Front Page News Article

Typhoon kills thousands of soldiers

by Shbeer Ahmed

The China Times

1281

Emperor of China Kublai Khan has gone to try and conquer Japan for the second time. He has over 100,000 soldier and the Japanese only have 40,000 soldiers. So the Japanese are outmatched by a lot.
It was around autumn in 1274 when Kublai Khan did his first attack on the Japanese. The Mongols had around 40,000 soldier and the Japanese had around 10,000 samurais. The Japanese were outmatched in the first war. The Mongols had 300 to 600 vessels and the soldiers went sailing to Japan. First the Mongols took over the islands Tsushima and Ike which are the main islands of Japan. The Mongols killed all the residents in those islands and went sailing to the east. The Mongols reached Hakata Bay and they started fighting the samurais. The Mongols were defeating the Japanese but then reinforcements for the samurais came. 100 more samurais came and they helped the other samurais that were fighting to go back a few miles from the bay. Then during that night the Mongols went back to their ships and sailed further out to sea. But then a typhoon came and sunk most of their ships and 13,000 soldiers drowned. The remaining men went back home with a unsuccessful invasion.
This time Kublai Khan was going planned to defeat the Japanese and take their land and with even more soldiers. In the spring of 1281 he began the invasion. This time the Mongols sent two separate forces, one force had 900 ships with 40,000 soldiers and they sailed from Masan which is in Korea. The other force had 3,500 ships with 100,000 soldiers and they sailed from southern China. The ships that sailed form Korea came to Hakata Bay first on June 23, 1281. The ships from China couldn’t be seen from any direction. Since they were first, the Mongols went and fought but they couldn’t pass the Japanese defensive wall. For 50 days the war went on and the men that set sail from Southern China still hadn't arrived. But then in August the 100,000 Mongolian soldiers arrived and the Japanese were in serious trouble. They knew they are going to be defeated.
But then there was a miracle for the Japanese. Another typhoon came and destroyed almost all of the ships. A few hundred ships survived the waves and vicious winds. Most of the men drowned and the ones that came to shore were being killed by the samurais. Only a few Mongols got away.
One witness, Kublai Khan who is the Mongol Empire said that he won’t conquer Japan again. “After that second typhoon that came and attacked us i know Japan is protected by by gods and secret forces so i wont be going back there again”
Another witness who is one of Kublai Khans worker said that he should go back and conquer Japan. “I can’t believe it. It was bad was just bad luck. There are no gods there Kublai Khan should go back and conquer their land!”

Opinion/Editorial

Why need to conquer?

Kublai Khan has just got his army and is going to try to conquer Japan again. He already killed thousands of soldiers on the first attack and failed. Now he is going to try again. He should stop that isn’t the right choice because more soldiers will die. It will also be hard to control a huge empire.

There is no need to invade because its more hard work for Kublai Khan. The Mongol Empire is already the largest empire in history. If Kublai Khan conquers Japan the empire will get bigger and it will be harder to control. If it is harder to control, the empire might fall apart. When Kublai Khan first tried to invade Japan thousands of soldiers died from a typhoon that that they ran into. If they try again another storm can happen because in nature anything can happen.

Although conquering Japan would make the empire even larger and also more powerful. If the territory of the Mongol empire gets bigger then it would be harder for invaders to invade the area. Because the territory is huge then they will have lots of people living in it. So then they will have a bigger and powerful army. So conquering Japan would get the Mongols more people to join the army and more land for their empire. But that doesn’t mean the powerful army and more territory would keep the Mongol Empire running for years. The emperor would then have to do more work to control the people and how everything in the empire should be run.

Kublai should have never thought of attacking Japan. He should have thought straightly about what he is doing is right. There is no need to kill thousands of soldiers for something he doesn’t need.

Map of Yuan Dynasty

                                                      Map paragraph

The Yuan Dynasty Empire was very big compared to Modern Day China. The Yuan Dynasty had owned Mongolia and Modern China didn’t. The Yuan Empire expanded from Southern China, North to Southern Russia. Modern China did not own North and South Korea but the Yuan Dynasty did. The Yuan Dynasty was 3 times bigger than Southern Song. Yuan Dynasty owned almost all of China. Southern song owned only Southeast of China a very small amount of land compared to Yuan Dynasty. The capital of Southern Song is Hangzho. The capital of Yuan Dynasty id Dadu. These are the map differences between Yuan Dynasty, Southern Song, and Modern China.

 

Intervention

Invention: Whistle Arrow

 

The whistle arrow was first used in the Yuan Dynasty. They were made in the 14th century. They were made to scare away enemies in battle and to kill them to. When a whistle arrow is shot in a huge group it makes a huge terrifying noise and it then kills when it hits someone. How they are made is they were made out of bone,wood,bronze, and iron. To make it whistle the Mongols would put a hole at the end of the arrow. When the whistle arrows were created they were mostly used in war, simply to kill and to scare. The reason why whistle arrows were made is because the Mongols were warriors. They were skilled fighters. So then they created whistle arrows to help them in battle to win.

Religion/Belief Systems

Religion/Belief Systems

In the Yuan Dynasty there was religious freedom so anyone could be any religion they wanted to be. The 2 original religions of the Mongols were Shamanism and Totemism. The other religions that were in the Yuan Dynasty were Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism and Islam. Shamanism believed in the existence of Jinn. They did practices and beliefs that they could communicate with the spiritual world. Totmism had 2 principles they were wolf totem and deer totem. For the Mongolians the wolf totem was like their grandfather and deer was like their grandmother. Then Genghis Khan put an order that if a wolves and a deer is caught in hunting it should be freed. Buddhism was also favored and popular in the Yuan Dynasty. They believed in practices and beliefs by the Buddha. The Buddha lived and taught in the eastern part of India. The people who practice Buddhism practice meditation. When practicing meditation they try develop the qualities kindness, awareness, and wisdom. These were the religions that were most believed by the Mongols.