- Battle of Tangdao
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Tangdao
partof=the Jin-Song wars
caption=
date=16 November 1161
place=Tangdao , an island nearShandong Peninsula at the East China Sea
casus=
territory=
result=Song victory
combatant1=Jurchen Jin
combatant2=Southern Song
commander1=Su Baoheng andWanyan Zhengjianu
commander2=Li Bao
strength1=600 warships and 70,000 troops
strength2=120 warships and 3000 troops
casualties1=
casualties2=
notes=The naval Battle of Tangdao (唐岛之战) took place in
1161 between theJurchen Jin and theSouthern Song Dynasty ofChina on the East China Sea. It was an attempt by the Jin to invade and conquer the Southern Song Dynasty, yet resulted in failure and defeat for the Jurchens. The Jin Dynasty navy was set on fire byfirearm s andFire Arrow s, suffering heavy losses. For this battle, the commander of the Song Dynasty squadron, Li Bao, faced the opposing commander Zheng Jia, the admiral of the Jin Dynasty. On the fate of Zheng Jia, the historical text of the "Jin Shi" states:cquote
Zheng Jia did not know the sea routes (among the islands) well, nor much about the management of ships, and he did not believe (that the enemy, the Song, was near). But all of the sudden they appeared, and finding us quite unready they hurled incendiery gunpowder projectiles on to our ships. So seeing all his ships going up in flames, and having no means of escape, Zheng Jia jumped into the sea and was drowned.Needham, Volume 5, Part 7, 157.]
30px|30pxThis battle was followed by another naval confrontation, the
Battle of Caishi (采石之战) taking place in 1161. On the significance of these battles and the development of China's first permanent standing navy during the Song, the historianJoseph Needham stated that from a total of 11squadron s and 3,000 men the Song navy rose in one century to 20 squadrons totalling 52,000 men, with its main base nearShanghai . The needs of the regular striking force of the Song navy could also be supported by substantial Chinese merchants in the south. In this Jin campaign of 1161 AD, some 340 ships participated in the battles on theYangtze . Yet there was a long process leading up to this battle; in 1129 (AD)trebuchet s throwinggunpowder bombs were decreed standard equipment on all warships, between 1132 AD and 1183 AD a large number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including stern-wheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side (the invention of the remarkable engineer Gao Xuan). In 1203 AD some of these were armored with iron plates (to the design of another outstanding shipwright Qin Shi-Fu). The navy of the Southern Song Dynasty thus successfully held off the Jurchen Jin Dynasty and then the invading Mongols for the span of nearly two centuries, gaining complete control of theEast China Sea .Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 476.]ee also
*
Naval warfare
*Maritime history
*Military history of China
*Naval history of China
*History of the Song Dynasty
*Technology of the Song Dynasty
*Gunpowder warfare
*Battle of Caishi
*Jiao Yu Notes
References
*"Fighting Ships of the Far East" 1 - "China and Southeast Asia 202 BC - AD 1419" (2002) Turnbull, Stephen Oxford: Osprey Publishing
*Needham, Joseph (1986) "Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3" Taipei: Caves Books Ltd
*Needham, Joseph (1986) "Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 7" Taipei: Caves Books Ltd
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