(Doolittle, 190; Deguignes, I. 69; Cathay, pp. 247, 479; Reinaud, I. 56; India in the XVth Century, p. 23; Semedo, p. 95; Rem.  Mel.  Asiat. I. 128.)

CHAPTER LXI.

CONCERNING THE CITY OF CHINANGLI, AND THAT OF TADINFU, AND THE REBELLION OF LITAN.

Chinangli is a city of Cathay as you go south, and it belongs to the Great Kaan; the people are Idolaters, and have paper-money.  There runs through the city a great and wide river, on which a large traffic in silk goods and spices and other costly merchandize passes up and down.

When you travel south from Chinangli for five days, you meet everywhere with fine towns and villages, the people of which are all Idolaters, and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan, and have paper-money, and live by trade and handicrafts, and have all the necessaries of life in great abundance.  But there is nothing particular to mention on the way till you come, at the end of those five days, to TADINFU.[NOTE 1]

This, you must know, is a very great city, and in old times was the seat of a great kingdom; but the Great Kaan conquered it by force of arms.  Nevertheless it is still the noblest city in all those provinces.  There are very great merchants here, who trade on a great scale, and the abundance of silk is something marvellous.  They have, moreover, most charming gardens abounding with fruit of large size.  The city of Tadinfu hath also under its rule eleven imperial cities of great importance, all of which enjoy a large and profitable trade, owing to that immense produce of silk.[NOTE 2]

Now, you must know, that in the year of Christ, 1273, the Great Kaan had sent a certain Baron called LIYTAN SANGON,[NOTE 3] with some 80,000 horse, to this province and city, to garrison them.  And after the said captain had tarried there a while, he formed a disloyal and traitorous plot, and stirred up the great men of the province to rebel against the Great Kaan.  And so they did; for they broke into revolt against their sovereign lord, and refused all obedience to him, and made this Liytan, whom their sovereign had sent thither for their protection, to be the chief of their revolt.

When the Great Kaan heard thereof he straightway despatched two of his Barons, one of whom was called AGUIL and the other MONGOTAY;[NOTE 4] giving them 100,000 horse and a great force of infantry.  But the affair was a serious one, for the Barons were met by the rebel Liytan with all those whom he had collected from the province, mustering more than 100,000 horse and a large force of foot.  Nevertheless in the battle Liytan and his party were utterly routed, and the two Barons whom the Emperor had sent won the victory.  When the news came to the Great Kaan he was right well pleased, and ordered that all the chiefs who had rebelled, or excited others to rebel, should be put to a cruel death, but that those of lower rank should receive a pardon.  And so it was done.  The two Barons had all the leaders of the enterprise put to a cruel death, and all those of lower rank were pardoned.  And thenceforward they conducted themselves with loyalty towards their lord.[NOTE 5]