Chagan Timur, having won back Honan, put garrisons in the principal cities and passed over then to Shan tung to restore it to the Mongols. On reaching this province he received the submission of Tien fong and Wang se ching, two chiefs of the rebels. He divided his army into several corps and sent these into action on all sides. He himself went to Tsi nan, the chief city, or capital, to besiege it, and took the place after three months’ investment. After that he attacked Y tu, the only place left those insurgents at that time, 1362. Tien fong and Wang se ching repented now of having aided this shrewd leader of the Mongols, so they plotted death to him. Tien fong invited the general to a review of his army, and Chagan Timur, who accounted Tien fong as the best among all of his intimates, took with him only a dozen attendants. Barely had he entered the tent of his host when Wang se ching gave him a death blow. The two friends hurried then with their forces and entered Y tu as had been agreed with the governor. Kuku Timur, the murdered man’s son by adoption, inherited his dignities and title, and continued the siege of Y tu in obedience to the Emperor. He attacked the place eagerly, and finding resistance as brave as the onset, he turned to dig tunnels, and dug till he worked himself into that city and took it. The chief of the rebels he sent to the Emperor, but Tien fong and Wang se chin he reserved for his personal and exquisite vengeance. He brought them bound and alive to the coffin of Chagan Timur, and there tore their hearts out, those hearts he then offered to the spirit of his father. All [[405]]the troops of these men who had followed them into the city were put to the sword without exception.
A new Emperor appeared now in Su chuan, an officer named Ming yu chin, who had been sent to conquer this province by Siu chiu hwei just before he was beaten to death with a crowbar. Ming yu chin, having learned of the murder of his master, made conquests for himself and finished by capturing the Su chuan capital, where he proclaimed himself Emperor and called his dynasty the Hia.
Now began war between Chu yuan chang, the coming Emperor of China, and Chin yiu liang, that seeker for Empire who, when a general, had beaten to death with a crowbar his own would-be Emperor, Siu chiu hwei. Chin had taken Tai ping and advanced to the lands of Nan king. Chu yuan marched against him, and when he had taken Nan king he found Chin near Kiu kiang and cut his army to pieces. Chin fled to Wu chang. Chu yuan captured Kiu kiang, and then Nan chang fu. Master of this capital, he received submission from the principal cities of Kiang si. Chin, wishing to win back Nan chang fu at all hazards, equipped a vast number of vessels and laid siege to the city, which he pressed cruelly, hoping to take the place before Chu yuan chang could appear with relief for it; but those in command made a gallant defence and were able to notify Chu yuan of their peril. Chu yuan sailed away from Nan king to assist them with his flotilla, bearing on it a numerous army. To cut off retreat from his enemy he ranged all his craft near Hu kiu, where Lake Poyang joins the Kiang si through a channel. Chin, who had besieged Nan chang eighty-five days in succession, raised the siege straightway, and entered the lake, where he met Chu’s flotilla. The battle raged for three days, when Chin, who had lost most of his vessels, was killed by an arrow. Chin chan ulh, his eldest son, named by him successor, was captured, and his principal officers yielded to the victor. Chin li, the second son, fled to Wu chang and proclaimed himself Emperor; but besieged, and seeing his cause in utter chaos, he yielded without asking conditions. The surrender of this capital of Hu kuang was followed by that of the province. Conquest was made easy now by Chu yuan changes reputation for leniency, and the discipline of his army.
Before this campaign which destroyed the would-be new dynasty [[406]]of Han, Chu yuan, learning that Chang se ching and Liu chin had captured Ngan fong, where the Sung Emperor was living, and that they had slain Liau fu tong, his commander in that city, advanced toward it and defeated Liu chin. Giving up command of his army then to his general, Su ta, Chu charged him in 1366 with the investing of Hiu chiu. The Mongols recaptured Ngan fong after Chu yuan chang had departed.
