Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan and the son of Torre, who was initially just an ordinary prince within the Golden Family, but the coincidence of history pushed him from behind the scenes to the forefront, achieving the most extensive Yuan Dynasty and becoming a famous Ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty in history. But Kublai Khan's rise was not smooth, and he almost died, how did he step by step to the peak of his life?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" >, Past Life Entanglement: Three Generations of Khan Kings</h1>
Since the unification of the Mongol ministries, Genghis Khan led the Mongol Iron Horse to conquer the west, constantly expand the territory, establish the Mongol Empire, and achieve great achievements, but he has one of the biggest enemies - time, time makes him old, so that he will eventually die.
With death approaching, Genghis Khan had to consider the question of the heir to the empire. Finally, before a expedition, the empress also raised the question of heirs, and Genghis Khan had to determine it.
Genghis Khan had four concubines, namely the eldest son Shuchi, the second son Chagatai, the third son Wokoutai, and the fourth son Torre, of whom he liked the youngest son, Torre, followed by Wokoutai. The youngest son, Torre, is a natural military man, who leads soldiers to fight unmatched, while Wokoutai is a typical politician who has a very good set of governance.
What lay ahead of Genghis Khan was a difficult choice. If according to the tradition of "young son shou stove", Torre is the undisputed heir, and Torre is also his favorite and favorite candidate, but the huge empire needs a politician more than a military man.
Genghis Khan eventually, out of long-term concern for the stability of the empire, had to abandon his beloved youngest son Torre, summoned his son and brothers to come, and directly agreed to make Wokoutai the heir to the Khan's throne.
Before his death, Genghis Khan once again emphasized and reaffirmed Wokoutai's will to inherit the Khan's throne; when he returned to the heavens, the Khan's throne passed to Wokoutai, but the vast majority of the army, people, and property were left to the younger son Torre.
This created a strange situation, Wokoutai was the Great Khan of the King, but the strongest was Torre, until the 2 years after the death of Genghis Khan, Wokoutai could not be successfully inherited, but was overseen by the younger son Torre.
During these two years, in addition to Torre's strong strength, many Mongol nobles were inclined to Torre and tried to elect the Great Khan according to the Mongolian Kuriletai system (tribal council system), which led to Wokoutai not succeeding to the throne because of his father's will.
Only the Great Khan elected according to the Kuriletai system would become a recognized and orthodox Great Khan. However, in the end, with the support of the second brother Chagatai, Torre was lonely, and had no choice but to turn to support Wokoutai, which made Wokoutai finally ascend to the position of Khan, which can also be regarded as ending the shock of the first transfer of power.
After Wokoutai became the Great Khan, he faced his younger brother Torre, who controlled 80% of the Mongol army, and had difficulty sleeping and eating, but he could only get rid of it quickly. Later, he thought of a perfect way, under the pretext that he was seriously ill, according to the wizard's advice, as long as the closest person drank the rune water to heal himself, he could recover.
At that time, only his brother Torre was by his side, and Torre did not hesitate to drink the water, and Wokoutai immediately recovered, but within a few days Torre died inexplicably.
Torre's death made his sons feel very strange, but helpless, which also planted a contradiction between the Wokoutai lineage and the Torre lineage.
After eliminating his biggest hidden dangers, the Khan who had been in Wokoutai for almost 12 years died, and his eldest son Guiyu succeeded to the throne, and Guiyu died after being a Khan for 2 years. The Khanate of the Mongol Empire began again.
After the Kuriletai Congress, most of the mongol kings defected and elected Möngke to succeed the Khan. Möngke was the eldest son of Torre, which meant that the Mongol Khanate was officially transferred from the Wokoutai lineage to the Tuolei family, which also gave Kublai Khan a great opportunity to become the heir of the family.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="64" > 2. Brother suspicion: Möngke Khan and Kublai Khan</h1>
Möngke became the Great Khan, which was a great good thing for the descendants of the Torre lineage, and for Kublai Khan, the opportunity to inherit the family.
In order to consolidate his power and position, Möngke began to seal his younger brother, and Kublai Khan, as the eldest brother, was naturally among them. Kublai Khan had great ambitions, and as early as when he was just an ordinary king of the clan, he gathered a group of wise men around him.
When Möngke appointed Kublai Khan as the military and political governor of The Southern Handi, he was overjoyed, and the things he had dreamed of for many years finally came to an end. To this end, he also held a feast and celebrated with his own shogunate advisers.
