Ch.109Qara-Ordo (2)
by fnovelpia
The Mongol soldiers gathered in front of Qara-Ordo following Temujin’s orders.
Standing before them, Temujin gazed at Qara-Ordo with its massive surrounding walls and muttered quietly.
“It will be difficult to breach.”
The thick walls looked hard to break even with continuous bombardment from trebuchets.
Unlike other fortresses, the gate was made of iron rather than wood.
“I don’t think my strategies will work in a place like this.”
Bo’orchu said this while clicking his tongue.
Temujin nodded at his words and looked toward Jebe.
“Can you attack the enemy soldiers on the wall with arrows?”
“It’s possible. However, unlike the fortresses we’ve conquered before, these walls are thicker, allowing for more soldiers to stand on them.”
In other words, a few arrows wouldn’t be enough to change the tide of battle.
Just as Temujin had predicted, there seemed to be no easy way forward.
At that moment, Yelu Chucai approached on horseback.
“The walls are thick, but they have a weakness.”
Temujin was greatly surprised by Yelu Chucai’s words.
Even more surprising was that he responded in fluent Mongolian.
“I was able to escape through the walls and meet my lord thanks to such a gap.”
Yelu Chucai originally couldn’t speak Mongolian.
However, while Temujin was gathering information about the enemy capital and reorganizing, he had mastered the Mongolian language.
Yelu Chucai’s quick mastery of Mongolian was actually thanks to a book Temujin had given him.
It was a book created by Hussein al-Kashgari, who had compiled laws under the orders of Gurkhan Yesugei.
Hussein’s grandfather, Mahmud al-Kashgari, though not a Khitan noble, was a renowned scholar often invited by nobles.
This allowed him to know the Khitan language.
Thanks to this, Hussein was able to create Mongolian script by combining Xiongnu and Khitan characters.
With this background, Yelu Chucai, being of Khitan descent, was able to master Mongolian in a short period.
Of course, even considering this, Yelu Chucai’s ability to not only master Mongolian quickly but also converse fluently was remarkable.
Having lost his father, Yelu Chucai was willing to do anything for revenge.
He didn’t want the language barrier to be an obstacle to his vengeance.
“Impressive. I didn’t expect you to speak Mongolian in such a short time.”
“It’s all thanks to my lord’s consideration.”
Yelu Chucai bowed to express his gratitude to Temujin.
Then he turned his head and pointed to the corner of the wall.
“Those areas are made of less solid stones. If we attack there, we can create cracks in the enemy wall.”
“Breaking the wall, you say. Even if we break the corners, the horizontal walls remain. This seems difficult to achieve.”
“That’s correct.”
Yelu Chucai nodded calmly.
Then he looked at Bo’orchu, who served as Temujin’s advisor.
“Lord Bo’orchu.”
Bo’orchu looked at Yelu Chucai with an awkward expression.
Though they had both become Temujin’s subordinates, Yelu Chucai was still royalty. So Bo’orchu looked at him as if unsure how to respond.
“I am younger than Lord Bo’orchu. Please be at ease with me.”
“Haha… how… how can that be.”
“Under our lord, we are all equal. And I am no longer a crown prince. I am Yelu Chucai.”
“…Ahem. I understand. But it’s still difficult to be casual from the start, so I’ll call you Lord Yelu Chucai.”
“As you wish. More importantly, Lord Bo’orchu, you must know what advantage our forces gain when the outer wall collapses?”
“When the outer wall collapses… hmm…”
Bo’orchu fell into thought for a moment.
After looking around, he understood what Yelu Chucai was trying to say.
“The south gate’s defenses will weaken.”
“As expected of Lord Bo’orchu. You’re exactly right.”
Jebe, who couldn’t follow their conversation, looked at the two men asking what they meant.
Bo’orchu chuckled at Jebe’s expression.
“Lord Jebe, you should develop your ability to read terrain, not just shoot arrows well.”
“…I should have shot you in the head back then.”
Jebe glared at the mocking Bo’orchu.
Bo’orchu startled and stepped back.
“Calm down. The battle is about to begin.”
When Temujin intervened, everyone bowed and stopped arguing.
Once the atmosphere calmed, Temujin looked at Yelu Chucai and asked a question.
“Explain why the south gate’s defenses will weaken.”
Yelu Chucai bowed and began explaining to Jebe and the soldiers.
“Qara-Ordo has a structure with long vertical walls and short horizontal walls. Because of this, most troops are concentrated at the east gate, which corresponds to the vertical wall.”
It was natural to deploy many troops along the longer east wall.
They used it as the central command post, changing troop deployments if enemies attacked the north or south gates.
“Qara-Ordo’s walls are too thick and high to climb down. So moving along the wall is the fastest way.”
“What does that have to do with destroying the outer wall?”
At Jebe’s question, Bo’orchu shook his head.
He began explaining in detail to Jebe who didn’t understand.
“It’s simple. If the outer wall collapses, soldiers positioned at the east gate cannot move to the north and south gates.”
“…Then not only the south gate but also the north gate would have weak defenses.”
