Campaign to Suppress Bandits in the Border Region of Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan

Campaign to Suppress Bandits in the border region of the Hubei-Hunan-Sichuan was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the fought against the Kuomintang guerrilla left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was actually fought after the Chinese Civil War was declared over by the PRC in Beijing a year earlier, and took place in the border regions of the following three Chinese provinces: Hubei, Hunan, and Sichuan, and resulted in communist victory. This campaign was part of Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Central and Southern China.

Order of battle

Nationalists
Anticommunist Salvation Army of the Huan-Hubei-Sichuan Border Region commanded by Qu Boping
*Military and Political Committee of the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan Border Region commanded by Shi Xingzhou
Temporarily Organized 5th Division commanded by Cao Zhenya
Communists
*Two battalions of the 421st Regiment of the 141st Army
*2nd Battalion of the 422nd Regiment of the 141st Army
*Units of the 423rd Regiment of the 141st Army
*Units of the Independent Regiment of communist Enshi Military Sub-District.
*Units of the Laifeng county battalion.

Campaign

Communists decided to eradicate more than ten thousand nationalist guerrillas mostly consisted of bandits in the border region of Huan-Hubei-Sichuan, in a vast area bordered by Laifeng county in Hubei in the north, Sangzhi and Shuishun in the east, Yongsui county and Baojing County in Hunan in the south, and in the west. Communist western Hunan Military Sub-District formed the Northern Front Bandit Eradication Command, and made plans with other communist forces in adjacent regions under the direction of communist Hunan Military District.

On October 15, 1950, communists attacked the nationalist stronghold in the Dragon Mountain in multiple directions. After more than twenty days of fighting, more than four thousand bandits were annihilated in the northern part of the Dragon Mountain by two battalions of the 421st Regiment of the communist 141st Division. In the meantime, communist troops of the communist Enshi Military Sub-District killed over nineteen hundred bandits of the nationalist Anticommunist Salvation Army of Huan-Hubei-Sichuan Border Region in the Dragon Mountain. Another twelve hundred bandits also surrendered. The commander of the nationalist Anticommunist Salvation Army of the Huan-Hubei-Sichuan Border Region, Qu Boping , with only several bodyguards left was eventually forced to surrender to the communists on November, 1950 with the remaining survivors.

To the southwest of the Dragon Mountain, the other band of bandits was also badly mauled by the attacking communists in the border region of Sichuan – Hunan. As the nationalist survivors attempted to flee into Sichuan, they were beaten back by the communist forces of the communist Military Sub-District. The 2nd Battalions of the 422nd Regiment of the communist 141st Division launched a mop up operation with the help of other communist units and succeeded in killing more than nine hundred bandits. The nationalist commander of the bandit, Shi Xingzhou , was eventually forced to surrender with the last survivors to the communists after holding out for more than twenty days.

The remnant of the nationalist Temporarily Organized 5th Division fled to the north of Yongshun County, where they were surrounded by units of the 421st Regiment and units of the 423rd Regiment of the communist 141st Division, and units of the Independent Regiment of communist Enshi Military Sub-District. In the battle at Nine Dragons Mountain, Cao Zhenya , the commander of the nationalist Temporarily Organized 5th Division was killed and the surviving fifteen hundred nationalist guerrillas were completely annihilated. The campaign concluded with communist victory and in addition to annihilating over ten thousand bandits, including more than a hundred and ten nationalist commanders, the communists also managed to capture over seven thousand guns.

Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang

The Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang , also known as the Battle of Zaoyi was one of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Japanese were seeking a quicker solution to achieve a Chinese surrender. The Japanese contemplated moving directly down the Yangtze to the relocated Chinese capital, Chongqing. To do so, they would need to capture a critical town in western Hubei province, Yichang.

The Japanese attack did not commit much troops or materiel, which enabled the main Chinese commander, Li Zongren, who had frustrated the Japanese before, to repel the Japanese.


Order of Battle: Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang

Sources:

Hsu Long-hsuen and Chang Ming-kai, History of The Sino-Japanese War 2nd Ed. ,1971. Translated by Wen Ha-hsiung , Chung Wu Publishing; 33, 140th Lane, Tung-hwa Street, Taipei, Taiwan Republic of China. Page 334-339, Map 20, 21
*

*Japanese Map of the battle and discussion about Japanese units and leaders involved

Battle of Yiling (208)

The Battle of Yiling of 208 between Zhou Yu under Sun Quan and Cao Ren under Cao Cao during the prelude to the Three Kingdoms era in China was an integral part of the Red Cliffs campaign, fought immediately after the major engagement at Wulin in the Battle of Red Cliffs. The Battle of Yiling was also the prelude to the Battle of Jiangling that immediately followed.

