CHAPTER VIII

DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE CONQUEROR

Jinghis had passed the winter of 1222–3 near the Indus, and in the spring of 1223 he resolved, rather suddenly as it seemed, to march up the Indus and return through Tibet to Tangut and China. The reasons given by historians for this move are various. There were troubles in Tangut and there was no imperative reason for remaining in Kwaresm, since that Empire was utterly helpless; it had been depopulated and ruined in most parts.

Some people thought that Jinghis, if not horrified, was at least set to thinking by the boundless slaughters committed at his direction. We have two accounts touching this matter which are of interest, though both bear the myth stamp, and are opinions of other men as to Jinghis, not the great Khan’s own thoughts as expressed by his words or his

## actions. In the Chinese history “Tung Kian Kang Mu,” the following

cause is given for his sudden decision: When Jinghis was at the Iron Gate of North India his guards saw a creature which resembled a deer, but its head was like that of a horse with one horn on its forehead, and there was green hair on its body. This creature had power of speech, for it said to the guards: “It is time for your master to return to his own land.” Jinghis, troubled by this message, consulted Ye liu chu tsai, who said: “That creature is Kotwan, it knows every language. It appears as a sign that bloodshed is needless at present. For four years the great army is warring in western regions. Heaven, which has a horror of bloodshed, gives warning through Kotwan. Spare the Empire for Heaven’s sake. Moderation will give boundless pleasure.”

The other account is quite different in character and import: “I was,” says a Gurjistan cadi, “in Herat on a tower, which stood just in front of Tului’s headquarters. Arrows came in such numbers that I went down and was lost in the dust, among Mongols. They seized and took me then to Tului. When he heard my adventure he wondered: ‘An angel, or it may be a demon, is trifling with thee,’ said he. ‘Neither,’ replied I. ‘How then art thou here?’ asked he. ‘I looked at all things with the eye of a sovereign,’ was my answer, ‘hence no harm struck me.’ This answer so pleased Tului that he showed me much favor. ‘Take this gift,’ added he, ‘for thou art a man of rare wisdom. Be true to Jinghis the great Khan, for thou wilt now serve him.’ He sent me then to his father, who received me in Talekan with high favor. Jinghis spoke to me of Turkish sufferings repeatedly. ‘Dost thou think,’ asked he one day, ‘that the blood which I have shed will be remembered against me by mankind?’ He held a dart in his hand while he looked in my face and put questions. ‘I will answer,’ replied I, ‘if your majesty secures life to me.’ ‘Speak,’ said the Khan, and I answered: ‘If your majesty slays as many persons as you please, men will give you whatever fame pleases them.’ His face colored at these words, and he shouted in rage till the dart dropped from his fingers. I felt death standing near me that moment, but he soon recovered and said: ‘I have thought on the wisdom of sages, and see that I have plundered and slain without the right knowledge in that region where Mohammed’s horse lost his way; but what care I for men?’ and he went from the chamber. I could remain in those places no longer, such was my fear in that horde, and I fled from it.”

Before starting for home Jinghis gave command to kill all superfluous prisoners, that is, all who had done the work because of which they had been spared from death on the day when they were taken; only artisans were left, men needed for their skill in Mongolia. This command was not carried out, however, till the captives had hulled an immense store of rice for the Mongols; that done they were slain in one night without any exception.

The Mongols took the road toward Tibet, but after some days they turned back from that difficult region and went to Peshawur, where were the roads along which they had come in the first place. As he passed Balkh on the Samarkand road Jinghis Khan issued orders to slay all who had made their way back to that city.

After the death of Shah Mohammed, Chepé Noyon and Subotai, two of the three who had hunted him down to extinction, plundered Persian, that is Eastern, Irak and ruined it, and also the lands between that vast province and the Caspian. On the west they went great distances inland, including parts of Armenia, and also Georgia as far as Tiflis. In 1222 those commanders received from Jinghis reinforcements with a command to conquer the Polovtsi, a people akin to the Mongols.

These Polovtsi led a nomad life in that region which stretches westward from the Caspian to the Dnieper; they were neighbors of the Russians whom they had harassed for centuries. The Mongols had obtained from the Shirvan Shah ten guards to conduct them. The commanders began very strangely. They cut off the head of one of these ten and declared that the other nine would die by the same kind of death if they should deceive them or use any treachery. Despite this cruel act the guides led the army into ambush among northern foothills of the Caucasus, and slipped away safely.

