# Anzhuer
Anzhuer (按竺迩) was a general of the [Mongol Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/mongol-empire) and the [Yuan dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/yuan-dynasty), born into the Yonggu people (雍古氏), who rose from his household in Cha Hetai (察合台)'s ordo to command as 元帅 and 征行大元帅 on the northwestern and Sichuan fronts, and who died at the age of sixty-nine.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) According to the China Biographical Database, he was born in 1195.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0028571) Because his family was said, through his maternal grandfather, to be a Zhao (赵) household, he and his descendants bore the surname Zhao.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ethnic origin | Yonggu (雍古氏); ancestors settled at the 云中 frontier; father Da Gong (䵣公) was a horse-herding commissioner (群牧使) of the Jin[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Surname | Took the surname 赵 through his maternal grandfather Shu Yaojia (术要甲)'s household[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Principal offices | 元帅, garrison commander at 删丹州; 征行大元帅 with the granted name 拔都[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Rulers served | Cha Hetai, Taizong (Ögedei), Möngke, and Kublai[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Principal campaigns | 凤翔, 三峰山, the fall of Jin, the 会州 siege, the Sichuan campaigns, and the 耀碑谷 victory of 中统元年 (1260)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Death | aged sixty-nine[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Posthumous honors | 推忠佐运功臣, 太保, 仪同三司, 上柱国, enfeoffed as Duke of Qin (秦国公), posthumous name 武宣, in 延祐元年 (1314)[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) |
| Sons | Che Li (彻里), Zhao Guobao (赵国宝), Zhao Guo'an (赵国安)[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0028571) |
## Origins and family
The history records that Anzhuer's ancestors lived at the 云中 frontier, and that his father Da Gong served the Jin as 群牧使; in the xinwei year (辛未) he drove the herds under his care over to Taizu ([Genghis Khan](https://www.edgepedia.org/genghis-khan)) and served out his office under him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) Orphaned young, Anzhuer was raised in the household of his maternal grandfather Shu Yaojia; a mishearing of the household's name as "the Zhao family" led him to adopt 赵 as his surname.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) At fourteen he entered the service of the imperial prince Cha Hetai. On a great hunt he brought down several elk and then shot dead two tigers that charged out, and his fame as an archer made the prince prize him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
## Career
When Taizong came to the throne and honored Cha Hetai as imperial elder brother, he made Anzhuer a 元帅. In the wuzi year (戊子) he garrisoned 删丹州 and established a post road from 炖煌 to the 玉关, opening communications with the Western Regions; he then took part in the pacification of 关陇.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) In the xinmao year (辛卯) he joined the siege of Fengxiang (凤翔): while stones rained from the walls he picked death-ready volunteers to scale the defenses first, took the city, and killed the Jin general Liu Xingge (刘兴哥).[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
Attacking Xihezhou (西和州), he faced the Song commander Jiang Jun (彊俊), who held his walls and emptied the countryside. Anzhuer taunted the walls with picked men; when the enraged Jiang Jun led out his whole force of tens of thousands, Anzhuer feigned flight, seized the city with a flanking force, and ambushed the pursuers, killing thousands and capturing Jiang Jun. Chouchi (仇池) and [Pingliang](https://www.edgepedia.org/pingliang) (平凉) fell, and Qingyang (庆阳), Bin (邠), Yuan (原), and Ning (宁) surrendered.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
Clemency as policy appears repeatedly in the record. When Jingzhou (泾州) rebelled and killed the garrison commander Guo Yuanshu (郭元恕), the council urged a massacre; Anzhuer executed only the ringleaders. When surrendered civilians of Yuanzhou (原州) fled by night, abandoning the old and young, he argued they acted from fear of forced removal, sent word that those who returned would be safe, and promised that the people should meet the army with oxen and wine when the grass greened the next year; the people all came back.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
In the Jin war he served as vanguard when the Prince Rui (睿宗) column entered Jin territory from the south through 散关, after the Song had burned the plank roads. He asked passage from the Song circuit commissioner Gui Ruyuan (桂如渊) at 兴元, arguing that joining the Mongol drive against Jin served Song interests too; Gui Ruyuan, judging that an army at his border would not simply leave, guided the force through 武休关 to Dengzhou (邓州). The Jin commanders 完颜合达 and 移剌蒲阿 met it with several hundred thousand men; the Mongol force declined battle, made for Junzhou (钧州), and joined the princes at the foot of 三峰山. In heavy snow Anzhuer led his picked troops against the Jin line in front while the other armies pressed in; the Jin army collapsed. In the guisi year (癸巳) the Jin emperor fled to Cai (蔡), Anzhuer joined the siege there in the twelfth month, and in the jiawu year (甲午) Jin fell.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
He was then sent against the Jin general Guo Bin (郭斌), who held 金, 兰, 定, and 会; Anzhuer trapped him at Huizhou (会州), beat him at the gate as he tried to break out, and fought through the streets. Guo Bin burned his wife and children and himself; Anzhuer, moved by the survival of his infant son, ordered the child protected. The four prefectures were settled. When the Jin general [Wang Shixian](https://www.edgepedia.org/wang-shixian) (汪世显) held Gongzhou (巩州) against the prince Kuo Duan (阔端), Anzhuer was sent to summon him, and Wang Shixian surrendered; the imperial elder brother rewarded him richly, granted him the name Batu (拔都), and appointed him 征行大元帅.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
