The Legend of the Condor Heroes Chapter 3 – Part 7

The next morning at first light, Temüjin¹ set out with his four sons at the head of five thousand horsemen, escorting Wanyan Hongxi² and Wanyan Honglie³ to confer his title on Wang Khan.⁴

The sun was just rising over the far line where the grassland met the sky. When Temüjin mounted, his five regiments of a thousand had long been drawn up in perfect order on the grassland, but the Jin officers and men were still fast asleep in their tents.

At first, seeing the strong men and sturdy horses of the Jin army and their keen weapons and armour, Temüjin had been rather in awe of them. Now, seeing how they loved their ease, he gave a snort and turned to ask Muqali,⁵ “What do you think of the Jin soldiers?”

“A thousand of our Mongol soldiers could beat five thousand of theirs,” Muqali replied.

Temüjin laughed. “That is just what I think myself. Only, I hear the Great Jin has more than a million soldiers, and we have only fifty thousand.”

“A million soldiers cannot all take the field at once,” Muqali said. “If we fight them in pieces, today we wipe out a hundred thousand, tomorrow we sweep away another hundred thousand.”

Temüjin clapped him on the shoulder and laughed. “When it comes to war, you always say just what I’m thinking. A man of a hundred-odd jin⁶ can eat up ten fat oxen of a thousand jin each, just not all in one day.” The two of them laughed aloud together.

Temüjin was riding slowly along when he suddenly saw that the saddle of his fourth son Tolui’s⁷ horse was empty. “Where is Tolui?” he said angrily. Tolui was only nine, but young as he was, Temüjin was severe in the extreme, whether training his sons or drilling his troops, and never excused anyone who broke the rules. At his loud demand every officer and man trembled. The general Boroqul,⁸ who was Tolui’s teacher, was alarmed to see the Great Khan displeased, and said, “The boy has never dared sleep late. I will go and look.” He had only turned his horse to search when two children came running hand in hand. One wore a square of brocade cloth wrapped about his head. This was Temüjin’s youngest son Tolui. The other was Guo Jing.⁹

Tolui ran to Temüjin and called out, “Father!”

Temüjin said sternly, “Where have you been!”

Tolui said, “Brother Guo and I were by the river just now, swearing anda,¹⁰ and he gave me this.” He held it up. It was a red kerchief embroidered with a pattern, which Li Ping¹¹ had made for her son.

Temüjin remembered how he had sworn brotherhood with Jamukha¹² when he was a boy, and he felt a glow of warmth in his heart and his face softened. Seeing the two children before his horse, so innocent and guileless, he asked gently, “And what did you give him?”

Guo Jing pointed at his own neck. “This!”

Temüjin saw that it was the gold collar his youngest son always wore round his neck. He smiled. “From now on the two of you must love each other and help each other.” Tolui and Guo Jing nodded in agreement.

Temüjin said, “Mount up, all of you. This lad Guo Jing can come with us too.” Tolui and Guo Jing were overjoyed and each got on his horse.

They waited more than half a shichen¹³ before the Wanyan brothers finished washing and combing and stepped from their tents. Wanyan Honglie saw the Mongol soldiers had long been drawn up waiting and hastened to order his men into formation. Wanyan Hongxi, however, put on all the airs of a prince of the overlord’s realm. He took his time over several cups of wine and some pastries before he slowly mounted, and another half shichen went by before his ten thousand troops were mustered.

The great column marched north. After six days’ riding, Wang Khan sent his son Senggum¹⁴ and his adopted son Jamukha ahead to welcome them. When Temüjin heard that Jamukha had arrived, he hurried forward at once. The two dismounted and embraced. Temüjin’s sons came forward to pay their respects to their uncle.

Wanyan Honglie studied Jamukha. He was tall and lean, with a few sparse yellow whiskers on his upper lip and bright, piercing eyes, and he looked shrewd and tough. Senggum, on the other hand, was plump and pale, most likely from a pampered life, and did not look at all like a man who had grown up in the great desert. He was haughty too, and barely deigned to notice Temüjin, with none of Jamukha’s warmth.

