"Table Of Content"
Acknowledgement
Genghis Khan or Genghis Khan was the first Great Mongolian tribal chief who conquered northern China, Central Asia (including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan), and Afghanistan and invaded parts of India (modern-day Pakistan). Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia and large swathes of Russian lands were also integrated into the Mongol Empire. Even Europe was afraid of him. Genghis Khan established the 2nd largest empire in the world after the British Empire. His empire was also the largest contiguous empire in the world. He was the founder of modern-day Mongolia, He also captured Beijing, Samarkand, Balkh, Bukhara, Bamyan, and Herat. His grandson Kublai Khan ruled over entire China and captured the Sung dynasty.
Part 3
“Mongol Invasion to China's Jin dynasty”
Genghis Khan disappears one day on top of a sacred mountain. When he returned, he announced that he had been given the good news of the conquest of China by the god of heaven. But the Chinese had gunpowder?
Then how did Genghis Khan compete with guns and gunpowder while sitting on horses? And above all, why did he need to attack a powerful empire like China?
In the second last Part of mini story "Who was Genghis Khan?"
These powerful dynasties that ruled China during the time of Genghis Khan. Dynasty' was the most powerful empire.
He was also called Chin Da Great. Its rulers also believed the sky to be God and called themselves the son of the sky. On the other hand, Genghis Khan also had the same claim that he is the son of heaven. And heaven has put the government of the whole world in its cradle.
This was the reason for their conflict. But another major reason for the conflict was that there was friction on the borders of both. Now that the Chinese Empire was more powerful, abuses were often done by them. In the border areas, soldiers of the Chen Empire, i.e., Chinese soldiers, used to come to plunder the Mongol territories. They also looted the honour and wealth of the Mongols and took the Mongol children as slaves while leaving.
On the other hand, the armies of Mongols and Tatars were also looting the Chinese territories. So due to these two reasons, it was a normal thing to have quarrels in both the states. But then it happened that a new emperor came to the Chen Empire. This emperor was not prepared to value the Mongols as more than ordinary nomads. He sent a message to Genghis Khan.
The message was to accept the obedience of the Chinese Emperor, the Emperor of the Chen Empire. Genghis Khan heard the message, turned his face to China and spat loudly.
Then he jumped on his horse and rode away. His move was a declaration of war against the Chen Empire. In twelve hundred and eleven he assembled his tribes for the same purpose. Women, men and children started praying to the sky god in separate groups. But Genghis Khan was not among those supplicants. Where was he This beautiful national park you are seeing is the Gorakhi Tiralj National Park in Mongolia.
Genghis Khan went to seek victory from the god of the sky on this beautiful and high hill Burqan Qaldun of this Loving Park. This hill was considered sacred among the Mongols. Genghis Khan stayed on the same hill for three to four days. He had a determined look on his face as he descended the hill.
He told his army, "Rejoice, the blue sky has promised us victory."
Hearing this good news, the Mongols were filled with excitement. He also started preparations for an attack on the Chin Empire. But the Chinese population and for that matter the army was huge. On the other hand, compared to the Mongols, the Chinese army was also much more modern. Genghis Khan, like a ghastly general, understood that it was not possible to defeat the Chinese with enthusiasm alone.
So he made a deep move. He split the Chinese army into two. He did this because there was rebellion against the government in Manchuria, the main region of the Chin Empire. Genghis Khan used these feelings to his advantage and caused a rebellion in Manchuria.
Now apparently part of the Chinese army went to Manchuria to crush the rebellion, which left the army in the centre broken. This was the time when Genghis Khan invaded the Qin Empire in May 1211. He had an army of sixty-five thousand in the beginning.
This army crossed the nearly 1,000 km long Gobi Desert in just one month and entered northern China. Genghis Khan had strong hopes of victory, but Genghis Khan failed completely against his hopes. Despite a small army, the Chinese had successfully defended.
This was because Genghis Khan's homework was not complete. He had the skills to fight in the open field. But the way the Chinese protected their cities by turning them into forts was a new thing for Genghis Khan. He did not even have catapults or gates to breach the strong walls of the forts. So it was taking much longer than the estimates everywhere.
Then it happened that during this time winter started. In the snow rained down from the sky, the war was on one side, but it was also impossible to stop in a foreign country. So Genghis Khan did not win but came back with an experience. Learning from this failed attack, he prepared again.
