Khutulun

The Mongol Empire was the largest holder of land and people in the medieval world. But long after Genghis Khan passed away, two of his grandsons, Kaidu Khan and Kublai Khan, had begun a bitter civil war against one another. While the elder Kublai was busy conquering the lands of China and Korea, and entertaining foreign emissaries like Marco Polo, Kaidu was trying to solidify a name for himself by leading the invasion of Japan in 1274. What the Mongols met in Japan though was nothing like they had ever faced before on the mainland. After initial success, the invasion stalled and a divine intervention forced the Mongols to go back home and regroup. Seven years later in 1281, Kaidu led another joint venture to the islands of Japan with his children at the forefront of the attacks, namely his controversially chosen heir and firstborn daughter, Khutulun. The young woman had learned much in her first visit to Japan, but in this second invasion everything she thought she knew was quickly turned on it’s head. There were more ways of conquering a people than by killing, and as a woman, she had a means to bring peace like her brothers could not. With storm clouds on the horizon, would Japan’s divine aid drive the Mongols back again, or would Khutulun be able to show the men in her family how wars were really won? Read more