Jinghis entered Tangut in 1226, during February. Between that time and the autumn following he passed from north to south, harassing the country most savagely. He laid siege to Ling chau, the capital. Li ti, the king, died in August, leaving the throne to Li hien, his son and successor. A new Tangut army was sent to strengthen Ling chau. Jinghis returned northward, put that new army to flight, stormed Ling chau, took the city, sacked it and slaughtered its inhabitants. Leaving a corps there he advanced to the south; seized Si ning with Lin tao and sacked both those cities. Establishing headquarters in Western Shen si he captured places all around in that region till the hot summer came when he retired to the Liu pan mountains and rested. The condition of the country at that time as described by Chinese annalists is as follows: “Men strive in vain to hide in caverns and in mountains. As to the Mongol sword, hardly two in a hundred escape it. The fields are covered with the bones of slaughtered people.” In the month of July, 1227, Li hien sent an embassy with submission. He asked merely one month in which to surrender his capital. The favor was granted, and Jinghis promised to regard him as his son in the future. Soon after, the Mongol manslayer was taken ill and died eight days later. He had time, however, to instruct his sons how to live, and his generals how to capture Nan king, and destroy the Kin dynasty. He told them also how to deal with Tangut and its sovereign. They were to hide the death of Jinghis very carefully, and when Li hien came out of his capital at the time fixed for surrender, they were to slay him and put all people of that city to the sword, without exception. Jinghis died August 18, 1227, when sixty-six years of age. He had reigned twenty-two years. The order to slay the Tangut sovereign and the people of the city was carried out strictly, and the kingdom of Tangut was added to the Mongol Empire. “Since the beginning of time,” writes the Chinese historian, “no barbarous people have ever been so mighty as the Mongols are at present. They destroy empires as a man plucks out herbs by the roots, such is the power in their possession. Why does Heaven let them have it?” The remains of the great Khan were taken back to his birthplace. Lest his death might be known the troops who conducted them slew every person whom they met as they traveled. Only when they arrived at the home of Jinghis was his death published to all men.