After the rebellion in the northern Haidu was put down, the Yuan court accelerated the pace of pacifying the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In 1277, Kublai Khan set up Jiangxi Xingzhongshu Province, and appointed Ta Chu as the right prime minister, Mai Shuding as the left prime minister, Huaidong Xuanzhi envoy Cheri Timur, Jiangdong Xuanhui envoy Zhang Rongshi, Jiangxi Xuanhui envoy Li Heng, Zhao Zhi Zhi Lost, Wanhu Xilimen, Jinghu Road Xuanhui envoy Cheng Pengfei, Fujian Metropolitan Governor of the army and horses to recruit Pu Shougeng as the governor of the political affairs, gathered troops to attack the Gannan Wen Tianxiang Department.
In order to cope with the change in the war situation, Kublai Khan ordered Shige to send troops from Tanzhou to attack southern Hunan and Guangxi, and attacked the Southern Song Dynasty exile anchored in the coastal area of Guangdong**; Li Heng led his troops to attack Wen Tianxiang's headquarters, and ordered the troops to enter Fuzhou and relieve the siege of Quanzhou to defeat the Song army's attack on Fujian; In the end, the Jiangxi and Min Yuan armies joined the Hunan Yuan army on the coast of Guangdong to finally defeat the Southern Song Dynasty exile**.
The main force of the Song army was completely lost, and the remaining righteous army and militia lacked experience and equipment, and were separated by the Yuan army, unable to unify their command. The Yuan army first transferred troops to attack Sikong Mountain, and with the cooperation of the Huaixi Xuanwei Army, the anti-Yuan rebel army was defeated, Zhang Dexing was defeated and killed, and the righteous soldiers were sent back to the field.
In August, Jiangxi Xuanhui sent troops to reinforce Ganzhou, and led his elite troops to attack Xingguo County, where he met thousands of people from the Song general Li Guida at the border of Taihe County. Most of the militia in the Song army had never experienced a battle, and the generals often "carried heavy baggage and played as concubines", so when they encountered the impact of the enemy's cavalry, the soldiers did not belong, and they were frightened and scattered, trampling on each other, and there were many casualties.
A few days later, Wen Tianxiang's main force besieging Ganzhou could not withstand the onslaught of the Yuan cavalry, and was defeated in a battle. The Song general Zhao Mengqin gathered the defeated troops and retired to the capital. Wen Tianxiang did not expect Li Hengyuan's army to come suddenly, he was unprepared, and the troops in Xingguo City were weak and difficult to resist, so he had to lead troops to Yongfeng to meet Zou Ying.
Unexpectedly, although Zou Ying gathered tens of thousands of troops, he just fought against the Yuan army, and he collapsed in a hurry. Li Heng chased after him and chased Wen Tianxiang under Fangshi Ridge in Xingguo County. Jiangxi recruited Gong Xin to lead dozens of Huai soldiers to guard the head of the ridge and sacrifice his life to block the attack.
When the general saw that Gong Xin and others dared to be outnumbered, he suspected that there were ambushes in the mountains, and "collected troops and did not advance", so he only shot arrows wildly. All the Song soldiers were killed, and Gong Xin was also hit by several arrows, and he was seriously injured and could not fight, so he jumped off the cliff and died.
But Wen Tianxiang was able to escape from danger and go south, and most of the troops were scattered. On the 27th, Wen Tianxiang fled to the empty pit, and the entourage slept on the ground because he was too sleepy, and Wen Tianxiang lived in the home of the righteous Chen Shihan.
In the middle of the night, the Yuan army suddenly arrived, Chen Shihan escorted Wen Tianxiang to flee to Wuxi by the trail, and the sound of the Yuan army's pursuit was endless. Jiangxi recruited deputy envoy Zhao Shixiang sat on his shoulder and walked, Yuan Bing chased after him, asked who it was, Zhao replied, "My surname is Wen", Yuan Bing thought it was Wen Tianxiang, and he was captured.
After Wen Tianxiang's defeat, his wife and children were captured, his subordinate Zhang Bian was killed in the chaotic army, and Miao Chaozong hanged himself in the bamboo forest in a humiliated manner. Zhao Shisheng was sent to the Yuan general, he resisted bravely, chanted slogans, and some captured people were waved by him.
