By
The Time All These Preliminaries Were Completed And The Mongol Army Had
Fairly Taken The Field It Was 1268, And Kublai Sent Sixty Thousand Of His
Best Troops, With A Large Number Of Auxiliaries, To Lay Siege To Sianyang,
Which Was Held By A Large Garrison And A Resolute Governor.
The Mongol
lines were drawn up round the town, and also its neighbor of Fanching,
situated on the opposite
Bank of the river, with which communication was
maintained by several bridges, and the Mongols built a large fleet of
fifty war junks, with which they closed the Han River and effectually
prevented any aid being sent up it from Hankow or Wouchang. Liuwen Hoan,
the commandant of Sianyang, was a brave man, and he commanded a numerous
garrison and possessed supplies, as he said, to stand a ten years' siege.
He repulsed all the assaults of the enemy, and, undaunted by his
isolation, replied to the threats of the Mongols, to give him no quarter
if he persisted in holding out, by boasting that he would hang their
traitor general in chains before his sovereign. The threats and vaunts of
the combatants did not bring the siege any nearer to an end. The utmost
that the Mongols could achieve was to prevent any provisions or re-
enforcements being thrown into the town. But on the fortress itself they
made no impression. Things had gone on like this for three years, and the
interest in the siege had begun to languish, when Kublai determined to
make a supreme effort to carry the place, and at the same moment the Sung
minister came to the conclusion to relieve it at all hazards.
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Page 144 of 704
Words from 38770 to 39050
of 191255
