Mongol Conquest of China

The Mongol invasion of China was a series of significant military operations undertaken by the Mongol Empire to capture China itself. The Jin dynasty, Western Xia, the Dali Kingdom, the Southern Song, and the Eastern Xia were all defeated during this six-decade period in the 13th century. Small-scale assaults into Western Xia by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan began the conquest in 1205 and 1207. By 1279, Mongol warlord Kublai Khan had founded the Yuan dynasty in China and defeated the final Song opposition, marking the beginning of Mongol Yuan dominance over all of China. This was the first time a foreign or non-native king invaded China and governed it.

Temujin, later commonly known as Genghis Khan, began strengthening his influence in Mongolia in the early 1200s. Following the murder of Kerait commander Ong Khan in 1203 at Temujin's newly formed Mongol Empire, Kerait leader Nilqa Senggum led a small band of followers into Western Xia, also known as Xi-Xia. However, Nilqa Senggum was exiled from Western Xia land after his followers began looting the people. Temujin launched an attack on the state in the Edsin area in 1205, using his adversary Nilga Senggum's brief sanctuary in Western Xia as a pretext. The Mongols pillaged border villages, and one local Western Xia lord accepted Mongol rule. Temujin was formally declared Genghis Khan, ruler of all the Mongols, the next year, marking the beginning of the Mongol Empire. Invading the Ordo area and destroying Wuhai, the major fortress along the Yellow River, Genghis launched another assault into Western Xia in 1207 before retiring in 1208. In 1209, the Genghis launched a stronger campaign to compel Western Xia to submit. Genghis conquered Wuhai after defeating an army headed by Kao Liang-Hui outside the city. He then proceeded up the Yellow River, destroyed numerous cities, and besieged Yinchuan, a well-fortified garrison of 150,000 men. The Mongols, who had little expertise with siege warfare, attempted to flood the city by diverting the Yellow River, but the dam they erected to do so collapsed, flooding the Mongol camp. Despite this, Emperor Li Anquan, still besieged by the Mongols and getting little help from the Jin dynasty, chose to surrender to Mongol authority and proved his allegiance by marrying Genghis' daughter Chaka and paying tribute camels, falcons, and textiles. Western Xia remained loyal vassals of the Mongol Empire for over a decade after their fall in 1210, assisting the Mongols in their battle against the Jin dynasty. Then, in 1219, Genghis Khan began a campaign in Central Asia against the Khwarazmian kingdom, requesting military assistance from Western Xia. The emperor and his military commander Asha, on the other hand, refused to participate in the expedition, claiming that if Genghis had insufficient soldiers to invade Khwarazm, he had no claim to absolute authority. As a result, Genghis vowed revenge and set out to attack Khwarazm, while Western Xia tried to form alliances with the Jin and Song kingdoms to counter the Mongols.

Genghis prepared his forces to punish Western Xia for their treason after defeating Khwarazm in 1221, and in 1225 he formulated an attack with a force of over 180,000. Following their conquest of Khara-Khoto, the Mongols started a steady march southward. Because Asha, leader of the Western Xia soldiers, could not afford to meet the Mongols because it would require an arduous 500-kilometre march westward from the capital Yinchuan through the desert, the Mongols marched methodically from city to city. Enraged by Western Xia's tenacious resistance, Genghis waged annihilative warfare against the countryside, ordering his generals to demolish cities and garrisons as they marched ruthlessly. Genghis separated his army and assigned general Subutai to look after the westernmost cities. At the same time, the main force under Genghis proceeded east into the heart of the Western Xia Empire and captured Ganzhou, which was spared destruction, was the hometown of Genghis' commander Chagaan. In August 1226, Mongol soldiers reached Wuwei, the Western Xia empire's second-largest city, which surrendered without a fight to avoid destruction. Genghis Khan conquered Liangchow in the autumn of 1226, traversed the Helan Shan desert in November, and laid siege to Lingwu, about 30 kilometres from Yinchuan. The Mongols defeated a force of 300,000 Western Xia who attempted a counter-attack against them in the Battle of Yellow River.

