In 1276, after the fall of Lin'an, the Yuan Dynasty became the undisputed hegemon of East Asia. Kublai Khan and his confidants, who were deeply influenced by Han culture, almost fully embraced a tributary-proclamation system that was relatively unfamiliar to the Mongols. The strategic direction of the Mongol Yuan Empire also extended along the southeast coast to the regional countries around the mainland.
Against this backdrop, Kublai Khan mobilized his army to constantly conquer the countries of the South. Japan, Vietnam, Myanmar and other places are almost all immune. Even Java, far away in the depths of the South China Sea, has become the target of the Khan Bali Royal City.
<h1>Strategic needs</h1>
Kublai Khan needed to unite the Ilkhanate against hostile forces in the northwest
Kublai Khan's diplomatic direction after the destruction of the Song Dynasty was very clear and realistic. Factions opposed to his succession to the Mongol Empire, based in the northwestern khanates of Chincha and Chagatai, continued to wreak havoc on the northwestern border of the Mongols. The Great Khan, who was running between the Golden Lotus River and the Khan Bali, had to establish contact with the Ilkhanate of the Tuolei clan. The latter, which was at war almost simultaneously between the Mamluks in the west and the Khanate of Chincha in the north, also urgently needed central support.
Of course, since land communication was cut off by hostile forces, the Mongols had to communicate with the Ilkhanate, which controlled the Persian Gulf, through land and water in the South and Indian Oceans. Coincidentally, arab navigators who had been active in the Southern Islands for centuries had already surrendered to Kublai Khan in Quanzhou and Guangzhou. Through their reminder, the Great Khan noticed that there was a stable sea traffic route between Guangzhou and Basra. One of the priorities of diplomacy after the Yuan Dynasty was to keep this sea route smooth.
Illustration of a Central Asian manuscript The Ilkhanate made good friends with Kublai Khan
In 1284, Kublai Khan sent the famous Wu'er navigator Yihei Lost from Quanzhou to Ceylon. By 1286, Khan Bali had successively accepted the surrender of the Ten Kingdoms of Nanyang. Not satisfied with this, the Yuan Dynasty sent troops to the Champa State in 1285 as a base for advancing south. In 1287, he sent people to appease the seafaring nation of the Indian subcontinent, Jura.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhu Luo once dominated the Nanyang region
Driven by the benefits of maritime trade, countries on the trade route are usually willing to maintain a peaceful environment of commerce by means of recruitment and mission. This is the reason why the tributary diplomacy of the Yuan Dynasty went smoothly in the early days. But some emerging countries that are rising strongly cannot easily buy it.
In 1289, Meng Qi, a special envoy of the Yuan Dynasty, went to the java kingdom in the depths of the South China Sea. At that time, Java was under the reign of the male lord Keltanagara. Influenced by Indo-Persian culture, he called himself King of Kings. Not only did he send people on an expedition to nearby Sumatra, destroying sriwijaya, the former hegemon of the South Seas that had existed for hundreds of years, but also annexing many small countries around the border. By the time the Yuan dynasty arrived, the Javanese had brought the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and the Maluku Archipelago to the east under their rule.
Javanese sphere of influence during the Keltanagara period
Because Java is the trading center of The South Sea spices, even if you don't listen to the instructions of the Great Khan, you don't have to worry about no one coming to trade. Just Chinese merchants from Quanzhou could make Java profit from trade. Driven by this supplier mentality, Cortanagara presented himself as a regional overlord and let people forcibly tattoo the face of The Yuan Envoy Meng Qi.
Kublai Khan certainly could not tolerate the humiliation of the messenger. However, three years after the diplomatic turmoil, the Yuan Dynasty mobilized troops to the south. One reason was the defeat of the Japanese conquest in 1281, with many losses of sailors and ships, and the attack on Java required further conscription of civilian ships and skilled drivers. Another reason is the southern Champa City, which expelled the Yuan dynasty in 1290 and declared independence. This deprived the Yuan Dynasty of a forward base for operations to the south.
Champa troops who resisted the rule of the Yuan Dynasty
<h1>Belated revenge</h1>
The huge losses in Japan necessitated the Yuan Dynasty to spend more time preparing for the cross-sea expedition
It was not until 1292 AD that Kublai Khan carried out a full-scale campaign against Java. The Yuan government said that the biggest purpose of this move was to establish absolute authority among the countries of The South China Sea. To this end, Kublai Khan made meticulous arrangements for the personnel composition of the crusading army. He ordered Shi Bi, Gaoxing, and Yihei to be the governors of Pingzhang as the supreme commanders of the expedition.
