With the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty and the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, Jiaxing's status as the "land of Longxing" and the place of Jifu fell sharply, and even the city walls were demolished, but the urban economy has achieved sustainable development.
From the second year of Duanping (1235), the Mongolian army launched a comprehensive attack on the Southern Song Dynasty, which lasted for more than 40 years. In the first month of the 13th year of the Zhiyuan era (1276), the Left Route Yuan Army led by Dong Wenbing successively surrendered to Zhapu, Haiyan, Yanguan and other places. Boyan, the commander of the Yuan Army, led the Middle Route Yuan Army to the Jiaxing City. Liu Hanjie, the governor of Jiaxing, surrendered and was appointed as a pacifier to guard Jiaxing. Perhaps because the city wall is too high for Mongolian cavalry to gallop, or perhaps because the city wall is afraid of becoming a stronghold against the Yuan Dynasty again, or perhaps to show dignity and awe, Boyan ordered to demolish the city after occupying Jiaxing. In the 13th year of the Zhiyuan era (1276), the city wall of Jiaxing Luocheng was demolished along with the four towers. Ming Hongzhi's Jiaxing Chronicle records: "In the 13th year of the Zhiyuan era, the Hui county town, Luocheng Suiping, and the gatehouses were all destroyed, but only the sub city survived." In this way, Jiaxing City, which was built in the first year of Tang Wende (888), was razed to the ground after 380 years of existence, and the situation of Jiaxing City returned to the Three Kingdoms period.
After the Yuan Dynasty pacified Jiangnan, it carried out a policy of ethnic discrimination and brutal rule. According to the order of affiliation, the Yuan Dynasty divided the residents of the country into four categories: Mongolian, Semu, Han and Nanren. Mongols in the Yuan Dynasty, known as the "national race", have the highest status. Semu people include Tangwu people, Weiwu people and people of all ethnic groups in the Western Regions. Han people refer to Nuzhen people, Khitans and Han people under the former Jin Dynasty. The southerners are the residents of all ethnic groups in the original area ruled by the Southern Song Dynasty except Sichuan. In addition to protecting the Mongolian and Semu nobles, the Yuan government also gave preferential treatment to the Han people to suppress the southern people, used the Han people to control the southern people, and deliberately differentiated the Han nationality. At that time, the local people in Jiaxing were seriously discriminated against politically. In the Yuan Dynasty, there were almost no Jiaxing people who entered the imperial office, and a considerable number of official families tended to decline.
In Jiaxing, Mongolian nobles and officials occupied fields, established manors and plundered wealth. Today, Baihua Village on Chengbei Road and Jiabei Street was called Baihua because the prime minister of Zhejiang province also prejudged Hua to occupy the village in the Yuan Dynasty. In Zicheng, there was Princess Baihua's general station, which also came from the legend of the Yexianhua clan.
However, Dadu (now Beijing), the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, mainly relied on the economically developed Jianghuai region for its national taxes. Every year, millions of stones of grain and other materials were transported from Jiangnan to Beijing by water transport, maintaining the huge expenditure of the state and the military. Therefore, Jiaxing's advantages and importance as a key grain area and water transport hub again highlighted.
Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the economic center of gravity has moved southward, and Jiaxing has gradually formed the characteristics of intensive farming and farmland management, becoming a prosperous town in the southeast. In the Yuan Dynasty, with the promotion of agricultural measures, agricultural production technology was further improved, and agricultural production made considerable progress. In addition to rice, Jiaxing's grain crops were also increasingly popularized. Because a large number of people from the north moved southward, which brought great differences in living habits to the south of the Yangtze River, wheat has become a widely planted crop, and more rice wheat multiple cropping rotation cropping system has been formed. Rice and wheat replanting, crop rotation, rational and effective use of soil resources, grain production increased significantly, and became one of the main undertakers of rice in the Yuan Dynasty. People said that "Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are the best in terms of taxes and grain, and Pingjiang, Jiaxing, and Huzhou are the best in terms of six and seven provinces in Jiangsu and Zhejiang".
