Kublai was first just an ordinary prince, why did he eventually stand out to establish the Yuan Dynasty?

Kublai's eventual establishment of the Yuan Dynasty in China was nothing short of a miracle. Why was it a miracle?

In fact, when Kublai was a boy, he saw no hope.

One was that the Mongol Khan at that time was Wukodai, not Kublai's father, Toure. After the death of Vogtai, only the descendant of Vogtai could get the position of the Great Khan. Moreover, when Genghis Khan passed the throne to Woguodai, he also agreed with all his sons that all future thrones must be passed among Woguodai's descendants. As long as there is a son in the offspring of Volkwatai, it has to be passed on to his son, and cannot be passed on to anyone else. Since the throne can only be passed on among the descendants of Wukwatai, Kublai was the son of Tuo Lei, what hope is there?

The second is that Kublai was not Toure's eldest son, nor was he Toure's youngest son. Even if the khanate passed to Tolay's name, the possibility of Kublai getting the khanate is actually very small. Why? Because according to the tradition of Han Chinese, it is the first son who gets the right of succession; according to the tradition of Mongolians, it is the youngest son who keeps the stove. In any case, it had nothing to do with Kublai as the second son. Later on, Meng got the throne. However, even if Meng got the throne, Meng could only pass the throne to his sons, not to Kublai as his younger brother. In other words, Kublai's hope was also slim.

Thirdly, Kublai, as a Mongol prince, had few chances to become the emperor of a central country. Before Kublai's time, although there were also northern minority countries that fought in the central countries, it was very difficult to establish a unified country. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties period and the Five Dynasties period, there were also cases where northern minority states had established states in China, but there was really no state that established a great unification. The only one that counts is Yelu Deguang's establishment of the state of Liao in the Central Plains after the destruction of the Later Jin Dynasty. But Yelu Deguang only stayed in the Central Plains for more than a month and went back, after which Liu Zhiyuan established the Later Han and restored the Han's kingdom. Therefore, it was not easy for Kublai to establish a great unified country.

However, the end result was that Kublai overcame all the difficulties and became not only the Khan of the Mongols, but also the emperor of a centralized country, and a great unified country. How did he do this? Here, I am not going to talk about the specific process. In my opinion, there are several points worth noting for Kublai's success.

I. Befriending Han intellectuals from childhood. Kublai's parents attached great importance to the education of the four sons, plus the Mongolian at that time, the Secretary (equivalent to the prime minister) Yelu Chu Cai paid great attention to the introduction of Han intellectuals, founded the academy so that the Mongolian aristocratic children to learn, so Kublai from childhood by the education of Han culture. Other Mongolian children were educated by the Han Chinese culture, the impact is not great, but Kublai is not the same, Kublai also consciously make friends with a lot of Han Chinese intellectuals, in the Sinicization, in the Mongolian princes is the largest. This also makes him eventually have the opportunity to intervene in the affairs of the desert south, thus opening up the mode of unification of the central plains of the country.

Two, Kublai was y trusted by Meng. The reason why Kublai won the trust of Meng was that he played an important role in the process of Meng becoming the Great Khan. In fact, Meng was not qualified to be the Great Khan. However, as Vogtai confused himself, he bypassed his son Guiyu and tried to pass the throne to his grandson, Lostliemen. Later, Guiyu took the throne, but two years later Guiyu died again, and Voguatai's sons and grandsons as well as daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law fought for the throne. In this situation, Meng became a strong challenger for the throne with the help of Batu. Batu even sent his brother, Beelzebub, with an army to give Meng a helping hand. Despite this, there were actually two obstacles for Mong to become the Khan.

One was that Genghis Khan had said that the throne must be passed on among the descendants of Vogtai. The second was that Vogtai had said that the throne would be passed on to Lostliemen. There is no getting around these two statements. At that time, both the Batu group and the Mongkol group were at their wits' end. But Kublai thought of a solution. He said that Mongkol was the adopted son of Vogtai and should be counted as Vogtai's descendant, not counted as a violation of Genghis Khan's posthumous edict. Also, Vogtai did pass the throne to Lostliemen, but Guiyu took Lostliemen's throne, therefore, Meng was passed from Guiyu, not against Vogtai's posthumous edict. Kublai's argument perfectly solved the theoretical problem of Meng's succession.

At the same time, Kublai also brought his army and cleared the peripheral obstacles to Mong's succession. As a result, Meng had great trust in Kublai, and when he came to power, he let Kublai go to attack Dali, and then he took charge of the affairs of southern Desert, laying a solid foundation for his succession.

Three, Kublai established a strong prestige in the south of the desert. Kublai Lie in the prime minister of Desert South, pay close attention to the Han intellectuals, and at the same time the use of Han intellectuals, to the Southern Song dynasty for propaganda, Kublai Lie into a wise king. In this way, on the one hand, the people of the Southern Song Dynasty only know Kublai, do not know Meng, on the other hand, Kublai also turned into a benevolent monarch, and therefore gained a great embrace it can be said that the above three points, is Kublai eventually be able to succeed in an important guarantee, and thereafter, everything, including the death of Meng after his third brother Xu Liewu's pulling together, the victory of the war on the fourth brother Ali Bugo, it seems logical.