There are always some people in history who are unknown at the beginning, and the innate conditions and the environment they are in are ordinary, and few people will be willing to believe that such people will finally do something so earth-shattering. We ordinary people like to call this phenomenon a counterattack, but behind their counterattack, it seems to be accidental, but in fact there are too many inevitabilities.
For example, Kublai Khan, the emperor who founded the Yuan Dynasty, was originally just an ordinary prince, and he was not a direct relative of the successor to the Khan's throne at that time, but he insisted on becoming an emperor step by step from the prince with ordinary conditions.
Kublai Khan's conditions were average
Kublai Khan was the second son of Genghis Khan's youngest son, Torre, and he was preceded by his eldest brother Möngke, followed by two younger brothers, Hulagu and Alibu. After the death of Genghis Khan, he designated the passing of the Khan's throne to the third son, Wokoutai, instead of following the Mongolian custom of keeping the throne of the young son, brewed a two-year-long khanship struggle between Torre and Wokoutai, and finally Wokoutai was supported by the second brother Chagatai, and won the election of the Kuriletai Congress and became the Great Khan, ending the struggle between the brothers.
After Torre's defeat, he finally did not escape the clutches of Wokoutai, who pretended to be ill under the serious internal attrition of torre and the Golden Army, saying that he needed relatives to pay for his life instead of himself, so that Torre had to voluntarily die to win the opportunity to survive for his children and grandchildren.
Of course, according to the customs of Mongolia at that time, the power struggle between brothers in general would not harm future generations, unlike the dynasties in the Central Plains, which would raid homes or exterminate the clan at every turn, and the favor of Wokoutai to Torre's descendants just verified this custom of the Mongol Empire at that time.
Although torre's descendants were given the opportunity to live, there was absolutely no hope of becoming the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, the reason being that Genghis Khan once said that the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire could only be selected among the descendants of Wokoutai, and Wokoutai confessed at the time of his death that his Khanate would be passed to his grandson Lost Liemen, so no matter what, torre's descendants had no hope of contaminating the Khanate.
But sometimes history is very interesting, before the death of Wokoutai, there was originally a son Guiyu, but he directly crossed Guiyu to choose his grandson Lost Liemen as the successor, this practice has violated the principle that Genghis Khan originally formulated that must be inherited by his son, and what is worse is that Guiyu directly robbed the Khan of Lost Liemen, once again violating the customs of the time, which made things complicated.
It should be known that as early as the time of Genghis Khan, Torre and Torre's sons already held a lot of military power in the empire, and although the descendants of Wokoutai inherited the Khan's throne, their real power was still somewhat lacking, so when Guiyu died suddenly, many people who supported Torre's descendants stood up to support Torre's descendants as Khans.
Among torre's descendants, the most vocal supporter was the eldest son Möngke, and later under the election of the Kuriletai Congress, Möngke lived up to the expectations of the people and became the Great Khan, which allowed the Khan of the Wokoutai line to come to the Torre family, but all this seems to have nothing to do with Kublai Khan, because even if the Khanate is passed to Möngke, the succession will still be passed on to Möngke's descendants.
The turning point of the matter is that Möngke died suddenly, and it was too late to choose a successor, and Möngke's sons were still young, which gave Möngke's three younger brothers the opportunity, that is, Kublai Khan, Hulagu and Ali Bu brothers, according to the Mongolian custom of the young son Shou Stove, Ali Bu Brother is a young son, has the legitimacy of inheritance, at that time received the most support, and Hulagu has an elite protective body around him, the opportunity to seize the Khan's position is not bad, the only bad thing is Kublai Khan, he was previously suppressed by Möngke's suspicions, At present, the vitality has not yet recovered, and it seems that it is unable to compete for the khan position.
Obviously, Kublai Khan at that time was the worst condition, why was Kublai Khan able to counterattack and become the Great Khan, and establish the Yuan Dynasty and become the emperor? We continue to analyze.
Learn the advanced culture of the Han people, Taoguang yangrui
To say that Kublai Khan was the primary factor in being able to counterattack, I think the influence of the advanced culture of the Han people on him was absolutely the first to bear the brunt, because compared with the other two younger brothers, Kublai Khan and the Han people had the most communication, and there were many opportunities to learn the advanced culture of the Han people, so they learned a lot of great wisdom and were able to achieve a counterattack in the struggle.
Why did Kublai Khan get the opportunity to communicate with the Han Chinese? In fact, this is again due to Möngke, in the process of Möngke's struggle for the Khan's throne, Kublai Khan's words helped Möngke solve the theoretical embarrassment of competing for the Khan's position, at that time many people believed that on the one hand, Möngke's succession to the throne was not in line with Genghis Khan's claim that the Wokoutai lineage inherited the Khan's throne, on the other hand, Möngke's succession to the Khan's throne was not in line with wokoutai's said will to pass the throne to the Lost Liemen.
Everyone is in this problem can not extricate themselves, at this time Kublai Khan proposed, in fact, Möngke is the adopted son of Wokoutai, but also a vein of Wokoutai, which does not violate the principle of Genghis Khan, at the same time Wokoutai passed the throne to the Lost Liemen, in fact, it has been implemented, but later the Khan position of the Lost Liemen was robbed by Guiyou, so now Möngke robbed the Khan's position, in fact, it is not robbed of the Lost Liemen, but robbed of Guiyu, there is no problem at all.
