The Yuan Dynasty was founded by Kublai Khan in 1271 AD, and its predecessor was the Great Mongol State founded by Genghis Khan. The official name of the Yuan Dynasty is called Da Yuan, which is taken from the Da Zai Gan Yuan in the Book of Changes, the beginning of all materials.

Among them, the big characters in Dayuan are not honorific titles like Han and Tang, because the ruler is a Mongol, so it is also called Mengyuan. The Yuan court retreated to Mobei, so when it was called the remnants of the Yuan court, it was also called the Northern Yuan.

Genghis Khan unified Mobei and established the Great Mongolian State at the Nanhe River. At that time, the suzerainty of Mongolia was the Jin State, and the Jin State and the Western Xia Kingdom went into decline, and the Mongols attacked the Western Xia and the Jin State successively, and occupied North China. In the west, the Mongols launched three expeditions to the west, enabling the Mongols to dominate Eurasia.

After Meng Ke's death in the Song War, Kublai Khan, the fourth brother who occupied the Han land, and Ali Buge, the seventh brother who was supported by the Mongol nobles in Mobei, fought for the throne of Khan, and Kublai Khan finally won. Kublai Khan changed the name of the country to Dayuan and established the Yuan Dynasty, that is, Yuan Shizu.

The war caused the four Mongol khanates to disassociate themselves from the Great Khan Kublai Khan, and it was not until the Yuan Chengzong period that the Yuan Emperor was recognized as the Great Khan. The Yuan Dynasty conquered the Southern Song Dynasty and conquered all of China, plunging China into foreign rule.

During the period from Yuan Shizu to Yuan Wuzong, the Yuan Dynasty was at the peak of its national power, militarily pacifying the northwest, but it failed repeatedly in the conquest of Japan and Southeast Asian countries, including defeat in the Yuan-Japanese War. In the middle period, the throne changed frequently, and politics was never on the track. In the late Yuan Huizong period, due to laziness in political affairs, the indiscriminate issuance of paper money led to inflation, and the increase of forced labor in order to control the flooding Yellow River, which finally led to the outbreak of the civil rebellion at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he sent Xu Da to the north to conquer the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, and the Yuan court retreated to Mobei, known as the Northern Yuan Dynasty in history. Yuanchen Gui Lichi usurped the throne, stopped the name of the Great Yuan Kingdom, and reverted to the Great Mongolian State.

The direct ancestors of the Mongols are the Murwei tribes of the same language family as the Xianbei and Khitan peoples. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, they were distributed in the vast area north of the Khitan, the west of the Tatars, and the east of the Turks. During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, the Turks declined, and the Wei people in the Later Room submitted to the Tang Dynasty. Following the collapse of the Turkic Uighur regime, the Murveda people entered the desert in large numbers.

Around the 9th to 11th centuries, one of them, the Mongwu Murwei, gradually moved westward from the east of the lower reaches of the Wangjian River, to the upper source of the three rivers of the Cunnan River, the Krulun River and the Tula River, and was divided into two major branches, the Niluwen Mongol and the Dieerrejin Mongols, collectively known as the Hemu Black Mongols, which included many clans and tribes, large and small.

In addition to the Hemu Black Mongols, there were also tribes such as the Mirqi, Tatar, Kereh, Naiman, and Huyira who were active on the Mongolian Plateau at that time. All these clans and tribes were ruled by Liao and Jin successively.

The economic development of the Mongol tribes was very uneven, and by the twelfth century most of them were nomadic hunters, and only a few tribes were engaged in agriculture. However, at this time, they obtained a large number of iron tools through trade with the Central Plains, which promoted the development of production, and the class differentiation became more obvious. In order to plunder more wealth, the slave owners of various tribes waged war with each other.

Many of the Mongol tribes in the Mongolian plateau were originally vassals of the Jin state, and with the decline of the Jin state, the Mongol tribes also began to grow and gradually broke away from the rule of the Jin state. Temujin, the leader of the Mongol tribes, unified the Mongolian tribes on the Mongolian plateau through war, Temujin was elected as Genghis Khan by the tribes, established power in Mobei, and the Mongol Empire was established, with the name of Great Mongolia, and the Mongolian steppe ended the situation of long-term chaos.

