Ye Xian

Esen, of the Choros clan, was the son of the Oirat leader Toghon and inherited his title of grand preceptor in 1439, holding real power under the nominal khan Toghtoa Bukha, with influence reaching from the Jurchen lands to Hami. In the seventh month of 1449, angered that the Ming court had cut the gifts for his tribute missions, he raided along several routes and in the eighth month crushed the Ming army at Tumu, capturing the Zhengtong emperor, Yingzong, who had led it in person. In the tenth month he brought the captive emperor to the walls of Beijing, but the war minister Yu Qian drove him off outside the Deshengmen and Xizhimen gates. He made peace in 1450 and sent Yingzong home. Later he killed Toghtoa Bukha and in 1453 declared himself Great Khan of the Great Yuan, but the next year his subordinate Alaq attacked and killed him, and Oirat power broke apart.