In the Yuan Dynasty, water transport in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was mainly by sea, supplemented by river transport. At first, it was mostly transported by Liujiagang (now Liuhe Town, Taicang County, Jiangsu Province). Later, more and more people moved to Ganpu Port to transport the capital, which made Jiaxing one of the main transit places for water transport. Not only the grain transported by the river in eastern Zhejiang and other places is gathered and transferred here, but also the grain transported by the river in Jiangxi and Huguang is often transferred to Ganpu for shipping. Therefore, Jiaxing Office was one of the 11 offices set up by Wanhu Mansion in the early Yuan Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Zhida era (1311), the imperial court sent officials to Zhejiang to discuss shipping. With the idea of "transporting grain from Ningguo, Chi, Rao, Jiankang and other places in the east of the Yangtze River, they led sea going ships upstream from the Yangtze River. The river is fast, there are many rocks, the sand is shallow, and the grain ships are bad all the year round. The grain from Huguang and Jiangxi was transported to Zhenzhou and berthed in sea ships. The boats are big and small at the bottom, which is not suitable in the river", so they decided to transport Jiangxi Grain and rice in Huguang and other places were changed into money or discounted, exchanged with Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and loaded with water transport nearby. Since then, Jiaxing has had a closer relationship with shipping, and sea grain has increased greatly. Grain ships from Jiaxing to Ganpu were very busy with the arrival of masts. Later, when compiling Yongzheng's "Zhejiang General Annals", the Qing Dynasty also could not help sighing: "Jiaxing is a big government in Zhejiang Province, while Songjiang was Huating government in the early Yuan Dynasty. Jiaxing was a city that was promoted to government, which was the benefit of sea water transport, but there were only a lot of millets in Zhejiang. When Emperor Guanshun was at the right time, sea water transport was not available, and it was even more obvious to levy millet on Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen. Then, when the Yuan Dynasty was at the right time, sea transport was undoubtedly the water transport of Zhejiang.".
The prosperity of trade and the busy transportation stimulated the development of shipbuilding industry. The shipbuilding and ship repair in Jiaxing in the Yuan Dynasty had a considerable scale and level. At this time, the Tianfei Palace was built in Jiaxing to worship Mazu. Mazu is known as the "goddess of navigation", "goddess of peace", and also the "god of the sea" in the eyes of the people who bless the safety of navigation. The establishment of Tianfei Palace shows the close relationship between Jiaxing and shipping.
In the Yuan Dynasty, grain shipping was initiated, but the sea was windy and the waves were fierce, and the ships were small. Every year, the shipwrecks consumed more than 200000 stone and drowned 5000 or 6000 boatmen, so it was changed to land and water transport. The route was first through the Jiangnan Canal, Huaiyang Canal to Huai'an, then up the Surabaya River, to Fengqiu, Zhongluan (the north bank of the Yellow River), Henan, and then to land transport, and then to Qimen (today's Xinxiang, Henan), after carrying cattle, and then to water transport, From the Yuhe River (Weihe River) to Zhigu (Tianjin), and then to the Baihe River (now the North Canal) northward, to Tongzhou, and then to Dadu (Beijing) by land. This is not only a long detour, but also repeated loading and unloading, time-consuming and laborious, which is very inconvenient. In the 18th year of the Zhiyuan era (1281), Kublai Khan, the Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty, sent Oruch to preside over the excavation of the Jeju River. The project was started in December of the 19th year of the Zhiyuan era (1282) and completed in August of the 20th year of the Zhiyuan era (1283). In the 16th year of the Zhiyuan era (1289), the Yuan Dynasty further excavated the Huitong River to the north. In the first month of that year, the project was started and completed in June. In the autumn of the 19th year of the Zhiyuan era (1292), Guo Shoujing, the city water supervisor, presided over the excavation of the Tonghui River, which was completed in the autumn of the next year. So far, from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north, the Beijing Hangzhou Canal connecting the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huaihe River, the Yellow River and the Haihe River has been completed. This is another great feat following the excavation of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty.
The whole line of the Beijing Hangzhou Canal runs through, and Jiaxing has become a more prominent river transportation hub, becoming a prosperous city with convergence of commodities. Therefore, Jiaxing Mansion was upgraded to Jiaxing Road in the Yuan Dynasty, governing four counties of Jiaxing, Huating, Chongde and Haiyan. In the road city, there were soldiers and horses to manage urban affairs. As a result, Jiaxing in the Yuan Dynasty had a prosperous urban economy, further expanded its scale, and gradually became a prosperous place outside the East Gate.
As early as the early Yuan Dynasty, the wine and vinegar tax and business tax revenue of Jiaxing cities and towns reached more than 15000 ingots, including 3400 ingots in Lucheng, which was far more than many road level cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the same period. By the middle of the Yuan Dynasty, it had become an important tax place in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and its tax revenue along with Huzhou and Pingjiang (now Suzhou) accounted for 67% of the total provincial tax revenue. No wonder Jin Wu, a man of the time, said with admiration, "Jiaxing is the most prosperous city in western Zhejiang. It is the home of the country, the left of Hangzhou, the right of Suzhou, the negative of the river and the control of the sea