Wen Tianxiang's generals were all sent to Longxing Mansion to be killed. After Chen Zijing's defeat in the empty pit, he regrouped his forces, but was attacked and defeated by the Yuan army, and his whereabouts are unknown.
This battle caused the troops around Wen Tianxiang to completely collapse and could not rise again. Wen Tianxiang fled to Xunzhou, gathered the defeated garrison in Nanling, and continued to resist the Yuan. However, his request to meet the young master was rejected by Chen Yizhong, and he could only operate in the eastern part of Guangdong.
After the Yuan army defeated Wen Tianxiang, it divided its troops into two routes, led the army south to Da Yuling by Ta Chu, entered the Lingnan region, and recaptured Shao Wu by the lost general of Youye, entered Fuzhou, and joined the troops instigated by the marshal to aid Quanzhou in the south.
Zhang Shijie was unwilling to fight a head-on battle with the Yuan army, so he took the initiative to withdraw from the siege and retreated to Guangzhou Qianwan to join the exile. instigated the capital to break through the Xinghua army, and Chen Zan was killed. Instigated the capital to take advantage of the victory to enter the siege of Zhangzhou, and the Song defenders fought according to the city, but it was difficult to support the lone army, and the prefect He Qing surrendered to the Yuan.
The loss of Zhangzhou marked that the Yuan army had taken control of the entire territory of Fujian. The instigated capital then took advantage of the situation to enter Guangdong, went south to attack Chaozhou, and sent Liu Shen to lead the Fujian sailors to chase Zhang Shijie and point directly at Qianwan.
In November, the tower marched in and out of Guangzhou, and ordered the Fujian military horses led by the capital to come to the meeting as soon as possible. Because Song knew that Chaozhou Ma Fa refused to surrender, and the instigation of the besieging Chaozhou was afraid of losing the time of the army, so he left it to the west, and on the way to meet with the Lu Shikui troops who went southwest from the west, and then went to Guangzhou together.
The heavy troops of the Yuan army gathered under the city, and Zhang Zhensun, the commander of Song Guangdong, did not dare to respond to the battle, and surrendered the Yuan with the city. Tachu resented that the city of Guangzhou was repeatedly occupied and lost, so the city of Guangzhou was destroyed. In the same month, the Yuan general Liu Shen led the boat division to attack Qianwan, and the Southern Song Dynasty was exiled to retreat to Xiushan at the mouth of the Pearl River, and a few days later heard that Guangzhou had fallen, and Xiushan was likely to be attacked, and retreated to Jingao outside the mouth of the Pearl River.
In December, the fleet encountered a hurricane, the ships were destroyed, and Song Duanzong almost fell overboard, so he became frightened and sick. After the storm, Liu Shen led the Yuan water army to attack again, Zhang Shijie lost the battle, and then moved the boat to the Xie Nu Gorge in the west of Jingao, the Yuan boat chased to the Qizhou Ocean, captured 200 ships, and Yu Ruqi, the uncle of Duanzong of the Song Dynasty, returned.
Under the pursuit of the Yuan army, in order to avoid the decline of strength, the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty decided to sail westward and flee to the state of Zhancheng. Although the Li dynasty of Annam, which had surrendered to the Yuan dynasty, maintained friendly relations with the Song dynasty, the Southern Song regime in exile could only go to the Champa state, which still maintained friendly relations with the Song dynasty and had not surrendered to the Yuan.
Chen Yizhong decided to go to Champa first to make contact, but things did not go as he wanted, and finally decided to stay in Champong. Although the exile of the Southern Song Dynasty kept sending envoys to summon him, he did not return in the end.
At the same time, the Yuan army's attack on the exiles of the Southern Song Dynasty was also very fierce, and they occupied Leizhou, Huazhou, Gaozhou and other places, making the space for the activities of the exile regime of the Southern Song Dynasty even narrower.
Although Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, ordered to strengthen the ability of the Yuan army in Guangdong to deal with the Southern Song naval army, the Southern Song regime in exile was still regained and lost under the pressure of the Yuan army.
