Mongol invasions of Vietnam

Mongol invasions of Đại Việt and Champa
Part of the Mongol invasions
File:Battle of Bach Dang (1288).jpg The Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288) during the Third Mongol invasion
Date 1258, 1285 and 1287–88 Location Đại Việt and Champa Result Đại Việt/Champa victory. To avoid further conflict, Đại Việt and Champa agreed to a tributary relationship with the Yuan dynasty The capital city of the Tran was sacked by the Mongols three times Huge fiscal loss suffered by all parties
Belligerents
Mongol Empire (1258) Yuan dynasty (1285 and 1287–88)	Đại Việt under the Trần dynasty Champa
Commanders and leaders
Möngke Khan Kublai Khan Uriyangkhadai Aju Sodu Toghan Umar bin Nasr al-Din (Yunnan) Abachi Fanji Aqatai Arikhgiya	Trần Thái Tông Trần Thánh Tông Trần Nhân Tông Trần Hưng Đạo Trần Quang Khải Jaya Indravarman VI
Strength
3,000 Mongols and 10,000 Yi tribesmen in 1257 Less than 100,000 in 1285 70,000 Yuan troops, 21,000 tribal auxiliaries, 500 ships in 1287–88	Đại Việt more than 200,000–300,000 people in 1285 Champa about 60,000 people
Casualties and losses
Unknown but minimal in 1257 heavy in 1285 and heavy in 1288	unknown

The Mongol invasions of Vietnam or Mongol-Vietnamese War refer to the three times that the Mongol Empire and its chief khanate the Yuan dynasty invaded Đại Việt during the time of the Trần dynasty, along with Champa: in 1258, 1285, and 1287–88. Although the invasions resulted in disastrous military defeats for the Mongols, both the Trần dynasty and Champa decided to accept the nominal supremacy of the Yuan dynasty in order to avoid further conflicts.

Background

By the 1250s, the Mongol Empire controlled large amounts of Eurasia including much of Eastern Europe, Anatolia, North China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Central Asia, Tibet and Southwest Asia. Möngke Khan (r. 1251–59) planned to attack the Song dynasty in South China from three directions in 1259. Therefore, he ordered the prince Kublai to pacify the Dali Kingdom. After subjugating Dali, Kublai sent one column under Uriyangkhadai to the southeast. Uriyangkhadai sent envoys to demand the submission of Đại Việt, but the Trần rulers imprisoned the Mongol envoys. This action led Uriyangkhadai and his son Aju to invade Đại Việt with 40,000 Mongols and 10,000 Yi people.

The Trần Dynasty, with the marriage between the first emperor and the later queen of Lý Dynasty, succeeded in taking the reign and power. After the death of the rebel leaders like Đoàn Thượng, Nguyễn Nộn, the Trần Dynasty became the only ruler of Vietnam. Under the threat from the Mongols, the Trần Dynasty tried to negotiate with the Mongol's delegation. However, the aim of the Mongol Empire is not only the exchange of delegations and trading, but also to conquer Vietnam and then, use this land as a supply source for the campaign against the Southern Song Dynasty in the first invasion, and as a base to attack other lands in Southeast Asia. Surely, that is unacceptable for the Vietnamese people and the Tran Dynasty. Any ambassadors from Mongol who did not have respect for the emperors of Tran Dynasty or tried to threaten the Vietnamese people via declaration of an invasion had been tied up and sent back to Mongol. In addition, the emperors of the Tran Dynasty allowed the dukes and princes to recruit and train their own men in preparation for the coming wars. By increasing the number of forces, the Tran Dynasty's military became stronger might even reduce the disadvantage compared to the Mongol Dynasty. Moreover, the Tran Dynasty tried to make allies with the Champa Kingdom. The alliance was reinforced by the support from the Tran Dynasty to the Champa Kingdom against the Mongols in the second invasion.

