In 1214 Mukuli had been sent, as we remember, to the Kitans, whose country had been greatly overrun by Kin armies. During the two years which followed, this best of all Mongol leaders won back that whole region by excellent strategy, finesse, and grand fighting. This work was indispensable in the conquest of China. During 1217 this great general appeared before Jinghis encamped then on the Tula. Mukuli was rewarded beyond all other generals up to that day, and after it. Jinghis praised him in public, lauded his great mental gifts, and his services, called him Kwe Wang, or prince in the Empire, and made this title hereditary. He created him lieutenant commanding in China, and gave him a seal made of gold as a sign of authority. “I have conquered the North,” said Jinghis, “subdue thou the South for me.” And [[89]]he dismissed him with an army of Mongols and Kitans, with the Jutchis, or Manchus, to help them.
In 1218 Jinghis marched on Tangut for the fourth time and brought it to obedience. During that year he received the submission of Corea. Next his activity was turned to a new side, and soon we shall see the opening scenes in that mighty movement begun by Jinghis and continued by his descendants, and still later resumed by his relative, the tremendous Timur, that World Shaking Limper and father of the Mongol rulers of India.
The first place which called the Grand Khan was Kara Kitai on the west, then conterminous with his own growing Empire. Kara Kitai had the following origin: When Kitan rule in North China was overthrown by the Kins, Yeliu Tashi, a relative of the last Kitan Emperor, and also his leading commander, took farewell of his sovereign in 1123, and with two hundred men journeyed westward. Governors and chiefs of tribes in those Chinese provinces through which he passed showed him homage as a descendant of Apaki, and gave armed warriors to strengthen him. At the head of these and his own men, he went farther. Bilik, prince of the Uigurs, from whom he asked a passage, went out to receive him at the boundary, with a large gift of sheep, horses, and camels. Bilik gave also as hostages a number of his sons and grandsons, and recognized the renowned man as overlord.
Yeliu conquered Kashgar, Yarkend, Khotan and Turkistan. Turkistan was at that time under Nahmud Khan, the twentieth prince of his dynasty, a ruler claiming descent from Afrasiab, so famous in Persian story. Nahmud was reduced to the possession of Transoxiana, and, as this region too was attacked somewhat later by Kara Kitans, he became Yeliu’s vassal. Kwaresm met soon the same fate as Transoxiana; Yeliu’s troops brought sword and flame to it, and Atsiz, the second prince of the dynasty of the Kwaresmian Shahs, obtained peace by paying thirty thousand gold coins for it yearly.
When Yeliu had brought under his dominion all regions between the Yaxartes and the Gobi desert, and between the headwaters of the Irtish and the Pamir highlands, he took the title of Gurkhan of Kara Kitai, and fixed his chief residence at Bela Sagun on the [[90]]next large stream east of the Yaxartes River. In 1136, while preparing for war against the Kin sovereigns to win back the Empire which they had snatched from his family, he died, leaving only one son, then a minor. Till 1142 this son was under the tutelage of his mother. Dying in 1155 he left a son, Chiluku, for whom his aunt, Pussuen, was regent till 1167 when he came to majority. When the son of the last Naiman ruler came in 1208 to seek an asylum in Kara Kitai, Chiluku was still ruling. He showed the fleeing Khan a kind welcome, and gave him his daughter in marriage.
Chiluku was occupied mainly in hunting wild beasts, and in seeking for pleasure. This weakness caused the defection of great vassals: the Idikut of the Uigurs; the Khan of Transoxiana; the Kwaresmian Shah, and now it led his perfidious new son-in-law to dethrone him.
The Naiman Khan had attracted some of Chiluku’s commanders, and on collecting the wreck of his late father’s army he saw himself at the head of considerable forces. To begin his plot easily he begged leave of the Gurkhan to assemble the scattered remnants of the Naiman army, then wandering through northeastern lands of the Kara Kitan Empire. These men might be employed, he said, in Chiluku’s service. The weak and kindly old sovereign consented, gave his daughter’s husband rich presents, and confirmed his title Gutchluk, or the Strong Man. The false son-in-law went on his mission. From Iwil, Kayalik and Bishbalik, crowds rushed to his standard. He was joined by the chief of the Merkits, who had fled before the Mongols. These men began to win wealth by incursions in every direction. Further hope of booty caused other bands to follow quickly. Still Gutchluk could not seize the Empire without an ally, and the Empire, or at least a large part of it, was his object.
He turned to Shah Mohammed who had withdrawn from subjection to Chiluku, and had received even the homage of Osman, the Khan ruling then over Transoxiana and Samarkand. Gutchluk asked Shah Mohammed to fall on the Empire, and seize the western part for this service. The Shah gave a favorable answer. Meanwhile a Kara Kitan army was despatched to Samarkand by Chiluku to bring Osman back to obedience. Shah Mohammed hastened to render aid to his vassal, but before his arrival the [[91]]Kara Kitans were recalled to meet Gutchluk, who had now opened war on his father-in-law, the Gurkhan.
While Chiluku’s army was absent in Samarkand, Gutchluk seized in Uzkend the state treasures, and hurried then by forced marches to surprise Bela Sagun. Chiluku, though old, took the field promptly in person, and defeated his son-in-law, who retired in despair after losing a large force of warriors who were killed or taken captive.
Meanwhile Shah Mohammed had crossed the western boundary accompanied by Osman, and met the Kara Kitan forces commanded by Tanigu. He attacked these and captured the commander. The defeated troops while marching home robbed their own fellow subjects and plundered without distinction; Bela Sagun, which preferred Mohammed, would not open its gates to them. Besieged by the troops of their own sovereign they fought for sixteen days, hoping daily to see the Shah’s army. The city was taken by assault, and the people were slaughtered. Fifty-seven thousand persons perished under the sword edge.