Emperor Duzong has a son who is still alive, how should he be placed? The ancients had a great cause of prosperity with one brigade and one success, and now there are hundreds of officials and divisions, and there are tens of thousands of soldiers, if God does not want to cut off the lifeblood of the Song Dynasty, can't this become a country? ”
4. The road to occupy the city was cut off, and the ministers jointly established the eight-year-old Wei King Zhao Yu as the emperor, ascended the throne on the 21st, changed to Yuan Xiangxing, and was known as the emperor in history. Because Chen Yizhong went to Zhancheng and could not be summoned many times, he worshiped Lu Xiufu as the left prime minister, Zhang Shijie as the young master and privy deputy envoy, and ruled together, and remotely awarded Wen Tianxiang as the young protector, and the Empress Dowager Yang still listened to the government; And promoted to Xianglong County, and promoted Guangzhou to Xianglong Mansion.
Because Jiezhou is located in the north-south passage, and Leizhou, which is not far away, controls the Qiongzhou Strait that goes west to occupy the city, so whether Leizhou is controlled in hand is of great importance to the safety of the exiles of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In May, Zhang Shijie took the opportunity of the main force of the Yuan army to return to the north, and once again sent his generals Zhang Yingke and Wang Yong to lead troops to capture Leizhou, but Zhang Yingke was defeated in three battles, and Wang Yong surrendered to the Yuan army.
After Wang Yong surrendered, he reported to the generals of the Yuan army that Song Duanzong was dead, and Emperor Yu had just ascended the throne, "there are only 10,000 soldiers, and there is no grain reserve in Qizhou, I heard that the guards of Qiongzhou plan to give 20,000 stone of grain, but the shallow water of Haidao Beach is urgent, and it is difficult to transport, and there is only one place called Xingleipu that can be navigated, and troops should be urgently sent to defend there."
The generals of the Yuan army therefore ordered their soldiers to quickly occupy Xingleipu and cut off the grain routes of the Song army, so as to trap the island. In June, Zhang Yingke gathered up his remaining subordinates and attacked Leizhou again, but was ultimately defeated and killed.
The Song army's plan to take control of the Qiongzhou Strait and open the road to Champa was completely shattered. Zhang Shijie saw that it was impossible to occupy the city in the west, and it was not a good strategy to live in Jiezhou, so he returned to the coast of Guangzhou with the young emperor and stationed at Yashan (also known as Yashan, eighty miles south of Xinhui, Guangdong).
According to historical records, a large star appeared in the sky at that time, falling from the southeast and falling into the sea, accompanied by more than a thousand small stars, making a thunderous sound that lasted for several hours.
This astronomical phenomenon seems to indicate that the Southern Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers are about to face a tragic end. 5.At this time, the monarchs and ministers of the Yuan Dynasty were discussing how to completely eliminate the power of the remnants of the Song Dynasty, and the beggars and envoys sent by the Song Emperor also went north with the text, and the governor was busy with political affairs, and suggested that the Yuan Emperor issue an edict to recruit Emperor Yu and Zhang Shijie and others.
However, Kublai Khan believed that the exile of the Southern Song Dynasty was no longer worthy of issuing an edict to surrender and that it must be resolved by force, so he summoned Jiangdong Xuanxuan Zhang Hongfan to Beijing to meet him, and appointed him as the marshal of the Mongolian and Han armies, and the commander-in-chief of the army to destroy the remnants of the Song Dynasty.
Fearing that the Mongol generals would not obey orders, Zhang Hongfan asked for a Mongol minister to be the commander-in-chief, but Kublai Khan refused, believing that failure to establish a clear commander would lead to failure, and in order to show his trust, he gave him a brocade coat and jade belt.
Zhang Hongfan took the opportunity to ask for Shang Fang's sword to ensure that the Mongol generals obeyed his orders, and he also asked for Li Heng to be appointed as his lieutenant, which Kublai Khan agreed. In June, Zhang Hongfan returned to Yangzhou with 1,000 elite Mongol soldiers, selected soldiers and generals, and formed a coalition of 20,000 men on land and water, which marched south from multiple directions.
