In the 13th century, the Mongol Khanate rose like a tornado from central Asia and swept across Eurasia. Powerful states such as the Jin Dynasty, the Western Xia, the Western Liao, the Arabs, the Rus' and the Khwarazm were conquered, and the Mongols built four khanates on the conquered lands. Europeans at the time called the Mongol conquest the "Whip of God", which was almost invincible in the decades of The Mongol rise. However, in 1259, the Mongol Khan Möngke was killed at the Battle of DiaoyuCheng, the greatest defeat of the Mongols since its founding. Möngke's death quickly changed the political landscape of the time and had an important impact on world history.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" >, the background of the Battle of Diaoyu City</h1>
During Möngke's reign, the Mongol conquest of Eurasia was in full swing. In Europe, Battus conquered the Slavs and occupied vast areas of Eastern Europe, with its forwards reaching as far as Hungary. Batu established the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe. In the direction of West Asia, in 1253, the army of Möngke's brother Hulagu carried out the Third Western Expedition, which destroyed Persia, the Arab Abbasid dynasty, and the Ayyubid dynasty in West Asia, and prepared to enter Egypt in Africa. At that time, many European Eastern Rome, France, etc. were also preparing to jointly attack Egypt with the Mongol army.
The Mongol Empire during the Möngke period
In East Asia, the process of Mongolia moving south has accelerated. In 1252, his brother Kublai Khan detoured south from the east of Qinghai-Tibet, and two years later destroyed the state of Dali, achieving a strategic siege of the Southern Song Dynasty. In 1258, the King of Goryeo submitted to the Mongols and became a vassal state of the Mongols. After that, the Mongols concentrated on attacking the Southern Song Dynasty.
Situation map
At that time, the area of the Song-Mongolian confrontation was mainly concentrated on the Qinling-Dabashan line on the western front, and Sichuan became the focus of the Southern Song Dynasty's defense. The Southern Song Dynasty appointed Yu Jie as the envoy of the Sichuan Pacification System, in charge of the defense of the Sichuan region. Yu Jiu carried out large-scale reforms in Sichuan: such as eliminating maladministration, lightly dispensing with thin endowments, rectifying military discipline, eliminating violence and rewarding the virtuous, and recruiting the virtuous. At that time, Yang Wenxiang, the lord of Bozhou, presented the "Three Strategies of Baoshu", which was valued by Yu Jiu. The first strategy is to move the Sichuan System Division's garrison north to the northern Sichuan area, seize the Wuxiu Pass, Xianren Pass, and Qifang Pass in the DabaShan area, and keep the enemy out of the national gate; the central strategy is to establish a mountain city and water village that echoes each other on the main waterways of Sichuan, which can be attacked and defended; and the next strategy is to implement a scorched earth policy in Sichuan, transfer all the people of Sichuan to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, condescend to the heights, and establish a defense line of the Yangtze River.
Mungo
Yu Jie adopted one of the middle strategies and decided to build a mountain city and water wall in a dangerous place in Sichuan. In 1236, the Mongol army captured Chengdu, and the situation in the southwest was critical. Yang Wen sent the Ran brothers (Ran Ji and Ran Pu) from Bozhou (Zunyi) to Chongqing to help Yu Jie with his advice. The two proposed to Yu Jie that the Yangtze River-shaped resort was in the Diaoyu Mountain. Diaoyu Mountain chokes the Jialing River, the Canal River, the mouth of the Fu River, the three sides of the river, the rock bank is steep and easy to defend and difficult to attack. He also suggested moving the city of Hezhou to Diaoyu Mountain, "saving grain and grass to defend, far better than 100,000 troops." If so, the Western Shu can be guaranteed." Yu Jiu accepted his suggestion and appointed Ran Jie as the Governor of Hezhou and Ran Pu as the Governor of Hezhou, and began to build Diaoyu City.
Diaoyu City location map
In 1242, diaoyu city was completed, this military defense system has more than 10 cities, which can store a large amount of grain and accommodate nearly 200,000 troops. In 1253, Yu Jie was persecuted by the chancellor and died unjustly, while the Ran brothers also resigned from their posts and returned to their hometown, and died soon after. However, the Diaoyu City they built was destined to be recorded in the history of Qing. In 1254, Wang Jian, the capital of Xingyuan Province, took over the defense of Diaoyu City, he carried out large-scale repairs to the city walls and dug 92 wells, which further improved the defense capabilities of Diaoyu City.
Fishing City
< h1 class="ql-align-justify" > two, the course of the war</h1>
In 1257, Möngke launched a full-scale war against the Song Dynasty, dividing the Mongol army into three branches, of which Kublai Khan attacked the Hubei region, Wuliang Hetai attacked from Yunnan to Guangxi, and Möngke led the main force to attack Sichuan. The plan of the three armies was to complete the division in the Hubei area, go down the river, and attack Lin'an.
In July 1258, Meng Ge led 40,000 Mongol troops from Liupan Mountain south and attacked Sichuan in three ways. By the end of the year, it had contributed to most of the western and northern Sichuan regions. At this time, Diaoyu City became an obstacle to the Westward Advance of the Mongolian Army. Meng Gexian sent the general Jin Guobao to surrender, but was killed by Wang Jian. Due to the dangerous terrain of Diaoyu City, the Mongol army held a military conference in 1259 to discuss offensive strategies. At that time, Shusu Kuri advocated bypassing Diaoyu City and directly merging with the other two major armies. However, this proposal was rejected, and Möngke and most of the Mongol generals believed that they could capture diaoyu city.