In 1213, Genghis Khan once again attacked the Qin Empire. But this time he was more prepared than before, his army was larger, and his conquests were faster. Conquering territory after territory, he advanced towards Zhongdu, the capital of the Chen Empire. This city was established in the same place where Beijing, the capital of China, is located today. Chin Empire was fighting against Genghis Khan. But the fact was that this time they did not have enough resources and sufficient number of Well-Trained army to compete with such a large Mongol army.
But what Chinese commanders did was to recruit poor peasants to make up for the shortage. These peasants were made part of the foot army or infantry and cavalry units were appointed to support them, which were trend soldiers. Now the formation of the Chinese in the field was that in the middle there were peasant infantry, infantry, and right and left trend soldiers were standing in rows of horses.
Genghis Khan was watching this formation. He came up with a brilliant solution. That is, when the battle started, the Mongol archers would rain arrows from the front, forcing the peasant infantry to run back.
Now there were cavalry standing right and left. So, when the arrows were raining, the Mongol cavalry would move around from behind the mountains and attack the enemy cavalry from the rear. By this the Chinese cavalry would have been surrounded and killed. As with the competition in the field, Genghis Khan had now found a great strategy for conquering fortresses. His soldiers would first besiege a Chinese fort. After some time, they would leave their food and drink there and pretend to retreat. Seeing the Mongols fleeing, the Chinese soldiers would open the gates of the city and go out to pick up the goods left behind by the Mongols or chase them.
The Mongol army would prepare for this in advance, so their hidden forces and the fleeing army of N would turn around and attack. With this strategy, the Chinese did not get time to close the gate of the fort. And the Mongols went on conquering forts upon forts.
But wait.
Here the question must arise in your mind that China had built a great wall, the Great Wall of China. And the main purpose of this wall was to stop the invaders.
So how did Genghis Khan overcome this obstacle?
Actually, there are two versions about it in history.
One is that Genghis Khan bypassed the Great Wall of China.
That is, he had found another way away from the wall.
It is also known that the army of the Chin Empire that came to fight Genghis Khan was a mercenary army. And that's why Genghis Khan easily assimilated them. Some other hypotheses have been written about this. But there is another strong version of history that seems a bit more rational and logical. That is, during the time of Genghis Khan, the Great Wall of China was not so big that it was impossible to cross and had to be bypassed.
Therefore, Genghis Khan crossed the Great Wall of China with a little strategy. Then, conquering fort after fort, Chen reached the center of the empire, present-day Beijing. But what he saw from here was enough to blow his mind. Genghis Khan was used to living in rivers, tents, mountains and small temporary towns. He had seen other Chinese cities on the way, but they were not particularly big.
When he approached the great city of the world like Beijing, the scene was like a fairy tale to him. He saw the city spread far in front of him, houses spread for miles, he saw huge buildings in the distance. Seeing all this, he was lost in wonder and thought. Because the bigger the city, the safer it was. Its security was equally good. The city was surrounded by walls thirty miles long and forty feet high. On these walls were nine hundred towers in which archers sat as guards. While the city had twelve gates. There were moats on three sides around the city, which were filled with water.
Interestingly, four small towns were built outside the city to protect the capital. All four were surrounded by strong walls and trenches. Then these small towns were connected to the capital by underground passages, underground tunnels. The smaller towns around had four thousand soldiers within each town.
While twenty to twenty-four thousand soldiers were alert inside the capital.
That is, the total number of the guarding army of the city reached forty thousand. But, if necessary, one lakh four lakhs could be added to this army.
How is he?
They were such that the total population of the city was four lacs, and it could be drawn into the war at any time by an order.
Beijing was an almost impregnable city for an army of one hundred nomads. Genghis Khan also realized after some evaluation that it is not possible for him to conquer this city. So he decided to put pressure on the Chen emperor by keeping the city under constant siege. So that maximum wealth can be obtained.
So, he immediately deployed 5,000 soldiers and blocked all roads leading to the city. He then sent his ambassador to the Chin emperor to offer peace in return for a few conditions. But the emperor had a lot of faith in his defence system, in his security system.
He turned down the offer. Because the emperor was sure that Genghis Khan would not be able to conquer such a safe city. And finally, the rigors of weather and pressure of time will force him to return empty-handed. But he was unaware of one thing. That one of his governors is plotting against him. And this conspiracy was going to directly benefit Genghis Khan.
Chi Ching, a governor of the Chin Emperor, dreamed of taking over the empire. He marched towards Beijing with some of his companions and reached the gates of Beijing avoiding the Mongol soldiers.
As soon as he reached the door, he shouted in a loud voice that the Mongols are after me, save me, save me. The guards opened the city gates, but Chi Ching entered the city and stormed the royal palace. The emperor and his guards could not withstand the sudden attack.