After the establishment of the Mongol Khanate, it continued to launch wars of aggression to expand its territory, and the foreign wars of the Mongol army were of a conquest nature, in order to reduce the casualties of the Mongol army and speed up the progress of the war, the Mongol army adopted a cruel and barbaric policy towards the enemy during the war. The areas that surrendered to the Mongol army suffered relatively little damage, while large numbers of those who dared to resist valiantly were slaughtered and enslaved, and countless properties were plundered and destroyed.

This series of wars of conquest brought great destruction to many ancient civilizations in Eurasia, including China, and many peoples were subjected to cruel and unjust national oppression, and countless people and property were lost in the war and subsequent plagues, famines, and natural disasters.

The Great Khan of the Mongol Khanate, Möngke, died violently at the age of 52 during an attack on Hezhou in Sichuan. With the support of most of the Mongol orthodox faction, including King Zong, Ali Buge passed the Khortai Assembly to the Great Khan in the capital of the Mongol Empire, Hala Horin. At the same time, Kublai Khan negotiated peace with the Southern Song Dynasty and returned to Kaiping Province, and Kublai Khan, with the support of the Han landlord class and some Mongol kings, was proclaimed Great Khan.

The battle for the throne took place within the Tulei family, where Möngke, the fourth Great Khan of the Great Mongol Kingdom, was killed in battle during an attack on Hezhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Möngke's two younger brothers, Kublai Khan and Ali Buge, both wanted to succeed to the throne.

After Möngke's death, the people who could compete for the throne of Khan were Kublai Khan and Ali Buge. Kublai Khan led his troops to attack the Southern Song Dynasty, and Ali Buge was responsible for defending the territory because he was the youngest son of Tuolei, and he was in charge of the treasury and the central government of the Mongol Empire, as well as the lifeblood of the empire, compared with Kublai Khan, his talents in all aspects were relatively weak.

Ali Buge convened a Khuriltai assembly in the region of Möngke in the Altai Mountains, and he was confident that he would be able to become a Hehan. He had many men under him who supported him, including Alan Daer, Hun Du Hai Tu Husi, and Zo'er Chi. Alan Ta'er led his troops to the place where Kublai Khan spent his summer, that is, Kaiping near Duolunbo, to prepare to deter Kublai Khan, and also asked him to attend the Kurultai Conference convened by Ali Buge.

Kublai Khan was a scheming fellow, so naturally he didn't give in so easily, and he came with his battle-hardened soldiers and relieved Alan Taer of military power. Despite this, Kublai Khan had a lot to do, and Kublai Khan came to Kaiping, where he convened a conference of Kurultai to make an alliance with his cronies.

There are the sons of Wokotai, Hedan, Atixiji or Ajiji, and the grandsons of Timuge and Huchijin, and the grandsons of Timuge, and the grandsons of Timo, and Tchawudu. The Kuriltai Assembly elected Kublai Khan as the Great Khan and held a ceremony to canonize him. Kublai Khan still had to concede several times, and finally reluctantly agreed to take the throne, and at the age of forty-four, he became the Great Khan.

This time the alliance could not be widely recognized, it was in the nature of a hoax, and in fact it was intended to raise an army to rebel. The formalities of the alliance were not completed, and the Ulus leaders did not all come to vote, such as the Persian governor Hulagu and Kipchak Khan Belge, Batu was dead at this time, and his younger brother Belge succeeded to the throne.

Kublai Khan said that they were too far away to wait for a few months, which were enough time for the empire to be in civil strife. Kublai Khan did this obviously to create a fait accompli situation that everyone would be forced to accept, and this decision was also a no-brainer, and even Hulegu did not necessarily support Kublai Khan, and one of his sons, Muhar, was a staunch supporter of Ali Buge.

Kublai Khan's ascension to the throne did not enjoy the broad support of the other princes, and Kublai Khan relied on his knowledge, martial prowess, and great ability to ascend to the throne, even without the consent of his brothers and relatives.

Genghis Khan said: "Listen to what the young Kublai Khan said, one day he will inherit my throne, and you will treat him as if he were me." ”

After Kublai Khan was elected, he sent people to the heart of Mongolia, and amicably informed Ali Buge of the news and made him submit to Kublai Khan's rule. Ali Buge's subordinate To'er Chi ran to the Central Plains to break up Kublai Khan's alliance, but was caught and confessed to all the preparations he had made.

