Volume Five元朝秘史 卷05

After this, in the year of the rooster, the Khatagin and the rest, eleven tribes in all, gathered in the land of Alkhui Bulaq and took counsel. They wished to set up Jamukha as their lord. So the tribes together killed a horse and swore an oath, and they went down along the Erguene River. When they reached the island ground on the Khan Muren River, they set up Jamukha and made him emperor, and they meant to strike Chinggis and Ong Khan. Khoridai of the Khorolas people came to the land of Gurelgu and told Chinggis. Chinggis sent a man to tell Ong Khan, and Ong Khan gathered his soldiers and horses and came to Chinggis.

Ong Khan and Chinggis joined together and went along the Kerulen River to meet Jamukha. Chinggis made Altan and two others his forward scouts, and Ong Khan made Senggum and two others his forward scouts. From among these scouts they chose men again and sent them ahead to watch in three places, Enegen Guiletu and Chaksari and Chigurgu. When Altan and his men reached the land of Ukit-ya, the watchman from Chigurgu came and reported, "The enemy will be here soon." So Altan and his men went forward to learn how things stood. As they went they met four men, Auchu Baatur and the others, who were Jamukha's forward scouts, and they exchanged words. The day was already late, so they came back and passed the night in the camp of the great army.

The next day the soldiers of Chinggis and the soldiers of Jamukha met, and they drew up their lines facing each other in the land of Koyiten. While the lines were being drawn up, two men in Jamukha's army, Buiruk and Khuduka, had an art by which they could call up wind and rain. They meant to put the wind and rain at their backs and strike the soldiers of Chinggis. But the wind and rain turned back against them, and heaven and earth went dark. Jamukha's soldiers could not go forward, and they all fell into the ravine. Jamukha and the others said together, "Heaven does not protect us. That is why this has happened." The army then broke apart.

After Jamukha's army broke and scattered, the Naiman and the other eleven tribes each went back to their own camps. Jamukha turned on the people who had set him up and carried them off, and he went back along the Erguene River. Then Ong Khan pursued Jamukha, and Chinggis pursued Auchu Baatur of the Taichiud people. Auchu Baatur reached his own camp, moved his people, crossed the Onon River, and made ready his soldiers and horses. He waited for Chinggis to come and faced him. Chinggis arrived, and they fought several bouts one after another. When the day grew late, each side passed the night on the ground where it had fought, still facing the other.

When Chinggis fought the Taichiud, his neck was wounded. He lost blood, and his face went very pale. His retainer Jelme sucked out the clotted blood. Only at midnight did Chinggis come to himself. He said, "My blood has dried up. I am very thirsty." Jelme then went naked straight into the enemy camp. He looked for mare's milk in the carts but could not find any. There was only one pail of curds, and he carried it back. In all his going and coming not one man saw him. He looked for water as well, and he thinned the curds with it and gave it to Chinggis to drink. Chinggis drank and rested, drank and rested, and only at the third time did he stop. Chinggis said, "My eyes are clear now, and my mind has woken." Then he rose and sat up, and the day dawned. When he looked at the blood that had run on the place where he had been lying, it was all like mire. Chinggis said, "Why did you do it this way? Would it not have been better to carry it off some distance and throw it away?" Jelme said, "I was in haste and had no time to go far, and I was afraid to leave your side. There on the spot I swallowed what I could swallow and spat out what I had to spit out, so no little of it went into my own belly." Chinggis said again, "I was wounded like this. How could you go naked into the enemy camp? If you had been seized, would you not have told them that I was wounded?" Jelme said, "If I had been seized, I would have said this. 'I was a man who meant to surrender to you. They found me out and stripped off my clothes and were about to kill me, so I tore myself away and fled here.' They would surely have taken my words for the truth. They would have given me clothes and used me, and then I would have mounted one of their horses and come away." Chinggis said, "Long ago, when the Merkit pressed me hard at Mount Burkhan, you saved my life. This time you sucked out the clotted blood. And when I was thirsty, you risked your life again to find curds and give them to me to drink, and you opened up my breast. These three kindnesses I will never forget as long as I live."

The next day Chinggis looked at the enemy, and they had already broken and scattered in the night. The people in the camp thought they could not get away, so they had not moved. Chinggis mounted his horse and meant to bring back even the people who had already fled. Suddenly, on the ridge of the hill, he saw a woman in red clothes weeping and calling out in a loud voice for Temujin. Chinggis sent a man to ask, and the woman said, "I am the daughter of Sorkhan Shira, and my name is Khadaan. My husband is about to be killed by the soldiers, and so I am calling Temujin to come and save him." When Chinggis learned this he went at once to save the man. But by the time Chinggis arrived, the husband had already been killed by the soldiers. Chinggis then made his camp in that place, and he had Khadaan brought and seated beside him. The next day two men, Sorkhan Shira and Jebe, came and presented themselves. The two had belonged to the household of Todoge of the Taichiud people. Chinggis said to Sorkhan Shira, "Long ago, when I wore the cangue, you and your son took it off me. You did me a kindness. Why have you come so late?" Sorkhan Shira said, "My heart was already leaning on you. But if I had come early, I feared the Taichiud would kill my wife and children. That is why I have come only today."

