Genghis Khan, an outstanding statesman and military strategist in world history, conquered and unified the entire Mongolian plateau through his lifetime, occupying large territories of the Jin dynasty.
He destroyed Western Xia, Western Liao, and Khorezm, and extended his conquests to the Black Sea coasts of Eastern Europe and Crimea.
He and his descendants launched a series of foreign wars, so that the Mongol Empire continued to grow, at its peak its territory reached 33 million square kilometers, almost the entire Eurasian continent was under the rule of the Mongol ** family, and its empire area even exceeded the size of the Russian Empire.
Temujin, a young man from the steppe, had a bad fate and eventually became Genghis Khan, who was admired by thousands of people.
He was born in 1162 in the upper reaches of the Shonan River in present-day Mongolia, and in 1162 he was born in this magnificent steppe.
Temujin's father was the head of the Mongol beggar tribe. By the time Temujin was born, he had already captured the leader of the Tatar tribe, Temujin Uq.
To celebrate the victory, he named his eldest son "Temujin", which means "the most steeled iron" in Mongolian.
The eagle of the steppe needs to go through countless difficulties to spread its wings and fly high. When Temujin was nine years old, his father was poisoned by Temujin's son, Zarin, who was poisoned with alcohol.
From then on, the people of the Beggars betrayed him, and Temujin's family was in trouble. Sometimes, they can only satisfy their hunger by picking fruit and digging grass roots. It was in this difficult situation that Temujin spent his childhood.
As Temujin grew, the nearby Taichi Ube feared that his power would become stronger, so he took the opportunity to attack him.
Temujin had no choice but to flee and seek refuge. He took refuge with his stepfather, Wang Khan, and honored him as his father, and since then has joined the "game" for power in the steppe.
Genghis Khan's War to Unify Mongolia In 1180-1184, Temujin, with the support of his father-in-law Wang Khan, began his first steppe campaign.
In order to deal with the threat posed by Temujin's enemies, the tribe of the Murbeg, he attacked the Murbegs in the valley of the Bhuula River, which became known as the Battle of the Bula River, in which Temujin won a great victory, recaptured his family, and plundered a large number of goods and slaves.
After the war, Temujin and Zamu, who fought alongside him, contracted to be Anda (brother). After that, Temujin gradually grew in strength with the help of Toli Khan, and the people of the original Qiyan tribe returned.
In 1189, Temujin was elected Khan (chief) of the tribe. From then on, Temujin began to carefully build his own elite troops.
Despite this, the contradictions between Temujin and Zamuhe gradually intensified. In 1190, Zamuh joined forces with the most powerful of the Mongol tribes, the Taichi Ubu, to launch an attack on Temujin's army of 30,000 men.
Temujin led his own army of thirteen wings to resist. The battle came to be known as the Battle of the Thirteen Wings. However, Temujin was not strong enough, so he was defeated in this battle and was forced to retreat.
However, while Zamuhe drew the ire of his men and other tribes by killing his captives, Temujin used clever tactics to win the hearts and minds of the people, and succeeded in attracting many of the smaller tribes to join him.
In this way, Temujin's strength was greatly improved.
In 1196, Temujin united with the Kreh and Jin armies of the Tari Khan, defeated the Tatars, killed their leader, and captured a large amount of booty. Prime Minister Wan Yanxiang thus conferred the title of king of Tari Khan, and Tari Khan became the king of Khan from then on.
Temujin, on the other hand, was given the official title of "Zawu Ti Kuri", which gave him the status of a tribal chief appointed by the Jin dynasty, which allowed him to better govern his people, and his prestige and power were greatly enhanced.
In 1200, Temujin and Wang Khan attacked the Taichi Ubu and won a victory in the north of the Yangtze River, killing their leader Taerhutai. Then, they followed Wang Khan into the Hulunbuir steppe, and most of the local tribes were annexed by them.
