In 1221, when Wokoutai captured the Jade Dragon Jiechi, Genghis Khan smiled happily, but did not expect that this was the beginning of the collapse of the Mongol Empire. Because, Genghis Khan made a mistake when laying out the battle.
In 1216, Genghis Khan received news in the desert steppe that a caravan of 450 men had been executed by the Khwarazm and 500 camels had been taken. Genghis Khan was so angry that he sent emissaries to Huarazm to seek justice and demand that the murderer be handed over so that the two countries could continue to maintain friendly relations.
Mahabharata, the lord of Khwarazm, once swept through the Western Liao, Selju, and Abbasid dynasties, and he did not pay attention to Genghis Khan at all. The Mongol envoys were executed directly; the Mongol deputy envoys shaved one side of their hair and asked him to return to Mongolia to report the news, so that Genghis Khan could be honest.
Khwarazm "did not talk about martial virtue", genghis Khan was very angry and decided to teach Mahabharata to learn to be a man. In 1217, Genghis Khan let Muhuali preside over the war against the Jin Dynasty, and personally led 150,000 Mongol cavalry to the west to fight against Huarazm and maintain the dignity of the Mongols.
Jade Dragon Jiechi, the capital of Huarazimo, straddles both sides of the Amu Darya River, and its strategic position is very important. At this time, Hua Lazimo claimed to have 400,000 elite soldiers, but in front of the Mongol cavalry, it was vulnerable, and it collapsed at a touch, and it was powerless. Mahabharata, seeing that the situation was unfavorable, abandoned the capital and fled.
After Mahabharata left, there were still 90,000 defenders in the city, and zalandin should have presided over the defense. However, the defenders of the city did not listen to Zalandin's orders and planned to put him to death. In this way, Zalandin fled with 300 soldiers and horses and left the Jade Dragon Jiechi.
Perhaps confident in the Mongol cavalry, Genghis Khan sent only 30,000 cavalry to attack the Jade Dragon Jechi, and he himself and Tuolei led the main force to attack Bukhara. At this time, Genghis Khan made a mistake, which became the beginning of the collapse of the Mongol Empire, perhaps Genghis Khan himself did not expect it.
Attacking Jade Dragon Jiechi, the commander is the eldest son Shuchi, and the deputy commander is the second son Chagatai. As the saying goes, "Brothers are in the same heart, and their profits are broken". "Fight the tiger brothers, fight the father and son soldiers." However, the two brothers, Shuchi and Chagatai, are not suitable for fighting together; as long as they stay together, there may be problems.
Shuchi's "special" status doomed him to inherit the position of the Great Khan of the Mongols, and in the eyes of Chagatai and Wokoutai, Shuchi was the descendant of the Contemptuous Beggars, and there was no gene of Genghis Khan in his blood. The great princes and generals of Mongolia also thought so, and Genghis Khan was also helpless.
Before the crusade against Khwarazm, Genghis Khan called his four sons to him and arranged for an heir. Chagatai bluntly stated that the Great Khan should be succeeded by a descendant of Genghis Khan, and that Shuchi was an "uninvited guest" and should not succeed to the throne. For this reason, Shuchi and Chagatai clashed and wrestled with each other.
For the sake of the overall situation, Genghis Khan established his third son Wokoutai as his heir, and Shuchi, Chagatai, and Tuolei must all obey. WoKoutai was the crown prince, and Shuchi was not satisfied, because this younger brother was not friendly to him. Except for Tuolei, Shuchi has no brothers, and they don't see themselves as relatives.
The relationship between Shuchi and Chagatai was not good, but Genghis Khan asked them to lead troops to attack the Jade Dragon Jiechi, how could there be no problem? Moreover, before the expedition, Genghis Khan clearly stipulated that after capturing Hua lazimo, this was the territory of Shuchi, and others could not have thoughts.
Jade Dragon Jiechi, with a population of hundreds of thousands, is a rich and prosperous city, and Shuchi wants to adopt a "conciliation" method to make the defenders of the city accept the surrender. However, Chagatai did not think so, and Huarazimo was not his own territory, and if he did not take the opportunity to catch a handful, it would not be a trip in vain.
At first, Shuchi used the method of enticing the enemy to fight, attracting the defenders of the city to come out and fight a decisive battle. The defenders in the city were numerous, and they thought that it would not be difficult to defeat Shuchi, so they went out of the city to pursue, and as a result, they were ambushed and defeated. Shu chi took advantage of the situation to pursue, and the forwards entered the city, and then were driven out again.