After the news of the exile of the Southern Song Dynasty spread, the rebel armies in Fujian, Guangzhou, Hunan and other places responded one after another, but they were soon suppressed by the Yuan army. In order to stabilize the southeastern region, Kublai Khan sent additional military generals to serve as governors of prefectures and counties, strengthened local military and political rule, and ordered the boat divisions of Jinghu, Jiangxi, and Yangzhou to be under the command of Zhang Rongshi, a naval army, to guard the mouth of the river.
He also ordered the right prime minister Ta Chu, the left prime minister Lu Shikui, and the governor Jia Juzhen to go to Ganzhou Province to lead the affairs of Fujian, Jiangxi, and Guangdong provinces, and to be responsible for providing food and salary for the armies of Zhang Hongfan and Li Heng, and serving as their backup.
In October, the Yuan army attacked from many directions, Zhang Hongfan led the boat division to attack the Zhang and Chao areas from the sea south, Li Heng led the infantry from the Meiling Mountains to Guangdong, and the two armies agreed to meet at Yashan.
Ali Hague also cooperated in Guangxi, attacked Leizhou, and invaded Hainan. Song Qiongzhou pacified Zhao Youluo, Xie Ming, Xie Fu and others to resist at Baishakou, but the people of the prefecture arrested Zhao and Luo and others, and the four prefectures of Hainan and their affiliated counties were occupied by the Yuan army.
In November, Li Heng's army first arrived in Guangdong and approached Guangzhou. In leap November, the Song Guangzhou defenders Wang Daofu and Ling Zhen abandoned the city and fled, and the Yuan army entered the city of Guangzhou for the fourth time.
The following month, Wang Daofu led his troops from Yashan to attack Guangzhou, but was defeated and captured. Ling Zhen led his troops to follow, but he was also defeated in Qiantang, and finally retreated to Yashan. At this time, Zhang Hongfan's boat division arrived in Zhangzhou and conquered more than 150 local Zhongyi cottages that resisted the Yuan army.
On this day, the spy report showed that Wen Tianxiang was stationed in northeastern Guangdong, and Zhang Hongfan hurriedly sent the vanguard general Zhang Hongzheng and the chief manager Nang Jialu to lead 500 light cavalry to attack.
6.Wen Tianxiang**, Wen Tianxiang, who was active in northeastern Guangdong, asked the imperial court to join the court after getting in touch with the exiled regime of the Southern Song Dynasty, but the imperial court did not agree, but only gave him the official Shaobao and the Duke of Xinguo.
Wen Tianxiang gathered the scattered Jiangxi soldiers in Chaoyang, hoping to revolt again. However, his subordinate Chen Yi betrayed him, causing Wen Tianxiang and his men to be surrounded by the Yuan army at Wupoling, north of Haifeng.
Although he tried to commit suicide, he ended up ** and was killed by the Yuan army. The anti-Yuan struggle led by Wen Tianxiang ended in failure.
Yashan faces the Pearl River, stands opposite to the Tangbei Mountain, the door is not more than 100 meters wide, the terrain is wide in the middle, there is a harbor in the middle, you can hide the boats. And the cliff mountain is opposite to each other, the shore water is shallow, the tide rises and falls every day, you can take advantage of the tide to fight, you can also retreat with the tide, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Therefore, Zhang Shijie believed that this place could rely on the terrain to defend itself, so he stationed troops here, and built a large number of buildings and palaces, intending to garrison it for a long time. According to the record of "The End of the Two Kings", Zhang Shijie sent soldiers into the mountains to cut down trees, built a thousand military houses and 30 palaces, and the main hall was named Ciyuan Palace, where Empress Dowager Yang lived.
At the same time, "detaining people and craftsmen, building sea yards, building ships, and managing weapons" lasted several months and was first completed. As the Yuan army gradually approached, someone suggested to Zhang Shijie to occupy Haikou so that our army could advance and retreat freely.
However, Zhang Shijie believed that soldiers who had been at sea for a long time were prone to centrifugation, and once they were transferred, they would inevitably break up and could not be reunited, so he rejected this suggestion. He decided to compete with the Yuan army, so he ordered the soldiers to moor more than a thousand big ships in the sea, connect them with large ropes, build a water village, and set up a war shed around it, like a city wall, and ordered the Song army to burn the houses on the shore, abandon the land, take a boat, and the emperor and others lived on a huge warship in it, surrounded by warships, forming an iron barrel array.