Shi Bi was born in Lizhou, Hebei Province, but was fluent in Mongolian and was a Han soldier in the early Mongol Empire. It is said that he can carry hundreds of pounds of stone lions to walk, and his martial courage is extraordinary. Before his expedition to Java, he had already held the post of Zhejiang Eastern Xuanwei. During the southern expedition with Boyan, his performance was very prominent, and he was one of the pillars of the Yuan Dynasty in the south. Kublai Khan's original intention was to make Shi Yi, the grandson of Shi Tianze, a veteran of the water army, the commander-in-chief. However, the third generation of the army who was born in the general gate pushed off the overseas expedition on the grounds that he was too young. In the end, the burden of leading the army overseas fell on the practical generals on the front line. This is not a fortunate thing for the outcome of the Yuan Dynasty expeditionary army.
The Northern Han Army, which had been the hand of the Mongols, became the main force of the expedition
Happy was a general of the Southern Song Dynasty, who also accompanied Boyan to capture Jiangnan. For more than ten years before he was ordered to go on the expedition, he had been busy extinguishing various Revolts of the Remnants of the Song Dynasty in Jiangnan. He was also one of the most experienced generals in southern warfare in the Yuan Dynasty at the time, known for his proficiency in water warfare and rugged terrain.
As for the most famous Yihei Lost, he had a good personal relationship with the Great Khan and was deeply influenced by Kublai Khan's new appointment. From 1272 onwards, he frequently traveled in and out of Nanyang as an emissary of the Yuan Dynasty. Since he was born in the Western Regions, he was able to gain a sense of goodwill when dealing with local Muslim maritime merchants in Quanzhou. These descendants of Fanbang, between Nanyang and China, have been doing business for hundreds of years. Therefore, there are already mature plans for hydro-meteorological conditions, route selection and sailing schedules. China's coastal trade has always been inseparable from the help of Arab water diverters and translators. Kublai Khan's fleet needed their help and guidance even more. Yi Hei became the Commander-in-Chief of the Sea Route, and his duty was to help manage Muslim sailors and ships.
The Fearful Vultures are also black and lost
Under the three commanders-in-chief, the Yuan Dynasty also set up four conquests to carry out the expedition. Including 5,000 people under Shi Bi's command, 2,000 people drawn from the garrison in Fujian Province, and soldiers from Jiangxi, Fujian, and Huguang provinces, a total of more than 20,000 people. The army also prepared a year's worth of grain and grass for the expedition, and the salary was 40,000 yuan. The generals carried with them ten tiger charms, forty gold charms, 100 silver charms, and 100 gold silk satin horses for the promotion of the battle.
The core of the expeditionary force was the Northern Han Army, which had been fighting for the Mongols since the time of Genghis Khan. The other auxiliary forces were the surrendered former Southern Song Dynasty new vassals. These armies have been fighting in Jiangnan for more than a decade and are familiar with the humid, hot and rainy environment of the south. Of course, compared with the northern Han army, which was taking root and sprouting red, the morale of the new auxiliary army was much lower. As the new commander-in-chief of the army, he was happy, like Kublai Khan, who suggested that more troops be sent to gain momentum. Kublai Khan replied to him: The natives of Nanyang, naked and timid, multi-faction armies are useless!
The real reason for Kublai Khan's reluctance to send more troops may have come from the logistical pressure of the sea expedition. In order to transport more than 20,000 troops to Java, the Yuan Dynasty requisitioned thousands of ships from Zhejiang, Fujian. It seems that the average ship can only carry 20 soldiers, but in fact, there is a big difference between going out to sea and fighting in the coast. In addition to the soldiers themselves, the required ordnance, pay, medicine, and tents must be transported by boat. The more than 100,000 stones of military food that were immediately carried must also be supplied by boat. In this way, the size of a thousand warships is not exaggerated. For comparison, when the Song Dynasty attacked the Shandong Jin army from the north, it carried 3,000 soldiers with 120 warships, and the average ship could only carry less than 30 soldiers. It can be seen that the difficulty of using troops across the sea in ancient times.
Most of the warships of the Song and Yuan dynasties had limited tonnage
<h1>Hit the blot</h1>
The deposed prince of Java, Vicharya, became the internal response of the Yuan army
An important reason why Kublai Khan refused to send more troops was that he believed that the expedition was a sure victory. It turned out that before the Yuan Dynasty sent troops, there were already people on the Javanese side who were willing to act as internal responders.
The javanese king Keltanagara did not last long, and the Grande Shochaya Kawang, who ruled over the present-day Indonesian region of Jaiyali, killed the King of Kings and his prime minister in a surprise attack and seized the Throne of Java. Most of the kingdom's vassals, including Keltanagara's son-in-law, Vishaya, were forced to pledge allegiance to the new king. But this allegiance is clearly only superficial.
