Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2663 The Seventh Khanate, Suzerain and Subordinate

In early September, Yan Wenyang led his vanguard to encircle the enemy. Tuoba Gui, using cavalry against infantry, relied on his speed advantage to fight flexibly and gained the upper hand.

However, the next day, Shi Tianze's main force was about to advance.

Knowing that the enemy outnumbered him and that his forces were vastly different, Tuoba Gui decided to break out of the encirclement before Shi Tianze could complete the encirclement.

Given such a disparity in troop strength, a direct confrontation is absolutely unsuitable.

However, during this process, Chen Zhibao led three thousand cavalrymen to stay far behind.

If they don't shake off this force, Tuoba Gui's army will never be truly safe.

Therefore, Tuoba Gui left 3,000 soldiers to cover Tan Shihuai's retreat.

With three thousand against three thousand, Tan Shihuai could delay the battle and leave before Shi Tianze's main force could encircle them.

However, the Yuan Mongols did not only have Shi Tianze's troops, but also Muqali.

Shortly after the two sides engaged in battle, Muqali's generals, leading their iron cavalry, launched a flanking attack and annihilated Tan Shihuai.

After that, the heavy responsibility of pursuing and intercepting Tuoba Gui actually fell mostly on Muqali.

Shi Tianze's force consisted of a combined infantry and cavalry army, while Muqali's force was entirely composed of cavalry.

In January, the two sides fought more than ten battles, large and small. Muqali led his troops to kill more than ten generals, including Qulie, Yilamainu, Yilamieer, Anjie, and Luzhen.

Tuoba Gui was forced to flee across the grasslands.

During this period, Shi Tianze "requested" Tuoba Hong to persuade the remaining generals under Tuoba Gui on several occasions. However, by this point, those who had no intention of surrendering had already run away.

Even now, those who are still willing to stay by Tuoba Gui's side are no longer the two-faced types.

On November 3, having been driven to the brink of despair, Tuoba Gui mustered his remaining troops and engaged in a final battle against the Mongol army of over 100,000 men who were pressing in from all directions.

Tuoba Gui's remaining army showed great resilience. Facing an attack several times stronger than his own, they fought a bloody battle for three days. His soldiers suffered more than 50% casualties before their morale collapsed, and they were ultimately unable to turn the tide.

In this battle, Tuoba Hao, Wuduo Tuojin, Zuo Xiong, Tuoba Chuo, Tuoba Si, Tuoba Jian, Tuoba Na and other generals died one after another.

Tuoba Ren, Wang Huilong, Han Yanzhi, Tuoba Lang, and other generals were captured.

Even Tuoba Gui, the emperor of Tuoba Wei, died in this battle, killing thirty-two riders before being killed by Muqali after exhausting his strength.

From this point on, the Tuoba Wei dynasty officially came to an end.

In the same month, Kublai Khan personally went to the Tuoba royal court to confer upon Tuoba Hong the title of Khan of the Tuoba Khanate. Furthermore, he allocated three hundred li of grassland near Bing and You prefectures, which originally belonged to the Tuoba Wei, to the Tuoba Khanate as their territory.

Although this grassland was merely an insignificant part of the Tuoba Wei dynasty at its peak—or, to put it more kindly, a Khan, but to put it bluntly, just a gatekeeper for the Yuan Mongols guarding the border—Tuoba Hong, as the loser, knew that it was already a miracle that he could lead his people and herdsmen to survive; they didn't have many other options.

At least, Kublai Khan offered all the courtesy he could.

Kublai Khan established the Tuoba Khanate to appease those who surrendered during the war, and also to quickly leverage the influence of the Tuoba family to integrate the Tuoba Wei nomads into the Yuan Dynasty.

In addition, he took out the spoils of war obtained in this battle and rewarded the soldiers who made meritorious contributions in this battle on the spot. He also promoted the auxiliary troops who made contributions in this battle as appropriate.

In this great battle, Kublai Khan converted nearly 30,000 of his auxiliary troops to Mongol status, allowing them to enjoy the same treatment as the Mongols. In other words, from that moment on, these people became part of the Mongol people.

Of course, it was impossible for all 30,000 people to behead 10 enemies in this battle, but a considerable number of them were close to meeting the standard before this battle.

Furthermore, reaching level 10 doesn't necessarily mean you need 10 kills. The kill of a low-ranking officer can be worth several kills. If you're lucky enough to find a general's kill, you can not only reach level 10 directly but also get an extra promotion.

Kublai Khan's system was designed to encourage these people to integrate into the Yuan Dynasty as quickly as possible, rather than to actually restrict them.

After that, Kublai Khan did not leave, but instead stayed temporarily on the grassland that originally belonged to the Tuoba Wei. Half a month later, Xuan Ye met with Kublai Khan.

Three days later, the Manchus officially recognized the Yuan Dynasty as their suzerain state, and became a vassal state of the Yuan Dynasty, choosing to temporarily submit to the Yuan Dynasty.

The Mongol forces on the steppe were stronger than this, and Xuan Ye believed that if war broke out, the Manchus would have no chance. They also needed time to digest the results of this battle.

Meanwhile, he awaits the conflict between the two powerful empires, Yuanmeng and Dajin, which will be their opportunity.

Before this, they could only silently endure the humiliation and accumulate strength. If their strength was insufficient, even if an opportunity came, they could only let it slip away quietly.

As for the Yuan Dynasty, they wanted to stabilize the situation on the grasslands as soon as possible and integrate the forces of the grasslands. At this time, Kublai Khan actually wanted to try to protect the Tang Dynasty.

After all, although they were attacking the Tuoba Wei this year, they did not relax their attention to the Li Tang.

Li Tang's perseverance truly impressed them.

The combined strength of the Qinghan, Youqin, and Jiyuan families did not last a year, but the Li Tang family held out from May to the end of the year. Kublai Khan naturally wanted to protect them for their perseverance.

Kublai Khan was also keenly aware that after the two great empires, there would definitely be a series of major battles to come. Protecting the Li Tang dynasty to the east of the Great Jin would be beneficial to the Yuan Dynasty.

At the same time, the Qing Dynasty was not a one-man show by Emperor Xuan Ye; otherwise, he would not have supported a puppet to the throne instead of taking the throne himself.

Kublai Khan wanted to wait a little longer, until the internal conflicts within the Qing Dynasty would one day erupt.

Therefore, given the Qing dynasty's understanding of the situation, Kublai Khan could accept this outcome and temporarily spare them, so that he could quickly consolidate the power of the grasslands and even wage another major war against the Jin dynasty to support the struggling Tang dynasty.

From then on, with the demise of the Tuoba Wei dynasty, the Manchus recognized the Yuan Mongols as their suzerain state, and the grasslands became a place where the Yuan Mongols held absolute power.

It was precisely because the situation on the grasslands had developed to this extent that Li Xiang decided to temporarily slow down the offensive against Li Tang and shift from military means to blockade.