Mongols against the Chinese Song Empire
Troops march from Karakorum in mid. XIII century Reconstruction by M.V. Gorelik
Even Genghis Khan recommended to involve her “eternal” bloodlines, the Song Empire, in the war with the Jin empire. As we saw in the previous article on VO, dedicated to the last stage of the war against the Golden Empire, Song or Southern Song did take part in the siege of the last capital of this empire, Caizhou (Runan). The Sung troops, who were renowned experts in military technology, erected siege weapons. This is how the Sung diplomat Peng Da-ya characterized the Mongolian technique of sieges:
“At one time, when (the Mongol army) attacked Fengxiang and concentrated all forces on shelling one corner of the city wall, four hundred (stone throwers) were installed there at once. Of the rest of the military equipment, they have nothing else worth talking about. "
Obviously, for Song, whose specialists have reached great heights in fortification and siege, Mongolian technology was not something outstanding. But the question was not about technology, but about the military system. With whom Song soon met.
Siege of Kaifin 1232 Artist V. Reynold. Ed. Osprey
Union of Mongols and Chinese
In an outburst of thirst for revenge and revenge that Song harbored against the Jurchens who seized their northern lands and capitals, Emperor Li-tsun, as is often the case in stories, did not consider the Mongols as dangerous allies. It is significant that by this time the war in the north, against two "barbarian" empires in China: Xi Xia and Jin, had been waged by the Mongols for more than twenty years. Song periodically made attempts to return "her" lands from weakened rivals, but did not understand how much a dangerous ally and neighbor they had acquired at their borders.
It is important to note that despite huge human resources and increased productivity, the distribution of income in Song was highly inefficient.
For two hundred years, productivity in agriculture has increased several times due to rice, this crop has completely replaced wheat. Crafts and technologies developed, there was a large military and merchant fleet. This empire in the southeast of Eurasia was very reminiscent of Byzantium, apparently, and the structure of Chinese society can be attributed to the pre-class neighboring-territorial community.
80% of government revenues were spent on the army, which participated in constant wars with two northern empires, as we wrote about in VO in previous articles, as well as in wars with Tibetan and other tribes in the south-west of modern China, the Sunts and ethnic groups fought Indochina, who periodically fell into vassalage from them.
Despite the huge spending on the army, and the presence of the famous theoretical military treatises on the conduct of hostilities and the training of troops, the armed forces of the Song have always been inferior to their neighbors from the north, Liao and Jin. The problem was that due to the lack of horses, the empire could not have cavalry capable of withstanding the "nomadic" empires. The Mongols quickly realized this.
The Mongols twice offered the Song to enter the war with the Jin, but they were in no hurry, and the Mongol ambassadors, traveling home, were killed by the Sunts at the border.
The Mongol corps, heading for the Golden Empire, raided through the Chinese borderlands, showing their strength. But the Mongols did not want to antagonize the southern empire while their enemy, the Jurchen, was alive, and Song agreed to help the Mongols with troops and food.
Rashid ad Din told an interesting story, which allegedly became the reason for the quarrel between the Mongols and the "Nangyas", as the Mongols called the subjects of the Songs. The Mongols, after the death of Jin, did not believe that Emperor Aizong had died. His subjects claimed that this was true, they were supported by the Sunts. When the Mongols demanded his head, there was confusion. The Suntsy gave someone's hand instead of a head, the Mongols were offended, but in those conditions they could not do anything with their allies.
Of course, other sources tell this story somewhat differently. But if Rashid ad Din's version is correct, we can say that this could be an important reason for starting a new war, the reason was the wealth of the southern empire.
It is especially worth noting that such a position emphasizes the peculiarities of the Mongolian vision of the world, which we have repeatedly drawn attention to in previous articles.
Moreover, the Song Empire, which played a significant role in the death of the Golden Empire, claimed more than the Mongols believed. During the war with Jin Song, the troops, as allies of the Mongols, occupied their former capital Kaifeng, or rather its ruins, and the neighboring province of Hepan. Then they moved troops to capture Guanzhong (modern Shaanxi province). These were the lands where the Chinese civilization arose. At this time, despite the fact that the main forces of the Golden Empire were defeated and their emperor died, many areas continued to resist, as the "Yuan Shi" writes about. But it was not the Jurchens who became an obstacle in the path of the southern army, but the Mongols. They, leaving for their camps, opened dams on the Yellow River, and the entire Song army at Kaifeng perished under the waters of the river, and in Guanzhong they completely destroyed a corps of 25 thousand soldiers. Then the Mongols in 1234 raided the Song.
