Speaking of the demise of the Song Dynasty, many people lament on the Internet that "there is no China after the cliffs and mountains", reflecting the sad and lamentable demise of the Song Dynasty. At the same time, he also lamented the bravery of the Mongols, worthy of being the whip of God.
Many people attribute it to Mongolia's military might. In fact, before the Yuan army crossed the river, the Southern Song Dynasty still had more than 700,000 regular troops, and later recruited some volunteer soldiers, while the Yuan Dynasty participated in the entire War of Annihilation of the Song Dynasty with only more than 300,000 people.
Judging from the comparison of the number of troops, the Song army had obvious advantages, but it was quickly crushed by the Yuan army, which not only had various military factors, but also profound political reasons.
(1) Kublai Khan appeased the people
After Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he strengthened the centralization of power, consolidated the unity of the Mongolian and Han ruling classes, and gradually transformed the Mongol regime into a feudal dynasty established in the Central Plains. The War of Annihilation of the Song Dynasty of the Yuan Dynasty was, by its very nature, a war of unification between feudal dynasties.
Before Kublai Khan launched the Battle of Crossing the River, he clearly instructed the generals of the armies: If the military and civilian officials in the other realm are to go against the grain, surrender with the crowd, or those who do not make a miracle, test the first official qualifications and transfer them. The soldiers and civilians they are attached to should not be killed and plundered in a vain manner, and the parents, wives, and children's families should not be scattered, but should still be given to them, so that they can be saved.
Later, he continued to issue edicts, ordering the town guards to appease the people who had returned to the country, "so that the peasants will not be left, the merchants will be slaughtered, the soldiers will be yellow, and each of them will be employed", and announced that the Song Dynasty will be exempted from the cumbersome and miscellaneous taxes, showing the will and confidence of unifying the whole country.
Since the Tang Dynasty Anshi Rebellion (755), the political power was divided, the division was divided, and wars were frequent, and the people of all ethnic groups hoped to achieve national reunification and obtain a more stable production and living environment.
As an emerging force, the Mongol regime rose up to eliminate the corrupt separatist regimes and fulfill the task of great unification that these separatist regimes could not accomplish, which arose in response to the needs of historical progress. Kublai Khan's predecessors had already done a great deal of work for the great cause of reunification, so that after he took the throne, he faced only the last major opponent and was able to complete the cause of reunification relatively quickly.
(2) Infighting and official corruption in the imperial court of the Southern Song Dynasty
Although the Southern Song Dynasty was corrupt and weak, it still had strong military strength and economic strength, and there was no shortage of generals with combat experience and determination to resist the enemy. The Song court was prepared for a large-scale attack on the Yuan army.
The problem is that corrupt bureaucracy inevitably leads to military defeat.
Jia Xiangdao and Chen Yi were in power as ministers, but they only knew that they were in a position of favor and that the enemy was at present, and they did not make serious preparations, and vigorously rejected the war and defense strategy proposed by the ministers of the DPRK.
When the two armies were fighting, the Song chief soldiers and ministers often did not carefully arrange the army to meet the enemy, but were keen to send envoys to seek peace or surrender, and many generals at the bottom also made their own plans, or fled from the front, or looked forward to the wind, even if there were several generals who fought desperately, they could not save the defeat after all.
The party strife and exclusion within the Song court not only struck at the ministers and generals who vigorously resisted the enemy in the court, but also pushed some people toward the Yuan Dynasty. Liu Zhen's reduction is a typical example.
(3) In terms of strategy and tactics, the Song army was too conventional
The Song people were known for water warfare, and the strength of the water army greatly exceeded that of the Yuan army, but in the war, the whole army was mostly on the defensive, and hundreds of thousands of troops were gathered in several places, and they were in a passive situation of being beaten in the overall strategic situation. After being divided and surrounded by the Yuan army, the strength of the Song army and the Yuan army on the local battlefield were basically equal or even inferior.
Most of the generals of the Song Army used water army warships to block the advance of the Yuan army in the rivers, rather than using the water army to maneuver to fight, carry forward the advantages, and eliminate the enemy water army, resulting in a large number of water troops being wiped out due to excessive concentration and loss of mobility. The Song army's many fiascoes were due to the use of this wrong tactic. The strengths of the Song army not only did not play out, but because of the repeated defeats of the water army, it risked losing the Yangtze River, resulting in the collapse of the overall situation.
The situation in the Yuan Dynasty was very different from that of the Song Dynasty. Kublai Khan himself was not only brilliant, but also paid attention to adopting the advice of his courtiers. Before launching the War against the Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan repeatedly summoned his ministers to discuss the strategy of operations, not only choosing the appropriate time to march, but also formulating a more elaborate battle plan.
In the course of the war, Kublai Khan also recalled the chief military minister several times to readjust the military deployment according to the battlefield situation. All the armies participating in the war were relatively well prepared in terms of personnel and materials. There were also discords within the Generals of the Yuan Army, such as when attacking Chongqing, the Dongchuan and Xichuan courtyards supported each other and watched, but in general, the Mongol, Semu, and Han generals were able to cooperate with each other, obey the unified command, and fight hard.
The policy of surrender adopted by the Yuan court played a very important role in disintegrating the Song army and strengthening its own strength. After the Southern Song Dynasty generals surrendered to the Yuan, they not only extensively recruited protégés and old officials to appease the old prefectures and counties, but also often led the army as the vanguard of the Yuan army and attacked the city strategically. The Yuan army adopted the correct strategy and tactics.
In order to achieve the established strategic goal of "going down the river and directly attacking Lin'an", the large army commanded by Boyan avoided the Fortified Fortress that the Song heavy troops refused to defend several times, and the various armies cooperating with the operation mostly encircled and did not fight after dividing and encircling the Song army, holding back the Song army's strength, and only after the strategic objectives were reached, they were eliminated one by one.
In combat, the Yuan army often avoided the real and the virtual, breaking through the weak links in the Song army's defense; Give full play to the strengths of infantry and cavalry combat, and escort the water army to march. The Song and Yuan armies won several decisive battles in which the Yuan armies were won by close cooperation with the water and army. In the face of a strong enemy and a fortified city, the Yuan army adopted the method of cutting off its foreign aid and grain, and did not hesitate to besiege it for a long time and wait for it to be destroyed.
It is precisely because the Yuan army adopts flexible and changeable tactics, and the quality of the Yuan army is better than that of the Song army, so it can grasp the initiative on the battlefield and win victory.
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