Because Zhang Shijie was a "northerner" who belonged to the Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers were wary of him, and Zhang Shijie also lacked confidence in the accompanying soldiers, thinking that they would die and flee in the battle array, so every time they would form an iron bucket formation to resist the Yuan army, so that the soldiers under his command could only fight to the death in order to survive.
In the Battle of Jiaoshan that year, Zhang Shijie had joined the boats as a battle, but suffered a crushing defeat under the attack of the Yuan army, and today he once again sacrificed this strategy, which made the soldiers who participated in the Battle of Jiaoshan feel very frightened, which greatly affected their morale.
After the Yuan army made a tentative attack, it found that the Song army was difficult to shake the city, but won many small victories. However, Zhang Shijie failed to seize the opportunity and pursued the victory, resulting in a situation of being passively beaten.
The initial battle was unfavorable, Zhang Hongfan sent Wen Tianxiang to persuade him to surrender, Wen Tianxiang was unyielding, regarded death as home, and was praised by Zhang Hongfan as "a good man and a good poem". Zhang Hongfan adjusted his operational deployment, using fire attack tactics and cutting off the Song army's fresh water**, which thwarted the Song army's counterattack.
The Song army had no fresh water to drink, and its combat effectiveness was greatly affected. Zhang Hongfan sent Han to surrender Zhang Shijie, but was strictly refused. In the end, the Yuan army launched a general attack, and Zhang Hongfan ordered the warships to go to the opposite side of the Song army's Zhoucheng to line up, attack in four directions, and successfully defeat the Song army.
The Song army was attacked by the enemy in the north and south, and the soldiers were so exhausted that they could no longer fight. Zhang Hongfan ordered the battleships to set up a formation and ambush the Yuan warships in the northwest direction in advance. The Song army did not know that there was a deception, and was suddenly attacked by the Yuan army and lost its formation.
The Song army was continuously hit by the Yuan army's bows and crossbows and flints, the battleships were sunk, and the formation was chaotic. Seeing that the situation was critical, Zhang Shijie dispatched elite troops to protect the little emperor's ship, but because the ship was large and connected to other warships, it could not be moved.
It was getting late, the wind and rain were blowing, and the Yuan army took the opportunity to approach and burn the ship. The Song army was in turmoil, and Lu Xiufu, in order to avoid being captured and humiliated, sank the treasure into the sea, forced his wife to commit suicide by throwing herself into the sea, and then wore court clothes and threw the little emperor into the sea.
The harem and ** soldiers committed suicide by throwing themselves into the sea, and tens of thousands of people died. The generals Zhai Guoxiu, Liu Jun and others surrendered to the Yuan army. Zhang Shijie escaped from the encirclement and returned to Yashan, where he was defeated by the Yuan army.
He wanted to choose Zhao and then proclaim himself emperor, but the people's hearts were scattered, and the Yuan army was in hot pursuit, leaving him in a dilemma. In May, Zhang Shijie's fleet was hit by a hurricane, and his generals advised him to land and take refuge, but he was afraid of being sold and did not agree.
The hurricane grew stronger and stronger, the Yuan army chased after it, and the boatmen abandoned the ship one after another, and the hurricane wrecked his ship. Zhang Shijie drowned, and Su Liuyi escaped, but was killed by his own men.
In June, Zhang Shijie's generals surrendered to the Yuan army. At this point, there was no banner of the Song army in the Linghai area, and the remnants of the Song army were completely defeated.
The Battle of Yashan, the last battle of the Song-Yuan War, was engraved by Zhang Hongfan, the commander of the Yuan army, after the war, but it was cut down during the Ming Dynasty. The collapse of the Southern Song dynasty's exile regime marked the fall of the Zhao and Song dynasties, and Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, realized the ideal of great unification.
In the poem "White Goose Walking" by the Yuan Dynasty thinker Liu Yin, the story of the rise of the Mongol power and the Yuan army's conquest of the Song Dynasty is described. This poem expresses the pride and ambition of the Yuan army and its determination to win.