The Song–Jin WarsExpansion eras
1115–1165
The Song–Jin Wars (1115–1165). You start as Soldier and could rise all the way to Commander-in-chief, if you survive. This era covers 40 historical battles.
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- Soldier
- Corporal
- Provost
- Sergeant
- Battalion commander
- Army commander
- Commander-in-chief
Historical battles
| Year | Battle | Est. casualties |
|---|---|---|
| 1115 | Battle of ZangdiheTong Guan ordered Liu Zhongwu and Wang Hou to gather the troops of every Shaanxi circuit and attack the Western Xia fortress of Zangdihe. They came back badly beaten. | ≈15% |
| 1119 | Battle of Tong'anTong Guan pressured Liu Fa, military commissioner of Xihe, into attacking Western Xia. At Tong'an, Liu Fa ran into the great army of Chage, Prince of Jin of Xia, and fought hard until dark. Breaking out, he fell from a cliff and was killed by Xia soldiers. | ≈30% |
| 1120 | Fall of HangzhouFang La rose at Qingxi in Muzhou, and people everywhere who had suffered under the Flower and Rock Network flocked to him. In the twelfth month Hangzhou fell. The fires burned for days, and the Liangzhe commissioners Chen Jian and Zhao Yue were both killed. | ≈40% |
| 1121 | Battle of XiuzhouFang La's lieutenant Fang Qifo besieged Xiuzhou, and the commander Wang Ziwu held out waiting for help. Wang Bing arrived with the Western Army, they attacked from inside and out, and the rebels were routed. | ≈15% |
| 1121 | Recapture of HangzhouTong Guan came south with the Western Army and the Imperial Army. Wang Bing retook Hangzhou, and Fang La fell back to his home at Qingxi. | ≈12% |
| 1121 | Battle of Bangyuan CaveFang La hid in Bangyuan Cave. Han Shizhong got a village woman to show him a hidden path, crept into the cave with his men and took Fang La alive — but Xin Xingzong stole the credit. In the valley outside, the dead were beyond counting. | ≈40% |
| 1122 | Battle of BaigouThe Song army marched north on Yanjing. Tong Guan believed the Liao would surrender at the sight of them and ordered that no one strike first. The Liao general Yelü Dashi attacked at the Baigou River, and Chong Shidao's great army fell back to Xiongzhou. | ≈8% |
| 1122 | Surprise Attack on YanjingThe defector general Guo Yaoshi slipped into Yanjing with his men by night and fought the Liao in the streets. The relief force under Liu Guangshi never arrived. Nearly all the Song troops inside the city were killed, and Guo Yaoshi escaped by letting himself down the wall on a rope. | ≈35% |
| 1122 | Rout at the Lugou RiverLiu Yanqing was camped south of the Lugou River. At night he saw fires to the north, thought the whole Liao army was coming, burned his camp and fled. His men trampled one another, and almost all the weapons and supplies stockpiled since the Xining and Yuanfeng years were lost. | ≈15% |
| 1125 | Battle of the Bai RiverThe Jin Eastern Route Army came south. Guo Yaoshi met them at the Bai River with his Ever-Victorious Army, lost, and promptly went over to the Jin, guiding their army south himself. | ≈20% |
| 1126 | First Siege of KaifengNot long after Emperor Qinzong took the throne, the Jin crossed the Yellow River and reached the walls of the Eastern Capital. Li Gang directed the defense from the walls, and catapults hurling thunderclap bombs and great bed crossbows beat back the assault. The court agreed to give up the three garrisons of Taiyuan, Zhongshan and Hejian to make peace, while it waited for loyalist armies from every region to come to the rescue. | ≈5% |
| 1126 | Yao Pingzhong's Night RaidThe Western Army general Yao Pingzhong led a night raid on the Jin camp, hoping to capture the Jin commander alive. The Jin were ready for him, and the raid failed. Yao Pingzhong escaped alone on horseback and lived out his life under another name. Soon after, the Jin received the edict ceding the three garrisons and withdrew north. | ≈30% |
