ABSTRACT
Then, in the Gi-sheep year [1439] Tayisung became khan himself at the age of eighteen, and appointed his younger brother Agbarji, aged seventeen, to be Jinong.1 The three brothers, including Mandugul Tayiji who was aged fourteen, took to their horses and met the Four Oirad at a place called Turuvan-u Khara2 and engaged in battle. On that occasion they caused two champions to confront each other as a preliminary, with the intention of disputing the circle of the great battle-field. The Mongols sent out the Hero Shigüsütei of the Urugud while the Oirad sent out the Hero Guyilinchi of the Buryat. Then they each enquired who the other was, and what his name was. Then one said: ‘Before this, in time of peace, we two were comrades, and one day, while drinking together, we said: “If the Forty and the Four3 should ever fall out with each other and go to war, who but we two should go out to the duelling-place? If it were so, and at that time we two should meet each other, what would you do about me?’ Guyilinchi said: ‘I am good at archery. I would shoot right through you, even though you wore armour.’ Shigüsütei said: ‘I am good at chopping. I would split you from crown to backside.’ Then the Hero Shigüsütei put on double armour and went out to the encounter, and called from afar: ‘You are a man who shoots from a distance. You take precedence and shoot first.’ The Hero Guyilinchi shot first, and his arrow penetrated Shigüsütei’s double armour and touched his body slightly and went past his rear saddle-bow. He advanced and sat forward and chopped, and split Guyilinchi from crown to backside.