Prelude

Immediately after the decisive defeat of Cao Cao at Wulin in the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhou Yu led his thirty thousand strong force proceeded to the Jiangling , the next target of their overall strategy of their Red Cliffs campaign, and camped cross from the Yangtze River on the southern bank. Cao Ren’s staunch resistance made it obvious that the possibility of a quick victory that Zhou Yu had anticipated was impossible to achieve, so Gan Ning suggested a new plan of taking Yiling upstream, to the northwest of Jiangling.

As Jiangling was threatened from the rear, Cao Ren would be surrounded and his supply lines would be cut. If Cao Ren was to rescue Yiling, the force left to defend Jiangling would be reduced so Zhou Yu would face less resistance. Although Zhou Yu agreed with the idea, he was worried about Cao Cao and his unscathed northern thrust not too far away in the north, which was at least four times bigger than his 30,000 member strong force, so he could not afford to split his force. Gan Ning volunteered to lead his own troop of 700 to take Yiling and Zhou Yu agreed.

Order of battle

Cao Cao's force
*General Subduing the South Cao Ren stationed in Jingling
**Guanghan Administrator Xi Su stationed at Yiling ,later defected to Sun Quan
Sun Quan force
*General in the Center Protecting the Army Zhou Yu was named as commander-in-chief of the allied force
**Captain Praising the Army Lu Su was named as Zhou Yu’s deputy
**Viceroy on the Right Cheng Pu
**Danyang Protector - Supervisor Huang Gai was named as the vanguard of the allied navy
**Hengye General of the Imperial Garrison Lü Meng
**Dangkou Governor Gan Ning
**General of the Imperial Garrison Han Dang
**Yichun Mayor Zhou Tai
**General Subduing Barbarians Sun Ben
**Captain of Strong Might Lu Xun
**Captain of Military Ferocity Pan Zhang
**Protect-Supervisor Inheriting Fierceness Ling Tong

Battle

The commander of Yiling, Guanghan Administrator Xi Su was originally ’s subject and hated Cao Cao, and once Gan Ning’s troops reached Yiling, Xi Su surrendered without a fight. As Gan Ning’s troops reached a thousand, Zhou Yu wanted to reassign Xi Su and his 300 troops to Lü Meng to strengthen the main force. Lü Meng realized it was a wrong decision and directly appealed to Sun Quan to ask not reassign the Xi Su and his 300 troops to him, but instead, keep them with Gan Ning to strengthen the defense of Yiling, and Sun Quan agreed. Learning the news of the fall of Yiling, Cao Ren immediately gathered all available troops to form a 6,000 strong rescue force. Under intense pressure, Gan Ning remained calm and stabilized defenders’ morale. As Gan Ning’s request for reinforcement reached Zhou Yu, he was reluctant to split his force for the rescue at first. Once again, Lü Meng saved the day by convincing Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu to carry out the rescue.

Zhou Yu left Ling Tong in charge of a token force to guard the main camp at Jiangling to face Cao Ren and Xu Huang, while he led the main army with every other commander to directly attack Cao Ren’s force besieging Yiling. Cao Ren’s force outside the city wall of Yiling did not expected Zhou Yu would ignore Cao Ren and Xu Huang at Jiangling, and would rescue Yiling with a huge army, and thus consequently was defeated when attacked from both sides, suffering more than 3,000 casualties. Meanwhile, Ling Tong deceived Cao Ren into believing that there was still a sizable force left in the main camp of Easter Wu at Jiangling, and thus neither sending more reinforcement to Yiling nor attacking the Easter Wu’s main camp at Jiangling. Lü Meng once again demonstrated his capability by providing a plan to capture enemy’s horses: he would lead 300 soldiers to cover enemy’s retreating road with bundles of fire woods so that horses could not pass but people could. As Lü Meng expected, in order to escape the enemy hot on their trail, Cao Ren’s cavalry abandoned their horses and fled back to Jiangling on foot. Zhou Yu returned to his main camp at Jiangling with over 300 horses captured from the enemy and Yiling was firmly in the allies’ hands for the remainder of the war.

Outcome

The fall of Yiling meant that the supply route to Jiangling over land was completely severed, and despite having plenty supplies, Jiangling would not last as the supply eventually ran out and Cao Ren was forced to abandon his stronghold and accept defeat after holding out for a year in the Battle of Jiangling, the next battle which immediately followed.

