Officers: prévôtés, bailiwicks, seneschals · The Southern Song of Zhao Kuo (Ningzong) · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Zhenjiang army

Zhenjiang (Jingkou) is where the Grand Canal meets the Yangtze opposite Guazhou and Yangzhou.

The Zhenjiang army is the strongest force of the eastern river line, successor of the army of the general Han Shizhong, and it covers both the lower Yangtze crossing and the road north to the Huai; its commander is a du tongzhi under the Privy Council. Beside it the Huaidong paymaster-general (zongling) pays the troops and the Huai garrisons from his seat at Zhenjiang: the court keeps the money from the generals' hands. Commanders and paymasters are not named for that winter in the sources we read, except that the list of the proscribed names the Wenzhou scholar Ye Shi as the Huaidong paymaster-general when he was listed (about 1197-98); he lost the post in the purge, so a successor holds it in 1200.

In 1206-07 the commander is Guo Ni, whose army is routed at the Xupu bridge near Yangzhou in the 12th month of Kaixi 2 (about December 1206 to January 1207).

Who he is

Name
Not known for 1 January 1200
Title
Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army at Zhenjiang (Zhenjiang fu zhu jun du tongzhi); Huaidong paymaster-general (zongling)
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

Institutional knowledge; the Song shi quan wen names Guo Ni as the commander in 1206 (not for 1200).

Overlord

The Privy Council and the emperor.

What it holds

  • The army's barracks at Zhenjiang and the Yangtze ferry at Jingkou
  • The treasury office of the Huaidong paymaster-general
  • The river fleet's Zhenjiang station

How it was acquired

Standing since the 1130s.

Allies and rivals

Works with the Huaidong pacification command at Yangzhou; rivalry with the Jiankang army over supplies.

How things stand that morning

Peace-time garrison; no operations.

Wealth

Rice and silk of the Taihu region feed it; the Grand Canal is its supply line.

Military

No numbers given here. It is the army that crosses to Yangzhou to hold the Huai line.

Threats

  • The Jin if the peace breaks (the army would fight at Yangzhou and Chuzhou)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

  1. December 1206Under Guo Ni the Zhenjiang army fights the Jin at Yangzhou and is routed at Xupu bridge (12th month of Kaixi 2).Depends on: The failed northern war of 1206. Stopped by: Peace holds.

Places of note

  • Jingkou ferry and the canal mouth: Canal and river crossing, army barracks

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: No commander for 1200; structure from general knowledge; Guo Ni from the chronicle of 1206.

On the map: Drawn as the garrison town's near land.

Primary sources for Southern Song

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
  • Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
  • History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
  • History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
  • History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
  • Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

12 more in the sources library for South China.

Sources and studies

  1. Songshi quanwen, juan 29 xia, Ningzong annals Jiatai 1 to Kaixi 3 (zh.wikisource, Siku edition)
  2. General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.