Chapter 867 Divine Arm City

Author: Erzi Congzhou

Chapter 867 Divine Arm City

Beginning in 1235 AD, the Mongolian army invaded the Southern Song Dynasty. After the fall of northwest Sichuan, in order to defend the war, in the early third year of Chunyou in the Southern Song Dynasty, the famous official Yu Jie went to Sichuan as the minister of the Ministry of War. He was appointed as the envoy of the Sichuan pacification system and also knew the Chongqing Prefecture. He named Chongqing as the

Base camp, leading the defense of Shu.

After arriving, Yu Jie adopted the advice of his staff and formulated a strategic plan to build a fortress based on the mountains and set up dangers to defend Shu. In the entire mountain city defense system, with Hechuan Diaoyu City as the center, Luzhou "God's Arm City" was built in Sichuan.

More than ten mountain cities, including Pengxi's "Dahuo City", Wanxian's "Tiantian City", and Jintang's "Yunding City", supported each other and fought against the Mongolian army.

Among them, the Divine Arm City is the "snake head" of the long snake formation built by this fortress complex, and its location is very important.

The city was built along the Longtou Mountain. The entire city is 1,200 meters long from east to west and 800 meters wide from north to south. The total area is five square miles. The terrain is higher in the east and lower in the west. Except for cliffs, there are hills of different heights around the city.

Stone walls were built and five gates were built.

There are also two stone walls built to protect the city on the slope outside the east gate, forming an "ear city".

Parallel to the east gate, there are forts at the left and right ends of Ercheng. There is a unique path into the city two hundred meters away from Ercheng. There are protective ponds on both sides of the path, called Hongling Pond on the left and Bailing Pond on the right.

This constitutes a layout of building a city outside the city, digging a pond under the city, and fortifying it layer by layer.

After the city was built, the state government was moved here, so it was also called "Old Luzhou". To this day, the village located on the site of the Divine Arm City is also called Laolu Village.

This is the most complete and spectacular ancient battlefield site on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River during the Mongolian-Song War in Sichuan.

After getting off the boat at the river beach outside the city at the foot of the mountain, there is only a narrow land road that passes through two large ponds and connects to a city gate.

The river bank here is steep, with jagged rocks, and almost all are cliffs. There is no way to climb. Only the east side is connected to the land road. However, there are also several stone walls that go straight to the river.

After passing Hongling Pond, there is a slightly open area 100 meters to the south. This is the place where troops are organized, called Xiaochangba.

However, there is a dike to the west of Xiaochang Dam, called Yizicheng, also known as Shuishui City. In addition, there is a fort guarding the top of Xiaochang Dam.

The fort is on a cliff, which is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is called "Maozui Rock". There are underground tunnels everywhere in the fort and the city wall, which were the secret entrances and exits for the Song soldiers to hide and transport troops, and to connect the inside and outside of the city.

There are two such one-word city walls, built along the slope. The two walls and the cliffs form an "ear city" along the river bank.

The northern end of the ear city is connected with the cliff of Divine Arm City, and the southern end extends to the edge of the Yangtze River, forming a natural cliff in the south of the city. The small city formed by a straight city wall and the Yangtze River not only increases the defense depth of the south gate, but also effectively blocks the city.

Cut off the enemy's lateral traffic on the south bank of the Divine Arm Mountain.

The two straight city walls are built using the Ding masonry method, with wedge-shaped wall stones, uniform specifications, regular shapes, and obvious inclinations. Not only are they difficult to attack, they are also difficult to destroy, so it is no wonder that they can be preserved to this day.

After passing through the narrow city gate, there is a government office in the city, and then we start climbing the mountain. On the mountain road, we can find that this is a military platform-type city defense facility.

It can be said that a mountain is a city and a city is a mountain.

"There are many types of defense facilities here." Fang Wenyu stepped into the role of a military observer and explained to everyone the exquisite design of this city: "The first type is the fort. The fort is not located on the city wall like an ordinary city, but on the city wall.

With a wide view inside and outside and a strategic location, this is a typical 'platform defensive fortification' layout."