“That’s correct. However, the north gate is close to the Western Liao palace, so Kuchlug’s soldiers could provide support anytime. That’s why we’ve gathered here in front of the east gate.”
Jebe blushed at Bo’orchu’s explanation.
Temujin comforted him and spoke.
“If you don’t know something, you learn. Don’t take it to heart.”
Temujin himself had been illiterate until Gurkhan assigned him a Mongolian language teacher.
So he understood Jebe’s feelings better than anyone.
“I have brought shame to my lord. I will improve so this doesn’t happen again.”
Jebe said this with a bow.
Temujin patted his back and then looked at everyone.
“You’ve all heard what Yelu Chucai and Bo’orchu said. Warriors of the steppe, we will attack the east gate. And when the trebuchets break the outer wall, the left and right armies will attack the south gate.”
At his clear and concise explanation, the soldiers showed expressions of understanding.
In truth, there was no need to explain to each soldier exactly why they needed to attack the south gate.
They just needed to know that the south gate was weak, so they should attack it.
Simple orders allowed tactics to change more organically and were easier for soldiers to understand.
Temujin had learned this through battle while serving as an aide to Toghrul and Dei-Sechen Khan.
The young wolf had gained enough experience under the two veteran wolves to become a master of military tactics.
Toghrul and Dei-Sechen looked at their son-in-law with proud expressions.
“It’s gratifying to see my son-in-law develop with each battle experience.”
“Do you feel the same, Darughachi Toghrul? Having only a daughter, my son-in-law feels like my own son.”
While the two were speaking, Temujin quickly finished organizing the troops.
He raised his flag high and shouted loudly.
“The warriors of the steppe are protected by God, Tengri, and our ancestors. Fear not! Let’s end the Liao Dynasty!”
“Waaah!”
“Temujin! Temujin!”
The soldiers chanted Temujin’s name.
People no longer saw Temujin as just the son of Gurkhan.
They saw him as a commander and a great general.
In the eyes of the soldiers, Temujin was
a conqueror.
* * *
The units were further divided from thousand-man units to hundred-man units.
As a result, the pace of conquering Western Liao accelerated.
“There’s a reason why the Mongols conquered the world.”
I said this while clicking my tongue.
After just three months of war, they had captured most of Western Liao’s major cities.
Moreover, the remaining cities were on the outskirts of Western Liao, so they had essentially conquered almost all of Western Liao.
It was even faster than when they conquered Western Xia.
This rapid conquest was possible partly due to the division of troops, but the mobility of the Mongol warriors played the biggest role.
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, Mongol warriors were incredible beings who could sleep on horseback.
They even ate on horseback, so they didn’t need to stop to rest.
Additionally, each soldier had two spare horses to ride and a bankar to assist in battle, so if food was scarce, they could hunt while moving.
Thanks to this incredible mobility, they were able to quickly conquer Western Liao’s cities.
“For the people of Western Liao, it must be nothing short of terror. When they try to request support after being attacked, they find that other places are already under attack too.”
By dividing troops to attack multiple cities simultaneously, attacked villages or cities couldn’t request help from neighboring cities.
They could only lock their gates and resist, but for villages built on open plains without defenses, stopping cavalry was impossible.
For these reasons, villages chose to surrender, and the hundred-man units that completed their conquests joined forces with units still on the offensive to support their attacks.
After the cavalry left, Kerik units composed of infantry from Western Xia arrived to quickly control the villages.
With troops organically combining and dividing repeatedly, they were able to control the entire Western Liao region in just three months.
“Only Qara-Ordo remains.”
There were still cities resisting, but the forces led by Munglig, Bulqa Khan, and Chalukhab could conquer them soon.
So all that remained was the enemy capital, Qara-Ordo.
Once Qara-Ordo was captured, the Western Liao campaign would essentially be over.
This meant that Mongolia would swallow a country as large as itself whole.
“The snowball keeps getting bigger.”
I said this while looking at the map.
The Ulus ruling the Mongolian steppe and Western Xia.
The Jin Dynasty controlling Manchuria and northern China.
The Song Dynasty controlling southern China.
And Goryeo on the Korean peninsula and Japan in the islands.
The size of the Liao Dynasty was similar to the vast Mongolian steppe and Western Xia combined.
If they conquered this enormous Liao territory, the Ulus territory would far exceed that of the Jin Dynasty.
With some exaggeration, it would be about the same size as the Jin and Song territories combined.
Although most of it was barren wasteland without a single building, it meant that the territory would become the largest in East Asia.
Of course, in medieval times, territory size didn’t perfectly correlate with national power.
Even considering this, if Mongolia absorbed the Liao Dynasty, it was natural that their national power would rise dramatically.
If that happened…
“We haven’t even conquered Qara-Ordo yet, so let’s think about that later.”
Now was the time to focus on the war with the Liao Dynasty.
It wouldn’t be too late to think about what comes next after conquering Qara-Ordo.
While I was thinking this, Elunka approached me.
He bowed to me and spoke.
“Great Gurkhan, the vanguard has begun attacking Qara-Ordo.”
“Order the remaining soldiers here to prepare for battle. We will support the vanguard.”
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