In 1227, Genghis arrived in Yinchuan, lay siege to the city, and launched multiple offensives against Jin to avert them from sending reinforcements to Western Xia, with one army reaching Kaifeng Jin's capital. After a six-month siege of Yinchuan, Genghis began peace discussions while covertly plotting to assassinate the emperor. During the peace talks, Genghis Khan maintained his military activities around the Liupan mountains near Guyuan, refused Jin's offer of peace, and planned to assault them near the Song's border. However, in August 1227, Genghis Khan died of an unknown reason, and his death was kept a secret to avoid jeopardizing the continuing battle. Emperor Mozhu surrendered to the Mongols in September 1227 and was soon executed. The Mongols then pillaged Yinchuan ruthlessly, slaughtering the city's people and plundering the imperial tombs west of the city, thereby destroying the Western Xia Empire.

The conquest of the Jin dynasty was one of Genghis Khan's primary objectives, allowing the Mongols to revenge the murder of a previous Mongol Khan, capture the wealth of northern China, and establish the Mongols as a dominant force in the East Asian continent. In 1211, Genghis Khan launched the war, and while the Mongols were triumphant on the battlefield, their attempts to conquer key towns were thwarted. Genghis and his highly developed team examined the difficulties of fortification assaults in their normal systematic and deliberate manner. They gradually devised ways to demolish fortifications with the aid of Chinese engineers. This would eventually turn the Mongols' armies into some of the most accomplished and effective besiegers in history. By 1213, Genghis had conquered and controlled Jin land as far south as the Great Wall, thanks to a series of crushing triumphs in the field and a few victories in conquering fortresses deep within China. Cherik warriors served in the Mongol army as non-nomadic troops. As the Mongols overthrew the Jin dynasty, Jin defectors and Han Chinese conscripts were recruited into new armies. The Han Chinese cherik troops played a crucial part in the downfall of Jin. While Genghis Khan was preoccupied returning north, Han Chinese defectors commanded by General Liu Bolin defended Tiancheng from Jin in 1214. Liu Bolin's troops captured Xijing in 1215. In 1216, the first Han cherik troops were established, with Liu Bolin as their commander. The number of the Han cherik forces grew when Han troops defected from Jin to the Mongols, and they had to be divided into separate divisions. The majority of Khitan Yelu Tuhua's army was made up of Han troops. In contrast, Chalaer's army was made up of Juyin soldiers from Zhongdu, and Uyar's army was made up of Khitan warriors. In 1217–1218, Chalaer, Yelu Tuhua, and Uyar led three cherik forces in northern China and Muqali's Tamma troops under the Mongol leader Muqali. To resist Jin, many Han Chinese and Khitan deserted the Mongols. Shi Tianze, Liu Heima, and the Khitan Xiao Zhala, two Han Chinese leaders, defected and took leadership of the Mongol army's three Tumens. Ogödei Khan was served by Liu Heima and Shi Tianze. For the Mongols, Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang commanded troops against Western Xia. There were four Han Tumens and three Khitan Tumens, each with 10,000 soldiers. Under Ogödei Khan, the three Khitan Generals Shimobeidier, Tabuyir, and Xiao Zhongxi led the three Khitan Tumens. In contrast, the four Han Generals Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Shi Tianze, and Liu Heima led the four Han Tumens. Shi Tianze, Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, and other high-ranking Chinese who defected to the Mongols during the Jin dynasty assisted in constructing the new state's administrative system. Han Chinese and Khitans defected to the Mongols, while their Jurchen officers abandoned Jin. At this time, Han-Jurchen interethnic marriages were becoming more prevalent. Shi Bingzhi, the father of Han Chinese General Shi Tianze, was married to a Jurchen woman. Shi Tianze married two Jurchen women (Mo-nien and Na-ho), a Han Chinese woman (Shi), and a Korean woman (Li), and his son Shi Gang was born to one of his Jurchen wives. The family served the Yuan prominently, with Shi Gang marrying a Kerait woman, the Kerait being a Mongolified Turkic person and part of the "Mongol nation." In between the Great Wall and Yellow River, Genghis marched with three troops into Jin territory. Genghis destroyed the Jin troops, ravaged northern China, conquered several cities, and besieged, captured, and sacked the Jin capital of Yanjing in 1215 with the assistance of Chenyu Liu, one of Jin's senior officers who betrayed him, as well as the Southern Song, who sought vengeance on Jin (modern-day Beijing).