"The second type is called the enemy tower. The enemy tower is located on a tall platform at one end of the city wall or at the corner of the city wall. The platform foundation and the city wall are integrated into one, and the masonry style is the same as the city wall. There may be a watchtower built on the enemy platform, called a turret."

"The turret is a weak area in the city's defense, because although it can attack the invading enemy from 270 degrees, it also has to withstand the enemy's siege from 270 degrees, so it needs to be made particularly strong."

"The best defense is to attack, so there are often three-dimensional shooting holes and secret passages under the turrets. Taking advantage of the geographical advantages and combining with ambushes can cause huge damage to the invading enemy."

"The third category is the offensive and protective surface on the city wall, which is called a pier. Because it is specially thickened, it looks like a shield protruding above the city wall. There is also a square hole for shooting in the middle. People can be hidden on the sides and below.

Also known as 'horse face'."

"The fourth category is the sentry post. It is generally located on both sides or above one side of the city gate. It is a processed platform and plays the role of observing and guarding the city gate."

Walk along the mountain road and pass by bell and drum towers, footrests, secret doors, government offices, and warehouses along the way.

There are also rice fields and villages.

"This place is completely self-sufficient," Fang Wenyu said when he reached the highest point and had a panoramic view of the entire scenic spot: "There are springs, wells, and rice fields here. Once the city gate is closed, a large number of cavalrymen can see the lotus ponds on both sides.

The existence is considered useless, so we can only use refueling tactics through the narrow passage in the middle of the lotus pond, becoming a living target for the defenders in front of us."

"And don't even think about the other three sides. The cliffs are so steep that it is difficult for a monkey to get up." Zhang Lu nodded in agreement.

Yang He looked around: "With the terraced fields on the mountain alone, it is not a problem to grow rice and feed a thousand people."

From south to north, everyone chatted and took photos while playing, and finally rested under the Shamao Rock on the northern outskirts of the Divine Arm City ruins.

There is a stone dam here, and there is a huge sculpture from the Song Dynasty on the dam. It is shaped like a huge stone turtle with a circumference of more than 20 meters and a back height of nearly two meters lying on the ground, as if trying to crawl.

On the back of the big turtle, there is a giant python that is more than 20 meters long, coiled around the belly and back of the turtle.

The tortoise's head is raised up, looking at the python prime minister. This is the statue of Xuanwu, the mythical beast guarding the north.

"Let's take a rest here and wait for someone." Zhou Zhi smiled and said: "Commander, if you are the one to defend such a city, how long can it withstand the Yuan army?"

"Give 3,000 men, prepare some more boats, and use your free time to catch fish, plant rice, and train soldiers and horses..." Fang Wenyu thought for a while: "If we have enough troops and food, we can defend as long as we want, right?"

"Is it useful to defend like this?" Zhang Lu was a little surprised: "Can't I just leave you there and ignore you?"

"Passepartout, you don't understand military affairs." Fang Wenyu said: "In ancient wars, the most important thing was the food road. How much food can each soldier carry? Even if we each weigh a hundred kilograms, we can still go far with it.

How fast? To what extent can we fight effectively?"

"Therefore, there must be other forces and channels for transporting food. Once such forces and channels are destroyed by the enemy, unless they have the ability to "defeat the enemy with food," the front-line army will have the only end, and that is to collapse without attacking."

"The south of the Yangtze River is not the same as the north. The Yuan army can march with cattle and sheep. Therefore, unless they use the navy to raid the capital, they can only nibble away and cannot swallow it up." Fang Wenyu said.

"But water warfare is the strength of the southern regime, and the battle at Caishiji can illustrate the problem. There are more than one river defense projects here, and there are many Austrian aids in the rear. Therefore, even if there are ten times more enemies, there will be no one at this level. Before we take it, we will never dare to go south."

"Is this true?" Zhang Lu asked Zhou Zhi.

"It's almost like that." Zhou Zhi said: "After the construction of Divine Arm City, Song and Mongolia competed for this strategic fortress. In the thirty-four years from the third year of Chunyou, Lizong of Song Dynasty to the second year of Jingyan, Duanzong of Song Dynasty, the most cruel events happened here. During the tug-of-war, it changed hands five times, and many touching and tragic deeds took place."

"But it was still destroyed in the end?" Wei Fei asked.
Chapter completed!