The thirteenth century belongs to Mongol Empire . The Mongolian Iron Cavalry fought from East Asia to Europe and destroyed countless countries. To this day, there are memories of the Mongolian Empire. Due to the bravery of the Mongolian Iron Cavalry, many countries can only temporarily resist the attack of the Mongolian Iron Cavalry, and most of them can't last for a few months or even years.
Mongolian Iron Cavalry
But among these destroyed countries, there is a country that is said to have persisted for fifty years. This is the dynasty of the Southern Song Dynasty, which many people think is very weak. Many people count from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Luo River 2 (1234) to the end of the Yashan Naval Battle (1279). It claims that the Southern Song Dynasty resisted Mongolia for 45 years and was the country that many countries resisted Mongolia for the longest time. From the side, it shows that the Southern Song Dynasty was also very powerful. Is it really the case?
Let’s talk about the conclusion first
If the Southern Song Dynasty resisted Mongolia for fifty years according to some people’s claims, this is actually very ridiculous, because in the true sense, the Southern Song Dynasty resisted Mongolia’s attack for a short time. After all, the Mongolian expedition and many internal strife and civil wars seriously involved the power of Mongolia. In addition to the geographical advantage of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty could last for so long.
13th century Mongolian army was a nightmare for various countries
At the same time, Mongolia's attack on the Southern Song Dynasty was divided into several stages. Let's take a look at these stages the main major events between the Southern Song Dynasty and Mongolia.
first stage: Union of Mongolians and destroys Jin stage
17th year of Jiading (1224) Jin Aizong ascended the throne, Song and Jin officially ceased to fight. Although the war in the south stopped, Jin encountered the threat of invasion of Mongols in the north and continued to erode the territory of the Jin Dynasty. During this period, the Southern Song Dynasty actually realized that if the Jin Dynasty was destroyed, it would not be able to keep itself alone. Therefore, in the face of Jin Aizong's request to reconcile the alliance to fight against Mongolia, although the Southern Song Dynasty had different opinions, in general, everyone still hoped to join the Jin Dynasty to resist Mongolia.
Union and Destroy Jin
But the difficulty lies in the feud between Song and Jin. After the Jingkang Incident , the various humiliation operations of the Jin Dynasty against the royal family by the Jin Dynasty have penetrated into the hearts of every Song Dynasty. Therefore, even though they know that the feud between Jin and Mongolia is the way to survive, it is very difficult to operate. In addition, putting aside the feud, after the alliance between the two sides, it is difficult to deal with how many soldiers each needs to bear, and what kind of obligations both sides need to bear. After all, no matter how to calculate, both sides will feel that they are the most incurred.
Of course, Mongolia would not see the situation of the Song-Jin alliance, and it would constantly divide the Song-Jin alliance and spare no effort to force the Southern Song Dynasty to stand on the Mongolian side.
4th year of Shaoding (1231), after Mongolia captured Fengxiang, he sent people to the Southern Song Dynasty to ask for a way to attack the back of the Jin Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty naturally would not agree. Mongolia happened to establish its authority. If you don’t lend it, I will fight until you lend it. In the end, Torre led the Mongolian army to attack the southern Song Dynasty southern Shaanxi area. The Southern Song Dynasty was naturally defeated and had to "gift" the Mongolian army crossed the Han River north, attacked Henan, and approached the back of the Jin Dynasty .
Torre
th year of Shaoding (1233), the main force of the Jin Kingdom was wiped out. The Southern Song Dynasty saw that the Jin Kingdom was defeated so quickly, and at the same time, it also saw the huge gap between the Mongolian army and the Song army. It decisively gave up the idea of joining the Jin Dynasty to resist Mongolia, refused the Jin Dynasty's request for help, and attacked the Jin Kingdom with Mongolia. The following year, the Jin Kingdom was destroyed, and the Southern Song Dynasty also recovered the nine lost states.
Mongols and Song siege
To be honest, there were also wars between Mongolia and the Southern Song Dynasty during this period, but the scale was not large. After all, Mongolia's main energy was all on the side of the Jin Dynasty. Strong attack on the Southern Song Dynasty would only allow the Southern Song Dynasty to unite with the Jin Dynasty. Therefore, it only attacked the Southern Song Dynasty on the surface, allowing the Southern Song Dynasty to see its military strength, and forced the Southern Song team on the side, and eventually the two sides jointly destroyed the Jin Dynasty.
