Epic "Manas". The Great Campaign. The Wounding of Manas and the Return of the Kyrgyz to Talas. Part-3

The Great Campaign. The Wounding of Manas and the Return of the Kyrgyz to Talas. Part-3

When Almambet was in battle, Konurbai sent the eloquent Changtiybes as an envoy to Manas and asked to suspend the battle for seven days. Manas agreed and announced a seven-day truce.

Hearing this, Almambet was very upset and said to Manas:

- We will not return from here unscathed.
None of us will survive.
None of those who have come will leave firmly.
None of us will reach Talas again.
When I spoke, you did not value my words,
You did not heed my advice.
You decided to end my days,
You decided to dig a grave for me.
How many times, ignoring my advice,
You boiled with anger,
You seem to have decided to bring upon my head
Such misfortune as no one has seen before.
You seem to have decided to make my tulpar Saralu
A prey for the enemy.

- For in seven days of truce, the Chinese will bring in a new army and come in great numbers. You agreed to the truce in vain. Now we will not return from this campaign alive. If you return alive to Talas, give my dear Aruuka to Majik as a wife, for I shall no longer be alive. If Aruuka bears a son, hold a great feast and name him Kulchoro; he will be a batyr even more powerful than I, - thus he bequeathed to Manas.

And indeed, soon an innumerable Chinese army arrived, and a fierce battle began. Among the enemy ranks, Almambet saw the great mergen Kodjodzhash.

Almambet began to speak to the weather again and sent a harsh frost upon the enemies. Hail rattled across all the foothills, rains poured along all riverbanks, thick snow fell, and from the biting cold, the entire land was covered in ice. The Chinese army froze and began to flee back.

Konurbai began to cut down the fleeing ones, started to stop the retreating, and himself entered the battle. Seeing this, Almambet charged at him, knocked him off his horse, and wounded him. But Konurbai managed to escape. Muzburchak chased after him, but when he tried to grab him by the hem of his robe, Kodjodzhash the merjen flew in from the side and shot the batyr at point-blank range.

Then three lions - Almambet, Syrgak, and Chubak, furious as a storm, crashed into the enemy ranks and began to smash them like a squall. The entire land was stained with blood.

Thrusting his spear to the right and left, swinging his sword right and left, Syrgak raced across the battlefield like a whirlwind and said:

- How will we achieve our goal? Separated from our brave ones, without fighting properly, how will we leave Beidzhin? How will we return to our people?

His steed Kokchebich was destroying the Chinese, trampling everyone who approached. From those Kalmyks who came out against him, he killed a huge number. He cut down without looking back and without pity for the heads of the enemies.

Almambet burst into the ranks of the Chinese with a fearsome shout. Chubak, enraged, fought alone like an entire army. He was a falcon of the Naygut clan, crashing into the army of forty Chinese khans, and without looking back, he cut them down indiscriminately.

Seeing this and despairing of saving his life, Konurbai froze in place in astonishment. The forty choro of Manas, moving in formation from forty sides, with a loud war cry, all together charged at the numerous Chinese and Manchus.

- They will leave no one alive; I will turn to Kodjodzhash, - thought Konurbai, and said to him:

- I am the one called Konurbai.
I am the one who ruled the whole world.
I was the support for ten rulers.
I was the protector of Beidzhin.
I was the house built on the slope of the mountain,
I was the khan of the kechile.
From this brave Syrgak,
Sadness entered my heart,
The bones of my ribs cracked.
Among the Chinese, who fortified themselves with stones,
Many fell into weeping and lamentation.
My belt, my support,
How many times has he destroyed it!
How many of my people's batyrs did Er-Syrgak stab!

Many times he broke my back,
Many times he condemned me to misfortune!
When you go against him,
Er-Syrgak, bent low, will appear like a lion.
With one swing, he knocks down seven.
If Syrgak has something in mind,
You cannot count his victims.
Do you think he could not destroy these lined-up Chinese warriors alone?
Oh, my dear Kodjodzhash!
Keep my words as your own sight!
Watch over Syrgak as you would your own eye!
There stands great Beidzhin:
This is a place where no foot shall tread,
Unless the fearsome Manas
Or Syrgak, his batyr,
The most worthy of your spear's strike, steps in.
I believe, Kodjodzhash,
You will find a particularly cunning trick.
I have come to know Syrgak well,
The ill-fated one who destroys the world.
When Algara, my steed, under me
Broke free,
His spear pierced me,
And two of my ribs cracked.
Then I appreciated his heroic stature,
I saw his powerful build.
I wanted to capture him alive,
I gathered all my balbans,
And sent them against him alone.
How many balbans
He made widen their eyes in shock!
How many of my people did he kill!
If you capture and bind Syrgak,
Then the buruts will lose their support.
Then we will attack the buruts
And satiate ourselves, spilling their blood.
If you kill Syrgak with a shot,
We will inflict real devastation on the buruts,
We will begin a true plunder.
The people of forty Chinese khans
We will gather again for feasts.
Having chopped and destroyed the buruts,
We will reach, killing them, to Mecca.

