Chepé Noyon had returned from the Kitans and was marching on the capital at that time. Hushaku had a wound in the foot, so he sent Kaoki to meet the Mongols, and threatened death should he come back defeated. Kaoki was forced to retreat on Chong tu, after desperate fighting. Fearing death from his chief he resolved to anticipate, and rushed to seize his superior and slay him. Hushaku tried to escape, but fell from his own garden wall while climbing it. Kaoki’s people seized the man and then cut his head off. Kaoki grasped the head, bore it in hot haste to the palace, and asked for judgment immediately. The Emperor not only gave pardon, but made Kaoki chief commander. While the Mongols were attacking the Kin Empire in the north, Tangut was attacking on the west, and in 1213 took King chiu, a border city. Tangut and China had passed eighty years in mutual good feeling and friendship when the Tangut sovereign, attacked by Jinghis for the third time, asked aid from the Kin sovereign, but having failed to receive it, made an agreement (1210) with the Mongols, and severed relations with China. The Empire was weakened by defections so numerous that Jinghis Khan formed fifty-six brigades of men with officers and generals who had passed from the Chinese to his service. These were joined to his army, and now began an attack on all those lands bounded on the west and south by the Hoang Ho or Yellow River and on the east by the Hoang Hai or Yellow Sea, and forming the provinces of Shan si, Pe che li and Shan tung. The Mongols sacked ninety flourishing cities, and in all that rich and great region there were only nine places which, through self-defence, escaped ruin. The booty was immense in gold and silk stuffs, in captives male and female, and in horses and cattle. This great raid took place in the first months of 1214. All the Mongol armies were assembled with their booty in April of that year, at a place some leagues west of Chong tu. Jinghis would permit no attack on that capital. To the Emperor he sent two officers with the following message: “All places north of the Hoang Ho are mine, save Chong tu, which is all that remains in thy service. Heaven has brought thee down to this impotence; were I to harass thee still further I should dread Heaven’s anger. Wilt thou treat my army well, and satisfy the generals?” Kaoki wished to attack, but the counsels of other men triumphed. Envoys were sent to the invader, and peace was concluded. Jinghis received as wife the daughter of Chong hei, the late Emperor, with immense gifts in gold and precious objects. Five hundred youths, as many maidens, and three thousand horses went forth with his bride to the conqueror.