Xuan Zong, the Jin emperor, did not surrender but instead relocated his capital to Kaifeng. In 1232, the city was destroyed during the siege of Kaifeng. Emperor Aizong took refuge at Caizhou. Following this, the Han Chinese commander Shi Tianze led troops to follow Emperor Aizong as he fled, and at Pucheng, he defeated an 80,000-strong Jin army headed by Wanyan Chengyi. After the assault of Caizhou in 1234, the Jin dynasty fell apart. Eastern Xia, a short-lived kingdom that declared independence from Jin in 1215 and was conquered in 1233, was a short-lived country that declared independence from Jin in 1215. The earliest Han troops in the Mongol army were headed by individual officers who had defected. There were 1,000 Han (Chinese) men in each of the 26 units that formed up Ogedei Khan's three tumeds, organized on a decimal basis. These three tumeds were headed by Han officer Shi Tianze, Han officer Liu Ni, and Khitan officer Xiao Chala, all of whom defected from Jin to the Mongols. Three more tumeds were formed before 1234, commanded by Chang Jung, Yen Shi, and Chung Jou. Before 1235, the Mongols dubbed the Han defectors the "Black Army" (Hei Jun). The Mongols gained 95,000 extra Han soldiers through conscription after Jin was defeated, forming a new infantry-based "New Army" (Xin Jun). In 1262, Han cherik troops were employed to put down Li Tan's insurrection. Like the Mongol army, the New Army and Black Army possessed hereditary officer positions. When cities in northern China were conquered, the Mongols ordered physicians, artisans, and religious clergy to be spared execution and transported.

In 1253, Möngke Khan sent Kublai to the Dali Kingdom to outflank the Song. The Gao family ruled the court, opposed Mongol envoys and killed them. The Mongols split their army into three groups. One of the wings flew east towards the Sichuan basin. The second column, led by Uryankhadai, travelled an arduous route into western Sichuan's highlands. [53] Kublai personally made his way south across the plains, eventually colliding with the first column. Despite the killing of his emissaries, Kublai seized the capital city of Dali and spared the inhabitants as Uryankhadai galloped in from the north along the lakeside. Duan Xingzhi, the Dali King, defected to the Mongols, who used his forces to capture the rest of Yunnan. King Duan Xingzhi was made Maharajah by the Mongols, who also stationed a pacification commissioner there. [54] Unrest among the Black Jang erupted after Kublai's departure (one of the main ethnic groups of the Dali kingdom). Uryankhadai, Subutai's son, had entirely pacified Yunnan by 1256. The Duan family originated in Wuwei, Gansu, and were Han Chinese. During the Yuan period, the Duan family still governed Dali with considerable independence. The Ming abolished them. In Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, Tusi chieftains and local tribal chiefs and kingdoms surrendered to Yuan control and were permitted to maintain their titles. The Han Chinese Yang family, who ruled the Chiefdom of Bozhou during the Song and Tang dynasties, was subsequently acknowledged by the Mongols under the Yuan dynasty and the Ming dynasty. The Yuan emperors acknowledged the Luo clan in Shuixi headed by Ahua, much as they did the Song emperors when led by Pugui and the Tang emperors when led by Apei. They were derived from King Huoji of the Shu Han period, who aided Zhuge Liang in fighting against Meng Huo. The Ming dynasty acknowledged them as well.

