Who Was When
Wars

Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty

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Sides

The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty

Mongol Empire, Yuan dynasty, Northern Chinese "Han Army" troops and Song commanders and soldiers who changed sides, Troops of the Dali Kingdom (Yunnan), led by its Duan royal family under Mongol command after the Mongols took Dali in 1253, and Ilkhanate (sent the engineers who built counterweight trebuchets) (supporting)

against
The Southern Song dynasty

Song dynasty

Countries today: China, Iran, Iraq, and Mongolia

What happened

From 1235 to 1279 the Mongol Empire, and from 1271 its Yuan dynasty, fought the Southern Song dynasty, which ruled southern China. The Song held out for decades behind fortified cities, mountain forts and rivers, and both sides used gunpowder bombs and river fleets. Möngke Khan died in 1259 while besieging Diaoyu Fortress in Sichuan, and the Mongol campaigns stopped while his brothers fought over the succession. Kublai renewed the war in 1268: his armies besieged Xiangyang and Fancheng for five years and took them in 1273, helped by counterweight trebuchets built by engineers from the Ilkhanate, then went down the Yangtze. Many Song commanders changed sides. Lin'an (Hangzhou), the Song capital, surrendered in 1276. Song officials enthroned two child emperors in turn and fought on in the south until the Yuan fleet destroyed the last Song fleet at Yamen in 1279. No reliable count of the war's dead survives.

Outcome: The Song dynasty ended in 1279 and the Yuan dynasty of Kublai Khan ruled all of China.

Key events

Leaders

  • Ögedei Khan · Great Khan; began the war in 1235 · The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty
  • Möngke Khan · Great Khan; died at Diaoyu Fortress in 1259 · The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty
  • Kublai Khan · Great Khan from 1260; founder of the Yuan dynasty · The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty
  • Bayan of the Baarin · Commander of the Yuan campaign down the Yangtze to Lin'an · The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty
  • Zhang Hongfan · Han Chinese general in Yuan service; commanded at Yamen · The Mongol Empire and, from 1271, the Yuan dynasty
  • Meng Gong · Song general who held the middle Yangtze front in the 1230s · The Southern Song dynasty
  • Jia Sidao · Song chief minister; his army was routed at Dingjiazhou in 1275 · The Southern Song dynasty
  • Lü Wenhuan · Song commander of Xiangyang; surrendered in 1273 and then served the Yuan · The Southern Song dynasty
  • Wen Tianxiang · Song minister who led resistance after 1276 · The Southern Song dynasty
  • Zhang Shijie · Song commander of the last fleet at Yamen · The Southern Song dynasty
  • Lu Xiufu · Song minister; died at Yamen with the last child emperor · The Southern Song dynasty

Cultures it ended or changed

Meanwhile, elsewhere in

Sources