Wo Kuotai

Also known as Yuan Taizong

Ogedei, third son of Chinggis Khan by his chief wife Borte, fought beside his father against the Jin and Khwarazm. In 1229 an assembly of Mongol princes raised him to Great Khan, as Chinggis had wished. From 1230 he and his younger brother Tolui attacked the Jin on separate fronts; Tolui crushed the main Jin army at Sanfengshan in 1232, and in 1234 Mongol and Song forces took Caizhou and ended the dynasty. He relied on Yelu Chucai to run the conquered north China lands, setting up tax offices in ten circuits, and in 1235 he built the capital Karakorum on the steppe and organised a network of relay stations. That year he sent the eldest sons of the princes, among them Batu, Guyuk and Mongke, on a western campaign that reached the Russian principalities and eastern Europe. He died in the eleventh month of 1241 after heavy drinking, and Khubilai later gave him the Chinese temple name Taizong.