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= = = Song counteroffensive and the peace process = = =
Gaozong promoted Qin Hui in 1138 and put him in charge of deliberations with the Jin . Yue Fei , Han Shizhong , and a large number of officials at court criticized the peace overtures . Aided by his control of the Censorate , Qin purged his enemies and continued negotiations . In 1138 the Jin and Song agreed to a trea...
Emperor Gaozong supported settling a peace treaty with the Jurchens and sought to rein in the assertiveness of the military . The military expeditions of Yue Fei and other generals were an obstacle to peace negotiations . The government weakened the military by rewarding Yue Fei , Han Shizhong , and Zhang Jun ( 1086 –...
After his execution , Yue Fei 's reputation for defending the Southern Song grew to that of a national folk hero . Qin Hui was denigrated by later historians , who accused him of betraying the Song . The real Yue Fei differed from the later myths based on his exploits . Contrary to traditional legends , Yue was only o...
= = = Treaty of Shaoxing = = =
On October 11 , 1142 , after about a year of negotiations , the Treaty of Shaoxing was ratified , ending the conflict between the Jin and the Song . By the terms of the treaty , the Huai River , north of the Yangtze , was designated as the boundary between the two empires . The Song agreed to pay a yearly tribute of 2...
The treaty reduced the Southern Song 's status to that of a Jin vassal . The document designated the Song as the " insignificant state " , while the Jin was recognized as the " superior state " . The text of the treaty has not survived in Chinese records , a sign of its humiliating reputation . The contents of the agr...
= = = Further campaigns = = =
= = = = Prince of Hailing 's campaign = = = =
Wanyan Liang ( the Prince of Hailing ) led a coup against Emperor Xizong and became fourth emperor of the Jin dynasty in 1150 . Wanyan Liang presented himself as a Chinese emperor , and planned to unite China by conquering the Song . In 1158 , Wanyan Liang provided a casus belli by announcing that the Song had broken ...
The Song official Yu Yunwen was in command of the army defending the river . The Jurchen army was defeated while attacking Caishi between November 26 and 27 during the Battle of Caishi . The paddle @-@ wheel ships of the Song navy , armed with trebuchets that fired gunpowder bombs , overwhelmed the light ships of the ...
A modern analysis of the battlefield has shown that it was a minor battle , although the victory did boost Song morale . The Jin lost , but only suffered about 4 @,@ 000 casualties and the battle was not fatal to the Jurchen war effort . It was Wanyan Liang 's poor relationships with the Jurchen generals , who despise...
= = = = Song revanchism = = = =
The Jin were weakened by the pressure of the rising Mongols to the north , a series of floods culminating in a Yellow River flood in 1194 that devastated Hebei and Shandong in northern China , and the droughts and swarming locusts that plagued the south near the Huai . The Song were informed of the Jurchen predicament...
Song armies led by general Bi Zaiyu ( 畢再遇 ; d . 1217 ) captured the barely defended border city of Sizhou 泗州 ( on the north bank of the Huai River across from modern Xuyi County ) but suffered large losses against the Jurchens in Hebei . The Jin repelled the Song and moved south to besiege the Song town of Chuzhou 楚州 ...
A notable betrayal did occur on the Song side , however : Wu Xi ( 吳曦 ; d . 1207 ) , the governor @-@ general of Sichuan , defected to the Jin in December 1206 . The Song had depended on Wu 's success in the west to divert Jin soldiers away from the eastern front . He had attacked Jin positions earlier in 1206 , but hi...
Fighting continued in 1207 , but by the end of that year the war was at a stalemate . The Song was now on the defensive , while the Jin failed to make gains in Song territory . The failure of Han Tuozhou 's aggressive policies led to his demise . On December 15 , 1207 , Han was beaten to death by the Imperial Palace G...
= = = = Song – Jin war during the rise of the Mongols = = = =
The Mongols , a nomadic confederation , had unified in the middle of the twelfth century . They and other steppe nomads occasionally raided the Jin empire from the northwest . The Jin shied away from punitive expeditions and was content with appeasement , similar to the practices of the Song . The Mongols , formerly a...
