What if? Mongol empire converts north china to pasture

Genghis Khan was said to have originally planned to depopulate north china and replace it with pasture. However his advisors wisely told him that living chinese pay more tax than dead chinese. What would happen if he stubbornly attempted this anyway?
 
Assuming that anecdote is true, the number of dead bodies rotting in or near water would render much of north China uninhabitable.

There would probably be a massive Chinese refugee exodus south, which could result in a future equivalent of the southern Song having a higher population and an even more massive hate-on for the Mongols.
 
Assuming that anecdote is true, the number of dead bodies rotting in or near water would render much of north China uninhabitable.

There would probably be a massive Chinese refugee exodus south, which could result in a future equivalent of the southern Song having a higher population and an even more massive hate-on for the Mongols.
THIS. The Southern Song Dynasty would end up becoming stronger because of this. Traditionally,southern regimes relied heavily upon refugee population from the north for soldiery. Massive exodus to the south would render Mongol attempts to conquer the Song Dynasty almost impossible because most of the OTL Mongol troops were in fact northern Chinese.
 
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THIS. The Southern Song Dynasty would end up becoming stronger because of this. Traditionally,southern regimes relied heavily upon refugee population from the north for soldiery. Massive exodus to the south would render Mongol attempts to conquer the Song Dynasty almost impossible because most of the OTL Mongol troops were in fact northern Chinese.
The attempt might also piss off Mongol troops, because eventually after all cities are rubbled, there isn't much loot to take from villages, and they would get pissed they are doing it for pasture they dont need.
 
Also would damage the Mongol Economy quite poorly. Simply put, Genghis made the right choice for the preservation of his empire. He made mistakes but this was no mistake.
 
First the grass would grow. After 20 years or so, the tree would start to grow. Forest would return to Northern China due to the heavy rain fall and lack of human activities.

Mongols would have choices of changing their nomadic lifestyle or return to north. Chinese from south and Tibetan from West would start to repopulate the Northern China after another 20 years.

Perhaps, another state would raise from the Northern Plain and unify the Northern China, Manchuria, Tibet, South China and Mongol like Emperors from Qing did.
 

Vuu

Banned
Wouldn't be long lasting, but would be very good long-term for the Mongols - they now have a place where they can base a strong population on, and be immune from sinicization due to that
 
Never mind the long-term effects of this genocide on the development of China, I wonder if a Mongol empire that had engaged in genocide on this scale might be inclined to do it elsewhere. Why not depopulate Iran and Central Asia? Why not eastern Europe?

The long-run effects of an explicitly genocidal Mongol Empire would be decidedly negative on the wider world. There is going to be no possibility, for instance, of the Mongol empire sustaining the Silk Road or intensifying contacts between different populations on the edge of Eurasia if the Mongols are simply going to be killing them all. It would even by negative for the Mongols themselves: How could they sustain a wealthy empire if they lack subjects?
 
Genghis Khan was said to have originally planned to depopulate north china and replace it with pasture. However his advisors wisely told him that living chinese pay more tax than dead chinese. What would happen if he stubbornly attempted this anyway?

Nitpicking: AFAIK, the anecdote was related to the reign of Ogdai, not to his father, and the idea was associated not with the Khan but with few noyons sticking to the traditional views. :)

Genghis, after the initial success, delegated the North China theater to his general Muqali with the hereditary Viceroyal title and left to fight elsewhere. Muqali is well-known for his conciliatory policy which allowed him to increase size of his army dramatically (by at least 7 tumens; initial size of his army was between 20 and 30K) and to keep the subdued parts of the Northern China under control (mostly by retaining the existing administration). The alleged episode is attributed to the time after conquest of the Northern China was completed and most probably is a legend serving to promote image of Yélǜ Chǔcái as a wise statesman: by the time when discussion presumably happened the Mongols were well aware of the basic facts of life including one that you need skilled people to produce silk, iron, silver, wine and grain (the items which the Mongols needed and could not produce themselves).

Back to the subject. Well, if the idiotic view prevails then the Northern China has to be conquered again because Chinese troops on the Mongolian service would probably object to their own extermination. After this is done, there could be problems with getting the needed goodies (see above). And, of course, there could be technical problems with the implementation just based upon inequality of the numbers and absence of the machine guns, strategic aviation and other things helping to kill people in really big numbers.

Of course, if one assumes a purely "environmentalist point of view", it could be argued that the proposed program would be conductive to the lesser production of CO2, consumption of the natural resources and other benefits (especially in a long run). It can also be argued that (if extended to the Southern China) it would eventually prevent unpleasant things like theft of intellectual property, unfair trade practices, etc. [just kidding :)]
 
Why did Genghis have this idea in the first place?
He did not: The idea never was associated with his reign (and did not make sense even if because conquest of the Northern China was not completed by the time of his death and because he never expressed unhappiness with Muqali's policies in China) and even if it was presumably expressed during Ogdai's reign, it was not Qgdai's idea, just a proposal of some of his noyons. Keeping in mind that quite a few noyons had been pushing really hard for getting estates in China, the opinion hardly was unanimously supported by the Mongolian aristocracy.
 
While I think the idea of intentionally killing all north Chinese is an exaggeration, I don't think it sprung up without reason. The "mirrors for princes" genre of Persian literature sprung up primarily to explain to previously nomadic Turkic and Mongol rulers how agriculture worked and why it was worth preserving. A lot of the advice contained within these books amounts to "don't intentionally kill the peasantry, and don't accidentally/indirectly make their lives harder either (overtaxing, raiding, etc.)" So I think the somewhat simplified story of "nomads want pasture at any cost, advisors remind them that sedentary people are profitable" might be a stand-in/metaphor for a longer process of Mongols shifting from a ruling philosophy where agriculture is very tangential (as in the small statelets of the Mongol tribes before Chinggis) and toward a style of governance where maintaining agriculture is seen as a vital duty of the state. After all, those same "mirrors for princes" also revived the memory of many Sassanid emperors and aristocrats, and called on Mongol and Turkic khans to emulate their example by, among other things, being wise landlords, and not driving away their tenants.
 
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