Once more free, Temudjin, who was now seventeen years old, married Burte Judjin.  He was not long in collecting a number of his men together, and soon managed to increase their number to thirteen thousand.  These he divided into thirteen battalions of one thousand men each, styled gurans, each guran under the command of a gurkhan.  The gurkhans were chosen from his immediate relatives and dependents.  The forces of the Taidshuts numbered thirty thousand.  With this much more powerful army Temudjin risked an encounter on the banks of the Baldjuna, a tributary of the Ingoda, and gained a complete victory.  Abulghazi says the Taidshuts lost from five thousand to six thousand men.  The battle-field was close to a wood, and we are told that Temudjin, after his victory, piled fagots together and boiled many of his prisoners in seventy caldrons—­a very problematical story.

Among his neighbors were the Jadjerats, or Juriats, the subjects of Chamuka, who, according to De Guignes, fled after the battle with the Taidshuts.

One day a body of the Jadjerats, who were hunting, encountered some of Temudjin’s followers, and they agreed to hunt together.  The former ran short of provisions, and he generously surrendered to them a large part of the game his people had captured.  This was favorably compared by them with the harsh behavior of their suzerains, the Taidshut princes, and two of their chiefs, named Ulugh Bahadur and Thugai Talu, with many of the tribe went to join Temudjin.  They were shortly after attacked and dispersed by the Taidshuts.  This alarmed or disgusted several of the latter’s allies, who went over to the party of Temudjin.  Among these were Chamuka, who contrived for a while to hide his rancor; and the chiefs of the Suldus and Basiuts.  Their example was soon followed by the defection of the Barins and the Telenkuts, a branch of the Jelairs.

Temudjin’s repute was now considerable, and De Mailla tells us that wishing to secure the friendship of Podu, chief of the Kieliei, or Ykiliesse (i.e., the Kurulats), who lived on the river Ergone (i.e., the Argun), and who was renowned for his skill in archery, he offered him his sister Termulun in marriage.  This was gladly accepted, and the two became fast friends.  As a sign of his good-will, Podu wished to present Temudjin with fifteen horses out of thirty which he possessed, but the latter replied:  “To speak of giving and taking is to do as merchants and traffickers, and not allies.  Our elders tell us it is difficult to have one heart and one soul in two bodies.  It is this difficult thing I wish to compass; I mean to extend my power over my neighbors here; I only ask that the people of Kieliei shall aid me.”