Mongol Conquest of Jin China

The Mongol–Jin War, also known as the Mongol–Jin Conquest, was fought between the Mongol Empire and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in Manchuria and north China. The conflict began in 1211 and continued for 23 years, culminating in the Mongols' total subjugation of the Jin dynasty in 1234.

The Jin dynasty's Jurchen rulers collected tribute from some of the Mongol steppe's nomadic tribes and encouraged rivalry. The Jurchens pushed the Tatars to attack the Mongols when they were unified under Khabul in the 12th century, but the Mongols could drive Jin armies out of their land. Khabul's successor, Ambaghai, was eventually captured by the Tatars and handed over to the Jin imperial court. Ambaghai had been sentenced to death by crucifixion by Emperor Xizong of the Jin dynasty (nailed to a wooden mule).  The Jin dynasty also carried out regular punitive expeditions against the Mongol nomads, who were either enslaved or killed. In 1210, a delegation came to Genghis Khan's court to declare Wanyan Yongji's succession to the Jin throne and demand the Mongols' allegiance as a vassal state. The Jurchens claimed authority over all the steppe tribes after defeating the formidable steppe nomads and allying with the Keraites and Tatars. Jin government high court officials defected to the Mongols, urging Genghis Khan to attack the Jin dynasty. Genghis Khan, however, refused, scared of a trap or some other sinister ploy. Genghis Khan is said to have turned to the south and spat on the ground after receiving the order to exhibit submission, then mounted his horse and rode north, leaving the startled envoy choking in his dust. His refusal to listen to the Jin envoys amounted to a declaration of war between the Mongols and the Jurchens. In early 1211, when Genghis Khan came to the Kherlen River, he summoned a kurultai. By hosting a lengthy debate, everyone in the community was included in the process. On a nearby peak, the Khan prayed alone. He took off his hat and belt, bowed before the Eternal Sky, and told of his people's generations of grievances against the Jurchens, including the torture and murder of his forefathers. He explained that he had not planned on fighting the Jurchens. Genghis Khan appeared before dawn on the fourth day with the verdict.

Between 1207 and 1209, when the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty was conquered, there were many attacks. In 1211, when the Mongols attacked Jin territory, Ala 'Qush, the Ongut leader, backed Genghis Khan and offered him a safe route to the Jin dynasty's core. The Combat of Yehuling, which took place in 1211 at a mountain pass near Zhangjiakou, was the first major battle between the Mongol Empire and the Jin dynasty. The Jin field commander, Wanyan Jiujin, made a tactical error by not attacking the Mongols at the first opportunity. Instead, he dispatched Shimo Ming'an, a Mongol courier, who swiftly defected and informed the Mongols that the Jin army was on the opposite side of the pass. Thousands of Jin troops were massacred by the Mongols during this battle, which took place at Yehuling. The Mongols learned to fight on the run from an early age. They would pass through villages to divert their opponent's attention away from their animals. The Mongol army would murder them and capture their animals if they fell for the trap set by the Mongol army.  While Genghis Khan travelled south, his general Jebe travelled east into Manchuria and seized Mukden (present-day Shenyang).  However, after the Mongols returned from their rest in the grasslands near the Gobi Desert in 1212, Genghis Khan was shot in the knee by an arrow. In 1212, Liu-Ke, a Khitan chieftain, swore his allegiance to Genghis Khan and captured Manchuria from Jin. When the Mongol army assaulted the Jin capital of Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing) in 1213, Li Ying, Li Xiong, and a few other Jin generals organized a militia of over 10,000 men and repeatedly repulsed the Mongols. By November 1213, the Mongols had defeated the Jin troops, which numbered hundreds of thousands, and had broken through Juyong Pass and Zijing Gap. The Mongols pillaged the whole North China plain from 1213 to 1214. In 1214, Genghis Khan encircled the Golden Khan's court in Zhongdu. When the Mongol army attacked Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing) in 1213, Li Ying, Li Xiong, and a few other Jin generals gathered over 10,000 men and fought the Mongols on multiple occasions.   By November 1213, the Mongols had defeated the Jin troops, which numbered hundreds of thousands, and had broken through Juyong Pass and Zijing Gap. The Mongols pillaged the whole North China plain from 1213 to 1214. In 1214, Genghis Khan encircled the Golden Khan's court in Zhongdu. Although the opposition of several courtiers, notably Li Ying, Emperor Aizong and General Zhuhu Gaoqi, chose to move the capital south to Kaifeng. Jin went on the defensive after that, and Zhongdu fell to the Mongols in 1215.