Battle of Xiaoting

The Battle of Xiaoting , also known as the Battle of Yiling , is a battle in 222 during the Three Kingdoms period in China. It was fought between Shu Han and Eastern Wu in the plains of . The decisive battle here halted Liu Bei's invasion of Wu and eventually led to his death.

Background

Liu Bei, enraged at the execution of his sworn brother Guan Yu at the hands of the Kingdom of Wu in 219, led an attack force to the plains of . In ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', it was dramatized by Luo Guanzhong to be 750,000 soldiers. Days before the Shu Kingdom mobilized its forces to attack Wu, , the other sworn brother of Liu Bei, was assassinated by his own subordinates in retribution for treating them unfairly. The fact that these conspirators fled to Wu further enraged Liu Bei, who attacked Wu blindly against his officers' advice. The ablest of Shu's generals and the best troops were committed to this one campaign of retribution, with the exception of Zhuge Liang, who was left in charge of the domestic affairs of Shu, and Zhao Yun, who was ordered to look after logistics.

The battle

Contrary to the dramatization of the ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', in which Shu Han had an impressive 750,000 strong army and enjoyed five to one numerical advantage over Eastern Wu, the actual number of troops Shu Han could gather was barely over 40,000. Eastern Wu gathered a total of more than 160,000 troops and thus enjoyed a nearly four to one numerical advantage over Shu Han. The insufficient number of troops was one of the reasons that doomed Liu Bei's attempt to retake Jing Province, and eventually caused his downfall and death.

Order of battle

Shu Han: Liu Bei's plan was to be carried out in several fronts and stages, with the vanguard force tasked to strike deep into the enemy territory at Yidao while the naval force was to take Yiling at the shore of the Yangtze River. Huang Quan's job was to guard the flank of the attacking force from possible attacks from Cao Wei. Additionally, Zhao Yun was stationed at Jiangzhou as backup, while Zhuge Liang stayed behind at Chengdu to help Liu Shan take care of domestic affairs.
*Commander-in-Chief: Liu Bei
*Frontline commander : Feng Xi
*Vanguard: Zhang Nan
*Naval commander: Wu Ban
*Deputy naval commander: Chen Shi
*Zhenbei General: Huang Quan
The total Shu force deployed in Wu was in excess of 40,000, and additional forces were mobilized in Shu, though they did not have the opportunity to participate in the battle.

Eastern Wu: Realizing its survival was at stake, Eastern Wu was thoroughly prepared and deployed its best commanders to defend important cities, and mobilized the largest concentration of troops available. Though was eventually ordered to take the overall command of Wu troops, this did not happen until the second half of the battle, and he was originally deployed as one of the many commanders.
*Commander-in-Chief: Lu Xun
*Zhengwei General Pan Zhang defending Zigui
*General Lu Yi defending at Wu county
*General Li Yi defending Ba Mountain
*General Liu A defending Xing Mountain
*Naval commander Song Qian defending Zhijiang
*Zhengxi General Lu Xun defending Yiling
*Andong General Sun Huan defending Yidao
*Zhaowu General Zhu Ran defending Jiangling with the help of general Han Dang
*Jianwu General Xu Sheng defending Danyang
*Suide General Zhuge Jin defending Gong'an
*Jianzhong General Luo Tong defending Chanling
*Pingwu General Bu Zhi defending Yiyang with the help of General Xianyu Dan
*Sun Quan stationed at Wuchang for support
Each general of Eastern Wu usually had around 10,000 troops under his command, and some of them had forces double the usual strength. The total Eastern Wu force that participated in the battle totaled in excess of 160,000, thus ensuring the numerical superiority over its enemy. This proved to be one of the important factors in its final victory.

First stage

Initially, generals of Eastern Wu had significantly underestimated the enemy's tenacity due to their numerical superiority. As the advancing Shu Han enemy took regions including Zigui , Wu county, Ba Mountain, and Xing Mountain, the Wu forces that ventured out their fortifications to engage the enemy were nearly annihilated. The initial defeat of Wu forced Sun Quan to adopt Lu Xun's strategy and name him the overall commander. Realizing that Shu Han forces were mostly infantry, much better in mountainous terrain than the Wu marines, Eastern Wu forces gave up territory and waited for the most opportune time to counterattack.

By January 222, Eastern Wu forces continued to retreat, letting Yiling be taken by Shu Han marines lead by Wu Ban and Chen Shi while at the same time, Liu Bei moved his headquarters forward to Zigui . Liu Bei did not stay at his new headquarters for long as Shu Han forces continued to make significant progress and pushed into the heart of Eastern Wu. In February 222, the vanguard of the Shu Han force reached deep behind enemy lines at Yidao and badly mauled the defending Eastern Wu force in engagements outside the city. Sun Huan and his surviving Eastern Wu troops retreated behind the city walls and a stalemate was reached. Meanwhile, the main force of Shu Han, led by Liu Bei, reached Xiaoting , where Lu Xun made his last stand. With Eastern Wu forces no longer retreating, another stalemate was reached.

