The Yuan Destroys the Southern Song and Unifies China

After destroying the Jin, the Mongols faced the Southern Song directly, and the Song-Mongol war lasted over forty years. Southern Song soldiers and civilians resisted stubbornly for long periods in Sichuan, Xiangyang, the Huai region and elsewhere. In 1268 Yuan forces besieged the key fortresses of Xiangyang and Fancheng; the defender Lu Wenhuan held out for nearly six years, while the Song chief minister Jia Sidao concealed the military situation and sent no relief. Fancheng fell in 1273 and Lu Wenhuan surrendered Xiangyang to the Yuan, throwing open the gateway of the Southern Song's Yangtze defenses. In 1274 Kublai Khan sent the general Bayan with 200,000 troops down the Han River into the Yangtze and eastward. The Southern Song court was corrupt; Jia Sidao led an army against them and was crushed at Dingjiazhou. In 1276 Yuan troops entered the Song capital Lin'an, and Empress Dowager Xie and the young Emperor Gong of Song came out to surrender, ending the Southern Song court. Loyal ministers including Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang refused to yield and successively enthroned the emperor's brothers Zhao Shi and Zhao Bing in Fuzhou and Guangdong to continue resisting. Wen Tianxiang raised volunteer armies in Jiangxi, Fujian and Guangdong, and was defeated and captured at Wupoling in Haifeng, Guangdong, in 1278. In 1279 the Yuan attacked the last Song stronghold at Yamen in Xinhui, Guangdong; Zhang Shijie led over a thousand warships in a decisive battle, and the Song fleet was annihilated. Lu Xiufu carried the young emperor Zhao Bing on his back into the sea, and many Song soldiers and civilians followed, in what is known as the Battle of Yamen. The last Song forces were finished.