| 1126 | Battle of ShaxionglingThe old general Chong Shizhong was sent to relieve Taiyuan, but the reinforcements he'd been promised never came. Surrounded by the Jin at Yuci, he took four wounds and died fighting. | ≈35% |
| 1126 | Fall of TaiyuanWang Bing held Taiyuan for more than 250 days. When the grain ran out, the people ate cowhide and the sinews off their bows. The city fell in the ninth month. Wang Bing threw himself into the Fen River with a portrait of the dynasty's founding emperor on his back. | ≈50% |
| 1126 | Fall of KaifengThe Jin besieged the capital a second time while the snow fell without end. The court put its faith in a man named Guo Jing, who claimed he could rout the enemy with "divine soldiers." Guo Jing opened the Xuanhua Gate and marched out; his men broke at the first clash, and the Jin swarmed up onto the walls. | ≈30% |
| 1129 | Fall of YangzhouThe Jin made a lightning strike on Yangzhou. Emperor Gaozong fled on horseback with only a few men and crossed the Yangtze at Guazhou. Soldiers and townspeople who couldn't get away crowded onto the riverbank, and countless were killed or drowned. | ≈15% |
| 1129 | Battle of LinpingThe commanders Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan staged a mutiny and forced Gaozong to give up the throne to his three-year-old son. Han Shizhong and others raised troops to save the emperor, beat the mutineers at Linping, and Gaozong was restored. | ≈4% |
| 1129 | Battle of MajiaduWuzhu crossed the Yangtze at Majiadu, upriver from Jiankang. The commander Chen Cui died fighting, the units beside him ran without a fight, and only Yue Fei's men fought on to the end. Soon after, the supreme commander Du Chong surrendered to the Jin. | ≈20% |
| 1129 | Battle of MingzhouThe Jin chased Gaozong all the way to eastern Zhejiang. Zhang Jun stopped them beneath the walls of Mingzhou — the first victory since the court fled south. By then Gaozong had already put out to sea to escape them. | ≈6% |
| 1130 | Battle of HuangtiandangWuzhu withdrew north to Zhenjiang. Han Shizhong blocked the river with eight thousand marines and trapped the Jin army in Huangtiandang for forty-eight days. His wife, Lady Liang, beat the war drums herself. In the end the Jin dug open the old bed of the Laoguan River, and on a windless day burned the big Song ships with fire arrows and broke out to the north. | ≈10% |
| 1130 | Recapture of JiankangYue Fei set an ambush on Mount Niutou, sent men into the Jin camp at night to harass them, and struck the retreating Jin army at Jing'an, retaking Jiankang. | ≈10% |
| 1130 | Battle of FupingZhang Jun gathered the Western Army from all five Shaanxi circuits to fight a decisive battle with the Jin at Fuping. The Jin cavalry laid brushwood across the marsh, crossed it, and broke into the Huanqing army's lines. The whole Song front collapsed, and most of Shaanxi was lost. | ≈20% |
| 1131 | Battle of HeshangyuanAt Heshangyuan the brothers Wu Jie and Wu Lin had their powerful bows and crossbows shoot in rotating volleys, and the Jin were badly beaten. Wuzhu was hit by a stray arrow and got away only by shaving off his beard. | ≈12% |
| 1133 | Battle of Raofeng PassThe Jin general Sali He threw everything at Raofeng Pass, and Wu Jie held it for six days. Then a deserter showed the Jin a path behind the mountain, and the pass was lost. | ≈15% |
| 1134 | Battle of Xianren PassWuzhu and Sali He came at the passes into Sichuan again with a great army. Wu Jie and Wu Lin built two lines of ramparts at Shajinping, in front of Xianren Pass. The Jin attacked for days without breaking through and went home badly beaten. | ≈10% |
