by Joshua Fogel
To save Qorchi, Chinggis decided to send Quduqa Beki of the Oirats, who had cooperated with Jochi in the previous year’s fighting. Soon after, however, news reached Chinggis that Quduqa Beki had been captured.
To save both Qorchi and Quduqa Beki, Chinggis now decided to dispatch Boroghul with a small detachment of troops. When he was about to set out, Chinggis ordered him to resolve the matter peaceably as best he could, without resorting to violence. If anyone could succeed in this, he thought, Boroghul could. When Chinggis had attacked the traitors Seche Beki and Taichu of the Yürkins, Boroghul had been a five- or six-year-old whom old Qorchi had picked up in the camp, and that youngster had now grown into a strapping youth nearing twenty years of age.
From Boroghul’s perspective, old Qorchi was his benefactor who had selected him, and Chinggis Khan had now presented him with the task of saving his benefactor from peril. It was not only because of this tie between Boroghul and Qorchi but also because Chinggis thought that Boroghul was the right man for the job. The young man had a sweet face like a girl that made a good impression, and he had a native talent in negotiations. He was able to move his counterparts to his own way of thinking without upsetting them, as though they were pieces on a chessboard.
Among the four foundlings raised by Ö’elün, Chinggis was particularly drawn to Boroghul and harbored great expectations for his future. Chinggis thought vaguely that at some future time when he would dispatch an ambassador to a major state, he would probably send Boroghul.
Sending Boroghul to the Erdish River delta, however, turned out to be a major disaster for Chinggis. About a month after leaving the Mongol camp, Boroghul returned as a corpse. Chinggis was appalled to realize that, because of some insignificant complications at the frontier, he had lost an irreplaceably valuable person.
“This was my blunder,” Chinggis said with a sigh. “I should have kept Boroghul well within our encampment until it came time to send him as emissary to the Jin capital.”
A moment later, his entire face flushed crimson, Chinggis screamed out:
“Burn down the entire Erdish River delta, every tree, every blade of grass. Dörbei Doqshin, set an army on the march!”
Dörbei Doqshin was a commander who seemed to have been born to commit mass murder against any group deemed an enemy. After he left a place, it was said, not a tree or a blade of grass could be seen. Bo’orchu and Muqali opposed the sending of Dörbei Doqshin to handle a matter on Mongolian terrain, but Chinggis would not be dissuaded in this.
A month later, Dörbei Doqshin, a small man with pallid skin and reddish-brown hair, returned with old Qorchi and Quduqa Beki. His troops were carrying a bizarre collection of weapons, hatchets, adzes, saws, and chisels among them.
“The People of the Forest are all dead,” reported Dörbei Doqshin. “The trees of the forest have all been turned to ash.”
He had accomplished Chinggis’s orders to the letter.
In early summer, as planned, Chinggis mobilized an army on an immense scale to launch an attack on the Xixia. The Xixia was a state created by the Tangut people of Tibet, who held sway in the area between the Mongols and the Jin. Insofar as the Mongols did not control this area, they were prevented from attacking the Jin. Were they to avoid the Xixia, they would run into the obstacles of the Great Wall and the Xing’an Mountains, and it was virtually impossible for a large army to break through these impediments. The only way to advance a great army against the Jin was to pacify the Xixia and enter within the Great Wall from southern Xixia terrain.
Invading Xixia, though, would be quite an undertaking, for it entailed Mongol armies crossing an immense desert in a march that would require a number of weeks. At the end of May, Chinggis led a massive force of well over 100,000 in crossing the vast wasteland of the Gobi Desert, heading straight for the Xixia capital of Zhongxing. In the desert they met the Xixia army, led by the heir to the Xixia throne of King Li Anquan. For the Mongol soldiers, this was their first battle with a genuinely alien ethnicity.
However, their own relative military superiority was amply apparent. The camels, horses, and troops of the Xixia army were quickly surrounded on all sides by bands of Mongol cavalrymen and stunned by an assault from which they were unable to recover.
