The Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty (or Song–Yuan War) was the final phase of the Mongol conquest of China, beginning under Ögedei Khan () and being completed under Kublai Khan (). It is considered the last great military achievement of the Mongol Empire; upon its completion, the Mongols ruled all of continental East Asia under the Han-style Yuan dynasty that had been founded as a division of the Mongol Empire.
Background
In 1217, the Jin court sought refuge southward to the Song dynasty, where in 1225, the Mongols decisively defeated the Song. Before the Mongol–Jin war escalated, an envoy from the Song dynasty of China arrived at the court of the Mongols, perhaps to negotiate a united offensive against the Jin dynasty, who the Song had previously fought during the Jin–Song wars. In 1227, Genghis Khan dispatched a plan to capture the Jin capital by passing through Song territory upon his death. However, one ambassador was killed, and the Mongols had to march through Henan to enter Jin territory.
First stage (1235–1248) The Mongol forces invaded the Song territory, where they faced heavy resistance from the Song. This ultimately a prolonged series of campaigns; however, the primary obstacles to the prosecution of the Mongol campaigns was unfamiliar terrain that was inhospitable to their horses, new diseases, and the need to wage naval battles, a form of warfare completely alien to the masters of the steppe. This combination resulted in one of the most difficult and prolonged wars of the Mongol conquests. As the Mongols fought the Song resistance, they required advantages that they could gain and "every military artifice known at that time" in order to win.
A Mongol general, Godan started to attack the region of Sichuan through the Chengdu plain. The occupation of this region had often been an important step for the conquest of the south. The important city of Xiangyang, the gateway to the Yangtze plain, which was defended by the Song general Cao Youwen, capitulated in 1236.John Man Kublai Khan, p. 158 In the east, meanwhile, Song generals like Meng Gong (孟珙) and Du Gao (杜杲) withstood the pressure of the Mongol armies under Kouwen Buhua because the main Mongol forces were at that time moving towards Europe. In Sichuan, governor Yu Jie adopted the plan of the brothers Ran Jin and Ran Pu to fortify important locations in mountainous areas, like Diaoyucheng (modern Hechuan/Sichuan). From this point, Yu Jie was able to hold Sichuan for a further ten years.
In 1239, General Meng Gong defeated the Mongols and retook Xiangyang, contesting Sichuan against the Mongols for years. The only permanent gain was Chengdu for the Mongols in 1241. In the Huai River area, the Mongol commanders remained on the defensive, and took few major Song cities. Töregene Khatun and Güyük Khan ordered their generals to attack the Song.
The conflicts between the Mongols and the Song troops took place in the area of Chengdu. When Töregene Khatun sent her envoys to negotiate peace, the Song imprisoned them.Jeremiah Curtin The Mongols A History, p. 343 The Mongols invaded Sichuan in 1242. Their commanders ordered Han Chinese tumen general Zhang Rou and Chagan to attack the Song. When they pillaged Song territory, the Song court sent a delegation to negotiate a ceasefire. Chagan and Zhang Rou returned north after the Mongols accepted the terms.J. Bor Mongol hiiged Eurasiin diplomat shastir, vol. II, p. 224
The Mongols made heavy use of indigenous ethnic minority soldiers in southern China rather than Mongols. The Dali Kingdom's indigenous Cuan-Bo army led by the Duan royal family were the majority of the forces in the Mongol Yuan army sent to attack the Song during battles along the Yangtze River. During a Mongol attack against the Song, there were only 3,000 Mongol cavalry at one point under the Mongol commander Uriyangkhadai, and the majority of his army were native Cuan-Bo with Duan officers. Alt URL
An account of the Mongol attack on Nanjing was given in a Chinese annal, describing the Chinese defenders' use of gunpowder against the Mongols:
where the translation of the term for the device is that of Prof. Partington, who describes it as an iron pot filled with [huo] yao, literally "fire drug", a low-nitrate gunpowder or proto-gunpowder, sometimes lowered on chains, that sent forth "fire... out of every part", with an incendiary effect over many yards that could pierce metal to which it was attached, producing a "noise like thunder" that could be heard for miles, with the result that "the men and the oxhides were all broken into fragments (chieh sui) flying in all directions".J. R. Partington, 1960, "A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder," Baltimore, Md.:Johns Hopkins University Press, , pp. 243, 268, 244, see , accessed 30 December 2014.See also: zhen tian lei, or chen t'ien lei (entry), in The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare, Matthew Bennett, Ed., 1998, Abingdon, UK:Taylor & Francis, p. 356, , see , accessed 30 December 2014. The entry reads, substantially, as follows:
Second stage (1251–1260) In 1256, the Mongol Khan, Möngke planned for the "final" invasion of the Southern Song. More resistance was put up by Korea and Song towards the Mongol invasions than the others in Eurasia who were defeated by the Mongols. The Mongol force that invaded southern China was far greater than the force they sent to invade the Middle East in 1256.