As the supply lines from Chengdu grew longer, the Shu troops grew weary. As they advanced into Wu, the terrain became flatter, giving the Wu cavalry and navy a great advantage over the tired Shu infantry. Liu Bei deployed his troops in over fifty camps along the 350 km line from Wuxia to Yiling , while his vanguard force was another 150 km further away, isolated at Yidao . The tide would soon turn in favor of Eastern Wu. Lu Xun, the competent young strategist who was given command of the Wu forces at the second half of the Battle of Yiling, was well aware that Wu must continue to wait. This was much to the dismay of most generals of Eastern Wu. While many of Wu's older officers questioned putting such a youth in charge, Lu Xun had been hand-picked by the ruler Sun Quan as the successor to previous Eastern Wu commander Lü Meng and Lu Xun's strategy was accepted before he reached his new post.

Since the beginning of March, 222, under Lu Xun's direction, the Eastern Wu forces refused to fight any more in mountainous terrain and stayed in their forts, thus taking away Shu's battlefield advantage. As Shu's supplies dwindled, the summer came on. Summer in those regions was extremely hot that year, and killed off many plants and shrubs, as Yiling was right on the Yangtze River next to a great forest. Liu Bei's forces were camped right outside the forest when Lu Xun reached his command, and soon the summer heat started affecting morale. The morale of Shu Han troops dropped further when Liu Bei's planned ambush failed: he had over 8,000 troops hiding in valleys under the command of Wu Ban, while the old and weak ones were sent to challenge Eastern Wu forces, in the hope of luring Wu forces out of their forts to the ambush. However, Lu Xun was smart enough to ignore the trap, and Shu Han forces only wasted more valuable supplies in the unsuccessful deployment.

Second stage

Lu Xun then adopted a waiting strategy similar to the one Sima Yi would later use against Zhuge Liang during the Northern Campaigns. Since the beginning of March, 222, Liu Bei's men challenged and taunted Lu Xun to send his forces out beyond his walls, but Lu Xun ordered his gates shut and refused to meet the taunts. Heat waves plagued Liu Bei's men during the standoff, and Liu Bei finally had to move his entire army, against 's advice, into the forest for shade, in the dead heat of summer. Liu Bei's fatal error was exploited shortly after, in July 222, when Lu Xun's saboteurs crept behind Liu Bei's camp through the use of the navy and set the entire Yiling camp on fire. The woods, fueled by dead plants and dry air, erupted into wildfires that could not be put out, and as Liu Bei's men rushed for the water, Wu archers shot them down. Furthermore, when Shu Han attempted a counterattack, Pan Zhang's forces rushed forward, breaking the lines as they reformed, making retaliation impossible. The Shu Han navy performed slightly better by barely managing a somewhat orderly retreat: a Shu Han civilian official of Yizhou serving in the navy, Cheng Ji led his force to remain and cover the retreat of others, and the Eastern Wu navy soon caught up with the slowly retreating rear guard of the Shu Han navy. Cheng Ji and his men were surrounded by the vanguard of the advancing Eastern Wu navy, but Cheng Ji personally held a halberd and joined the bloody fight, and led his men to sink all of the smaller boats of the Eastern Wu naval vanguard. However, such resistance was insufficient. When the main force of the Eastern Wu navy arrived, Cheng Ji and his men were killed. In the Romance of Three Kingdoms, the author chose a different death for Cheng Ji by depicting him committing suicide.