Ali Buge did not even think of recognizing Kublai Khan's position, and he also organized an election for his supporters to choose him as the Great Khan. They held elections in the Hala and Lin areas, and many great generals came to cheer, including those who led troops to the south, such as Hun Duhai in the northwest of the Central Plains.

Kublai Khan sent Yelu Chucai's son Yelu Zhu to rebel against him, but without success. Ali Buge also had the Mongol forces in Sichuan unite against Kublai Khan, but they were all defeated by Kublai Khan. Alan Daer led troops from Hala and Lin to help Hunduhai, and the two wanted to march from Liangzhou to Sichuan. However, they were defeated by Prince Hedan in the Guzang region, and in this way Kublai Khan took possession of all of the Mongol territory in the Central Plains.

Ali Buge's power was still entrenched in the Mongol homeland, and even Möngke's wife Hu'er Hanahadun supported him, as well as his three sons Asutai, Yulong Tasu and Xierji, as well as most of the princes of the Ogedai and Chagatai lines were supporters of Ali Buge, and the Mongol forces in the Central Plains and the steppe were opposed and incompatible with each other during this period.

Kublai Khan, together with Hatan and Tokchaer, decided to go to the homeland of the Mongolian steppe to meet with Ali Buge, and they came to the Onjin River, south of Hala and Lin, while Ali Buge and his men were in the forests of the state of Qianqian north of the upper Yenisei, and later he regrouped and came to attack Hala Horin, and they fought near the lake of Ximutu.

The place where the two fought was called the land of Gungeer, and in the end Kublai Khan was victorious, and he did not chase after his defeated younger brother. Ten days later, Ali Buge made a comeback, and he raided Kublai Khan's army at the place of Erleti, Shata, this time with an equal split between the two sides, and each returned to his camp in the evening.

During this period, Kublai Khan was unable to take over the Mongol homeland, and Ali Buge's forces were still entrenched there. The Chagatai descendant, Aruhu, also recognized Ali Buge's status as the ruler of the Turkestan Khanate, who occupied Beshbali, Alimari, and other parts of the Chagatai fiefdom, and extended his influence to the Amu Darya River. However, only a few months later, the man turned his horse around and switched to Kublai Khan.

Abuligo was under the enemy on his back and could only lead his troops to pacify Turkestan. Aruhu killed Abuligo's general Kharabuhua in the city of Bura, and Ali Buge sent Asutai to attack Aruhu and occupy Alimari near Gulza, and Aruhu abandoned the Ili region and came to Kashgariya, and then withdrew to Samalgan.

Ali Buge occupied the Ili region, but as a descendant of a nomadic people, he was unable to settle in Turkestan. The people of Alimari could not bear his cruelty, and even his generals did not see him, and some of the soldiers took refuge in the forward forces of Kublai Khan stationed at the Zabalan River. Later, Ur Hanahadun no longer supported him, and finally he rebelled against his relatives.

Ali Buge was besieged by the descendants of Chagatai and Kublai Khan's army, and had no choice but to surrender, and Ali Buge, Asutai, Xierji and others all came to surrender to Kublai Khan. Because he was too cruel, he was eventually spurned by everyone.

Kublai Khan met with Ali Buge, who came forward to plead guilty, but was covered by a tent curtain by the people, so he could only continue to bow down like this. Kublai Khan let him enter the tent and then made him stand, and when Kublai Khan saw that he was crying, he himself was moved to tears, so he said, "My brother, who is right between the two of us?"

Ali Buge replied: "It was me before, and now it's you." ”

Genghis Khan's nephew, Togachaer Nayan, immediately said: "What Hehan wants is today, not to ask about the past, but to pursue joy." ”

Then the banquet began, but the next day, Kublai Khan had the various generals who opposed him arrested and killed a dozen people. Although Ali Buge and Asutai were not punished, Ali Buge died mysteriously a month later.

The defeat of Ali Buge, Kublai Khan's seizure of the supreme rule of the Mongol Khanate, Kublai Khan's promotion of the Han law, obviously contrary to Mongolian tradition, caused many Mongolian nobles to be dissatisfied, refused to belong to the Kublai Khanate, and as a result, several other Mongol khanates were hostile. This civil war led to the independence of the four khanates, and it was not until the Yuan Chengzong period that the Yuan dynasty was recognized as the suzerain.