The History of China - #177 - Yuan 2: Brother Mine

Episode Date: October 20, 2019

With the untimely death of Möngke Khaghan outside the walls of Chongqing, the Mongol Empire will be fore to choose for a new emperor for the 5th time in just three decades. Unlike the first four conclaves, however, this will result in not one, but two khuriltais, and two who would be Great Khan. Möngke’s brothers, Khubilai and Ariq Böke, will duel it out across Central Asia to determine who will rule all under the Eternal Blue Sky. Time Period Covered: 1259-1266 CE Major Historical Figures: Toluids: Möngke Khaghan [d.1259] Khubilai’s Supporters: Khubilai Khaghan [r. 1260-1289] Chabi Khatun [1225-1281] Hulegu Ilkhan [d. 1265] General Ked Bukha [d. 1260] King Hethum I of Armenia [r. 1226-1270] Ariq Böke Supporters: Ariq Böke Khaghan [r. 1260-1264, d. 1266] Berke Khan (Golden Horde/Jochid) [d. 1266] Alghu Khan (Chagatids) [d. 1265] Jumukhur (Ilkhanate) Urung Tang (Möngke Toluid) General Alandar [d. 1262] General Durchi Mamluk Sultanate: Sultan Saif ad-Din Qutuz [r. 1259-1260] Sultan Baibars [r. 1260-1277] Song Dynasty: Chancellor Jia Sidao [d. 1273] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. Have you ever gazed in wonder at the Great Pyramid? Have you marveled at the golden face of Tutankhamun? Or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti? If you have, you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast. Every week, we explore tales of this ancient culture. The History of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt.

Hello, and welcome to the History of China. Episode 177, Brother Mine. Last time in the main narrative, we had plotted the early lives of the four sons of Tolui, that is, Monka, Kubilai, Hulagu, and Arikbok, as they climbed the ranks of the Mongol nobility and proved themselves both as men and as capable battlefield commanders. Then, in a stroke of inspired brilliance, their mother, Sorhaktani Beki,

had managed to claim the throne of the Great Khan for her eldest, Monca, when his cousin, Guyuk, had unexpectedly died. Thrust into the imperial limelight, the new Mankikaiyan had quickly made his brothers, Kubilai and Hulagu, the Ilkhans of the right and left, respectively, while the youngest brother, Arik, had taken up his traditional Mongol role of the Ochigin, or the Prince of the Hearth, taking care of the Mongolian homelands. After establishing his firm control over northern China, and some minor friction with his lord brother, Kublai had made amends with Monga and joined him in the campaigns

to take down the greatest foe the Mongols had yet faced, Song China of the south. Plunging southward, the Mongol forces smashed through Sichuan and against the walls of Chongqing and the surrounding towns and garrisons, only for, and for reasons still not definitively known, Monga to suddenly die in mid-August of 1259 at the age of 50. This would place the Mongol Empire, now for the fourth time in just 30 years, in the uncomfortable and politically fraught position of needing to hold a great Karaltai to elect its next emperor. These ceremonial gatherings had become ever more dangerous and even deadly as time had wound on and the different lineages of the Borjigins had drifted ever further apart, geographically, philosophically, and even culturally. Goyuk's own enthronement had been delayed by more than five years by the intransigence of his cousin Batu, and his resulting anger would have almost

certainly plunged the empire into a civil war then and there in 1248 had he not died en route to confront his cousin. Manka's coronation was likewise marred by Prince Shiramun and his faction of disaffected Ugedes, attempting what would have been a bloody coup d'etat in 1251 had it not been found out in time and foiled, followed, of course, by an even bloodier counter-purge of everyone found to have been involved. The Kuril Thai, therefore, was by 1259 well understood to be an event of both exceptional magnitude and exceptional risk. The election of 1260 would prove no exception, and different only in two major respects. First, that the chief rivalry would this time occur not between the different Borjigin houses, but between members of a single faction, the Toluids.

This would be a fight not of cousin versus cousin, or nephew against uncle, but of one full-blooded brother against another. Secondly, that even though this war to come would be fought within a single line of the Borjigians, in a remarkable twist of fate, unlike the first four transferences of power, the united Mongol Empire would not survive this one in anything but name. And so, that's where we'll pick up today. With Monga's death, the Mongol world once again went into effectively a blackout of uncertain length. Far to the west on the Mediterranean coasts, Hulagu Ilkhan would pull back from an almost certain victory against the Mamluks of Egypt and immediately break from Mongolia, leaving behind only a small standby force of perhaps as few as 10,000 under the command of

his lieutenant, Khedbuka. Khedbuka would himself be shortly outnumbered and drawn into a fatal trap at the infamous Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260, losing his army, his head, and forever after across the west the mythos of Mongol invincibility. When he received news of this terrible reversal in his realm, Hulagu turned back around to attempt to salvage the situation, only to find himself embroiled at once by the armies of his fellow Mongol, but bitter rival, Burka of the Russian steppes, and never again to regain the momentum lost against the Muslim rulers of the Middle East. But more on the hows and whys of that in due course. Far to the southeast, Kublai likewise immediately pulled back his and his brother's campaign from Sichuan, sending Mongke's body immediately back to Mongolia for its funeral,