A rockslide at Ma'an Hills dealt the final blow when out of the original fifty Shu Han camps in the 350 km stretch, over forty were destroyed. Liu Bei attempted to lead his surviving force at the hills to make last stand, but Lu Xun would not allow it. Lu Xun ordered Zhu Ran to lead five thousand men to cut off Liu Bei's surviving force, and he led Xu Sheng and Han Dang to continue the attack, thus would not provide any chance for Liu Bei to regroup. Liu Bei was not able to make the stand he wanted, and over ten thousand Shu Han troops were killed at Ma'an Hills. As Liu Bei narrowly escaped with his life to Baidicheng with less than a thousand men, the remaining surviving camps were set ablaze by retreating Shu Han troops themselves in order to deter the pursuing Wu army. The isolated vanguard of Shu Han forces at Yidao 150 km further away from Yiling also completely perished, while at the same time while Shu Han commander Huang Quan, the General who Stablizes the North, and his deputies Shi He , the Administrator of the Southern Shire , and Pang Lin , with their surviving force of 318 cavalries at the northern shore were forced to surrender to Eastern Wu as they were cut off. As Liu Bei fled to Zigui , the Eastern Wu troops soon followed. The demoralized Shu troops were not able to hold their ground, and Liu Bei was forced to continue his flight. , the civilian administrative official of Jing province, was killed in the ensuing battle, but his death bought time for Liu Bei to escape . The local Shu Han military commander, General of Standards , Xiang Chong proved to be a capable officer and led an organized retreat without suffering any significant losses, while at the same time, safely escorting Liu Bei all the way back to safety several hundred mile away at the town of Yufu , later renamed as Young'an by Liu Bei before his death. For this great performance, Liu Bei promoted Xiang Chong to the rank of Viceroy . Xiang Chong was able to fend off repeated Eastern Wu attacks on the city until the Shu Han reinforcement led by Zhao Yun arrived. The Eastern Wu troops outside the city of Young'an were forced to camp in the mountains to the south of the city. Thus a stalemate was reached before Eastern Wu troops were eventually forced to retreat. Most of the capable Shu Han commanders were killed in the battle. Only Wu Ban and Chen Shi, the commanders of the Shu Han naval forces, managed to escape back to Shu Han.

Afterwards, the stress of the crushing defeat and the loss of his beloved generals took their toll. Extremely ill at the age of sixty-three, Liu Bei's life ended at Baidicheng. , Liu Bei's military adviser for the Wu Retribution Campaign and the person who had advised him not to camp in the forest, later died in an uprising in Wu Ling.

Aftermath

The Battle of Yiling in 222 sealed Shu Han's fate as most of the entire army was killed or captured in a period of two days. Thereafter Shu Han's power was directed by Zhuge Liang, who eventually established ties with Eastern Wu.

The prestige of such a victory established Eastern Wu as the undisputed ruler of southern Jing province. Lu Xun, the young general who defeated Liu Bei, won recognition throughout the land as a great strategist. This battle marked the beginning of Lu Xun's illustrious career within the Eastern Wu hierarchy, culminating in his becoming the Prime Minister of Eastern Wu.

Liu Bei's death also led to the ascension of his less capable son Liu Shan, who would eventually lead Shu Han to defeat.

Fictional events

*In ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms'', the Wu general Gan Ning is slain by the barbarian king Shamoke, who was asked to participate by Liu Bei.
*The elderly Shu general Huang Zhong is also killed in battle by an arrow fired by the Wu general Ma Zhong.
*In reality, General Gan Ning and General Huang Zhong had both passed on before the campaign took place. Gan Ning died of illness and Huang Zhong most likely died of old age or illness.
*The Wu general Zhu Ran wasn't slain by Zhao Yun while pursuing Liu Bei. As a matter of fact, Zhu Ran outlived Zhao Yun.
*Pan Zhang wasn't killed by Guan Xing , but rather died of illness. *Similarly, the Wu generals Xie Jing, Li Yi, and Tan Xiong were not slain by Guan Xing and Zhang Bao .
*Prior to the battle, Ma Zhong wasn't slain by Mi Fang. Further, Mi Fang, who had defected to Wu while serving Guan Yu, never attempted to return to Liu Bei's service, but served Wu until his death.
*Zhuge Liang was never opposed to the Wu campaign, but stayed behind to defend Chengdu. Zhao Yun did oppose the campaign, however.
*The numbers in the novel are greatly exaggerated for Shu, stating that Liu Bei gathered around 750,000 troops including troops from the western Qiang tribe.
*Also, Lu Xun was trapped in Zhuge Liang's Stone Sentinel Maze while in pursuit of the fleeing Liu Bei. He was guided out by Huang Chengyan, Zhuge Liang's father-in-law, who explained the array to Lu Xun. Lu Xun then exclaimed that he can never top the genius of Zhuge Liang. While such a maze is rumored to exist, there is no proof that Lu Xun ever needed to pass through it.

In Popular culture

In the ''Dynasty Warriors'' series for the Playstation 2, the Battle of Xiaoting, called the Battle of Yiling in the game, is a major turning point in the story. Players can follow history and burn the Shu camp to gain an advantage. The Stone Sentinel Maze also is a nuisance to players as the minimap is disabled upon entering.

