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Genghis Khan didn't destroy Zhongdu — he waited. For two years, his forces stran
1215 Event

June 1

Mongols Capture Beijing: The Jurchen Capital Falls to Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan didn't destroy Zhongdu — he waited. For two years, his forces strangled the city's supply lines until Emperor Xuanzong fled south, abandoning his own capital. The people left inside starved. When the Mongols finally entered in 1215, the city was already broken. Contemporary accounts describe bones piled so high outside the walls they looked like hills. And from that ruins, Kublai Khan would later build Khanbaliq — the city that became Beijing. The conqueror didn't erase the city. He handed it a future.

June 1, 1215

811 years ago

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