while he retreated to his own headquarters at Kaiping in northern China and contemplated what he would do next. It's impossible to exactly predict the what-if outcome had Mongke and Kublai been able to continue their southward push. It's entirely plausible that, in spite of the flaws of basing an invasion of the south largely on the continued heavy reliance on cavalry, as had been Mungo's strategy, the two brothers may have been able to pull it off anyway. As it was, however, that momentum was also lost, though not as completely as Hulagu's. Ultimately, Kublai would complete his conquest of the south, though it would require a further two decades of hard combat. In the absence of any clear line of succession, one of Genghis Khan's few inarguable policy

failures of life, it fell to a far simpler, more brutal means to determine the right to rule. Morris Rossaby puts it, quote, Raw military power, not any particular principle, provided the strongest challengers for the Khanate. If two leading candidates thought themselves to be equally qualified, then the danger of confrontation was magnified." The accession of Manka in 1251 was commonly known as a revolution,

though at least to the Agadid line of the family, as well as the Chagadids who had lent them their own support, it certainly would have been better seen as a usurpation, and one that with this new great Khan's untimely death now might prove a golden opportunity to reassert their respective claims to power. Even so, it would be neither of these branches, nor the Jochid branch of the Borjgians, that would draw blood in the conflict to come. Instead, the battle would be waged foremost by and within the Toluid line itself,

with brother pitted against brother in what could have only been Genghis Khan's worst nightmare come to life. It must come as no surprise that Kublai would be one of the contenders for the throne. And so, since we've already dealt considerably with his background and rise to power last episode, let's take time now to develop a better picture, at least such as we can, of the brother that would become his bitter foe, his youngest, Arik Bok, the Prince of the Hearth. To quickly recap the significance of that role in Mongol society, and in the Borjigin clan specifically, the youngest son had traditionally been the inheritor of his father's homeland,

titles, and forces. While the elder brothers would go out to pillage, plunder, and expand in their own names, the Ojigin would remain largely behind, sworn to defend his family and home from any who might seek to take advantage of his elder's absence. This had proved very useful indeed among the family of Tolui, Genghis Khan's youngest son, since that had meant that they were in physical control of Mongolia and the holy site along the Keralan River where, by convention, every curl tie needed to take place to hold any legal force. As the Mongol Empire had expanded vastly outward across Asia, this holding on to the homeland had meant that when a previous great Khan died, the Toluids were capable of rallying and unifying behind a chosen candidate far before

any other family branch could. It was a literal home-field advantage that Sorkhaktani Beki had used to her son's full advantage in getting her eldest monka elected in 1251. As his own generation's Ojagin hearthkeeper, Arik Bok found himself now in a very similar position with that of his elder brothers. Hulagu was on the Egyptian borderlands and Kublai far off in China, whereas he sat already encamped in the Mongols' traditional homeland, living the traditional Mongol lifestyle and wearing the traditional Mongol dress. This firm connection with the Mongol way of life endeared the man to many of his fellow step-writers, who saw Arik as a more conservative, familiar, and, well, Mongol choice than either of

his elder brothers, both of whom were all too easy to paint as being unduly influenced by foreign elements and ideas. While they had, of course, come to deeply enjoy and even depend on the material gains and profits made by the Khanate's ongoing conquests, many among the Mongols, especially the older elements not dispatched directly to the battlefronts, felt dispossessed, isolated, and threatened by the growing fondness for sedentary life, especially among the youth. They felt much as Genghis had by the end of his life, that the physical comforts of the world beyond the steppes had the disturbing capacity to weaken, soften, and corrupt those who stayed out there for too long, and they tended to view Hulagu and Kublai as prime examples of the

demongolification that had gripped even larger swathes of their people. To them, therefore, Arik Bok represented a return to a simpler, purer time. Mongolia for the Mongols, to make Mongolia great again. And certainly if not to stop all this strange, new, and scary cultural adoption and importation, then to at least slow it down and bring it more firmly under their own control. It remains difficult to get a real solid feel for the man, Arik Bok. As a traditional man of the steppes, it seems that he and those he surrounded himself with either had much less use for keeping written records than his brothers, or that any such records were subsequently destroyed. As such, the views we have of the Ochagin of the Toluids

comes largely from the perspectives of his brothers and their servants, who would win their war against him. Largely unconcerned with treating the man with any particular fairness, they dwell on his specific claims to the throne very little, if at all, and portray him almost uniformly as a duplicitous usurper, who was only out to move quickly before anyone else could react and illegally seize the throne that rightfully belonged to his elder brother Kublai. This is, of course, oversimplified to the point of being almost pure propaganda. Rossavy notes that, in spite of his highly theatrical protestations and ceremonial refusals to take the throne, all of which long-time listeners of this show will quickly remember

was entirely done for show, and out of a pro forma sense of the way things were done, even when you had to out-and-out murder a kid just to take power, Kublai was just as eager as Arik Book to ascend the throne, and just as willing to resort to violence to achieve that objective. By that very measure, then, surely Kublai knew that he would need to arrive back in Mongolia as fast as he possibly could in order to assert and secure his claim to the succession. Yet, he did not. When word reached his camp that Mungka had died, some ten days after the event itself, the messenger sent by his half-brother stressed