Many Tusi chiefdoms as well as reigned kingdoms in southwestern China that existed before the Mongol invasions were allowed to remain independent as vassals of the Yuan dynasty after surrendering, including the Kingdom of Dali, the Han Chinese Yang family ruling the Chiefdom of Bozhou with its seat at the castle Hailongtun, the Chiefdom of Lijiang, the Chiefdom of Shuidong, the Chiefdom of Sizhou, the Chiefdom of Yao'an, and the Chiefdom Korea, like the Kingdom of Qocho, was ruled by the Mongols. However, since the previous dynasties, the Han Chinese nobility Duke Yansheng and Celestial Masters retained their titles under the Yuan dynasty.

During the wars that took place, the Mongol Empire enlisted the help of numerous other nations, including those from Central and East Asia. The Mongols used Chinese warriors in other conquests, particularly those who worked with catapults and gunpowder. Many Chinese academics and medics followed Mongol leaders to the west, in addition to Chinese troops. The Mongols highly regarded people with particular abilities. The Chinese could manufacture cast iron robust enough to shoot things with gunpowder during the Song dynasty. It was later adopted by the Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. Genghis Khan deployed a Chinese specialized catapult troop in battle with the main Mongol force during the conquest of Transoxiana in 1219. In 1220, they were employed once more in Transoxania. Because they already possessed gunpowder bombs, the Chinese may have utilized the catapults to launch them (although there were other siege engineers and technologies used in the campaigns, too.) Several Chinese knowledgeable with gunpowder served with Genghis Khan's army as he conquered Transoxania and Central Asia. During the invasion of Iran, the Mongols utilized "whole regiments" of Chinese soldiers to command bomb-hurling trebuchets. According to historians, the Mongol invasion introduced Chinese gunpowder weaponry to Central Asia. The huochong, a Chinese mortar, was one of them. After then, books produced in the area described the usage of gunpowder weapons similar to those used in China. During the Mongol Hulagu Khan's conquest of the Middle East, many northern Chinese engineer squads joined him. The Siege of Baghdad drew 1,000 Chinese troops (1258). During the siege, Chinese General Guo Kan was one of the leaders, and once the city was captured, he was named Governor of Baghdad. Chinese generals were able to watch the invasion of West Asia while serving in Mongol armies. According to Ata-Malik Juvayni, "Khitayan" constructed siege weapons resembling crossbows were employed during the attack on the Alamut Assassins fort.

The arcuballista "Khitayan" was a kind of Chinese arcuballista deployed in 1256 under Hulagu's leadership. The bolts "burned" a large number of the Assassins and knocked stones off the fortress. They could fire at a range of around 2,500 yards. An ox's bow was described as the gadget. Before firing, the weapon's bolts were coated with the pitch that had been ignited on fire. Another historian believes gunpowder was strapped to the bolts during the fight described by Juvayini, causing the burns. The Mongols enlisted alans in a unit known as the "Right Alan Guard," which was made up of "recently surrendered" soldiers, Mongols, and Chinese soldiers stationed in the former Kingdom of Qocho's territory. In Besh Balikh, the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi.

According to James Waterson, many people may have migrated to southern China under the Southern Song or perished sickness and starvation when agricultural and urban city infrastructure was destroyed. However, he warned against attributing the population decline in northern China to Mongol murder. Cities like 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 troops deserted en masse to Genghis Khan. Towns that submitted were spared Kublai Khan's devastation and slaughter.  As Jin shifted their principal capital from Beijing south to Kaifeng and defected to the Mongols, the Khitan unwillingly departed their homeland in Manchuria.