After Kublai Khan's words, everyone was suddenly opened, and finally they chose Möngke to inherit the Khan's throne, and Möngke also had great trust in this brother who supported his meritorious succession to the Khan's throne, and later let Kublai Khan go to the south, which is what we call the Han region.
During Kublai Khan's stay in the south, he not only learned the advanced culture of the Han people, but also got the support of many Han people, after integrating many high-quality resources, Kublai Khan not only had stronger strength, but also received the affirmation of the Song Dynasty, many Han people only knew Kublai Khan, but did not know the Great Khan Möngke at that time.
It was precisely because Kublai Khan gradually became bigger and stronger, and Möngke was worried that Kublai Khan would affect his khanate, so he suppressed Kublai Khan, fortunately, Kublai Khan was very clever, actively responded to Möngke's call, and avoided a disaster. After experiencing a disaster, Kublai Khan had just been reused by Möngke, and as a result, Möngke died suddenly, and as far as Kublai Khan's strength at that time was concerned, he could not compete with his two younger brothers at all, and Kublai Khan could only find another way.
Just as Kublai Khan was trying to find another way out, the Han ministers and the advanced Han culture that Kublai Khan had learned played a crucial role, and when Hulagu and Ali Bugo were planning to retreat from the front line and return to seize the Khan's throne, Kublai Khan did the opposite, and he continued to lead the army forward, so that he gradually won the support of a group of tribes with the same vision as himself.
As more and more tribes supported Kublai Khan, Kublai Khan's strength became stronger and stronger, and finally reached the point where he could compete with Ali Bu Brother, at this time Kublai Khan directly organized the Kuriletai Conference by himself, and successfully became the Great Khan, competing with Ali Buge, who was also elected as the Great Khan by the Kuriletai Assembly in the mainland.
However, at this time, although Kublai Khan could compete with Ali Buge in terms of strength, it was still not enough in terms of popularity and legitimacy, because Ali Bu Brother was a young son, in line with the custom of the Mongolian young son to guard the stove, and At the same time, Ali Bu Brother was held in the local Kuriletai Conference, which was more orthodox, and naturally gained more support from the nobility.
Hulagu learned that both Kublai Khan and Ali Bu brother had become great khans, and he led his troops to South Asia to establish himself as king, and among the remaining sons of Genghis Khan, Chagatai and the descendants of Shuchi showed different attitudes, Shuchi supported Ali Buge, and Chagatai established himself as king and established the Chagatai Khanate.
Some of the descendants of Wokoutai support Ali Bu Brother, some support Kublai Khan, evenly matched, if it were not for Ali Bu Brother's repeated tricks, Kublai Khan wanted to win, or it would be difficult. At the time when the two were at their most fierce, Ali Buge carried out a bloodbath of the royal family in the Chagatai Khanate, which completely destroyed the customs of the Mongols that could not defeat their descendants, causing dissatisfaction among many tribes, and everyone turned to Kublai Khan, including Hulagu, who also defected to Kublai Khan, prompting Kublai Khan's strength and popularity to completely crush Ali Bu Brother.
In the end, Ali Bu Brother also knew the trend of the times, so he surrendered to Kublai Khan, and then Kublai Khan continued to grow bigger and stronger, and finally established the Yuan Dynasty, becoming the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, and also becoming the first ethnic minority emperor to achieve the unification of the Central Plains, which is enough to see his wisdom and extraordinary ability.
The internal composition of the two sides is very different
Of course, Kublai Khan was able to achieve the final success, in addition to his own wisdom, but also had a lot to do with the internal problems of the support forces on both sides at that time. As I said earlier, Kublai Khan was in a weak position and a weak heart at that time, whether from the perspective of strength or legitimacy, Kublai Khan was not as good as Ali Bu brother, so there were not many people who supported Kublai Khan at the beginning.
But these people who support Kublai Khan all understand a truth, choosing to support Kublai Khan is actually a road of no return with no way out, if it does not succeed in the end, it is bound to die, and under the encouragement of life danger, the potential of these supporters to burst out is unimaginable to ordinary people.
We look back at the nobles who support Ali Bu Brother, originally they are in orthodoxy, whether Ali Bu Brother is a failure or a success, it has little impact on them, and the most they can do is to re-choose to turn to Kublai Khan, and success is not much good for them, so they will not go all out to fight for it in the confrontation with Kublai Khan.
It is precisely because of the difference in the internal composition of the two sides, resulting in the potential that burst out on the way forward is also different, after a long period of fermentation and brewing, the strength of Kublai Khan's side is bound to become stronger and stronger, and the supporters of Ali's brother's side will easily turn against each other, everything seems to be just an accident, but in fact it has long become inevitable.
epilogue
Kublai Khan was able to eventually become the Great Khan from an ordinary prince, and constantly pioneered and innovated to establish the Yuan Dynasty, in fact, it was not a matter of luck, but step by step, relying on his humble attitude of being good at learning the advanced culture of the Han people, as well as the excellent quality of his own integration of resources, and finally created his own miracle, I have to say that he is indeed an excellent leader!
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