On the morrow a rich feast was given by Mangu in a tent of rare stuffs and great splendor. At his right sat the princes descended from Jinghis, at his left the princesses. A similar feast was given each day for seven days in succession. Each day every guest wore a dress of new color; each day three hundred horses and bullocks with five thousand sheep were eaten, while two thousand cart loads of wine and kumis were drunk to drive away thirst and console the great company.
In the midst of this feasting and pleasure a man, known as Kishk, made his way to the Grand Khan’s pavilion with the statement that he had discovered a plot against Mangu and the princes assembled. He declared that while looking for a mule which had strayed from him he fell in with a body of men going forward with carts, which at first he had thought to be filled with supplies for the Kurultai. He came on a lad and walked for a time with him. The lad mistook Kishk for one of the party, and asked the mule owner to help him in fixing his cart which was injured. Kishk turned to assist; and seeing the cart filled with arms asked the lad why he was taking them. “I have the same as the others,” replied he. Kishk was astonished at this, and after some cautious [[321]]inquiries discovered that the princes Shiramun, Nagu and Khodja were going to the Kurultai to make use of the moment when all would be drunk to finish Mangu and his followers. Kishk declared that through eagerness to tell what he knew at the earliest he had made in one day three days’ journey.
The story was received with astonishment at first, and seemed altogether unreal. Kishk was asked to repeat it, so he told all the details again and in such fashion this time that every doubt vanished. Each prince wished to go himself and look into the matter. It was decided to send Mangusar, the chief general, and the first person who in the Kurultai proposed that Mangu should be raised to the throne; with him went two or three thousand men. The princes were not more than two days from the Ordu.
Mangusar reached their camp very early in the morning and, having surrounded it, approached the tent of the princes with one hundred horsemen. He called to them that it had been reported to Mangu that they were coming with evil intentions. If that were false they could clear themselves quickly by going to the Ordu at once. If they would not go, he had orders to take them. The princes came out of their tent, and, seeing that their camp was surrounded, said that they were on the way to give homage to Mangu, and were about to continue their journey. They were forced, however, to follow Mangusar, and were permitted to take only twenty men with them as an escort.
Arriving at the Ordu they offered their presents by nines according to Mongol custom. The first two days they took part in the festival unquestioned, but on the third day the three princes were arrested when ready to enter the Grand Khan’s pavilion. Next day Mangu himself questioned them. He began by saying that, though the charges might seem improbable, he was bound to convince himself and thus destroy all suspicions against them, and punish their accusers.
The princes denied the whole story with firmness. Mangu questioned Shiramun’s governor, who was forced by the bastinado to avow the conspiracy, but it was made, he declared, by him and his officers without knowledge of the princes; after these words he drew his own sabre and killed himself. A commission of generals under Mangusar was formed to report on the confessions of [[322]]the officers of the three princes from whom the avowal of a plot was at last forced.
Mangu wished to pardon these officers, but his generals and relatives declared that he should not let slip that chance to be rid of his enemies. Yielding to this advice he had the officers put in irons; still he wavered and again asked advice of his chief men. They advised him one after another, but even then he continued irresolute. At last seeing Mahmud Yelvadje, the one man who till then had kept silence, he summoned him and asked why he said nothing. Yelvadje cited Alexander, who sent a confidant to ask Aristotle how to treat a detected conspiracy. Aristotle took the man to a garden; while they were walking he ordered to pull up some well rooted trees and plant feeble saplings instead of them. No other answer was given. The man went back and told Alexander, who understood; he had all the conspirators slain, and sent their young sons to replace them.
Mangu, struck by the story, put to death seventy officers. Among them were two sons of Ilchi Kidai then in Persia. Stones were forced into the mouths of these sons who were stifled in that way; the father was arrested in Khorassan and conveyed to Batu who took life from him. The three princes were pardoned through the intercession of Mangu’s mother.
In February, 1252, Mangu lost his mother, Siur Kukteni. She was a niece of Wang Khan and a Christian; they buried her next to her husband, Tului. In August, 1252, Mangu went to Kara Kurum to judge hostile princes and princesses. With Ogul Gaimish, he was especially angry, since she, when summoned to render him homage, had answered that Mangu and the other princes had sworn not to choose a Grand Khan unless from among the descendants of Ogotai. Both hands and arms of Ogul Gaimish were sewed up in a leather bag, and she with Shiramun’s mother was taken to the residence of Siur Kukteni. Mangusar stripped her there of all clothing and then proceeded to interrogate. She reproached him indignantly with exposing her body, which had never been seen by any man save a sovereign. Both women were declared guilty of trying to kill Mangu by magic. They were rolled up in felt rugs and drowned immediately. The sons of these two women confessed that their mothers had incited them not to recognize Mangu. Kadak and Chinkai, the chief counsellors [[323]]of Ogul Gaimish, were put to death also. Buri, the grandson of Jagatai, was delivered to Batu, who had him killed in revenge for words used when in liquor.
The three princes were spared by Mangu in view of their kinship: Khodja was sent to Suligai, east of Kara Kurum; Nagu and Shiramun were ordered to the army. When Kubilai was going, some time later, to China, Mangu as a favor let him take Shiramun on that journey, but when Mangu himself went to China he had Shiramun drowned, through mistrust of this young man, who had been destined to the throne by his grandfather. The greater part of Ogotai’s descendants were sent to various places and deprived of the troops which were theirs by inheritance. Mangu gave those troops to other princes devoted to his person. He spared only Kadan Melik and the sons of Prince Kutan, who had come with good grace to give homage. He not only left them their troops, but gave each man one of Ogotai’s ordus, and one of his widows.