Battle of Xiangyang

The Battle of Xiangyang was a six-year battle between invading Yuan Dynasty armies founded by Mongols and forces between AD 1267 and 1273. After the battle, the victorious Yuan forces pushed farther into the Song heartland. Previously for 30 years, the Song Dynasty managed to handle several major offensives by the Mongols. The strategic significance of Xiangyang came from the fact that it is in a position dominating the Han river. Once the Yuan forces occupied Xiangyang, they could travel by ships down the Han river into the Yangtze river. After the Battle of Xiangyang, the Song Dynasty did not enjoy the protection of natural barriers any more and so it collapsed in just a few years. The final battle was the relatively short naval Battle of Yamen in 1279. Thus this battle was decisive.

The battle consisted of skirmishes, ground assault, and the siege of the twin fortified cities of Fancheng and Xiangyang in modern-day Hubei, China. Lü Wenhuan, commander-in-chief of the Southern Song Dynasty, surrendered to Kublai Khan in 1273. The conventional use of Mongolian cavalry was restricted by the woody terrain and numerous military outposts of the Southern Song Dynasty. Chinese firearms and cannons were employed by the Mongols in the victorious siege of Fancheng after capturing the outposts and relieving Chinese forces from Sichuan and Yuezhou, which broke through the siege but was eventually defeated. Especially effective proved the use of the counterweight trebuchet by the Mongols, as the ancient traction trebuchet was the only one known in China beforehand.

Background

The Mongols, before the rule of Kublai Khan, had launched military campaigns as far as Eastern Europe, and had conquered Kievan Rus. However, Song Dynasty China was difficult to conquer because of the strategic location of Xiangyang, hence a vital position for Kublai to capture and hold. The city guarded the waterways of Southern China because the was a major tributary into the Yangtze River. Once the city fell, the Mongols obtained easy access into important Southern cities in China and the Southern Song would collapse shortly after.

However, taking Xiangyang was not easy. Southern Song knew the importance of this vital spot, and treated the defence of Xiangyang as important as defence of their capital. The city was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and a river on one side. Song stored massive amount of supplies inside the fortress, as preparation for long sieges. They also built high walls and towers on all four sides of the fortress. Each entrance of the fortress had at least two layers of walls, used to trap enemy sieging forces inside.

In 1133, the famous Song general Yue Fei led many successful campaigns against the , in the Xiangyang area. From there, he pushed the Jin army back north as far as Kaifeng. In 1234, the Jin Dynasty was conquered by the Mongols under the leadership of Ogedei. At that time, Mongols and the Southern Song dynasty were allies. After that, the two former allies did not have any common enemy. The Mongols set their eyes on Song.

In 1260, Kublai Khan was proclaimed successor to the throne after the death of his brother Mongke, as was his youngest brother Ariq Boke. The succession war between him and Ariq Boke began. Kublai Khan won the war eventually, though his claim as the successor to Mongke was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan adopted the dynasty name of "Yuan", establishing the Yuan Dynasty. After defeating his rivals and opponents in Mongolia and Northern China, Kublai Khan wanted to conquer Southern China also.

In 1267, Kublai Khan ordered an attack on Xiangyang, but suffered a major defeat. The famous Mongolian cavalry were powerful on open field battles, but in Xiangyang they were slaughtered by the Song defenders. Every time, Yuan forces would seem to have won, and enter the entrance of the fortress. But once inside, the Yuan forces would be slaughtered to the last man, while trapped between 4 walls. It took the Yuan forces a while to realize what was going on, and they retreated.

However, the defeat did not change the situation. Yuan must take Xiangyang in order to conquer the rest of Song. This humiliation also strengthened their determination to capture it. In 1268, the Yuan army returned to besiege Xiangyang, a siege that they would stay in until Xiangyang fell.

Failure of the old trebuchet

Yuan learned from their mistake, and this time brought along with them about a hundred trebuchets. These trebuchets had a shooting range of around 100 meters, and could use projectiles of around 50 kg. During Mongol campaigns against Jin, the Mongols used about 5,000 trebuchets, and they were very successful in destroying the Jin fortresses.

However, Song had expected a trebuchet siege, and made preparations beforehand. They had expanded the river in this area, to a width of over 150 meters. And in addition to reinforcing their walls, they made nettings, which they used to cover the walls during a trebuchet siege. As a result, the Yuan trebuchets had a hard time hitting the fortress, and the few lucky shots that did hit the wall bounced off harmlessly.

Yuan entrapment

Yuan then started to block Xiangyang off from the rest of Song. A Yuan fleet of 5,000 ships was established, to stop any Song supplies from the Han river. Yuan also sent forces to go around the fortress, and set up camps at the key roads, to stop Song supplies from land. Eventually, Yuan built their own forts at these key locations.

