The conquest of Dali was an important step for the Mongols to move south. In the past ten years, the Mongol army has twice marched south, raised the strength of the whole country, and made an expedition to Dali, and finally Kublai Khan swept away the southwestern feudal state.
First, the origin of the Dali Kingdom.
The predecessor of the Dali State was the State of Nanzhao, a vassal state that rose in the southwest region after the middle of the Tang Dynasty. In the twenty-sixth year of Tang Kaiyuan, in 738 AD, the State of Nanzhao was formally established. In the second year of Tang Tianfu, in 902 AD, the State of Nanzhao fell and was replaced by the short-term ruling State of Dahe and the State of Dayining.
Successive emperors of the Tang Dynasty wanted to destroy Nanzhao. During the Tianbao years, the Tang Dynasty launched several Tianbao Wars against Nanzhao, but unfortunately, in the end, the Tang Dynasty failed, and the Nanzhao general Duan Jianwei defeated the Tang army, ending the Tianbao War. In 937, Duan Siping, the sixth grandson of Duan Jianwei, established the State of Dali, with the capital at Yang Tho City, which is today Dali, Yunnan, known in history as the State of Dali.
Duan Siping's hometown
The State of Dali occupied present-day Yunnan and southwestern Guizhou, including Burma, Laos, and northern Vietnam. Nominally a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty, it was actually independent, and power was passed down from generation to generation in the Duan clan.
After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Dali Guo took the initiative to revise the book and expressed its willingness to submit to the Song Dynasty and establish relations between the two countries. When Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, marched south, there was no war with Dali, and he said that "in addition, there is no one in me", and the boundary between the two countries was demarcated by the Dadu River. Since then, Dali has been stable in production, and the king has been passed down for more than ten generations.
Dali border with the Song Dynasty
Second, the Mongol army suppressed Dali.
In 1234, with the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Mongols had completely swept away the northern separatist forces, most of China had been submitted to the Mongol banner, and genghis Khan's descendants were dispatching troops to attack the Southern Song Dynasty. By destroying the Southern Song Dynasty, they could annex the Central Plains and establish the Mongol Empire in the true sense of the word.
However, Dali was like an iron nail, nailed to a corner of southern China, posing a great threat to the Mongols going south. Because the Song Dynasty and the Dali State have been friends for generations, it will not only send troops to aid the Song Dynasty, but even become a safe passage for the Song Dynasty to retreat.
Therefore, the Mongols agreed that before attacking the Song Dynasty, dali must be subdued. This small country was not very obedient, and even clamored against the Mongols in the southwestern frontier.
In 1244, in the fourth year of Song Chunyou, the Mongols attacked Dali for the first time, and the Duan regime sent troops to meet the battle. In the face of the powerful Mongol army, dali was overwhelmed, the lord was killed, and seeing that the battle of defending the country would end in defeat, Dali was deeply in fear.
However, at the critical moment, the Mongol Wokoutai Khan suddenly fell ill and died, and the Mongol army had to temporarily withdraw its troops and return to Shangdu, while mourning the Great Khan, while discussing the election of a new Great Khan, the first expedition to Dali came to an abrupt end.
Dali Three Towers
Nine years later, in 1253, the fourth Great Khan of Mongolia, Möngke, said to his second brother Kublai Khan, "You have implemented Han law in southern Mo and achieved good results, so when will you capture the phoenix of Dali for me, and I will wait for you to destroy Dali and then attack the Southern Song Dynasty."
Kublai Khan did not dare to be idle, he immediately raised an army to the south, leaving the crown prince Zhenjin to guard the capital, personally leading a large army, and a group of Han strategists directly attacked the southwest frontier. The vanguard general was a wuliang hetai with outstanding military achievements.
However, the trip to Yunnan was extremely difficult. It was September, the Mongolian steppe was already icy and snowy, and the land of Yunnan was still extremely hot, climbing mountains and wading all the way, encountering mosquito bites and miasma invasion, the troops advanced slowly, and the attrition was very serious, nearly one-third of the number.
With the encouragement of Liu Bingzhong, Zhang Wenqian and other Han strategists, after more than three months of arduous marching, the three major armies finally converged, and the battle against Dali would immediately begin.
In accordance with the custom of the Mongol army, Kublai Khan sent envoys to surrender. At this time, the real power of the Dali state was in the hands of the Gao brothers, who did not understand the strength and cruelty of the Mongols, knew nothing about the danger in front of them, and actually killed three Mongol emissaries to show their arrogance at the disdain for the Mongols.
At this time, Kublai Khan was furious and directly ordered the slaughter of the city, and the Mongol army attacked Dali by force.
In the face of the fierce Mongol army, the Gao brothers had no strength at all, and they had no choice but to flee desperately. In just one day, Kublai Khan's army occupied the city of Dali, the Mongols shouted to kill the heavens, the city of Dali was bloodied, Kublai Khan was completely angered by the Gao brothers' killing of the three emissaries, and he gave the order to slaughter the city.
At a critical juncture, Master Yao Shu advised that the people were innocent and that the gao brothers who had committed the crime should immediately stop slaughtering innocent people. Therefore, Kublai Khan sent a large number of messengers to run around the city holding aloft the "stop killing" banner, and the Mongols' crazy slaughter of the city stopped.
A few days later, the Gao brothers were killed by Wuliang Hetai, and Dali Guo basically lost the strength to resist. Kublai Khan then arranged for the Han chinese to act as envoys to specifically manage the affairs of the Dali region, and Wuliang Hetai continued to eliminate sporadic opposition forces, and Kublai Khan returned north to Liupan Mountain.
Map of Dali
3. Dali was returned to Shun Yuanting.
Duan Xingzhi, the last king of dali, was captured alive by the Mongol army and sent all the way north to the Mongol capital of Hala and Lin, where Möngke Khan received Duan Xingzhi with the courtesy of a monarch and encouraged him to continue to be his king when he returned, but to obey the orders of the Mongols and obey the dispatches of the Mongols.
Of course, Duan Xingzhi did not have the strength to resist, and he was more grateful to Möngke Khan for his grace of not killing. After returning to Dali, he handed over secret materials and powers such as maps, and cooperated with Wuliang Hetai to conquer the forces and territories of Dali's five cities, eight provinces, and four counties, and sacrificed thirty-seven tribes such as Wuman, Baiman, and GhostMan, and the Dali state completely disappeared from then on.
After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan court set up the province of Yunnan, which was administered according to Han law, and the southwestern border areas were restored to tranquility.