Chapter 326 Chapter 325

Yuan Xianzong, that is, Emperor Huansu, Mongolian Khan, named Mengge.Grandson of Yuan Taizu Genghis Khan, the eldest son of Tuolei.Mother Zhuangxian Empress Dowager Qi Lie, whose name is Lu Heteni.When he was young, he was raised by Taizong Wo Kuotai.Born in the first year of Jiading (AD 1208) in the Southern Song Dynasty, and died in the first year of Kaiqing (AD 1259) in the Southern Song Dynasty. Genghis Khan's eldest wife and four sons - Shuchi, Chagatai, Wokuotai, and Tuolei followed Genghis Khan in the conquest and made great contributions to the foundation of Mongolia.Although Genghis Khan established Wo Kuotai as his heir, he always felt guilty for his beloved young son Tuo Lei, so he made another arrangement: "The affairs of the throne and the country are difficult things, let Wo Kuotai handle them. Let’s go. My old camp and family, the troops and treasures I have collected should be handed over to Tuo Lei for management.” Genghis Khan’s contradictory arrangement laid a hidden danger for the Khan’s position struggle within the clan.According to the old Mongolian practice and the arrangement of Genghis Khan, the Tuo Lei family became a powerful force among the Mongolian nobles.In September of the fifth year of Shaoding (1232 A.D.), that is, the fourth year after Wo Kuotai ascended the throne, Tuo Lei died inexplicably in the Jin Jin army.However, Torrey's death did not bring the conflict between the brothers to the grave.

Meng Ge was brought up by Wo Kuotai, who was still a vassal king, and was taken care of by Queen Anghui in his childhood.After growing up, it was Wo Kuotai who hired Huo Lichai, a woman from the Hulu tribe, as his wife, and distributed it to some of his tribe's people.However, Meng Ge never forgot to avenge the killing of his father.Meng Ge deeply buried the desire for revenge in his heart, but on the surface he became more humble.After inheriting his father's inheritance, Meng Ge worked very hard to follow his uncle Wo Kuotai to fight everywhere, and made outstanding achievements repeatedly.In the spring of the first year of Jiaxi (1237 A.D.), Meng Ge led an army to attack the Qincha Department and captured Bachi Man alive.In the autumn of the same year, Meng Ge joined forces with Jochi's son Batu to conquer the Wuluosi tribe and conquered Yeliezan City in one fell swoop.In the third year of Jiaxi, Mengge and Guiyou led the army to conquer the country of Aso.In many battles, Meng Ge was reckless and made outstanding achievements. He not only dispelled Wo Kuotai's suspicion of himself, but also won a high reputation among the Mongolian kings, laying a good foundation for him to compete for the Khan position in the future.

At the same time, his mother Soluhoteni was also active.When Tuolei died, she entertained guests and gave gifts, rewarded the soldiers and the people, won the love of all parties, and made people turn to her.Wo Kuotai knew this best. In order to make this woman submit, he wanted to marry her to his eldest son Guiyou, but he was politely rejected.The treacherous political environment made her cautious.During the vacancy of the Mongolian Khan, the kings issued card talismans indiscriminately, extorted money, and instigated Luhuo Tini to strictly prohibit his sons from violating the law.She also protected her subjects. Tax collectors, officials and soldiers were afraid of her severe punishment and did not dare to abuse the people.

Meng Ge's strong and resolute, clean and indifferent character, his military talent and military ability, coupled with the reputation of instigating Luhuo Tini's precepts and caring for the people, made Meng Ge's prestige grow day by day.After Guiyou's death, there was no king in the court, and both the court and the public paid attention to Meng Ge.The descendants of Wo Kuotai are very disappointing, and it is impossible to compete with Meng Ge. In the second year after Guiyou's death, that is, in 1249 A.D., on Kuliltai who elected Khan, Batu, the son of Jochi who had a feud with Wo Kuotai, took the lead in electing Mengge as the successor of Khan. The meeting was overwhelming.In this way, relying on the prestige he established and the powerful military force formed by the alliance with Batu, Meng Ge finally took Khan back from the hands of the Wokuotai faction. In the summer of 1251, with the support of most Mongolian kings, Meng Ge finally ascended the throne of the Great Khan by the Onan River, realizing the long-cherished wish of the Tuolei family to revive the Khan throne.

In the early 13th century, the Mongols were still in the development stage of a slavery society, and the Mongolian nobles could plunder the land and wealth of the conquered areas without restriction.They advocated turning the advanced agricultural areas of the Central Plains into pastures. The Central Plains suffered great disasters under the trampling of Mongolian cavalry.After Wo Kuotai succeeded to the throne, in order to stabilize the situation in the Central Plains, he appointed Yelu Chucai to carry out a series of reforms in the way of exploitation in 1230. Request from time to time.The life of the people in the Central Plains has improved slightly.In the first year of Duanping (1234 A.D.), Wo Kuotai suddenly became the judge of Zhongzhou because of his loss of good luck and baldness.