A second Jin campaign in late 1217 did marginally better than the first . In the east , the Jin made little headway in the Huai River valley , but in the west they captured Xihezhou and Dasan Pass ( 大散關 ; modern Shaanxi ) in late 1217 . The Jin tried to captured Suizhou in Jingxi South circuit again in 1218 and 1219 ,...
= = = = Mongol – Song alliance = = = =
In February 1233 , the Mongols took Kaifeng after a siege of more than 10 months and the Jin court retreated to the town of Caizhou . In 1233 Emperor Aizong ( r . 1224 – 1234 ) of the Jin dispatched diplomats to implore the Song for supplies . Jin envoys reported to the Song that the Mongols would invade the Song afte...
= = Historical significance = =
= = = Cultural and demographic changes = = =
Jurchen migrants from the northeastern reaches of Jin territory settled in the Jin @-@ controlled lands of northern China . Constituting less than ten percent of the total population , the two to three million ruling Jurchens were a minority in a region that was still dominated by 30 million Han Chinese . The southwar...
The Jin government initially promoted an independent Jurchen culture alongside their adoption of the centralized Chinese imperial bureaucracy , but the empire was gradually sinicized over time . The Jurchens became fluent in the Chinese language , and the philosophy of Confucianism was used to legitimize the ruling go...
The emperor 's political reforms were connected with his desire to conquer all of China and to legitimize himself as a Chinese emperor . The prospect of conquering southern China was cut short by Wanyan Liang 's assassination . Wanyan Liang 's successor , Emperor Shizong , was less enthusiastic about sinicization and ...
In the south , the retreat of the Song dynasty led to major demographic changes . The population of refugees from the north that resettled in Hangzhou and Jiankang ( modern Nanjing ) eventually grew greater than the population of original residents , whose numbers had dwindled from repeated Jurchen raids . The governm...
The new capital Hangzhou grew into a major commercial and cultural center . It rose from a middling city of no special importance to one of the world 's largest and most prosperous . During his stay in Hangzhou in the Yuan dynasty ( 1260 – 1368 ) , when the city was not as wealthy as it had been under the Song , Marco...
The loss of northern China , the cultural center of Chinese civilization , diminished the international status of the Song dynasty . After the Jurchen conquest of the north , Korea recognized the Jin , not the Song , as the legitimate dynasty of China . The Song 's military failures reduced it to a subordinate of the ...
= = = Gunpowder warfare = = =
The battles between the Song and the Jin spurred the invention and use of gunpowder weapons . There are reports that the fire lance , one of the earliest ancestors of the firearm , was used by the Song against the Jurchens besieging De 'an ( 德安 ; modern Anlu in eastern Hubei ) in 1132 , during the Jin invasion of Hube...
Early rudimentary bombs like the huopao fire bomb ( 火礮 ) and the huopao ( 火砲 ) bombs propelled by trebuchet were also in use as incendiary weapons . The defending Song army used huopao ( 火礮 ) during the first Jin siege of Kaifeng in 1126 . On the opposing side , the Jin launched incendiary bombs from siege towers down...
Gunpowder was also applied to arrows in 1206 by a Song army stationed in Xiangyang . The arrows were most likely an incendiary weapon , but its function may also have resembled that of an early rocket . At the Jin siege of Qizhou ( 蘄州 ) in 1221 , the Jurchens fought the Song with gunpowder bombs and arrows . The Jin t...
= T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage =
The T30 Howitzer Motor Carriage ( HMC ) was a United States Army self @-@ propelled gun used in World War II . Its design was based on requirements for an assault gun issued by the Armored Force in 1941 and it was built as an interim solution until a fully tracked design was complete .
Produced by the White Motor Company , the vehicle was simply a 75 mm Pack Howitzer M1 mounted on a modified M3 Half @-@ track . It was first used in combat in the North African Campaign in November 1942 . It later served in Italy and France , and possibly in the Pacific . Some were later leased to French forces and th...
