flstandardbreds Chapter 142 The Conflict Between the Two Major Mongolian Tribes
Chapter 142 The Conflict Between the Two Major Mongolian Tribes
The snowfall in this era was immense, even heavier than in modern times. If this snowfall were to occur in later generations, the authorities would definitely call it a once-in-a-century snow disaster, but in this era, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
The snow was heavy and the weather was very cold. Although many poor people would freeze or starve to death this winter, the heavy snow also alleviated the drought in the north. As soon as the snow melted in the spring, the wheat would receive the best nourishment, and the thick snow cover would also provide a good insulation layer for the wheat.
Yue Peng drove the armored vehicle carefully through the snow. Several times when he turned a corner, he almost slid into the deep ditch beside the road, making everyone in the vehicle hold their breath.
Li Zhen arrived in Anyang Prefecture that night. He didn't return to the prefectural government office but went directly to the military camp. By then, Li San had already been beaten beyond recognition, and Li Zhen frowned upon seeing this.
"Where's Kong Erlengzi? Call him over here!"
Commander Kong scurried up to Li Zhen, saluted him, and then slapped himself hard across the face twice.
"It's all my fault for mismanagement, which allowed this bastard to take advantage of the situation. I take full responsibility for this."
Seeing this, Li Zhen's anger subsided considerably. He pointed at Commander Kong and said, "You're quite the rogue, aren't you? I don't even need to say anything; you've already convicted yourself. My dear Commander Kong, what crime do you intend to pin on yourself?"
Upon hearing Li Zhen's words, Commander Kong was taken aback. He only wanted to admit his mistake, but he hadn't yet figured out what crime to pin on himself.
Losing a gun isn't a big deal, but it's not a small one either. Getting a beating seems too lenient, but being shot directly would be too harsh.
Seeing that Commander Kong was stumped by Li Zhen's question, Bu Liang spoke up: "Actually, on the way here, the lord had carefully analyzed this matter. Our Li family army has such good weapons and equipment that other forces have long been drooling over them. Losing guns was only a matter of time. However, we did not expect that Commander Kong, who is known for his strict military discipline, would make such a mistake."
Commander Kong blushed upon hearing this. He then glared fiercely at Li San, who had fainted beside him. If looks could kill, Li San would have been riddled with holes by now.
Li Zhen: "Forget it, your entire regiment will be demoted one level down, starting with you. Yue Peng will temporarily manage your position as regimental commander, and you'll be the deputy regimental commander, assisting Yue Peng."
"Tell me, where was this gun taken? Was it headed south or north?"
Commander Kong said in a low voice, "Based on our interrogation and investigation, this gun should have been transported to Zhongdu, the capital of the Jin Dynasty."
Li Zhen said to Bu Liang, "This incident has served as a wake-up call for us. Starting today, all armies will begin to strictly investigate the thoughts and feelings of their soldiers. Xiucai, you should come up with a set of regulations to standardize the management of firearms and weapons. Luckily, it was just a rifle this time; if it had been a machine gun, things would have gotten much more complicated."
Turning our attention to the Jin Dynasty's Ministry of Works workshop, the semi-automatic rifle had been delivered more than ten days ago, but no matter how the craftsmen tried to replicate it, they couldn't produce the same parts and components. They couldn't even make the bullets themselves. Although the craftsmen knew that the black part inside was gunpowder, they used brass to cast the bullet casing and then filled it with gunpowder, but no matter how they improved it, it still wouldn't fire.
Wanyan Liang, who had been overjoyed, had long since lost interest. He had mobilized the best craftsmen in the entire Jin Kingdom, but he was helpless against the stolen rifle. Even after Wanyan Liang killed several foremen, he still couldn't replicate the same rifle and bullets.
Imitation? Are you kidding me? You have to understand that even Li Zhen, who transmigrated from the future, couldn't manufacture it. Putting aside everything else, even the high-strength parts of the rifle couldn't be made by backward countries in the future. Because it contains a country's complete industrial system and technology, the result of continuous improvement and perfection by generations of predecessors. If it could be easily imitated, that would be terrible.
Moreover, the Jin Dynasty at that time did not even have a complete smelting system, and directly imitating modern rifles was even more bewildering than Qin Shi Huang's search for the elixir of immortality.
After much trouble, the stolen rifle was eventually stored in the Jin Dynasty's imperial palace as a valuable weapon.
With the heavy snow in the north, the war between the Jin Dynasty and the Mongol tribes temporarily ceased. The Jin Dynasty used the Great Wall as a barrier to keep tens of thousands of Mongol cavalrymen at bay outside the wall. Taking advantage of this, Wanyan Zonghan organized his troops to brave the heavy snow and launch a full-scale attack on Datong Prefecture and Weizhou, which had been occupied by the Western Xia army. Both sides committed more than 200,000 troops, fighting each other despite the freezing weather.
In this war, both the Western Xia and the Jin Dynasty deployed their own heavy cavalry, and they even had the same name: "Iron Pagoda".
Actually, the Iron Pagoda was invented by the Western Xia people. In the Western Xia army, it was called the Iron Falcon, and both the riders and horses wore double or even triple layers of iron armor. Because there were abundant iron mines within Western Xia's territory, they had enough resources to train and equip heavy cavalry. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song and Western Xia fought many battles, and the Song's western border army suffered considerable losses at the hands of the Iron Falcons. Therefore, in order to counter this type of heavy cavalry, the Song developed a large number of ballistae, attempting to use the advantage of city walls to restrain the heavy cavalry.
In the Jin army, the Iron Pagoda was also known as the Iron Pagoda Cavalry. It was a type of heavy cavalry in the Jin Dynasty and belonged to the Jin general Wanyan Zongbi (Jin Wuzhu). Along with the cavalry, they followed Jin Wuzhu in his campaigns and made great contributions.
However, the Jin dynasty's metallurgical technology was not as advanced as that of the Western Xia, so the Jin army was slightly at a disadvantage when the two sides' heavy cavalry charged. In order to improve this weakness, Wanyan Wuzhu came up with the idea of using iron chains to link warhorses together in groups of three or five, thus creating the iron-armored linked horse formation.
Ultimately, at the cost of 30,000 soldiers, the Jin dynasty successfully drove the Western Xia army back west of Datong Prefecture. However, the Western Xia did not suffer a loss this time either. During their occupation of Datong Prefecture, they plundered almost every prefecture and county, and during their retreat, they even kidnapped all the local people, taking them to Western Xia as slaves rather than leaving them for the Jin dynasty.
Finally, the Jin general looked at the empty Datong Prefecture and felt like crying. In the end, he could only relocate people from other places.
After driving out the Western Xia, the Jin Dynasty faced significantly less pressure. Compared to the superior equipment of the Jin army, the Mongol tribal warriors were rather poorly equipped. At this time, the various Mongol tribes were like a heap of loose sand, because their Heavenly Khan Temujin was still wandering somewhere. The tribes often fought each other for pastures and water sources, which over time formed a very bad habit: they would settle everything with their fists.
Among the tribes that attacked the Jin Dynasty, the Ongud tribe was the main one. They belonged to the Kereit tribe, which was descended from the Turks, while the tribes in the north and west of Mongolia belonged to the Borjigin tribe.
The Jin dynasty courted the Borjigin tribe while suppressing the Kereit tribe, because the Jin dynasty did not want to see a strong and united Mongol people, so it tried to provoke conflict between the two major tribes.