The Mongols, astray in mountains and woods, were attacked upon all sides by various strong peoples; among these were the Polovtsi, to whom they were bringing destruction. Pressed hard at all points they sent to those Polovtsi this message: “Ye and we are one people, why war with us? Make peace. We will give all the gold that ye need, and many rich garments. Ye and we can work together with great profit.”

Seduced by these words and by presents the Polovtsi gave help and aid to the Mongols, gave them victory first, and then led them out to the open country. When towns in the Caucasus foothills and near them were ruined the Mongols turned on the Polovtsi, slew their chief men and numbers of others, took back the bribes to treachery, took every other thing of value and cut down and slaughtered on all sides. The Polovtsi fled and spread terror with their accounts of the Mongols. The whole people left the best pastures and moved toward their northern and western boundaries. Ten thousand families passed into Byzantine regions. John Ducas, the Emperor, took those people then to his service and gave them land in Macedonia and Thrace. Great numbers fled into Russia, which for two centuries had been scourged with their raids and their outrages. Among the fugitives was Kotyan, a Khan whose daughter had married the Galitch prince Mystislav the Gallant. Kotyan implored his son-in-law to help him: “To-day,” said he, “the Mongols have taken our land, they will take yours to-morrow. Assist us; if not we shall be beaten on one day and you the day following.”

Mystislav called the Russian princes to a council, at which they resolved to give aid to the Polovtsi. “Unless we help them,” said Mystislav, “they will go with the Mongols and strengthen them.” A deputation went north to ask aid of the princes in Suzdal. Troops were collected and the Russian princes moved against the enemy in confidence. On the way they met Mongol envoys who delivered this message: “We have heard that, convinced by the Polovtsi, ye are marching against us, but we have not come to attack you. We have come against our own horse boys and slaves, the vile Polovtsi; we are not at war with you. If the Polovtsi flee to your country drive them out of it, and seize all their property. They have harmed you, as men tell us; they have harmed us also; that is why we attack them.” The Russian princes gave answer by killing the envoys.

Some distance down that great river the Dnieper, a new Mongol embassy met the Russian princes with these words: “If through obedience to the Polovtsi ye have cut down our envoys, and are now bringing war on us, Heaven will judge your action; we have not harmed you.” This time the princes spared the envoys.

When the Russians and Polovtsi had assembled at the Dnieper Mystislav crossed with one thousand men. He attacked the Mongol outposts and scattered them. After some hesitation the Mongols retired. Moving eastward, they lured on the Russians, who soon met a larger detachment of warriors. These they attacked and defeated, driving them far into the steppe land and seizing all their cattle. Encouraged by this success, the Russians moved forward eight days in succession till they neared the river Kalka. Then came an action with outposts and a third Russian victory. Mystislav ordered Daniel of Galitch, son of Roman, to cross the Kalka; after him went all the other princes and encamped on the steppe beyond the river. The Polovtsi were posted in advance, some of them serving as sentries. Mystislav rode forward to reconnoitre. Being satisfied with what was revealed to him he returned hastily, ordered out his own men and also Daniel, giving no command to other princes who were left in their camp awaiting orders; there was keen rivalry between him and them. Mystislav thought, as it seems, to win victory without them and believed that he had power thus to win it. He knew not that he was to meet Chepé Noyon who had hunted to death both Gutchluk and Mohammed, the sovereigns of two Empires; he knew nothing of the Mongols, their numbers, their power or their methods.

The battle was opened by Daniel who, in the forefront himself, attacked with great valor and was wounded very early in the action, which was obstinate. Observing the danger, Mystislav supported him, and the Mongols were repulsed to some extent. At this point, for some unknown cause, the whole force of the Polovtsi stampeded, turned, rushed back in panic terror and filled the Russian camp with disorder. The Mongols rallied quickly, brought up fresh forces, and swept all before them. The Russians, not engaged for the greater part, were waiting near the river. The Polovtsi not only left the field, but in fact helped the enemy, hence victory was perfect for the Mongols. “Never in Russia,” states the chronicler, “was there a defeat so disastrous as this one (1224).”

