The Battle of Xiangfan in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

The Battle of Xiangfan in the Song and Yuan Dynasties

The first stage

(1235 AD to 1239 AD): During the Lizong period of the Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty allied with Mongolia to attack the Jin Kingdom. The destruction of the Northern Song Dynasty brought endless humiliation to the Song Dynasty. By 1234 AD, Jin Aizong was defeated and committed suicide by the Song and Mongolian coalition forces in Caizhou, and the Jin Kingdom was destroyed. History always repeats itself. As early as the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty also united with the Kingdom of Jin to destroy the Liao Dynasty. Soon, the capital was captured by the majestic Jin cavalry, and the second emperor was also captured. Later generations called it "the shame of Jingkang".

After Song and Mongolia joined forces to destroy the Jin Dynasty, the Song-Mongolian alliance immediately collapsed, and the Song-Mongolian War began. In 1235 AD, the Mongolian Han Dynasty gathered more than a hundred people in Wokuotai. The 500,000-strong Mongolian, Jurchen, Xixia, and Bohai armies attacked the Song Dynasty in three directions, and finally began the 45-year war to destroy the Song Dynasty. Among them, the third son of the Central Route Army, Wo Kuotai, headed by the Central Route Army, was Kuochu. Bingfeng was an important military location leading directly to the Song Dynasty and was an important town in Xiangfan, Jinghu District, Xiangyang.

In the first confrontation, the Song army was completely defeated. The general guarding Xiangyang at that time was Zhao Fan, Song Jinghu's pacifier. At that time, under Zhao Fan, there was an "enemy-breaking army" composed of surrendered soldiers who originally belonged to the Jin Kingdom. Zhao Fan has a shortcoming: he is greedy for what is in the cup. Therefore, when the Mongolian army contacted "Conquer the Enemy and Win" as an internal response, Zhao Fan was still dreaming of drinking. So "Breaking the Enemy Army" rushed into the crowd, opened the city gate, and brought in the Mongol army. Zhao Fan had no choice but to flee Xiangyang alone, and Xiangyang fell.

The fall of Xiangyang was the first fall after Yue Fei regained the puppet Qi regime. The consequences were serious, and the Southern Song Dynasty suffered huge losses. The direct losses came from the loss of government and civilian supplies in Xiangyang. Tens of thousands of people were plundered, 300,000 shi of food, and 24 warehouses of sophisticated weapons all fell into the hands of the enemy. The failure of military strategy was even more disastrous.

As a strategic location, Xiangyang was the "Western Gate" of the Southern Song Dynasty and an important support point of the Southern Song Dynasty's defense line in Jingxiang. If Xiangyang is lost, Jiangling will be in danger; Jiangling will be in danger; the danger of the Yangtze River will not be enough. The natural barrier of the Yangtze River is no longer a natural barrier. After the gate is opened, there will be a large area of ??land that can be safely defended, directly threatening the capital Lin'an. Therefore, less than a year after the fall of Xiangyang, all eight state armies on Songjing's southwest road fell, and all seven state armies fell.

When the war situation in the Southern Song Dynasty was very critical, two people reversed the situation. One is Guo Chu, the commander of the Central Route Army of the Mongolian Army; the other is Meng Gong, a famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the autumn of 1236, the head coach of the Mongolian army died suddenly of serious illness; while Meng Gong successively repelled the Mongolian attacks in Qizhou, Jiangling and other places. In this way, due to the change in the situation between the two sides, the Xiangyang battlefield at that time fell into a stalemate.

The second stage

(1239-1257): In the first half of this stage, that is, before 1251 AD, the Xiangyang battlefield was dominated by the Song army and took the form of offensive , and recaptured Xiangyang twice. Here we would like to briefly introduce Meng Gong. Meng Gong (1195-1246), courtesy name Puyu, was originally from Jiangzhou (now Xinjiang, Shanxi) and was an outstanding military strategist and commander in the Southern Song Dynasty. The younger brother of the famous Tang Dynasty general Xue Rengui, he participated in the anti-golden military struggle as his father's assistant since he was a child. In the war between Song and Meng to destroy the Jin, among the Song armies, the troops led by Meng Gong were the most effective. But this time Meng Gong faced the Mongolian army that had fought alongside him, so he naturally took it seriously.

