Mongol-Southern Song Diplomatic Overtures

Timeline

1. 1225North China and the Huai-Yangtze region · ChinaAround 1225, Mongol forces under Muqali and his successors kept attacking Jin territory in Shandong and Hebei; Jin emperor Aizong (Shouxu) reformed court affairs but remained on the defensive. Southern Song held a stalemate with Jin forces along the Huai-Yangtze defense line while closely watching northern developments, weighing the possibility of allying with the Mongols or continuing to attack Jin.
2. 1225Border between Southern Song frontier and Mongol-occupied areas · Huai-Yangtze regionUnder Shi Miyuan's direction, the Southern Song court began secretly dispatching envoys to contact the Mongols, probing their attitude toward Song and their intentions after Jin's destruction. Exchanges were cautious and low-key, with no formal alliance yet formed, but the prior state of no formal Song-Mongol contact was broken.
3. 1225–1226Lin'an · Lin'anBy around 1226, Southern Song diplomacy toward the Mongols settled into a basic policy of 'outward courtesy, inward preparation': maintaining ceremonial exchanges on the surface while secretly strengthening border defenses and stockpiling grain for possible changes. This strategy continued for the next decade until the Duanping era, when formal alliance with the Mongols to attack Jin began.