I repeat, despite the fact that the wars of the Mongols with the neighbors of the Chinese empire had been going on for twenty years, in Song they knew little about the Mongols, we have reached the notes of the diplomats of the empire who visited Mongolia in 1234 and 1235, where they were surprised to discover her. While on the Kurultai in 1235 it was decided to start a war with the Southern Song.
The beginning of the wars
Throughout 1236 and 1237. Mongols raided the northern borders of the Song: the territories of the southern part of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Hubek, southern Henan and Anhui (modern Anhui).
The Mongols began to act in the border provinces of the Chinese empire in the same way as against Xi Xia and Jin. The Mongol raids were not limited to this, they even reached along the lower reaches of the Yangtze to the Jiangsu province, located on the coast of the South Sea. At the same time, when they succeeded, the Mongols also captured cities, for example, Guangzhou in Henan. The raids wore down the Song forces. One of the commanders and inspirers of the campaigns against the Song, according to Yuan Shi, was the Tangut Chagan among the Mongols. The one who saved his father during the siege of Ganzhou in Xi Xia.
Warriors of the Song. XIII century Modern reconstruction
But when it came to taking fortified cities, the Mongols retreated. These were, of course, tactical tricks. It can be assumed that with the help of the raids, the Mongols, as it were, "aimed at" before organizing the final campaign. Moreover, the provinces undergoing the raid were very rich and there was something to profit from here. At the same time, it must be said that the cities of the northern provinces of the Southern Song, which even before the Mongols were raided by the Jurchens, had powerful fortifications; below we will see that some of them held out for several years. Fortification science was at a high level in the Song. The work of Chen Gui, author of the 500th century, "The Most Important Statement of the Defense of Fortresses", anticipated many of S. Vauban's postulates by XNUMX years.
Again, the Song empire in its potential could not be compared with any of the countries of that world. And this was felt by the Mongols, who began to look for workarounds to the empire. Meanwhile, Song requested peace from them, and the treaty was signed in 1238 on the terms of payment of tribute. The tribute was equal to what Song paid to the Khitan state of Liao, before its increase at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. Then the payments caused the silver crisis and the introduction of paper money into circulation. Considering the fact that the economy of the Chinese state has grown significantly since that time, this tribute was very large, but certainly not critical.
Chinese medieval market. Beijing History Museum. PRC. Photo by the author
The Mongols, of course, were the most powerful war machine in the XNUMXth century, but they faced the most powerful country of the same century, unlike other opponents of the nomads, which has a homogeneous ethnic composition. In such conditions, the diplomatic tricks and cunning of the Mongols were in vain, everything could be decided only on the battlefields.
Sudden reprieve
In 1241, the great khan Ogedei died, after strife and agreements, Guyuk ascended the throne. He was one of those who, after the conquest of Jin, proposed to destroy the entire sedentary population here. The strife in the Horde did not end, Guyuk fought with Batu and died in a campaign against him in 1248 near Samarkand. Only three years later Mongke became Khan, he appointed his brother Kublai ruler of Northern China. At the kurultai, he determined the directions of the Mongol wars and said:
“Each of our fathers and older brothers, former sovereigns,” wrote Rashid ad Din, “committed some deed, took some region and raised his name among the people. I, too, will personally go on a hike to go to Nangyas [Sun]. "
In 1252, the treaty with the Song was broken, and Khubilai was appointed commander of the troops against her.
In 1255 Mongke himself led a campaign against Song, although he was dissuaded from doing so.
Flank coverage
Mongke began by covering the flanks. Korea, the countries of southwestern Asia, like Song, were identified as an object of attack even at the kurultai of 1235, especially since Koryo, Dali and northern Vietnam were part of the control zone of the Song empire, periodically paying tribute to it and could become the rear in the struggle Song with the Mongols.
Left flank
Koryo established "friendly relations" with the Mongols, that is, she recognized herself as dependent on them, back in 1218, but at times this "friendship" was interrupted. This was the case in 1225, when the Mongol ambassadors were killed. Invasion across the river. Ammokakan in 1231 of one wing of the Mongol army ended in an unsuccessful siege of the powerful Korean fortress Kuzhu or Kuju (on the territory of the present-day DPRK). During the siege, 28 stone throwers were used at first, and then 31, but the city did not surrender. And the other wing developed an offensive southward, reaching the capital of Kegyeong. The commander of the Mongols, Saritai-khorchi, in a field battle, as usual, by deceitful flight upset the ranks of the Koryoski, and surrounded and destroyed their army. The Mongols destroyed infrastructure and destroyed the population, but everywhere there was an uncompromising struggle against the invaders. The Koryo government signed an agreement under which it was supposed to pay a huge indemnity, but after the main Mongol forces left the country, they immediately refused to pay.
