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In the wake of Genghis Khan's death, a kuriltai, or great gathering of Mongol leaders was called.
成吉思汗死后，蒙古领导人举行了“库里台大会”。
There, the decision was made that Tolui should hand control of the empire over to Genghis's other son, Ogedei.
在那里，托雷决定将帝国的控制权移交给成吉思汗的另一个儿子——窝阔台。
This was something of a weird choice.
这是一个奇怪的选择。
Ogedei was a guy so dedicating to drunkenness that, when other Mongol leaders ordered him to cut down to just three cups of wine a day, he started drinking from cups roughly the size of bathtubs.
窝阔台是一个嗜酒如命的人，当其他蒙古领导人要求他每天只能喝三杯酒时，他把酒杯换成了有浴缸那么大的杯子。
He also had no practical experience of conquering. What Ogedei did have, though, was an ability to delegate.
他也没有实际的征服经验。然而，窝阔台所拥有的是授权的能力。
His view of the empire was: "You can conquer an empire on horseback, but you cannot govern it on horseback."
他对帝国的看法是：“你可以在马背上征服一个帝国，但你不能在马背上统治它。”
So, while great generals like Subutai were sent West to keep conquering, anyone with a more civilized bent of mind stayed home to keep things in order.
所以，当像苏布泰这样的伟大将军被派往西方继续征服时，任何一个有文明头脑的人都待在家里维持秩序。
It was this philosophy that led to Kublai getting his first practical experience of ruling.
正是这种哲学使忽必烈获得了他的第一次实际统治经验。
In 1236, Ogedei granted Kublai a fiefdom of 10,000 homes in modern Hebei.
1236年，窝阔台授予忽必烈在现代河北的封地一万户。
At first, the 21-year old Kublai was all like "booooooooooorrrrrrrrring."
一开始，21岁的忽必烈的反应是“无~~~~~~聊”。
He ignored his duties, sending agents to do all the burdensome stuff like collecting taxes.
他玩忽职守，派代理人去做收税之类的繁重工作。
Unfortunately, these agents were exactly as competent as you'd expect a bunch of Mongol raiders to be, and the twin threats of taxation and terror soon left Kublai's province almost empty.
不幸的是，这些代理人的能力和你对一群蒙古入侵者的期望一样，税收和恐惧的双重威胁很快使忽必烈的省份几乎人去楼空。
It was only at the end of the decade that Ogedei seems to have told Kublai, "dude, use that province or lose it," and Kublai finally started acting like a ruler.
直到这十年结束之后窝销台才对忽必烈说：“哥们，要么利用那个省，要么就失去它。”之后忽必烈终于开始像统治者一样行事了。
But while the role may have been forced on him, there's no doubt he excelled at it.
尽管这一角色是强加给他的，但毫无疑问，他很擅长这个角色。
With Kublai now on the scene, all those incompetent tax collectors were fired, and replaced by experienced Chinese officials.
忽必烈正经起来后，所有那些不称职的税务员都被解雇了，取而代之的是经验丰富的中国官员。
At the same time, Kublai began consulting Chinese advisors more and more.
与此同时，忽必烈开始向越来越多的中国顾问咨询。
Although they were just a part of his local court - a court that also included Christians and Muslims - they soon edged the other voices out.
尽管他们只是当地法庭的一部分——这个法庭也包括基督徒和穆斯林——但他们很快就把其他声音排挤出去了。
It seems that Kublai just couldn't get over his childhood fascination with all things Chinese. For the other Mongols, this was shocking.
忽必烈似乎就是无法摆脱童年时对中国事物的迷恋，对于其他蒙古人来说这很令人震惊。
Who would voluntarily exchange manly Mongol traditions like hunting and fighting for wussy Chinese ones like tea and reading?
谁会自愿放弃像打猎和战斗这样有男子气概的蒙古传统，去换取像喝茶和读书这样懦弱的中国传统？
But Kublai wasn't to be deterred.