Phase 2: Duanping into Luoyang, the first Mongolian and Song Dynasty war
After the Mongolian defeated the Jin Dynasty, the army retreated north, causing the troops in Henan to be empty. Seeing this situation, the Southern Song Dynasty was preparing to recover the lost Bianjing. Song Lizong With the support of the main war faction, he decided to engage in a long-term confrontation with Mongolia in Henan. After all, his lips were lost and his teeth were cold. After the Jin Dynasty was destroyed, the Southern Song Dynasty directly bordered Mongolia, and there was no room for buffering between the two sides.
Mongolia and Song directly border
At that time, the strategy formulated by the Southern Song Dynasty was " to recover the three capitals, Northly Yellow River , defend the westward Tongguan , and pacify the Central Plains ". According to this strategy, the Southern Song Dynasty needed to organize 150,000 Song troops in the Northern Expedition, but it took a year to prepare, but Song Lizong could not wait. He was full of energy and directly ordered 60,000 Huaixi troops to go to the battlefield first, and without sufficient combat preparations, let these 60,000 people directly confront the Mongolian army.
end into Luo
double 2nd year (1235), due to years of war in Henan, most of which were unbroken wastelands, the Song army successfully recovered the Kaifeng area. When the Song army was preparing to recover Luoyang in one go, it was counterattacked by the Mongolian army. Mongolia is good at field battles. This battle directly led to the annihilation of 60,000 Huaixi troops. This battle had a great impact. The Southern Song Dynasty originally planned to recover Kaifeng and Luoyang first, and then recover Tongguan.
Because Tongguan has natural dangers to resist Mongolia, the recovery of Kaifeng and Luoyang are both cities that can be defended without dangers. Relying solely on Henan, he could not defend the attack of the Mongolian army. At this moment, even Luoyang was not recovered, let alone Tongguan. The defeated Song army could only retreat to Kaifeng area to defend.
Kaifeng at this time was no longer as prosperous as Northern Song period. What was left to the Song army was a defeated city. After the Song army entered, there was no food and grass, and there was no logistical support. Naturally, it was impossible to defend the city and could only be trapped in Kaifeng City and wait for death. In the end, the war to Luo River ended with the great defeat of the Song army and retreated to Huainan.
dotted line is the area that the Southern Song Dynasty temporarily recovered
Due to the active attack of the Song army, the Mongolian Khan at that time Ogedei used the excuse of the Southern Song Dynasty's rebellion and divided the troops into three groups to directly attack Sichuan, Jingxiang and Huainan areas, which also led to the outbreak of the first full-scale invasion of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Duanping 2nd year (1235), the Mongolian army launched a large-scale attack on the Southern Song Dynasty. After three years of resistance, the three fronts were completely defeated. Among them, the Sichuan battlefield on the western front of was swept away by the Mongolian army, and even Chengdu was not spared and was massacred twice. The Mongolian army in the middle line captured Xiangyang , Suizhou , Jingmen and Zaoyang and other places completely penetrated all the Jinghu defense line of the Southern Song Dynasty. The northern part of the Jingxiang Jiangbei region was captured by the Mongolian army, and the Mongolian army and the Song army confronted each other across the river. As for the east road, the Mongolian army marched along the Yangtze River , completely looting the Jiangbei region of the Southern Song Dynasty and directly attacking to the north bank of Nanjing. Once Nanjing is captured, Lin'an will be directly exposed to the eyes of the Mongolian army. Jingkang Shame seems to be staged again.
Three-way army attack route
The turning point of the Southern Song Dynasty
Days Immortal Great Song , just when the Southern Song Dynasty was beaten up on various routes, a famous general Meng Gong was born. Meng Gong was the fourth son of the Left Wu Guard General Meng Zongzheng . He was born in the general's family. His great-grandfather and grandfather were both the generals of Yue Fei . He also followed his father to fight the Jin Dynasty in Zaoyang in early years. After his father passed away, he took over the Zhongshun army directly. After Mongolia attacked the Southern Song Dynasty, he was responsible for the two battlefields of Sichuan, Shu and Jinghu. First, Meng Gong defeated the Mongolian army in Huanggang and repelled the arrogant arrogance of the Mongolian army.
