To the facts of the Burmese provocation and of the
engagement within the Yung-ch'ang or Vochan territory, but we have in the
Chinese narrative a consistent chronology and tolerably full detail of the
relations between the two countries.
[Baber writes (p. 173): "Biot has it that Yung-ch'ang was first
established by the Mings, long subsequent to the time of Marco's visit,
but the name was well known much earlier. The mention by Marco of the
Plain of Vochan (Unciam would be a perfect reading), as if it were a plain
par excellence, is strikingly consistent with the position of the
city on the verge of the largest plain west of Yuennan-fu. Hereabouts was
fought the great battle between the 'valiant soldier and the excellent
captain Nescradin,' with his 12,000 well-mounted Tartars, against the King
of Burmah and a large army, whose strength lay in 2000 elephants, on each
of which was set a tower of timber full of well-armed fighting men.
"There is no reason to suppose this 'dire and parlous fight' to be
mythical, apart from the consistency of annals adduced by Colonel Yule;
the local details of the narrative, particularly the prominent importance
of the wood as an element of the Tartar success, are convincing. It seems
to have been the first occasion on which the Mongols engaged a large body
of elephants, and this, no doubt, made the victory memorable.
"Marco informs us that 'from this time forth the Great Khan began to keep
numbers of elephants.' It is obvious that cavalry could not manoeuvre in a
morass such as fronts the city. Let us refer to the account of the battle.
"'The Great Khan's host was at Yung-ch'ang, from which they advanced into
the plain, and there waited to give battle. This they did through the good
judgment of the captain, for hard by that plain was a great wood thick
with trees.' The general's purpose was more probably to occupy the dry
undulating slopes near the south end of the valley. An advance of about
five miles would have brought him to that position. The statement that
'the King's army arrived in the plain, and was within a mile of the
enemy,' would then accord perfectly with the conditions of the ground. The
Burmese would have found themselves at about that distance from their foes
as soon as they were fairly in the plain.
"The trees 'hard by the plain,' to which the Tartars tied their horses,
and in which the elephants were entangled, were in all probability in the
corner below the 'rolling hills' marked in the chart. Very few trees
remain, but in any case the grove would long ago have been cut down by the
Chinese, as everywhere on inhabited plains.