Jurchen Princess Qiguo, the daughter of Jurchen Jin monarch Wanyan Yongji, was married to Mongol leader Genghis Khan in exchange for the Mongol siege of Zhongdu (Beijing) being lifted during the Mongol invasion of the Jin dynasty. The Jin chancellor Wanyan Chenghui and general Moran Jinzhong were left to garrison Zhongdu after the Jin capital was moved to Kaifeng. One of the Jin armies joined the Mongols and attacked Zhongdu from the south, capturing Lugou Bridge. Genghis Khan subsequently despatched his men, led by the surrendered Khitan generals Shimo Ming'an, Yelü Ahai, and Yelü Tuhua, to assault Zhongdu once more. Pucha Qijin, Moran Jinzhong's second-in-command, surrendered to the Mongols with all of his forces, throwing Zhongdu into chaos. Emperor Aizong then sent reinforcements north, with Yongxi commanding troops from Zhending and Zhongshan (numbers unknown) and Wugulun Qingshou commanding 18,000 imperial guards, 11,000 infantry and cavalry from the southwestern route, and 10,000 soldiers from Hebei Province, with Li Ying in charge of the supply train.  On May 31, 1215, the Mongols conquered Zhongdu. From 1217 until 1223, they gradually wiped out all resistance in Shanxi, Hebei, and Shandong provinces. The focus of Genghis Khan's attention subsequently shifted to another event in Central Asia and Persia.

Muqali's Advance

When Genghis Khan was fighting Khwarezmia in 1223, the Mongol general Muqali struck into Shaanxi Province, attacking Chang'an. However, Wanyan Heda's 200,000-strong garrison at Chang'an was too strong, and Muqali was forced to redirect his attention to besieging Feng County with 100,000 soldiers. The siege lasted for months, with the Mongols being raided by local militia as Jin reinforcements approached. Finally, the Mongols retreated after Muqali died of disease. This was the siege during which the Mongol-supporting Western Xia troops surrendered and returned home, incurring Genghis Khan's fury. As a result, Jin relied significantly on subjects or allies like the Uighurs, Tanguts, and Khitans to furnish cavalry in their campaigns against the Mongols.

When Ögedei Khan succeeded his father, he turned down Jin peace proposals, but Jin officers slaughtered Mongol envoys. Nevertheless, Emperor Aizong's Jin army successfully repelled multiple Mongol offensives, winning key victories in the process, including the Battles of Dachangyuan in 1229, Weizhou in 1230 Daohuigu in 1231. Doqolqu, a Kheshig leader, was sent to attack Tong Pass from the front, but Wanyan Heda destroyed him and forced Subutai to retire in 1230. The Mongols attacked again in 1231, finally capturing Fengxiang. The Jin garrison at Chang'an panicked and fled the city, taking the entire city's populace to Henan Province. One month later, the Mongols resolved to assault Kaifeng from three directions: north, east, and west. Tolui's western force would leave Fengxiang, pass through Tong Penetrate, and then pass through Song territory at the Han River (near Xiangyang) before reemerging south of Kaifeng to surprise the Jurchens. When Wanyan Heda learnt of the scheme, he rallied 200,000 troops to Tolui's rescue. He planned an ambush in a valley with tens of thousands of cavalry hidden behind the crests of both mountains at Dengzhou, but Tolui's spies warned him. Hence, kept his main force with the supply train and only sent a small force of light cavalry to skirt around the valley and attack the Jin troops from behind. When Wanyan Heda realized his plot had been thwarted, he readied his men for a Mongol invasion. The two armies met in pitched combat on Mount Yu, southwest of Dengzhou. The Jin army enjoyed a numerical advantage and battled valiantly. Tolui revised his plan after the Mongols withdrew from Mount Yu by around 30 li.

