Lasting from 1268 until early 1273; a length of five years, this was certainly one of the longest sieges in the medieval world, as the following article will attest.
What I noticed specifically in the article was the way in which the Mongolians utilised troops from conquered territories (which is a de facto method of Mongolian of siege warfare).
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In 1268 the Mongols, led by A-chu and Liu Zheng, surrounded Xiangyang with an unknown number of troops. After viewing the defenses, A-chu realized he could not assault the city without taking heavy casualties. Therefore, he decided to blockade the city and starve the people. However, A-chu discovered without a fleet he could not stop supplies from coming up the Han River into the twin cities. A-chu sent word to Khubilai explaining his problem that his troops consisted primarily of cavalry and were not entirely suitable for the siege. He requested Shi Shu, a northern Han Chinese commander in Mongol service who commanded several thousand northern Chinese troops, be sent to support the siege. After the arrival of Shi Shu and his troops, which consisted almost entirely of Chinese infantry, both cities were surrounded. Again the number of troops is unknown.
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When Shi Shu arrived, he commanded his troops to start building 500 river junks, training the crews and he was able to capture some river junks from the Song. Two fortresses, Po-ho-k’ou and Lu-men shan, were built downriver from the twin cities to deal with the Song navy coming up the river. In August of 1269 the Mongols and their Chinese allies were to have their first naval battle. A Song general named Hsia Kuei with 3000 junks attacked Lu-men shan. Hsia Kuei was defeated and fifty of his junks were captured.
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As can be seen here, the Mongolian commander called in a specialist Han general (who brought a sizable Chinese army with him) in order to help plug the supplies reaching the Song lines via the river systems. The result being that the Song were defeated in a naval battle, and that alley to the Song was cut off.
Then some time later, after numerous battles with the Song trying to stop them supporting one another through the two cities we have the following:
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Still, Lu Wen-huan would not surrender, and the Mongols could not storm the city without taking heavy casualties without a strong probability of taking the city. Khubilai realized something had to be done and sent word to his nephew, Abakha, the Il-khan of Persia. Abakha sent two renowned engineers, Isma’il of Hilla and Ala al-Din of Mosul, who built the first counterweight trebuchets in China called hui-hui pao, or “Muslim trebuchet”.
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The Mongol commanders employed the new siege weapons against Fan-ch’eng first. Chroniclers report the siege engines shook heaven and earth when they fired and the projectiles destroyed everything they hit. The projectiles weighed weigh 150 catties, (approximately 165 lbs. or 75 kg), and had a range greater than anything the Song had within the city so they couldn’t counter the attack. The Mongols launched explosives and who knows what else into the city with their new siege trebuchets. Fan-ch’eng could not hold out against such a barrage and fell several days after the weapons were employed.
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What we see here, is that during a moment of trouble, the Mongols yet again call upon the specialist services of their Muslim subjects this time, and a siege engine is built which allows them to storm one of the cities effectively.
What this shows is that The Mongolians were quite flexible in siege warfare. They were able to solve problems as they occured, and call upon the services of specialists, as required, in order to advance operations.
With this sort of ingenuity available its possible that any fort the Mongols the came against, if they were able to invest it, then they had a lot of potential services available to them from any of their conquered subjects.
Does anyone know of any other sieges from the Mongols that demonstrates this usage of manpower or use of specialist forces to overcome siege problems?
Im sure I read somewhere that Eastern knights were used by the Mongols in campaigns in the middle east.
Source:
The Mongol Siege of Xiangyang an 
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