[1] The Jaihun or Oxus.
CHAPTER II.
OF CERTAIN BATTLES THAT WERE FOUGHT BY KING CAIDU AGAINST THE ARMIES OF
HIS UNCLE THE GREAT KAAN.
Now it came to pass in the year of Christ's incarnation, 1266, that this
King Caidu and another prince called YESUDAR, who was his cousin,
assembled a great force and made an expedition to attack two of the Great
Kaan's Barons who held lands under the Great Kaan, but were Caidu's own
kinsmen, for they were sons of Chagatai who was a baptized Christian, and
own brother to the Great Kaan; one of them was called CHIBAI, and the
other CHIBAN.[NOTE 1]
Caidu with all his host, amounting to 60,000 horse, engaged the Kaan's two
Barons, those cousins of his, who had also a great force amounting to more
than 60,000 horsemen, and there was a great battle. In the end the Barons
were beaten, and Caidu and his people won the day. Great numbers were
slain on both sides, but the two brother Barons escaped, thanks to their
good horses. So King Caidu returned home swelling the more with pride and
arrogance, and for the next two years he remained at peace, and made no
further war against the Kaan.
However, at the end of those two years King Caidu assembled an army
composed of a vast force of horsemen. He knew that at Caracoron was the
Great Kaan's son NOMOGAN, and with him GEORGE, the grandson of Prester
John.