I don’t know if you have ever thought about why the Song Dynasty was able to resist the Liao and Jin dynasties for so many years, but it still couldn’t pass the barrier of the Mongols, and was eventually destroyed by the Mongols. Why is this? Because the Mongols were more powerful than the Jin Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom, or that the Song Dynasty itself had too many traitors in the later period, which made the army’s combat effectiveness unable to be fully utilized, and it seemed to be the general trend to be wiped out in the end. Today we will discuss why the Song Dynasty was finally wiped out by the Mongols.

The dynasties established by the two ethnic minorities of the Liao and the Jin once attacked the Song Dynasty in turn, trying to destroy the Song Dynasty, but in the end they failed. Instead, they all disappeared in front of the Song Dynasty. But in the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols, it took nearly half a century to finally destroy the Song Dynasty and unify the world. So, why was the Song Dynasty able to survive the Liao and Jin Dynasties, but could no longer support it in front of Meng Yuan?

Because Kublai Khan integrated the Han people in the north, he was using the Han army to fight the Southern Song Dynasty. It was as stable as a perpetual motion machine. The main force of the Liao and Jin Dynasties was still their own army. When Mongolia destroyed the Song Dynasty, the emperors of the Song Dynasty were all children, and there were no powerful ministers with absolute authority in the court.

Facts have proved that the passive defense of the Song Dynasty is still not enough, and it will definitely be wiped out in the end. At that time, Mongolia’s fighting power was very strong. A small tribe was unified by Genghis Khan, and then the descendants carried it forward and conquered everywhere, almost invincible. However, what came quickly disappeared, and after more than 100 years, the Mongolian Empire collapsed.

The Song Dynasty learned from the lessons of the Tang Dynasty to prevent generals from becoming bigger and maintain the absolute leadership of the central court. In principle, it is conducive to the stability of imperial rule, but the approach is too extreme and overkill. Compared with the military of the Song Dynasty, the military was actually not as weak as that of Hei. Liao, Jin, Xia, and Yuan completed one by one, and they were not fuel-efficient. Moreover, Jin destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, without exception, in the early days of his own business, the momentum was flourishing, while the opposite was in decline, and the contrast formed was too strong.

There was no chaos in the late dynasty. Look at the chaos in the late Han and Tang Dynasty, look at the officials who were beaten up in the late Ming Dynasty, and look at the embarrassing thing in the late Qing Dynasty. Except for the late Qing Dynasty, no one should laugh at anyone.

There is a gap in pure national strength. The size of Liao and Jin when it first rose was still too small compared to Song. It could win several battles but it was impossible to destroy Song. When Jin’s national strength gradually grew, and when he and Song Wuwu opened, he no longer planned to fight Song. There is no unified dynasty in China. If there is a dynasty like the Tang Dynasty, Mongolia will not be able to rise at all. At most, it will fight a war of attrition with the Han Dynasty like the Huns. The Song Dynasty couldn’t even defeat a small Ningxia separatist regime, so it couldn’t be regarded as a dynasty at all.

The strength of Liao and Jin is not much stronger than that of Song. If they forcefully destroy Song, they may be able to succeed, but they may only have one breath. At that time, it will not be fun to be followed by other separatist forces (Xixia, Dali, Tubo). The Eryuan Dynasty successively destroyed Xiliao, Xixia, Jin, Tubo, and Dali through three generations of conquests by the ancestors and grandchildren of the Boerzhijin family. The situation is completely different, and its strength is far stronger than that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

For the system of the Song Dynasty, two hundred years is the limit. If it were not for the frequent wars that caused ethnic conflicts to overshadow class conflicts, I am afraid that the Great Song Dynasty would not be able to last that long. From a military point of view, the reason why the Southern Song Dynasty could not stand up to Mongolia is very simple.

That is, the times have changed. The military technology of the Mongolian army far exceeds that of the Southern Song Dynasty, especially after the Western Expeditions obtained the artisans of Central Asia. If it weren’t for Xiangyang itself being a strategic fortress, the Mongolian army had to fight to the death, and the Southern Song Dynasty might not be able to survive the first Mongolia-Song war.

Another reason is that Mongolia has never regarded the Southern Song Dynasty as a dish, or it has always been involved in other places. The Southern Song Dynasty won the prize again, such as the second Mongolia-Song War. The line of defense is about to collapse. But at this time, Great Khan Mengge died suddenly (whether he was beaten to death or died of illness is controversial, I prefer to die from injuries), so fierce internal fighting broke out in Mongolia, which gave the Southern Song Dynasty a ten-year respite.

In contrast, the luck of the Ming Dynasty was not so good. I remember that during the Battle of Songshan, Huang Taiji suddenly had a nosebleed, which couldn’t be stopped. He could only take a bowl to catch the nosebleed while directing the battle. In the end, the Qing army won. Hong Chengchou was also captured. Huang Taiji didn’t shed any blood, what can you do? If Meng Ge Khan did not die, the second Southern Song Dynasty (1259) would be gone…

Any regime has a lifespan. For a dynasty like the Song Dynasty, which was inherently corrupt in the Northern Song Dynasty and born in the Southern Song Dynasty, it would take more than a hundred years. Guozuo is not bad. If the Northern Song Dynasty died after two hundred years, it is estimated that there would be no Southern Song Dynasty. The front was scraped too hard, and there was no firewood for restarting the stove in the back.