Usurping the Mongols: My Father-in-Law is Genghis Khan

"It's more than just not going smoothly."

Temujin sighed and said, "Let me be honest with you, in the past month or so of attacking Western Xia, we have lost more than five hundred warriors.

We lost more than three hundred at Liji Si City and more than two hundred at Qilin Gugusa."

Don't think that five hundred people is a small number.

Due to years of war, the number of men on the grasslands has decreased sharply.

Now, including the Naiman people who have just surrendered, Temujin has only about 70,000 men under his command.

This shows how generous Temujin was to allocate five hundred households to Zhao Shuo just now.

It also shows how painful it is for Temujin to lose these five hundred warriors.

As for capturing thousands of Western Xia men and women? What does that count for?

Temujin has already learned about the combat power of these Western Xia people, and compared with the grassland warriors, they are simply nothing.

Zhao Shuo said, "The walls of Western Xia are nearly three zhang high, and they are indeed not easy to attack.

I'm afraid the heavy bows of my Black Cavalry Army won't be effective either.

By the way, Great Khan, do you have trebuchets?"

Zhao Shuo's conversation with Temujin was, of course, in Mongolian.

Speaking of which, Zhao Shuo suddenly realized that there wasn't even a word for "trebuchet" in Mongolian.

He subconsciously used Chinese directly.

Perhaps, in the era of the Turkic, Rouran, and Uyghur, the grassland people were able to build stone trebuchets.

However, after more than two hundred years of the dark ages, there were no craftsmen on the grassland who could build stone trebuchets, and even the word for "trebuchet" had completely disappeared.

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

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

This trebuchet thing existed in China during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

The "Shuowen" records: "Jing, build a large wooden frame, place stones on it, and launch it to resist the enemy."

The "Jing" here is the earliest name for the trebuchet.

Later, there were names such as "Touji," "Fashiji," "Paoshiche," and "Shi Pao."

However, the trebuchets at that time were very crude, simply placing stones on one end of a lever and suddenly tilting the other end to launch the stones.

Later, during the Battle of Guandu in the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao's skilled craftsmen improved the trebuchet, calling it the "Thunderbolt Cart."

The so-called Thunderbolt Cart was to install a chassis with four wheels on the most primitive trebuchet.

As the intensity of the Three Kingdoms war continued to increase, the trebuchet continued to improve.

The original trebuchet had a hole dug in the wood to form a "stone nest" for loading stone bullets.

At this time, it was improved to use ropes to tie a leather pouch to load stone bullets.

During the Jin, Tang, and Song Dynasties, the trebuchet improved again.

The original lever made of one piece of wood was later made of three, five, or even a dozen pieces of wood tied together to form a lever.

At this time, the power of the trebuchet was very considerable, becoming the most important weapon for attacking and defending cities.

Speaking of which, the trebuchet is important, but the technical difficulty is really not high.

According to historical records, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin army made 5,000 trebuchets overnight in order to capture Bianliang.

How difficult could this be?

Do you really need any professional craftsmen?

What Zhao Shuo drew for Temujin now was a trebuchet from the late Three Kingdoms period—first build a frame, then use a piece of wood as a lever and put it on the frame.

Temujin pondered carefully and said, "Wood is easy to handle.

There are many mountains and forests around Liji Si City.

Leather pouches are even easier to handle, we have no shortage of sheepskin.

We also have no shortage of manpower.

Stones can be obtained locally.

However, can such a simple thing really break the strong city of Western Xia?"

Zhao Shuo smiled slightly and said, "Father Khan will know once you try."

… …

No sooner said than done.

With an order from Temujin, the Mongols built more than a hundred stone trebuchets in less than a day to test the effect.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Boom boom boom!

More than a hundred stone trebuchets unleashed their power at the same time.

More than a hundred stone bullets weighing twenty or thirty pounds each roared towards the walls of Liji Si City with huge kinetic energy.

In just a moment, they destroyed a battle shed on the walls of Liji Si City and scared the Western Xia soldiers to cry for their parents.

That's right, scared.

It was only a hundred or so stone bullets, and there was no accuracy at all.

This salvo only killed five or six Western Xia soldiers.

However, the psychological impact on the Western Xia soldiers was too great.

When did the grassland barbarians learn to use stone trebuchets?

If they can build more than a hundred stone trebuchets today, they can build five hundred tomorrow!

If they bombard them for a few more days, the small Liji Si City will definitely not be able to hold on!

Immediately, a soldier panicked and left the city wall to report to the city lord, Yeli Duo.

In fact, Yeli Duo has been very depressed recently.

He was already unlucky enough to be assigned to guard this small border town.

Who knew that a group of barbarians would suddenly come and ask him to hand over the Naiman prince, Quchulu?

Who knows whether Quchulu is tall or short, round or flat?

Isn't this just asking for trouble?

Yeli Duo simply ordered a volley of arrows to drive away the group of grassland barbarians.

Unexpectedly, he had caused a catastrophe.

That group of barbarians actually started attacking the city.

Their arrows were also too accurate.

In more than a month, Liji Si City had suffered more than a thousand casualties!

