A JUSTIFIABLE SURRENDER. 339 resistance were almost exhausted, and that unless aid promptly came his soldiers would refuse to continue what could only be a vain defence. Kublai's generals perceiving the temper of the garrison, made an offer of generous terms to Lieouwen Hoan, if he would only yield. After some hesitation these were accepted. Sianyang, having thus held out for four years, surrendered, and Lieouwen Hoan transferred to Kublai the fidelity and courage of which he had shown the possession in the service of the Sungs. The indifference manifested by Toutsong's government to the fate of this city had disgusted. the most faithful followers of his cause, and injured the Sung reputation quite as much as it was by the actual loss of this double fortress. Little as had been done for the relief of Sianyang its loss was felt by all to be a great blow to the native dynasty still governing the southern provinces of China. When Kiassetao announced its capture to Toutsong it seemed for a moment as if something of the old spirit of the royal race would reassert itself, and it required the exercise of all the minister's personal ascendency to stifle Toutsong's first inclination to take a summary revenge on the real author of the disaster. Kiassetao's apathy and self-seeking policy had been the true causes of the surrender of Sianyang, and Toutsong's eyes were at last opened to his enormities. But the ruler lacked the moral courage to grapple with the difficulty, and to treat the traitor according to his deserts. He found it more congenial to his tastes to withdraw into the interior of his palace, and to pass his time in midnight debauchery. Toutsong appears to have felt deeply the degradation to which he was reduced, and sought forgetfulness in the wine-cup. His • Kublai wrote the following letter to the commandant :-"The generous defence you have made during five years covers you with glory. It is the duty of every faithful subject to serve his prince at the expense of his life; but in the straits to which you are reduced, your strength exhausted, deprived of succour, and without hope of receiving any, would it be reasonable to sacrifice the lives of so many brave men out of sheer obstinacy? Submit in good faith to us, and no harm shall come to you. We promise you still more; and that is to provide each and all of you with honourable employment. You shall have no grounds for discontent, for that we pledge you our Imperial word.”—Mailla, vol. ix. p. 332. excesses, aggravated by the increasing anxiety and danger of his position, soon put an end to his existence, and the crown of the Sungs was placed, by Kiassetao's direction, on the head of his second son, a child named Chaohien (A.D. 1274). The capture of Sianyang was the greatest encouragement to the Mongols, and the strongest possible inducement to Kublai to devote all his energy to the conclusion of a war towards which his father had, forty years before, contributed so much in its earliest stages. Toutsong's death and the accession of a child prince, who could be nothing more than a tool in the hands of the incapable Kiassetao, were additional reasons in favour of the prompt and vigorous action upon which Kublai had at last decided. If there was wanted another inducement it was furnished by the fact that in Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, the greatest general of the age was available for the conduct of the war. Toutsong's death, far, therefore, from arresting Kublai's military preparations, had the effect of hurrying them on. The hour had come to strike home, and nothing of advantage could be obtained by delay. Bayan's apprenticeship in the service of arms had been passed in the campaigns in Persia, where Khulagu had won great fame and founded a dynasty of kings. The opportunity now offered itself on another field of turning to account the military knowledge he had acquired in Western warfare. The army with which Kublai entrusted him was the larger of the two placed in the field. While one force marched into Kiangnan, the other under Bayan, assisted by three trusty and experienced lieutenants, advanced against Houkwang. In the path of each lay the same obstacle, the broad waters of the river Yangtse-kiang, but even north of that stream the Mongol advance was not unresisted. A numerous gathering held the fortified town of Ganlo, situated south of Sianyang, but on the banks of the same river, and as all preparations had been made by its commandant, Litingchi, for a protracted defence, Bayan prudently refused to halt before it. Leaving a small corps to observe the Chinese force stationed there, the Mongols passed on to assail the main positions of the Sungs, defending the passages BAYAN. 341 of the Great River. Chang Chikia, the commander at this point, sent a portion of his troops to harass the Mongols in their operations against the neighbouring cities; but his lieutenant was drawn into a general engagement, in which he lost his life and the greater number of his troops. This preliminary success was followed by the capture of Chayang, and its sister town Sinhing, where the garrisons were either put to the sword or committed self-destruction in imitation of the conduct of their leaders. In the siege of the latter place, Lieouwen Hoan, who had become a marked man among the faithful adherents of the cause he had abandoned, nearly met his death. Riding near the walls to receive what he supposed would be a proposal to surrender, he was greeted with a flight of arrows, which killed his horse and inflicted several severe wounds upon himself. Enraged at this treacherous conduct, as he considered it, Lieouwen Hoan vowed that he would not spare a man of the garrison, and pressed the