From late 1267 to 1271, Song reinforcements from the south tried, many times, to attack the Yuan positions, in order to supply Xiangyang. Unfortunately, outside of Xiangyang, the Song forces were no match for the Mongolian cavalry. And once the Yuan forts were completed, the situation became hopeless. As a result, the Song forces inside Xiangyang had to depend on themselves.

But Song had stored years of supplies within Xiangyang. That said, by 1271, the fortress finally ran low on their supplies. Still, the Song troops chose to hang on.

Finally, in 1272, a small Song force of 3,000 men was able to break though the Yuan naval blockade, and supplied Xiangyang from the Han river. This was a major morale boost to the defenders. However, no one could not get back out. The Song emperor, considered that reinforcement lost and Xiangyang doomed to fall from the lack of supplies, did not send more Song reinforcements afterwards.

New weapon of the Yuan

The dream of Song defending Xiangyang forever came to a crashing end on 1273, with the introduction of the counterweight trebuchet.

Guo Kan, one of top generals of the army of Hulagu Khan who founded the Ilkhanate in Persia, was called back to the Yuan court during the reign of Kublai Khan. He has brought back the counterweight trebuchet technology in the earlier conquest of Persia and Middle East. But real Persian experts Ismail and Al al-Din had not arrived in China by the order of Kublai until 1272. They had finished building powerful counterweight trebuchets by March, 1273. These counterweight trebuchets had a shooting range of 500 meters, and could launch projectiles weighing over 300kg. On top of their power, these new trebuchets were much more accurate than the old ones, and were the only artillery powerful enough to break the strong walls of Xiangyang. Yuan forces built about 20 of them, and used them to assist the siege of Xianyang.

Yuan started the siege with Fancheng in early 1273. Song soldiers in Xiangyang watched in horror as giant rock fall flew right over the gigantic walls of Fancheng, and hit the houses inside. The walls, with netting on them, crippled as if the walls were made of sand. And as soon as the walls fell, Mongolian cavalry stormed the fortress. Fancheng, after holding up for years, suddenly fell within a few days.

Yuan then turned their attention to Xiangyang. However, Lü Wenhuan did not give up, because he knew Xiangyang must not fall. He sent a messenger to the Song emperor, to request immediate reinforcements. The messenger successfully got by the Yuan forts and reached the emperor. But upon hearing the power of these new trebuchets, the emperor considered Xiangyang lost and did not send reinforcements.

For the next few days, Song soldiers looked to the south for reinforcements, but all they saw were Yuan counterweight trebuchets and more than 100,000 Mongolian cavalry waiting to end their lives. For years, the Song soldiers had hoped that the situation will eventually get better for them, but it only got worse.

In February, one testing shot was fired into the city, and the shot happened to hit a stone bridge inside. When the stone landed, it sounded like thunder. Song soldiers went to check the damage, and to their horror the stone had sunk a few feet into the solid ground.

Massive chaos occurred right after the testing shot. Many soldiers and civilians tried to open the gate and escape. Yuan told Lü Wenhuan that, if Song did not surrender, everyone inside, including all civilians, would be slaughtered. Lü Wenhuan, with no chance of defending the fortress any longer, and no reinforcements in sight, surrendered his forces, hence ending this long six year siege.

Aftermath

Xiangyang, the strongest fortress of the Song Dynasty, had fallen. As a result, Yuan forces were free to conquer the rest of southern China. Everywhere else Yuan went, Song fortresses fell like sand castles, due to the counterweight trebuchets and later, cannons.

Many people agree that the fall of Xiangyang essentially marked the end of the Song Dynasty. For the six years that Yuan sieged Xiangyang, Song were unable to regroup and strike back at Yuan with their resources in the south. In fact, they could not even get much reinforcements and supplies to Xiangyang, to support the hard working defense there.

Role of the counterweight trebuchet

The sieges of Fancheng and Xiangyang were also noteworthy for the introduction of the counterweight trebuchet in China from Persia as these new weapons proved to be decisive in forcing the surrenders of the two cities in 1273. Within a few days after the Yuan forces took up the bombardment of Fancheng by the counterweight trebuchet in March 1273, the city had been ripe for attack and successfully assaulted. Shortly afterwards, the Song commander of Xiangyang, realizing that the city could not withstand a similar attack, accepted the surrender terms of the Yuan.

The counterweight trebuchet was a relatively new type of ballistic siege engine which was much more powerful than the earlier traction trebuchets, which had existed in China for centuries. The origin of the counterweight trebuchet is obscure, but it appears to have been invented somewhere in the Mediterranean basin in the twelfth century. Many possible inventors have been hypothesized, including Emperor Alexios I Komnenos of Byzantium and the Muslim engineers of Saladin.