Koryo. City defense. Artist V. Reynold. Ed. Osprey
When we write about the Mongol invasions of Koryo, you need to understand that there were not so many Mongols in the troops, these were the troops of the recently conquered peoples neighboring with Koryo: the Khidans, Jurcheni, Bohao. It was the same in all places where the Mongols fought, for example in Russia.
The new invasion was defeated, accidentally killed by an arrow of Saritai, but the Koryo government recognized vassal dependence on the Mongols.
Having paid a huge tribute with precious metals, fabrics and horses, Koryo did not send hostages, for which the Mongols invaded again in 1236.
And this became the rule, delays in tribute were punishable by raids. For 25 years in Korea died from disease, war, hunger, were driven into slavery about 2 million people.
In 1247, the fourth Mongol invasion of Korea began, now they made their base in the capital area of Kegyon, from where they plundered the surrounding area.
Since 1251, in preparation for the war with the Song, they again invaded Koryo, despite the government's agreement to pay tribute, the Mongols continued to siege cities, but did not succeed. For two months the city of Chungju fought, which the nomads could not take.
But in 1254 the Mongols began to ravage the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, weakly affected by the war, which led to a coup in 1258 on the Ganghwa Islands, where the government was hiding. The new van Wonjon fully recognized the sovereignty of the Mongols, and soon Koryo became part of the Yuan Empire.
Right flank
Mongke launched an offensive on the right flank, capturing the lands of states and tribal unions located in the southwest of modern China. It was the state of Dali (present-day Yunnan province), the predecessor of which was the kingdom of Nanzhao, a Tibetan-Burmese ethnic group of the Mann peoples, black and white. At the head of Nanzhao was the white manei dynasty. Black Mani, having made a coup, set up their dynasty and created the state of Dali. We know little about him.
Nanzhao had a hundredth system of organizing territorial communities, every third man served in the army, the army was horse and foot, all in leather armor. The centurions wore armor made of rhinoceros skin. The shields were decorated with the tails of buffaloes and cats. And the "king" dressed in gold armor and a tiger skin. The entire army was barefoot.
The Mongols, who could hardly endure the heat in the wars in northern China and Central Asia, found themselves in difficult climatic conditions. At the head of the expeditionary force was Uryankhatay (Uryankhaday), the son of Subedei. In the fall of 1253, the Mongols advanced through the territory of the present-day Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. The tribes of the "black mani" submitted to them, and the "white mani" resisted. Uryankhatay and his son Achzhu, using field fortifications, palisades, and stone-throwing guns during several battles, defeated the Dali army. This enabled Khubilai to enter the first capital of the state. Their next capital was taken by Uryankhatay. And Gao-sheng gathered an army of mani against the invaders, but he was defeated at the foot of the Ikelan mountains, Yunnan-Guizhou hill. The next capital, Yachi, was located on a lake, surrounded on three sides by water, the Mongols exhausted the defenders for seven days with a non-stop attack on the gates and drumming, after which Achzhu personally with the brave men broke through the wall and took the city. These wars took place from 1253 to 1255.
Three pagodas and Chuenshen temple. Dali. PRC
Mongols in 1255-1256 climbed the mountains, where Achzhu himself often led the storming of cities. The next was the Tibeto-Burmese state of Chituge, and the related state of Lulusa, after the capture of their two cities, capitulated to the Mongols. Finally, the state of Abo, which had 40 thousand soldiers, surrendered to the Mongols. The next year, Uryankhatay continued to fight with the "states" of the Tibeto-Burmese peoples, here he also encountered the thirty-thousand army of Song Chang Du-tong, which he defeated and took away 200 junks.
In the fall of 1257, the Mongols sent ambassadors to Laos and northern Vietnam, who did not return. Then they invaded the north of Vietnam. The commander of the invasion in 1257 was Uryankhatay, the son of Subedei:
“In the [era of] Nguyen-fong [of the] Chan dynasty (1251-1258), the Tatars came to plunder. When they reached this place, - according to the Vietnamese annals of the Late Li dynasty, - the horses began to stumble and did not move forward. The inhabitants of the village came out and, resisting, began to fight, chopping off the heads of the foreigners. The enemy fled. "
But according to other sources, the Mongols could not win against the ruler Chiang Thai Tong due to the failure to comply with the order of the vanguard commander Chechedu. Tran Thai Tong sent an army against the invaders, which included elephants, cavalry and infantry. The battle took place on a river north of present-day Hanoi, and the Vieta were able to retreat on river ships. Later they recognized themselves as subjects of the Mongols.
