He Is A Very Valiant Man, Strong Of Body And
Well Exercised In Arms, And Evinced Himself Such, In Many Actions, Before
He Attained To Empire, Which He Effected By His Superior Wisdom And
Management, Contrary To The Will Of His Brethren.
Before his accession, he
shewed himself a more valiant soldier, and a wiser general than ever the
Tartars had before his time.
Yet, since he has swayed the empire, he has
always deputed his sons and other generals upon military expeditions, and
has only since then gone into the field on the following occasion.
In the year 1257, or 1258, his uncle[2] named Naiam, being then thirty
years of age, who had the command of so many countries and nations, that he
could easily have mustered 400,000 horse, became puffed up with youthful
vanity, determined to take away the empire from his lord, and drew into his
schemes another great Tartar prince, named Caydu, who was nephew to Kublai,
and commanded on the borders of great Turkey, and who engaged to bring an
100,000 men into the field, in aid of the ambitious project of Naiam. Both
of these confederates began to gather forces; but this could not be done so
secretly as not to come to the knowledge of the great khan, who immediately
set guards on all the roads into the desert, and assembled all the forces
which lay within ten days journey of Cumbalu[3], the imperial residence. In
twenty days, he had collected an army, amounting to 360,000 horse and
100,000 foot, a large part of which vast force was composed of huntsmen and
falconers, and persons belonging to the imperial household. With this army,
Kublai marched with all expedition into the province occupied by Naiam,
where he arrived at the end of twenty-five days march altogether
unexpectedly, and before Naiam had completed his preparations, or had been
joined by his confederate Caydu. After giving his troops two days rest, and
having encouraged his men in the confident expectation of victory, by means
of his astrologers and soothsayers, he advanced towards the encampment of
Naiam, and appeared with his whole army on a hill, over against the camp of
the rebels, who had not even sent out any scouts to procure intelligence.
Kublai-khan was seated on the top of a wooden castle, carried by four
elephants, and filled with archers and cross-bow men, from which the royal
standard was displayed, on which the pictures of the sun and moon were
pourtrayed. Dividing his army into three bodies, he kept one as a reserve
on the hill beside himself, and sent the two wings to attack the army of
Naiam, who resolved to stand the issue of a battle. To every ten thousand
horse in the army of Kublai, five hundred light armed footmen with lances
were assigned, who had been taught to leap up behind the horsemen on any
occasion when flight or retreat became necessary, and were instructed to
alight, and kill the horses of the enemy during battle.
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