The Cities of Cacanfu and of Changlu

CHAPTER 66. The City of Coiganju.

Coiganju is a very large city at the entrance to Manzi.

The people are Idolaters and burn their dead, and are subject to the Great Kaan.

They have a vast amount of shipping, as I mentioned before in speaking of the River Caramoran.

An immense quantity of merchandize comes hither, for the city is the seat of government for this part of the country.

Owing to its being on the river, many cities send their produce thither to be again thence distributed in every direction. A great amount of salt also is made here, furnishing some forty other cities with that article, and bringing in a large revenue to the Great Kaan.

CHAPTER 67. The Cities of Paukin and Cayu

When you leave Coiganju you ride south-east for a day along a causeway laid with fine stone, which you find at this entrance to Manzi.

On either hand there is a great expanse of water, so that you cannot enter the province except along this causeway. At the end of the day’s journey you reach the fine city of Paukin. The people are Idolaters, burn their dead, are subject to the Great Kaan, and use paper-money.

They live by trade and manufactures and have great abundance of silk, whereof they weave a great variety of fine stuffs of silk and gold.

Of all the necessaries of life there is great store.

When you leave Paukin you ride another day to the south-east, and then you arrive at the city of Cayu. 153The people are Idolaters (and so forth).

They live by trade and manufactures and have great store of all necessaries, including fish in great abundance. There is also much game, both beast and bird, insomuch that for a Venice groat you can have three good pheasants.{1}

CHAPTER 68. The Cities of Tiju, Tinju, and Yanju

When you leave Cayu, you ride another day to the south-east through a constant succession of villages and fields and fine farms until you come to Tiju, which is a city of no great size but abounding in everything.

The people are Idolaters (and so forth). There is a great amount of trade, and they have many vessels.

Three days’ journey east is the Ocean Sea.

At every place between the sea and the city salt is made in great quantities.

There is a rich and noble city called Tinju, at which there is produced salt enough to supply the whole province.

• It brings the Great Kaan an incredible revenue.

The people are Idolaters and subject to the Kaan.

Leaving Tiju, you ride another day towards the south-east. At the end of your journey you arrive at the very great and noble city of Yanju, which has seven-and-twenty other wealthy cities under its administration; so that this Yanju is, you see, a city of great importance.

It is the seat of one of the Great Kaan’s 12 Barons, for it has been chosen to be one of the Twelve Sings.

The people are Idolaters and use paper-money, and are subject to the Great Kaan.

Marco Polo himself governed this city for 3 full years, by the order of the Great Kaan.

The people live by trade and manufactures, for a great amount of harness for knights and men-at-arms is made there.

In this city and its neighbourhood a large number of troops are stationed by the Kaan’s orders.

CHAPTER 69. The City of Nanghin

Nanghin is a very noble Province towards the west.

The people are Idolaters (and so forth) and live by trade and manufactures. They have silk in great abundance. They weave many fine tissues of silk and gold.

They have all sorts of corn and victuals very cheap, for the province is a most productive one.

Game also is abundant, and lions too are found there. The merchants are great and opulent, and the Emperor draws a large revenue from them, in the shape of duties on the goods which they buy and sell.

The very noble city of Saianfu deserves a place in our book, for there is a matter of great moment to tell about it.

CHAPTER 70. The very noble City of Saianfu, and how its Capture was effected.

Saianfu is a very great and noble city. It rules over 12 other large and rich cities.

It itself is a seat of great trade and manufacture.

The people are Idolaters. They have much silk, from which they weave fine silken stuffs.

They have also a quantity of game, and in short the city abounds in all that it behoves a noble city to possess.

This city held out against the Great Kaan for 3 years after the rest of Manzi had surrendered.

The Great Kaan’s troops made incessant attempts to take it.

But they could not succeed because of the great and deep waters that were round about it, so that they could approach from one side only, which was the north.

The Great Kaan’s host had lain 3 three years before the city without being able to take it. They were greatly chafed by it.

Then Nicolo Polo and Maffeo and Marco said in the presence of the Great Khan:

“We could find you a way of forcing the city to surrender speedily;”

For messengers had been despatched from the camp to tell him that there was no taking the city by blockade, for it continually received supplies of victual from those sides which they were unable to invest; and the Great Kaan had sent back word that take it they must, and find a way how.

“Great Prince, we have with us among our followers men who are able to construct mangonels which shall cast such great stones that the garrison will never be able to stand them.

The Kaan bade them with all his heart have such mangonels made as speedily as possible.

Nicolo and his brother and his son immediately caused timber to be brought, as much as they desired, and fit for the work in hand.

They had 2 men among their followers, a German and a Nestorian Christian, who were masters of that business.

These they directed to construct 2-3 mangonels capable of casting stones of 300 lbs. weight.

The Emperor and the others were greatly pleased to see them, and caused several stones to be shot in their presence.

They marvelled greatly and greatly praised the work.

The Kaan ordered that the engines should be carried to his army which was at the leaguer of Saianfu.{3}

When the engines were set up and put in gear, a stone was shot from each of them into the town.

These took effect among the buildings, crashing and smashing through everything with huge din and commotion.

When the townspeople witnessed this new and strange visitation they were so astonished and dismayed that they wist not what to do or say.

They took counsel together, but no counsel could be suggested how to escape from these engines, for the thing seemed to them to be done by sorcery.

They declared that they were all dead men if they yielded not, so they determined to surrender on such conditions as they could get.

Wherefore they straightway sent word to the commander of the army that they were ready to surrender on the same terms as the other cities of the province had done, and to become the subjects of the Great Kaan; and to this the captain of the host consented.

So the men of the city surrendered, and were received to terms.

This all came about through the exertions of Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco.

It was no small matter.

This city and province is one of the best that the Great Kaan possesses, and brings him in great revenues.