In order to prevent the rise of Temujin, the nobles of the steppe tribes elected Zamuhe as the "Gul Khan" (i.e., the Khan of the Khans). However, in 1202, Zamuh formed a coalition of twelve armies to attack Temujin.
Temujin and Wang Khan fought together, and the Battle of Koyitian broke out, resulting in a great defeat for the Zamuhe coalition forces.
The alliance between Temujin and Zamuhe collapsed after the last decisive battle, and the battle became the final battle for the leadership of the Mongols, and Temujin succeeded in becoming the sole leader of the Mongols.
In the autumn of the same year, he wiped out the Tatars, conquering the major tribes of eastern Mongolia. However, as Temujin's power continued to expand, it aroused the suspicion of Wang Khan.
So, in 1203, Wang Khan decided to attack Temujin, but due to the difference in strength between the two sides, Temujin was defeated, leaving only 4,600 horsemen. As a result, Temujin's power seemed to return to its pre-liberation period overnight.
However, Temujin did not give up, and he chose to stay in the dark and wait for the opportunity. After Wang Khan's victory, he gradually became proud and despised his enemies, which gave Temujin a chance.
After Temujin gradually recovered, he found that Wang Khan was feasting and enjoying every day, so he led his army to attack and besiege Wang Khan's camp.
After three days and three nights of fierce fighting, Temujin successfully defeated Wang Khan's main force, and Wang Khan fled into the Mobei Naiban tribe in disarray, but was killed by the Naiban border generals, and the Kereh tribe was also conquered by Temujin.
After years of bloody battles, he finally conquered many tribes across the Great Khing'an Mountains and the Hangai Mountains, laying a solid foundation for the establishment of the Mongol Empire. The fall of the Kereb tribe shocked the rulers of the Nabarian tribe.
So, in 1204, Sun Khan, the leader of the Nabarian tribe, gathered the fallen nobles such as Zamuhe and decided to launch an attack on the Mongols. However, the Nabarian Alliance's military discipline was lax and their internal contradictions were fraught with internal contradictions, and they were no easy opponent for Temujin.
In addition, Sun Khan himself was weak and incompetent, which led to the defeat of the Naiban army, and Sun Khan himself was wounded** and died of illness soon after, and Temujin took advantage of the situation to pacify the Naiban army.
Zamuhe fled, but was betrayed to Temujin by his subordinates and eventually executed. After destroying Sun Khan, Temujin continued his northward march and conquered the Mirbeggars.
After twenty-six years of hard fighting, Temujin finally unified the Mongolian plateau and became the supreme ruler of this vast region after destroying his enemies, father-in-law, and Anda.
Temujin convened a grand assembly at the Troubled River, and was officially honored as "Genghis Khan", which means "the khan who has the four directions under the heavens", and established the name of the state after his tribe, called the "Great Mongolian State".
He also published the world's first and most widely used written code, the Great Zaza. At this time, Genghis Khan was no longer satisfied with just being the Great Khan of Mongolia, and his eyes had turned to the territory south of the Great Wall.
In the unified Greater Mongolia, Temujin pointed the finger at the Western Xia and Jin dynasties. He adopted the strategy of "weak first and then strong", and first attacked the economically rich and strategically important Western Xia.
As early as 1205, Temujin launched his first attack on Western Xia, penetrating deep into the hinterland of Ningxia and plundering large numbers of people and livestock.
In 1207, the Mongol Empire launched a second attack on Western Xia and captured the city of Wurahai. However, it was not until the following year (1208) that the Mongol army retreated.
In 1209, the Mongol army launched its third large-scale attack on Western Xia, and the 50,000-strong army of Western Xia was completely defeated by the Mongol army. The Mongol army pursued the victory and besieged Zhongxingfu (present-day Yinchuan, Ningxia) in Western Xia.
Faced with this situation, Xia Xiangzong Li An'an could only choose to seek peace by offering his daughters and paying tribute, and at the same time agreed to join forces with the Mongols to attack the Jin Dynasty.
