torious career, this
general destroyed 140 towns and fortresses, and defeated the army of
Kin at Mount San-feng.

The Kin dynasty overthrown.

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 K'ai-feng Fu to
Ju-ning Fu 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 Ju-ning Fu. 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 that the women manned the ramparts, and then the allies
stormed the walls. The emperor 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
Chang-lin, but in a tumult which broke out amongst his followers he
lost his life, and with him ended the "Golden" dynasty.

Notwithstanding the treaty between Ogdai and Sung, no sooner were the
spoils of Kin to be divided than war broke out again between them, in
prosecuting which the Mongol armies swept over the provinces of
Sze-ch'uen, Hu-kwang, Kiang-nan and Ho-nan, and were checked only when
they reached the walls of Lu-chow Fu in Ngan-hui. Ogdai died in 1241,
and was nominally succeeded by his grandson Cheliemen. But one of his
widows, Tolickona, took possession of the throne, and after exercising
rule for four years, established her son Kwei-yew as great khan. In
1248 his life was cut short, and the nobles, disregarding the claims
of Cheliemen, proclaimed as emperor Mangu, the eldest son of Tu-le.
Under this monarch the war against Sung was carried on with energy,
and Kublai, outstripping the bounds of Sung territory, made his way
into the province of Yun-nan, at that time divided into a number of
independent states, and having attached them to his brother's crown he
passed on into Tibet, Tongking and Cochin-China, and thence striking
northwards entered the province of Kwang-si.

Kublai Khan emperior.

On the death of Mangu in 1259 Kublai (q.