Mongol troops repeatedly outstripped the defeated enemy army and continued on toward Zhongxing. En route Chinggis divided his men into three groupings respectively under the command of Jebe, Muqali, and Qubilai Noyan. The ferocious Mongol wolves pressed in on Zhongxing from the north, west, and south, and in short order they had the city surrounded.
Both Chinggis and his subordinates now saw for the first time the great turbid flow of the Yellow River to the west of the city, and also for the first time they saw the Great Wall, which engirded one mountain ridge after another like an iron corridor. The siege lasted half a year, and Chinggis had to lift it early because the Yellow River overflowed its banks. Ultimately, though, a peace was reached with the Xixia ruler and Chinggis compelled him to send tribute; with the ruler’s daughter among them, Chinggis’s forces withdrew.
The expedition against the Xixia bore unexpected fruit for Chinggis. Fearing the power of the Mongols, the Uyghurs who had built a state to the west of the Xixia sent an ambassador bearing tribute to them as well.
5
Attack on the Jin
WHEN CHINGGIS RETURNED TO his camp on the Mongolian plateau at the end of the year, he introduced into Mongol military training all the new knowledge he had acquired in the fighting with the first truly alien people of an alien state he had confronted, the Xixia. The group battle formation was largely altered, with military units all incorporated into the cavalry. As for weapons, they abandoned short spears and adopted longer ones, at the same time introducing the basilisk and cannon in place of bows and arrows. Day by day, battle training grew more strenuous and more strict. Aside from the very young, the old, and the infirm, all men were moved into military barracks and received military training. Those who did not receive such training were assigned to the production of weaponry including “willow leaf armor” and “encompassing armor,” as well as the “ram’s horn bow” and “sounding arrows.” The women tended the flocks of sheep and sewed the clothing. Even when night fell on the Mongolian plateau, the flicker of lantern lights could be seen everywhere. These showed the movement of cavalry troops, torches in hand, in nocturnal military exercises.
Many roads were now being built within Mongolia, and post stations with robust troops and horses were established at strategic points along them. All news was transmitted from station to station, and conveyed to Chinggis Khan’s camp with the speed of an arrow. Similarly, Chinggis’s orders were conveyed like a surging wave to every remote site on the vast plateau.
Laws and punishments were reinstituted with even greater severity. Thieves had to return three times the value of stolen goods. In the case of the theft of a camel, even just one, the thief would be executed. There were even strict penal regulations concerning arguments and the drinking of alcohol. All of these laws and penalties reflected a situation in which the soldiers were out on expeditions and the homeland was emptied of them, leaving only the women behind.
Chinggis spent the entire year of 1210 in preparation for a military expedition against the state of Jin. He had not fully resolved in his own mind, though, just when to attack. He had as yet no idea just how immense was the might possessed by the great Jurchen state of the Jin, as well as its military capacity and its economic clout. Such preparations, having required years, now seemed to be nearing completion, as the Mongols had amassed considerable strength.
In the summer of this year, an emissary from the Jin arrived. Around the time that the delegation appeared at the border, news was transmitted immediately through a dozen or more post stations to Chinggis’s tent. Thus, Chinggis waited for several days for the emissary to arrive.
The ambassador conveyed the news that the Jin emperor Zhangzong [r. 1189–1208] had died and his son Yinji [or Yong
ji, r. 1208–13] had acceded to the throne. He came on this occasion to encourage a renewal of the now long-abrogated Mongol tribute.
Chinggis treated the ambassador coolly from the start, adopting an attitude fully consistent with interviewing an embassy from a subject state. The person who acceded to the Jin throne had to be a brave and sagacious ruler, but Yinji, he had heard, was not a man of such caliber. It was thus utterly preposterous that he be encouraged to send tribute to Jin. Chinggis said as much and stood up. The emissary and his group had no choice but to return home immediately.