just such a course of action that he needed to return to the homeland at once, and yet Kublai refused. He said, as told by Rashid al-Din's account, confirmed by the Yuan Shi, quote, We have come hither with an army like ants or locusts. How can we turn back now, our task left undone, because of rumors? Whether this particular exchange took place, or was added in later to beef up Kublai's heroic and selfless bona fides, duty above all and all that, is up for debate. What is clear, however, is that he remained in the South, pursuing the campaign against the Song Dynasty for a further two months before finally pulling back, and even then, only because he absolutely had to. It seems that he must have assumed a couple of things. First, that the curl tie would

not, could not, proceed without him in attendance. This was not a crazy thing to assume. After all, previous curl ties had been delayed for literal years on end because a particular notable either could not or would not show themselves. And second, that if he were to take the time to achieve something truly notable against a southern Chinese that had so flummoxed both his elder brother and his uncle before him and his grandfather before them, that the assembled Borjigins and the clan heads would have little choice but to recognize him as the clear and obvious choice for the top job. Moreover, he figured, if some kind of a dispute

were to occur in the course of the selection, then more territory conquered across China would mean more potential resources for him to draw upon in order to settle the disagreement in his favor. On this final point, Kublai would prove correct, but on the first two, almost entirely wrong. Still, he knew that time was a factor and that speed was of the essence, and so he immediately mobilized his forces, and within weeks he was making final preparations to cross the Yangtze River into southern China. Again from Rossavy, quote, his generals, deterred by the winds and thunderstorms that swept across the river at the time, recommended that Kublai wait until conditions were more conducive for an attack against the Song side. He overrode their objections, however, and demanded immediate

preparations for a crossing. The flags were lifted, the drums beaten, and the troops crossed over to the other side. As soon as they landed, the sky cleared and a battle ensued. Both sides suffered numerous casualties, but the Mongols had established a base south of the Yangtze. His primary objective in this push was the river garrison city of Ojo. Heavily defended and fortified in its own right, Ojo was further reinforced by the dispatch of Song troops by its chancellor, Jia Sidao. Chinese negotiators were likewise dispatched and received by the Mongol vanguard force, but their terms were well shy of what Kublai was willing to accept, that they agreed to a total cessation of hostilities in exchange, basically, for what they'd already conquered by force north of the Yangtze, as well as an annual payment of silver

and silks on par with what the Song had long since been paying to the Jurchen and the Khitan before them. The Ilkhan's representative to the meeting, Councillor Chao Pi, remarked, Now that we've already crossed the Yangtze, what use are these words? Why abandon the campaign, Kublai must have reasoned, when they were on the verge of victory? There was simply no need to compromise. Time was on his side, and his military efforts were bearing fruit. And it was just about then that far to the north, little brother Arik Bok pulled the rug out from under Kublai's best-laid plans. While Kublai had been far afield, Arik had been a Korean favor and garnering substantial support within the upper echelons of Mongol nobility for his own candidacy. He was able to convince one of Mungka's wives, as well as two of the late brother's sons, to back him, as well as Ogedei's

grandson, Dirche, Chagatai's grandson, Algu, and Jochi's grandson, Kurumse. Outside of the immediate royal family, Arik Böck had also secured the support of Manka's chief official, Bolgai. In other words, Arik had taken his favorable positioning on the board and locked the whole thing down. Check and mate. So why should he wait for Kublai and Hulagu to come and potentially mess the whole thing up? Why not instead just shut any idea of betrayal or conflict between he and his brothers down before it could even get started? Why not indeed? Arik decided to make his move. Appointing the fearsome warrior Alundar as the commander of his armies, Arik Bok ordered that

he raise troops from north of the Gobi, while another of his generals, Durci, raised them south of the Great Wasteland. Once assembled, in November of 1259, Durci struck southward toward the Yan region surrounding the former Jin capital of Zhongdu, while Alandar made for Kublai's headquarters, Kaiping. Within the newly constructed city's walls, Kublai's queen, Chabi, took command and sought to delay Al-Andar's approach, while sending an arrow messenger to her husband at top speed, informing him of his brother's treacherous plans and actions. Outside of Ojo, Kublai had settled in for a long siege, and yet now found that he had no choice but to immediately lift it, pull up stakes, and withdraw virtually the entirety of his force north to confront his brother. Rashid al-Din has another take on the

mounting tension between the brothers, leading toward their inevitable confrontation. He writes that Arik Bok sought to use trickery and deception to make it seem as though he were raising no army against Kublai, and then inviting his brother home to Mongolia to jointly mourn the death of their elder brother Mongke. Once on Mongolian soil and in his grasp home to Mongolia to jointly mourn the death of their elder brother, Mongke. Once on Mongolian soil and in his grasp, Arik planned to arrest his elder brother and remove him from the game board. Yet Kublai, somehow sensing this deception, declined the invitation, offering the transparent excuse that he was not yet finished on his southern campaign. Realizing that his attempt to lure Kublai into his trap had failed,

it was only then that Arik Bok fully mobilized his armies against Kublai's cities, spreading rumors that both the leader of the Golden Horde in Russia, Berkakan, and even their mutual brother Hulagu had backed Arik's accession to the throne. In each of these tales, though, we see distinctly that Arik Bok is the aggressor and the treacherous agent, and Kublai is the innocent hero who's just trying to do the right thing. Pretty strong indicators that they're both heavily weighted toward making Kublai look as good as possible by divesting him from any possible responsibility. Rossi posits that, in truth, it's much more likely that both brothers did whatever they could to provoke the other, since both very clearly desired and were vying for the same position.