Now new troubles burst forth among the Mongols, and first that which seemed most serious: After the murder of Chagan Timur, the one man who might have restored Mongol authority in China, Polo Timur, his opponent, strove to capture Tsin ki, and, in spite of repeated commands from the Emperor, he sent troops to take the place. These troops were defeated by Kuku Timur, son of Chagan. Polo Timur then desisted, but another event armed him soon against even the Emperor. The weakness of the sovereign favored factions, and the heir, who was unprincipled and ambitious, took active part in the struggles of rivals. Cho se kien, the first minister, persuaded the heir that many great persons, whom he named, were ready to rise in rebellion; he then induced him to ruin them. The prince accused these men to his father, and through his power of insistence brought death to two leading persons.
Cho se kien and the eunuch, Pa pu hwa, bound to each other by criminal plotting, now feared lest Tukien Timur, a friend of the two men just done to death without reason, might avenge them, hence they decided to destroy Tukien also. They brought a criminal action against him. Polo Timur roused a defender to act for him. The heir, enraged by this daring, accused Polo himself of complicity with Tukien and had him stripped of his office. Polo refused to yield up command and his enemy Kuku Timur was sent to constrain him. Polo knew that this order had been given without the Emperor’s knowledge, and induced Tukien to make a feint on the capital, hence he seized the Kiu yong kwan fortress. They wished to bring the Emperor to banish the man who had taken possession of him. Ye su, who commanded the place next that fortress, attacked Tukien Timur, but his forces were utterly broken. Thereupon the heir, not feeling secure in the capital, fled northward for safety. Tukien now advanced to the river Tsing ho, where he halted to wait for the Emperor’s [[407]]decision. He declared that Polo Timur, by whose orders he was acting, had no dream of failing in duty to the Emperor, he merely desired to deliver his sovereign from Cho se kien and Pa pu hwa the two traitors; he would retire the moment these direst foes of the Emperor were given to him. They meditated long at the court over this proposition, counter proposals were made, but Tukien remained firm and retired only when the two ministers were put in his possession and Polo Timur was reinstated in office.
Mongol dominion had fallen in China and civil war was raging around Shang tu. The heir, a rebel also, was ordered back to Ta tu by the Emperor. He obeyed, but if he did it was simply to assemble an army and send it under Kuku Timur to fall upon Polo at Tai tung fu, his headquarters. Polo, leaving men to defend the place, hastened on to Ta tu with the bulk of his army. The heir advanced to the river Tsing ho, but at sight of Polo’s large army his forces fled to Ta tu, and not feeling safe even in that place, went out through the western gate to join Kuku Timur, then near Tai yuen fu, the Shan si capital. The heir followed them. When they had gone Polo entered Ta tu, and going with a party of his generals to the palace fell at the feet of the Emperor and received pardon for those acts to which, as he said, he had been driven.
Togan Timur made him commander-in-chief and first minister. Polo now, 1364, put to death Tolo Timur, the Emperor’s favorite and companion in debauchery; he drove from the palace a legion of parasites, among others a real cohort of eunuchs and the whole throng of Lamas. At his request the Emperor sent courier after courier to the heir demanding his return to the palace. The heir, far from obeying, resolved to try arms against Polo, his now all-powerful opponent. The recent example of Tukien Timur was in this case most apposite.
When Polo learned that the heir was advancing he arrested Ki, the Empress, and forced her to send in her own hand an order by which she recalled her son to the capital. This done he sent Tukien toward Shang tu to oppose the heir’s Mongol partisans on that side. He sent Ye su, a general, to attack Kuku Timur and the heir, who was with him. Ye su had not marched seven leagues to the south beyond Ta tu when he saw that the officers in his [[408]]army were dissatisfied with Polo, so he assembled the chief ones, and in counsel it was resolved to obey that first minister no longer. They therefore turned back toward Yong ping a short distance, from which point Ye su informed Kuku Timur and the princes in Mongolia of the resolve they had taken.
Polo Timur in despair at this defection sent against Ye su Yao pe yen Buga, his best general. Ye su surprised this man, cut his army to pieces, took him prisoner, and killed him. Polo Timur took the field now himself, but a rain storm which lasted three days and nights prevented all immediate action, and he returned to the capital. The opposition which he met rendered him so distrustful that he put several officers to death on suspicion. Seeking to drown in wine his sad humor, and the grief which had seized him, he grew both ferocious and pitiless. More than once, while in those moods he killed men with his own hand, and he soon became odious to every one.