Even the Chen emperor, called the Golden Khan by the Mongols, was killed in battle.
Chi Ching preferred to become a kingmaker rather than become an emperor himself. He placed a weakling of the Qin dynasty on the throne and became the supreme commander of the Qin Empire himself. A puppet ruler was now sitting on the Chinese throne, but the order, the commander-in-chief, was being followed by a warlord.
But the only benefit of this whole action was That Chi Ching fell ill when he took command of the army to fight Genghis Khan. But he went out to fight even in the condition of illness. He continued to command the Chinese army while lying on a chair. He forced the Mongol army to retreat for two consecutive days. But now his health was steadily deteriorating. The disease did not allow him to fight any longer.
So on the third day he decided to send one of his commanders named Kao to fight the Mongols. But before sending, he threatened Kao that if he returned defeated, he would be beheaded. Kao took this fear of death in his heart and went to the battlefield. lost.
After the defeat, Kao began to visualize his decapitated corpse at the city gate. However, Kao sneaked into the city with his loyalists before anyone was aware of it. He went to his boss Chi Ching and blew his neck.
He didn't want to die at the hands of a sick Kingmaker. As the news of Chi Ching's death spread, his loyal soldiers were furious.
A civil war broke out in the city. For two days the soldiers of both the groups continued to fight each other. They kept shedding each other's blood. But then the puppet emperor intervened and somehow reconciled the two groups. After the peace, Kao was also made the new Supreme Commander. But the conditions in the city were getting worse.
Due to the heavy siege of Genghis Khan, the food and drink in the city was low. In such a situation, Genghis Khan took another major decision to force the emperor to surrender. He left 5,000 troops to block the roads leading to Beijing and divided the remaining army into different groups.
Then sent these groups to plunder other cities of the Qin Empire. The intention was that the emperor would surrender when he received news of the destruction of his cities. Another purpose was to provide rations for Genghis Khan's army and a means of providing for the soldiers tired of the siege.
However, the old strategy had to be changed for these groups to conquer new cities. Because the fleeing strategy of the Mongols to conquer the cities was no longer working. Chinese soldiers understood this technique.
They did not come out of the forts even though the Mongols fled.
So now Genghis Khan also changed his strategy. The Mongol army began to capture people from the villages and bring them to the battlefield. The gates of the forts were broken through these Chinese villager prisoners by standing forward. It often happened that the guards standing on the walls recognized these people. And considering them as their own people, many would hesitate to attack them and would even refuse. So, this strategy was more successful, and the gates of the cities were easily broken. When the gate was broken, the Mongol army would enter the city and capture it. After which brutal looting started in the conquered city.
Slaves and concubines were made. Piles of gold, silver and silk loot were piled up and standing crops were set on fire. All these news were reaching the Chin Emperor. He could not see his kingdom in ruins for long. He did not have the courage to compete, so he asked Genghis Khan for peace.
So, in the beginning of 1214, a peace agreement was signed.
According to the terms of the treaty, the Chin emperor's daughter was to marry Genghis Khan. Chin sultanate also obliged to pay 3000 horses, 100,000 gold plates and 300,000 yards of silk to the Mongols.
The agreement was done, but now it had to be implemented.
So, before the action Genghis Khan made some concessions and opened some routes to Beijing. But here the Chinese emperor made a glaring mistake. Seeing the relaxation of the siege, the Chinese emperor seized the opportunity and fled from Beijing and hid in the southern city of Kaifeng.
The city was even more secure than Beijing because its defensive wall was 120 miles long. While Beijing's protective wall was only thirty miles long. When Genghis Khan got the news of the emperor's escape, he was furious. He declared the emperor's escape as a breach of the treaty and broke the treaty. He ordered a strict siege of Beijing. So the relaxation of the siege ended and the open roads to Beijing were closed.
This time the siege was so severe that Beijing ran out of food and drink. The people of the city were fed up with hunger. They even started eating their own dead. The big army commanders, generals started running away from the city in the darkness of night. Rather, there were some who got fed up and became a part of Genghis Khan's army to get enough food if nothing else.
But not all guards were like that. Even in these worst conditions, the guards badly repulsed and failed two major attacks of the Mongol army.
In these unsuccessful attacks, the Mongol army had to suffer heavy casualties. But the fact was that after almost a year long siege, not only the Chinese citizens but also the Mongol army were fed up. The Mongols were also running out of food. Diseases were also spreading; Mongol soldiers were dying. But the Mongols had the advantage that they were not under siege and the routes to reach them were open.
