Every dynasty is tragic when it falls, but if you want to say the most tragic, it must be the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty seemed to be benevolent and weak, but at the last moment, from the rulers to the common people, they all showed extraordinary courage and blood.
The Battle of Yashan, which decided the life and death of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty lost to Mongolia, the monarchs and the people resolutely did not surrender, Lu Xiufu committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea with the little emperor Zhao Yu on his back, and many loyal ministers followed, and then 100,000 soldiers and civilians jumped into the sea to martyrdom, Zhao Yu's mother, Empress Dowager Yang, heard the news and made a special trip to the sea to commit suicide. A horrific corpse floated on the surface of the sea.
The defeat in the Battle of Yashan led to the complete fall of China to foreign tribes for the first time in history, and the Han culture was dealt a heavy blow, so there is a saying that "there is no China after Yashan". It's a shame.
When the Southern Song Dynasty faced the Mongol attack, did it have any chance to turn the tables?
Unfortunately, this is just a very beautiful fantasy, and in reality such an opportunity does not exist.
For the Southern Song Dynasty, his greatest hope was to live and live humbly, but from a military point of view, the Southern Song Dynasty had no chance. It is not easy to hold out for more than 40 years, if you call the vassal a vassal state, Mongolia actually gave the Southern Song Dynasty a chance, but the Southern Song Dynasty did not grasp it (Jia Rudao imprisoned the Mongolian envoy for 15 years). In the end, the death of the country is inevitable. In fact, the Southern Song Dynasty officially entered a state of war with Mongolia from 1234, and fought intermittently for more than 40 years, and the reason why the Southern Song Dynasty was difficult to break through was because of the Jianghuai water network, the mountainous areas of Sichuan, and the fortified cities of the Southern Song Dynasty, which were not good at water warfare and solving post-war problems in Mongolia at that time. The military victories of the Southern Song Dynasty were more of a defensive battle. Strategically passive. In this case, failure is almost a foregone conclusion.
The strategic intention of Duanping into Luo was undoubtedly wrong, the Song and Mongolia united to destroy Jin and entered the era of peaceful coexistence, and the Southern Song Dynasty's Duanping into Luo strategy intensified the Song and Mongolian contradictions, of course, Duanping into Luo was just a catalyst, even if there was no Duanping into Luo, the Song and Mongolian wars would have to be fought sooner or later. It is the right time, place, and people that determine the outcome of a war. And these three points are not accounted for by the Southern Song Dynasty. The most critical point is that the two Song Dynasty never changed the strategy of emphasizing literature and suppressing military force, and the two Song Dynasty's tribute and surrender doctrine became the national policy of the two Song Dynasty. Reach an agreement with a strong enemy on "tribute + coins + free trade" to avoid greater war expenditures. It seems to be profitable from a purely economic point of view and from a realistic point of view.
But in the long run, there is no objection to chronic suicide, destroying the Great Wall in the hearts of the Song people, and the gains outweigh the losses. Cultivate a heart that can get by. The Southern Song Dynasty also hoped to bend the knee and be a vassal, such as "Shaoxing Peace". On the one hand, the Southern Song Dynasty once negotiated peace with the Jin Dynasty, but the internal opposition of the Southern Song Dynasty was too fierce, so it had to give up, of course, it had no effect at that time. In such a situation, it can only be fought hard, and the problem is that the Song-Mongolian war is a dead end, and Mongolia is determined to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Southern Song Dynasty has no chance to turn the tables, and will not give the Southern Song Dynasty any chance.
Since the Song-Mongolian War was in full swing, although there were twists and turns in the process, the Mongolian army has always taken the initiative, fighting as much as it wants, and talking about it whenever it wants. The Southern Song Dynasty has always been in a passive situation. When the Song and Mongolia went to war, the Song Dynasty was already unable to win. From an economic point of view, the collapse of the Southern Song Dynasty was, first of all, a financial collapse. The central government has been facing unprecedented pressure for a long time, and local finances have been on the verge of collapse for a long time. The land issue of the Southern Song Dynasty, from the very beginning, determined the outcome of the Southern Song Dynasty. After the fall of the Dasanguan and Hanzhong fronts, Sichuan was completely abandoned by the Mongols, and Jiangnan and Sichuan were the financial and tax bases when the Southern Song Dynasty fought against the Jin Dynasty, and now Sichuan has gone bankrupt economically and has completely become a war zone. The Southern Song Dynasty lost its economic base. Relying on the taxes in Jiangnan alone, the Southern Song Dynasty court could not support the consumption of the three major war zones, and it was a matter of time before it perished. So if you look at the Southern Song Dynasty battle, the further back it goes, the more ineffective it becomes. If it had not been for the Möngke affair, Mongolia itself would have fallen into civil strife. Maybe it won't last 45 years.
After the Battle of Xiangyang, although the Southern Song Dynasty held on for three years, the general trend was irretrievable, and Lin'an fell in 1276. After the fall of Lin'an, the basic mountains of the Southern Song Dynasty were destroyed. Although it has lasted for another three years, there is no chance of a comeback.
The Southern Song Dynasty regime, in a large sense, actually continued the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty. If you count from the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, to the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, it has been close to three hundred years. In the era of agrarian civilization, 300 years was almost the limit of a feudal dynasty. This is not some metaphysics, but it means that after more than two hundred years, the problem of land annexation of a feudal dynasty will be particularly serious, leading to various internal problems.
Therefore, in addition to the so-called man-made disasters, those seemingly nonsense problems in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty were actually institutional problems in the final analysis, and they all originated from land annexation. Because of the problem of land annexation, the combat effectiveness of the Southern Song army was never strong, and it was impossible to defeat the Mongol army.
Even if he was replaced with an eloquent monarch who could defeat the Mongol army on the battlefield several times, it would still not be able to fundamentally solve the problem of land annexation within the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, even if it is replaced by those famous emperors in history, in the end, it is only to extend the national glory of the Southern Song Dynasty for a few more years, and it is impossible to really change the fate of the sky and lead the Southern Song Dynasty to turn the tables against the wind.