mongjin and Jin was innate, and Genghis Khan was not a narrow-minded ruler, having learned about the world beyond the steppes through merchants before unifying the Mongol tribes.
After the unification, Mongolia had to expand southward in order to obtain more resources, and the battle of Mongjin was inevitable.
Before the Mengjin War, the Jin State had already experienced the Northern Expedition of the Southern Song Dynasty, and was forced to greatly increase the annual currency and compensation military expenses, and at the same time, the Southern Song Dynasty Peace faction also killed the advocates and hosts of the Northern Expedition, which was undoubtedly a humiliation for the Jin State.
However, this Northern Expedition was made only after receiving information that the Mongols were harassing the Jin State, and the Jin army suffered little losses, and an atmosphere of arrogance and optimism pervaded. At this time, the Mongols were storming Western Xia in the Hetao region, which was a test before Genghis Khan prepared to levy gold.
The Western Xia asked the Jin State for help, but the Jin State had lost the courage to fight the Mongols, rejected the Western Xia's request, and comforted himself with "the snipe and the clam fight, and the fisherman profits".
After three conquests, Genghis Khan finally laid siege to the capital of the Tangut state, and although he failed to capture it, he negotiated peace with the Tangut lord Nanu to turn to the Mongols.
This allowed the Mongols to stabilize their flanks and devote themselves wholeheartedly to gold cutting. The war began in March 1211, when Genghis Khan issued an order to send troops to attack Jin, beginning the 23-year Mongjin War.
In addition to the national hatred and family hatred, there was also a personal grudge between Yongji, the king of the gold lord at that time, and Genghis Khan. It is said that when Mongolia paid tribute to the Jin Kingdom, the representative of the Jin Kingdom was Yongji, and the two did not like it when they met.
Temujin refused to pay homage to Yongji.
After Yongji succeeded to the throne, he immediately sent envoys to the Mongolian ministries to report, but when Genghis Khan heard that Yongji succeeded to the throne, he immediately spat to the south and said: "I thought that the emperor of the Central Plains was done by a god in heaven, how could he be a coward."
From then on, Genghis Khan severed relations with the Jin State and wholeheartedly prepared for the great cause of cutting gold. On the Jin side, due to the long-term accumulation of shortcomings and difficulty in returning, Yongji's prestige and ability when he first ascended to the throne were insufficient, and he could not enforce the order, so he had to pretend to be an ostrich and not allow anyone in the country to talk about the southern invasion of Mongolia.
There was even a border commander who issued a warning, and he was directly imprisoned for the crime of "creating a border gap without permission". The Jin Kingdom hoped to rely on the Great Wall built in the past to fend off the Mongol army, but the Great Wall was built very well, with only one low wall in many places, and some of the more formally built fortresses became the main support points.
The Jin army remained vigilant in the direction of the Southern Song Dynasty, and although a large number of troops were deployed, there were still problems of insufficient troops and scattered garrisons. After the Mongol army sent troops, Jin first tried to avoid war through peace talks, but after being refused, he began to consider the choice of front-line commander.
In the end, the Jin State decided to open a province on the Northwest Road, and the main force under the command of Duji Sizhong, the governor of Pingzhang, and Wan Yan Chengyu, the governor of the staff, assembled in Huanzhou, Changzhou, and Fuzhou north of the capital, and used the defense line of the Great Wall to resist the attack of the Mongol army.
At the same time, Wanyan Yongji also appointed Hu Shahu, who remained in Xijing, as a member of the Privy Council, to conduct defensive battles against the Mongols in northern Shanxi relying on boundary trenches and border forts, and to support Duji Sizhong and Wanyan Chengyu when necessary.
There doesn't seem to be much of a problem with this plan. However, Dughis Zhong wanted to hold on to the city as before, but Genghis Khan was unlike any of his previous opponents.
The Mongol army at that time was extremely mobile, with five or six horses per person, and was extremely attacking, known as the "Blizzard Assault", and was able to advance bravely even in extremely adverse situations, and their cohesion and obedience were very rare at the time.
In the first battle of Wusha Castle, Genghis Khan clearly saw the weakness of the Jin army and adopted the tactic of concentrating superior forces to break through. In July 1211, Genghis Khan and his four sons Tulei broke through from Mayudaribo, and Jebe served as the vanguard, killing them with lightning speed.
