High Middle Ages · East Asia · War

1124

Song loses Yanjing to Jurchen

1124

The Jin dynasty took the Sixteen Prefectures, including what is now Beijing, from their nominal Song allies. The Song had hired the Jurchen to destroy the Liao and then found themselves facing a far more dangerous neighbor. The mistake would cost them North China within three years, a catastrophic miscalculation that haunted Song strategists for the rest of the dynasty's existence.