The Shah was light-minded and ignorant. He knew not with whom he was dealing. He had not studied the Mongols, and could not have done so; he had no idea whatever of Jinghis Khan and could not acquire it; he knew not the immense power of his system, and the far reaching nature of his wishes. Jinghis arrived at the Syr Daryá with his army, and arranged all his troops in four great divisions. The first he fixed near Otrar and placed two of his sons, Ogotai and Jagatai, in command of it; the second, commanded by his eldest son, Juchi, was to act against the other cities, from Jend to Lake Aral; the third division he directed against Benakit on the river, south of Jend. While the three divisions were taking these cities on the Syr Daryá, Jinghis himself moved toward Bokhara to bar Shah Mohammed from the Transoxiana, and prevent him from reinforcing any garrison between the two rivers. Otrar was invested late in November, 1218. The walls had been strengthened, and the city, with its fortress, provisioned very carefully. The strong garrison had been increased by ten thousand horsemen. After a siege of five months the troops and the citizens were discouraged, and the commander thought it best to surrender, but Inaldjuk, the governor, could not hope for his life, since he was the man who had slain the Mongol merchants; hence, he would not hear of surrender. He would fight, as he said, to the death, for his sovereign. The chief of the horsemen felt differently, and led out his best troops in the night to escape, but was captured. He and they offered then to serve the besiegers. The Mongols inquired about conditions in the city, and, when the chief had told what he knew, they informed him that he and his men, being unfaithful to their master, could not be true to another. They thereupon slew him, and all who were with him. The city was taken that day, April, 1219, and its inhabitants driven to the country outside, so that the captors might pillage the place in absolute freedom. Inaldjuk, the governor, withdrew with twenty thousand men to the fortress, and fought for two months in that stronghold. When the Mongols burst in he had only two men left; with these he retired to a terrace. The two men at his side fell soon after. When his arrows were gone he hurled brickbats. The besiegers had orders to seize the man living. He struggled like a maniac, but they caught and bound him at last, and bore him to the camp before Samarkand. Jinghis had molten silver poured into his ears and eyes to avenge the slaughtered merchants. The surviving inhabitants of Otrar were spared but the fortress was levelled. Juchi, before marching on Jend, went to Signak and asked that the gates be thrown open. Scarcely had the message been given when the furious inhabitants tore Hassan Hadji, Juchi’s envoy, to pieces and called on God’s name as they did so.