While contacting former courtiers, Vicharya trained his army in a wilderness called Manorbache, amassed grain and grass, and prepared for the restoration of the country. At this time, someone offered him a plan: Now that a Chinese merchant ship has come here, he can get in touch with the Tatars and say that there are many beautiful princesses here. You immediately wrote a letter urging the Tatars to send troops to attack here. When they reach you and unite with them, you can defeat the Glenns.
We don't know how much Kublai Khan believed in the intelligence that could obtain beautiful women. However, there was a response from within the enemy country, and it was indisputable that the Yuan Dynasty army, which was on a lone expedition, gained the greatest strategic advantage. Under the supervision of the emperor, the army, horses, grain and grass of the three provinces were assembled in Quanzhou, Fujian, and went to sea on the first day of the first lunar month in 1293.
Yuan Dynasty warships from Quanzhou
After the fleet set off, it experienced a period of wind and wave turbulence at sea. The Northern Han Army, which was not accustomed to taking a boat, could not eat normally for several days. Although modern Westerners have found that it only takes about a week for ships to travel from Guangzhou to Malacca in a tailwind situation, the large number of Yuan troops cannot do so. The fleet had to travel south along the coast, passing through today's Paracel and Spratly Islands before entering Javanese waters.
According to Mongol tradition, before the war, it was necessary to submit letters to the chiefs of various parts of Java to undermine their internal unity. As a result, many small states sent people to submit. The main force of the Yuan army anchored its warships at Jiaolan Mountain in present-day Pontianak, Indonesia. While logging and building small boats to prepare for the attack on the enemy capital along the river, he sent five hundred pioneers and ten ships to escort the emissaries and recruit the current Javanese king, Chaya Kawan.
The Yuan Dynasty fleet, which suffered from wind and waves at sea
Subsequently, the Yuan army, which had completed its preparations, landed near the important town of Bajiejian in eastern Java. The whole army was divided into land and water departments, and advanced separately. This is also the standard method of warfare they often use in the war against the Southern Song Dynasty. The water army led by Shi Bi will go up the river. Happy and Lost will lead the horse infantry army from the land. The Javanese defenders lined up their warships and blocked the river. The Yuan army did not hesitate to set up a camp at the mouth of the river, and then launched a fierce attack. The defenders, who had placed almost all their forces on the surface of the water, were soon in danger of being caught in the air and had to abandon their ships and flee.
Far away in Keltanagara, the donkey Ma Vijaya has been carefully observing the movements of the parties. After determining that the purpose of the Yuan Dynasty was not just to boast of strength, he immediately sent emissaries to the Yuan army. The emissaries brought maps and rosters of Java, and repeatedly stated to Shi Bi and Happy that the former dynasty horses were willing to offer Java to the Mongol Khan. However, Chaya Kawan's army also began to attack Manobache on a large scale, asking the Yuan army to rush to the rescue.
Jiaolanshan, the transit point of the Yuan Dynasty fleet into Java, is still a Chinese agglomeration area today
Yi Hei Lost also learned through the connections of the locals that Chaya Kawan's army would attack The Weicha runners in Manor Pache that night. So he sent Happy to lead his army to the battle. The next morning, Glen's army attacked in three directions. The Yuan army engaged it, killing hundreds of people and repelling it. The Javanese attacked the Yuan army again the next day, but were quickly repelled.
The image of a Javanese warship carved in stone
<h1>Sweep java</h1>
A map of the island of Java drawn by modern Europeans
After thwarting the offensive of the Ge Lang army, the Yuan army also launched a strong attack on the spot. On 15 March, they took the happy new vassal army as the right road, and the black lost Fujian troops as the left road, and cooperated to become the water army of the middle road, while going up against the current. The indigenous forces of Vichaya followed the whole army at the end, as a reserve of little use. With almost no hindrance, they besieged the capital of Glang, the city of Taha.
Eight sections of the stream, located south of today's Surabaya, an important estuarine
The Ge Lang army in the Yuan history records sent more than 100,000 people to fight. This is clearly an exaggerated number. It is not that the total number of troops mobilized throughout Java is not up to this number, but the local topography and distribution of products determine that they cannot be put on a battlefield at the same time. Later, in the 17th century, there were already local armies supplied by Western and Chinese merchants, and the maximum number of troops was only nearly 100,000. During the Yuan Dynasty, Chaya Kawan, who had not yet fully occupied all of Java, was apparently unable to have so many troops around the capital. However, through the emergency mobilization of civilian forces and other means, the defenders still maintained their numerical superiority. But in terms of quality, the Javanese army is far from the Yuan army.
