Preface
Kublai Khan, the fifth emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, waged a number of wars during his reign, which caused widespread concern and controversy among historians.
However, during his 35-year reign, he launched 10 major wars, was this out of the ambition of reckless military force, or the ambition to expand the territory? Let us walk into the magnificent life of Kublai Khan and explore his turbulent history of conquest.
1. The battle for the throne of Khan
In 1259, Möngke Khan died young at the foot of the Diaoyu Castle, and his two nephews, Ali Buge and Kublai Khan, fought to the death for the throne of the Great Khan. As Meng Ge's nephew, Ali Buge should inherit the throne, but Kublai Khan thought highly of himself and thought that he was more qualified, so the two sides drew their swords against each other in the desert steppe.
Ali Buge was brave and good at fighting, and he personally commanded the army, and the east road went straight to Kaiping and Yanjing, and the west road cut off the supply line of the Hexi Corridor and Shaanxi. Kublai Khan, although he was soft-spoken, was very strategic, he first sent elite troops to block the army on the western route, and then personally led the Chinese army to meet the main force on the eastern route.
In 1261, Ali Buge went on another expedition to the east, trying to win a thousand miles in one fell swoop. Kublai Khan, however, used a brilliant starvation tactic to cut off supplies to the Mongolian steppes, leaving Ali Buge's army in a severe shortage of food and grass. Ali Buge had to temporarily withdraw his troops and send his cronie Aruhu to the fiefdom to collect grain and grass, but Aruhu turned back and established himself as Khan and established the Chagatai Khanate.
Ali Buge was furious and personally went west to defeat Aruhu, but unexpectedly fell into Kublai Khan's trap, was attacked from front to back, and finally surrendered helplessly in 1264. In this way, after four years of hard work, Kublai Khan finally sat on the throne of the Great Khan, and then he made up his mind to reunite this once glorious territory.
Second, the great cause of reunification
The Southern Song Dynasty was already at the end of its strong crossbow, and if Kublai Khan wanted to completely unify the world, he must first take the last obstacle of the Southern Song Dynasty. In 1268, he sent his confidant Ashu as a commander to besiege Xiangyang for a long time, and after several iterations, he finally conquered the city in 1272, and the Yangtze River defense line of the Southern Song Dynasty was completely broken.
In 1275, Kublai Khan mobilized the main force of the expedition to the northwest to the Jianghan front and personally supervised the battle. In this year, the Yuan Dynasty officially launched a general attack on the Southern Song Dynasty, and the army successfully broke through the Ezhou defense line like a cloud, and then went all the way east, and the cities along the way opened their doors and surrendered. Soon, the army invaded Jiankang City, and the fate of the Southern Song Dynasty was settled.
In 1276, the Yuan army captured Hangzhou, and the emperors of the Southern Song Dynasty and hundreds of civil and military officials all surrendered. Although Kublai Khan had conquered everything, the remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty were still surviving in some remote areas. In order to completely purge, Kublai Khan personally supervised the war for another three years, until 1279, when the last remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty were completely swept away.
In this way, after nearly 20 years of hard work, Kublai Khan finally completed the great cause of China's unification, he stepped on the Southern Song Dynasty with iron hooves, and also laid a solid foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the future.
3. Expansion of the Eastern Crusade
The Goryeo Kingdom has been a deep-rooted scourge of the Central Plains Dynasty since ancient times, and Kublai Khan also extended an olive branch to Goryeo at the beginning, hoping that Goryeo would consciously submit to the Yuan Dynasty. But the king of Goryeo was empty-sighted, not only rejected Kublai Khan's request for peace, but also secretly colluded with Japan and plotted against him.
Enraged by Goryeo's arrogance, Kublai Khan personally led an elite army to conquer Goryeo in 1269, and Goryeo was soon defeated by the onslaught of the Yuan army. In the end, the king of Goryeo had no choice but to bow his head and pay tribute to Kublai Khan, and promised to provide military and logistical support for the Yuan Dynasty's eastward expedition against Japan.
The submission of Goryeo cleared the last obstacle for Kublai Khan's eastward expedition to Japan. In 1274, Kublai Khan remotely controlled the Goryeo army and personally led the main force of the Yuan Dynasty across the ocean to attack the Japanese mainland. However, the terrain of Japan was very complicated, and the Yuan army soon fell into a situation of passive beating after landing, and finally had to retreat and suffered heavy losses.
