Thus died at the age of 66 this great general, whose armies had triumphed victoriously over the whole of Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea and the Indus to Corea and the Yang-tsze Keang. With his dying breath he adjured his son to complete the conquest of China, and with a view to this, the crowning desire of his life, he declined to nominate either of the two eldest sons who had been born to his Chinese wives as his heir, but choose rather his third son Ogdai whose mother was a Tatar. On hearing of the death of Jenghiz Khan the Kins sent an embassy to his successor desiring peace, but Ogdai, remembering the last injunctions of his father, told them there would be no peace for them until their dynasty should be overthrown. Up to this time the Mongols had been without any code of laws. The old rule
“That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can,”
was the maxim on which they guided their mutual intercourse, and the punishments due for offences were left entirely to the discretion of the officials before whom the culprits were tried. The consistency, however, which had been given to the nation by the conquests of Jenghiz Khan made it necessary to establish a recognized code of laws, and one of the first acts of Ogdai was to form such a code. With the help also of Yay-lu Tsoo-tsai, he established custom houses in Chih-li, Shan-tung, Shan-se, and Leaou-tung; and for this purpose divided these provinces into ten departments. Meanwhile the war with the Kins was carried on with energy. In 1230 Se-gan Foo was taken, and sixty important posts were captured. Two years later Too-le, brother of Ogdai, took Fung-tseang Foo and Han-chung Foo, in the flight from which last-named place 100,000 persons are said to have perished. Following the course of the River Han in his victorious career this general destroyed 140 towns and fortresses, and defeated the army of Kin at Mount San-fung.
In the following year the Mongol cause suffered a great loss by the death of Too-le. This famous warrior left behind him twelve sons, two of whom, Mangu, the first born, and Kublai, the fourth son, were destined to sit in succession on the throne of their uncle Ogdai. But their time was not yet. First of all they had to win their spurs, and well did they prove by their deeds their right to the name of Mongol or “daring.” In China, in Central Asia, and on the banks of the Caspian they led their victorious armies. But meanwhile, in 1232, the Mongols made an alliance with the state of Sung, by which, on condition of Sung helping to destroy Kin, Ho-nan was to be the property of Sung for ever. The effect of this coalition soon became apparent. Barely had the Kin emperor retreated from Kai-fung Foo to Joo-ning Foo in Ho-nan when the former place fell into the hands of the allies. Next fell Loyang, and the victorious generals then marched on to besiege Joo-ning Foo. The presence of the emperor gave energy to the defenders, and they held out until every animal in the city had been killed for food, until every old and useless person had suffered death to lessen the number of hungry mouths, until so many able-bodied men had fallen by the hand of the enemy that the women manned the ramparts, and then the allies stormed the walls. Once inside the town the inhabitants, enfeebled by starvation, fell ready victims to their swords. The emperor, like another Sardanapalus, despairing now of success, burned himself to death in his palace, that his body might not fall into the hands of his enemies. For a few days the shadow of the imperial crown rested on the head of his heir Changlin, but in a tumult which broke out amongst his followers he lost his life, and with him ended the “Golden” dynasty, which from that time disappeared from the country's annals until the Manchoo family now reigning came, nearly four centuries later, to claim the throne as heirs of the defender of Joo-ning Foo.