This was a great thing for Kublai Khan, and everyone was oblivious to it, but it was sowing the seeds of Möngke's suspicions. Fortunately, there was a man named Yao Shu, who reminded Kublai Khan to only take over military power and return administrative power, avoiding possible conflicts with the Great Khan Möngke in advance.
Kublai Khan reused the Han chinese, operated with his heart, and gradually gained a foothold in the southern Han dynasty, and his reputation grew higher and higher day by day, which inevitably aroused the suspicion of Möngke. With the pacification of Dali, he gradually formed a siege of the Southern Song Dynasty, which suddenly greatly increased his power and prestige.
At that time, Möngke was already in full control of the situation, and the prestige of his younger brother Kublai Khan was a bit excessive, and under the constant sway of the people around him, he became suspicious of his brother.
It was finally here. Möngke assigned his close associate Alan Da'er to Kublai Khan's fiefdom, set up a hook examination bureau, and took the economic problem as a breakthrough point to specifically find Kublai Khan's subordinates, which was obviously to beat the dog to show the owner, directly to Kublai Khan.
Kublai Khan's relationship with Möngke was suddenly unpredictable and elusive. At this crucial moment, it was Yao Shu who pointed out a clear path for Kublai Khan, the core of which was to bow to Möngke and show loyalty.
Specifically, Kublai Khan had to understand the duty of being a vassal, send his wife and son to the capital he had, and take the initiative to request to return to Mobei and return to his brother's side, settling down for a long time, and showing his loyalty.
Sure enough, Möngke forgave his brother Kublai Khan and ordered the abolition of the Hook Examination Bureau, but still took advantage of the situation to relieve him of his military powers and stay by his side. It can be seen that Möngke just did not want to force his brother to death, but he was still defensive about him.
Kublai Khan reached the bottom of his life, and it is estimated that in his idle days, his heart was full of helplessness and bitterness. But heaven gave him the opportunity to rise again.
Just a year after he lived idly in the desert north, the Mongol Eastern Route Army repeatedly failed in attacking the Southern Song Dynasty. In this case, Möngke thought of his brother Kublai Khan and reappointed Kublai Khan to lead his army south.
The following year (1259 AD), Möngke was killed in battle at Diaoyu City during his conquest of the Song Dynasty. Because Möngke died too suddenly and did not appoint an heir during his lifetime, this directly caused the Mongol kings to compete for the Khan's throne, and the opportunity to belong to Kublai Khan quietly came.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="65" > third and second Khans standing side by side: Kublai Khan and Ali Bu brother</h1>
Möngke's unexpected death once again plunged the empire into a struggle for the khan's throne. At that time, there were two main groups of people with inheritance priorities, one was Möngke's own own son Ban Bald and others, and the other was his own brothers, including Kublai Khan and others.
As mentioned earlier, the Mongol inheritance system is different from the tradition of the son inheriting the father's inheritance or the brother's brother and the brother, mainly relying on the Kuriletai system, and furthermore, the able one is the king. Apparently, Möngke's untalented sons were excluded, and all that was left were Möngke's younger brothers. In fact, there are only 3 people who have the strength to compete for the throne - Kublai Khan, Hulagu and Ali Bu brother.
Before Möngke's conquest, he had his youngest brother Ali Buge stay in the capital helin, while Kublai Khan was marching south, Hulegu was marching west, and most of the Mongol nobles were very reluctant to be close to Hanfa.
At that time, Hulagu occupied almost all of southwest Asia during the Western Expedition, and was preparing to whip the Sinai Peninsula to egypt and Africa, when he learned of Möngke's death, and later heard that Kublai Khan and Ali were not brothers, so he simply gave up the fight.
Therefore, only Kublai Khan and Ali Bu Brother competed, and from the perspective of the card surface at that time, Ali Bu Brother had the greatest advantage.
But the first to get the news of Möngke's death was Kublai Khan, who was marching into Ezhou, learned from the captured Song army, but thought it was a rumor, and then confirmed the news from the secret envoy Möngke. Muge was very close to Kublai Khan, the son of his nursing mother, and the one who commanded the northward retreat of Möngke's army.
But the problem facing Kublai Khan was that although he was the first to know the news, because he had no merit or fame, he suddenly returned to the north of the desert and did not have the capital to compete for the Khan's position.