First Mongol invasion in 1258

Kublai Khan, the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, and the founder of the Yuan dynasty

In 1258, a Mongol column under Uriyangkhadai, the son of Subutai, invaded Đại Việt. A battle was fought in which the Vietnamese used war elephants. Aju ordered his troops to fire arrows at the elephants' feet. The animals turned in panic and caused disorder in the Đại Việt army, which was routed. The King of Đại Việt fled to an offshore island, and the Mongols occupied the capital city Thăng Long (now Hanoi). When they found their envoys in prison, one of whom died, they responded by massacring the population of the capital. Though the Mongols retained supremacy on land, their forces were unable to withstand the tropical heat, mosquitoes, and malaria, and after securing a submission and promise of tribute from the Dai Viet King, Uriyangkhadai ordered a retreat.

The following year (1259), Uriyangkhadai returned to Đại Việt with an army of three thousand Mongols and ten thousand local troops from the conquered Kingdom of Dali, now the Yuan province of Yunnan. He led this army into Song China, and fought his way to the Yangtze River, joining with an army led by Kublai which had invaded from the north and was besieging Ezhou (modern Wuhan).

The Vietnamese had submitted unwillingly, and were reluctant vassals. The Vietnamese emperor repeatedly ignored demands to attend the Yuan court and offer his personal submission to the Great Khan. Nevertheless, according to the history of the Yuan dynasty, the Trần court sent tribute every three years and received a darughachi. By 1266, however, a standoff developed, as the Emperor Thánh Tông sought a loose tributary relationship, while Kublai demanded full submission. Trần Thánh Tông sent an official letter requiring Kublai to take his darughachi back. Because of civil war in the Mongol Empire, and the Yuan conquest of Song China, armed conflict was delayed. Instead, Kublai reminded him of the peace treaty signed by the Mongols and Đại Việt.

As a result of the Mongol conquest of the Song Empire, by 1278–79, Mongol troops reached Đại Việt's northern borders. Some former Song officials fled to Đại Việt and Champa, former vassals of Song China, during the final stage of Mongolian conquest of China. The Trầns' new ruler Nhân Tông resisted renewed Mongol demands for personal attendance at Kublai's court, but dispatched his uncle Tran Di Ai as envoy. Kublai tried to enthrone Di Ai as prince in 1281 but Di Ai and his small army were ambushed by Đại Việt forces.

Champa

Sogetu of the Jalairs, the governor of Guangzhou, was dispatched to demand the submission of Champa. Although the king of Champa accepted the status of a Mongol protectorate, his submission was unwilling. In 1282, Sogetu led a maritime invasion of Champa with 5,000 men, but could only muster 100 ships because most of the Yuan ships had been lost in the invasions of Japan.

However, Sogetu was successful in capturing Vijaya, the Champa capital later that year. The aged Champa king Indravarman V retreated out of the capital, avoiding Mongol attempts to capture him in the hills. His son would wage guerrilla warfare against the Mongols for the next few years, eventually wearing down the invaders. Stymied by the withdrawal of the Champa king, Sogetu asked reinforcements from Kublai but sailed home in 1284 just as another Mongol fleet with more than 15,000 troops under Ataqai and Arigh Khaiya reembarked on a fruitless mission to reinforce him. Sogetu presented his plan to have more troops invade Champa through Đại Việt. Kublai accepted his plan and put his son Toghan in command, with Sogetu as second in command.

Map depicting Mongol campaign in Đại Việt in the north and Champa in the south

Second Mongol invasion in 1285

This was the first invasion of Đại Việt by Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty. In 1284 Kublai appointed his son Toghan (Template:Lang-vi) to conquer Champa. Toghan demanded from the Trần a route to Champa, which would trap the Champan army from both north and south. While Nhân Tông accept the demand reluctantly, General Hưng Đạo rallied 15,000 troops and help the Champan.

Planning to weaken the enemies first, the Đại Việt royal family abandoned the capital, letting the Mongols capture it and retreated south while enacting a scorched earth campaign by burning villages and crops. At the same time, Sogetu moved his army up north in an attempt to envelop the royal family in a pincer movement, which the Vietnamese managed to escape.

Sogetu's army was weakened by the summer heat and the lack of food, so they stopped chasing the royal family and move north to join with Toghan. Seeing the Mongol's movement, Trần Hưng Đạo concluded that the Mongol was weakened and decided to take the opportunity to strike, selecting battlefields where the Mongol cavalry could not be fully employed.