To avoid alerting Wanyan Heda, he sent the majority of his force northwards to Kaifeng in numerous dispersed contingents, leaving a portion of his force to keep Wanyan Heda occupied. The Mongols quickly conquered county after county on their way from Dengzhou to Kaifeng, burning all the goods they captured to cut off Wanyan Heda's supply lines. Finally, Wanyan Heda was forced to retreat and face the Mongols at Junzhou's Three-peaked Hill. The Jin troops on the Yellow River were redirected southwards to meet Tolui's attack. The Mongol northern force under Ögedei Khan took advantage of the opportunity to cross the frozen river and join Tolui total strength was only about 50,000 at the time. Emperor Aizong, the Jurchen emperor, was besieged in Kaifeng by 1232. They annihilated the Jin forces as a group. Ögedei Khan quickly left, allowing his generals to complete the conquest.

Mongol-Song Alliance

Emperor Aizong sent diplomats to the Song in 1233 to plead for supplies. Jin envoys warned the Song that the Mongols would invade when they finished with Jin, a prediction that would eventually prove correct, but the Song ignored the warning and declined the proposal. Instead, they joined forces with the Mongols to fight Jin. In exchange for areas of Henan, the Song sent supplies to the Mongols.

The Fall of the Jin Dynasty

After the battle at Mount Yu, Wanyan Heda's army still had 100,000 troops moreover, and the Mongols chose a strategy of depleting the opponent. Due to the severance of their supply lines, the Jin forces had little rest on their journey from Dengzhou and had not eaten for three days. Morale was low, and their commanders were losing faith in them. When they arrived at Sanfengshan (Three-peaked Hill), a snowfall erupted, and it was so cold that the Jin troops' faces turned white as corpses, and they were unable to march. Rather than attacking them when they were desperate and had their backs to the wall, the Mongols gave them a way out and then attacked them as they were retreating. The Jin army surrendered without a fight, and the Mongols mercilessly pursued the fleeing Jin men. Wanyan Heda was killed, as were the majority of his officers. Mongol soldiers conquered Yuzhou after the Battle of Sanfengshan. Emperor Aizong quickly abandoned Kaifeng and entered Hebei Province in a futile attempt to restore himself there. Thousands of civilians stood firm against the Mongols, who entrusted the attack's execution to Subutai, the most daring of all their leaders. Emperor Aizong was driven south once more, and as the Mongols had captured Kaifeng by this time, he established his new capital at Caizhou (present-day Runan County, Henan Province). Subutai intended to slaughter the entire people. But Yelü Chucai was more humanitarian, and Ögedei Khan rejected the difficult proposition on his advice. The Jurchens used fire arrows against the Mongols at the defence of Kaifeng in 1232. In later conquests, the Mongols adopted this weapon. After abandoning Kaifeng and failing to assemble a new army in Hebei, Emperor Aizong retreated to Henan and established his stronghold in Guide in 1233. (present-day Anyang).  Scattered Jin armies from the surrounding region and Hebei began to converge at Guide, and the city's supplies could no longer sustain all of these men.As a result, Emperor Aizong was left with just 450 Han Chinese troops under the command of Pucha Guannu and 280 men under the direction of Ma Yong to garrison the city. In contrast, the remainder of the troops were divided to forage in Su (in Anhui Province), Xu (in Jiangsu Province), and Chen (present-day Huaiyang, Henan Province). Pucha Guannu's forces subsequently staged a coup, killing Ma Yong and over 300 other courtiers, as well as 3,000 officers, palace guards, and townspeople who refused to comply with him. He turned Emperor Aizong into a puppet ruler and took control of the Jin imperial court. Outside of Guide, the Mongols had arrived and were ready to besiege the city. Sajisibuhua, a Mongol general, had established up camp on the bank of a river north of the city. Guannu then led his 450 troops out in boats, armed with fire-lances, from the southern gate at night. They rowed along the river on the city's eastern outskirts, arriving at the Mongol camp early the next morning. Emperor Aizong stood at the city's northern gate, watching the battle and preparing his royal boat to flee to Xuzhou if the Jin army were beaten. From two directions, Jin troops attacked the Mongol camp, utilizing their fire-lances to terrify the Mongols. Almost 3,500 Mongols drowned in the river during their attempt to leave, and the Mongol stockades were all burned to the ground. In the struggle, Sajisibuhua was also killed. Emperor Aizong promoted Pucha Guannu as a result of his great win. The other courtiers advised Emperor Aizong to go to Caizhou, which had better walls and more provisions and troops because Guide was not defensible in the long run. Pucha Guannu opposed the relocation, fearful of losing his power base and claiming that Caizhou's benefits had been exaggerated. Shi Tianze, a Han Chinese general, commanded troops to pursue Emperor Aizong as he fled, and at Pucheng, he defeated an 80,000-strong Jin army led by Wanyan Chengyi. Emperor Aizong utilized a plan to assassinate Guannu three months later and then soon began making preparations to relocate to Caizhou. When further reports arrived suggesting that Caizhou's defences, men, and supplies were still insufficient, he was already on his way there. Despite the earlier triumph against enormous odds at Guide, the Jin dynasty's destiny was set for good. The Southern Song dynasty launched the war on the Jurchens, putting a massive army in the field to deliver the Jin dynasty the coup de grace. The remainder of the Jin army sought refuge in Caizhou, where they were besieged on both sides by the Mongols and the Song army. As a result of being forced into a corner, the Jurchens fought with the courage of despair and held out against their opponents' combined efforts for a long time. Emperor Aizong finally realized that the struggle could not be sustained, and he prepared to die. Emperor Aizong committed himself after surrendering the throne to his general Wanyan Chenglin after the invaders penetrated the city gates. Wanyan Chenglin, also known as Emperor Mo, was only in power for a day before being killed in combat. On February 9, 1234, the Jin dynasty came to an end.

