Battle of Yehuling

The Battle of Yehuling was fought in the autumn of 1211 between Genghis Khan's Mongol army and the Jin dynasty, and it opened the road to the Jin capital. Genghis had refused to pay tribute the year before, and the Jin mustered a far larger host—perhaps ten times the Mongol numbers—under first Duji Sizhong and then Wanyan Chengyu. Rather than hold the border fortresses, Wanyan Chengyu withdrew into the mountains at Yehuling, hoping the broken ground would blunt Mongol cavalry. It blunted the Jin instead: the huge army was strung out across ridges and valleys where orders could not travel. Genghis sent Muqali's troops through the pass at Huan'erzui, the 'Badger Mouth'. The Mongols dismounted and attacked on foot, broke the Jin centre, and rolled up the separated wings; the Jin field commander Wanyan Jiujin was killed. The survivors rallied at Huihe Fortress and were destroyed there in October. The Jin court abandoned its northern defences, and in 1215 Zhongdu, modern Beijing, fell to the Mongols.