Some days after the capture of Yiu chiu Ogotai visited Tului at his camp ground and listened with delight to his narrative of the march from Fong tsiang, during which immense difficulties had been overcome, especially lack of food, which was such that his men had been forced to eat grass, and the flesh of human beings.
The Grand Khan applauded his brother for skill in that perilous enterprise. Tului replied, that success was due mainly to the [[300]]valor and endurance of his warriors, and the fortune attendant on the sovereign of the Mongols.
When he heard of Tului’s achievement, the Kin Emperor summoned to his capital all troops entrusted with defending Honan on its western border; hence the two generals commanding on that side, and the governors of Tung kwan, the great fortress, united their forces, which amounted to one hundred and ten thousand foot with five thousand horsemen, and moved toward Shan chiu, a city south of the Hoang Ho. Two hundred barges were to bear supplies eastward, but the Mongols seized those supplies before they were laden, and when their forces appeared at Tung kwan the man left in command there delivered that mighty defence of Honan to them, and betrayed all the movements about to be made by his Emperor’s army.
The Mongols advanced on Shan chiu, without obstacle. The Kins retired toward the mountains of Thie ling followed by vast crowds of people of every age and both sexes, who had hoped for a shelter in the mountains. As they advanced melting snow made the roads very difficult and sometimes impassable. Pursued by the victors, their aged people and children who lagged behind were cut down without mercy. One Kin general surrendered, but still the captors beheaded him; the others were overtaken and slain as was also the chief Tung kwan governor.
Defence in the west of Honan collapsed utterly. Fourteen cities fell; only two held out bravely. One of these, Ho yang, or Ho nan fu, became famous. This place was defended by three thousand men who remained from the western army. After a furious bombardment, continuing some days, the Mongols made a breach in the walls of Ho yang. The governor deemed the place lost, and, since he would not survive the disgrace of surrender, he sprang into the moat and thus drowned himself. The defenders then chose Kiang chin, a real hero, to lead them. Under him a most desperate resistance was organized. The place held out for three months, till the Mongols, still thirty thousand in number, grown sick and weary of attacking, left that brave city after one hundred and fifty assaults had been made on it.
Ogotai, now master of nearly all places around the Kin capital, fixed his camp fourteen leagues to the west of it, and sent Subotai to finish the struggle. [[301]]
Nan king (Southern capital) at that time was twelve leagues in circumference. Inside the walls a hundred thousand men were assembled to defend it. Desiring to rouse public feeling to the highest the Emperor gave out a stirring appeal to the people written by Chao wun ping, a great scholar. The siege had begun when Ogotai sent an envoy to persuade the Kin Emperor to submit himself. Ogotai asked that the following people be sent first of all to him as hostages: Chao wun ping, a sage of distinction; Kung yuan tse, a descendant of Confucius, with some other great scholars, and twenty-seven families among the most noted; all families of men who had submitted to the Mongols; the wife and children of Yra buka, the heroic Kin general; young women skilled in embroidery, and also men trained well as falconers. The Kin Emperor accepted every condition and offered Uko, his nephew, besides, as a hostage while Egudeh, his procurator, was discussing final peace with the Khan of the Mongols.
In spite of these marks of submission Subotai continued the siege with great vigor. The command had been given him, he said, to capture the capital and he was obeying it. He had planted long lines of catapults; captive women, young girls, old men, and children were carrying fascines and bundles of straw to fill moats and ditches. Fearing to stop negotiations, the Kin general commanding forbade to reply to attacks of the Mongols. This order roused indignation. The Kin Emperor showed himself in the city to the people, attended by a few horsemen only. A body of officers came to him complaining that they were not allowed to defend themselves, though the moat was already half filled by the enemy: “I am ready to be a mere tributary and a vassal to safeguard my subjects,” said the Emperor. “I send my one son this day as a hostage, so be patient till he has gone from me. If the enemy does not retire there will be time then for a life and death struggle.”
The young prince set out that same day with Li tsi, a state minister, but as the attack was continued, the Kin ruler indignant at Mongol duplicity gave the signal for action.
Subotai had set up an immense line of catapults and hurled large, jagged millstones with dreadful impetus. At the end of some days of ceaseless hurling, stones were piled up at points almost to the top of the ramparts; the towers, though built of [[302]]strong timber from old palaces, were broken. To deaden the effect of these millstones the towers were backed with huge bags filled with wheat-straw, and horse dung, covered with felt and tied with cords very firmly, also planks faced with untanned hides of buffaloes. The Mongols hurled fire with ballistas to burn the defences. No projectile, however, could injure those strange massive walls of the fortress, which were mainly of clay grown as solid as iron.