Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty

The Jin court buys a Mongol withdrawal from Zhongdu

The peace package included a princess, three thousand horses and ten thousand bolts of silk.

Spring 1214: the blockade lifts

After blockading Zhongdu, the Jin capital near modern Beijing, the Mongols ended the operation in early 1214 amid disease among their troops and animals and their limited siege experience.

Jin emperor Xuanzong sued for peace and offered Genghis Khan gold, silver, silk, horses and a royal princess in marriage.

Genghis accepted the settlement and withdrew, leaving Zhongdu in Jin hands for the moment.

What was in the package

Timothy May's reconstruction of the treaty lists 3,000 horses, 10,000 bolts of silk and 10,000 liang of gold, with 500 young attendants accompanying the princess.

The princess was a daughter of the previous emperor, Wanyan Yongji — not Xuanzong's own daughter.

May's study says the treaty did not require formal recognition of Mongol suzerainty, so describing it as complete political subjugation is unsafe.

The respite ends

The Jin court subsequently left Zhongdu for Bianjing, modern Kaifeng. Xuanzong departed on 27 June, and when news of the relocation reached Genghis, he ordered renewed operations against Zhongdu.

The 1214 settlement was not the fall of the capital; Zhongdu remained Jin-held until 1215.

Sources disagree about the causal sequence: some say the move to Kaifeng breached or nullified the settlement, while the Secret History tradition instead places an obstruction of Mongol envoys before the renewed invasion.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

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What the sources leave uncertain

The settlement is securely placed in spring 1214, but the consulted scholarly accounts do not supply an exact day.
Details and terminology vary among Chinese, Persian and Mongol traditions. Timothy May's study says the treaty did not require formal recognition of Mongol suzerainty, so describing it as complete political subjugation is unsafe.
Sources disagree about the causal sequence leading to renewed war. Some say the move to Kaifeng breached or nullified the settlement; the Secret History tradition instead places an obstruction of Mongol envoys before the renewed invasion.
The exact number and gender breakdown of the young attendants varies in retellings.