After an ambush, the defenders were terrified of the Mongol cavalry and planned to accept the surrender. Who knows, Chagatai "does not talk about martial virtue", after he led his troops to the battlefield, he directly ordered the siege of the city, and did not say hello to Shuchi. In this way, Shuchi was very annoyed, thinking that Chagatai had deliberately made it bad, and the two drew their swords at each other and almost fought.
Chagatai sent 3,000 soldiers and horses to seize the pontoon bridge across the Amu Darya River, only to be annihilated by the Khwarazm army. After defeating the Mongol cavalry, the defenders of Jade Dragon Jiechi were highly demoralized and no longer considered surrendering.
In addition, the relations between Shuchi and Chagatai were not good, and the Huarazm army often took night raids, and the Mongol cavalry was defeated in successive battles. Genghis Khan was not satisfied, so he asked Wokoutai to go to The Jade Dragon Jiechi to preside over the siege operation, and both Shuchi and Chagatai had to obey the command.
Wo Kuotai commanded, and Shuchi was even more annoyed, believing that his father was deliberately unable to get along with him. The reason is very simple, Chagatai and Wokoutai are iron brothers, the relationship is very good, they are a group, and shuchi is ignored.
After the capture of the Jade Dragon Jiechi, 100,000 craftsmen in the city were sent to the east, 50,000 strong men were incorporated into the Mongol army, women and children were rewarded to the princes and major generals, and the rest of the people were executed. Next, Chagatai and Wokoutai ordered the waters of the Amu Darya River to flood the Jade Dragon Jiechi and raz it to the ground.
Jade Dragon Jiechi, a bustling city, but what Shuchi got was a ruin, how could he not be annoyed? In addition, Khwarazm was its own territory, but it was separated from the Mongolian steppe by an area that later became the "Chagatai Khanate". It seemed to Shu Chi that this was his father defending himself, in case he had robbed the khan of Wokoutai.
After capturing the Jade Dragon Jiechi, the Mongol soldiers swept all the way and soon destroyed the Khwarazm Empire. After Genghis Khan led the main force back to the north of the desert, Chagatai, Wokoutai, and Tuolei all followed back to celebrate the New Year together. What about Shu chi? Genghis Khan, however, asked him to lead troops to reinforce Tebetsu and Subutai against the Kievan Rus' and Chincha.
In Shuchi's view, Genghis Khan did not regard himself as a son, but wanted to "throw" himself into the rhythm of a foreign country. The relationship between the brothers was not harmonious, and the father could not live with himself, and the technique was depressed and depressed, and the body was slowly dragged across. Genghis Khan did not know this, but believed that Shuchi had an opinion about himself.
In 1225, Genghis Khan prepared to attack Western Xia, and asked Shuchi to lead his troops from the Western Regions to assist him. On the grounds of ill health, Shuchi repeatedly refused to send troops to participate in the war. Genghis Khan was furious, believing that Shuchi had two hearts, so he ordered 150,000 troops and prepared to attack Shuchi.
Genghis Khan had not yet set out for the expedition, and the news of Shuchi's death came, and the Mongol Empire was able to avoid a battle. After Shuchi's death, Batu inherited the family business and established the Khanate of Chincha. Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, was the most powerful and was also the booster of the Mongol Empire towards the collapse.
In 1246, Wokoutai's eldest son, Guiyu, succeeded to the throne, but Batu disobeyed or obeyed orders. In 1248, Guiyu ordered 200,000 troops and prepared to attack Batu, but died of illness in the middle of the way. In 1251, Battus supported Tuolei's eldest son Möngke to succeed to the throne, and most of the princes of the Chagatai and Wokoutai families were executed.
Before his death, Genghis Khan once said that "as long as the Wokoutai family still has a piece of meat, they will give priority to inheriting the position of the Great Khan", asking future generations and princes and ministers to abide by it. However, Batu did not abide by the rules, he believed that his father Shuchi had suffered too many grievances, it was Chagatai and Wokoutai that made his father depressed, and it was necessary for him to seek justice for his father.
Möngke's succession, Genghis Khan's "testament", and the agreement of the Kuriletai Assembly were torn to shreds, and the collapse of the Mongol Empire was only a matter of time. Because everyone is not abiding by the rules, whoever is strong and strong is qualified to succeed to the throne.
Without battu's support, Möngke could not succeed to the throne, and the Mongol Empire could survive. Battus' support for Möngke was a struggle against the "unfair treatment of Shuchi". The brothers are not harmonious, and Shu chi is very depressed. In the Battle of Jade Dragon Jiechi, Genghis Khan had not let Shuchi and Chagatai fight side by side, how could there be no problem.
It can be said that the collapse of the Mongol Empire began with the Battle of Jade Dragon Jiechi, because Genghis Khan's wrong personnel arrangements discouraged the Shuchi family and plunged future generations into strife.
Bibliography: History of the Yuan