In the early stage of the Mongol-Jin War, due to the Mongols' behavior of only attacking and not defending, North China was in a state of power vacuum for a long time. In order to avoid the disaster of war, the local landlords and powerful people gathered crowds to protect themselves, forming large and small separatist forces, and thus appeared on the stage of history.
01, North China
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan had no concept of conquering territory at all, but only followed the known nomadic way of warfare, killing and plundering the enemy. Therefore, at the beginning of the Mongol-Jin War, the Mongol army implemented a policy of killing and plundering, leaving the four wild cities in north China empty and becoming a racecourse for the Mongols.
The invasion of the Mongolian army was a huge disaster for the people of North China, and everywhere the Mongolian army went, it was full of mourning and ruins, and after leaving, it was the ruins of broken walls and corpses, "the two rivers and thousands of miles in Shandong, the people killed several times, the children of the golden veil, cattle, horses, sheep and livestock were swept away, the houses were burned, and the ruins of the city were ruined." "What a terrible word.
In this case, Heshuo Shandong Haojie swarmed and gathered crowds to defend the safety of the family and local villagers, who were armed and later collectively known as the Han Dynasty. Some of these princes were originally officials of the Jin Empire, some were the children of officials, some were local rich families or rich peasants, and some were from ordinary peasant families or ordinary Confucian families.
If in the first stage of the Mengjin War, these princes were only defending against the killing of the Mongol army, the oppression of the Jin remnant army, and the plundering of the thieves, they were still partial to the Jin Empire in their hearts, but after Jin Xuanzong moved south to Beijing, the Blind Retreat of the Jurchen rulers disappointed many powerful people, and most of them tended to be neutral.
When Muhua Li marched south, because the main forces had gone to the west and the troops remaining in Muhua Li's hands were limited, he began to change his strategy, recruit and appease those Han Shihou, and accept the suggestion of the Han Shihou, issue a ban on killing, and began to have a territorial concept, so that those who submitted to the jin as the vanguard and main force of the attack and the armed town guard after the conquest.
02, surrendered to the Mongol Han Dynasty
Shihou, also known as princes and shiguans, mainly refers to the warlords in northern China during the Jin and Yuan dynasties, and those landlord armed forces who surrendered and made outstanding contributions in the process of the Mongol conquest of the Han Dynasty were treated similarly to the Mongol courtiers, and were given the hereditary power to manage the military, civil, financial, and personal subordinates of a certain region, which is the so-called shihou.
These princes were created in the Mongol-Jin War, and after being absorbed by the Mongols, they were given the old official positions of the Jin Empire such as provinces, marshals, and envoys, making them a military force to destroy the Jin and Ping Song Dynasties. The Han Chinese who surrendered to Mongolia were distributed according to their regions:
Zhao Rou, Zhang Rou, Jia Fu, and Wang Hao of Zhongdu Road;
Jia De, Shi Zhong, and Wang Xingxiu of Hebei East Road;
Shi Tianze family of Hebei West Road, Zhang Tong, Cui Xiang, Wang Yi, Li Rang, Dong Jun, Di Shun;
Li Shouxian, Nie Jue, Zhao Zhong, Jin He, and Wu Xin of Hedongnan Road;
Wang Zhao, Guo Tai, Zhou Xianchen, and Fan Tiansheng of Hedongbei Road;
Zhang Rong and Li Quan of Shandong East Road;
The strictness of the mountain east-west road, Shi Jue;
Liu Bolin and Shi Tianying of Nishikyo Road, Tokyo;
Tian Xiong, Shi Guang, and Yuan Xiang of Jingzhaofu Road;
Zhao Tianxi, Liang Zhong, and Wang Zhen of Damingfu Road
In addition to the Han Dynasty Marquis, there are also the Khitan Shi Hou Shi Mo Ming'an, Yelü Bald Flower, Wang Xun; the Jurchen Shi Hou Jia Gu Tongzhu, Yu Ha La Ba Du (You Xing Ge), the Jia Gu Qian Ancient Belt and so on.
During Muhua Li's attack on Jin, the main force fighting against the Jin Empire was these princes, because the main force of the Mongol legion was marching west, and Muhua Li only had more than 10,000 Mongol troops, except for 10,000 people from wanggubu, which were miscellaneous armies composed of Khitans, Jurchens, and Han Chinese.