They marched another day and were not far from Wang Khan’s encampment when two of Temüjin’s forward scouts came galloping back to report, “The Naiman¹⁵ are blocking the road ahead, about thirty thousand of them.”

When Wanyan Hongxi heard the interpreter, he was badly shaken. “What do they want?” he asked hastily.

The scout said, “It looks as if they mean to fight us.”

“They… their numbers… truly thirty thousand? That is more than our…” Wanyan Hongxi stammered. “This… this…”

Temüjin did not wait for him to finish. He turned to Muqali. “Go and find out.”

Muqali took ten personal guards and rode forward. The Mongol column halted and formed a battle line. The Jin soldiers stood in their original formation, awaiting orders. After a while Muqali came back and reported, “The Naiman have heard that princes of the Great Jin have come to confer an office on the Great Khan, and they want an office too. If they don’t get one, they say, they’ll keep the two princes as hostages and let them go only when the Great Jin has given them their office. And they say their office must be higher than Temüjin the Great Khan’s.”

Wanyan Hongxi’s face changed colour. “Since when can an office be demanded by force? This… this is rebellion, surely? What are we to do?”

Wanyan Honglie at once ordered his generals to deploy the troops in battle formation against any emergency.

Jamukha said to Temüjin, “Brother, the Naiman are forever raiding our herds and making trouble for us. Are we going to let them off today? And what are the orders of the two princes of the Great Jin?”

Temüjin’s eyes swept the surrounding terrain. His plan was already formed. “Today we’ll let the two princes of the Great Jin see what we brothers can do!” He drew a deep breath and gave a long, ringing cry, then raised his whip high and cracked it twice in the air. At the two sharp cracks, the five thousand Mongol soldiers suddenly roared in unison, “Ho, ho, ho.” Caught off guard, the Wanyan brothers jumped in fright.

A great cloud of dust rose ahead as the enemy drew nearer, and the Mongol scouts fell back to the main body. Wanyan Hongxi said, “Sixth Brother, order our lads to charge. These Mongols are useless.”

Wanyan Honglie murmured, “Let them take the van.”

Wanyan Hongxi caught on at once and nodded.

The Mongol soldiers continued their great shouting, but did not move. Wanyan Hongxi frowned. “These Mongols are bellowing like cattle and neighing like horses. What is the point? Can they frighten the enemy away just by making a noise loud enough to shake heaven and earth?”

Boroqul commanded the left wing. He said to Tolui, “Stay with me, and do not fall behind. Watch how we kill the enemy.” Tolui and Guo Jing shouted along with the soldiers at the tops of their small voices.

In moments the enemy charged through the dust to within several hundred paces. Still the Mongol soldiers only shouted.

Wanyan Honglie too was puzzled now. Seeing the Naiman coming on fierce and hard, he feared they would break the line and shouted, “Loose!” The Jin troops shot off several rows of arrows, but the enemy was still too far away, and the arrows dropped to the ground before they reached them. Wanyan Hongxi could see the enemy’s faces more and more clearly now, every one of them ferocious, gritting their teeth as they spurred their horses on, and his heart pounded with fear. He turned to Wanyan Honglie. “Perhaps we should just give in. Give them some random title and be done with it. A big one, if need be. It costs us nothing!”

Temüjin swung his long whip and cracked it in the air several more times. The Mongol shouting stopped at once and the army split into two wings. Temüjin and Jamukha each led one, racing like the wind for the high ground on either side, bent low in the saddle and shouting orders as they rode. Company after company of Mongol troops fanned out, and in moments they held every height around. Looking down from above, they had their arrows on their strings and aimed at the enemy, but they did not shoot.

Seeing that the position was against him, the Naiman commander led his men charging up the slopes. The Mongols raised their soft walls, layers of thick wool felt made to stop arrows. The Naiman shot up at the Mongols above, but from below their arrows lacked force, and most were deflected by the felt walls, doing little harm. The Mongol bowmen shot from behind their screens while warriors on neighbouring heights fired into the enemy’s flanks. The Naiman charged this way and that, and were soon in confusion.

