He Was Then Recalled To Court, And Immediately
Despatched To Mongolia, Where He Continued In Command For Seventeen Years,
His Great Business Being To Keep Down The Restless Kaidu.
["The biography
of this valiant captain is found in the Yuen-shi (ch.
Cxxvii.). It is
quite in accordance with the biographical notices Rashid gives of the same
personage. He calls him Bayan." (Bretschneider, Med. Res. I. p. 271,
note).]
["The inventory, records, etc., of Kinsai, mentioned by Marco Polo, as
also the letter from the old empress, are undoubted facts: complete stock
was taken, and 5,692,656 souls were added to the population (in the two
Chen alone). The Emperor surrendered in person to Bayan a few days after
his official surrender, which took place on the 18th day of the 1st moon
in 1276. Bayan took the Emperor to see Kublai." (E. H. Parker, China
Review, XXIV. p. 105.) - H.C.]
In 1293, enemies tried to poison the emperor's ear against Bayan, and they
seemed to have succeeded; for Kublai despatched his heir, the Prince
Teimur, to supersede him in the frontier command. Bayan beat Kaidu once
more, and then made over his command with characteristic dignity. On his
arrival at court, Kublai received him with the greatest honour, and named
him chief minister of state and commandant of his guards and the troops
about Cambaluc. The emperor died in the beginning of the next year (1294),
and Bayan's high position enabled him to take decisive measures for
preserving order, and maintaining Kublai's disposition of the succession.
Bayan was raised to still higher dignities, but died at the age of 59,
within less than a year of the master whom he had served so well for 30
years (about January, 1295). After his death, according to the peculiar
Chinese fashion, he received yet further accessions of dignity.
The language of Chinese historians in speaking of this great man is thus
rendered by De Mailla; it is a noble eulogy of a Tartar warrior: -
"He was endowed with a lofty genius, and possessed in the highest measure
the art of handling great bodies of troops. When he marched against the
Sung, he directed the movements of 200,000 men with as much ease and
coolness as if there had been but one man under his orders. All his
officers looked up to him as a prodigy; and having absolute trust in his
capacity, they obeyed him with entire submission. Nobody knew better how
to deal with soldiers, or to moderate their ardour when it carried them
too far. He was never seen sad except when forced to shed blood, for he
was sparing even of the blood of his enemy.... His modesty was not
inferior to his ability.... He would attribute all the honour to the
conduct of his officers, and he was ever ready to extol their smallest
feats. He merited the praises of Chinese as well as Mongols, and both
nations long regretted the loss of this great man." De Mailla gives a
different account from Rashiduddin and Gaubil, of the manner in which
Bayan first entered the Kaan's service.
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