Meng Gong
in the second year of Jiaxi (1238), Meng Gong saw that the time was ripe and prepared to launch a counterattack. First, The Song army crossed the Yangtze River and recovered the Xiangyang, Suizhou, Jingmen and other places in the north of the Yangtze River. The following year, the Mongolian army on the Western Front also came to rescue the retreating friendly forces who were beaten by Meng Gong, preparing to enter Jingxiang from Sichuan and Chongqing. Seeing this, Meng Gong directly led his army to Fengjie and defeated the Mongolian army in the Three Gorges area, preventing the Mongolian army on the Western Front from going east, consolidating the previous Jingxiang area .
in the fourth year of Jiaxi (1240), the Mongolian army in the middle road defeated by Meng Gong decided to farm in Henan to build warships, and prepare to go south again. After hearing this, Meng Gong directly changed the situation of the passive defense of the Song army. took the initiative to attack the Mongolian army, attacked the Mongolian army, destroyed the Mongolian army's military farm and various shipbuilding materials, and burned various materials from the Mongolian army, making the Mongolian army unable to move south from the middle road for several years.
Meng Gong's counterattack
first year of Chunyou (1241), Tianyou Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongolian Khan Ogetai died of illness. In order to compete for the Khan throne, internal strife broke out and there was no time to attack the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty took advantage of this to get valuable adjustments and recuperation. Taking this opportunity, the Southern Song Dynasty immediately launched a counterattack. Meng Gong was responsible for recapturing the Sichuan-Chongqing region on the western front, and sent Yu Jie as his deputy .
Yu Jie
Chunyou second year (1242) Yu Jie settled in Sichuan and was in charge of the Sichuan-Shu area. He not only reversed the situation in Sichuan, but also consolidated the upstream defense line of Jinghu. Especially according to the geographical environment of Sichuan, he invented a Sichuan mountain city defense system for the Mongolian army. Therefore, the battlefield of the Western Road of the Southern Song Dynasty relied on this defense system until the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed, and it was not even broken.
shancheng Defense System
Therefore, in the second stage, the Mongolian army invaded the Southern Song Dynasty on a large scale. In the early stage, the three armies of the Southern Song Dynasty were constantly defeated, and even faced the danger of being surrounded by Lin'an for a time. Fortunately, the active defense and attack of famous generals Meng Gong and Yu Jie, coupled with the death of the Mongolian Khan Ogetai, the internal strife within Mongolia was immortal, giving the Southern Song Dynasty a precious time to breathe.
Phase 3: Mongolia's internal strife, the Southern Song Dynasty failed to seize the opportunity
Since Ogedei's death, Mongolia has been fighting for the Khan throne. At first, Ogedei's own sons fought against each other, and later, Shuchi 's son had a conflict with Ogedei's son, and almost broke out in a civil war. In the end, Torre's son and Guiyu 's son competed for the Khan throne. It can be said that for more than ten years, everyone in Mongolia has had a lot of fun in strife.
As for external reasons, in order to ease various contradictions within Mongolia, Mongolia transferred most of its main forces to the west and fought in Russia and West Asia. It did not launch a comprehensive large-scale attack on the Southern Song Dynasty. It was not until Mengge Khan took power that a full-scale war against the Southern Song Dynasty was launched again.
Mongols' Western Expedition
For the Southern Song Dynasty, this was a very lucky time. If there were wise kings, the Southern Song Dynasty might have been able to rise, but the Southern Song Dynasty failed to seize this rare opportunity to recuperate and fell into the same internal struggle as Mongolia.
Chunyou sixth year (1246), Fan Yongji, the general of Zhenbei who betrayed the Southern Song Dynasty in the early years, was responsible for the Mongolian and Henan Province. Later, he secretly betrayed Mongolia and asked Meng Gong to surrender. Meng Gong was overjoyed. After all, Fan Yongji was responsible for the Mongolian and Henan Province and was the military and political chief of the Henan Province. Once surrendered, the Southern Song Dynasty could directly obtain Henan without bloodshed, and it played an important role in fighting against Mongolia. Therefore, Meng Gong wrote a letter to Song Lizong, hoping that Song Lizong would approve it.
Song Lizong
However, adhering to the Zhao family's tradition of distrust of the generals, Song Lizong rejected Meng Gong's request because he was afraid that Fan Yongji's surrender would increase Meng Gong's power, and even became suspicious of Meng Gong. This made Meng Gong's belief, who worked hard to defend the Southern Song Dynasty for the rest of his life, shook his voluntary request to resign. In order to avoid danger, he voluntarily requested to resign. This time, Song Lizong immediately approved and took the opportunity to deprive Meng Gong of his military power. Meng Gong, who was hit, had already been sick and died of illness shortly after returning home. A generation of famous generals fell lonely.