Chinggis asked Jebe, "When the lines faced each other in the land of Koyiten, someone shot from the ridge and broke the neck bone of my horse. Who was it truly?" Jebe said, "It was I who shot. If the emperor now orders me to die, I shall only foul a patch of ground the size of a palm. If you do not kill me, I will give all my strength. I will cut across deep water and shatter hard stone." Chinggis said, "An enemy always hides what harm he has done and does not speak of it. But you do not hide it. You are fit to be a companion." At first Jebe's own name was Jirkhoadai. Because his skill in shooting down the warhorse was so fine, Chinggis gave him the name Jebe and used him as he would a warhorse. Jebe is the name of a weapon.

Chinggis killed off the sons and grandsons of Auchu Baatur and the other Taichiud, moved their people, and came to the land of Khubakhaya, where he passed the winter.

Targutai Kiriltug, an officer of the Taichiud people, had a feud with Chinggis and hid in the forest. A man of his household, old Shirguetu, and his two sons Alakh and Nayaa took Targutai Kiriltug and meant to hand him over to Chinggis. The man's body was fat and he could not ride a horse, so they loaded him into a cart. The younger brother and the son of Targutai Kiriltug came after them, and old Shirguetu was afraid. He pressed Targutai Kiriltug down, drew out his knife, and said, "If I kill you I die, and if I do not kill you I die. It is better that I kill you first and then die myself." Targutai Kiriltug called to his brother and his son and said, "They mean to kill me. If they kill me, what use will my corpse be to you? It is better that you go back quickly. Even if they take me to Temujin, he will surely not kill me. I did him a kindness when Temujin was small." So the brother and the son went back. When Shirguetu reached the land of Khutukhu, his son Nayaa said, "If we take this man to Temujin, he will surely say that we seized our own rightful master and are hard to keep as companions, and he will kill us. It is better to let him go back and to say this to Temujin. 'We did take Targutai Kiriltug and bring him, but because he was our rightful master our hearts could not bear it, and we let him go back.' Then Chinggis will surely receive us." So they let him go, and they came to Chinggis and told him the whole matter. Chinggis said, "If you had brought him here, I would surely have killed you. Your hearts could not bear it, and you let him go. That is well." And so he gave Nayaa a special reward.

After this, while Chinggis was in the land of Tersut, Jakha Gambu, a man of the Kereit people, came and submitted. At that time the Merkit meant to fight Chinggis, and Chinggis, together with Jakha Gambu, drove the Merkit back. The scattered people of the Kereit people and of the Tubegen and the Dongkhaid and other clans also came and submitted. Now this is how Ong Khan of the Kereit people first became a sworn friend of Yesugei, the father of Chinggis. Before that, Ong Khan had killed several younger brothers of his father Khurchakhus Buiruk Khan, and for this his uncle Gur Khan meant to kill him. Gur Khan pursued him as far as the Kharaun mountains, and only a hundred men were left to him, and he came to Yesugei. Yesugei in turn drove Gur Khan out into the land of Khashin, and he gathered up the people Ong Khan had held before and gave them back to him. That is how they became sworn friends.

Later Ong Khan meant to kill his younger brother Erke Khara. The brother fled to Inancha of the Naiman people, and Inancha raised soldiers and drove Ong Khan out instead, to Gur Khan of the Khara Kitai people. Before long Ong Khan turned against Gur Khan. As he passed through the two peoples of the Uighur and the Tangut, he milked five dry sheep and cut the camels to drink their blood, and so he lived. When he came to Lake Guseur, Chinggis, because of his old bond with Ong Khan, sent the brave man Sukegai to meet him. He also followed after himself, came to the head of the Kerulen River, and met Ong Khan there. When they reached the camp, Chinggis had his people supply him. That year he passed the winter in the land of Khubakhaya.

The younger brothers of Ong Khan and the officers counted up his deeds and said, "Ong Khan is cruel in his nature. He has killed off all his brothers, and he has harmed his own people as well. How should we now repay him? Besides, long ago, when he was seven years old, he was carried off by the Merkit and made to pound grain. When he was thirteen, he was carried off by the Tatars along with his mother, and they made him herd their beasts. Later he feared the Naiman would attack and kill him, so he fled again to the Chu River in the Muslim lands and put himself under Gur, the emperor of the Khara Kitai people. Before a year was out he turned against them and left, and he passed through the lands of the Uighur and the Tangut in the greatest hardship, until Temujin relieved him. Now he has forgotten that kindness again and has turned an evil heart on him. What are we to say?" Later Altun Ashukh reported these words to Ong Khan. Ong Khan seized all the brothers and the officers who had taken counsel together, El Khutur and Khulbari and Arin Taishi and the rest. Only his brother Jakha Gambu fled to the Naiman. El Khutur and the others were shut in a room, and Ong Khan said, "When we passed through the Uighur and the Tangut, what did you say then? Can you do such a thing to me? I am not like you." Then he had the others spit in their faces, and after that he released them.

After this, in the autumn of the year of the dog, Chinggis faced four tribes, the Chagaan Tatars and the rest, in the land of Dalan Nemurges. Before the fighting he gave a command to all his soldiers. "Even if you win the fight, do not covet goods. When all is settled, they will be shared out evenly. When the soldiers and horses fall back, come to the place where the line was first drawn up and turn again and fight with all your strength. Whoever reaches the place where the line was first drawn up and does not turn back will be cut down." So they defeated the Tatars, and they came to the land of Shilugeljid on the Ulkhui River and carried off all the baggage camps of the four tribes. In the first fighting Altan and others broke the command and seized goods, so Chinggis sent Jebe and Khubilai to take away from them everything they had got.