ABSTRACT
The kingdoms of China were the last, greatest, longest, and most difficult of all the Mongol conquests. Indeed, “It began before any other major Mongol conquest of sedentary civilizations and continued long after the others had been completed.” All told, from Chinggis Khan’s earliest skirmishes with the Tanguts in 1205 and the Jin in 1206 to the final massive naval battle between Yuan and Song forces in March 1279, the conquest was accomplished over seven decades of intermittent, piecemeal prosecution punctuated by brief and intense offensives with cavalry, infantry, mechanical artillery, and (in the last decade) warships. On 25 January 1275, the Yuan juggernaut proceeded eastward down the Yangzi, peacefully capturing cities as it approached them because they obeyed Bayan’s surrender summonses. Bayan lightly garrisoned surrendered cities with stern warnings never to revert to the Song.
