ABSTRACT
Zhongdu, now again called Yanjing, passed the next few decades in a sorry state. The officials appointed by Chinggis Khan to administer it were rapacious, extracting heavy taxes from the remaining population. Immediately after it fell to the Mongols, the city was more or less in a state of anarchy and there was soon a severe shortage of food. It is said that cannibalism occurred. In the face of this starvation, an appeal was made to the Mongol governors of the city to arrange for their soldiers to bring supplies into the city and trade them for whatever valuables the people had left. This was done, improving the situation considerably. It was also agreed that the Mongol army would return a few of the oxen that they had carried off, so that the fields outside the city could be ploughed. At this period, the Mongols had little understanding of China and the importance of agriculture there. On the steppes, conflict between groups of Mongols had usually been over land for grazing their animals. People were not considered important, and frequently a victorious group of Mongols would simply slaughter those they conquered, seizing their animals and land. Raids into China had been carried out with the basic aim of carrying off plunder. There were many Mongols in the time of Chinggis Khan who thought that conquered Chinese should be killed and their land used for grazing Mongol animals. In parts of north China, this in fact was what occurred. Later, the Mongols realized that it was better to leave the Chinese alive and tax them, but it took a little time for this idea to be generally accepted by the Mongol ruling class.
