Volume Three元朝秘史 卷03

When Temujin came back from there and reached home, old Jarchiudai came from before Mount Burkhan. He carried a blacksmith's bellows on his back and led a son named Jelme. He said, "When you were born long ago in the land of Deliun Boldakh, I gave you a swaddling wrap of sable. I gave you Jelme at that time as well, but he was small, so I took him away and raised him. Now let this son saddle your horse and open and shut your door." So he spoke, and he gave him.

While they were living so, one day in the early morning, at the hour when the gray dark was about to lift, the old woman who served in the house of Mother Hoelun said, "Mother! Mother! Get up quickly. There is a sound of the earth trembling. Can it not be those Taichiud brothers who harried us before and whom we feared, coming again? Mother, get up quickly."

Mother Hoelun said, "Go to my sons and wake them quickly." Hoelun rose at once, and Temujin and his brothers rose at once. Hoelun, Temujin, Khasar, Khachiun, Temuge Otchigin, Belgutei, Boorchu, and Jelme each mounted one horse. Temulun her mother held in her arms on horseback. Only Temujin had a led horse besides, and Lady Borte had no horse to ride.

Temujin and his brothers mounted at once and went up Mount Burkhan. An old woman named Khoakchin wished to hide Lady Borte. She set her inside a black covered cart, harnessed a brindled ox to the cart, and went up along the little Tunggelik River. As they went, the sky was dark, and toward daybreak a troop of soldiers came toward them from in front. They reached the cart and asked, "What people are you?" That old woman said, "I belong to Temujin's house. I went to the great house to shear sheep, and I am going home now." Those soldiers said, "Is Temujin at home or not? How far is it from here?" The old woman said, "The house is not far. I came out from the back house, so I do not know whether Temujin is at home or not." So she spoke.

After those soldiers had gone, the old woman named Khoakchin drove the brindled ox that pulled the cart. She tried to go quickly, and she broke the axle of the cart. She was about to go on foot and flee into the wooded hills when those soldiers came back. They had seized the mother of Belgutei and set her on a horse behind one of them. They said, "What person is inside this cart?" The old woman Khoakchin answered, "It is loaded with sheep's wool." That soldier said, "Brothers, get down and look." So the soldiers got down, pulled the cart door open, and looked, and they saw a young woman sitting inside. They dragged her down from the cart at once and set her on a horse with the old woman. Then they went after Temujin, following the swept trail up Mount Burkhan.

Those soldiers followed on Temujin's track and went around Mount Burkhan three times, and they could not take him. They tried this way and that way to find a straight road and chase him, but everywhere they met deep mire and thick forest and could not get in. They could only follow behind and chase him, and for this reason they could not take him. Those soldiers were men of the three branches of the Merkit. One branch was Tokhtoa of the Uduid Merkit. One branch was Dair Usun of the Uwas Merkit. One branch was Khaatai Darmala of the Khaad Merkit. These three branches of the Merkit had come now to repay a grievance of old days, when Yesugei took Hoelun away from Chiledu. Those Merkit said together, "For the grievance of Hoelun who was taken from us, we have seized Temujin's wife. With this it is repaid." When they had spoken, they went down from the mountain and returned home.

Temujin did not know whether the Merkit had truly gone back or were lying hidden. He sent three men, Belgutei, Boorchu, and Jelme, to go behind them and search them out. After three nights they saw that the Merkit were far off, and only then did Temujin come down from the mountain. He beat his breast and spoke to Heaven, saying, "Because old mother Khoakchin could hear like a weasel and see like a sable, I was able to get away. Mount Burkhan sheltered my small life and saved it. I will make offerings to this mountain always, for long years to come, and my children's children will make offerings in the same way." When he had spoken, he turned toward the sun. He loosed his belt and hung it on his neck, took off his cap and held it in his hand, beat his breast, knelt nine times, and poured out mare's milk as an offering.

When that was done, Temujin, Khasar, and Belgutei, the three of them, went to the Black Forest on the Tola River, to Tooril Ong Khan. They came and said, "Beyond all thought, the three branches of the Merkit have carried off my wife. Emperor and father, how will you rescue my wife for me?" Ong Khan said, "Last year, when you brought me the sable coat, I said, 'The people who have scattered and parted from you, I will gather together for you.' I have kept it in my mind always. I will now act on those words. I will destroy the Merkit and bring your wife Borte back to you. Tell your younger brother Jamukha. He is living in the land of Khorkhonak Jubur. From here I will raise twenty thousand soldiers and be the right hand. Let Jamukha raise twenty thousand soldiers and be the left hand. Let Jamukha fix the day of our meeting."