As is typically the case, the histories that were ultimately written were of, by,ying for the same position. As is typically the case, the histories that were ultimately written were of, by, and for the victor. Had Arik Bok emerged victorious, we'd likely know very little indeed about Kublai, save for his supposed treachery against the invincible might of Arik Boka Kion. In any event, Kublai made his way back with all haste to Chabi's side in Kaiping, in order to rally his allies and assess the situation against his little brother. Upon arriving, he was urged by his followers that he must, must accept the mantle of leadership in order to fully prosecute the war against Arik's treachery. Once, twice, and three times, Kublai refused the call,

before, at last, sighing and theatrically shrugging his shoulders in accepting. On May 5th, 1260, therefore, in a small, rushed ceremony, whatever notables Kublai and his entourage could find convened a curl-tie right there in Kaiping, and proclaimed him Great Khan of the Mongols. It was an extraordinary move, and for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that this was the first time such a ceremony had been carried out ever not in Mongolia proper, or at least somewhere on the steppes of Central Asia. Yet Kublai had now decided to go through with it on a foreign land, China, and without anything even coming close to a quorum of the ruling households. It was a bold move, designed specifically to draw his brother and his supporters out and into open conflict, and in that way it worked flawlessly. Yet there would be a long-standing cost to his

audacious seizure of the throne, for Kublai's reign would forever after have a pall cast over it in the eyes of his fellow Mongols. That his had not been a real Kurultai, and he was not really the great Khan, no matter how powerful he might ultimately be. Arik's response came quickly enough. The following month, he had himself declared Great Khan as well, and as we've already seen by almost every metric, he had the better claim in terms of backing and supporters and location. Yet for all of his downsides, both short-term and long-term, Kublai managing to proclaim himself the Kayan first did make

Arik's own ceremony seem more like a counter-response than a real accession. It would be a pretty minor advantage, but Kublai would need every little edge he could get, even the petty ceremonial ones. Almost the totality of the Borjgin clans had rallied behind Arik Boka's claim. The Golden Horde of Berkekan, the Chagatids under Alguqan, who were among Arik's most fervent supporters, and even many members of the Toluids backed Arik, whom they saw as more traditionally Mongolian and, frankly, a better leader. Kublai's only real ally in this fight was his brother Hulagu, the Ilkhan of Persia. But he was half a world away, and Hulagu would shortly be locked in a crisis of his own

beside. Hulagu had just capped off his latest victory over the Mamluks by taking the city of Aleppo in late January of 1260 with the assistance of his ally, King Hetham of Armenia, when news finally reached him of Mankhakaian's death in China. Deciding at once that as a member of the royal family, he must be in attendance at the Kurultai to come, Hulagu therefore pulled back the majority of his forces and made for Mongolia, leaving behind King Hetam and his army of perhaps 50,000 Armenian infantry and cavalry, as well as a small contingent of Mongol soldiers, as few as a single Cuman of 10,000, under the command of his trusted lieutenant, Khedbuka. Hulagu was assured that the final destruction of the Mamluks was well in hand,

and really more of a mopping-up effort that Khedbuka could easily handle. Such an underestimation would prove to be a costly mistake. The Mamluks soon learned of the withdrawal of the greater bulk of the Mongol forces, and their commander, Baibars, realized that a major opportunity, perhaps once in a lifetime, had just presented itself. From Rasabi, quote, Baibars and the Mamluk sultan Qutuz, therefore, led their troops north to confront Qadbuka's troops. On September 6, 1260, the two armies clashed in a historic battle at Ain Jalut in the Galilee. Qadbuka's forces, totaling perhaps

10,000 soldiers, were clearly outfought and outmaneuvered. The Mamluks used the tactic of retreat, which had worked so often for the Mongols. After a few hours of fighting, the Mamluks began to withdraw from the battlefield, and the Mongols, believing that they were routing the enemy, kept advancing and were lured into a deadly trap. As the Mongols pursued the retreating Mamluk detachment, they suddenly noticed other Mamluk forces starting to appear on all sides. The Mamluk armies surrounded and pounced upon them. Word of this disaster quickly reached Hulagu, en route back to Mongolia. Turning back around, Hulagu and his army tried to return at once to the front lines,

only to run smack dab into the hostile armies of Burka's Golden Horde. Hulagu and Burka had long hated one another, both because they claimed the same pieces of Afghanistan for themselves, and also because whereas Hulagu was relatively friendly towards Christians and Christianity, his queen, Dorcus, was a Karait of Nestorian faith, after all, and as I mentioned before, many of his principal allies, such as King Hetham of Armenia, were Christian as well. His distinct favorability towards Christians versus Muslims was put on full and terrible display only two years prior, when Hulagu's armies had breached and then sacked the great

city of Baghdad, completely leveling the metropolis in one of the worst atrocities of the pre-modern world, even by Mongol standards. And yet, in the middle of this unmitigated slaughter, Hulagu had issued strict and standing orders that any and all found in Christian houses of worship or bearing Christian insignia were to remain unmolested. No such favor was granted to the Muslims of the city, who supposedly turned the Tigris and Euphrates rivers red with their shed blood. And yes, yes, I am well aware that this is something I cannot simply bring up in passing and then skate on by, so don't worry, stay tuned in the bonus feed for some more on Baghdad, eventually. We're still on Ogedei, hold your horses. The problem with all that, aside from

the rapine destruction and callous disregard for human life, of course, was the fact that Berke was very friendly towards Islam and Muslims, and viewed the destruction of the seat of Islamic power and knowledge with a similar level of horror and disgust as the Islamic world itself. Thus, he used the disastrous reversal at Ain Jalut as a signal that Hulagu had been critically weakened and declared war on the Ilkhan that he so despised. Thus, with the only ally he had tied very much up with his own problems in Persia, Kublai was basically going to have to deal with his little brother Arik Buk on his own. Well, not all on his own. Because by having long associated and surrounded himself with Chinese advisors and having his own capital within Chinese territory,

