The Battle of Zhongdu (present-day

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

) was a battle in 1215 between the

Mongols The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...

and the Jurchen Jin dynasty, which controlled northern China. The Mongols won and continued their conquest of China.

History

The year 1211 marked the beginning of the war between the Mongols and the Jin Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty was able to hold Genghis Khan (Temüjin) and his Mongol army at bay for the first two years of the war. The Jurchen Jin emperor

Wanyan Yongji Wanyan Yongji (died 11 September 1213), childhood name Xingsheng, was the seventh emperor of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty of China. He reigned for about five years from 1208 until 1213, when he was assassinated by the general Heshilie Zhizhong. ...

's daughter, Jurchen Princess Qiguo was married to Mongol leader Genghis Khan in exchange for relieving the Mongol siege upon Zhongdu (Beijing) in the

Mongol conquest of Jin China The Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty, also known as the Mongol–Jin War, was fought between the Mongol Empire and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in Manchuria and North China. The war, which started in 1211, lasted over 23 years and ended ...

. Throughout this time, however, Temüjin continued to build his forces and by 1213 had an army so powerful that it conquered all Jin territory up to the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic gro ...

. From this strategic location Temüjin made the decision to split his forces into three smaller armies in an attempt to break through the wall and finish his conquest of northern China. He sent his brother, Kasar, at the head of one of these armies east into

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

. He sent another army south toward Shanxi under command of his three oldest sons. He himself led the third army, along with his son Tuli, towards Shandong. The plan was a success, as all three armies broke through the wall in different places. According to Ivar Lissner, the besieged inhabitants resorted to firing gold and silver cannon shot on the Mongols with their muzzle-loading cannons when their supply of metal for ammunition ran out. The battle for Beijing was long and tiresome, but the Mongols proved to be more powerful as they finally took the city on 1 June 1215, massacring its inhabitants. This forced Jin Emperor Xuanzong to move his capital south to

Kaifeng Kaifeng () is a prefecture-level city in east-central Henan province, China. It is one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China, having been the capital eight times in history, and is best known for having been the Chinese capital during the No ...

, and opened the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

valley to further Mongol ravages. Kaifeng also fell to the Mongols after a siege in 1232.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beijing, Battle Of Mongol conquest of Jin China Zhongdu 1215 Zhongdu 1215 1215 in Asia

Zhongdu Zhongdu (, lit. "Central Capital") was the capital of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in medieval China. It was located in the southwestern part of Beijing's Xicheng District. It had a population of nearly one million by the late 12th century, a ...

Conflicts in 1215 1215 in the Mongol Empire

History

See also

References