Three Russian princes, who had not taken part in the battle, held their ground firmly near the river, on a hill which they fortified with palisades. They fought there with two divisions of Mongols, which remained at the Kalka—the others followed Mystislav toward the Dnieper. Three days did those brave men fight at the river, till assured that they would be freed on surrender, if ransomed. They trusted the plighted word of the Mongols and yielded.

The Mongol chiefs bound those three princes hand and foot, and laid them side by side on the ground at some distance one from another. They then placed a heavy platform upon them, sat on that platform and ate and drank while the princes were lying beneath in desperate torture. Thus the three Russians died while the Mongols were feasting above them.

Six princes and a great number of their men perished while fleeing toward the Dnieper. Mystislav, and those in his company, including Daniel, reached the river and crossed it. The prince burned his boats on the west bank, or had them cut into pieces lest the enemy might follow him farther, but the Mongols turned back before reaching the Dnieper. The northern contingent, commanded by the Rostoff prince, Vassilko, heard at Chernigoff of the Kalka disaster and returned home, being too weak, as they thought, to face such an enemy.

On their way eastward the Mongols used fire and sword without mercy wherever they found men and property. They filled southern Russia with terror; they swept through the Crimea and ravaged it; they captured Bulgar on the Volga and ruined that opulent city. Sated with bloodshed and laden with booty they returned that same year to headquarters east of the Caspian. Thus one division of Jinghis Khan’s great army overran an immense part of Europe without meeting effective resistance in any place.

On leaving Samarkand for Mongolia Jinghis gave command to the mother, the widows and the kinsfolk of Shah Mohammed to stand at the roadside and take a farewell look at their native land. They did this and wailed in loud voices as they saw it for the last time.

In February of 1225 the mighty manslayer had returned to his homeland between the rivers, where we may leave him for a time and turn to China:

After Jinghis left the Kin Empire in 1216 the Kins reoccupied the land seized from them excepting Chong tu and the northern rim of Pe che li and Shan si. Mukuli, the great Mongol general, reëntered China in 1217. During that year and the five years which followed he conquered all the lands of the Kin dynasty excepting one province, Honan, which lies south of the Hoang Ho and extends from the bend of that river at Tung kwan to its mouth at the Yellow Sea. Mukuli died in April, 1223, leaving his title and command to his only son, Boru.

After the death of this renowned warrior both Chinese dynasties became increasingly active and hostile. The king in Tangut followed also their counsel and influence. Beyond doubt, it was to meet this new growth of enmity that Jinghis had returned to Mongolia. The Kin Emperor had sent an embassy to Jinghis in the west with the offer to yield up all places north of the Hoang Ho, and to be a younger brother. This was refused. Jinghis answered that the Kin Emperor must be content with the title of Prince of Honan, and the position of a vassal. During the two years following there rose great and very active resistance. Tangut favored the Kins, and its monarch prepared for armed action against the Mongols.

In view of this Jinghis toward the end of 1225 left his headquarters to make war on Tangut. His formal complaint was that foes of the Mongol Khan had been favored and taken into service by the King who had refused also to send his son as a hostage.

Jinghis entered Tangut in 1226, during February. Between that time and the autumn following he passed from north to south, harassing the country most savagely. He laid siege to Ling chau, the capital. Li ti, the king, died in August, leaving the throne to Li hien, his son and successor. A new Tangut army was sent to strengthen Ling chau. Jinghis returned northward, put that new army to flight, stormed Ling chau, took the city, sacked it and slaughtered its inhabitants. Leaving a corps there he advanced to the south; seized Si ning with Lin tao and sacked both those cities. Establishing headquarters in Western Shen si he captured places all around in that region till the hot summer came when he retired to the Liu pan mountains and rested. The condition of the country at that time as described by Chinese annalists is as follows:

“Men strive in vain to hide in caverns and in mountains. As to the Mongol sword, hardly two in a hundred escape it. The fields are covered with the bones of slaughtered people.”

In the month of July, 1227, Li hien sent an embassy with submission. He asked merely one month in which to surrender his capital. The favor was granted, and Jinghis promised to regard him as his son in the future.

Soon after, the Mongol manslayer was taken ill and died eight days later. He had time, however, to instruct his sons how to live, and his generals how to capture Nan king, and destroy the Kin dynasty. He told them also how to deal with Tangut and its sovereign.