On the eve of Meng Ge's ascension to the throne, the situation of "death in Han land" was very serious, and the people were extremely destitute, and the only way out was armed resistance.Faced with this situation, Meng Ge, who was at the beginning of his accession to the throne, ordered in 1251 that all the harassing decrees issued by the kings after the death of Guiyu Khan should all be confiscated; , no one is allowed to publish documents; except for Mu Suman, Yeli Kewen, monks, and Taoists who were exempted by Genghis Khan, Wu Tuo and officials should pay tribute according to their property; Han people pay different taxes according to their wealth. tax.However, the above-mentioned series of decrees by Meng Ge are just general emergency measures and cannot fundamentally solve the problem.On the contrary, he used Yalawachi, Bujier, Wulubu, Jiandaer, etc. to manage Yanjing Province. As a result, the old evils did not go away, and new evils came again.For example, the silver package system established by Meng Ge, Yalawachi and others proposed to change the silver package into a formal tax, and collect 6 taels of silver per household.Due to the hard work of Han officials, it was changed to 4 taels, of which 2 taels can be paid in kind.Due to the inability to pay, the number of people fleeing is increasing day by day.

In order to control the Central Plains, Meng Ge ordered his younger brother Kublai Khan to manage the Han people in the Central Plains.Kublai Khan was influenced by Han culture since he was a child, so he practiced Han law.However, Meng Ge opposed Kublai Khan's Hanfa experiment in the Central Plains. In 1257, the area controlled by Kublai Khan was retaken. Meng Ge also basically maintained the ruling mode of his grandfather and uncle in terms of rule.A mantra used by Genghis Khan to encourage his brothers and nephews to wage wars of aggression is: "Take the world, divide the land, and share the wealth." Soon after the founding of the country, Genghis Khan enfeoffed the Mongolian people, land, and pastures to his brothers , Zhuzi.Due to the different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures in the conquered areas, the enfeoffment kings have great independence.The Great Mongol Empire tended to split.

After Mengge succeeded to the throne, in order to restore the gradual split of the Mongolian Kingdom, he took some measures: First, he used the son of Quchu, Shiliemen, Naohu, the son of Guiyou, and Yesuntuo, the grandson of Chagatai, to attempt to overthrow the power of Mengge Khan. In the incident, the three kings were sent to the Han army to join the conquest, and Wokuotai's territory was divided into pieces, which were awarded to Wokuotai's descendants. This method of dividing and conquering made any of them unable to fight against the central government.In addition, Meng Ge made some restrictions on the territorial rights of the kings, stipulating that the kings are allowed to ride a maximum of 3 horses in the station, and no more than 4 horses are allowed to travel far; the kings are not allowed to recruit people without authorization.

During Guiyou's reign, people fled one after another because of the heavy taxation and labor.At the beginning of Mengge's accession to the throne, in order to ensure the exploitation income of the Mongolian rulers and nobles, support huge administrative and military expenditures, and replenish soldiers, the household registration was reorganized in 1252, and the household registration was increased by 20 Yu Wan.After re-editing the household registration, Meng Ge still repeated the mistakes of Wo Kuotai. According to the traditional Mongolian habit of "sharing", the rights and interests were distributed and rewarded among the clan and nobles. Twenty thousand households. In 1253, in order to control the power of the whole country in the hands of the Tuolei clan, Meng Ge carried out a larger-scale enfeoffment.The division of the Great Mongolia has become increasingly serious.

The Mongolian nobles are very keen on foreign wars, because wars can bring them huge wealth.After Mengge inherited the throne of Khan, wars broke out again around the Great Mongol Kingdom. Since Genghis Khan’s Western Expedition, the Mongolian army has successively conquered most of Persia. In the eastern Islamic world, there are only Mulayi (in today’s Iran) ruled by the Ismaili Sect and Baoda (in present-day Baghdad) ruled by the Caliphate. Not yet conquered.After Mengge succeeded to the throne, he sent his younger brother Xu Liewu to conquer Mulaiyi and Baoda, and ordered the kings to take two tenths of their troops to join the conquest. They also conscripted thousands of gunners and rocketmen from Han. Under the leadership of Guo Kan, a city expert, he went out with the army.The Baizu army guarding Persia and the Tayir Batu army in Kashmir (now Kashmir) also listened to Hulagu's dispatch, and the Amu River Province provided military supplies. In July 1252, the vanguard was timid and led 12,000 people to go first; in October 1253, Hulagu led the main force and marched westward. In June 1256, Xu Liegu led all the armies to advance in four directions, besieging Maimen and Disibao, where the leader of Yismain, Ruk Nudin, was located, and bombarded them with artillery.In November, Rukh Nudin was forced to surrender.The Mongolian army marched in three directions. In January of the first year of Kaiqing (AD 1258), they arrived at the outskirts of Baoda and completed the siege of Baoda on the 30th.On February 10, the caliph led his troops out of the city to surrender, and Hulagu ordered the massacre of the city.