In 1281, Kublai Khan launched another attack on Japan, but the results were still disappointing, and the Yuan army was not only unable to gain a foothold in Japan itself, but encountered a typhoon in the process of retreating, and a large number of warships and soldiers were killed in the sea, suffering heavy casualties. Although Kublai Khan was still unsatisfied, he could only temporarily give up the conquest of Japan.
Fourth, the situation in southern Xinjiang
Kublai Khan's ambitions for the countries of Southeast Asia never stopped. In 1279, the king of the Cham kingdom paid tribute to the Yuan Dynasty, but Kublai Khan demanded that the Cham must set up a province and be directly ruled by the Yuan Dynasty. So, in 1284, Kublai Khan personally led his army to conquer the capital of Po Kingdom.
Although it was difficult for the Cham state to resist the iron hooves of the Yuan army on the frontal battlefield, they adopted tenacious guerrilla tactics, ambushing and harassing the logistics line of the Yuan army everywhere, so that the Yuan army fell into a situation of being passively beaten. In the end, Kublai Khan could only reluctantly reach a compromise with the Cham king, agreeing that the Cham would remain subordinate to the Yuan dynasty, but would no longer have a province.
Immediately afterwards, Kublai Khan pointed the finger at Vietnam. In 1284, he personally led a large army to conquer Vietnam, and at first it was a smooth journey, and soon captured the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. However, once deep into the heart of Vietnam, the Yuan army encountered stubborn resistance from the local military and civilians, coupled with the harsh local climate and rampant disease, the Yuan army suffered heavy losses and finally had to retreat.
In 1287, Kublai Khan made another expedition to Vietnam, but this time, the Vietnamese army adopted a more thorough strategy of "fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness", and the whole country was scorched. In the end, the 100,000 Yuan army was completely annihilated, and Kublai Khan had to give up the conquest of Vietnam again.
Fifth, the northwest beacon smoke
At the same time, Kublai Khan also encountered a lot of trouble in the northwest. The Mongol Empire was already divided during the Ögedai period, with Batu establishing the Kipchak Khanate, and during the struggle for the throne, Arukh established the Chagatai Khanate. Although Kublai Khan defeated Ali Buge, the two khanates did not surrender.
In 1268, the Kipchak Khanate, the Chagatai Khanate, and the Ögedai Khanate formed an alliance to divide Central Asia, and then the king of the Ögedai Khanate, Haidu, launched a direct attack on Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan personally led his army to the west and drove Haidu back to his hometown, but Haidu did not stop there.
In 1275, at the instigation of Totomuer, King Cyriji rebelled and established himself as Khan, and presented the commanders of the Yuan Dynasty's army, Namuhan and Kuokuo, to Haidu. Subsequently, the rebel forces of Cyriji and Sariman joined forces and took control of the Qianhe region, posing a serious threat to the northwestern territory of the Yuan Dynasty.
Kublai Khan took the opportunity to make a decisive decision and personally marched north, and after several years of difficult expeditions, he finally put down the rebellion of Cyriji and Sariman in 1280. But at this moment, Haidu took advantage of the situation and marched eastward, which once shook Mobei. Kublai Khan once again personally marched Haidu back to his hometown.
In this way, Kublai Khan and Haidu maneuvered in the northwest for nearly 20 years, and both sides suffered heavy losses. Eventually, the Ögedai Khanate was divided between the Yuan Dynasty and the Chagatai Khanate, but the Yuan Dynasty also had to acquiesce in the Chagatai Khanate's occupation of the Western Regions. This protracted war undoubtedly increased the burden of Kublai Khan's conquest.
epilogue
Throughout Kublai Khan's life, we can see that he was indeed a war-loving monarch. From establishing the legitimacy of his khan, to completing the great cause of China's unification, to expanding abroad, Kublai Khan almost trampled the entire Asian continent with iron hooves.
He used the smoke of war to burn out his youth, and in the baptism of war, he forged a unified Mongolian empire. His conquest exploits are unparalleled in the world, but he also left a heavy price for the Chinese nation in the future.
So, it doesn't matter whether Kublai Khan was a tyrant who was a reckless tyrant or a hero who expanded his territory. The important thing is that he used his life to interpret what a real emperor is.