How many losses did the Mongols have?

Two hundred or three hundred?

And outside the city, there were tens of thousands of Mongol troops!

If there was no place to run, these defending soldiers would probably have scattered!

Fortunately, Western Xia had the foresight to impose a technical blockade on the grasslands.

No trebuchets were placed in cities close to the grasslands to prevent the grassland barbarians from learning them.

Otherwise, this small Liji Si City would probably have been broken long ago.

"Well, those grassland barbarians are not attacking the city like ants, it seems that they still cherish their lives.

May the Bodhisattva bless them, I hope they can't hold on first and take the initiative to retreat!

Otherwise, even without trebuchets, this city will not last long."

Yeli Duo prayed secretly in his heart.

But now, even the Bodhisattva can't save him.

"City Lord, something bad is happening! Something bad is happening!

The grassland barbarians have built trebuchets and are bombarding our city walls!"

"Ah? Trebuchets?

It's over! It's all over!"

Yeli Duo let out a desperate cry and collapsed on the chair.

When the messenger saw this, he was even more desperate and said, "City Lord, please cheer up quickly.

What should we do? Please make a decision quickly!"

"What else can we do?"

Yeli Duo said weakly, "Raise the white flag, open the city gate, and surrender."

A quarter of an hour later.

Squeak ~ ~

The north gate of Liji Si City opened.

Yeli Duo led the soldiers and civilians of the entire city, carrying white flags, out of the city to surrender!

"This… This is so easy?"

To put it bluntly, now the Mongols and the Western Xia are both afraid of each other.

The Western Xia people had never seen such a brave army, and they were only relying on the protection of the city walls, gritting their teeth and holding on.

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What about the Mongols?

They had just left the grasslands and did not have a clear understanding of their own combat power, and they did not have the many terrifying methods of the future.

They felt that the strong city of Western Xia in front of them was simply indestructible.

Seeing that the trebuchets attacked for less than a quarter of an hour, Liji Si City opened its gates and surrendered, Temujin simply couldn't believe his eyes.

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

They had besieged the small border city of Western Xia for more than a month without any results.

But with the appearance of this trebuchet, the Western Xia people collapsed and surrendered.

This brought them a strong shock, and also made the Mongol leaders pay special attention to advanced siege equipment.

They no longer blindly believed in the scimitars and bows in their hands.

If they obtained advanced tools in the future, they would quickly accept them and turn them into their own use.

Zhao Shuo carefully reminded, "To put it bluntly, Liji Si City is just an ordinary small city on the border of Western Xia.

When attacking the big cities of Western Xia, they will have many more defensive methods, and it will not be so easy."

"That's still amazing!

A Shuo, you are truly the best gift the Eternal Heaven has given me!"

Temujin was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth.

Zhao Shuo reminded again, "Father Khan should also pay attention, don't rush into the city now, to prevent the enemy from feigning surrender and using any tricks."

This sentence made Temujin quickly calm down and said, "Then what does A Shuo think we should do?"

Zhao Shuo said, "First send a small group of troops into the city to control all the important places.

Then, accept the surrender of the enemy, disarm them, and disperse their organization.

Finally, Father Khan will enter the city and taste the fruits of victory.

Also, we are here to conquer, not to simply kill.

It is better not to kill people if we can avoid it.

The craftsmen in the city are very useful to us."

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

Temujin nodded.

It must be explained that in the era of Temujin's rule, there was a great difference between the Mongol army and the later eras of Ogedai and Kublai Khan.

Although Temujin also had many instances of slaughtering cities, it was only a simple military means, not for venting.

An example will make it clear.

In the era of Temujin's rule, there was only killing, and there was not a single example of killing for pleasure.

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

In the end, Temujin was a great man with a strong self-control.

The grassland people of this era had just emerged from the dark ages and did not have so many tricks.

Complementing each other, they formed a relatively good situation.

But later, the upper class gradually became corrupt and degenerate, and the lower class became accustomed to the colorful world, so military discipline was corrupted and difficult to clean up.

Now Zhao Shuo is going to subtly make the Mongol army develop in a good direction.

In short, today, Liji Si City opened its gates and surrendered.

Two days later, Qilin Gugusa City opened its gates and surrendered.

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

This news naturally quickly spread to Xingqing Prefecture, the capital of Western Xia.

… …

… …

Western Xia Imperial Palace.

"Quick! Quickly summon Prime Minister Li Anquan to the palace for discussion!"

The one who said this was Emperor Li Chunyou of Western Xia.

Li Chunyou, to put it kindly, was a flower in a greenhouse, a good old man.

To put it badly, he was a pure waste.

His father, Li Renxiao, was one of the most outstanding emperors in Western Xia.

He ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and was emperor for fifty-four years.

Li Renxiao had a son, Li Chunyou, in his old age.

He only had one heir, so of course he loved him very much.

Li Chunyou lived happily to the age of seventeen, and when his emperor father died, he inherited the position of Emperor of Western Xia without any waves.

Since ascending the throne, the national policy he has implemented is called "Attaching to Jin and Song."