They were to hide the death of Jinghis very carefully, and when Li hien came out of his capital at the time fixed for surrender, they were to slay him and put all people of that city to the sword, without exception.

Jinghis died August 18, 1227, when sixty-six years of age. He had reigned twenty-two years.

The order to slay the Tangut sovereign and the people of the city was carried out strictly, and the kingdom of Tangut was added to the Mongol Empire.

“Since the beginning of time,” writes the Chinese historian, “no barbarous people have ever been so mighty as the Mongols are at present. They destroy empires as a man plucks out herbs by the roots, such is the power in their possession. Why does Heaven let them have it?”

The remains of the great Khan were taken back to his birthplace. Lest his death might be known the troops who conducted them slew every person whom they met as they traveled. Only when they arrived at the home of Jinghis was his death published to all men.

As the life of Jinghis was unique and original, so were the circumstances of his death and the details of his funeral. A great number of causes were given for his death. It was ascribed to an arrow, to poison, to drowning, to lightning, to the witchery of Kurbeljin Goa the Tangut queen, who had the fame of great beauty, and whom Jinghis had taken as it seems from her husband and added to the number of his many wives. It is stated by some historians that he had more than 400 wives and concubines. But Bortai, the mother of Juchi, Jagatai, Ogotai and Tului always held the first place. Ssanang Setzen, the chronicler, a descendant himself of Jinghis, describes the last days, death and funeral of his ancestor. This account reads like one of those myth tales which I found in Siberia. First we have the life and death struggle between Jinghis and the King of Tangut whose name in the chronicle is Shidurgo. Shidurgo opens the struggle by becoming a serpent, Jinghis becomes king of all birds, and then Shidurgo turns into a tiger, Jinghis changes at once to a lion; at last Shidurgo is a boy and Jinghis appears as chief of the Tengeri or heavenly divinities, and Shidurgo is at his mercy. “If thou kill me,” said Shidurgo, “the act will be fatal to thee; if thou spare me it will be fatal to thy children.” Jinghis struck, but the blow did not harm his opponent. “There is only one weapon in the world that can kill me, a triple dagger made of magnet which is now between my first and second boot soles.” With that the Tangut king drew forth the blade and gave it to his enemy. “Kill me; if milk comes from the wound it will foretoken ill to thee, if blood ill to thy posterity. Before taking Kurbeljin Goa, my wife, look to her previous life very carefully.”

Jinghis stabbed Shidurgo in the neck, blood flowed and he died. Next the queen was brought in. All wondered when they saw her. “I had much greater beauty before,” said she. “I am grimy from dust now, but when I bathe in the river my beauty will come to me.” She went to the Kara Muren (the Hoang Ho) and plunged into it. When she returned she had all her former great beauty. The following night while Jinghis lay asleep she bewitched him; he grew feeble and ill and never gained strength again. She left him, went down to the Kara Muren and disappeared in that river.

Jinghis lay helpless in bed and at last death was near him. He spoke then to Kiluken, his old comrade, the gray hero: “Be thou a true friend to my widow Bortai Fudjin, and to my sons Ogotai and Tului, be thou true to them fearlessly. The precious jade has no crust, the polished dagger no dirt on it; man born to life is not deathless, he must go hence without home, without resting place. The glory of a deed is in being finished. Firm and unbending is he who keeps a plighted word faithfully. Follow not the will of another and thou wilt have the good-will of many. To me it is clear that I must leave all and go hence from you. The words of the boy Kubilai are very weighty; note what he says, note it all of you. He will sit on my throne some day and will, as I have done, secure high prosperity.”

Kiluken and many princes went to bear the corpse of their mighty leader back to the Kentei Khan region, through the greater part of Tangut and across the broad Gobi. A long, an immense train of people followed it. As they marched they wailed and raised their voices together lamenting, Kiluken leading, as follows:

“In times which are gone thou didst swoop like a falcon before us. To-day a car bears thee on as it rumbles advancing. O thou my Khan! Hast thou left us indeed, hast thou left wife and children, O thou my Khan? Hast thou left us, hast thou left the Kurultai of thy nation, O thou my Khan? Sweeping forward in pride, as sweeps forward an eagle thou didst lead us aforetime, O thou my Khan, But now thou hast stumbled, and art down, like a colt still unbroken, O thou my Khan. Thou didst bring peace and joy to thy people for sixty and six years, but now thou art leaving them, O thou my Khan.”