Temujin and his two brothers returned home. Temujin sent Khasar and Belgutei to Jamukha, to say this to him: "My wife has been carried off by the Merkit. We are men of one kindred. How should such a grievance be repaid?" He had them carry the words of Ong Khan as well. Khasar and the other told Jamukha all the words that had been given them. Jamukha said, "I too heard that the wife of my anda Temujin had been carried off by others, and my heart was very sore. Now, of those three branches of the Merkit, Tokhtoa is in the land of Buura Keer. Dair Usun is in the land of Talkhun Aral, between the Orkhon River and the Selengge River. Khaatai Darmala is in the land of Kharaji Keer. We can bind rafts of hogweed and cross the Kilkho River straight over and come into the land of Tokhtoa of the Merkit. We can go in as though through the smoke hole of his house, and take his people captive to the last one."

Jamukha spoke again: "Say this to Temujin and Ong Khan, the two of them. 'I have already made my soldiers and horses ready. When Ong Khan my elder brother mounts, let him pass before Mount Burkhan Khaldun and come together with Temujin, and let us meet in the land of Botokhan Boorji. The people of my anda Temujin are here with me. From those people I will raise ten thousand soldiers, and I will raise ten thousand of my own, and twenty thousand soldiers in all will mount. Come up along the Onon River to the land of Botokhan Boorji, and we will meet there together.'" So he spoke, and they went.

Khasar and Belgutei came back and told Temujin the words of Jamukha, and they sent word to Ong Khan as well. When Ong Khan heard the words of Jamukha, he at once set twenty thousand soldiers on horseback. He went from before Mount Burkhan Khaldun toward the bank of Burgi on the Kerulen River. At this time Temujin was staying at the bank of Burgi. He learned that the great army of Ong Khan was passing that way, and he moved his camp. He went up along the Tunggelik River and came down beside the little Tana River, before Mount Burkhan. Temujin brought out his soldiers from there. Ong Khan had ten thousand, and his younger brother Jakha Gambu had ten thousand, twenty thousand in all. When they had camped in the land named Ail Kharakhana, beside the Kimurkha River, Temujin joined them.

Temujin, Ong Khan, and Jakha Gambu, the three of them, joined there and set out for the land of Botokhan Boorji at the head of the Onon River, the place they had agreed on at first. When they arrived, Jamukha had already come three days before them. He saw the soldiers of Ong Khan's side, and he drew up his twenty thousand soldiers in order. Ong Khan's side also came with their soldiers drawn up in order, and they all knew one another. Jamukha said, "The day agreed on must be kept, even if there is wind and rain. So it has been said. Among us Dadan, a word we have answered is the same as an oath. If a man does not keep it, we do not keep him among our companions." When they had spoken so together, Ong Khan said, "I came three days late to the land where we agreed to meet. Whether my younger brother Jamukha blames me or punishes me, I leave it to you." So he spoke.

They set out from the land of Botokhan Boorji and came to the bank of the river named Kilkho. They bound rafts and crossed, and came to the land of Buura, and took the wives and children and the people of Tokhtoa captive to the last one. Tokhtoa was sleeping at the time, and he might even have been taken. But when they were crossing the Kilkho River, the fishermen and hunters of Tokhtoa were on the bank. They went ahead through the night and gave word. So Tokhtoa, with Dair Usun and a few men, fled with bare bodies along the Selengge River into the land of Barghujin.

Those Merkit people fled in confusion through the night along the Selengge River, and the army of Temujin followed close behind them and took captives as it went in the night. As they went, Temujin called the name of his wife Borte among those fleeing people. Borte heard it among those people and knew that it was the voice of Temujin. She jumped down from the cart and ran up with the old woman Khoakchin and took hold of the reins before Temujin's horse. At this time the moon was bright, and they knew one another. That same night Temujin sent a man to Ong Khan and Jamukha, the two of them, and said, "I have found the one I was seeking. Let us not go on in the night. Let us make camp here." So they made camp there at that time, and the scattered Merkit people who had fled made camp and slept as well. This is how Lady Borte Ujin was rescued and brought back.

At the first, Tokhtoa of the Uduid, Dair Usun of the Uwas, and Khaatai Darmala of the Khaad, these three branches of the Merkit, led three hundred men and came. They came to repay a grievance, because in earlier days Yesugei had taken Hoelun, the wife of Chiledu, the younger brother of Tokhtoa. They went around Mount Burkhan three times and could not take Temujin. They took only Borte, and they carried her off and gave her as a wife to a strong man named Chilger, the younger brother of Chiledu. Now, when the soldiers and horses came, Chilger was afraid. He fled, and as he went he said, "I am like a black crow. My lot is to eat no more than scraps of hide, and yet I thought to eat wild geese and swans. That is why I laid hands on Lady Borte. Now I have brought disaster on all the Merkit people, and that disaster will come down on my own head. If I carry off my one life and crawl into some dark and narrow place, can it shelter me?" Muttering so, he fled away.

