The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty in which barbarism triumphed over civilization and culture by force, and as part of china's ancient history, it has always had two images, one as an enemy of the Chinese regime, which carried out endless killings and destructions; and one as one of many dynasties, the Yuan Dynasty left a vast territory and incorporated many parts of Asia into the chinese territory.
Many people think that the expansion direction of the Yuan Dynasty is only land, this view is not correct, although the Yuan Dynasty due to the inconvenience of sea navigation, and its cavalry as the main combat force, is not conducive to maritime combat, but the Yuan Dynasty rulers still made an active attempt to expand their maritime territory.
At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan launched two long-distance operations, one against Japan and the other on the island of Java, which is now Indonesia. The attack on Japan was ultimately unsuccessful due to a storm at sea and the resolute resistance of the Japanese shogunate. The two defeats in the war against Japan made Kublai Khan very angry, but he would never have imagined that more than ten years later, the Yuan army would fail again, and this time the enemy was much smaller than Japan, which was Java.
During the Song Dynasty, a unified regime had not yet been formed on the island of Java, and its organizational form was mainly tribal and slavery, and several small kingdoms were scattered on it. One of the most powerful was The Shinhashari, a small country in East Java founded by a bandit, but after generations of kings, it defeated Srivijaya and basically unified the island of Java.
The expanding power quickly inflated the ambitions of the King of Shinhasari, Ktangara, and he began to engage in foreign wars, dismissing the Yuan Empire's offers and insulting the Yuan envoys. It was not that Kta nagara was unaware of the sheer size of the Yuan Empire, and he had heard of the cavalry legions that crisscrossed Eurasia, but after all, the two countries were separated by the sea, and the Emperor was far away, and he did not care about Kublai Khan's anger.
But arrogance cost Ketanagara with his life, and before the Yuan Dynasty's army arrived, he died at the hands of more greedy subordinates than him.
In 1290, when Kthanagara expelled Sriwijaya from Java, he decided to send a fleet expedition to Sumatra to wipe out Srivijaya once and for all. However, due to the main expedition and the emptiness of the troops around him, Ktangara was killed by his betrayed subordinate Jayakat Wang.
Jayakatwang established himself as king and began hunting down the relatives of Ktānagara. Ketanagara's son-in-law, Ktarayasa, fled to a wasteland to escape Jayakatwang's pursuit, and with the help of the Maduras, Kitarayasa established a village and used it as a base for counterattack.
In 1292 (29 A.D.), Kublai Khan decided to give a look at the despised Chinha Shari kingdom, and he sent a navy of a thousand warships from Quanzhou, Fujian Province, to land in Java. After the Yuan army landed, Ketalayasa immediately approached the Yuan general, explained his identity, and indicated that he was willing to cooperate with the Yuan army. The Yuan army was not familiar with the situation on the island of Java, and it was naturally a good thing to have a local force as a help, so the yuan army general granted Ketara Yassa's request.
This Yuan army was composed of Fujian sailors, and the soldiers were well trained, not comparable to the dry ducks of the Yuan Dynasty in the early years, and with thousands of warships, it was not difficult to attack a small country on the island of Java. So soon the Yuan army defeated Jaya Katwang.
However, what the Yuan army did not expect was that After helping the Yuan army defeat the enemy, Ketalayasa actually turned against the Yuan army and attacked the Yuan army. Ketalayasa obviously did not really regard the Yuan Army as a benefactor, in his heart the Yuan Army was the aggressor, he just borrowed the power of the Yuan Army and killed the enemy. Under the propaganda of Ketalayasa, the people of Java inspired the courage to resist the invasion of the Yuan army, defend the land, and repel the Yuan army.
The main force of the Yuan army was not damaged, and with the power of Ketalayasa, it was impossible to inflict heavy damage on the huge fleet of the Yuan army in one battle. However, when the Yuan army set out, it only brought grain for one year, and they thought it would be a quick decisive battle, but they did not expect to kill a Kktarayasa in the middle. There was no food on the barren island of Java to support the consumption of the Yuan army, and the army of Kotarayasa also looked at the Yuan army, coupled with the severe miasma on the island of Java, causing huge losses to the Yuan army.
Judging from the fact that the Yuan Dynasty texts do not record in detail the specific situation in this battle, the Yuan army is likely to suffer a big loss, and the Tangtang Yuan Empire lost to the small javanese country, and the face is lightless, so the historian obviously has "hidden".
The goal was not achieved, the materials were exhausted, the losses were getting bigger and bigger, even if the Yuan army was dissatisfied, it could only choose to return, otherwise when there was no food, everyone would die at sea.
A huge fleet, labor expedition, but made a wedding dress for others, the Yuan rulers were very dissatisfied. Kublai Khan summoned his subordinate Liu Guojie and prepared to give him 100,000 horses and horses to go to Java again. Liu Guojie thought that ten thousand people were enough, and finally only received fifty thousand people and prepared to go on the expedition, however
"The armies have gathered, the deployment has been decided, the state has heard of the state's great reasons, the matter has been suspended, and the army has been returned to Wuchang."
This "great cause" is the death of Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan actually had the idea of another war between Japan and Java, and with his character, no matter how much time it took, he would not give up unless these two countries that despised him were destroyed and included in the territory of the Yuan Empire. Unfortunately, Kublai Khan died, his successors were not prepared to do so, and the generation of rulers was worse than a generation, until the demise, and the Yuan army did not arrive in Japan and Java for a day. In this way, the Yuan Dynasty lost a good opportunity to expand its territory.
Resources:
History of the Yuan
《Meta Literature Class》
"Yingya Victory"