DESTRUCTION OF THE KIN EMPIRE
Nin Kia Su, the Kin Emperor (his Chinese name was Shu siu), had sent to
Ogotai in 1229 his ambassador Ajuta with offerings to Jinghis Khan’s
spirit, but the new sovereign would accept naught from a ruler who had
refused to acknowledge Jinghis as his overlord.
The Mongols, not regarding the death of Jinghis, had continued their
warfare in China and pushed on through Shen si to the edge of the Sung
Empire. At the end of 1227 they besieged Si ho chin, a city southeast
of Kong chang and thirty leagues distant. The commandant defended the
place with great valor, but, seeing that the Mongols would conquer at
last, and then seize him, he invited Li shi, his wife, to think on her
destiny. “We have enjoyed the good will of our sovereign,” said the
woman, “we should die for the dynasty;” thereupon she took poison. Two
of his sons and their wives followed her example. When he had burned
the five bodies the commandant stabbed himself. Twenty-eight of his
dependents died with him.
In 1228 the Mongols pushed still farther south and Wanien Khada, the
Kin general, sent to oppose them a mounted force under Cheng ho shang,
who crushed a detachment eight thousand in number. This was the first
triumph won by the Chinese in three decades, and roused the desire of
resistance very greatly.
In 1228 the Mongol general Tukulku invested King yang fu, when a second
Kin envoy was sent to Mongolia with presents, which were not accepted.
Ogotai now gave command over all Chinese troops in his service to three
generals of that race, and made two of them governors.
In 1230 the Mongols were beaten a second time by Yra buka, a Kin
general, who stopped the siege of King yang by a victory. Elated by
success, Yra buka freed from confinement an envoy whom during his
regency Tului had sent with peace messages. While dismissing him the
Kin general boasted unwisely in the following phrases: “We have had
time to make ready. If ye wish battle now ye have only to come to us.”
This challenge was taken to Ogotai who acted at once and set out with
his brother Tului for China. They crossed the Hoang Ho and pushed on
toward the southern part of Shen si, where they took sixty forts and
laid siege to Fong tsiang, a large city.
The Kin government now saw the error in their treatment of the envoy,
and sent new terms of peace to the Mongols. The Grand Khan tried to
persuade this envoy to visit Fong tsiang and obtain its surrender, but
though threatened with death the man was immovable. Ogotai had the
beard of the envoy cut off and then he imprisoned him. The siege of
Fong tsiang was continued with vigor.
The Kin emperor, seeing that his generals were slow in sending aid,
hurried off Bai kua, his assistant, to urge them. They replied that
their troops were too few to challenge the great Mongol army. The
Emperor commanded to take men from Tung kwan, the strong fortress, give
battle at once to the enemy, and force the relief of Fong tsiang which
was sorely beleaguered.
An attack was made soon, but the battle was indecisive. The Kin forces
fell back the night following, however, and left the place to its own
strength and fortune. Antchar, who commanded the Mongols, blockaded
that city, captured places around it, kept out all provisions, and when
food and supplies were exhausted Fong tsiang had no choice save
surrender.
Master of Shen si, Ogotai was eager now for Honan, the last land of the
Kin Emperor, but this region was difficult to capture. On the north it
was bounded by the Hoang Ho, on the west it was guarded by high rugged
mountains, and the strong Tung kwan fortress. The Mongol officers were
seeking for means to overcome or elude these great obstacles when Li
chang go, a Kin officer, who had joined Ogotai’s service only after
Fong tsiang had surrendered, proposed to enter Honan from the south,
and traced out a route for the conquest. Tului saw that the plan was
the same as that traced by Jinghis on his death bed, and commended it
to Ogotai, his brother, immediately. Ogotai consulted his generals,
accepted the plan, and commissioned Tului to follow it.
It was agreed that the armies of the north and the south should meet at
Nan king in the following February. Ogotai sent Chubugan to the Sung
Emperor for permission to pass through a part of his country, but the
envoy was killed after crossing the boundary. The deed astounded the
Mongols, since the Sung court had requested their alliance somewhat
earlier. This killing gave a good pretext later on, however, for
attacking the Empire.
Tului marched straightway on Pao ki where he assembled thirty thousand
mounted warriors. First he captured the fortress Ta san kuan, destroyed
the city Fong chin and opened a way through the Hwa mountains, though
with immense labor. This mountain chain divides the Hoai water system
from the Han and formed for some distance the boundary between the two
Empires in China. Tului crossed this chain and thus entered Kin
regions. When he had taken one hundred and forty towns and strong
places, slain people in vast numbers, and driven others to barren
regions where they perished, he fixed his camp near the Han and there
he rested.
On seeing the enemy at the southern border the Kin Empire was
terrified. At the council called by the Emperor to find means of
defence the majority were in favor of placing the army in towns near
Nan king, where great stores must be gathered in quickly. The Mongols,
worn out by long marching, could not attack in the open and would be
forced back by sure famine. This plan did not please the Kin Emperor.
He declared that his subjects had made every sacrifice for the army, he
would not leave them then in that peril. He must defend Honan on the
north and the south at its boundaries; that was his final decision.
In view of the Emperor’s wishes an army corps was formed north of the
Hoang Ho, and another at Teng chu on the southern border. This second
army was composed of the forces of Wanien Khada and Yra buka who
arrived at Teng chu in 1232 during January, and were joined by Yang wu
yan, Cheng ho shang, and Wu shan, three Kin generals. While these
generals were discussing whether they were to fall on Tului at the
crossing of the Han, or after he had crossed it, they learned that he
was on their side already. They marched immediately and discovered the
enemy at the foot of Mount Yui in a chosen position. The Kin forces
attacked and a sharp struggle followed. The Mongols were inferior in
numbers and withdrew, but withdrew unmolested.
After some days the Kin generals were informed that the enemy had
retired to a forest. They resolved to return to Teng chu, subsist on
the provisions of the city, and spare their own rations. They passed by
mere chance near the forest; the Mongols sallied forth and attacked,
but only feigned serious fighting. Meanwhile the Kin cavalry seized the
Mongol baggage.
On reaching Teng chu the Kin generals reported that they had won a
great victory. Rejoicings at the court were sincere, but very short in
duration.
While Tului was advancing Ogotai was besieging Ho chung, or Pu chiu, a
strong city on the Hoang Ho, in Shan si near its southwestern corner. A
pyramidal tower two hundred feet high, immense earth mounds, and
tunnels were among the works used in attacking. Soon the towers and
wooden works on the walls of the city were ruined. Besieged and
besiegers had fought hand to hand fifteen days when the city was taken.
Thirty-five days had the place been invested. The governor Tsao ho was
captured arms in hand and put to death at direction of Ogotai. Bau tse,
the commandant, escaped by the river with three thousand men, and went
to Nan king, where the Kin Emperor killed him.
Ogotai received now, through a courier, an account from Tului of the
Honan situation and crossed the Hoang Ho without waiting. He ordered
Tului to meet him. On hearing of this movement by Ogotai, the Kin
Emperor gave orders to cut dikes near the capital, flood the country
about it, and thus stop the enemy. Thirty thousand men were sent to
guard the great river, but when Kia ku saho, the commander, learned
that Ogotai was already on the south side he retreated. In their march
forward the Mongols came on the men cutting dikes, attacked them,
stopped their work, and slew many thousands.
Tului divided his army into numerous detachments. With these he covered
a great stretch of country, and watched the Kin army as it moved
northward slowly. Harassed on their march, retarded by wind, rain, and
snow, exhausted by marching and hunger, the Kin troops were met finally
by a eunuch of the Emperor with an order to move to the capital
speedily and succor it. They had hardly touched food for three days,
and were mortally weary. While preparing to encamp, they were
surrounded on a sudden by Ogotai and Tului, who had just brought their
forces together.
The Kin generals charged on the Mongols and strove to cut through them.
Many chiefs fell while leading their warriors. Wanien Khada forced his
way to Yiu chiu. Tului laid siege to that city immediately; dug a moat
round the walls, took the place, and found Wanien Khada. When captured
Wanien asked to be brought before Subotai. “Thou hast but a moment to
live,” remarked Subotai, “why wish to see me?” “Heaven, not chance,
gives us heroes. Now that I have seen thee, I close my eyes without
sorrow,” replied the Kin general.
When Subotai’s fury had calmed somewhat Cheng ho shang, who was also in
the city, came out of his hiding and asked to be taken to the chief of
the Mongols. “If I had perished in the rush of defeat,” said he to
Tului, “some men might declare me a traitor; now all will see how I
die, and must know that I am honest.” He would not submit, though the
Mongols tried long to induce him to do so. To make the man kneel they
chopped both his feet off, and split his mouth to the ears to force
silence; but he ceased not to say in his keen ghastly torment that he
would not befoul himself by treason. Struck by his fortitude and elated
by kumis (their liquor distilled from mare’s milk) the Mongols called
out to him: “If thou art ever recalled to this life, splendid warrior,
be born in our company!”
Yra buka was seized on the road to the capital while fleeing. They took
him to Ogotai: “Submit and be saved,” said the Emperor. To every
proposal the answer was: “I am a lord of the Kin Empire, I must be true
to my sovereign.” Yra buka suffered death like the others. Thus
perished the Kin generals, nobly, but without any profit. The best of
the army had already perished.
Some days after the capture of Yiu chiu Ogotai visited Tului at his
camp ground and listened with delight to his narrative of the march
from Fong tsiang, during which immense difficulties had been overcome,
especially lack of food, which was such that his men had been forced to
eat grass, and the flesh of human beings.
The Grand Khan applauded his brother for skill in that perilous
enterprise. Tului replied, that success was due mainly to the valor and
endurance of his warriors, and the fortune attendant on the sovereign
of the Mongols.
When he heard of Tului’s achievement, the Kin Emperor summoned to his
capital all troops entrusted with defending Honan on its western
border; hence the two generals commanding on that side, and the
governors of Tung kwan, the great fortress, united their forces, which
amounted to one hundred and ten thousand foot with five thousand
horsemen, and moved toward Shan chiu, a city south of the Hoang Ho. Two
hundred barges were to bear supplies eastward, but the Mongols seized
those supplies before they were laden, and when their forces appeared
at Tung kwan the man left in command there delivered that mighty
defence of Honan to them, and betrayed all the movements about to be
made by his Emperor’s army.
The Mongols advanced on Shan chiu, without obstacle. The Kins retired
toward the mountains of Thie ling followed by vast crowds of people of
every age and both sexes, who had hoped for a shelter in the mountains.
As they advanced melting snow made the roads very difficult and
sometimes impassable. Pursued by the victors, their aged people and
children who lagged behind were cut down without mercy. One Kin general
surrendered, but still the captors beheaded him; the others were
overtaken and slain as was also the chief Tung kwan governor.
Defence in the west of Honan collapsed utterly. Fourteen cities fell;
only two held out bravely. One of these, Ho yang, or Ho nan fu, became
famous. This place was defended by three thousand men who remained from
the western army. After a furious bombardment, continuing some days,
the Mongols made a breach in the walls of Ho yang. The governor deemed
the place lost, and, since he would not survive the disgrace of
surrender, he sprang into the moat and thus drowned himself. The
defenders then chose Kiang chin, a real hero, to lead them. Under him a
most desperate resistance was organized. The place held out for three
months, till the Mongols, still thirty thousand in number, grown sick
and weary of attacking, left that brave city after one hundred and
fifty assaults had been made on it.
Ogotai, now master of nearly all places around the Kin capital, fixed
his camp fourteen leagues to the west of it, and sent Subotai to finish
the struggle.
Nan king (Southern capital) at that time was twelve leagues in
circumference. Inside the walls a hundred thousand men were assembled
to defend it. Desiring to rouse public feeling to the highest the
Emperor gave out a stirring appeal to the people written by Chao wun
ping, a great scholar. The siege had begun when Ogotai sent an envoy to
persuade the Kin Emperor to submit himself. Ogotai asked that the
following people be sent first of all to him as hostages: Chao wun
ping, a sage of distinction; Kung yuan tse, a descendant of Confucius,
with some other great scholars, and twenty-seven families among the
most noted; all families of men who had submitted to the Mongols; the
wife and children of Yra buka, the heroic Kin general; young women
skilled in embroidery, and also men trained well as falconers. The Kin
Emperor accepted every condition and offered Uko, his nephew, besides,
as a hostage while Egudeh, his procurator, was discussing final peace
with the Khan of the Mongols.
In spite of these marks of submission Subotai continued the siege with
great vigor. The command had been given him, he said, to capture the
capital and he was obeying it. He had planted long lines of catapults;
captive women, young girls, old men, and children were carrying
fascines and bundles of straw to fill moats and ditches. Fearing to
stop negotiations, the Kin general commanding forbade to reply to
attacks of the Mongols. This order roused indignation. The Kin Emperor
showed himself in the city to the people, attended by a few horsemen
only. A body of officers came to him complaining that they were not
allowed to defend themselves, though the moat was already half filled
by the enemy: “I am ready to be a mere tributary and a vassal to
safeguard my subjects,” said the Emperor. “I send my one son this day
as a hostage, so be patient till he has gone from me. If the enemy does
not retire there will be time then for a life and death struggle.”
The young prince set out that same day with Li tsi, a state minister,
but as the attack was continued, the Kin ruler indignant at Mongol
duplicity gave the signal for action.
Subotai had set up an immense line of catapults and hurled large,
jagged millstones with dreadful impetus. At the end of some days of
ceaseless hurling, stones were piled up at points almost to the top of
the ramparts; the towers, though built of strong timber from old
palaces, were broken. To deaden the effect of these millstones the
towers were backed with huge bags filled with wheat-straw, and horse
dung, covered with felt and tied with cords very firmly, also planks
faced with untanned hides of buffaloes. The Mongols hurled fire with
ballistas to burn the defences. No projectile, however, could injure
those strange massive walls of the fortress, which were mainly of clay
grown as solid as iron.
The besieged made use of inflammable projectiles, that is, iron pots
filled with powder of some kind. These pots hurled out by ballistas or
let down by strong chains burst with great noise, maiming men or
destroying them a hundred feet from the place of explosion. Attack and
defence were original and vigorous. Some of the Mongols, well shielded
by raw hides of buffalo, approached, dug holes in the walls and
remained there at work safe from all missiles. The besieged hurled
spears carrying fireworks which exploding burned everything within
thirty feet of them. These two kinds of projectiles were greatly feared
by the Mongols.
After assaults which continued sixteen days, almost without interval,
during which time it was said, though of course incorrectly, that a
million of men fell, Subotai sent a message declaring that as
discussions for peace were in progress hostilities would cease
altogether, and he prepared to withdraw to some distance.
The Emperor in answer sent rich parting presents to the Mongol general
and his officers. One month after this truce a plague broke out in the
capital, and during fifty days coffins to the number of nine hundred
thousand, as the account runs, were borne from the city; besides there
were corpses of indigent people which were put in the earth without
coffins or boxes.
During discussions for peace, a Mongol envoy, Tang tsing, with a suite
of thirty persons, was slain in Pien king by the populace. This deed
went unpunished and unnoted by the Chinese, hence command was given
Subotai to attack the Kin capital a second time. Ogotai had also
another complaint against the Kin sovereign: Nin kia su had taken into
his service, and even rewarded, a general of the Mongols who, not
enduring his chief, had passed to the Kin side and yielded up cities
which were under his control.
When his capital was invested a second time the Kin Emperor summoned Wu
shan, a commander who, after defeat, had retired on Nan yang, where he
had formed a new army. Two governors were summoned in also by the
Emperor, one from the south, the other from the west. Wu shan advanced
to a place twenty leagues from the capital. He saw Mongol forces at
that point and sent to the governor who was nearest to join him, but
the governor would not come and marched on alone till he also met
Mongols. Then his troops broke and fled without fighting. On receiving
news of this flight Wu shan and his forces fell back on Nan yang very
speedily. Chiga Katrika was sent with a corps to give aid to Wu shan,
but when he learned what had happened he left all his baggage and fled
to Nan king in the night time.
These defeats destroyed in the Emperor every hope of resistance. Want
increased daily, communications were cut for the greater part, and at
last Nin kia su resolved to abandon his capital, leaving behind the two
Empresses and the whole reigning family. Before going he intrusted
command to San ya pu and gave precious gifts both to officers and
soldiers to rouse them to the utmost.
That day the Kong chang commandant marched into the capital with his
army corps, and declared that the country was ruined for thirty leagues
westward, so the Emperor went to the east,—he could not go elsewhere.
When twenty leagues from Nan king he crossed the Hoang Ho near Tsao
hien with the hope of exciting Shan tung to assist him in saving the
capital.
Barely was the Emperor on the northern bank with a part of his army
when such a wind rose that the troops on the south could not follow. On
the southern bank of the river appeared now a Mongol division sent out
by Subotai, and a fierce conflict followed in which the Kins lost two
generals; one was taken captive, the other surrendered. One thousand
men perished, drowned for the greater part.
When he heard of his lieutenant’s victory, Subotai invested the capital
with every possible severity. The Emperor now despatched Baksan, a
prince of the blood, and a descendant of Ho li pu, to secure the city
Wei chiu. Baksan let his men pillage all that they came on while
marching. This enraged the inhabitants who, instead of assisting the
Emperor, fled to Wei chiu and closed its gates to his warriors. After
some days Baksan heard of a hostile advance and withdrew, but was
followed by She tian tse, a Mongol commander. He himself carried news
of his failure to the Emperor, whom he urged to recross the Hoang Ho,
retreat to Kwe te fu and be safe there. The Emperor crossed in the
night with seven officers, and found refuge in the place pointed out to
him. The troops heard of their Emperor’s flight the day following, and
scattered immediately.
The people of Pien king lost courage greatly, but still they resisted.
The Mongols closed in on them; food soon rose to fabulous prices,
people perished of hunger, officials of the Empire begged on the
streets; there were even men who ate their own wives and children.
Houses were torn down for fuel. The Emperor sent an official to conduct
out his consort and the dowager Empress in secret, but he failed in the
effort. This attempt roused the populace: “He has left us to our fate,”
said they, in despair.
At this evil juncture Tsui li, who commanded the eastern side of the
capital, made himself master of the city in all parts. He had the
governor of the palace, the minister of state and ten other high
dignitaries killed in his presence. Immediately afterward he proclaimed
them as worthy of death for their failure in duty. He entered the
palace with armed hand, held a council and proclaimed Prince Wa nien
tsung ko as regent. He sent men in the name of the Emperor’s mother to
bring that prince to the city. He came without delay and was now
regent. Tsui li made himself first minister, chief commander and head
of the Imperial Council. One of his brothers was made city governor,
and another one prefect of the palace. All his dependents had places.
He judged now that he needed the Mongols to protect him in office, and
he sent his submission to Subotai. That commander approached the main
gate of the city. Tsui li, arrayed in royal fashion, went out with a
brilliant attendance to the Mongol, as he might to a father. On
returning Tsui li, to prove his submission to Subotai, burned the
outlooks and the wooden towers on the walls of the city. A little later
he had the regent, the Empresses, and all members of the reigning
family assemble in a palace which was guarded by his confidants. He
went himself then to live in the Emperor’s palace. He sent jewels and
other precious objects to Subotai from the treasury; he sent even the
state robes of the Emperor and Empress as gifts to the Mongol
commander.
Tsui li summoned now to his palace the daughters and wives of all those
great lords who had gone with the Emperor, and detained those of them
who pleased him. Next came an edict compelling the people to bring
their silver and gold to the palace. After this came domiciliary
visits, and many men perished under torture while striving to save even
some of their wealth from Tsui li’s endless rapacity. During a visit
made by this man and his wife to the Empresses, who recompensed him for
services alleged but never rendered, the two helpless women gave Tsui
li the most precious effects in their possession. He brought the
dowager to write to her son, the Emperor, urging him to submit to the
Mongols. This letter was taken to Nin kia su by his nurse, an old
woman. Tsui li now seized the two Empresses, the regent, all members of
the reigning family, male and female, to the number of five hundred,
and sent them to Subotai’s camp ground in chariots; he sent Kung yuan
tse, a very wise person, a descendant of Confucius; he sent men learned
in law and philosophy, and in the Taoist religion; he sent also
physicians, artists, actors and embroiderers.
All men of the reigning family were put to death straightway by
Subotai. The two Empresses and the princesses were sent to Mongolia;
while traveling to Kara Kurum they suffered want and privations of
every kind.
Foreseeing the fall of the capital Subotai made a statement to Ogotai,
the Grand Khan, substantially as follows: “The city has made such
resistance, so many warriors and officers of the Mongols have fallen,
that, by the law of Jinghis, we should pillage it.” Ye liu chu tsai
hurried to the Khan and explained that those people would be his
subjects, that among them were many men of great skill and value, that
by killing them he would ruin the profit of his conquest. Ogotai
hearkened to the wise counsel of Ye liu, and ordered that none should
suffer death except members of the Kin family. Thus the kind minister
saved many people. He also had the law canceled which ordained death to
inhabitants of cities taken by storm, or by siege operations.
And now let us find the Kin sovereign. Soon after his arrival at Kwe te
fu the fleeing Emperor, to satisfy his troops, who declared that Baksan
had caused the defeats in Shan tung, had the man tried by a council of
war and then executed.
Fucha kuan nu, a certain general, seized control of Kwe te fu after
killing Li tsi with three hundred mandarins, and also the governor.
Kuan nu’s mother had been captured after Baksan’s defeat. Temutai, a
Mongol commander, was besieging a town twenty leagues south of Kwe te
fu; the Emperor charged Kuan nu to insinuate to Temutai that if his
(Kuan nu’s) mother were restored he would bring the Emperor to accept
peace conditions. Temutai sent back the woman, and began to negotiate.
Kwan nu and Temutai had held many meetings. Meanwhile Kwan nu prepared
a secret attack, and surprised the Mongol camp during night hours;
arrows with fireworks increased the confusion. Temutai’s forces fled,
and he lost more than three thousand men in crossing a river. Kwan nu,
made chief commander because of this victory, now obtained complete
control, and left not a trace of authority to the Emperor.
At this juncture Uku lun hao, governor of districts in Southern Honan,
proposed that the Emperor make Tsai chiu his capital. Nin kia su was
quite willing, but Kuan nu would not hear of a change which would cost
him control of the Emperor’s person. There was no outcome now for the
Emperor but to be rid of the minister, so one day Kuan nu was killed
while entering his sovereign’s chamber. The falling monarch had still
one hope left in connection with Tsai chiu: Wu shan, a general in the
south of Honan, had a force seventy thousand in number. Ogotai the year
previous had made a treaty with Li tsong, the Sung Emperor, and the
latter, thinking it time to destroy the ancient foe of his dynasty, had
agreed to send troops to Honan on condition that after the fall of the
Kins that whole region be restored to his Empire. Meng kong, who led
the Sung army, now attacked and defeated Wu shan in the Ma teng group
of mountains. He captured, moreover, nine forts which that general had
held there, receiving besides the surrender of all that was left of his
army.
The Kin Emperor had set out for Tsai chiu before this disaster. His
escort was nearly three hundred men; of these only fifty were mounted.
On arriving he placed at the head of affairs Hu sha hu, a member of his
family, a general of skill and a statesman. This minister made every
possible effort to form a new army; soon he had ten thousand mounted
men, as the nucleus of his forces. It was his plan to convey the
Emperor to Kong chang, a safe place in Shen si, and act then with
vigor, but the sovereign’s intimates were opposed to this journey, and
prevailed on him to stay in Tsai chiu to the ruin of himself, and his
dynasty.
The apparent remoteness of the Mongols gave confidence for the moment,
but the Mongols soon made their appearance. Small parties came from the
army of Tatchar, who was only waiting for the capture of Lo yang to
surround the Kin sovereign’s last refuge. Lo yang had sustained a long
siege, and had forced the Mongols to raise it. Tsi yang shen, who had
rendered great service in regions north of the river, was still in
command. His forces, however, were few, and long resistance was this
time impossible; hence he put himself now at the head of a chosen party
and strove to break through the enemy, but was seized arms in hand
fighting valiantly. Tatchar tried to win over so splendid a warrior,
and implored him most earnestly to show homage to Ogotai, to prostrate
himself with face looking northward, but he bowed toward the south,
saluting in this way Nin kia su, his own Emperor, and suffered death
for his action.
Tatchar was the son of Boroul, one of Jinghis Khan’s four great heroes,
and now being free he moved on Tsai chiu to end the Kin dynasty. His
army was reinforced by twenty thousand good warriors under Meng kong
and Kiang hai, whom the Sung Emperor had sent because of his alliance
with Ogotai. The two commanders brought with them three hundred
thousand sacks of rice for the Mongols. After two months’ blockade
provisions were so scarce in the city that human flesh was used as food
and disease ravaged terribly. The defenders armed every man who could
labor. All young women who had strength enough dressed in men’s
clothes, and carried fagots and stones to defend the last refuge of the
Emperor. After many attacks the Sung forces and the Mongols made a
fierce assault, and seized a small part of the bulwarks. To their
astonishment they found a new wall in the rear of the first one, and a
broad moat between them.
Nin kia su, when he saw hostile flags on the outer wall, lost courage,
and said as he turned to the friends who were near him, “I have ruled
for ten years and shown no great crimes or failings, still the fate of
wicked princes is ready to strike me. Death has no terror for me, but
to be the last sovereign of a line which has flourished for more than a
century, and to think that history may confound me with rulers who have
ruined their dynasties by wickedness,—this is the one thing which
tortures me. Sovereigns who survive loss of power are kept in
confinement, or despised by men generally; I would not survive to be
treated in either way. Heaven knows my decision.”
Nin kia su, however, made one more attempt to save himself. He gave all
his goods to men of the garrison, took a few followers, and sallied
forth in disguise during night hours, but he could not elude the keen
watch of the enemy, and was forced to return to the city. He yielded to
fate then and had his horses all killed to be food for the garrison. On
the day of the new year the besieged heard songs and sounds of music;
the Mongols were celebrating their festival. In distress and dire need
the besieged had boiled and eaten all the hides and leather in the
city, also old drums, boots and saddles, and they had left to them a
meal of grass and weeds with the pounded bones of dead men and
animals—they had eaten already the old and decrepit inhabitants, the
captives and the wounded, and now they would eat the crushed bones of
those people when the flesh was all stripped from them.
Meng kong, the Sung general, informed by deserters of this terrible
hunger, resolved to surprise the failing city. His men with their
mouths gagged moved to the storm in safe silence. With ladders they
entered through live breaches made in the western walls of the city,
and fought with desperation till sunset when they were forced out
decisively, but the besieged had lost their first chiefs and best
warriors. During the night Nin kia su yielded the throne to Ching lin,
brother of Baksan who was put to death for the Shan tung disaster. This
prince, descended directly from the Emperor Ho li pu, was charged with
defending the Eastern side of the city. Ching lin had no wish to accept
the sad gift, and fell prostrate with weeping. “I give thee the throne
during terrible need and disaster,” said the Emperor. “The size of my
body prevents me from fleeing on horseback, but thou mayest save
thyself, thou art courageous and swift; thou mayst rescue the dynasty
and bring back dominion; this is the real position.”
Ching lin took the seal, and was raised to the throne on the morrow.
But even while this ceremony was in progress the western gate was
broken down and Meng kong rushed into the city. Kiang hai and Tatchar
rushed in with him. Hu sha hu fought in the streets at the head of a
chosen thousand of warriors. Nin kia su, seeing no escape possible on
any side, announced to his intimates that he was ready to die and
charged them to burn his dead body. After that he hanged himself.
Hu sha hu now told his officers that further resistance was useless,
and, lest some ignoble hand might take life from him, he sprang into
the river and drowned himself. Five officers with five hundred men
followed his example, and died in that river. The palace officials
burned the Emperor’s body immediately. Ching lin, when he learned what
had happened, hurried to pay the last tribute to the body; he had
barely finished all needful libations when the city was taken.
Meng kong shared with Tatchar everything belonging to the Emperor,
besides all the jewels which they could find in the palace. Ching lin
was slain that same day by his own warriors. In this way the Kins were
deprived of dominion in China May, 1234. Their dynasty of nine
sovereigns reigned one century and eighteen years. Excepting Kong chang
fu all places which belonged to that dynasty surrendered. The Sung
Emperor rejoiced much and gave many festivals while thus rejoicing at
the fall of an enemy. He offered the ashes and bones of the last of the
Kins to his ancestors. Foolish man, he had given aid to a much greater
and more terrible enemy than the one who had vanished, and had assured
the near destruction of his own house and dynasty.
Ogotai, the Grand Khan, and Tului, his brother, returned to Kara Kurum
two years before the Kin downfall. After Ogotai had crossed the Hoang
Ho, and Tului had passed through Honan, the completion of the work was
left to the competent Subotai. Tului died in October, 1232, soon after
his return to Mongolia. He was forty years of age. Juveini states that
his life was shortened by excessive drinking. He was the favorite son
of Jinghis under whom he had learned war in all its phases and details.
His campaign in Honan was admired with much reason. When still a boy
his father had him married to Siur Kukteni, a niece of Wang Khan, and
daughter of Jagambu his brother, a woman noted for wisdom. From this
princess Tului had four sons: Mangu, Kubilai, Hulagu and Arik Buga.