The Mongols employed to divide and conquer tactics against the Alans and the Cumans (Kipchaks): first, the Mongols urged the Cumans to quit allying with the Alans, and then, once the Cumans did so, the Mongols destroyed the Alans and then attacked the Cumans. Kublai Khan used Alan and Kipchak guards. His loyal Alan guards escorted Toghan Temür as he left China in 1368 at the end of the Yuan dynasty. "Mangu recruited half of the Alan prince Arslan's warriors in his bodyguard, and his younger son Nicholas took part in the Mongol campaign against Karajang (Yunnan). In 1272, 1286, and 1309, the Alan imperial guard was still in existence, split into two (2) corps with the headquarters in Ling pei province (Karakorm)." John of Montecorvino converted the Alans and the Armenians in China to Roman Catholic Christianity.

Second, the Mongols joined forces with Southern Song because they shared a similar adversary in Jin. However, after Jur'chen Jin was destroyed in 1234, the partnership fell apart. The Mongols waged war on the Song after Song forces took the old Northern Song capitals of Luoyang, Chang'an, and Kaifeng from the Mongols, and the Song murdered a Mongol diplomat. The Mongol forces soon drove the Song back to the Yangtze, but the two sides would fight for four decades until the Song fell in 1276. Later, Islamic engineers joined and added counterweight trebuchets, known as "Muslim phao," which had a maximum range of 300 meters, compared to the ancient Chinese predecessor's 150 meters. It was crucial in capturing Chinese fortifications, and it was also employed against infantry forces on the battlefield. The Mongol force that invaded southern China was far larger than the force that invaded the Middle East in 1256. In southern China, the Mongols relied heavily on local ethnic minority warriors rather than Mongols. The indigenous Cuan-Bo army of the Kingdom of Dali, headed by the Duan royal family, made up most of the Mongol Yuan army dispatched to invade Song China during conflicts along the Yangtze River. There was barely 3,000 Mongol cavalry under the Mongol commander Uriyangkhadai during a Mongol invasion against Song China, while the remainder of his force was native Cuan-Bo with Duan commanders. While the Mongol troops successfully conquered the non-Han Chinese governed realms of the Jin and Xia, it took significantly longer to conquer the Song. The Song troops had access to the most advanced technology available at the time, including an abundance of gunpowder weaponry such as fire lances, rockets, and flamethrowers. The Mongols had to fight the most brutal war of their conquests because of the Song armies' strong resistance, and they needed every edge they could get and "every military artifice known at the time" to prevail. To gain various military advantages, they looked to people they had already subdued. Therefore the Mongols would benefit from intrigues at the Song court. The Yuan dynasty formed a "Han Army" of defected Jin troops and a "Newly Submitted Army" of defected Song warriors. Southern Song Chinese troops who deserted and surrendered to the Mongols were given Korean spouses by the Mongols, who had already taken Korean women as war booty during their conquest of Korea. Kublai Khan provided oxen, clothing, and territory to the numerous Song Chinese troops who deserted the Mongols.

The Yuan dynasty gave Chinese military commanders who defected to the Mongol side lands sectioned off as appanages for wartime successes. Song Chinese soldiers who deserted to the Mongols were given juntun, or military farms, by the Yuan. Töregene Khatun ordered Chagaan (Tsagaan) and Han tumen General Zhang Rou to mount an attack against the Song dynasty. When their Great Khan, Möngke, died of illness or dysentery, the Mongols tried unsuccessfully to attack the Song garrison at Diaoyu Fortress Hechuan after many inconclusive battles. The general in charge of the defence, on the other hand, was not praised but rather chastised by the Song court. Disappointed, he fled to the Mongols and argued to Möngke's successor, Kublai, that the acquisition of Xiangyang, an important Song fortress, was the key to Song's victory. The Mongols swiftly encircled Xiangyang and crushed any Song attempts to fortify it.