The armies in various parts of Nanyang are basically light infantry with very poor equipment
In the 13th century, it was the eve of the large number of Arab merchants and navigators who entered the South Sea region. Before the Arabs brought advanced metallurgical forging techniques and weapons, most of the Nanyang army, including Java, was based on light infantry as the main combat force. As Kublai Khan knew, most of the Javanese army mobilized temporarily were local farmers. They were naked on their upper bodies and had a cotton cloth around their waists. In addition to bows and arrows, most of their weapons are mainly bamboo spears and short knives.
Such a large but low-quality army, the core combat effectiveness comes from a limited number of noble warriors. These indigenous Khatili, heavily influenced by Indian culture, usually carry sharp blades and spears and dress in white. As the vanguard of the whole army, they lined up at the front of the army and formed an inverted T-shaped formation with a huge rear army. When the horn sounded, the white-clad Bradili took the lead in rushing into the enemy position in order to crush the opponent in the first wave of attack.
A well-armed Javanese warrior
In the Yuan Army, the Northern Han Army, as the backbone of the battle, had a lot of experience in dealing with light infantry. The armor rate of the new auxiliary army of the Southern Song Dynasty was only 20%, and the northern army was slightly more than this. They were all equipped with a large number of bows and crossbows, and had many highly qualified archers who could form a strong position in the field. Heavy infantry in the front row will use spears and axes to crush the enemy's offensive and cover their colleagues behind them. It can be said that the Yuan army honed on the battlefield of Eurasia is simply two different dimensional armies compared with the Javanese who are too low-level.
The Yuan Army infantry is heavily equipped with bows and crossbows, which are very suitable for dealing with opponents who lack protection and training
In the decisive battle on 19 March, the Gran Army organized three large-scale offensives, all of which were repulsed by the complete Array of Yuan troops. Chaya Kawan's forces took the opportunity to attack the city of Taha, and Chaya Kawan announced his surrender that night. His sons, wives, and all his generals were captured by the Yuan army. The various treasures captured were worth 50 million taels.
The Indian culture that profoundly influenced The South China Sea, although it brought about the Kshatriya class, was unable to change the backward technology
<h1>Tragically calculated</h1>
An image of a late 19th-century Javanese warrior
On April 2, The successful restoration of the kingdom, Ma Wei Chaya, declared that he would prepare gold and silver treasures and accompany the Yuan army to the capital to meet Kublai Khan. The commanders of the Yuan Army sent 200 men to escort him back to Manorbacher to take care of his packing. But Wiyschaya did not really intend to relinquish control of Java and become merely an insignificant vassal. He designed to kill the 200 Yuan Army, which was called escorting Shi Ze, and contacted former courtiers everywhere to attack the Yuan army that was returning to the division.
The Yuan army, which had been raided, fought in panic and retreated along the old road to the berth of the ship of the Eight Knot Stream. Wichaya's strategy was also very simple, never engaging the Yuan army head-on, but using all possible tactics to harass the other side. When the Yuan army retreated, it also encountered constant ambushes from the enemy. They were all arranged by Vicharya when he was acting as a rear army to aid the Yuan army.
Evacuate the Javanese Yuan army in ambush and pursuit
In a panic, the commanders of the Yuan Dynasty decided to behead the captured Chaya Kawang and others. At the tactical level, it was a preemptive decision to prevent Chaya Kawan from escaping. But at the strategic level, the Yuan Dynasty lost a pawn against Vicharya. After that, the Yuan army could only fight and walk, rushing eastward for more than 300 miles and pulling out the siege. During the retreat, in addition to losing all the loot, the Yuan army also lost a large number of troops. Shi Bi's 5,000 northern Han army alone killed more than 3,000 people. New vassals who are less effective than theirs may suffer more losses. The remaining troops, after boarding their ships on the coast, repelled the attack of the Javanese fleet. It took another 68 days of arduous sailing before returning to Quanzhou.
In Kublai Khan's view, the defeat of the expedition to Java was obviously due to the overly credulous trust of the commanders on the front line. Therefore, Shi Bi and Yi Hei were reprimanded after returning home and confiscated all their property. Happy was spared punishment because he had previously sensed Wytsaya's betrayal.
Kublai Khan, who was pardoned after his death, was lost and finally died in Quanzhou
The setback to Java was a heavy blow to Kublai Khan's plan to open up a sea line of communication to the Ilkhanate. As soon as the expeditionary force returned, he summoned the minister Liu Guojie to prepare to form another crusading army of 100,000 people and go to Java for the second time. But before this plan could be implemented, Kublai Khan died of illness the following year. Plans for another expedition were shelved, and Yihei was pardoned by the new emperor. He was reinstated as an official and finally died in his post in Quanzhou. (End)