So, given the fact that in this area the Mongols even clashed with the corps from Song, their actions to protect the flanks from a military point of view were completely justified. Here they recruited additional contingents of soldiers, and in the war with the Song, as we will see below, there was a serious shortage of personnel.
Mongke's war against Song
Han Mongke stopped the tactics of total terror and mass murder. It would be extremely naive to regard this fact as a kind of softening of morals. Forty-five years ago, when the Mongol expansion began, the conquered neighboring ethnic groups, from the point of view of the nomads, were needed in small numbers to serve as slaves in the nomads, all the rest, as competitors for a food base, were destroyed. But the primitive system of government has since been subjected to significant Sinification. Ambassador Song Xu Ting generally believed that all civil affairs in the Mongol Empire were run by the Chinese Yelui Chutsai and the Uighur Chinkai, and Ambassador Peng Da-ya added that the former ruled all the occupied lands on the territory of modern China and part of the Russian Far East, and the latter by Muslims ...
Map. Campaigns of the Mongols against the Song and its neighbors until the end of the 50s. XIII century
Mongke, following Ogedei, understood that the existence of subjects of the farmers ensures the stability of income. Therefore, he limited robbery and murder during the campaign against the Song.
Khan Mongke gathered a huge army for the campaign against the Song, dividing it, according to the Mongol tradition, into two wings. The right wing was an army commanded by the Great Khan himself. It consisted of 60 tumens, which included warriors from the conquered Jin, Xi Xia and other non-Mongol peoples from this region. The left wing consisted of 30 tumens with Tsarevich Togachar. The army set out at the beginning of 1256 and approached the borders of the Chinese Empire by the fall of 1256.
Togachar with his one hundred thousandth army could not take the important Chinese cities: Si-an-fu (Xiangyang), the capital of the province of Shengxi and Fan-cheng (Fancheng). The Song government sent future Chancellor Jia Sidao as an auditor to the besieged cities.
While in the camp of the conquerors, Togachar was accused of drunkenness, and was replaced by the ailing Khubilai, who led the war more decisively, fighting daily. But when he left the army, the huge Song army defeated them. Thus, things on the left flank went without much success.
Heat and cholera also fought against the Mongol troops:
"... in its lands," Yuan Shi reports, with heat and poisonous fumes, the warriors of the [Mongolian] army all fell ill, and when they met the enemy, they could barely resist and the army lost every fourth person. "
On the right flank, the shock corps was led by the experienced Uryankhatay and his son, they had only three thousand Mongols and ten thousand mani militias. While Uryankhatai fought his way forward with battles, Azhu advanced secretly. This made it possible for the Mongols to defeat the Song troops at the right time in the battle. So they marched through Huyuei province, causing great damage to the rear of the Song, and then returned to Khubilai.
And Mongke Khan himself began bloody diarrhea, and he died under the walls of the city of Hezhou in August 1259.
Khubilai and the other princes had to hurry to the steppe, where the struggle for the throne of the nomadic empire began.
According to legend, Khubilai, wanting to take Ezhou (northern Anhui province), did not rush to the steppe, but his wife hurried him, and then he made peace personally with the official Jia Sidao, who guaranteed the payment of tribute. He himself did not inform either the emperor or other members of the government about this, presenting the case in such a way that it was thanks to his command that the Mongols retreated.
So the Mongols left. The outbreak of the battle for power in the Horde postponed the death of the Chinese state of Southern Song by 15 years.
To be continued ...
Sources and literature:
Giovanni del plano Carpini History of the Mongols. Guillaume de Rubruck A Journey to Eastern Countries, Book of Marco Polo. M., 1997.
Secret legend. Mongolian Chronicle of 1240 titled Mongol-un niruca tobciyan, Moscow, 1941.
Complete collection of Diveet's historical notes. In 8 volumes. Volume 3. Edited by A.L. Fedorin M., 2012.
Rashid ad-Din. Collection of chronicles. Volume II. M., 1960.
History of the East. T. II. M., 1993.
Kradin N.N., Skrynnikova T.D. Empire of Chnngis Khan M., 2006.
Khrapachevsky R.P. The military power of Genghis Khan. M., 2005.
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