Western Xia tried to avoid war by begging for peace, but was unsuccessful. Genghis Khan invaded Western Xia three times in 1217, 1218 and 1224, culminating in a large-scale war of extermination in 1226.
In June 1227, the late Western Xia Emperor Li Hui surrendered, and the Western Xia Kingdom was declared extinct.
In the Mengjin War, the Mongol Empire had not yet been established, and the Jin Dynasty was already in a state of rapid decline, with political corruption and slack armaments, and the Jurchen nobles of the Wanyan clan had lost their strong combat effectiveness in destroying the Liao and Song dynasties.
In 1211, Genghis Khan sent troops to declare war on the Jin dynasty for the hatred of his ancestors. He personally led the main forces of the Mongol army deep into Hebei. The Jin army claimed to have 300,000 troops and was stationed at Yehuling.
Genghis Khan ordered 100,000 troops to concentrate on attacking the 100,000 elite troops in the middle of the Jin Kingdom.
In the battle that decided the fate of Mongolia and the Jin Dynasty, the Mongol army won the victory with an overwhelming advantage, the Jin State **200,000, and the elite troops were almost completely annihilated, and they were unable to resist the invasion of the Mongol iron cavalry.
The Mongol army conquered Juyong Pass, approached the capital of Jinzhong, and then triumphantly squad. After that, the Jin Kingdom suffered successive defeats in the Mengjin War, and civil strife broke out frequently, which eventually led to the usurpation of the throne and accelerated the fall of the Jin Kingdom.
In 1213, Genghis Khan led a large army to attack Yehuling again, invaded Huailai, and launched a fierce battle with the Jin Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty's 100,000 army was defeated, and Genghis Khan led the three-way army to the south and carried out large-scale killing and plundering north of the Yellow River.
The Miscellaneous Records of the Government and the Opposition since the Establishment of Yan recorded: "Thousands of miles east of Lianghe Mountain, the people were almost killed, the gold silk, children, cattle, sheep and horses were robbed, and the houses and cities were turned into ruins. ”
In the spring of 1214, the Mongol armies of the three routes converged and besieged Zhongdu. The newly enthroned Jin Xuanzong was forced to sacrifice Wanyan Yongji's daughter, Princess Qiguo, and gave a large number of gold silks, boys and women to sue for peace.
In May, Jin Xuanzong was forced to move south to Kaifeng, Henan. In 1215, Genghis Khan captured the central capital of the Jin Dynasty.
In the process of conquering the Jin Dynasty, Genghis Khan's means of conquest gradually matured, and he began to change the previous ** policy, and instead adopted the method of surrender, and established an artillery army, attacking the city with cannon stones, and at the same time plundering craftsmen and craftsmen, absorbing advanced technology, and setting up an iron-smelting plant to manufacture weapons.
In 1216, Genghis Khan led his army back to Mobei, and in 1217, he sent Mu Huali to conquer the Jin dynasty in his place.
After six years of campaigning, by the time of Muhuali's death in 1223, the Mongols had conquered Hebei, Shandong and other places in the Jin Dynasty, and set up a capital province there.
The Mongol Empire's Western Expedition - At the same time as annexing the Western Liao, destroying the Xia, and conquering the Liao, Genghis Khan led the Mongolian Iron Cavalry to the west, opening the first western expedition of the Mongol Empire. His first target was the establishment of Western Liao by the Khitans in Xinjiang and Central Asia in China.
In order to grasp the wealth of the unimpeded trade routes between Central Asia and the Western Regions and the middle end of the Silk Road, in 1218, Genghis Khan sent General Jebe to lead 20,000 cavalry to capture Western Liao.
The resistance of the Muslims made the Mongols everywhere, and they captured the city and welcomed them. The Western Liao Emperor Qu Chulu (son of Sun Khan) was captured by Jebe in Xinjiang, and from then on, all of Western Liao's territory was occupied by the Mongol Empire, which also bordered the Central Asian power of Khwarazm.
Next, the Mongol Empire began an offensive against Khizm, which eventually destroyed it. Located in western Central Asia, on the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River and on the southern shore of the Aral Sea, the land of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan is now owned by Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.