In the bingshen year (丙申) the great army invaded Shu. Anzhuer led the artillery troops (砲手兵) as vanguard, broke [Dangchang](https://www.edgepedia.org/dangchang) (宕昌) and Jiezhou (阶州), and took Wenzhou (文州) after months of stalemate by learning that the city had no well, cutting its water route, and escalading the walls with volunteers; the defender Liu Lu (刘禄) died. He then enrolled ten clans of Tibetan chieftains, including Kantuomengjia (勘陁孟迦), granting them silver tallies, pacified Longzhou (龙州), and joined the main force to take Chengdu.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) In the dingyou year (丁酉) he advised the prince that 西汉阳, at the junction of 陇 and 蜀, needed a strong commander against Song and Tibetan raids; the prince answered that no one could replace him for the task and assigned five Mongolian thousand-households to him.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
Under the marshal Ta Hai (塔海) he campaigned in Shu again in the wuxu year (戊戌), taking 隆庆; in the jihai year (己亥) he attacked [Chongqing](https://www.edgepedia.org/chongqing) (重庆), and in the gengzi year (庚子) besieged [Wanzhou](https://www.edgepedia.org/wanzhou) (万州), where he defeated a Song fleet of several hundred vessels at the 夔门 by shooting from rafts and hide boats as he drifted downstream. According to the *Yuan Shi*, in the xinchou year (辛丑) he broke more than twenty cities in 西川; the Chengdu commander Tian Xian (田显) opened the north gate, the Song commissioner Chen Longzhi (陈隆之) was captured and executed at Hanzhou (汉州) after the defender Wang Kui (王夔) refused to surrender, and in the renyin and guimao years (壬寅, 癸卯) 遂宁, 泸, 敍, and 资 fell. In the gengxu year (庚戌) he pacified 泾 and 邠.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) Later, when the Song commissioner [Yu Jie](https://www.edgepedia.org/yu-jie) (余玠) attacked 兴元 and the surrendered commander Wang Dexin (王德新) rebelled at 阶州 and carried off two garrison commanders to Jiangyou (江油), Möngke (宪宗) recalled Anzhuer to his old command, and he sent a detachment straight to 江油 and recovered both men.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) • [3](https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/LS0023/chapter/LS0023_324)
## Military style
The record shows a commander who combined escalade by picked volunteers, feigned retreat, siege engineering, and riverine fighting. At 凤翔 and 文州 he stormed walls with death-ready volunteers, in the second case after cutting the city's water; at 西和州 he drew the enemy out by feigned flight and cut off its return; at 万州 he fought a fleet from rafts and hide boats with massed bowmen.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) He commanded the artillery (砲手) arm as vanguard in the Sichuan invasion.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) His characteristic peacetime move was restraint: sparing surrendered populations, and posting garrisons with tight patrol discipline rather than punitive expeditions.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
## Political influence
Anzhuer's advice shaped the defense of the 陇蜀 border. His 丁酉 memorial on 西汉阳 produced a standing garrison system, with posts at 石门 and 两水 under his subordinate officers, that deterred Song and Tibetan incursions; his enrollment of ten Tibetan chieftain clans with silver tallies tied the frontier leadership to the Mongol administration.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) In the succession war of 中统元年 (1260), when the princes in revolt sent 阿蓝答儿 and 浑都海 to seize 关陇, the aged Anzhuer took the field again, marched from 耀碑谷 in 删丹, and with A Hema (阿曷马) and the general Wang Liangchen (汪良臣) crushed them in a battle fought through a daytime dust storm, capturing both leaders. The emperor sent an autograph letter of praise and gifts of bow, arrows, and brocade.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
An institution outlasted him through his son: Zhao Guobao memorialized that 文州 commanded the approaches to 蜀 and the Tibetans and should be walled and garrisoned; the court agreed, gave him a third-rank seal as 蒙古汉军元帅 and concurrently 达鲁花赤 of the 文州吐蕃万户府, with golden tallies for him and Kantuomengjia.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
## Death, titles, and heirs
According to the *Yuanshi*, Anzhuer died aged sixty-nine. In 延祐元年 (1314) the court granted him the posthumous titles 推忠佐运功臣, 太保, 仪同三司, and 上柱国, enfeoffed him as 秦国公, and conferred the posthumous name 武宣.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) On his retirement the succession to 征行元帅 had already been settled on his son Che Li, who through illness did not exercise the office; the family's frontier role passed to Zhao Guobao.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121)
## Assessment and textual transmission
The 《元史》 biography presents Anzhuer as a model frontier commander: fierce in assault, inventive in siege and river warfare, and notably sparing toward surrendered civilians, with his own words at 泾州 and 汉州 quoted to show the reasoning.[1](https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121) His birth year is not settled: the CBDB gives 1195, and the history itself records only the death age of sixty-nine.[2](https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0028571)
## References
1. 《元史》卷一百二十一 按竺迩传 passages, Wikisource transcription, https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/元史/卷121
2. China Biographical Database (CBDB), person 28571 按竺迩, https://cbdb.fas.harvard.edu/cbdbapi/person.php?id=0028571
3. 《元史》点校本电子版, 宪宗朝按竺迩还镇 passage, 识典古籍, https://www.shidianguji.com/zh/book/LS0023/chapter/LS0023_324
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Asian history › China › Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynasty (1206 to 1368) › Military commanders and campaigns*
*Initially written Sep 23, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license