The Cham were in pursuit of Sogetu as he was heading north, and killed him and defeated his army. However, according to Vietnamese history, Sogetu was defeated in Hàm Tử, Hưng Yên and was killed by the Vietnamese in his retreat. As the Yuan forces advanced down the Red River, dispersing their power, General Quang Khải counterattacked them at Chương Dương, forcing Toghan to withdraw. Toghan returned without a huge loss of the army under him thanks to the Kipchak officer Sidor and his navy. The Yuan army retreated north, but few made it back to China due to pursuing Đại Việt troops and warriors from the Hmong and Yao tribes.

The next year, Kublai installed Nhân Tông's younger brother Trần Ích Tắc, a defector to the Yuan, as prince of Đại Việt, but hardship in the Yuan's Hunan supply base aborted his plan.

Third/Final Mongol invasion, 1287-88

This was the second invasion of Đại Việt by Kublai Khan's Yuan dynasty. In 1287 the Yuan commander Toghan invaded with 70,000 regular troops, 21,000 tribal auxiliaries from Yunnan and Hainan, a 1000-man vanguard under Abachi, and 500 ships under the Muslim Omar (Vietnamese: Ô Mã Nhi) (who was the son of Nasr al-Din (Yunnan)) and Chinese Fanji (according to some sources, the Mongol force was composed of 300,000–500,000 men). Kublai sent veterans such as Arigh Khaiya, Nasir al-Din and his grandson Esen-Temür. The strategy of this invasion was different: a huge base was to be established just inland from Hải Phòng, and a large-scale naval assault mounted as well as a land attack. Despite the Mongol large-scaled invasion, Trần Quốc Tuấn confidently told the king that the invaders can be defeated easily this time. Trần Hưng Đạo withdrew from inhabited areas, leaving the Mongols with nothing to conquer. The whole fleet bringing food provisions to Toghan's army by maritime route was ambushed and destroyed by Trần Khánh Dư. Facing the lack of food again, Toghan retreated to China through the Bạch Đằng River.

Borrowing a tactic used by general Ngô Quyền in 938 to defeat an invading Chinese fleet, the Đại Việt forces drove iron-tipped stakes into the bed of the Bạch Đằng River, and then, with a small flotilla, lured the Mongol fleet into the river just as the tide was starting to ebb, while their route to the sea had been blockaded by large warships. Unable to return or escape to the sea, the entire Mongol fleet of 400 craft was caught in a bloody boarding and missile battle, sunk, captured, or burned by fire arrows. This would later become known as the Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288). The invading Mongol army of the Yuan retreated to China, harassed en route by Trần Hưng Đạo's troops. The Yuan officers such as Abachi and Fanji died in the bloody retreat and Omar was captured and executed.

Aftermath

In Đại Việt

Kublai angrily banished Toghan to Yangzhou for life. The Mongols and the Tran Vietnamese agreed to exchange their war prisoners. While Nhan Tong was willing to pay tribute to the Yuan, relations again foundered on the question of attendance at the Yuan court and hostile relations continued.

The Trần Dynasty decided to accept the supremacy of the Yuan dynasty in order to avoid further conflicts. Because he refused to come in person, Kublai detained his envoy, Dao-tu Ki, in 1293. Kublai's successor Temür Khan (r.1294-1307), finally released all detained envoys, settling for a tributary relationship, which continued to the end of the Yuan.

In Champa

The Champa Kingdom decided to accept the supremacy of the Yuan dynasty as well. A tributary relationship continued for some time, but Champa disappears from Yuan records before 1300. The king of Champa made the act of vassalage to the Mongols.

References

• Atwood, Christopher Pratt. (2004). Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. New York: Facts of File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4671-3.
• Connolly, Peter. (1998). The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient & Medieval Warfare. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-57958-116-9.
• Delgado, James P. (2008). Khubilai Khan's Lost Fleet: In Search of a Legendary Armada. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-0-520-25976-8.
• Grousset, René. (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
• Haw, S. G. (2013) "The Deaths of Two Khaghans", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

See also

• Kingdom of Champa
• Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288)
• Tran Hung Dao
• Yuan dynasty
• Kublai Khan
• Mongol invasions

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