In the end, the Mongol army implemented the most stable strategic arrangement: first attack the city pass around the Diaoyu City, making the Diaoyu City an isolated city, and then attack the Diaoyu City. After the battle began, the Mongolian army marched in accordance with the established strategic plan. Tuolei's sons Mo Ge and Tuoba Luxiong attacked LiyiShanCheng (northeast of Qujiang River) and Pingliangshan City (Bazhong) north of Diaoyu City; Yang Dayuan attacked the old city of Hezhou, cutting off the connection between Diaoyu City and the old city; and The commander of the Niu Xuan army went to Fuling to block the Song reinforcements. After a series of battles, the Mongol army cut off the Diaoyu City from the outside world and prepared to carry out a siege.
In February 1259, Möngke's army camped at Shizishan and began to supervise the battle of Diaoyu City. However, the fortification of Diaoyu City far exceeded the imagination of the Mongols, and the Various Units of the Mongolian Army stormed the Diaoyu City Wall, the East New Gate of the West Gate of the Town, the Qisheng Gate, the West Gate of the Town, and the Small Fort, all of which were defeated. The fighting continued from February to April, the Diaoyu City remained strong, and the Mongol army's palace still made no progress.
Diaoyu City could not be attacked for a long time, and the supply of grain and grass for the Mongol army gradually became difficult, and the grain in Diaoyu City was still very sufficient. The defenders of Diaoyu City even threw fresh fish and dry cakes to the Mongolian army to show that Diaoyu City had sufficient materials and would not be a problem to stick to it for 10 years. Faced with such a dilemma, Möngke held a military conference here, and Shu sukuri once again proposed to bypass Diaoyu City, but it was still not adopted.
The war lasted until June, and as the weather became hotter and hotter, the Mongols had difficulty adapting to the high temperature in Sichuan, and a large number of diseases such as summer fever, malaria and cholera appeared. At the same time, the rescue forces of the Southern Song Dynasty successfully broke through the Mongolian defense line. Lü Wende, the deputy envoy of Sichuan, led 10,000 warships north along the Yangtze River, breaking through the Mongol blockade and allowing Hezhou to regain contact with the outside world. Wang Jian often led his army to attack the Mongolian army at night, causing the Mongolian army to be exhausted, exhausted, and almost into despair.
At this time, Meng Ge hoped to fight a decisive battle with the defenders of Diaoyu City, but Wang Jian could not defend it, leaving the Mongolian army helpless. By July, Möngke had ordered the army to build a large number of siege equipment and prepare for the final offensive battle. And build a platform outside the Diaoyu City to facilitate the observation of the virtual reality in the Diaoyu City. In this way, the final decisive battle of Diaoyu City is about to be launched, which is a decisive battle about the life and death of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Then, the decisive battle of the siege began, and Möngke personally supervised the division. However, at this critical moment, Möngke was actually hit by the Cannon Stone of the Song Army and was seriously injured. The Mongol army was forced to retreat, and Möngke died in the retreat. At this point, the Battle of DiaoyuCheng ended, and Möngke's plan to destroy the Song Dynasty was completely unsuccessful, and the Southern Song Dynasty was able to continue.
<h1 class="ql-align-justify" > three, Eurasia after the Battle of Diaoyu City</h1>
The Battle of Diaoyu City completely changed the political landscape of Eurasia. Due to Möngke's sudden death, there was a war within Mongolia for the khanate position centered on Kublai Khan and Ali Buge, which lasted for four years. The war quickly divided Mongolia. The Golden Horde, Chagatai Khanate, and Wokoutai Khanate all supported Ali Buge, while Hulagu supported Kublai Khan and established the Ilkhanate. After Kublai Khan's victory, the other khanates were no longer subordinate to the central government and were de facto independent. At this point, the Mongol Empire disintegrated.
The Yuan Dynasty and the Four Great Khanates
The division of Mongolia halted the pace of the Mongol Crusade and saved Europe and Africa. Hulagu, who was preparing to attack Egypt, heard of Möngke's death, and immediately abandoned the western expedition and led a large army back to the east. Hulagu's army stationed in Palestine was later defeated by the Egyptian army. After that, the four khanates continued to fight for land, and the Mongols' western conquests ended, so Westerners called "the Battle of Diaoyu City saved the world".
After Möngke's death, Kublai Khan, who was more sympathetic to Han culture, won the battle for the Khan's throne and established the Yuan Dynasty. Kublai Khan changed the mongolian policy of burning and looting in the past and implemented the policy of Sinicization, which is more in line with China's reality and is also conducive to the economic recovery and development of the Yellow River Basin. In 1276, Kublai Khan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty and achieved the unification of China.
Kublai Khan
The Battle of DiaoyuCheng made Kublai Khan fully aware of the dangers of the terrain in the southwest. After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, he did not continue Möngke's policy of attacking the southwest region, but instead implemented the Huairou policy. Before his death, Möngke had made a will to massacre the soldiers and civilians in Diaoyu City, and Kublai Khan promised not to kill a single person in Diaoyu City. In 1279, the Diaoyu City defender Wang Li kaesong surrendered. For local governments such as Bozhou on the Guizhou Plateau, the Yuan Dynasty learned the lesson of Diaoyu City, no longer carried out strong attacks, implemented surrender, and established a toast policy without direct control.