| 1134 | Recovery of the Six Prefectures of XiangyangYue Fei led his army north and took back Yingzhou, Xiangyang, Suizhou, Tangzhou, Dengzhou and Xinyang from Puppet Qi. It was the first time since the flight south that a large stretch of lost land had been recovered. | ≈10% |
| 1134 | Battle of DayiThe Jin and Puppet Qi came south together. Han Shizhong pretended to withdraw and set an ambush at Dayi. His Beiwei troops, armed with long axes, cut at men's chests and horses' legs, and the Jin were badly beaten. | ≈10% |
| 1135 | Battle of Lake DongtingYang Yao had held out on Lake Dongting with his followers for five or six years. The paddle-wheel boats of his water forts, driven by treadmills, flew across the lake. Yue Fei had rotten timber and tangled grass strewn on the water, fouling the paddle wheels. | ≈3% |
| 1136 | Battle of OutangPuppet Qi came south in three columns. Yang Yizhong met Liu Ni at Outang. The Puppet Qi army was routed, and large numbers of its soldiers surrendered. | ≈12% |
| 1136 | Recovery of Shang and GuoYue Fei sent troops north and took Shangzhou, Guozhou and the country around Yiyang from Puppet Qi. Supplies couldn't keep up, and before long they had to fall back. | ≈10% |
| 1140 | Battle of ShunchangThe Jin tore up the treaty and came south. Liu Qi reached Shunchang with his Eight-Character Army and scuttled every boat to show they would not leave. In the heat of the sixth month, he rested his men in shifts and poisoned the upper Ying River and the grass. Only when the Jin were hot and parched did he sally out, and Wuzhu was badly beaten. | ≈12% |
| 1140 | Battle of YanchengWuzhu threw his best cavalry straight at Yue Fei's camp at Yancheng. Yue Fei had his infantry take up hemp-cutting blades and great axes, keep their heads down and hack only at the horses' legs. The Jin "flanking horse" was routed. | ≈10% |
| 1140 | Battle of YingchangYue Fei's eldest son, Yue Yun, charged back and forth more than a dozen times with the Beiwei cavalry outside Yingchang, until man and horse were drenched in blood. Wuzhu's son-in-law Xia Jinwu was killed. | ≈12% |
| 1141 | Battle of ZhegaoWuzhu came south again and drew up his cavalry at Zhegao. Yang Yizhong, Liu Qi and Wang De joined forces to meet him; the Song hacked away with long axes, and the Jin were beaten and fell back north. | ≈10% |
| 1141 | Battle of HaozhouHaozhou had already fallen, but Yang Yizhong was ordered to advance anyway. The Jin had laid an ambush in the city, and the Song army broke and fled in confusion. | ≈20% |
| 1161 | Naval Battle of TangdaoPrince Hailing sent a fleet south by sea. Li Bao struck it off Tangdao with 120 ships, shooting fire arrows into the oiled-cloth sails of the Jin ships, and the Jin fleet went up in a sea of flames. | ≈30% |
| 1161 | Battle of CaishiThe commanding general Wang Quan had been dismissed, and his replacement had not yet arrived. Yu Yunwen, a civil official sent to reward the troops, rallied eighteen thousand men scattered along the river, rammed the Jin landing boats with paddle-wheel warships, and stopped Prince Hailing. | ≈15% |
| 1162 | Battle of DeshunWu Lin marched out to retake the prefectures and counties of Shaanxi. At Deshun he fought the Jin back and forth, and in the end drove them off. | ≈8% |
| 1163 | Rout at FuliEmperor Xiaozong ordered Zhang Jun north, and Li Xianzhong and Shao Hongyuan took Suzhou. The two generals were at odds. When Jin reinforcements arrived, Shao Hongyuan held back his troops, the Song army fell apart on its own in the night, and was routed at Fuli. | ≈25% |
| 1164 | Battle of HuaiyinThe Jin crossed the Huai and came south. Wei Sheng met them at Huaiyin. The relief force was slow to arrive, and he died fighting. | ≈25% |
Casualty rates are the game's estimates from historical sources, used to work out the chance of dying. Treat them as approximate.
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