In 1239 AD, Meng Gong, who was promoted to the Jinghu Pacification Envoy and took overall charge of the defense of the Jinghu area, once again fought with the Mongolian army. After three battles and three victories, he defeated Fancheng and returned to the army. Xiangyang. However, although Xiangyang was recaptured, due to the destruction of Xiangyang by the Mongolian army at that time, the city defense of Xiangyang was dilapidated and there was a serious shortage of personnel and materials. At this time, Xiangyang City had become a city that was easy to attack but difficult to defend. After much deliberation, Meng Gong had no choice but to give up Xiangyang.

In the following years, Meng Gong served as the Jinghu Appeasement Envoy and the Kuizhou Dao Envoy, responsible for the overall defense of the Xiangyang area, allowing the Song Army to maintain a certain advantage in this local battlefield. events of this period.

In the eleventh year of Chunyou (1251), Li Zengbo, who had just assumed the post of Jinghu Pacification Envoy, believed that the status of Ying (today's Zhongxiang) and Xiang (Xiangfan) was very important, especially Xiangfan, which must not be abolished. After repairing the city of Yingzhou, he asked the imperial court for reinforcements of 15,000 troops and money and food, intending to regain Xiangfan. The imperial court mobilized 8,000 people from other places to support him and allocated 10 million yuan in military expenditures. In April of this year, Li Zengbo sent Jinghu deputy commander Gao Da and shogunate Wang Deng to lead a 21,000 Jinghu army to attack the Mongolian army entrenched in Xiangfan. During the battle, the soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty were brave and tenacious and conquered Xiangyang and Fancheng in one fell swoop. This battle was engraved by Li Zengbo on the cliff at the east foot of Zhenwu Mountain, 1.5 kilometers southwest of the ancient city of Xiangyang. It is carved on the cliff at the east foot of Zhenwu Mountain, 1.5 kilometers southwest of the ancient city of Xiangyang.

The inscription consists of two parts: the preface and the main text. There are 79 characters in 11 lines, each character is about 25 centimeters square, and is arranged vertically in regular script. The preface of the first seven acts is clear and concise: "On April 20, the eleventh year of Chunyou in the Song Dynasty, Li Zengbo, the imperial envoy to Beijing and Shanghai, moved the capital to Gaoda, and the shogunate Wang Deng recaptured the two cities of Xiangfan. The last four lines of text: "Zhuang Zixian, North of Lingnan . Yitang Valley, Jiling Valley. Qian Neng Yang, Peeling Secretary Mansion. For thousands of years, the country of Wu has been in peace. "The general idea is: Majestic, the fairy mountains on the north and south spine! You are a barrier to the changes in the mausoleum and valley. The divine force of destiny makes Xiangfan lost and recovered.

You are really the barrier of the Song Dynasty for thousands of years.

After regaining Xiangfan, Li Zengbo ordered the construction of the city and built 10,000 barracks in the city within two months for garrison purposes. The fortified city of Xiangyang is nine miles long, and the city of Fan is about four and a half miles long. Defense capabilities are greatly enhanced.

In view of the fact that "building a city is difficult to defend", in the spring of the following year (1252), Li Zengbo put forward six suggestions for the management of Xiangfan, including cultivating fields, appreciating fields, and transporting grain. Build castles, waive taxes, and increase your army to aid defense. wait. The imperial court partially adopted his suggestion, allocated 1 million yuan to subsidize farming and canal construction, and exempted Xiang and Ying from taxes for three years. In the first half of the second year of Zhibaoyou (1254), when Li Zengbo was transferred to Kuilu Coordinating Envoy and Sichuan Xuanfu Envoy, 6,276 military family members had moved to Xiangfan to settle down, and their vitality was gradually restored.