Among these miscellaneous armies, the Khitan shi mo di er 10,000, yelü bald flower 10,000, shi mo also 13,000 first; the Han Liu Bolin 10,000, Shi Tianni 24,000, a total of 67,000 people, only Liu Bolin and Shi Tianni have 34,000, accounting for half of the miscellaneous pai army.
Just from the strength of the troops, we can see how much heavy responsibility the Han Shihou armed forces had undertaken in the war at that time, so it is said that in the second stage of the Mengjin War, the Han Shihou was the main force of the Mongols to eliminate the armed forces of the Jin Empire.
The most famous of the Han dynasty princes is naturally the four great ten thousand households, Shi Tianze, Zhang Rou, Yan Shi, Liu Bolin, these four and their families have sweated and shed blood for the Mongol Empire, and made great contributions to the establishment of the Mongol Empire, so the Mongol rulers granted them ten thousand households, gave them power and glory, and made them more dead-hearted to fight for the Mongols.
03, surrender to the Jurchen Nine Dukes feudal
At first, the Jin Empire did not look up to the landlords' armed forces, disliked them for not being able to go to the table, and was happy to see them kill each other, but with the development of the war and the changes in the situation, Jin Xuanzong had to change his thinking and began to give a smile to the landlord armed forces who sought officials.
For those who supported the Jin court to appoint officials and support and encouragement, such as Miao Daorun, spontaneously gathered people to resist Mongolia, and successively pacified more than fifty cities, Jin Xuanzong awarded him the general Xuanwu and the Tongzhi Shuntian army, hoping that he could recover the lost land. For the landlords who were disloyal to the imperial court, the armed forces were suppressed and banned, and Jin Xuanzong's wrists were also very flexible.
In February of the fourth year of Xingding (1220), Jin Xuanzong officially divided the nine large landlord armies, delineated the boundaries of their jurisdiction, and let them each guard their own territory not to kill each other, but to twist into a rope to fight against the Mongolian army, which is the famous "Nine Dukes Feudal".
The nine dukes who were enthroned were Wang Fu the Duke of Canghai, Duke Wuxian of Hejian, Duke Wuxian of Hengshan, Duke Zhang Fu of Gaoyang, Duke Jing Anmin of Yishui, Duke Guo Wenzhen of Jinyang, Duke Hu Tianzuo of Pingyang, Zhang Kai of Shangdang, and YanNing of Dongju, and the Ninth Duke was also a Xuanfu envoy, and The Grand Master of Ronglu of Yinqing was given the title of "Xuanli Loyal Subject".
Over there, the Mongols recruited the Han Dynasty, and the Jurchens here came to a Nine Gong feudal, that is to say, most of the wars in the land of North China were fought between these landlord armed forces backed by Mongolia and Jurchen!
Jin Xuanzong hoped that the Nine Dukes feudal system would be able to solve the problem of insufficient military strength in the imperial court to a certain extent, to resist and slow down the offensive of the Mongolian army, to recover the lost land for him, even if it was a warlord division, so that their surname was "Jin", would his idea be realized? Will the Nine Princes, like the Han Dynasty, make contributions to the Jurchens?
The ideal is full, but the reality is bone, the nine dukes did not live peacefully as Jin Xuanzong wished, and worked together to resist the Mongols, but continued to dismantle each other for territory, and the benefits they brought were far less than the drawbacks, although they caused some trouble to the Mongolian army, but they aggravated the division of Heshuo and Shandong.
The Nine Dukes were either killed in battle or surrendered, and there were also those whose whereabouts were unknown and missing, among which the longest insistent was the Duke Wuxian of Hengshan, who surrendered to Mongolia half a year after he was enthroned, and was not at peace with the governor Shi Tianni, and later killed Shi Tianni and rebelled against Mengmeng, echoing Peng Yibin, and successively restored the True Determination twice, and then returned to Jin Aizong, insisting on resisting Mongolia to the city of Caizhou to break the Jin Empire and perish.
04, the same conciliation policy has different results
Why did the Mongols and Jurchens achieve very different results in the same policy of appeasement of the landlords? Why did the Mongols succeed and the Jurchens fail?
Whether it is the Mongols or the Jurchens, who is not armed with the landlords? They all hope that through the powerful armed forces in these places, they will contribute to them and act as vanguard pawns, nothing more than one is to open up the territory and expand the town to defend the city, and the other is to recover the lost land and restore the old mountains and rivers, it can be said that the purpose is the same, how can the result be a heaven and an underground?
