This same year, 1340, the Emperor removed from the hall of Imperial ancestors Tob Timur’s tablet, and excluded from his court the Empress widow. He exiled also, to Corea, Yang Tekus, treated as heir up to that time. This action was explained by an edict which was worded thuswise in substance: “At the death of Kuluk Khan the Empress, yielding to intrigues, excluded from court Kushala Khan, my own father, and made him prince of Yun nan to be rid of him. When Shudi Bala (Gheghen Khan) was slain, the throne was given to Kushala, who for safety had [[395]]withdrawn beyond the Gobi desert. While my father was returning rule was tendered Tob Timur, who accepted on condition of yielding to Kushala on the latter’s arrival. Meanwhile he sent the seal of Empire to the coming Emperor, who was journeying toward his capital. My father, to reward his brother’s apparent zeal, appointed him successor. In pay for this Tob Timur and his adherents went to meet the Emperor, and caused his death, while showing him great marks of kindness. Then my uncle took the throne a second time. False to the word which he had given my father, he appointed his own son successor. He put to death the Empress Papucha, and sent me as an exile to distant regions. He even tried to prove that I was not Kushala’s son. Heaven punished well this man for so many offenses by taking his life from him. Putacheli, through abuse of authority, placed on the throne to my prejudice a child of seven years, my own brother. When he died the great men and princes gave me that dominion which was due me as eldest son of the Emperor Kushala. My first care has been to purge the court of those intriguers, who breathe only murder and dissensions. Filled with gratitude for Heaven’s favor I cannot uphold those whom its justice has abandoned. Let the right tribunal repair to the hall of Imperial ancestors and remove thence Tob Timur’s tablet; let Putacheli be deprived of her title and appanage of an Empress, and be conveyed to Tong ngan chiu; let Yang Tekus go to Corea as an exile; let all others who have shared this mystery of crime and are still living get the punishment befitting their offenses.”
Yang Tekus was sent to Corea under Yue Kusar, a mandarin, who took his life on the journey. Putacheli was sent to the exile appointed, and died there soon after. Fearing lest people might impute these cruel acts to his counsels, Machartai the minister, who disapproved them, resigned, and his place was taken by Toktagha, his son, and by Timur Buga.
At this time were completed annals of the Liao, the Kin, and the Sung dynasties. Kubilai at beginning his reign had commanded to write memoirs of the first and second of these dynasties, the memoirs being officially established, and after its fall memoirs of the Sung dynasty also. He wished too that the data on which they were founded should form a part of those annals. These labors, neglected, notwithstanding his orders and those of his immediate [[396]]successors, were but slightly advanced when Togan Timur became Emperor. To finish them he established, under Toktagha, a commission of the most eminent scholars in the Empire. These men produced annals of those three dynasties. Besides there were in these works calendars; methods of astronomical research; lists of great men and their biographies; lists of books published by scholars; and in the Sung history a library of books on all subjects. There were also statistics touching several foreign countries, and detailed description of States paying tribute to the dynasties.
At the end of three years Toktagha, disgusted with court life, retired from office. When consulted about a successor he recommended Alutu, a descendant in the fourth generation from Boörchu, the first man of Jinghis Khan’s comrades and one of his four bravest warriors. Alutu when in office exiled Machartai and Toktagha. In 1347 his place was taken by Pierkie Buga, son of the minister Agutai, who had been put to death by Kuluk Khan’s order. This last man held the place only a few months. Turchi, his successor, demanded as colleague Tai ping who obtained the recall of Toktagha, whose father, Machartai, had died while in exile. Toktagha was not slow in regaining the Emperor’s favor, which he made use of to send Tai ping of whom he was jealous into exile.
All this time the insurrection was spreading rapidly in Southern China. In 1341 two private persons had raised troops in Hu kuang, and seized many cities. Discontent had grown rife in Shan tung, while robber bands ravaged other regions. A pirate chief, Fang kwe chin, harried the coasts of Che kiang and Kiang nan. This man sailed up southern rivers, plundered cities, and ruined commerce, turning specially to vessels filled with grain, rice and various provisions intended for the capital. The Mongols seemed to disregard these the earliest attacks, and disorders increased very rapidly. Those who raised them made use of the great public works undertaken in 1351 by the government.
The damage wrought by Hoang Ho floods caused the plan of opening a new bed for a part of the river. An embankment eighty leagues long was undertaken. More than seventy thousand men were employed at this labor, either warriors, or men who lived on both banks of the river, or near them. The insurgents enrolled some impressed laborers, as well as men whose lands had [[397]]been taken for the new river bed, and who were to find land in other places. Fresh taxes imposed to carry out those works increased dissatisfaction.
Han chan tong, an obscure private person, seeing the ferment of minds, raised the report that Fohi (Buddha) had now appeared to deliver the Chinese from Mongol oppression. He roused rebellion in Honan, Kiang nan, and Shan tung, but the chief leaders, knowing that this story would not be accepted unless strengthened, gave out to the world that Han chan tong was of the Sung dynasty, and eighth in descent from Hwei tsung. They took an oath to him, sacrificing a black bull, and a white stallion. They chose then a red cap as ensign. This pretender to Sung blood had very poor fortune, however. Attacked by the Mongols, he was captured and killed by them, but his wife, and his son, Han lin ulh, fled and continued the struggle.
The first reverse did not cast down those rebels. Their principal chief, Liau fu tong, captured cities in Kiang nan and passed over then to Honan with a numerous army. Other chiefs enrolled malcontents in Kiang nan and Hu kuang and gave them the red cap as ensign. One rebel chief, Siu chiu hwei, was proclaimed Emperor at Ki chiu, a city in Hu kuang, and he gave the title Tien wan to the dynasty which he was seeking to establish.
After a feeble resistance the Mongols abandoned the whole Yang tse region. A comet appeared now, and a report was spread widely by the rebels that this heralded Togan Timur’s early downfall. The Mongol Government to conciliate men who had the most influence over people admitted to offices of all kinds those Chinese scholars in the south, who till then had been able to act only in matters touching literature and commerce, and were wholly unfitted for military command.
The government despatched to Honan an army commanded by Yessen Timur, a brother of Toktagha, the prime minister, and exiled to the distant north Yng kwe, a true descendant of the Sung family, with an order not to let him communicate with any man. This was done since most rebel chiefs hid their plans of ambition under pretext of putting the prince on the throne of his fathers.