Of course, the reason why the Song army was able to achieve certain military victories during this period was not only due to the efforts of the Southern Song Dynasty itself, but also to the civil strife in Mongolia. In 1241, Wo Kuotai died of illness. Less than 2 years later, his descendant Gui Yu died of illness. The Mongol Empire fell into a political struggle over the position of Khan, and it was not until 1251 that a new Great Khan, Mongke, was elected.

The third stage

(1257 to 1267): In this decade, both Song and Mongolia fell into internal fighting. However, a fierce war still occurred from 1257 to 1259. However, the main battlefield is Diaoyu City in Sichuan, while the Xiangfan area is only a secondary battlefield. In 1257, after basically eliminating the internal factors that threatened his power, Meng Ge decided to send troops to attack the Song Dynasty the next year. This time, he and Kublai Khan personally led the battle. This time the Mongolian army attacked the Song Dynasty, the troops were still divided into three groups, but the strategic deployment was adjusted.

The main force of Meng Ge stormed Sichuan; Kublai Khan's East Route Army avoided Xiangfan and went straight to Ezhou; the Mongolian West Route Army implemented a strategic detour and detoured to Dali. Therefore, Xiangyang's defense has not been tested in any way. However, the Battle of Xiangyang written by Jin Yong is based on this war as the background. Especially in the formation, Meng Ge Khan was shot to death by an arrow, so the Mongolian army retreated.

However, Brother Meng actually died, but not in Xiangyang but in Diaoyu City, Sichuan. Meng Ge's unexpected death in battle caused the Mongolian army's plan to attack the Song Dynasty to go bankrupt. Kublai Khan was eager to go back and compete for the position of Great Khan, so he also hurriedly withdrew his troops.

After Kublai Khan returned to the grassland, after several years of fighting, it was not until 1264 that Kublai Khan defeated Ali Buge, completely ending the four-year civil strife. At the same time, Kublai Khan began to change the previous practice of the Mongol Khan. He no longer massacred the cities of the Southern Song Dynasty after occupying them, but instead used various means to recruit and surrender the Southern Song generals.

On the Southern Song Dynasty, it was a different scene. Due to Jia Sidao's control, he continued to attack dissident forces, causing a large number of capable generals to be demoted. For example, Gundam who regained Xiangyang for the third time, Yu Jie who ran Diaoyu City, and others were not idle at home after being excluded. , just die in depression. As a result, the balance of the Song-Meng war began to tilt towards the Mongolian side again.

The fourth stage

(1267 to 1273): Since Gundam regained Xiangyang in 1251, the Southern Song Dynasty court began to pay attention to the strategic importance of Xiangyang. Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty allocated a large amount of manpower and material resources. After more than ten years of vigorous management, Xiangyang once again became an important town with a high city, deep troops and abundant supplies, and became the gateway and barrier to the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty. In the past ten years, another military group began to become the main force in Xiangyang's defense, and that was the Lu Wende Group.

Lu Wende (?-1270) was a native of Anfeng (now south of Shouxian County, Anhui) in the Southern Song Dynasty. Lu Wende first joined the army under Zhao Kui (the younger brother of Zhao Fan who lost Xiangyang in the first stage of the Song-Mongolia War). Although there are no biographies of Lu Wende in history books, it can be seen from the biographies of other people that Lu Wende experienced almost the entire War between Song and Mongolia. While fighting the Mongolian army, Lu Wende traveled to and from Sichuan and Hubei. In decades of fighting, he not only accumulated experience, but also cultivated a group of family armed forces.

Of course, Lu Wende has been able to become an important military group in the Jinghu region for more than ten years. In addition to his military strength and military exploits, there are also important reasons for his collusion with Jia Sidao. Lu Wende flattered Jia Sidao at first, and attacked dissidents at lower levels.

Because of this, many generals surrendered to Kublai Khan in order to protect themselves. In particular, Meng Gong's favorite general Liu Zheng surrendered to Kublai Khan because he saw other generals being attacked and killed. The navy he led was even more capable, so Mongolia finally got the navy it had dreamed of. Then, to show his loyalty, Liu Zheng proposed to Kublai Khan the strategy of conquering the Song Dynasty by taking Xiangyang first and then attacking Lin'an, which was adopted by Kublai Khan. Therefore, under the advice and planning of Liu Zheng, the surrendered general of the Song Dynasty, Mongolia refocused its attention on breaking through the Song's defense line back to the middle of Shu and Xiangfan between the two Huaihe Rivers.