Kublai was able to tap into a populace vast beyond reckoning. Therefore, within months of having assumed the office of Great Khan, Kublai had drafted a proclamation to his Chinese subjects, in Chinese, couched in very Chinese terms and understandings, and seeking to associate himself with the ancient emperors of the Middle Kingdom. From Fort Sumter to the Battle of Gettysburg, from the Emancipation Proclamation to Appomattox Courthouse, from the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Compromise of 1877, from Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. To Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American

history. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. And we're the hosts of a podcast that takes a deep dive into that era when a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves. And when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over turned into a struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. Look for The Civil War and Reconstruction wherever you find your podcasts. The Mongols' military skills were superior, he stated. that's inarguable, but they did not yet have the skills to govern effectively, like the Chinese. Therefore, both realms were in need of a sage-king that could bring the two worlds together and be the best of both, to which he, of course, offered himself up as the prime candidate, noting that he was ever a follower

of love, goodness, and harmony, and had repeatedly assisted the masses and cultivated both Wen and Li. After noting that his first priority would always, always be the feeding and assisting of the people, and that he would always seek to govern in accordance with the ancient Chinese ancestral traditions, the proclamation issued a ringing call to arms, that all within his domains, civilian and military alike, must cooperate with his rule and rally behind him if they were to curb and contain the illegitimate usurpation of his younger brother, which was, it should be noted, a very easy argument to make to the overwhelmingly Confucian

Chinese audience, who viewed the idea of a younger brother dominating an older brother with horror. They must instead work together to curb the excesses that would befall them should Arikbog's savage soldiers from beyond the Gobi successfully retake China from their benevolent Kublai. Within a few days of this resounding proclamation, that he would be a ruler of China for China, Kublai took steps to back those words up by adopting a Chinese reign title, Zhongtong, meaning central rule, though he notably did so without creating a Chinese name for his nascent dynasty yet. Quote, In addition, he created government institutions that either resembled or were the same as the traditional Chinese ones.

The zhangshusheng, or secretariats, and the xuanweisi, the pacification commissions, were only slightly different from the governing bodies of China during the Song and earlier dynasties. Kublai wished to signal to all the Chinese that he intended to adopt the trappings and style of a Chinese ruler. End quote. This had the intended effect on much of the population across the north, as they were already fully under the dominion of this new would-be son of heaven. Unsurprisingly though, it failed to win over the hearts and minds of the southern Song populace, and in fact, Chancellor Jia Sidao took this unexpected opportunity of Kublai pulling back to recapture much of what Song had lost in the previous several years along the Yangtze and across the Westerlands. Though these were 201 relatively minor engagements of

little long-term strategic consequence, Chancellor Jia would go out of his way to play them up as monumental victories back home against the barbarian hordes, who he now had in full flight. This stiffened Song resistance to future Mongol offers of diplomatic solutions, and gave many in the south the frankly farcical hope that they might not only defend the south, but perhaps even retake the north as well. In the near term, Kublai's rearguard, commanded by General Bahadur, could do little more than attempt to hold the line wherever they could against this renewed Chinese assault. Kublai, they understood, would be unable to send almost anything in the way of reinforcements for the foreseeable future to the southern frontier, because he had, as of now, a much more significant fight to the north.

Kublai, or perhaps Chavi, would dispatch a trusted emissary to attempt to strike a bargain with the southerners, the ambassador Hao Jing. Hao was, however, taken captive shortly after crossing into Song territory, and would remain their political prisoner for a subsequent 15 years, a diplomatic faux pas that, in true Mongolian tradition, Kublai would be sure to avenge in full measure when the time came. In spite of the majority of the great houses of the Bojjigins being arrayed against him, Kublai moved forward against his younger brother with great confidence. In spite of the advantages seemingly held by his rival, he knew that merely by possessing China itself, Kublai held a trump card. Mongolia was now rich and prosperous, to be sure,

and its population had grown tremendously since the days of their grandfather, Genghis's youth. So much so, in fact, that the region had long since outstripped its own paltry capacity to sustain such a population from the meager foodstuffs it could produce. Mongolia was now almost entirely reliant on the production of the sedentary world that Arik Bok and his followers so disdained, to so much as feed themselves as they sat in Karakorum. Almost all of Mongolia's food needed to be imported, and almost all of that came primarily from China. It was these tenuous but vital supply lines that Kublai knew he would need to cut off and deny his brother in order to bring him to heel. One of the four primary grain shipments to Karakorum and Mongolia was already safely in Kublai's grasp, Beijing and the surrounding Yan Prefecture. To be sure, not all food production regions and distribution centers were in Kublai's domain. Thus, he would initially focus his military efforts