Baoyou (1253) to build Sichuan's defense system Yu Jie was also suspicious of the court. Xie Fangshu , who was then prime minister Xie Fangshu , and was constantly attacked Yu Jie for various reasons, and was eventually summoned by Song Lizong to return to the court. Soon Yu Jie died of illness. Some people also rumored that he committed suicide by taking poison. In short, the two famous generals who made contributions to the anti-Mongolian army failed to die on the battlefield, but died in the suspicion of the court. After all, distrust of military generals is the tradition of the Song Dynasty and are both victims of the Song Dynasty's emphasis on culture and over military affairs.
emphasizes culture over military affairs. It is an old tradition of the Song Dynasty.
After all, when the Mongolian army first invaded on a large scale, it was relying on capable local generals like Meng Gong and Yu Jie. Without real power, they could not resist the invasion of the Mongolian army. Therefore, after the deaths of the pillars such as Meng Gong and Yu Jie, other generals were constantly suspicious and persecuted, and eventually they all defected to Mongolia. And because they were familiar with the internal military of the Southern Song Dynasty and were proficient in water warfare, the Mongolian army, which was already good at land warfare, was even more powerful and crushed the Song army in all aspects.
th year of Baoyou (1257) After rectifying the internal Mongolian and after expedition to Dali, Mongge Khan prepared for a southern expedition. This southern expedition was well prepared, and it was a war to destroy the Song Dynasty from the east, starting from the Huaihai and going to Sichuan to the west. The Southern Song Dynasty was not so lucky this time. It can be said that it was completely crushed by the Mongolian army and lost very miserably.
Mongke's southern expedition
South line : Wulianhetai led the Mongolian army from Dali to attack the rear of the Southern Song Dynasty from the side, and once attacked to the Xiangtan area;
Minister : Kublai led the Mongolian army to break through the riverside defense of the Southern Song Dynasty with just a fishing boat, directly attacking the south bank of the Yangtze River, and even to the Nanchang area of Jiangxi. You should know that Kublai and Wulianghetai were several hundred miles apart, and they almost broke through the central area of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Western Front : The Western Front was led by the Mongolian Khan himself and was invincible all the way. conquered most areas of northern Sichuan. However, the mountain city defense system created by Yu Jie made the Mongolian army defeated and was blocked by the Song army in Diaoyu City. Perhaps it was because Mengge Khan had a stubborn temper and insisted on taking Diaoyu City and meeting Kublai Khan with him instead of attacking from other aspects.
Mengge
First year of Kaiqing (1259) Mongolian Khan died of illness at Diaoyu City. Some people say that he died of serious injury. However, Mengge Khan's sudden death caused Kublai Khan to continue to fight for the Khan throne. This fight lasted for five years, and the Southern Song Dynasty luckily lasted for twenty years.
Stage 4: Mongolia destroys Song
Jingding Five years (1264) Kublai Khan defeated Alibuge and unify Mongolia again, but Kublai Khan offended most of the old Mongolian nobles in the internal strife, and all four Khanate fell in love. In order to integrate the support of Mongolian insiders, Kublai Khan began to consolidate the area he had seized before, and spent a lot of time to gain support from people in this area until the Song-Mongol War was launched again eight years later.
Four Khanate
Just when Kublai Khan integrated into Mongolia, Song Lizong died and his nephew Song Duzong ascended the throne. However, Song Duzong was innately underdeveloped and had problems with IQ. Fortunately, he successfully ascended the throne with the support of Jia Sidao . Therefore, all the powers of the government of Song Duzong after ascending the throne were controlled by Jia Sidao.
Although Jia Sidao was a treacherous minister, he also knew that the Southern Song Dynasty was his power, so he began to reform, eliminate the influence of various warlords, and concentrate all the power of the government in the central royal court. However, these reforms were carried out in the declining dynasty, so most of the reforms were inappropriate, which instead accelerated the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Song Duzong
In the third year of Xianchun (1267), Kublai Khan completed internal integration and finally broke out the third Song-Mongol War. Under the leadership of the rebel general of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Han people in the north, Kublai Khan sieges Xiangyang for six years. Although Jian Sidao kept looking for opportunities to rescue Xiangyang for six years, they all returned in vain. While Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty in most of the times, completely strengthening the interests of Mongolia and all ethnic groups in the north.
In the ninth year of Xianchun (1273), Xiangyang City was captured. When attacking Xiangyang, Kublai Khan also sent another army to encircle the Song army in Sichuan from the western front. Except for Chongqing, the rest of the Sichuan area were all captured by the Yuan army. At this point, the Southern Song Dynasty faced the siege of the Yuan army in three directions.
Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty
Ten years of Xianchun (1274), Emperor Duzong of Song died, and Jia Sidao's backer was completely gone. Jia Sidao, who had no backer, was constantly criticized by court officials, angrily accused him of harming the country and the people, and forced him to go out to fight against the Yuan army. At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty actually had a chance. As long as the Southern Song navy defeated the Yuan army, the Southern Song Dynasty could still continue. Note that it was to continue .
in the first year of Deyou (1275), 2,500 warships and 130,000 naval troops in the Southern Song Dynasty were defeated by the Yuan army in Tongling area of Anhui. In July of the same year, the Yuan army defeated the Southern Song naval troops again in Zhenjiang and destroyed more than 700 warships in the Southern Song Dynasty. This was the last remaining naval army in the Southern Song Dynasty. The demise of this naval army also shows that the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty was a matter of time.
Yuan army attacked
in the second year of Deyou (1276), the Yuan army attacked Yangzhou , and attacked Nanjing while launching a siege on Lin'an. At this time, the Southern Song Dynasty could no longer organize an effective new force, so there was no suspense in the result of Lin'an being besieged. In the end, Empress Dowager Xie led Emperor Gong of Song and other ministers to surrender, and the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed.
Yashan Battle
Of course, although the Southern Song Dynasty court was destroyed, Zhang Shijie , Wen Tianxiang and others still organized people to resist the Yuan Dynasty in the southeast coastal areas, and refused to surrender. However, the Southern Song Dynasty, whose situation was overwhelming, could no longer make a splash with these counterattacks. Until Xiangxing (1279) after the Yashan Battle, the Song army failed again, Lu Xiufu led the young emperor to jump into the sea to sacrifice his country, and the Southern Song Dynasty was completely destroyed. In addition, the Song army, who was standing in Chongqing, insisted on resisting the Yuan army for several months, and did not surrender until it was out of ammunition and food.
How many years did the Southern Song Dynasty resist
or above is the war between the Mongolian army and the Southern Song Dynasty. Now review the timeline and see how many years did the Southern Song Dynasty resist.
234 Song Duan Ping failed to enter Luoluo;
235-1236 Mongolian conquered the Song Dynasty. In the same year, the Mongolian Kuliletai Conference, Ogedei decided to send the main force to expedition the west. This is also the famous eldest son expedition in the West in history. This time, the expedition in the West lasted until 1243;
241 Ogedei died of illness and escaped from the regent of the Ge, and Mongolia began to compete for the Khan throne;
246 Guiyu Khan succeeded to the throne, and Mongolia, which had endless civil strife, finally began to merge, but still faced huge internal problems;
248 guiyu led an army of more than 100,000 to expeditions to the west. The army of Badu was confronted, and died inexplicably during the period. It is said that it was poisoned to death. Mongolia was once again caught in the internal strife between the Khans.
251, with the support of Badu, Mengge succeeded to the throne;
252-1256, Mongolia was busy rectifying the internal affairs and expeditioning to Yunnan, Dali;
257 -In 1259, Mengge's southern expedition, but Mengge died of illness outside Diaoyu City, and Mongolia retreated;
259-1264, Alibuge fought with Kublai Khan and a civil war broke out. Both sides fought for hundreds of thousands of soldiers for several years, and during this period, there was a rebellion in Shandong Li Yu; Mongolia was busy with internal rectification;
268, Mongolia fought in the south and used troops to Xiangyang.
276, the Southern Song Dynasty surrendered to the Mongolian Yuan.
279, the battle of Yashan and the remaining troops of the Southern Song Dynasty were completely destroyed.
Wen Tianxiang
Therefore, there were only three time points for Mongolia to truly attack the Southern Song Dynasty, namely the Mongolian Southern Expedition from 1235 to 1236, but the main force in the western Expedition, during which Ogedei died of illness and Mongolia was civil unrest; the second was the Mongke Southern Expedition from 1257 to 1259, but Mengke died of illness outside Diaoyu City, and Mongolia finally retreated; the last was Kublai Khan's southern expedition in 1268. Eight years later, the Southern Song surrendered, and the Southern Song Dynasty had nominally perished. Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty had only been truly resisting the invasion of Mongolia for more than ten years, and the Southern Song had a large population and a prosperous southern region.
You should know that when Kublai Khan conquered the Southern Song Dynasty, it was no longer the entire Mongolian Empire, but one-third of the Mongolian Empire. Other Khanates did not take Kublai Khan seriously at all, and they did not continue to stumbling. It has to be said that the Southern Song Dynasty was very lucky. When facing crises many times, Mongolia would always fall into civil strife. Unfortunately, the Southern Song Dynasty failed to seize these opportunities, which eventually led to its own destruction.