Temüjin watched the battle from the height on the left. Seeing the enemy in disorder, he called out, “Jelme,¹⁶ charge their rear.”

Jelme, wielding a great dao,¹⁷ charged down from the height with his thousand riders and swept straight into the enemy’s rear.

Jebe,¹⁸ his long spear levelled, rode out in front of them all. He had only just come over to Temüjin and was determined to kill enemy generals and win merit, to repay the Great Khan for sparing his life. He bent low over his horse and plunged into the enemy’s ranks.

The two brave generals struck so hard that the Naiman rearguard fell into chaos at once, and the vanguard’s morale wavered. While their commander was still wavering, Jamukha and Senggum also charged down with their troops. Attacked from left and right, the Naiman did not fight for long before they broke. Their commander wheeled his horse and fled, and his men streamed back the way they had come. Jelme held his troops back and let the main body go by, and when only some two thousand were left, he suddenly charged out with a whistle and blocked the road. Surrounded with no way out, the bravest of the Naiman stragglers fought back with all their might and were all cut down. The rest threw away their bows, got off their horses, cast down their spears and surrendered.

In that engagement the Mongols killed over a thousand enemy, took more than two thousand prisoners, and captured over a thousand horses. Their own casualties numbered little more than a hundred.

Temüjin ordered the Naiman soldiers stripped of their clothes and armour, and divided the two thousand and more prisoners and their horses into four shares, one for the Wanyan brothers, one for his sworn father Wang Khan, one for his sworn brother Jamukha, and one for himself. The family of every Mongol soldier killed in the battle received five horses and five prisoners as slaves in compensation.

Only now did Wanyan Hongxi get over his fright, and he chattered away in high spirits about the battle. “They wanted a title, Sixth Brother. Let us give them ‘Commissioner of Defeat and Flight.’” He roared with laughter, clutching his belly.

Wanyan Honglie had watched Temüjin and Jamukha beat a greater force with a smaller one, and win a most brilliant victory, and he was secretly alarmed. He thought, The northern tribes are at each other’s throats now, and so our frontier is at peace. But if Temüjin and Jamukha unite the tribes north and south of the desert, the Great Jin Empire will never know a stable border again. He saw too that his own ten thousand Jin soldiers had never come to blows at all, yet when the Naiman vanguard charged up their ranks had begun to waver and every face had shown fear. It could be said the battle was decided before a blow was struck. That the Mongols were so formidable was a grave danger lying in wait. He was still turning these thoughts over when dust rose ahead and another column of horsemen came galloping towards them.

Footnotes

1. 铁木真 — Tiěmùzhēn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 完颜洪熙 — Wányán Hóngxī. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 完颜洪烈 — Wányán Hóngliè. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 王罕 — Wáng Hǎn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 木华黎 — Mùhuálí. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 斤 — jīn. A unit of weight, about 590 grams in the Song dynasty. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

7. 拖雷 — Tuōléi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 博尔忽 — Bó’ěrhū. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 郭靖 — Guō Jìng. His name meaning “to pacify”; paired with Yang Kang’s 康 it recalls the Jingkang Shame of 1127. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

10. 安答 — āndá. The Mongol word for a sworn brother, bound by oath before Heaven. ↩

11. 李萍 — Lǐ Píng. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 札木合 — Zhāmùhé. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

13. 时辰 — shíchén. Traditional Chinese unit of time equal to two hours; the day was divided into twelve shichen. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 桑昆 — Sāngkūn. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 乃蛮 — Nǎimán. A powerful steppe tribe to the west of the Keraites. ↩

16. 者勒米 — Zhělèmǐ. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 刀 — dāo. A single-edged blade, usually curved and broad. ↩

18. 哲别 — Zhébié. Literally spear and divine archer, in Mongolian. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