on sealing off as many of these three remaining distribution centers from the north. The first of these sites was the capital of the Uyghur-controlled region of the northwest, modern Xinjiang, the city of Beshbalik. Fortunately for Kublai, the Mongol overseer of Beshbalik, Kadan, son of Ogedei, had made himself known as a supporter of Kublai. The supporters of Arik Bok would likewise make a play for control of the vital trade city. By 1262, Kadan had not only driven them out and secured the Uyghur city, but had proved himself indispensable in helping Kublai to safeguard the old Tangut territories of the

former Western Xia from being overrun by Arik Bok's forces. Perhaps most critically, Kadan's forces were able to seize control of the third granary supply region, that is, Lanzhou City and the Gansu Corridor, the narrow gap in north-central China between the Gobi Desert to the north and the Chilian Mountains that mark the beginning of the Tibetan Plateau to the south. Even in the 13th century, Gansu had for millennia been the long slender neck that could cut China off from the rest of the world, and thus deny both its stores of food as well as its use as a vital crossing point to Arik and his forces. That left Karakorum with access to only the fourth and final significant grain-importing regions, the Yenisei Valley, that sat northwest of the Mongolian capital.

Raseby writes, Recent Soviet studies indicate that the farmers of the upper Yenisei grew wheat, millet, and barley, and that the craftsmen produced daily necessities, weapons, and agricultural tools for the Mongols. Arik Bok relied principally on this area for the supplies that were so essential to his survival. The Yenisei region, however, was by itself hardly a sufficient supply source for Karakorum and its populace in even the best of times, much less now when its Kayan was seeking to bolster his numbers and prosecute an aggressive war against Kublai,

who had all of northern China to draw supplies and men from. In relatively short order, this difference in men and material showed itself, as Kublai's army went on the offensive in the autumn of 1260, pressing north towards Karakoram and driving Arik Bok and his forces north to the tributary of the Yenisei River, called the Yus. As winter descended, both sides made their off-season encampments and awaited the coming spring to renew the contest. During this lull in the fighting, Rashid al-Din gives us a story of Ariq once again trying to employ treachery and deceit to trick his elder brother into lowering his guard. In an alleged correspondence between the brothers, al-Din writes that Ariq confessed to Kublai, quote,

I committed a crime and transgressed out of ignorance. Thou art my Akha, elder brother, and thou knowest thy power. I shall go whithersoever thou commandest and shall not deviate from the Akha's command. Having fattened and satisfied my animals, I will present myself before thee. End quote. In Aldine's telling, however, Arik was simply using these honeyed words as a means to launch a surprise attack on his brother's forces, a ploy that, even if true, Rosabee notes, would have been very unlikely indeed to fool Kublai, especially if his Otsugin had already tried this little trick more than once, as Aldine claims. In spite of Arik Bok's alleged promise, Kublai continued to prepare for the battle to come. In the Yen region, he had 30,000 troops stationed to further secure the area,

10,000 warhorses were to be purchased and sent to Kaiping for the cavalry, and 100,000 pikuls of rice, which is about 6 million kilograms or 13.2 million pounds, be sent from Beijing to Kaiping. Several weeks after that, he requisitioned a further 15,000 troops from across northern China, as well as 10,000 military uniforms and kits. Once these had arrived, in tumens of about 7,000, they struck out against the various supply depots across north and western China that could be used to resupply Arik Bok's army, successfully taking Yan'an, Xian, then Liangzhou, and Ganzhou, further west, while simultaneously dispatching a

crack force to Sichuan to ensure that the vital southwestern region remained firmly in Kublai's hands. In the wake of such devastating victories, effectively sweeping Arik Bok's forces entirely out of northern and western China in one fell swoop, Kublai rewarded his followers lavishly. During all this, Arik Bok was not of course idle. His main objective was to maintain at any cost his access to Central Asia, and his main thrust was therefore in that direction rather than directly against his brother to the south. These armies were led by his supreme military commander, Alandar, who was assigned with patrolling and ensuring that the supply routes and roadways across Central Asia remained open and flowing. This would end in catastrophe in late 1260, however, when Karan

intercepted Al-Andar's forces in Xiliang, an important city in northwestern China. After routing and then crushing Al-Andar's force, Karan took the enemy general's head, dealing a devastating blow to Arik Bok's military command. Perhaps directly as an attempt to stem the worst of this loss, Arik Bok next attempted to effect a direct alliance between himself and the armies of the Chagatai Khanate, via his own supporter from that family line, Algu. The Chagatid Khan, another of Chagatai's grandsons called Karahulagu, had just died. As such, Arik Bok urged Algu to rush over there and claim the Khanate for himself, and of course thereafter pledge its firm support to Arik Bok urged Algu to rush over there and claim the Khanate for himself, and of course thereafter pledge its firm support to Arik.

Kublai had a very similar idea, and sent his own Chagatai supporter named Abishka to do likewise. This time, however, it was Arik Bok's turn to intercept the rival and slay him. Abishka's blood would stain the plains of Central Asia, and Algu would arrive to take the Chagatai Khanate's helm for himself. Now, all Arik Bok could hope was that as Khan, Algu would make good on his pledge to assist him in his time of need. Yet before he could make that determination, Arik Bok would be forced to face off against Kublai in what would prove a crucial battle. After chancing on one of Kublai's generals, Yasunga, along the border and forcing him to flight, the two armies would meet in force at a place called Shimultai, again along the Sino-Mongolian borderlands. The initial skirmish saw Arikboka's forces quickly scattered and driven

from the battlefield. Yet within a fortnight, they had regrouped and once again sought Kublai's armies out. Quote, the ensuing battle, fought farther north along the western slope of the Khingan Mountains in eastern Mongolia, was a standoff. Kublai himself did not take part, and Arik Bok's army probably encountered only a small portion of Kublai's troops, for, notwithstanding the indecisiveness of this last battle, Kublai had clear-cut and sole control over Mongolia, and had placed enormous pressure on Arik Bok's base and the Yenisei. Now desperate, Arik Bok turned to Algu, the ally he'd sent to field to claim the Chagatai Khanate, asking him to send the much-needed and long-promised aid. To this request, however, Algu Khan was now disinclined to acquiesce.