In 1267 AD, the Jinghu pacification system made Lu Wende make a serious mistake that made people laugh or cry. He actually allowed the Mongolian army to set up a quarry outside Fancheng. So the Mongolian army quickly built a fortress and cut off Xiangfan's food route. When Lu Wende realized that he had made a mistake, he was angry and anxious and could not afford to fall ill.

In 1268 AD, Kublai Khan sent Ashu as the chief general and Liu Zheng as the deputy general to lead the Mongolian army and the Southern Song Dynasty navy that surrendered to Mongolia to attack Xiangfan, and the last battle of Xiangfan began. After learning that Xiangfan was besieged, the Song Dynasty hurriedly ordered reinforcements from Sichuan and Lianghuai to reinforce Xiangfan.

At the same time, Lu Wenhuan, the deputy envoy of the Jinghu pacification system and the prefect of Xiangyang, also took the initiative several times in an attempt to break the siege of the Mongolian army, but failed. In March 1269, Zhang Shijie, the commander of the two Huaihe capitals, led his cavalry division to Xiangfan first and fought a battle with the Mongolian army on the Han River southeast of Xiangyang. After a fierce battle, Zhang Shijie lost to the Mongolian army and was forced to retreat. Xia Gui, the Sichuan pacification envoy who arrived later, took advantage of the surge in the Han River in spring to deliver grain, clothing and other materials into Xiangyang City by warship.

In June of the same year, Tang Yongjian, the commander of the capital of Jing'e, fought out of Xiangyang City, but was defeated, captured and surrendered. In July of the same year, Xia Gui led 50,000 troops and 3,000 warships to reinforce Xiangyang again. This time, however, they were fiercely blocked by the Mongolian army in the fortress along the river, and reinforcements failed. In December of the same year, Lu Wende died of illness. In the Jinghu Battlefield, the Song Army lost its most prestigious military commander who had been on the border for 40 years, which had a major negative impact on the defense of Xiangyang.

Although Mongolia decided to seize Xiangfan at all costs, armies from all over the country continued to march to Xiangfan. In just one year, the number of Mongolian troops besieging Xiangfan increased to 100,000. However, the combat effectiveness of the military group established by Lu Wende cannot be underestimated. They have been operating in the Xiangfan area for more than ten years. They relied on the favorable terrain of Xiangfan sandwiched between the Han River, dangerous terrain and solid cities, especially adequate defensive measures and rich material reserves. Although the Mongolian army was eager, they could not capture Xiangfan in a short period of time. .

However, as the Yuan army gained a foothold in the Xiangfan area, they adopted a long-term siege to continuously reduce the siege. In particular, the Yuan army severely attacked the troops assisting Xiangyang, and several reinforcements by the Song army ended in failure. This was the so-called later-famous tactic of "encircling the point and attacking for reinforcements." This tactic was implemented for three years. By 1273, Xiangyang City was already facing a huge dilemma. In particular, the Yuan army besieged Fancheng on a large scale. After its fall, Xiangyang no longer had anything to rely on. The city was already short of food and firewood, and its morale was low. At this time, the Yuan Dynasty sent people to persuade them to surrender. Lu Wenhuan surrendered in February 1273, and the Battle of Xiangfan officially ended.

The Battle of Xiangfan was a key battle that determined the fate of the Southern Song Dynasty. The troops of the Lu family’s military group who participated in the last Battle of Xiangfan in the Southern Song Dynasty were mainly troops of the Lu family. Although their bloody achievements cannot be denied, due to repeated command errors, And the corruption of the Southern Song Dynasty destroyed the Great Wall, which ultimately led to the failure of this key battle.

After the Battle of Xiangfan, the Southern Song Dynasty was rapidly defeated within a few years. By 1279, Lu Xiufu jumped into the sea carrying the last emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty on his back, and the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed.