Chapter XIX: Expulsion of the Mongols From China (2)

Now began war between Chu yuan chang, the coming Emperor of China, and Chin yiu liang, that seeker for Empire who, when a general, had beaten to death with a crowbar his own would-be Emperor, Siu chiu hwei. Chin had taken Tai ping and advanced to the lands of Nan king. Chu yuan marched against him, and when he had taken Nan king he found Chin near Kiu kiang and cut his army to pieces. Chin fled to Wu chang. Chu yuan captured Kiu kiang, and then Nan chang fu. Master of this capital, he received submission from the principal cities of Kiang si. Chin, wishing to win back Nan chang fu at all hazards, equipped a vast number of vessels and laid siege to the city, which he pressed cruelly, hoping to take the place before Chu yuan chang could appear with relief for it; but those in command made a gallant defence and were able to notify Chu yuan of their peril. Chu yuan sailed away from Nan king to assist them with his flotilla, bearing on it a numerous army. To cut off retreat from his enemy he ranged all his craft near Hu kiu, where Lake Poyang joins the Kiang si through a channel. Chin, who had besieged Nan chang eighty-five days in succession, raised the siege straightway, and entered the lake, where he met Chu’s flotilla. The battle raged for three days, when Chin, who had lost most of his vessels, was killed by an arrow. Chin chan ulh, his eldest son, named by him successor, was captured, and his principal officers yielded to the victor. Chin li, the second son, fled to Wu chang and proclaimed himself Emperor; but besieged, and seeing his cause in utter chaos, he yielded without asking conditions. The surrender of this capital of Hu kuang was followed by that of the province. Conquest was made easy now by Chu yuan changes reputation for leniency, and the discipline of his army.

Before this campaign which destroyed the would-be new dynasty of Han, Chu yuan, learning that Chang se ching and Liu chin had captured Ngan fong, where the Sung Emperor was living, and that they had slain Liau fu tong, his commander in that city, advanced toward it and defeated Liu chin. Giving up command of his army then to his general, Su ta, Chu charged him in 1366 with the investing of Hiu chiu. The Mongols recaptured Ngan fong after Chu yuan chang had departed.

Now new troubles burst forth among the Mongols, and first that which seemed most serious: After the murder of Chagan Timur, the one man who might have restored Mongol authority in China, Polo Timur, his opponent, strove to capture Tsin ki, and, in spite of repeated commands from the Emperor, he sent troops to take the place. These troops were defeated by Kuku Timur, son of Chagan. Polo Timur then desisted, but another event armed him soon against even the Emperor. The weakness of the sovereign favored factions, and the heir, who was unprincipled and ambitious, took active part in the struggles of rivals. Cho se kien, the first minister, persuaded the heir that many great persons, whom he named, were ready to rise in rebellion; he then induced him to ruin them. The prince accused these men to his father, and through his power of insistence brought death to two leading persons.

Cho se kien and the eunuch, Pa pu hwa, bound to each other by criminal plotting, now feared lest Tukien Timur, a friend of the two men just done to death without reason, might avenge them, hence they decided to destroy Tukien also. They brought a criminal action against him. Polo Timur roused a defender to act for him. The heir, enraged by this daring, accused Polo himself of complicity with Tukien and had him stripped of his office. Polo refused to yield up command and his enemy Kuku Timur was sent to constrain him. Polo knew that this order had been given without the Emperor’s knowledge, and induced Tukien to make a feint on the capital, hence he seized the Kiu yong kwan fortress. They wished to bring the Emperor to banish the man who had taken possession of him. Ye su, who commanded the place next that fortress, attacked Tukien Timur, but his forces were utterly broken. Thereupon the heir, not feeling secure in the capital, fled northward for safety. Tukien now advanced to the river Tsing ho, where he halted to wait for the Emperor’s decision. He declared that Polo Timur, by whose orders he was acting, had no dream of failing in duty to the Emperor, he merely desired to deliver his sovereign from Cho se kien and Pa pu hwa the two traitors; he would retire the moment these direst foes of the Emperor were given to him. They meditated long at the court over this proposition, counter proposals were made, but Tukien remained firm and retired only when the two ministers were put in his possession and Polo Timur was reinstated in office.

Mongol dominion had fallen in China and civil war was raging around Shang tu. The heir, a rebel also, was ordered back to Ta tu by the Emperor. He obeyed, but if he did it was simply to assemble an army and send it under Kuku Timur to fall upon Polo at Tai tung fu, his headquarters. Polo, leaving men to defend the place, hastened on to Ta tu with the bulk of his army. The heir advanced to the river Tsing ho, but at sight of Polo’s large army his forces fled to Ta tu, and not feeling safe even in that place, went out through the western gate to join Kuku Timur, then near Tai yuen fu, the Shan si capital. The heir followed them. When they had gone Polo entered Ta tu, and going with a party of his generals to the palace fell at the feet of the Emperor and received pardon for those acts to which, as he said, he had been driven.

Togan Timur made him commander-in-chief and first minister. Polo now, 1364, put to death Tolo Timur, the Emperor’s favorite and companion in debauchery; he drove from the palace a legion of parasites, among others a real cohort of eunuchs and the whole throng of Lamas. At his request the Emperor sent courier after courier to the heir demanding his return to the palace. The heir, far from obeying, resolved to try arms against Polo, his now all-powerful opponent. The recent example of Tukien Timur was in this case most apposite.

When Polo learned that the heir was advancing he arrested Ki, the Empress, and forced her to send in her own hand an order by which she recalled her son to the capital. This done he sent Tukien toward Shang tu to oppose the heir’s Mongol partisans on that side. He sent Ye su, a general, to attack Kuku Timur and the heir, who was with him. Ye su had not marched seven leagues to the south beyond Ta tu when he saw that the officers in his army were dissatisfied with Polo, so he assembled the chief ones, and in counsel it was resolved to obey that first minister no longer. They therefore turned back toward Yong ping a short distance, from which point Ye su informed Kuku Timur and the princes in Mongolia of the resolve they had taken.

Polo Timur in despair at this defection sent against Ye su Yao pe yen Buga, his best general. Ye su surprised this man, cut his army to pieces, took him prisoner, and killed him. Polo Timur took the field now himself, but a rain storm which lasted three days and nights prevented all immediate action, and he returned to the capital. The opposition which he met rendered him so distrustful that he put several officers to death on suspicion. Seeking to drown in wine his sad humor, and the grief which had seized him, he grew both ferocious and pitiless. More than once, while in those moods he killed men with his own hand, and he soon became odious to every one.

Ho chang, son of the Prince of Wei chun, got a secret order from the Emperor to put an end to Polo and his partisans, and soon he found the occasion to do so.

Polo receiving news of the capture of Shang tu, a victory over Mongol adherents of the heir, hurried on to inform the Emperor, but just as he was entering the palace he was stopped by Ho chang’s men who opened his skull with a sabre stroke. When news of this death reached Tukien’s army the officers deserted their general. Tukien was arrested, and put to death straightway. The Emperor sent Polo’s head to the heir at Ki ning and an order for him to appear at the palace. The prince returned now with Kuku Timur, who became commander-in-chief and first minister. The heir strove to force Kuku Timur to persuade the Emperor to resign in his favor, and not finding the minister compliant grew enraged at him. The Emperor was unwilling to abdicate, but he gave his son power almost equal to that which he himself had, making him lieutenant in the Empire. Kuku Timur tried to prevent this, but failed, and was stripped of his dignities. Thereupon, he retired to Shang si, where he lived in a stronghold.

While the Mongol court was thus torn asunder by dissension Chu yuan chang was extending his Empire continually. He lived at Nan king, working always to establish a government on justice and order, as recommended by ancient philosophers of China. Meanwhile his generals Su ta and Chang yu chun attacked Chang si ching, who was master yet of a part of Che kiang and Kiang nan. In 1366 these two distinguished chiefs won a great victory over Chang si ching, took Hiu chiu, one of the wealthiest cities in Che kiang, and also Hang chau, the capital of that province. The next year they captured Chang si ching in Ping liang, and took him to Nan king directly. Chu yuan gave the man liberty in return for his word that he would not go from the city in any case. Chang gave his word to remain in it, and then hanged himself.

Ming yu chin, who had declared himself Emperor of the Hia dynasty, died in 1366. Min ching, his son, who was ten years of age, succeeded, with his mother as regent. This same year Han lin ulh, who claimed to be of the Sung dynasty, vanished, and with him went his adherents.

Fang kwe chin submitted at last. This faith-breaking pirate had refused not only to appear before Chu yuan chang, and send tribute, but he had acted against him in the North in alliance with Kuku Timur, and in the South with Chin yiu ting, who held a part of the Fu kien province. Chu then sent his general, Tang ho, to take the cities Wen chau, Tai chu and King yuen. At the approach of his forces the pirate retired to an island in the sea. When all those cities soon after opened their gates to Tang ho the pirate sent his son with submission, and put himself also at command of the general, who sent him off to Nan king under escort.

Chu yuan chang undertook now the liberation of all China. Su ta, his great general, and Chang yu chun marched northward with an army which numbered one fourth of a million. While Hu ting shui, a third general, reduced Fu kien and Kuang tung, Yang king took Kwang si and held it. These southern provinces, tired of oppression from strangers, made no resistance whatever. First of all Su ta and his colleague took the country between the Hoai and Hoang Ho, then they crossed the latter river and entered Shan tung, proclaiming that barbarians, like the Mongols, were unfitted to rule a polished people from whom they themselves should receive law and order; that the Mongols had conquered the Empire, not by their merit, but through Heaven’s aid given purposely to punish the Chinese. Heaven, roused now by the crimes of the Mongols, had taken power from them to give it to a warrior filled with virtue and greatness, a warrior loved and respected by all men who knew him.

The generals met no resistance in any place. When all Shan tung had submitted they passed to Honan, where they had success of the same kind—the gates of every city were opened to their standards.

Togan Timur, who was terrified at the swiftness of these conquests, sent courier after courier for Kuku Timur, but that general did nothing to rescue the capital; he held aloof and marched away toward Tai yuen.

Master of China, Chu yuan chang proclaimed himself Emperor at Nan king on the first day of the Chinese year, February, 1368. He gave the name Ming to his dynasty, which means light, and to the years of his reign Hung wu (lucky war), a term applied also to this emperor himself, who after his death received the title Tai tsu, founder or great ancestor, which in China is usually given to the founder of a dynasty.

Chu yuan chang, the new Emperor, left Nan king in August, 1368, crossed the Hoang Ho at Ping lien, and marched on the capital; all cities submitted to him willingly. At the same time his two generals entered Pe che li from Shan tung. At this juncture Che li nien, one of Togan Timur’s ministers, took from the temple of ancestors all tablets of the Mongol Emperors and fled to the north, the heir fleeing with him. Togan Timur decided to follow immediately, and naming Timur Buga his lieutenant, he appointed King tong as defender of the capital. Then, assembling the princes, princesses and high officials, he declared his resolve to retire to Mongolia. He set out that same night for Shang tu with his family. The new Emperor of China was soon at the gates of Ta tu, which he entered after a very slight struggle. Mongol dominion in China was ended.

Nearly all China now received the Ming Emperor, and he set about winning what was still under control of the Mongols. That done he intended to follow them to their birthland and take it. The fleeing Mongol Emperor, Togan Timur, did not think himself safe in Shang tu, hence he hurried northward to Ing chang on the bank of Lake Tal, where in 1370 his life came to its end. He had reigned thirty-five years, and was fifty-one years of age.

The Ming forces seized Ing chang and captured Maitilipala, Togan Timur’s grandson, as well as many princes and princesses and distinguished persons who were all taken back to China. The heir escaped safely to Kara Kurum, which now became the one capital of the Mongols. On learning that this prince had mustered troops in his homeland and was about to invade China the Ming Emperor in 1372 sent a strong force, under Su ta, to stop him. Su ta marched to the Kerulon River and the Tula, but gained no decided advantage. Kuku Timur, the great Mongol general, died in 1375.

The Mongol heir who died in 1378 had taken the title of Kha kan, White khan, that is Grand Khan. He was followed by his son Tukus Timur, who was complimented by the Ming Emperors on his accession to the sovereignty of the Mongols now driven back to their original home. In succeeding years the troops of this Khan advanced frequently to violate Chinese borders, but in 1388 the new Emperor sent an army against Tukus Timur which defeated him at Buyur lake very thoroughly. His wives, his second son and more than three thousand officers were captured. Tukus Timur was assassinated near the Tula while seeking safety in flight. Yissudar, who did the deed, was a prince of the Emperor’s family, and seized the throne left by him. The ambition of others roused civil war which seemed permanent. After long quarrels and short reigns a prince named Goltsi gained supreme power in 1403. His reign was brief also, for he fell by an assassin and Buin Shara was made Khan to succeed him.

When in 1408 the Emperor of China invited Buin Shara to declare himself a vassal, he refused. A Chinese army now invaded Mongolia, but was defeated near the Tula. Yung lo, the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, advanced with a large army in 1410 to the Kerulon River. Prince Olotai, Buin Shara’s lieutenant, deserted him through ambition, retiring eastward to the Hailar River. Yung lo defeated both the prince and his lieutenant, the first on the Onon, the second on the eastern boundary of Mongolia.

Buin Shara was killed in 1412 by Mahmud, prince of the Uriats, who put Dalbek on the throne of the Mongols.

During two centuries Mongol princes strove unceasingly to regain lost dominion; yielding to China when sufficient force was sent against them, or attacking border provinces of the Empire when those provinces were left unguarded.

Toward the middle of the seventeenth century, when the Ming dynasty was nearing its downfall, the Mongols were divided into groups under various small chieftains, each of whom bore the title Khan.

The Kalkas were in the North in the birthland of the Mongols. West of them the lands of the former Naimans and the Uigurs were occupied by the Eleuts; the Chakars, and the Ordos lived in the country between the Great Wall and the Gobi desert. The Manchu dynasty which during 1644 won dominion in China took under its protection first the easternmost Mongols and the Kalkas. Strengthened by them, it conquered the Chakars, and later the Ordos. The Kalkas had preserved thus far independence, but attacked by the Eleuts they found themselves forced to seek aid from the Manchu sovereign of China. In 1691 the Emperor Kang hi received homage from the three Kalka Khans forty leagues north of the Great Wall. At last toward 1760 the Eleuts themselves were reduced, so that most of the Mongols proper are to-day subject to China, while the rest are under the control of Russia.

Remarkable as has been the part played by the Mongols in history the part to be played by them yet may be far greater. How great and how varied it may be and of what character is the secret of the future.

THE END.

NOTES

[1] A village or community.

[2] 1161.

[3] 1175.

[4] A tuman is ten thousand.

[5] Great King in Chinese.

[6] The Altai.

[7] Golden Khan, the title of the Kin Emperor in Mongol.

[8] One of the faults with which Jinghis reproached Juchi was tenderness.

[9] About twenty-seven miles.

[10] A dinar is the fiftieth part of a cent.

[11] Mohammed of Nessa. Nessavi means of Nassa and applies specially to the historian.

[12] Called Fatimids because they professed to trace their descent to Fatima the daughter of the Prophet (Mohammed).

[13] The Victorious.

[14] Eagle’s nest.

[15] “Long beard, short wit,” an Arabic proverb.

[16] This man was Nassir ud din the astronomer who had been at Alamut, and had confounded the astrologer favorable to the Kalif.

[17] Michael Palæologus.