Although news of the death of Emperor Zhangzong had actually reached Chinggis’s ears the previous year, he had been unable to ascertain if it was true. The formal Jin embassy now enabled him to know the truth. That night in a room in his tent, Chinggis decided that the time was right to send his armies against the Jin. On the morning of the second day thereafter, he announced his decision to a group of the Mongol elders. The expedition was to commence six months from then, in the third month of 1211.
From the day he proclaimed the date for launching the expedition, military meetings were held on a daily basis in Chinggis’s tent. Fierce debates ensued among the commanders—Bo’orchu, Jelme, Qasar, Muqali, Jebe, and Sübe’etei, among others—over the attack routes to take against the Jin. The western route passed through Xixia, and now that the Xixia had been subjugated, it seemed the most natural way. It was convenient in terms of logistics, and the road itself was generally clear. The eastern route crossed over one mountain range after another, and after breaking through a corner of the Great Wall, they would have to forge an assault route. Taking the eastern way had the two benefits of catching the enemy by surprise and being able to forge a road of invasion that followed a number of sites along the line of the Great Wall. The western route followed a narrow stretch of land through the southern terrain of the Xixia.
After listening to the opinions of his commanders, Chinggis ultimately decided to take the eastern route. Like wolves crossing a mountain pass on a moonlit night, the pack of Mongol wolves would have to cross the Great Wall at numerous points and surge en masse into Jin territory. For many years, a clear image of this had been in Chinggis’s mind. Although there was no basis whatsoever for this necessarily to have been the choice, Chinggis wagered the fate of the Mongols on the vision he had harbored since his youth, an all-or-nothing gamble.
With the new year of 1211, groups of soldiers began to move all over the Mongolian plateau, gradually aligning and assembling at Chinggis’s camp. A small number of such groups moved uninterruptedly farther and farther upriver to the Onon and Kherlen river valleys.
Early in the third month of the year, Chinggis announced the invasion of the Jin before the entire group of Mongol armies. From that day forward, decrees began to be issued virtually every day about realignment of military units. The broad grassy plain by Chinggis’s camp now was deep in soldiers, camels, horses, and military vehicles. Countless sheep were also gathered in a corner of the field.
Mongol soldiers were all assigned to one of six large military units: three units under the command, respectively, of Muqali, Sübe’etei, and Jebe; the left army under the command of Qasar; the right army led by Chinggis’s three sons, Jochi, Cha’adai, and Ögedei; and the central army under the command of Chinggis and his youngest son, Tolui. Remaining on guard at camp was a force of only 2,000 under the command of Toquchar.
Three days before the departure of the troops, Chinggis climbed Mount Burqan alone and at its peak prayed for victory. He tied a sash around his neck, undid the string around his clothing, knelt before an altar, and poured fermented mare’s milk on the ground.
—Alas, god of eternity, because our ancestors have been insulted and injured by the ruler of the state of Jin, I have raised an army and shall avenge them. This is the will of the entire Mongolian people. If you approve of this, then grant us the heaven-sent ability to carry out our task. And, order the people, good deities, and demons of this world below to cooperate with and aid us.
On the eve of the army’s departure, Chinggis assembled his sons Jochi, Cha’adai, Ögedei, and Tolui in his tent and to share a last dinner with their mother, Börte. Chinggis was now forty-nine years of age, Jochi twenty-four, Cha’adai twenty-two, Ögedei twenty, and Tolui eighteen.
“Börte,” said Chinggis, “the four sons to whom you have given birth will all be heading out against the Jin as commanders. As you will be separated from your sons later this evening, so shall I be from them. From tomorrow, father and sons must each follow a different path into battle. The coming front will be different in its great breadth from all of those heretofore.”
“Why should I be so sad,” replied Börte, “to separate from my sons? Did I not marry you and bear you sons to give birth to the wolves that destroyed the Tatars and the Tayichi’uds? Now that those children have grown up, the Tatars and Tayichi’uds whom these children were set to destroy have all been annihilated by you, with even their corpses no longer remaining. The children are hungry. Give them the freedom to cross the Great Wall and seize and feast on the minions of the Jin.”
