Guo Kan

Guo Kan or Kuo K'an, (1217–1277) was a famous general of Han Chinese descent that served the Mongol Khans in their Western conquests and the conquest of China itself. He was descended from a lineage of Chinese generals. Both his father and grandfather had served the Khan, while his ancestor is Guo Ziyi, a famed general of the Tang Dynasty. He was not a Senior Mongol commander but was in charge of Chinese artillery units under the Mongolian Empire. He was one of the foreign legions that served for the Mongol Empire, and some of the later conquests of the Mongols were done by armies under his command. The biography of this Han Chinese commander in the Yuan Shi ("History of Yuan") said that Guo Kan's presence struck so much fear in his foes, that they called him the "Divine Man".

Birth and lineage
Guo Kan was raised in the household of Prime Minister Shi Tianzhe (who was also a Han Chinese, and whose father and two brothers all served the Yuan).

Military legacy
He took part in the final drive in the conquest of the Jin Dynasty, including the capture of Kaifeng, and may have served in the European campaign with Subutai a few years following the fall of the Jin Dynasty. He then served in Hulagu's invasion of the Middle East, playing a major role in the capture and Battle of Baghdad, reportedly devising the strategy of using the dikes to drown the Caliph's army, and supervising the reduction of Baghdad's walls. He was then appointed Governor of Baghdad by Hulagu. and at some point after Khubilai Khan's accession as Khan, Guo Kan went to serve him, instead of his brother, and assisted Khubilai Khan in the conquest of the Southern Song, and ultimately the unification of China proper under the Yuan Dynasty.

The Yuan Shi
The Yuan Shi is known to contain many errors. It is proven that many events after 1259 in Guo Kan's biography are false since he returned to Mongolia with Hulagu Khan after the death of Möngke Khan in China. Hulagu, according to Hayton, did not return to Mongolia, something which is supported by Gregor of Akanc in his "History of the Nation of Archers." Rashid al Din in his detailed account of Hulegu never refers to Hulegu returning to Mongolia either. Yet in poorly cited secondary literature, the story of Hulegu returning to Mongolia persists to this day.

The Yuan Shi in many ways resembled historical fiction, claiming all manner of conquests by Guo Kan which were not true, but nonetheless were legend in China for many years. Contrary to claims in the Yuan Shi, the Mamluks of Egypt crushed the Mongol occupation army and their Christian allies at Ain Jalut led by Hulagu's lieutenant Ked-Buka; and the Crusader Kingdoms Mecca and Cyprus were neither conquered by the Mongols. Moreover, Guo Kan's Yuanshi biography refers to him crossing the sea and subjecting the Fulang, which we know from other Chinese transcriptions, to be the Franks. This has been argued to be Cyprus by modern apologists, only because we know with certainty that Europe was not subdued by Guo Kan. Yet the history of Cyprus in the Middle Ages is also well-documented, and we know that it was not subjugated by the Mongols. Rather than admit that the account of Guo Kan's actions in 1259 and 1260 are largely fiction, modern apologists for the garbled biography of Guo Kan in the Yuanshi have attempted to demonstrate that the Fulang across the sea must be referring to Cyprus, the nearest Frank territory. In fact, the Yuanshi biography of Guo Kan clearly says that he subjugated the "Fulang" and multiple kings, suggesting the author was imagining that all of Europe was conquered. That account ends with "Thus the entire Western Regions were subjugated." In all likelihood, the Yuanshi author simply claimed that Guo Kan conquered all of Europe because it was so geographically and historically remote, that such a claim would not fall under scrutiny to a Chinese readership, nor were the facts entirely important.

This biography of Guo is mostly factually muddled in what seems to be an attempt to hide the crushing defeats inflicted on the Mongols at Ain Jalut, and on Hulagu by Berke Khan in the first Mongol on Mongol war in the Transcaucasus. Ain Jalut took place while Guo Kan was in Mongolia with Hulagu during the selection of a Great Khan. Of course, we must remember that not a single primary source from the period, including Rashid al Din, Hulegu's own letter to Louis IX, Vardan Areweltsi, Grigor of Akanc, Bar Hebbraeus, or any of the Mamluk biographies of Baybars mention Hulegu ever returning to Mongolia. Indeed, if Guo Kan, were with Hulegu in Mongolia, then this is not something that can be confirmed by any sources from the time. Guo Kan, like Hulagu, had believed the force left to occupy Palestine was sufficient enough to deal with the Mamluks, which it was obviously not, and that the Ilkhanate could defeat the Golden Horde, which it equally could not.

Guo Kan's role in the final conquest of Song China under Khubilai Khan
After he returned to Mongolia with Hulagu Khan after Möngke Khan's death, Guo Kan was taken from Hulagu's command, and assigned by Kublai Khan to aid him in the difficult conquest of Southern Song Dynasty of China. Khubilai's accession as Khan left him able to select the best of the Mongol Generals to serve him. Subutai and Jebe were both dead of old age, and Guo Kan was the last of the dreaded Dogs of War, and the new Great Khan Khubilai assigned Guo Kan to commander the final conquest of China. Guo Kan reportedly urged him to adopt a Chinese-style dynastic title, establish a capital and central government, and build schools. He reportedly was the general who proposed capturing Xiangyang as a strategy for invading the Southern Song. He defeated Song forces in a battle at Xuzhou in 1262, and in 1266 urged Khubilai to establish military farms in Huaibei to provide supplies for an invasion of the Southern Song. In 1268 and 1270 he suppressed local rebellions, and then he was sent to participate in the siege of Xiangyang. In 1276, the Song dynasty fell (except for the loyalist movement that lasted until 1279), and Guo served as a prefect for one more year before dying.

Guo Kan's place in history as example of the Mongol meritocracy
More than any army in history until the 20th Century, and more so than many even in the Modern Era, the Mongols promoted strictly on the basis of military skill and ability. Like his brother "dogs of war", Jebe, son of an ordinary warrior in a tribe which had opposed Genghis Khan in his unification of the nomads, and Subutai, son of a blacksmith, Guo Kan, ethnically Han Chinese, represented the revolutionary concept of promoting the sons of the most humble, or foreign born, to command any of the Mongol nobility - including relatives of the Great Khan. Though Batu was nominally in charge of the invasion of Europe, it was Subutai who truly commanded. Equally, Guo Kan devised the strategy which reduced the powerful walls of Bagdad in mere days, after destroying her small, but brave and disciplined army in mere hours by drowning them. Merit, not birth, was one of Genghis Khan's most brilliant innovations, and Guo Kan, an ethnic of the Mongol's strongest rival, one of his prized dogs of war for five generations of Great Khans.

H. H. Howorth argues that Guo Kan is the corruption of the name of Mongolian commander Koke Ilge (ancestor of Chupan and descendent of Cila'un who saved Temujin when he was young) of the Jalayir. Both Nasir al-Din Tusi, Rashid and Bar Heabreus mentions a certain Ali/Asutu bahadur as Hulagu's governor in Baghdad. Peter Jackson and John Boyle also supported Howorth's hypothesis.