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Siege of Xiangyang

Battle of Xiangyang
Part of the Song-Yuan Wars
Date 1267–14 March 1273
Location Xiangyang, Hubei
Result Decisive Mongol victory
Belligerents
Song dynasty

Mongol Empire

Commanders and leaders
Lü Wenhuan
Li Tingzhi
Aju
Liu Zheng
Arikhgiya
Shi Tianzhe
Guo Kan
Units involved
Regular troops
Civilian population
Mongolian army
Chinese infantry
Chinese manned navy
100+ trebuchets
20+ counterweight trebuchets
Strength
at least 8,000 regular troops plus 200,000 residents 100,000 Mongols and Chinese
5,000 ships
Casualties and losses
unknown unknown

Mongol Empire

The Battle of Xiangyang (traditional Chinese: 襄陽之戰; simplified Chinese: 襄阳之战; pinyin: Xiāngyáng zhizhàn) was a key battle between the invading Mongols of the Yuan dynasty and Southern Song forces from AD 1267 to 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 Mongol Empire. The strategic significance of Xiangyang came from the fact that it was 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 could not enjoy the protection of natural barriers any more and so it collapsed in just a few years, with the final battle being the relatively short naval Battle of Yamen in 1279.

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. The use of the counterweight trebuchet by the Mongols proved especially effective.


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Wikipedia

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