ABSTRACT
The armies in Kin had been purged of those who had taken sides against the new Khakan. Ogatai's last descendants, who still ruled over their own fiefs, were in Western Mongolia, towards the Altai. Tuli's sons held sway over a realm which extended from the shores of China to the shores of the Caspian, while Mangu kept with him his youngest brother Arik-Buka as viceroy of Mongolia. Nogai, his viceroy in the Russian steppes, extended his control over Serbia and Bulgaria; but to the Mongols these were no more than frontier skirmishes—while the general onslaught in Asia was simultaneously directed towards the East and towards the West. Hulagu made the prisoned Sheik send an order to the commandant of these fortresses to open their doors and destroy their fortifications, after which the garrisons could be exterminated in accordance with the Mongol fashion.