The design of the trebuchets deployed at Xiangyang

Since the Yuan employed Muslim engineers for the designing of the counterweight trebuchets, they were designated in Chinese historiography as the "Muslim" trebuchet . However, regarding the exact nature of the trebuchets used by the Mongol armies, recent research by Paul E. Chevedden indicates that the ''hui-hui pao'' was actually a European design, a double-counterweight engine that as Cheveddens shows had been introduced to the Levant by Holy Roman Emperor only shortly before. The Muslim historian Rashid al-Din refers in his universal history to the Mongol trebuchets used at the Song cities as "Frankish" or "European trebuchets" :

Before that there had not been any large Frankish catapult in Cathay , but Talib, a catapult-maker from this land, had gone to Baalbek and Damascus, and his sons Abubakr, Ibrahim, and Muhammad, and his employees made seven large catapults and set out to conquer the city .

The Chinese scholar Zheng Sixiao indicates that, "in the case of the largest ones, the wooden framework stood above a hole in the ground". Chevedden considers this to be clearly a description of the double-counterweight ''bricola'', since, according to him, that was the only counterweight piece of artillery that had a framework capable of being mounted in a hole in the ground and was commonly set up in this fashion. Thus, the fall of the Song cities was testimony to the wide diffusion of military technology which the Mongol conquests brought along.

Another version is given by Marco Polo in his book '''' where he claims having been responsible for teaching the Mongols how to build and use catapults during the siege of Xiangyang. However, the names of the Muslim engineers were given by Muslim sources as Talib and his sons Abubakr, Ibrahim, and Muhammad, respectively by Chinese sources as Ala-ud-Din and Isma'il. Moreover, the siege had already ended before Marco Polo's arrival in China.

Cultural references

In the wuxia novel ''The Return of the Condor Heroes'' by Jinyong, a battle at Xiangyang is the climax of the story, with the protagonists such as Yang Guo and Guo Jing participating in the defense of the city.

Battle of Xiangyang (191)

The Battle of Xiangyang in 191 was a battle between Sun Jian and Liu Biao during the prelude to the Three Kingdoms period in China. Liu Biao emerged victorious against Sun Jian's forces. Shortly after their coalition had ousted Dong Zhuo from the capital city, Luoyang, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao, two feudal lords vying for power, had formed alliances against one another, with Sun Jian and Gongsun Zan supporting Yuan Shu while Cao Cao and Liu Biao supported Yuan Shao. Sun Jian was asked by Yuan Shu to attack Liu Biao in order to extinguish Yuan Shao's influence in the southern half of China. Although Sun's forces initially outmanoeuvred and outfought Liu's, Sun Jian himself was killed in battle, forcing his army to retreat.

Battle

Sun Jian and his forces encountered the forces of Liu Biao's general, Huang Zu, between Fancheng and Deng . There, he easily routed Huang's forces and surrounded the city of Xiangyang itself. Within the confines of the city, Liu Biao again sent Huang Zu out, this time to make a surprise sortie. However, Huang was again defeated, and when he attempted to withdraw to the city once more, Sun Jian cut off his line of retreat, and he fled to Xianshan. Wishing to follow up on his success, Sun Jian pursued. According to Sun Jian's ''Sanguozhi'' biography, he was shot by a soldier in Huang Zu's unit who was hiding in a bamboo grove where he was carried off the battlefield and died. Other theories of Sun Jian's death include Sun Jian fighting in the wilderness and being killed, or being crushed to death by boulders thrown down from above in 193.

Aftermath

Sun Jian's death effectively ended the battle, although Liu's forces had suffered far more casualties. Huan Jie, one of Sun Jian's officers, successfully negotiated for Sun's corpse to be returned, and Sun Jian's army temporarily came under the control of Sun Jian's nephew, Sun Ben. Sun Ben then went to join Yuan Shu with most of Sun Jian's followers. Sun Ce, Sun Jian's eldest son, was given Sun Jian's marquisate, but chose to pass the position down to his youngest brother, Sun Kuang, who was still young.

Modern references

The Battle of Xiangyang appears in video games such as ''Dynasty Warriors'', but the name of the battle changes with almost every release. After Sun Jian is killed, Sun Ce takes command of the army instead of Sun Ben. How Sun Jian dies changes with each game release possibly to reflect the confusion on how he died.

Sources

Battle of West Hubei

The Battle of West Hubei , was one of the 22 major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was also one of the four major battles that took place in Hubei. It resulted in a Chinese strategic victory, although they lost more troops than the , the Japanese were ultimately defeated.