siege operations with all the energy springing from a personal grievance. The commandant cheated him of the revenge on which he was confidently counting by throwing himself into the flames of his burning residence when further resistance appeared useless. Bayan, more magnanimous than the Chinese renegade, ordered that the bodies of the slain should be accorded honourable burial in token of his admiration of their bravery. Bayan then continued his movement on the Kiang river, taking as his central object the three cities, Hankow, Wuchang, and Hanyang, situated at the junction of the Han river with the main stream. At this point the Chinese had concentrated their strength. The garrisons had been largely increased, and a numerous fleet defended the passage of the river. Had the general Hiakoue been equal to the occasion, the Mongols would never have succeeded in forcing a passage in face of the strong positions he held; but unfortunately he permitted himself to be outmanoeuvred by his more skilful and enterprising opponent. By a series of feints which completely deceived Hiakoue, Bayan seized several important posts on the northern side of the Kiang, thus intercepting supplies and nullifying the superiority in which the Sungs could still boast on the water. That that superiority was not to remain undisputed or to long endure after their reverses on land was shown by the increasing activity of the Mongol fleet, which at the very commencement of the struggle obtained some advantage over the more numerous and confident Chinese squadron. Meanwhile Bayan had thrown his main body against Hanyang, and, while his war-ships, under the command of Artchu, were driving the Chinese to take refuge in Wuchang, he was subjecting that place to a heavy bombardment from catapults and engines that hurled combustibles with a precision remarkable in those days. When sufficient damage had been inflicted on the fortifications, he ordered several assaults to be delivered against the cowed garrison, who, although enfeebled in courage and numbers, fought with some valour. Disheartened by defeats elsewhere, and by the overthrow of the fleet, which afforded them an avenue of escape, the garrison accepted the terms offered by Bayan, and Hanyang surrendered to the Mongols. Hankow had been captured shortly before this, and the only place that still held out was Wuchang, the most southern of these three cities. Against this the Mongols now directed all their efforts, but it offered no protracted resistance. Bayan, leaving behind a force of forty thousand men under his lieutenant Alihaya, continued his march upon the Sung capital, Lingan or Hangchow, the celebrated Kincsay of Marco Polo. After the naval successes of the Mongols, the remainder of the Sung fleet, with a considerable portion of the army under the command of Hiakoue, had retired down the Kiang river towards the capital, whither they carried the panic prevailing in those districts which had beheld the triumph of Mongol arms. In this moment of trepidation the public voice denounced in no measured terms the incapacity and indifference of Kiassetao, who, to avoid a worse fate, felt compelled to place himself at the head of the national forces. Large levies of men were ordered, the reserve in the treasury was drawn out for the equipment of an army, and individuals were called upon to contribute with their money and their arms to the scheme of national defence too late devised. Meanwhile Bayan's army was on the march. Hoanchow, A SHOWY ARMY. 343 a town on the northern bank of the Kiang, and eastward of the scene of his late triumphs, was surrendered by its governor, on the promise of a reward, without detaining him for a day; and Kichow, south of this city, followed the same example. In this portion of the war the services of Lieouwen Hoan proved invaluable, for many of the most important of the governors in the province of Kiangnan were gained over by his representations to the side of the Mongols. Without halting, Bayan crossed the Kiang and entered Kiangsi, establishing his head-quarters at the important town of Kiukiang. From this position he directly menaced the Sung capital, as well as the cities on the lower course of the river. The advantage thus obtained with such little difficulty was rendered the greater by the voluntary surrender of several towns in the valley of the Kankiang river and on the banks of Lake Poyang. The generosity which Bayan had shown towards his adversaries afforded a powerful inducement to the officials of a decrepit and expiring family, represented morcover by a child, to abandon a lost cause and to attach their fortunes to the rising power. What the humanity and generous instincts of Bayan began, the tact of Licouwen Hoan and the arrogance of Kiassetao completed. Before the fighting was resumed, the cause of the Sungs had been reduced to the lowest ebb by numerous desertions and by the half-heartedness of many who still remained faithful in name. The Mongols had, therefore, obtained a good foothold in the southern provinces, and might with some confidence anticipate the final result before Kiassetao had so much as arrayed the army equipped out of the last resources of the Sungs. That army consisted of not more than one hundred and thirty thousand men in addition to a fresh fleet; but the major portion were untrained levies, largely composed of the effete aristocracy of Hangchow. What it lacked in strength and efficiency for war its general sought to replace by an unusual parade. His own equipage was magnificent, and his principal officers lounged on silken couches, and ate off plates of gold. Before taking the field, this commander sent, by a Mongol officer who had been made prisoner, a haughty |