During the conquest of the Jurchen Jin Empire in China, a military commander named Mukhali fought in the front ranks of the Mongol army. He was then appointed governor of the region after his lord began his invasion of Central Asia. Acting with limited forces, he managed to wipe out his enemies.
For this reason, before the start of the Western Campaign, this man was considered the foremost of the Mongol commanders. He single-handedly defeated such a powerful enemy as the Jurchen, became the leading military leader of the nomads, and never suffered defeat during his long military career.
Let’s tell his story.
It is believed that Mukhali was born in the 1170s. His name was translated from Mongolian as “the one who blunts.” In his mature years, he was a very tall man with a dark face and long wavy sideburns. He loved to have fun and generously rewarded his servants. Despite his ferocity on the battlefield, he was considered a good ruler by the Chinese and preferred negotiation to fighting.
Little is known about his youth, but later, stories circulated among the nomads that thick white steam came out of the yurt after he was born. A shaman passing by said that “this will be a wonderful boy.” Mukhali was a representative of the Dzhalair tribe, which had sworn allegiance to the Jurkins. Along with the Kiyat, to which Genghis Khan belonged, it was one of the branches of the royal Borjigin clan. In 1196, a battle took place between the Bayats and the Jurkins for supremacy over the entire tribal union, as a result of which our hero and his family were taken prisoner. As a result, the head of the clan offered his sons as servants to Prince Temujin, and one of them was Mukhali.
Three years later, he was already a prominent military leader under his master. When the Kereit ruler Wang Khan suffered defeat at the hands of the Naimans, Boorchu, who had served Temujin since childhood, and Mukhali, who had recently joined him, were sent to his aid.
In the following years, he managed to greatly increase his influence. He became one of the few people whom the leader of the Mongols truly trusted. Along with his senior wife Bortai, Mukhali is named as the person who could really influence Genghis Khan’s decisions. During his proclamation as the Great Khan of the Steppe in 1206, the commander held the position of third prince in the empire and became one of the few aristocrats who did not belong to the Chinggisid dynasty but received their own personal tumen as a gift.
In 1211, in the grand battle at the Yuhulin Ridge, which allowed the Mongols to begin their conquest of northern China, Mukhali commanded the vanguard. Together with his detachment, he rushed into a narrow mountain pass and pushed the Jurchen back to the plains, which were suitable for the swift steppe cavalry. This ensured the final victory.
After Genghis Khan decided to attack Khwarezm with all his forces, he left his general in charge of the empire. Mukhali received the Chinese title of go-wan (“prince of the empire”), which no one else in the Mongol state held. This meant that he was second only to his ruler and received honors in China comparable to those of the emperor.
Despite being assigned only two tumens, acting with small forces, the commander managed to conquer most of the lands north of the Yellow River. He did not lose a single battle and managed to integrate Jurchen defectors, Tanguts, and Khitans into his army, appointing two Chinese brothers who had previously fought against him as his deputies.
Despite the fact that Mukhali, like other steppe leaders, mowed down people like grass and burned captured cities, he preferred diplomatic action, for which he received special praise from Genghis Khan. Thanks to auxiliary troops from other peoples, his contingents increased several times over. Soon, the Jurchen realized that they could not defeat him on the battlefield, after which they switched to defensive fortress warfare.
In the early 1220s, Mukhali was ill. He had already stopped personally leading the troops, although the Mongols in China remained invincible at that time. On his deathbed in 1223, Genghis Khan’s best general boasted that he had never been defeated in his life. After the death of the glorious warrior, the authority to rule the Middle Kingdom was transferred to his son, but he proved incapable of continuing the offensive.
As a result, the Mongol conquests in this region came to a halt for almost a decade. By the time Ugedai ascended the throne in 1227, the Jurchen had gone on the offensive and even inflicted several defeats on their enemy. For this reason, Genghis Khan’s younger son Tolui and Subutai-Bagatur were sent here with troops, and Subutai gradually began to take away from our hero today the title of the greatest of the Mongol commanders. The Jin Empire finally fell in 1234, and Mukhali’s descendants served the great khans for many generations.