When the procession had reached the Mona Khan mountains the funeral car stopped in blue miry clay and the best horses could not move it. All were discouraged and grief stricken, when a new chant rose, led by Kiluken the gray hero:

“O lion of the Tengeri, thou our lord, wilt thou leave us? Wilt thou desert wife and nation in this quagmire? Thy firmly built state, with its laws and its much devoted people; thy golden palace, thy state raised on justice, the numerous clans of thy nation, all these are awaiting thee off there.

“Thy birth land, the rivers in which thou didst bathe, all these are awaiting thee off there.

“Thy subjects the Mongols devoted and fruitful are awaiting thee off there.

“Thy chiefs, thy commanders, thy great kinsfolk are awaiting thee off there.

“Thy birthplace, Deligun Bulak on the Onon, is awaiting thee off there.

“Thy standard of Yak tails, thy drums, fifes and trumpets, thy golden house and all that is in it, are awaiting thee off there.

“The fields of the Kerulon, where first thou didst sit on thy throne as Jinghis, are awaiting thee off there.

“Bortai Fudjin, the wife of thy youth, Boörchu and Mukuli thy faithful friends, thy fortunate land and thy great golden mansion, that wonderful building, are awaiting thee off there.

“Wilt thou leave us now here in this quagmire, because this land pleases thee? because so many Tanguts are vanquished? because Kurbeljin Goa was beautiful?

“We could not save thy noble life in this kingdom, so let us bear thy remains to their last home and resting place. Let us bear thy remains which are as fair as the jade stone. Let us give consolation to thy people.”

After this chant the car moved from the blue clay, went forward, passed over the mountain range easily and across the immense Gobi desert. It moved on amid wailing and chanting, and at last reached the home of the mighty and merciless manslayer.

The body was buried in a Kentei Khan forest near a majestic tree which had pleased Jinghis Khan very greatly in his lifetime. There were many smaller trees near this single large one, but soon after the burial all trees in the forest had grown equal in size and appearance, so that no man knew or could learn where the body of the conqueror was hidden.

Jinghis Khan is one of the great characters of history, perhaps the greatest that has appeared in the world to the present day. A man who, never hampered by conscience, advanced directly toward the one supreme object of his life,—power. His executive ability was wonderful, as was also his utter disregard for human life. Beginning with a few huts on the Kerulon he drew in tribe after tribe, country after country, till at his death he was master of more territory than had ever been ruled by one sovereign. He stands forth also as the greatest manslayer the world has ever known. From 1211 to 1223 in China and Tangut alone Jinghis and his assistants killed more than eighteen million five hundred thousand human beings. He demanded blind obedience from all men, the slightest infringement was punished with death; even his most distinguished generals submitted to the bastinado, or to execution.

In Jinghis Khan’s Code of Laws the homicide, the adulterer, the cattle thief, and the person who for the third time lost a prisoner confided to his care was put to death. Torture was used to force confession. When an animal was to be slaughtered it must be thrown on its back, an incision made in its breast and the heart torn out. This custom prevails among the Mongols of the Baikal (the Buriats) to the present day when killing animals for sacrifice.

Jinghis Khan left great possessions to each of his sons and heirs. To Juchi, the eldest, he left that immense region north of Lake Aral and westward to the uttermost spot on which the hoof of a horse had been planted by Mongols at any time. The dominions of Jagatai extended from Kayalik in the Uigur land to the Syr Daryá, or Yaxartes.

Ogotai received the country watered by the Imil, while Tului, the youngest, inherited his father’s home places between Kara Kurum and the Onon River region.

These dispositions, made somewhat earlier, agreed with Mongol custom and usage, by which elder sons received portions as they came to maturity; his father’s house and all that belonged to it fell to the youngest son always.

When the last rites had been rendered, and the last honors paid to the great conqueror, each of the four sons returned to his possessions, and it was only after two years that the family held the Kurultai of election. In the spring of 1229 all assembled again on the Kerulon. They were met and received by Tului, acting as regent till they should choose a new sovereign.

