The Khan Who Conquered China (Untold Chinese History - Yuan Dynasty) Kindle Edition

At Xiangyang's walls in 1271, Kublai Khan prepared to announce a decision that would shock his Mongol generals. After twenty years conquering northern China, he would do something no steppe warrior had done: proclaim himself a Chinese emperor. His dynasty would be called "Yuan"—a word from Confucian classics meaning "origin." When he quoted Chinese philosophy instead of Mongol battle cries, his commanders watched in disbelief. Had their khan forgotten he was Mongol?Kublai transformed conquest into administration. He offered defeated Song generals positions in his government. He captured Hangzhou—Earth's largest city—without burning a single building. He employed Chinese bureaucrats alongside Mongol cavalry. His hybrid warfare blended steppe mobility with Chinese siege engineering, breaking fortresses his grandfather Genghis could never breach. By 1279, the Song Dynasty drowned at Yamen, and Kublai ruled the world's richest civilization.But his gamble split his empire. Mongols called him the Chinese khan. Chinese called him the barbarian emperor. The cultural contradiction he created at Xiangyang haunted his reign. The Yuan Dynasty collapsed ninety-seven years later—China's shortest major dynasty—because it never resolved what Kublai began: can you conquer a civilization by becoming it, or does the civilization always conquer you?Discover the truth in The Khan Who Conquered China. Read more