Börte was a year older than Chinggis, and the golden locks that had glistened when she was young had all now turned to silver.
The dinner lasted well into the night. Chinggis and his four sons left camp late. When he departed from his sons in front of his tent, Chinggis walked toward the center of camp, and there handled a number of arrangements with Bo’orchu until the break of dawn. When all the arrangements were complete, the two men sat down facing each other. That night, when they would depart, he could not know when next he would see this commander, Bo’orchu, who had been assigned to the right army with three of Chinggis’s sons and who since his own youth had shared every pain and hardship with Chinggis.
When he and Bo’orchu parted and left the tent, dawn was beginning to break on all sides. Chinggis walked directly to Qulan’s yurt. The early morning air pierced his skin with its chill. Still wearing her night clothing, Qulan was sleeping with her young child. He was a three-year-old boy Chinggis had sired by the name of Kölgen.
As he approached her bed, Qulan awoke at the faint sound of his footsteps. When she recognized him, Qulan got out of bed and quietly stood facing him. Chinggis felt Qulan’s large, wide-open eyes staring at him earnestly. He had drawn apart from her for a while recently under the great pressure of urgent military matters.
Qulan seemed to be waiting for Chinggis to say something, but he silently came closer to take a look at the child’s sleeping face in bed. The boy looked like Qulan, and in his youthful face one could see Qulan’s exact eyes, nose, and mouth.
Moving away from the child, Chinggis turned and riveted his eyes on the mien of his youthful beloved princess. Not a word had as yet been exchanged between them. Finally, Qulan, apparently unable to bear the silence any longer, said:
“Great khan, what is it that you are trying to say?”
“Qulan,” he replied, “what is it that your ears wish to hear?”
“There is only one thing that I wish to know,” she said. “But isn’t there something beyond that which the great khan would like to say to me?”
“No. It’s just that I’ve been very busy.”
“The great khan hasn’t told me anything at all about the army’s departure for Jin and that it is to take place today. These things I knew myself. But I don’t think I want to hear such things now from your lips.”
“Tell me what it is that you do wish to hear,” said Chinggis.
“Isn’t that something that should come from the great khan? I’ve been waiting here every single day for the past month for this,” said Qulan, with a bit of reproach in her voice.
Chinggis, of course, fully understood what Qulan wanted to ask. Until the moment of his departure pressed near, Chinggis had not wanted to tell her of this because he had not yet made up his own mind. Needless to say, there was the matter of Qulan accompanying him on this military expedition. Considering t
hree-year-old Kölgen, whom she could not leave, she would clearly have to remain behind with her child.
As to how all this resonated in Qulan’s mind, though, Chinggis was wary of heedlessly rushing to speak. Although he was usually able to surmise what someone was thinking, man or woman, only in the case of Qulan was this never true. In his estimation, her mind was as unfathomable as innumerable lakes filled to overflowing with cobalt blue water and shut away deep in the Altai mountain range.
As he now waited anxiously for the appointed time, however, Chinggis had to say something. Her eyes staring right at him, Chinggis scowled back and said:
“Qulan, you must come with me.”
Having disgorged the words, he realized that he had blurted out precisely the opposite of what he had been thinking until this point. He was startled by his own words. At that moment, Qulan’s expression for the time softened.
“Great khan,” she said softly, “had you just now uttered the very opposite of what you said, I believe I would have chosen death. Great khan, you have saved my life. What shall I do with Kölgen?”
Chinggis was no longer of a mind to be able to resist Qulan’s will.
“Kölgen too must cross the Great Wall,” he said.
When he finished speaking, Chinggis had finally made up his mind once and for all that Kölgen would accompany them. Although just a three-year-old, he was a member of the Mongolian wolf pack. In such a battle against the Jin, in which they were gambling everything, even if his four limbs had not yet fully grown, what possible objection could be raised before the descendants of the blue wolf to his coming on this mission?