From the regions north and west of Lake Aral came the descendants of Juchi, that eldest son who had dared to defy his own terrible father. Jagatai brought his sons and grandsons from the Ili; and Ogotai came from the Imil near which he had been living.

After three days of the Kurultai had been passed in feasting and pleasure, the assembly proceeded to choose a Grand Khan, or sovereign. Many were in favor of Tului, but Ye liu chu tsai, the great sage and minister, begged them to settle on Ogotai, the choice of Jinghis, and avoid all dissensions and discord. Tului did not hesitate in following this counsel and read immediately the ordinance of his father in which Ogotai was named as sovereign.

The princes turned then to Ogotai and declared him the ruler; Ogotai answered that his brothers and uncles were far better fitted than he for the sovereignty. He mentioned especially as the right man Tului who had remained with his father, or near him at all times, and was trained beyond any in the wisdom of the conqueror. “Jinghis himself has chosen thee!” cried the others to Ogotai, “how act against his command and his wishes?”

Ogotai still resisted, and forty days passed in feasting ere he yielded. On the forty-first day, which was pointed out by magicians as the time most propitious, he was conducted to the throne by Jagatai and by Utchuken his uncle, Jinghis Khan’s youngest brother. Tului gave him the goblet used on occasions of that kind, and then all who were in the pavilion, and those outside, bared their heads, put their girdles on their shoulders and fell prostrate. Nine times did they fall before Ogotai, invoke on him prosperity, and salute him with his title Kha Khan, or Khaan, the White Khan of the Mongols.

The newly made monarch, followed by the assembly, went out then and bowed down three times to the sun in due homage. The immense throngs of people there present gave the like homage also. When Ogotai reëntered the tent a great feast was served straightway.

In choosing Ogotai the family swore to adhere to his descendants, and the following strange words were used by them: “We swear not to seat on the throne another branch of our family so long as there shall be of thy descendants a morsel of flesh which, cast upon grass, might stop a bullock from eating, or cast into fat might stop a dog from devouring.”

Jinghis Khan’s treasures were spoils from a great part of Asia, and Ogotai commanded to bring them before him; that done he distributed those precious objects to the princes, commanders, and warriors.

During three entire days they made offerings to the shade of Jinghis, their great ancestor. Ogotai chose from the families of princes and commanders forty most beautiful virgins; he had them attired in the richest of garments, and adorned with rare jewels. These forty virgins were slain, and thus sent to attend the mighty conqueror in that world which he occupied. With the virgins were slain and sent also the best and the costliest stallions of northern Asia.

The first work of Ogotai was to establish the code of Jinghis, and pardon offences committed since the death of the conqueror. Ye liu chu tsai, the sage who had exercised on Jinghis so much influence, and whose power still continued, prevailed then on Ogotai to fix the rank of each officer and official, and to define every difference between princes of Jinghis Khan’s house and other subjects. He wished also to restrain the boundless power of Mongol chiefs in conquered places. Those men disposed of human life as each whim of theirs shaped itself; whenever they chose to condemn a man he died, as did also his family.

At Chu tsai’s advice Ogotai refixed all forms of action in cases of this kind. The amount of yearly tribute was settled for the first time since the Mongol conquest. In the west it was a tax on every male person of legal age. In China the system of the country was chosen and the tribute was levied on houses. Lands taken from the Kin dynasty were divided into ten provinces; in each of these was established a tribunal for assessment and collection of tribute. Chu tsai even proposed to the White Khan to use in governing his possessions the rules of Confucius. “The Empire has been conquered on horseback,” said the sage, “but no man can rule it from the saddle.”

The advice was listened to with benevolence, and scholars were placed by degrees in public office.

Now that the Mongols again had a sovereign they gave more force to their conquests along those vast lines of action which Jinghis had explained on his deathbed. Three great expeditions were arranged at the Kurultai of election: An army of thirty thousand was sent to destroy the rising power of Jelal ud din, who had returned from lands south of the Indus and regained some part of his father’s dominions. A second army of similar numbers was sent under Kuyuk and Subotai to conquer the Kipchaks and other peoples. This Juchi would have done had he followed the advice of his father. On the third expedition Ogotai the Grand Khan set out with Tului and other princes to end the Kin Empire. These expeditions we will follow in the order mentioned.

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