The world is so vast, why did Yashan become the final battlefield for the decisive battle between the Song and Yuan Dynasties?

In 1279, Zhang Shijie led the last resistance force of the Southern Song Dynasty to a decisive battle with the Yuan Dynasty army in Yashan. In this battle, the entire Southern Song army was wiped out, and the Yuan Dynasty completed the unification of the country.

When the Yashan Naval Battle occurred, the Yuan Dynasty army had already encroached on the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty from north to south. The resistance forces of the Southern Song Dynasty had no choice but to use several islands along the coast of Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong as anti-Yuan bases, and they had lost the possibility of turning defeat into victory. But in addition to these coastal islands, there is Hainan Island in the south and Taiwan Island in the east. Moreover, beyond Hainan and Taiwan, there are Indo-China Peninsula and Nanyang Islands. However, under such circumstances, there were still many choices, and Yashan became the last cemetery of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Why did Zhang Shijie and other Southern Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers not choose to establish their own bases in Hainan or Taiwan? Or go to Indochina and Nanyang Islands to persist in the war of resistance? Is it really that all hope is lost? Are you hopeless? "Jingye Shi" believes that there are mainly the following reasons:

1. The objective environment is not controlled by people

In 1273, the Southern Song Dynasty's 6-year Battle of Xiangfan came to an end, and Xiangfan fell. The door of the Southern Song Dynasty was opened. The Yuan Dynasty troops who found the Mingmen of the Southern Song Dynasty marched eastward along the Yangtze River from Xiangfan, and soon the Southern Song Dynasty came to an end.

In 1276, the Yuan Dynasty army came to Lin'an. Emperor Gong of the Song Dynasty surrendered in Kaicheng, and the Southern Song Dynasty perished. Subsequently, Zhang Shijie, Lu Xiufu, Wen Tianxiang and others who did not want to be slaves to the subjugation of the country supported Zhao Shi in the south to succeed him as Song Duanzong and formed a government in exile. In order to eliminate the root cause, Kublai Khan ordered Zhang Hongfan to start pursuing the exiled small court. The small court had no choice but to retreat southward step by step from Zhejiang along the coastline, then to Fujian and Guangdong.

The young emperor Zhao Shi wanted to retreat to Leizhou, but when the army was crossing the sea and crossing the sea, it encountered a storm near Leizhou. The Southern Song Dynasty Navy suffered heavy losses. Zhao Shi also fell into the water and fell ill and died soon after. He was only 9 years old. . The Southern Song troops suffered huge losses and had to return eastward, finally settling near Yashan.

Yashan, also known as Yamen, is located in Xinhui, Guangdong today. There is Yashan Mountain in the east and Tangping Mountain in the west. The two mountains extend southward into the sea. The two mountains sandwich the sea. The terrain is dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack. Relatively speaking, this is the most ideal stronghold, and the Southern Song Dynasty army also staged the most tragic scene in Chinese history here.

A storm changed the marching direction of the Southern Song army, bringing the Southern Song's resistance to a premature end. On the surface it looks like this: the storm caused heavy losses to the Southern Song army. Without this storm, the Southern Song army could have crossed south to Leizhou or Hainan Island. Hainan Island and the mainland Leizhou Peninsula face each other across the sea. They have a large area and a hot and humid climate, which is suitable for agricultural development and can be used as a base to persist in the war of resistance for a long time. And if Hainan Island falls, then Taiwan Island across the sea is more suitable as a base for counterattacking the mainland. Hundreds of years later, the Zheng Chenggong Group used Taiwan as its base to resist the Qing Dynasty for more than 20 years.

But the reality is: Hainan and Taiwan at that time were not the tourist destinations and pearls of the South China Sea they are today. What's going on here? In the Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi, a civil servant, was unhappy in his official career and was demoted to Hainan Island. In that beautiful era when scholar-bureaucrats were not killed, political opponents could not be killed with rough swords, but with the humanitarian method of sending people to the frontiers. In the Qing Dynasty, prisoners who were sent to Ninggu Pagoda basically had a narrow escape from death, while in the Song Dynasty, it was to the south. In distant Hainan, there is no severe cold, but miasma. The lethality of miasma was just as deadly in ancient times.

Therefore, Hainan was still a barbaric land until the Yuan Dynasty. Such a place was definitely not an ideal place for the Southern Song Dynasty to settle down.

2. The subjective conditions are very worrying

Except for the founding period, the entire Southern Song Dynasty was basically in a defensive state, which determined that the Southern Song Dynasty did not have the courage to expand its territory.

Facing the attack of the Jin State, the Southern Song Dynasty aimed to drive the Jin people out of the country. As for the feat of recovering Bianjing, the Southern Song Dynasty did not have extravagant hopes. Yue Fei defeated Jin Wushu and led the Yue family army to make persistent efforts to attack Huanglong. Gaozong Zhaogou hurriedly fired 12 gold medals to recall. Facing the Mongolian attack, the Song Dynasty used Sichuan, Xiangfan and Jianghuai as strong defense lines. Although it successfully resisted the Mongols for half a century, it was only on defense. It was not easy to "enter Luoyang" and was beaten back to its original shape.

Before the Battle of Yashan, did Zhang Shijie really have no way out? not necessarily! But Zhang Shijie knew clearly: Even if he could escape or defeat the Yuan army in the Yashan naval battle, it would be impossible for the Song Dynasty to regain the Song Dynasty with only these forces! Even ten times more power is not enough! This is the tragedy of the Southern Song Dynasty.

So, instead of running away like this, it is better to fight with real swords and guns, and at least die heroically! Under this guiding ideology, Zhang Shijie burned down the fortresses on land, connected the ships, and prepared to fight the Yuan army at Yashan!

In addition, under the influence of defensive national policies, the Song Dynasty lost the aura of being a great country that attracts all nations. Starting from the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Kingdom became a country of brothers, and Xixia became the younger brother of the following criminals. Even Jiaozhi (Vietnam) dared to take advantage of the situation and plunder the population of the Northern Song Dynasty. It was even more exaggerated in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Jin Kingdom directly rode on the Southern Song Dynasty to dominate, and the Southern Song Dynasty became a barbarian. Under such conditions, it is difficult to establish a dominant position.

Therefore, it is unreliable to expect the vassal states to behave as they did before the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, when the Song Dynasty became a court in exile, it would be nice not to take advantage of the surrounding vassals who were ready to take advantage of it. Do you still think they can accept you?

Moreover, the conditions at that time were that the Song and Yuan Dynasties were at war. Anyone who accepted the Song Dynasty would be an open enemy of the Yuan Dynasty. own creed. When the Ming Dynasty fell, Emperor Yongli fled into Burma, and Wu Sangui immediately chased him to Yunnan. As soon as he spoke harsh words to Burma, they immediately handed over Emperor Yongli obediently.

Finally, even if the vassal states are willing to accept it, will the Southern Song Dynasty scholar-bureaucrats who have settled down and relocated be willing to follow the emperor to foreign countries and strive to govern? not necessarily! In that society, which was dominated by a small-scale peasant economy, the concept of rurality was serious, and the concept of "parents not traveling far away" was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Even if you are thousands of miles away from home, you still want to return to your roots. Under such conditions, how could they be willing to abandon their homeland and start a new business in a foreign territory that they had never set their sights on?

So, Yashan is the destined cemetery of the Southern Song Dynasty!

As the most tragic moment in Chinese history, the Battle of Yashan was mixed with too much helplessness and determination. The last scholars of the Southern Song Dynasty also used their lives to write the most heroic poems belonging to the Han civilization.