不过忽必烈并没有退却。
He became interested in Buddhism, began to appreciate Confucianism - including the revolutionary idea that the well-being of an empire's subjects was just as important as that of its rulers.
他开始对佛教感兴趣，开始欣赏儒家思想——其中包括一种革命性思想，即“帝国臣民的福祉与统治者的福祉同等重要”。
Still, these interests seemed laughably irrelevant to other Mongols.
然而，可笑的是，这些利益与其他蒙古人无关。
The empire was currently pushing into Europe, the unconquered south of China forgotten about.
帝国当时正在向欧洲推进，而未被征服的中国南部则被遗忘了。
What need would the Mongols have for pretentious Chinese guff now? Yeah, about that.
蒙古人现在有必要去听中国的废话吗？真是的。
On December 11, 1241, Ogedei died of a stroke. At that precise moment, the Mongols were laying waste to Eastern Europe.
1241年12月11日，窝阔台死于中风。当时蒙古人正在蹂躏东欧。
Kyiv had been sacked, Krakow put to the sword, and raiding parties were knocking at the gates of Vienna.
基辅(乌克兰首都)已被洗劫一空，克拉科夫(波兰的一个城市)已被屠戮，突击部队正在敲开维也纳的大门。
Then word arrived of Ogedei's death, and the conquerors simply turned around and went home. At least, that's the story.
后来有消息说窝阔台死了，征服者们就转身回家了。至少故事是这样写的。
Some historians think the retreat was sounded for other reasons, and Ogedei's death was just a convenient excuse.
一些历史学家认为撤退是出于其他原因，而窝户台之死只是一个借口。
Whatever the truth, the upshot was that Europe was forgotten about while the messy issue of Ogedei's successor was sorted.
无论真相如何，其结果是欧洲被遗忘了，而窝销台继任者的棘手问题也得到了解决。
After a few years of quarreling, it was eventually decided that Kublai's older brother, Mongke, should be great Khan.
经过几年的争吵，最终忽必烈的哥哥蒙克成为了伟大的可汗。
And Mongke was a guy as obsessed with China as Kublai.
蒙克和忽必烈一样痴迷于中国。
From now on, the Mongol focus wasn't gonna be on rampaging further and further into Europe… But on conquering the last independent parts of China.
从那时起，蒙古人的重点不再是狂奔欧洲，而是征服中国最后独立的地区。
In Xanadu… No sooner had Mongke been declared great Khan than he gave Kublai two very important things.
在上都……蒙克刚被宣布为伟大的可汗，他就给了忽必烈两件非常重要的东西。
One was Northern China.
一个是中国北方。
Yep, the Mongol Empire in 1251 was so vast that Mongke could basically gift half of China to his brother and say "hope you like!"
是的，1251年的蒙古帝国非常地庞大，以至于蒙克基本上是把一半的中国赠与了他的弟弟，同时说了句“希望你喜欢！”
The second was an order, one designed to test Kublai's mettle. Mongke wanted Kublai to conquer the Dali Kingdom.
二是一道命令，目的是考验忽必烈的勇气。蒙克想要忽必烈征服大理王国。
At this point, Kublai had never run a military campaign, and there was no guarantee he wouldn't turn out to be the Mongol equivalent of Mister Bean.
在这一点上，忽必烈从未进行过军事行动，谁也不能保证他不会成为蒙古版的憨豆先生。
It took Kublai a whole year to prepare to fight the Dali. A whole year in which he practiced tactics, and read great Chinese thinkers on the arts of war.
忽必烈花了整整一年的时间准备攻打大理。在这一年里他练习了战术，阅读了中国伟大思想家关于战争艺术的著作。
Finally, in 1253, Kublai saddled up, got his army together, and rode into the Dali Kingdom.
最后，于1253年，忽必烈骑上了马，召集了军队，进入了大理王国。