According to James Waterson, many people may have relocated to southern China under the Southern Song or perished sickness and famine when agricultural and urban city infrastructure was destroyed. However, he cautioned against attributing the population reduction in northern China to the Mongol genocide. Cities such as Kaifeng, which was surrendered to Subetai by Xu Li, Yangzhou, which was surrendered to Bayan by Li Tingzhi's second in command after Li Tingzhi was executed by the Southern Song, and Hangzhou, which was spared from sacking when it surrendered to Kublai Khan, was spared from massacre and sacking by the Mongols. Against the Jurchen Jin dynasty, Han Chinese and Khitan warriors defected en masse to Genghis Khan. Kublai Khan spared the sacking and murder of towns that submitted. As Jin shifted their major capital from Beijing south to Kaifeng and defected to the Mongols, the Khitan unwillingly left their homeland in Manchuria. To fight the Jin dynasty, many Han Chinese and Khitans defected to the Mongols. Two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze and Liu Heima, and the Khitan Xiao Zhala, defected and took leadership of the Mongol army's three tumens. Genghis Khan's successor, Ögedei Khan, was served by Liu Heima and Shi Tianze. For the Mongols, Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led troops against Western Xia. Each tumen had 10,000 troops, and there were four Han tumens and three Khitan tumens. Under Ögedei Khan, the three Khitan generals Shimo Beidi'er, Tabuyir, and Xiao Zhongxi (Xiao Zhala's son) commanded the three Khitan tumens.

In comparison, the four Han generals Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, and Liu Heima, commanded the four Han tumens. Shi Tianze, Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, and other Han Chinese who defected to the Mongols served under the Jin dynasty and helped create the administrative organization of the new Mongol kingdom. When cities in northern China were conquered, the Mongols ordered physicians, artisans, and religious clerics to be spared death and transported. Since the previous dynasties, the Han Chinese aristocrats Duke Yansheng and Celestial Masters retained their titles under the Mongol Empire and Yuan dynasty.