If I am ordered to come south, shall I not be able to return the favor?
After much deliberation, Kublai Khan decided to continue to attack Ezhou according to Möngke's original plan, in order to show his firm implementation of the legacy of Möngke Khan, while further enhancing his reputation and thus increasing his capital for the throne.
Therefore, he continued to attack the Southern Song Dynasty, and won many victories, and after the Southern Song Dynasty sent envoys to seek peace and promised to cut the land and send the coins, under the advice of the ministers, he decided to withdraw his troops and return to compete for the Khan's position.
Upon his return, Kublai Khan actively contacted the kings to gain support. In order to preemptively strike, he took the lead in convening the Kuriletai Assembly in 1260 AD and proclaimed the throne of the Great Khan.
After his younger brother Ali Buge's premeditation was disrupted, he also summoned the kings and relatives who remained in the north of the desert in the same year to hold a meeting, at which he was proclaimed as the Great Khan.
Since then, the Mongol Empire has seen a situation in which two Khans have never been in history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="67" >4. Final ascension to the throne: Kublai Khan is the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty</h1>
According to Mongol tradition, only those who held the Kuriletai Congress in the mainland were revered as orthodox, and it was clear that Ali Bu brother was orthodox, although he was called Khan later than Kublai Khan. In fact, 3 of the four mongol khanates supported Ali Bu brothers, and only the Ilkhanate (younger brother Hulagu) supported Kublai Khan.
In fact, at this point, it has become irrelevant who is orthodox, what matters is who has the biggest fist, who has the final say. Thus inevitably began the infighting of the Mongol Empire.
The crucial Battle of Shaanxi Andeen broke out in 1260 AD, with the two sides fighting at Liupan Mountain. In the end, Kublai Khan won the victory and took most of the elite of Möngke's southern expeditionary army into his own hands, greatly enhancing his own strength.
After the victory, Kublai Khan attacked the capital helin in the north, again defeating Ali Buge's army. Ali Bu Brother temporarily surrendered, and Kublai Khan let Brother Xiang xiang garrison Hala and Lin and return to Kaiping himself.
Soon, Ali Bu brother, who was able to breathe, under the pretext of leading the crowd to surrender to Brother Xiangxiang, made Brother Xiangge neglect his defenses and successfully raided Helin. Soon Kublai Khan led his army on a northern expedition, and the two sides fought until night, and they were still victorious or defeated, and they were not allowed to strike their own troops.
The situation seemed to have eased somewhat, but there was a split within Ali Buge, and due to the problem of food and wages, the Great Khan of the Chagatai Khanate, Aru Kudu, who had originally supported him, was unwilling to continue to obey his arrangements and directly rebelled against Kublai Khan.
In a fit of rage, Ali Bu ge led the rest of the western expedition to Aruku. After defeating Aruku, he ran rampant in the Ili River Valley, killing and plundering wantonly, and suffered a great famine, and the army was scattered. In desperation, the isolated Ali Brother formally surrendered to Kublai Khan.
In the spring of 1264, a five-year dispute over the khanship came to an end.
In 1271, when the overall situation had been determined, Kublai Khan took the meaning of "Dazha Qianyuan" in the I Ching, and designated the name of the country as "Dayuan", and his honorific title changed from the Great Khan of Mongolia to the Emperor of the Great Yuan, and the Yuan Dynasty was determined from then on, and Kublai Khan became the founder of the Yuan Dynasty.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="68" >5</h1>
Kublai Khan's gradual growth from an ordinary king to the founder of the Yuan Dynasty was both accidental and inevitable. By chance, after the sudden violent death of Wokoutai and the premature death of his son Guiyu, the Mongol Khanate was quietly transferred to the hands of the Torre lineage, which objectively made Kublai Khan have the identity and possibility of competing for the Khan's throne.
But only chance can not succeed, if there is no strategy, no strength, there can only be dry eyes. As early as when Kublai Khan was an ordinary clan king, he had great ambitions, attracted the talents of the Han people, and took the initiative to absorb the advanced culture of the Central Plains, thus forming a think tank that other clan kings could not match.
This is the rise of Kublai Khan one link after another, and all this is an accident except for the time of day, under the planning of the think tank, step by step to seize the opportunity, becoming the inevitable that Kublai Khan will go to the peak.