After three days of confrontation with the Jin army at the Gray River, he first disrupted the Jin army's position with 3,000 elite cavalry, and then pressed on with the main force, and finally won the victory. The Jin army was routed on all fronts, the important strategic stronghold of Wusha Castle was occupied by the Mongolian army's pursuing troops, and even the garrison of the Wuyue Battalion next to it was defeated.
The 300-kilometer defense line carefully constructed by the Jin army also collapsed at this time and began to be completely passive.
Yongji immediately removed Du Ji Sizhong from his post and replaced him with Wanyan Chengyu as the military presiding. Wan Yan Chengyu believed that the strategy of relying on boundary trenches to defend the enemy was outdated, so he decided to concentrate his forces on field battles with the enemy in the interior.
Due to the extremely rapid advance of the Mongol army, Wanyan Chengyu feared that Genghis Khan would bypass the main forces of the Jin dynasty and directly attack the empty central capital. Therefore, he led the main force to retreat south to the line of Yehuling (now located in the northwest of Wanquan District, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province), intending to use the terrain to block the Mongol army.
This is tantamount to abandoning large tracts of land in Changzhou, Hengzhou, and Fuzhou, and the necessary fortifications have not yet been carried out. Not only were these three cities rich and populous, but they were also fortified and had deep ponds that were ideal for defense.
However, this was a big problem for the Mongol army, which was not good at siege warfare. In addition, Huanzhou was also the horse ranch of the Jin Dynasty, raising tens of thousands of good horses. Once these horses were taken away by the Mongol army, it was tantamount to providing additional support to the enemy army.
The Mongol army spent a lot of manpower and material resources in the siege of the city, and finally adopted the tactic of driving the captured local civilians to the front of the battle, which in the words of the Mongols was "arrow fodder" to consume the resources of the defenders, and broke the morale of the defenders through the kinship between the expulsion and the defenders, and finally occupied these three states.
After the Battle of Yehuling, the Jin State lost the initiative, and the terrain of Yehuling was like a dam, so the prairie to the north was called Bashang, and the large forest to the south was called Baxia.
Although the Mongolian cavalry fought bravely and was super mobile, they would fall into the dilemma of being useless after entering the mountain, which was very advantageous for the golden soldiers who defended by danger.
Moreover, Hu Shahu, who stayed in Xijing, also led troops to help, which made the Jin army's strength stronger, but it was guilty of dividing the troops to guard it. At the pre-war meeting, the opinions of the generals of the Jin army were not unanimous, and some advocated a preemptive strike with the old tactics of cavalry assault to fight a decisive battle with the Mongolian armySome advocate taking advantage of the superiority of troops, and the integration of infantry and cavalry to advance slowly;Some advocate adopting a new method of warfare and taking the vehicle as the formation.
The lack of unity of opinion has led to the emergence of a phenomenon of fighting for each other.
Genghis Khan led the Mongol army to gallop to Badger's Mouth, and divided into two teams to monitor the movements of the Jin army. On the evening of September 16, the Jin army was preparing to defend, but the Mongolian army suddenly attacked.
The main force of 90,000 Mongolian troops rushed out of the valley, and Mu Huali rushed to the front, believing that in the case of being outnumbered, only "fighting to the death" could be victorious. He led the brave men to charge, and the other Mongolian army made a detour to the rear of the Jin army to flank the attack.
Although Hu Shahu invested the most elite 7,000 men, he was still unable to stop the attack of the Mongol army, and the Jin army fell into a situation where the enemy was on its back. Hu Shahu was unable to turn the situation around, and led his men to flee in a hurry at dusk.
Hu Shahu's rout caused the Jin army to be disheartened, and Wanyan Chengyu also fled. After Yan Chengyu ran to Xuanping, the local tyrant took the initiative to lead the soldiers to help, and volunteered to take advantage of his familiarity with the local area to act as a pioneer.
But Wanyan Chengyu was already frightened, and was just busy inquiring about the path to Xuande. The local tyrants said in disappointment that they would not rely on their geographical advantages to meet the enemy, and they would just want to escape, and they would definitely be defeated.
Therefore, the local tyrants quickly moved closer to the Mongolian army.
The Jin army fled south in disarray under the pursuit of the Mongol army, unable to escape the pursuit of the Mongol army, and finally suffered a devastating blow at the Huhe River, suffering heavy losses and could only be spared.
After this battle, the confidence of the Jin army was greatly damaged, and it could no longer grasp the initiative in the war, and was gradually weakened by the Mongols, and finally went to the fate of destruction.