The Mongols eventually compelled Xiangyang to surrender after a long siege and the assistance of Muslim weaponry built by Iraqi engineers. Under the inept chancellor Jia Sidao, the fading Song dynasty deployed soldiers against the Mongols at Yehue. The fight, as expected, was a shambles. In 1276, the Song court succumbed to the Mongols due to a lack of troops and supplies. During the Mongol conquest of China proper, many Han Chinese were enslaved. During the Yuan era, there were also some Mongolian slaves held by Han Chinese, according to Japanese historians Sugiyama Masaaki and Funada Yoshiyuki. However, there is little indication that Han Chinese, who were believed to be at the bottom of Yuan society by some academics, were subjected to exceptionally brutal treatment. Kublai founded the Yuan dynasty and became Emperor of China to govern all of China. Despite the Song court's capitulation, Song remnants maintained their struggle. Song loyalists grouped themselves behind a weak boy emperor, brother to the last ceremonial Song emperor, for a few more years of struggle. Finally, several Song officials set established a government in Guangdong, onboard ships from the enormous Song fleet, which still had over a thousand ships, in an attempt to reestablish the Song dynasty (which then carried the Song army, which the Mongol army had forced off of the land onto these Song warships). Recognizing this, Kublai dispatched his navy to attack the Song fleet in the waters around modern-day Hong Kong in 1279, scoring a decisive victory. The final Song Emperor Bing of Song and his loyal officials committed suicide.

The Mongol invasion of the Song in southern China ended with this important military clash. Members of the Song Imperial Family, such as Emperor Gong of Song, Zhao Mengfu, and Zhao Yong, remained in the Yuan dynasty. Kublai Khan personally examined Zhao Mengfu when he was painting at the Yuan court. The Mongol Yuan dynasty punished the Jurchen Jin dynasty severely, killing the Jurchen Wanyan royal family by the hundreds, also as the Tangut ruler of Western Xia when they conquered him previously, according to historian Patricia Buckley Ebrey. Patricia also noted that, unlike the Jurchens in the Jingkang Incident, the Mongols were completely lenient towards the Han Chinese Zhao royal family of the Southern Song, sparing both the Southern Song royals in the capital Hangzhou, such as Emperor Gong of Song and his mother, as well as the civilians inside the city and not sacking it, allowing them to go about their normal business. The Mongols didn't seize the southern Song royal women for themselves, instead of marrying Han Chinese artisans in Shangdu. The surrendered Han Chinese Southern Song Ruler Gong of Song was given a Mongol princess from his Borjigin dynasty as a bride by the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, and they had a son named Zhao Wanpu together.

The Trn clan's forefathers came from Fujian province and then went to I Vit under the leadership of Trn Kinh, the Trn clan's progenitor. Their ancestors, the subsequent rulers of I Vit, who were mixed-blooded, founded the Tran dynasty, which controlled Vietnam. Despite numerous intermarriages between the Trn and several royal members of the L dynasty, as in the case of Trn L and Trn Tha, some mixed-blooded descendants of the Trn dynasty and some members of the clan were also capable of speaking the Chinese language, such as when a Yuan dynasty envoy met with the Chinese-speaking Trn prince Trn Quoc Tuan i. After the Mongol invasion of the Song, individuals from the Song dynasty, such as Zhao Zhong and Xu Zongdao, escaped to the Tran dynasty, which governed Vietnam, and assisted the Tran in fighting the Mongols. Like the Daoist priest Xu Zongdao who documented the Mongol invasion and referred to them as "Northern bandits," the Tran clan came from the modern-day province of Fujian. Zhao Zhong, who was his guard, was present. As a result, conquering the Yuan is one of the successes. The Trn repelled Vietnam's Mongol invasions. Song from the Deep South According to Zheng Sixiao, Chinese military commanders and civilian officials departed for other nations, intermarried with the Vietnamese ruling class, and then proceeded to Champa to serve the government. Southern Song troops were part of Emperor Trn Thánh Tông's Vietnamese army preparing for the second Mongol invasion.