Kaidu 〈2024〉

Consequently, Kaidu presented himself as the guardian of the true Mongol way. He kept his court nomadic, moving between the valleys of the Tarbagatai Mountains. He distributed spoils of war directly to his warriors, not to tax collectors. And he fiercely resisted any attempt to build cities or permanent garrisons in his domains. No account of Kaidu is complete without his legendary daughter, Khutulun (c. 1260 – 1306). A warrior of immense strength and skill, she was her father’s most trusted companion and military commander. Marco Polo, who claimed to have met her, wrote that she could ride into enemy ranks, snatch a captive, “as a hawk pounces on a bird.”

The decisive clash came in 1301 near the (the “Iron Pass”). Kaidu, with Duwa, fielded perhaps 120,000 horse archers—the largest nomadic army since Genghis. The Yuan army, under Temür’s cousin Qaishan , numbered 100,000, including Chinese artillery and Korean heavy infantry. Consequently, Kaidu presented himself as the guardian of

Khutulun famously declared she would only marry a man who could defeat her in wrestling. Hundreds of suitors tried; all lost, forfeiting 100 horses each. Eventually, she amassed a herd of 10,000 horses. She fought alongside Kaidu in his greatest battles, often saving his life. After Kaidu’s death, she became a power broker, but her story was later distorted by Persian and European chroniclers into the romantic legend of “Turandot” (though the opera by Puccini bears little resemblance to the real woman). As Kaidu aged, his raids grew bolder. In 1297, he ambushed and killed Kublai’s grandson, Prince Kokechu, in Mongolia. Kublai, now in his 80s, was enraged. He appointed his best general, Bayalun (or, more famously, Temür – Kublai’s successor after 1294), to crush Kaidu once and for all. And he fiercely resisted any attempt to build

But Duwa, pragmatic, made peace with Temür Khan shortly after. Kaidu’s realm was divided, and his descendants were eventually absorbed or destroyed. A warrior of immense strength and skill, she

The battle lasted for three days. On the first day, Kaidu’s horse archers annihilated the Yuan vanguard. On the second, Duwa’s Chagatai heavy cavalry broke the Yuan center. But on the third day, Qaishan used a feigned retreat of his own, drawing Kaidu’s warriors into a crossfire of crossbowmen and mangonels (stone throwers). Kaidu was shot in the arm and shoulder. His army disintegrated. Kaidu was carried from the field in a felt wagon. He died of his wounds later that year, near the Talas River (modern Kyrgyzstan). On his deathbed, he whispered to Duwa: “Do not yield. The city-dwellers will rot from within. Fight on for the felt tent.”