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Li Heng (Yuan general)
Early Yuan general of Western Xia royal descent who served under Zhang Hongfan in the conquest of the Southern Song and led the northern squadron that broke Zhang Shijie's fleet at Yamen; not the Tang emperor Muzong, Li Heng.
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Deqing · Li Heng (Yuan)
Li Heng, courtesy name Deqing, was an early Yuan general. His forebears, originally of the Yumi clan, received the surname Li at the end of the Tang and ruled Western Xia for generations; after Xia fell the family entered Mongol service. He held commands such as myriarch of the new Yidu-Zilai army and fought against the Song under Bayan and Ariq Qaya in Jiangxi and Guangdong. At the battle of Yamen in 1279, when Zhang Shijie chained more than a thousand ships into a floating fortress, Li Heng cut off their water supply and led the northern squadron against it on the tide while Zhang Hongfan attacked from the south, destroying the Song fleet. He rose to Assistant Chancellor of the Left. Wounded by a poisoned arrow during the 1285 retreat from the Annam campaign, he died at Siming at the age of fifty. His biography is in the Yuan Shi. He is not the Tang emperor Muzong, Li Heng.
Life and times
Dates c. 1236 CE–1285 CE