Although the Khitan prince had killed all the sentries sent by Konurbai, Manas still could not block the passage of the message about Manas’ expeditionary force. A duckling felt onto the ground about a stone’s throw away from his feet one day when Konurbai stepped out of his door in the morning. He was flabbergasted to see the duckling for it was another sentry of him. Having recognized the bird, the warlord had known for sure that Manas’ expeditionary force had reached the Kokchol Lake. This duckling was the only sentry that survived Manas’ extermination movement. It avoided being spotted by the warriors through hiding all its body into the water. As the night fell, the warriors wrapped up their assault and the duckling craned its neck out of the water. Then it flied back to the palace of its master by stealth. Though the duckling was not out of its bearings, it became extremely worn out and fell onto the ground from mid-air.
In the opinion of Konurbai, the tension caused by the imminent war had mounted with the lapse of time. He seemed to be out of his mind to ring the thirty large bells on the left side of his palace and the thirty large bells on the right side of his palace. The deafening sound was not only the siren showing outside danger but also the signal of moving forces. Tens of thousands of troops from more than sixty towns swarmed into the capital and awaited orders. Konurbai called on his followers to fight Manas’ grand army. Afterwards, his soldiers marched in formidable array out of Beijing in an attempt to exterminate Manas’ warriors halfway.
The two armies met with each other near the Ajunt River. And the decisive battle broke out in the plain near the river.
The intense battle caused heavy caualties on both sides. It claimed a total
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of seven generals in the army of Konurbai. They were the invincible generals who got involved in a series of wars lauched by the warlord before. What was worse, Konurbai was also seriously wounded in the midst of the battle. His army lost the war and retreated back to the capital. The grand army of Manas followed up the victory with hot pursuit. In the end, Manas and his warriors besieged the captial in order to round up Konurbai and his die-hard followers.
It snowed in great flakes for a total of three days. The snow was chest-high. The war could not go on under such harsh circumstances. Esen Khan called for a truce, hoping that the time of the next decisive war should be set in the spring next year. In addition, he would like to furnish supplies to the grand army of Manas if Manas gave up encircling his capital city.
Manas consented to his request and withdrew his grand army back into the woods near the city. At the same time, Manas said that he did not care two hoots about getting supplies from the enemy. Instead, Manas asked Esen Khan to open the markets within the city. Both sides reached an agreement that the servicemen commanded by Konurbai and Esen Khan would not hold up the soldiers sent by Manas who purchased goods in the city.
Manas’ grand army was stationed in the area laced with creeks and full of lush plants. Besides, totally exposed to the sun, the area was a perfect shelter from cold winds. Before the expedition was kicked off, Kanikei gave every warrior a white felt hat and flooded their wallets with a lot of gold coins. Manas asked them to purchase goods with these gold coins. So they did not need to plunder the daily necessities of local people.
In addition, Manas ordered his soldiers to dig water channels and reclaim wasteland. As the flowers bloomed in spring next year, the wheat cultivated by the soldiers had turned green. The servicemen were about to fight so that they could not reap the crop. As a result, they presented the crop to local Khitan people as a precious gift, winning the widespread support from locals. Since then, a story about Manas Khan’s harvest of wheat had widely spread. “Konurbai’s troops seized our land and fed their horses with our green shoots of wheat. In addition to imposing all kinds of heavy taxes on us, they looted everywhere they went. On the contrary, Manas did not levy any tax on us. Instead, his servicemen bought goods with gold coins. What impressed us most was the crop presented to us this time. Both sides are new comers from
Legend of Manas
the outside world. How can they be so different?” they sighed.
Before the fighting flared up again after a winter lull, two unexpeced things took place. Chubak came across forty sons of forty Khitan general who got lost in the dense forest one day. He saved the children out of predicament and sent them back. What Chubak did struck the chord with the hearts of their fathers who called on Esen Khan to seek a ceasefire with the grand army of Manas. Besides, more and more local Khitan people came to Manas’ baracks to help with transportation, construction and other odd jobs. Without the support from the ordinary people, Konurbai’s soldiers lost morale entirely. Finally, Esen Khan had no choice but to sue for peace.
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