They took only Khaatai Darmala. They fastened a wooden yoke on his neck and went straight on toward Mount Burkhan. As for the mother of Belgutei, people told him, "She is in that camp." Belgutei went in by the right of the door to fetch her. His mother was wearing a worn sheepskin coat, and she went out by the left of the door. Outside she said to the people there, "I have heard that my sons have become princes. Here I have been given to a worthless man. With what face can I meet my sons?" When she had spoken, she went into the thick forest, and to the end she was not found. For that reason, whenever Belgutei saw a Merkit, he had them shot with whistling arrows, and he said, "Give me back my mother." Of those three hundred men who had once come and gone around Mount Burkhan three times, every one was destroyed. Of the wives and children who were left, those who could be made wives were made wives, and those who could be made servants were made servants.

Temujin gave thanks before Ong Khan and Jamukha, the two of them, and said, "Ong Khan my father, and Jamukha my anda, because you two became my companions, Heaven and earth added strength to me. A man's grievance has been repaid. We have broken the Merkit people and taken their wives and children. Let us now go back." So they spoke together.

At the first, when the Uduid and the Merkit fled in confusion, they left behind in the camp a small boy of five years. His name was Kuchu. That boy was handsome, and there was a light in his eyes. He wore a coat pieced together from white sable, a cap of sable skin, and boots of deer hoof leather. When the soldiers and horses came, they picked him up and brought him, and gave him as a gift to Mother Hoelun.

Temujin, Ong Khan, and Jamukha, the three of them, joined together and pulled down the houses of the Merkit Dadan and carried off their good women. Then they turned back. They drew off from the land of Talkhun Aral, between the Orkhon River and the Selengge River. Temujin and Jamukha went back toward the land of Khorkhonak Jubur. Ong Khan passed behind Mount Burkhan Khaldun and went through three lands, Kokhortu Jurbu, Khachauratu Subchid, and Kuriyatu Subchid, hunting as he went, and turned back toward the Black Forest on the Tola River.

Temujin and Jamukha, the two of them, came to the land of Khorkhonak Jubur and camped together. They thought of the things they had given and taken when they bound themselves to each other in the old days, and they said together that they would hold each other dear once more. When they first became anda, Temujin was eleven years old. They were playing at anklebones on the ice of the Onon River, and Jamukha gave Temujin the anklebone of a roe deer. Temujin gave back to Jamukha an anklebone filled with cast copper, and so they became anda. Afterward, in the spring, Temujin and Jamukha were shooting arrows, each with a small wooden bow. Jamukha made a whistling arrowhead from the horn of a calf and gave it to Temujin, and Temujin gave Jamukha an arrowhead tipped with pine wood. This is how they became anda twice.

Temujin and Jamukha said, "We have heard it in the words of the old men, 'Whenever men become anda, they are as one life. They do not cast each other off, and they guard each other's lives.' Such is the way of holding each other dear. Now let us bind ourselves anew and hold each other dear." So they spoke together. Temujin took the gold belt he had won from the Merkit and fastened it on Jamukha, and he gave him as well a mare he had won that had borne no foal for some years. Jamukha too gave Temujin the gold belt he had won from Dair Usun of the Merkit, and he gave him as well a white horse with horns that he had won. In the land of Khorkhonak Jubur, before the cliff of Kuldakhar, under a spreading pine, they held a feast, and at night they slept under one quilt.

Temujin and Jamukha, the two of them, held each other dear and lived together a year and a half. One day, when they were moving from that camp, it was the sixteenth day of the fourth month of summer. Temujin and Jamukha went along together in front of the carts. As they went, Jamukha said, "If we come down now close under the mountain, those who herd the horses will have tents to live in. If we come down close under the ravine, those who herd the sheep and the lambs will have food for their throats." Temujin kept silent. He stood still and fell behind, and when his mother Hoelun came up, he told her the words Jamukha had just said, and he said, "I did not understand those words, and I did not answer him. I have come on purpose to ask my mother." Before his mother could speak, Borte said, "People have said of your anda Jamukha that he loves what is new and tires of what is old. Now he has grown tired of us. Are those words he has just spoken not a design against us? Let us not come down. Let us go on through the night and part from him in a good way."