= = Specifications = =
Based on the M3 Half @-@ track , the T30 's specifications were similar to its parent vehicle . It was 20 ft 7 in ( 6 @.@ 28 m ) long , 6 ft 5 in ( 1 @.@ 96 m ) wide , 8 ft 3 in ( 2 @.@ 51 m ) and high , and weighed 10 @.@ 3 short tons ( 9 @.@ 3 t ) . The suspension consisted of vertical volute springs for the tracks ...
= = = Gun specifications = = =
The T30 's main armament was a short barreled 3 @.@ 0 in ( 75 mm ) pack howitzer . The 75 mm Pack Howitzer M1 as mounted could depress nine degrees , elevate 50 degrees , and traverse 22 @.@ 5 degrees to each side . The vehicle had stowage for sixty rounds of 75 mm ammunition and , although it was not designed for ant...
= = Development = =
The T30 HMC was originally conceived in 1941 as an interim design to fulfil the Armored Force 's requirement for an assault gun to equip tank and armored reconnaissance units . The Ordnance Department design was based on the M3 Half @-@ track in order that it could be brought into service quickly . A prototype vehicle...
Authorization for the production of two prototypes was given in January 1942 ; first deliveries of the vehicle were made the following month from the White Motor Company . As it was seen as a temporary solution it was never given type classification . In September 1942 , the T30 was partially replaced by the Howitzer ...
= = Service history = =
The T30 HMC entered service in November 1942 , seeing action for the first time in the North African Campaign . In the 1st Armored Division , each armored regiment was issued twelve T30s . Of these , three were used in each battalion headquarters platoon and three were used in each regimental reconnaissance platoon . ...
Most infantry divisions in the North African Campaign deployed a " cannon company " equipped with six T30s and two 105 mm T19 HMCs . In one encounter in North Africa , the T30 was used in an attempt to destroy German tanks . Although the T30s fired several volleys , the German tanks were barely damaged and the T30s we...
The T30 also served during the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943 , the war in Italy in 1944 , and possibly in the Pacific . It was removed from infantry division use in March 1943 , following changes in the organization of US infantry battalions , and was replaced by towed howitzers . The T30 was eventually replaced b...
= Memory Almost Full =
Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney , discounting his Wings @-@ era discography , his orchestral works and his output as the Fireman . It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later . The album was the first release on Starbucks ' Hear Mus...
Memory Almost Full reached the Top 5 in both the UK and US , as well as Denmark , Sweden , Greece , and Norway . The Grammy @-@ nominated album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500 @,@ 000 copies just in the United States . The album was released in...
= = Background = =
Nine demos were recorded at The Mill studio in September 2003 by Paul McCartney and his touring band . A month later , in October , album sessions for Memory Almost Full began , and were produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios . McCartney and the band recorded the songs " You Tell Me " , " Only Mama...
= = Recording = =
Many songs from Memory Almost Full were from a group of songs , which also included songs from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , and some intended for the former nearly ended up on the latter . Any songs that were started , but not finished , for Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , McCartney didn 't want to re @-@...
New tracks were recorded at the following studios : McCartney 's home studio in Sussex , The Mill , Los Angeles ' Henson Studios , London 's RAK Studios and AIR Studios , and New York 's SeeSquared Studios . The songs recorded at those studios were " Nod Your Head " , " In Private " , " 222 " , " Gratitude " , " Mr. B...
= = Content = =
The Rock Radio website leaked a track listing for the album on 12 April 2007 . A day later , producer David Kahne stated on the same site that the leaked listing was bogus . In an interview with Billboard magazine in May 2007 , McCartney said that the album 's material was " in some ways a little bit retrospective . S...
" Mr. Bellamy " , the sixth song on the album , was thought by online fans to be about McCartney 's then @-@ recent divorce . McCartney invited Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to play piano on the song , but he declined . The press ran articles claiming that Yorke had " snubbed " McCartney , but Yorke later revealed tha...
The album features a five song @-@ medley , which in an interview with Billboard magazine , McCartney said that it was previously " something I wanted to revisit " as " nobody had been doing that for a while . " The medley was a group of intentionally written material , whereas McCartney had worked on the Beatles ' Ab...