Arik Bok, he now saw, was weak, and likely to lose this contest with his brother. And Algu could use such resources far better, he surely thought, right where they already were. When envoys of Arik Bok arrived in Algu's lands, first asking, and then demanding that he turn over the promised supplies, at first the Chagatai Khan delayed giving a definitive response, but when their pleas turned to threats, Algu seemed to remember that, oh yeah, he was the Khan now, and had the delegation executed. Cursing this sudden but inevitable betrayal, Arik Boka felt compelled to respond somehow to Algu Khan's treachery. Thus, he packed up and rode his armies off westward to confront

his erstwhile ally and assert his supremacy once again. You can probably already see why that was a bad idea. As soon as Arik was over the hill for Central Asia to go discipline the Chagatid Khan, Kublai, of course, moved right in and claimed the whole of Mongolia for himself, thanks very much. Upon moving right on in, he made a very PR-positive move by shipping into the region loads of grain and warning his officials to treat the locals with a gentle touch. Hearts and minds, people. We're after hearts and minds. Even so, a rebellion shortly broke out across northern China,

necessitating his attention and ensuring that he couldn't continue his pursuit of his errant brother. Without Kublai nipping directly at his heels, Arik Bok was able to make directly for Algu Khan's territory and make war against him. While on march toward the Ili River in northern Xinjiang, Arik's outriders encountered Algu's forces and were annihilated by the Chagatids. This initial victory was short-lived, though, since in the subsequent clashes, Algu would be trounced and routed from the field, fleeing westward into the oases of Central Asia. Ariq Boka had won out against the Chagatid traders and had taken their capital of Al-Malik for his own, but this would prove a Pyrrhic victory. Quote,

His new headquarters at Al-Malik lay in the steppes, and he still lacked the essential supplies for his war of attrition with Kublai. He had no dependable source of grain or weapons, and Algu's forces blocked access to the resources of the southerly, more fertile regions of Xinjiang. Arik Bok was probably worse off now than he had been." Moreover, his own actions were exacerbating things. He treated prisoners with undue harshness, torturing many of them, even to death. Even those who hadn't been captured fighting against him but had simply been in the wrong place and at the wrong time. If this was a war about hearths and minds, and again, it was, Arik Bok didn't seem to understand that. Alienation grew within his own ranks, and affections increased day by day. When a famine gripped his army in the particularly

harsh winter of 1263, this grew particularly dire. Rasabi writes that it was no longer just regular soldiers quietly slipping off and going AWOL, but notable members of important family members pretty much just out and out declaring their intentions to leave Arik Bok's lost cause. He writes, quote, by spring, even some of his most ardent supporters had deserted him. One of Hulagu's sons, Jumakar, claiming illness, departed for the western central Asian town of Samarkand. Mungka's son, Orung-Tang, requested his father's jade seal, his tamga, from Arik-Bok. When Arik-Bok's messengers arrived with the seal, Orung-Tash took it, left, and submitted to Kublai. Meanwhile, Al-Gukhan of the Chagatids had taken careful note of his former master's weakened state and regrouped his own forces in

preparation to expel him from his lands entirely. When the Chagatid strike came in early 1264, Arik Bok's diminished, undermanned army was simply no match. They would be forced to retreat. But the question was, retreat to where? There really was no good option left, for the only direction away from Algu would be back into Kublai's territories, which would surely prompt the elder brother's swift retaliation. Instead, Arik Bok came to what must have been the most difficult decision of his life. He mounted up on his horse and rode out from his camp alone, to make for Kaiping, where Kublai sat in wait to offer his surrender.

No, that's not quite right. It wasn't even called Kaiping anymore. Kublai had recently renamed the city to something far more regal and imperial, a sign of his ascendancy, Shangdu, the supreme capital. Reaching his brother's capital late that year, he was ushered into Kublai's presence for an immediate audience to surrender and submit himself. The two competitors, foes, stared at one another over a long silence, and finally embraced as brothers, family, reconciled. Here, once more Rashid al-Din seems unable to resist taking a swipe at Arik's motivations. He writes that Kublai reached out and wiped a tear from his little brother's cheek,

and asked gently, Dear brother, in this strife and contention, was I in the right, or were you? Arik recoiled and spat back with clear spite, I was in the right then, but you're in the right today. Rasibi writes of this quote, Aldin meant to show, through his brief dialogue, Arik Bok's ingratitude and lack of appreciation for the brotherly compassion that had just been showered on him. But given the Persian historian's prejudice against Arik Bok, it seems unlikely that this

