Could Zhuge Liang have saved the Southern Song?

If instead of Jia Sidao, the Southern Song has somebody like Zhuge Liang or Cao Cao in charge, or had the second coming of Taizong in charge, could the Southern Song have held on until the early 14th century, at which time the Yuan started to get military less competent, alternatively if Alexander, Scipio, or Caesar got teleported in during the siege of Xianyang and was appointed C-in-C of the entire Southern Song armed forces, could he have dealt with the Mongols successfully?
 
They will need to fix the economy first.

The Song Dynasty,contrary to popular imagination,did not actually lose to the Mongols because they were militarily incompetent,they actually lost because they could not actually pay the army,surprise! They actually won the first two wars against the Mongols when the Mongols tried to invade the Song Dynasty. In the second one,Jia Sidao himself withstood an attack by an army led by Kublai himself while another general in Sichuan actually killed Mongke Khan in battle.

What happened next was that they ran out of money paying for the army and became bankrupt.Starting with the failed offensive against the Jin Dynasty in the early 1200s,the Song treasury was depleted and various administrations started printing paper money and caused an economic crisis due to inflation. The Song Dynasty had to repeatedly print more and more paper money to afford rising military expenditures due to rising military costs against the Mongols.It did not help that the Mongols were able to devastate Sichuan,Huinan,Hubei and Hunan during the war.

The lack of money meant that Jia Sidao had to use fairly drastic measures,including arresting and confiscating the properties of military governors who used more public funds than allocated on the military. The problem was that due to the fact that the Song treasury was unable to pay the troops,almost every military governor had to find less than legal means to pay the troops. Jia Sidao exploited this to arrest and confiscate the wealth of several generals he was at odds with,and this resulted in quite a number of Song generals defecting to the Mongols,including those who were experienced in naval warfare. One particular general,Liu Zheng,helped the Mongols build a riverine navy that played the decisive role in neutralising the Song navy,hence helping the Mongols conquer the Song Dynasty.

Even Jia’s ‘auditing’ did not save the Song Dynasty however,as they still ran out of money to pay and reward the troops,and this resulted the troops defecting to the Mongols at the end.
 
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They will need to fix the economy first.

The Song Dynasty,contrary to popular imagination,did not actually lose to the Mongols because they were militarily incompetent,they actually lost because they could not actually pay the army,surprise! They actually won the first two wars against the Mongols when the Mongols tried to invade the Song Dynasty. In the second one,Jia Sidao himself withstood an attack by an army led by Kublai himself while another general in Sichuan actually killed Mongke Khan in battle.

What happened next was that they ran out of money paying for the army and became bankrupt.Starting with the failed offensive against the Jin Dynasty in the early 1200s,the Song treasury was depleted and various administrations started printing paper money and caused an economic crisis due to inflation.
Sources?
 

Kaze

Banned
Having a single general save the Southern Song is not the solution - there would need not only a reform of the economy but other reforms - military and social as well.

Yue Fei was on the caliber of any of the Generals of the Three Kingdoms Period. He had several problems - firstly, he could not capitalize on his victories without being countermanded by the capital - the Emperor Gaozong feared that if Yue Fei took Kaifeng, that the general might release Emperor Qinzong (Emperor Qinzong's existence threatened Gaozong's claim to the throne and could lead to civil war). Secondly, the corrupt officials in the capital decided to sign a peace treaty. They recalled him from the front. Thirdly, the corrupt officials saw the requirements of the treaty - the life of Yue Fei - the officials concocted a conspiracy saying that Yue Fei wanted to rebel and become Emperor. Yue Fei was executed because "it might be true" or "there is no reason needed." After the death of Yue Fei, competent generals were in short supply - they feared they would face the same fate as Yue Fei.
 
With a POD of 1240,for the Song Dynasty to survive against the Mongols,they will need to militarily win a victory and then negotiate a settlement with the Mongols whereby they become a tributary of the Mongols.The cost of war’s simply just way to great compared to the cost of paying tribute.

Need to stop printing too much paper money,which could be helped now that the war has ended.

End the system of overcentralization. The Song Dynasty was overcentralized.Most taxes were expected to be delivered to the capital instead of developing provinces locally. Until the very end,generals were also not the governors of the provinces they were defending. This often led to disputes between generals and local governors. During the Song offensive to retake the Central Plains immediately after the Song-Mongol defeat of Jin for example,troops were literally starving because a provincial governor disagreed with the war and refused to supply the troops,which partly led to the collapse of the offensive when the Mongols attacked.A greater proportion of taxes should also remain in the local province to develop it locally. One of the sources I’ve posted claims that instead of experiencing economic growth,the Southern Song Dynasty as a whole actually contracted economically.

Develop a blue water navy.In the final years of the Song Dynasty,piracy and most likely smuggling as well was rampant. Pirates needs to be put down. If possible they should also colonize different lands. The state will also need to tax landlords. Most landlords consolidated land and refused to pay taxes towards the end of the Song Dynasty. Jia Sidao IOTL tried to combat this by limiting the amount of land any person can own based on their status(government officials are allowed to have more land for example),while forcefully requisitioning any excess land they own beyond the limit.

They will also need to trust generals a lot more but at the same time discipline them if necessary.Several generals,like Meng Gong,Yu Jie and Wang Jian,who actually defeated the Mongols in pitched battles,were actually distrusted and either forcefully retired,demoted or forced to commit suicide.At the same time however,the army was extremely corrupt and a lot of generals actually over-report the number of troops they actually have to increase their pay.

They will also need to raise their own warhorses properly. Claims about not being able to raise warhorses in warm areas’ utter bullshit. The truth was that most Song officials did not want to yield farmland to raise warhorses,they were also utterly incompetent in raising warhorses.

Bid their time after they’ve finished with the reforms to fight the Mongols again.
 
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They will also need to raise their own warhorses properly. Claims about not being able to raise warhorses in warm areas’ utter bullshit. The truth was that most Song officials did not want to yield farmland to raise warhorses,they were also utterly incompetent in raising warhorses.

If they did convert farmland to grassland, wouldn't that hurt South Song's agricultural production?

What were the reasons for such incompetency? Lack of know how? Education? Greed? or lack of incentives to act?
 
If they did convert farmland to grassland, wouldn't that hurt South Song's agricultural production?

What were the reasons for such incompetency? Lack of know how? Education? Greed? or lack of incentives to act?
It probably will,but there's always a choice.Would you like a bit less food in one area or not a lot of food everywhere else because of enemy attack?Because if there's not enough horses,you are sitting ducks to your enemy.

At any rate,there are places in the Southern Song Dynasty where warhorses can clearly be raised,despite all the Song talk about Southern China lacked places to breed horses. When the Ming Dynasty first started,almost all of their warhorses were raised by the Mongols in Huainan.In the last years of the Song Dynasty,Huainan was more or less devastated due to the Mongol attacks,and the governor of the area actually attempted to raise horses there.

As for mismanagement, it may be due to a combination of everything you mentioned. I'm not too sure,but I have read reports about the Song officials and the people they delegated the task to crossbreed warhorses to normal farming horses,and that it lead to a deterioration in the quality of the Song Dynasty's warhorses.
 
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