Meanwhile, the Mongols captured a shipment of 1,000 sixes. These carts were loaded with food and drink Which had been sent by the emperor who had fled the city to help the besieged citizens. The Mongols looted this shipment. He filled his stomach with this food, But when the empty-bellied defenders of Beijing got the news, their morale was broken. But fortunately, they still did not surrender.
And decided to try the last weapon.
Although this weapon was only a straw support for the drowning, but the defenders who were forced, helpless and tired of months of siege, what other choice did they have?
But what was this weapon?
The Chinese then had a weapon that hardly anyone else in the world has these days. This weapon could turn the dice of war. But it is unfortunate for the Chinese that they did not devise any strategy to use this weapon better. This weapon was gunpowder.
Yes, the Chinese had made gunpowder!
In 1215 and were also using cannons and guns in wars. But it was fortunate for Genghis Khan that the design of these guns and cannons was still in its infancy. It was not matured.
Therefore, their targets were correct, and they were not causing such havoc. As much as was needed to force the enemy army to retreat. The defenders of the city immediately activated these cannons and guns and opened fire on the Mongols. This was probably the first major combat use of firearms in human history.
The defenders were firing bullets and shells at the Mongols.
But they soon ran out of gunpowder, so they started melting gold and silver and making balls out of it.
But all these weapons were useless and could not do the damage to the Mongols that modern firearms can do today.
So the result was that the Chinese defenders who had gathered some courage also lost. Their emperor and all the great generals had deserted them, and there was not a grain of food in their stores. Beijing, the great city of the world, had become a ghost town, a deserted city of ghosts. Those living in it were alive, but in the condition of the dead. After a siege of almost one and a half years, the defenders opened the gates of the city on June 1, 1215. And a raging mouth invited the storm to enter.
Don't ask what happened when the Mongol army entered the city, which had been standing outside for more than a year.
No house was safe, no human being.
Sixty thousand girls committed suicide to escape the Mongols.
The Mongols burnt all the places of worship in the city, destroyed the gates of the city and set Fire to the mansions of the neighbourhood's and mansions. No one knows how many people were killed in Beijing and its surrounding areas. But according to a conservative estimate, the number is in the millions or around three lacs.
The Mongols also built towers of corpses and bones in the city. There were so many bodies that their fat spread in the streets and the feet of the pedestrians began to slip.
At the time of the conquest of Beijing, Genghis Khan was in the area of Dolan Nur, three hundred and sixty-one kilo meters from there.
Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia in 1216. With him were treasures of gold, silver, precious stones, silk and countless valuables. When these goods, loaded in thousands of bullock carts, began to reach Mongolia, the eyes of the Mongols were filled with surprise. It is said that the goods contained colors that the Mongols had never seen before. In addition, thousands of doctors, artists and craftsmen were also brought to Mongolia as slaves. These people exposed Mongols to art, culture and modern civilization.
Genghis Khan spent nearly five years in China and laid waste the capital of its most powerful empire. And this was the same Genghis Khan whom the same empire did not value more than a minor commander a few years ago.
Beijing also sealed the collapse of the Qin Empire. Although this empire continued for almost twenty years, its back was now broken. Apart from the Chin Empire, Genghis Khan also conquered the Western Xia Empire of China. Along with China, there was another empire, the Uyghurs.
Its king Barchuq showed prudence and accepted Genghis Khan's allegiance before any war. After that, Uighurs and Chinese people started joining the Mongol army in large numbers. It was these people who taught the Mongols how to make catapults and other weapons of war. Genghis Khan's army also learned modern methods of warfare from them.
Another increase in the power of the Mongol army took place when in 1218 the Mongols conquered the Kara Khatai Empire, a state in Central Asia. The Turkic Muslims living in this kingdom, who were fed up with the oppression of the government, Considered Genghis Khan as their Messiah and joined the Mongol army. During the life of Genghis Khan, the Mongols could not rule over the whole of China. In particular, the Song Empire in southern China remained completely independent. However, during the reign of his grandson Kublai Khan, the Mongols occupied the whole of China. But this is obviously after the life of Genghis Khan,
But yes, Genghis Khan had conquered a large powerful Islamic empire in his lifetime.
What was this empire?
Why did Genghis Khan attack a powerful Muslim empire?
Why couldn't Muslims compete despite being in greater numbers?
Who was the general who gave Genghis Khan a headache for years?
And finally, despite the desperate efforts, why has the clue of Genghis Khan's grave not been found? All this will be shown to you but in the 4th and final Chapter of Who Was Genghis Khan?
Stay tune with us for next part.
No comments:
Post a Comment