dialogue actually took place, end quote. In any event, apparently reconciled to one another, Kublai initially took no official punitive action toward his younger brother. This infuriated many of his more loyal supporters, however, who insisted that, as rebels and traitors against his lawful authority, brother or no, Arik Bok and his followers must face consequences for their actions. The call for punishment that particularly impressed Kublai was the one coming from his other brother, Hulagu. As such, he agreed to bar Arik Bok from his presence for an entire year and to keep him in confinement. Still not satisfied, the Mongol nobility called for further actions, and, hesitantly, Kublai assented, interrogating his brother to find

out what had caused him to decide on his rebellious course of action, and ultimately deciding that it had been Bolgai, Monga's old top official, who had sided with Arik at the beginning of the conflict, who must have put such treacherous ideas in his brother's head. Bolgai would therefore be put to death for this crime, along with nine of Arik's other top retainers and allies. With that initial judgment at least quieting, if not fully quelling the cries of discontent from his supporters, Kublai at last now turned to the dual issue of what to do with

his brother in the long term, and of affirming that he, Kublai and not Arikbog, was the one true Kayan of Mongolia. He felt highly uncomfortable about pronouncing such a judgment over his own brother, and so he instead turned to that time-tested tradition to deal with both issues at once. That's right, the Kur curl tie. Whispers still resounded across the empire, and in some cases, not-so-whispery whispers, that Kublai's curl tie at Kaiping was invalid and illegal, since it had not been conducted in Mongolia itself as tradition dictated. Very well then, let us have another one that fully conforms to the forms and stipulations of the yasa. We'll have everyone who's anyone come and declare their loyalty now and forever, and while we have everyone there,

we can also convene a full panel of the Khans from all branches of the family to decide the fate of Arik Bok. Imperial arrow messengers shot out from Shangdu and fanned out across the realm to the Khanates in Persia, Russia, and Central Asia, summoning all to the Great Congress. The response, however, was as unexpected as it was lackluster. All three regional Khans refused to attend on various grounds. Both Burka of the Golden Horde and Hulagu of the Ilkhanate in Persia stated, truthfully I might add, that they were a little busy at the moment since they were both currently engaged in a vicious civil war of their own against the other. As for the Khan of the Chagatids, Algu, he begged off that since he hadn't technically been confirmed in his official position yet, he could not possibly in good faith sit in judgment over Arik Bok for his actions.

In any event, none of these three would long survive their wave-offs of Kublai's second curl tie. Hulagu would fall ill after days of feasting and hunting in February of 1265, and then die a few days thereafter. His funeral would be the only instance in the history of the Ilkhanate of the Mongols providing human sacrifices to the dead in the form of maidens and treasure buried in the Forbidden Area, or korok, of his internment. Berke would attempt to use his foe's death to claim victory over the Ilkhanate, only to himself fall ill and die en route to Persia the following year. Algu would likewise not survive 1265. Thus, like it or not, it seemed that the decision as to what to do with Arik Bok would be Kublai's alone. That is, until the scythe of fate appeared once again in 1266

and struck the ojigin of the Toluids down with an apparent illness. However, given that he was under confinement by Kublai at the time, the constant question has remained as to whether or not Arik's suspiciously convenient sickness was, in fact, poison. Rossaby writes, was, in fact, poison. Rossaby writes, Still, correlation is not causation, and there can be no definitive proof that foul play was indeed involved. Sometimes people do just get sick and die. I would say that we would all be well served, however,

in keeping one eyebrow firmly raised and giving Kublai a solid side-eye across the ages. Sickness, huh? Mm-hmm. Thus it was that by 1265, Kublai stood uncontested as the sole remaining claimant of the title Great Khan. Yet the failure of the second Kurultai in Mongolia would mean that, for the rest of his life, his would be a reign marked by doubt, questions of legitimacy, and assurances of submission to his face, but double dealings and treachery behind his back. All done by his own dear family. In title, Kublai was Kayan,

just as his grandfather Genghis had been. Yet in truth, the war between the sons of Tolui had fractured the great Mongol Empire, and along the very lines that Genghis had once drawn to keep his own sons from fighting. It would prove a shattering that was impossible to mend, and the Yeka Mongol Ulus, the great Mongol nation, would be now and forever divided into four rival khanates. The House of Jochi controlled Russia as the Altan Order, the Golden Horde. The House of Chagatai remained in control of the Central Asian region, though within the decade they would join with and ultimately be

subsumed by the Ogedaid Khan, Kaidu. And in Persia, the descendants of Hulagu would reign as the newest great house of the Mongols, the Ilkhanate. That left Kublai as the great Khan in truth only of Mongolia itself and northern China. No small stretch to be sure, but nothing like the world-spanning empire his lord-grandfather had envisioned. And so, next time, Kublai Khan, having failed to unify his Mongol people under his rule, will turn instead toward a new task, the one left undone by both Genghis and his elder brother Mongke before their deaths, the total subjugation of southern China. To that end, he will continue the metamorphosis he'd already begun during the Toluid Civil War,

of styling himself less and less as a foreign overlord of a land far away, but as a Chinese ruler of a Chinese realm, no longer only a child of the blue sky and the wolf, but a true son of heaven. Thanks for listening. History isn't black and white, yet too often it's presented as such. Grey History, the French Revolution, is a long-form history podcast dedicated to exploring the ambiguities and nuances of the past. From a revolution of hope and liberty to the infamous reign of terror, you can't understand the modern world without understanding

the French Revolution. So search for the French Revolution today.