Uriyangkhadai led successful campaigns in the southwest of China and pacified tribes in Tibet before turning east towards Dai Viet by 1257. In the autumn of 1257, Uriyangkhadai addressed three letters to Dai Viet emperor Trần Thái Tông demanding passage through southern China. After the three successive envoys were imprisoned in the capital Thang Long (modern-day Hanoi) of Dai Viet, Uriyangkhadai invaded Dai Viet in December 1257 with generals Trechecdu and Aju in the rear. Möngke Khan, along with Kublai and Taghachar entered Sichuan in 1258 with two-thirds of the Mongol strength.
According to the Đại Việt Sử ký toàn thư, Mongol forces under Uriyangkhadai battled the larger Trần army led by emperor Trần in Bình Lệ steppe (Bạch Hạc) on 17 January 1258, northwest of Thăng Long.Đại Việt Sử ký toàn thư, pp. 283–284. On 22 January 1258, Uriyangkhadai successfully captured the Dai Viet capital Thang Long (now known as Hanoi). While Chinese source material incorrectly stated that Uriyangkhadai withdrew from Vietnam after nine days due to poor climate, Uriyangkhadai left Thang Long in 1259 to invade the Song dynasty in modern-day Guangxi as part of a coordinated Mongol attack with armies attacking in Sichuan under Möngke Khan and other Mongol armies attacking in modern-day Shandong and Henan. Around 17 November 1259, Kublai Khan received a messenger while besieging Ezhou in Hubei who described Uriyangkhadai's army advances from Thang Long to Tanzhou (modern-day Changsha) in Hunan via Yongzhou (modern-day Nanning) and Guilin in Guangxi. Uriyangkhada's army subsequently fought its way north to rejoin Kublai Khan's army north of the Yangtze river on their way back to northern China. While conducting the war in China at Diaoyu Fortress in modern-day Chongqing, Möngke died, perhaps of dysenteryJohn Joseph Saunders The history of the Mongol conquests, p. 120. or cholera or from a defender's projectile, near the site of the siege on 11 August 1259.George Lane Daily life in the Mongol empire, p. 9.John Man Kublai Khan, p. 98.Jack Weatherford Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world, p. 188
Gunpowder weapons like the tuhuo gun (突火槍), which fired bullets from bamboo tubes, were deployed by the Chinese against the Mongol forces.
The Tusi chieftains and local tribe leaders and kingdoms in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan submitted to Yuan rule and were allowed to keep their titles. The Han Chinese Yang family ruling the Chiefdom of Bozhou which was recognized by the Song dynasty and Tang dynasty also received recognition by the Mongols in the Yuan dynasty and later by the Ming dynasty. The Luo clan in Shuixi led by Ahua were recognized by the Yuan emperors, as they were by the Song emperors when led by Pugui and Tang emperors when led by Apei. They descended from the Shu Han era king Huoji who helped Zhuge Liang against Meng Huo. They were also recognized by the Ming dynasty.
Prelude and surrender of Song (1260–1276)
After Kublai was elected Great Khan of the Mongols in 1260, he was eventually able to conquer the Song to the south, but at great cost. From 1260 to 1264, he first faced civil insurrection within the Mongol empire, led by his younger brother, Ariq Böke, who had been left in command of the north and stationed at the Mongol capital, Karakorum. This led to the Toluid Civil War and was followed by a major confrontation at the Diaoyu Fortress in Sichuan in 1265. The Mongols eventually defeated the Song land and naval armies and captured more than 100 ships.Warren I. Cohen East Asia at the center: four thousand years of engagement with the world, p. 136
The Yuan dynasty created a "Han Army" (漢軍) out of defected Jin troops and an army of defected Song troops called the "Newly Submitted Army" (新附軍).Hucker 1985, p. 66. Southern Song Chinese troops who defected and surrendered to the Mongols were granted Korean women as wives by the Mongols, whom the Mongols earlier took during their invasion of Korea as war booty. The many Song Chinese troops who defected to the Mongols were given oxen, clothes and land. As prizes for battlefield victories, lands sectioned off as appanages were handed by the Yuan dynasty to Chinese military officers who defected to the Mongol side. The Yuan gave defecting Song Chinese soldiers juntun, a type of military farmland.
In 1268, the Mongol advance was halted at the city of Xiangyang, situated on the Han River, which controlled access to the Yangtze, the gateway to the important trading centre of Hangzhou. The walls of Xiangyang were approximately thick and encompassed an area wide. The main entrances in the wall led out to a waterway impossible to ford in the summer, and impassable as a swamp and a series of ponds and mud flats in the winter. Xiangyang was linked to its twin city, Fancheng (樊城), on the opposite riverbank, by a pontoon bridge spanning the river from where the defenders of the twin settlements attempted to break the siege. However, the Mongols under Aju thwarted every attempt and crushed all reinforcements from the Song, each detachment numbering in the thousands.John Man Kublai Khan, p. 168 According to Professor Zhang Lianggao of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in 1269 (咸淳五年), the Mongols invaded the Yangtze River valley but were repulsed. The Wuying Pagoda was rebuilt in 1270 (咸淳六年) in the throes of the overthrow of the Southern Song during the reign of Emperor Duzong.