At the same time, Meng Ge started the war against the Southern Song Dynasty again.The confrontation between Mongolia and Song Dynasty began with the battle of Luoyang in the first year of Duanping (1234 AD), and since then the two sides have launched a protracted tug-of-war.From 1235 to 1250, the Mongolian army attacked the Southern Song Dynasty in separate ways, and successively occupied Xiangyang, Fancheng, Yingzhou (now Zhongxiang, Hubei), Chengdu and other strategic places, but were recovered by the Song army.After Mengge succeeded to the throne, he ordered his younger brother Kublai Khan to guard the Monan Han area and was responsible for conquering the Southern Song Dynasty.Kublai Khan adopted Yao Shu's suggestion, and set up Henan Economic Strategy Department and Shaanxi Xuanfu Department successively in the Monan Han area to get rid of the bad government and extensively cultivate the land, thinking that it would be a long-term plan.While actively preparing for the war, Kublai Khan also analyzed the strategic deployment of the Mongolian and Song Dynasties, and believed that the Southern Song Dynasty had the Yangtze River as a barrier, and cities such as Xiang and Fan were easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was extremely difficult for the Mongolian army to succeed.Therefore, Xiang Mengge proposed a strategic plan to take Dali first to outflank the Southern Song Dynasty. In June 1252, Meng Ge ordered Kublai Khan to lead an expedition to Dali.Dali's ruling area included present-day Yunnan Province, Guizhou, western Guangxi and southern Sichuan, as well as some places in Burma, Thailand, and Laos.When Kublai Khan took military action against Dali, he took great pains. He changed the ancient practice of using troops on the western front to go through Hanyuan in the central and southern parts of Sichuan. In the sparsely populated high mountains and valleys on the border between Sichuan and Tibet, it took a detour of more than 2,000 miles to reach the Jinsha River, and then drove straight to the capital of Dali.The successful completion of Kublai Khan's military operations against Dali formed a tendency to encircle the Southern Song Dynasty.In December of the same year, Kublai Khan left General Wu Liang to guard Dali, and returned north with his own team. Now that the strategic siege of the Southern Song Dynasty was completed, Meng Ge resolutely decided to launch a full-scale attack in an attempt to wipe out the Southern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop. In the spring of 1257, the kings and generals were ordered to march to the Song Dynasty, and the left and right wings of the army were deployed on the frontal battlefield.Meng Ge was already wary of Kublai Khan, so he lifted his military power.In September, Meng Ge ordered his younger brother Ali Buge to stay in Mobei and Lin, and personally led the army to go south into Shu.At the same time, he also ordered Wuliang Hetai, which had entered Jiaozhi from Dali, to lead troops northward, forming a north-south attack on the Southern Song Dynasty with the Mongolian left and right armies in front.Meng Ge's plan for this military operation is to go east along the river after capturing Sichuan, and the three armies will join forces in Ezhou (now Wuchang, Hubei), and then go south to Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. In the autumn of 1257, Meng Ge led 40,000 right-wing troops into Sichuan, and Tachaer also led the left-wing troops to surround Fancheng.Tachaer was only keen on plundering property and enjoying pleasure, and his military discipline was very lax. In the following more than a year of war, he did not capture a city or make an inch of merit.Meng Ge had to ask Kublai Khan to reunite the left-wing army.The right-wing army led by Meng Ge personally stationed in Liupanshan in April of the following year, entered Dasan Pass in July, and arrived in Hanzhong. At the beginning of the first year of Kaiqing (1259), it invaded Hezhou, an important town in Sichuan.In February, Meng Ge led the army to besiege Diaoyu Mountain and cut off all connections between the Southern Song Dynasty aid troops and Hezhou.Wang Jian, the general guard of the Song Dynasty, was not afraid, and led the army and civilians of Hezhou to rely on the dangerous terrain of Diaoyu Mountain to resist bravely, which made the Mongolian army unable to attack for 5 consecutive months.At the beginning of June, Meng Ge saw that Hezhou had been unable to attack for a long time and was irritable. He went to the front position of Diaoyu Mountain to supervise the battle, but was injured by the artillery stone.In July, Meng Ge died in the army attacking the front line of the Song Dynasty. Mengge Khan reigned for 9 years and was 53 years old.After his death, he was buried in the Chariot Valley like his grandfather and uncle.The posthumous posthumous title is "Emperor Huansu", and the temple name is "Xianzong".