As early as 1200, Huathornzimo began to expand and occupied much of the land in Western Liao. They planned to expand further eastward, so they sent a mission to inquire about the war between the Mongols and the Jin dynasty.
Genghis Khan expressed his willingness to trade with Khwarazm and organized a caravan of more than 400 people to go to Khwarazm**.
In 1218, a caravan was killed by a greedy governor at the border city of Khwarazm, in the middle reaches of the Syr Darya River in Kazakhstan.
Temujin was so enraged that he sent three messengers to reprimand, but Khorezm Mahamat killed one of them and shaved them and expelled them.
This incident became a pretext for Temujin's advance into Central Asia, and war inevitably broke out between the two countries.
In 1219, Genghis Khan led an army of 200,000 men across the Altai Mountains and attacked Khorezm in four parts.
Three months later, they succeeded in capturing the capital in Samarkand and began to implement a strategy of destruction and killing.
Under the urgency of the Mongol army, Mahamat continued to flee westward, eventually dying on an island near the southern shore of the Caspian Sea.
Between 1220 and 1225, Genghis Khan launched a five-year campaign to the west. He first crossed the Amu Darya River, captured several cities in Khorezm, and in 1221 captured the city of Yulongjie Chicheng, which had 1.2 million men in 7 days.
He then crossed the Hindu Kush to northern India, eventually capturing all of Khorezm in 1225 and commanding his eldest son, Jochi, to defend it. In this war, Genghis Khan wiped out and incorporated 400,000 troops, and the western expedition brought great destruction and ** to the Islamic world.
The Mongol cavalry thus began to gain notoriety. However, the war did not end there. Genghis Khan sent Subutai and Jebe to continue the pursuit of Mahamat and capture the cities of central and western Persia.
In 1222, they invaded the Kingdom of Georgia and other places, crossed the Caucasus Mountains, and successively defeated the Aran and Kipchak tribes. This war not only showed Genghis Khan's military prowess, but also brought deep pain to the Islamic world.
The Mongol Empire's westward conquest became part of world history.
In 1223 B.C., the Mongols, Rus' and Kipchak armies fought fiercely on the east bank of the Calga River, known as the Battle of the Calga River. Although the Mongol army was less than 30,000 people, in the face of the coalition army of about 80,000 people, they defeated the coalition forces one by one by virtue of their bravery and skillful fighting.
In the end, six princes were executed and 70 nobles were killed.
From ancient battlefields to modern cities, Mongolian iron horsemen have traveled all over the world. Their path to victory began in the Mongolian steppe, swept across Europe, and finally ended on the Asian continent.
In 1223, Jebe and Subutai returned triumphantly with the glory of the Mongol army. After seven years of expeditions to the west, Genghis Khan returned to his hometown in Mobei. At the age of nearly sixty-four, he still did not change his love for conquest, and personally conquered the Western Xia, ending the Western Xia Dynasty.
Then, he led his army south, captured Lanzhou and other places, and stationed in Liupan Mountain to recuperate. At the last moment of his life, he made a will, wanting to take advantage of the feud between Song and Jin, take advantage of the Song realm, and join Song to destroy Jin.
In 1227, Genghis Khan died of illness in Qingshui County, at the foot of Liupan Mountain, at the age of sixty-six. His legacy was fulfilled, and seven years later, the Jin dynasty was destroyed and the Mongol Empire was officially established.
In 1265, Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, posthumously honored Temujin as Taizu. The Mongols' road to conquest will forever be recorded in the annals of history.
Genghis Khan is a controversial historical figure whose deeds and influence have long since transcended national borders and become the focus of military, political, and academic research around the world.
It is undeniable that the westward conquest of the Mongol cavalry brought great disasters to the peoples of Central Asia and Europe, however, this conquest also promoted the integration of Eurasian resources, promoted cultural exchanges between various ethnic groups, and had a profound impact on the development of history.