In fact, from a broad point of view, the two countries' policies toward the landlords' armed forces are the same, but the details of the solicitation are very different, and it is these different details that are the reasons why the Mongols and the Jurchens use the same policy of appeasement, but produce different results.
First, there is the issue of military and economic support.
The Mongols were able to support the Han Dynasty princes militarily and economically, but the Jurchens were unable to support the Nine Princes.
The rulers of the Jin Empire were timid and afraid of war, did not think of making progress, only knew how to flee and retreat, and deployed their troops around Fenjing, only for self-protection, and had no intention of taking the initiative to attack, and it was difficult for the imperial court to give support when the Ninth Duke faced the advance of the Mongolian army.
Due to the frequent wars, the economic supplies that the Nine Princes could obtain at the local level were limited, the areas where they were located were all war-intensive areas, and the local economy was difficult to recover, and the imperial court was financially stretched because of the years of war, and that little money had to take into account the war in Jianghuai, and it was impossible to support the Nine Princes economically.
The Mongols, on the contrary, once the Han Shihou encountered a crisis, they either received support from the Mongolian army or the help of other Shi Hou, such as Wuxian killing Shi Tianni to recover Zhending, Shi Tianze asked the King of Polo for support, and Bolu sent Xiao Naitai to lead troops to assist Shi Tianze in attacking Wuxian and regaining Zhending. After Wu Xian recaptured Zhending through the Neiying City Gate, Shi Tianze and Xiao Naitai ran to Dong Jun, the Marquis of Gaocheng, at dawn with Dong Jun's reinforcements to kill Zhending, and the lonely Wu Xian could only flee into the wilderness again.
Second, the issue of power and restraint.
The Mongols not only granted power to the princes, but also the means to restrain them, while the Jurchens only granted power to the nine princes, but did not have the means to restrain them.
Jin Xuanzong divided the areas for the Nine Dukes, so that they each commanded the soldiers and horses of the Road, could appoint officials, collect territorial taxes, reward and punish orders to act cheaply, and whoever recovered the lost land would be managed by whomever they recovered, but did not stipulate the rules of what obligations the Nine Dukes should perform and abide by.
Therefore, the nine dukes are independent of each other, attacking each other, not listening to the court's moderation, digging up each other's walls and feet, and being capricious, today's surname is "Jin", tomorrow's surname is "Meng", the day after tomorrow is surnamed "Song", whatever it takes, there is no need to bear any consequences, how can there be a sense of reverence for the imperial court?
What about the Mongols? The nine princes enjoyed the power they could enjoy, on the contrary, the princes also had a very clear obligation, to leave their relatives in Mongolia as protons, to assist in the mongolian army's battle plan, but also to compile household registration, grain and food to provide material support for the Mongolian army, Mongolia firmly controlled the world through these.
If you rebel, look at the fate of Zhang Whale and Zhang Zhi's brothers, look at Wu Xian's front foot against Mongolia, and the back foot brother Wu Gui was killed, and the princes are worried about their relatives, naturally they will not easily betray.
Third, the nine dukes enjoyed less power than the Han Shihou, but the risks they took were heavier than those of the Shihou.
One of the biggest advantages that Mongolia grants to the princes is that they enjoy hereditary power, they can be the father and son, the brother and the brother, which means that the power enjoyed by the prince will be controlled by the same family for a long time, and the descendants of Enyin, for the Han people, the lintel of the glory, the descendants of Ze is the greatest pursuit of life, of course, kneeling at the feet of the Mongols and shouting father.
The Nine Dukes did not have such power, they did not have the benefits of hereditary inheritance and benevolent descendants, and he was alone in the scenery. What's more, the court of the Jin Empire was always suspicious of them, and while Jin Xuanzong wanted to use the Nine Dukes to resist Mongolia, he was also worried that they would threaten the imperial court by becoming strong, just like the Tang Dynasty's Fanzhen.
If you don't give money, your support is not strong, and you write a blank cheque and be stingy, how can you make the Ninth Duke feel a sense of belonging to the Jin court and be fully loyal? Therefore, the influence of the Nine Dukes was not as great as that of the Shihou, and the role played by the Shihou was not as great, which is also the reason why the Mongols and Jurchens adopted the same policy of appeasement and surrender, and received different results!
That's it.
References: On the Nine Dukes of Jin Xuanzong, the Rise and Political Trend of the Han Dynasty, the History of Jin, etc
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