Thus Konurbai spoke to Kodjodzhash, and Kodjodzhash replied to him:

- When Manas captured Beidzhin, I was ill and could not participate in the battle. I regretted it for a long time. But in this battle, I will destroy them all!

Hearing these words, the Chinese were again filled with hope and rushed into battle once more. Following Kodjodzhash were six elephants, loaded to the brim with arrows.

Syrgak knocked down the father of Kodjodzhash, Karajai, from his horse, and Alma cut off his head. Seeing this, Konurbai roared. Grinding his teeth, he flew at Almambet and wanted to chop him down, but Syrgak jumped in from the side, knocked him off his horse, and, grabbing Algara by the reins, decided to take him away. With this intention, he rushed down a narrow path, leading Algara by the bridle, when suddenly his steed Kökchebich stumbled, and Syrgak's helmet fell from his head. While Syrgak was trying to put it on, Kodjodzhash charged at him and shot him point-blank in the forehead. Then with another shot, he killed the rearing Kökchebich. Thus fell the eagle Syrgak.

After the death of Syrgak, Almambet spoke to the weather again. Chubak with forty choro charged into battle, and a fierce slaughter began again. Chubak killed the giant Konzharkola. A large detachment of Chinese warriors decided to capture Chubak alive, surrounded him, and for several days Chubak fought in the ring of enemies. His horse was killed, but he fought on foot. On the ninth day, completely despairing, he exclaimed:

- Perhaps they want to bind me alive? Will I allow myself to be brought, alone, as a sacrifice? In the midst of this fierce battle, let all my bones be crushed! Perhaps they want to give my pure, like colostrum, body to the vulture-eagle? Perhaps the desperate Chinese heads want to kick me with their feet? I will not allow the Chinese to throw a noose around my neck; I do not want to go as a prisoner to the Chinese Khakan! I will not allow myself to be thrown into a deep pit with walls forty arshins high. To the heartless and cruel Chinese, I will not give myself alive!

When Chubak expressed his grief like this, Konurbai aimed his spear at him, but Chubak knocked it from his hands and tore the hem of his chapans.

At that moment, Almambet, searching for Chubak, came to his aid and saved him. In this battle, Chubak killed the balban Mantush, and Almambet again wounded Konurbai himself.

The numerous Chinese army surrounded Almambet, and he was surrounded for nine days. He was severely wounded, and only the medicine "sebep" given by Kanakei saved him from death.

Almambet spoke to the weather even more strongly, sending down thick snow, as thick as the length of a spear, but Kodjodzhash, the magical shooter, increasingly displayed his skill. Hiding in the feather grass, he managed to shoot Chubak, Serek, Telek, Akayara, Shuutu, and Baichoro.

Then Almambet decided to engage in a duel with Kodjodzhash. For several days, they shot at each other from ambush, but Almambet could not determine where Kodjodzhash was hiding. Kodjodzhash showed more and more skill. He alone began to shoot from four rifles. With each shot, each of them released a hundred bullets, and the sound of the shots echoed like thunder across the surrounding valleys.

At that time, on the battlefield, Konurbai suddenly appeared, having recovered from his wound. Almambet again knocked him off his horse, but from the force of the blow, his helmet fell from his head. At that moment, Kodjodzhash, aiming, shot Almambet in the head and killed him instantly. After his death, Sarala, not yielding to anyone, galloped into the steppe.

Learning of Almambet's death, Manas wept bitterly:

I did not expect that so quickly would fall upon my neck
The order given by Alda!
Separated from my asyls,
Why did I leave alone, instead of staying,
To perish with them in the gaping jaws of Beidzhin?
What will I be now, if I do not cut off the head
Of the khan of the kechile, Konurbai?
What will I be if I do not seize
And do not sacrifice
Kodjodzhash, the son of Karajai,
Who destroyed my Almambet?
What will I be if I do not drive away
The black Chinese from Altai?
What will I be if I do not expel
The bloodthirsty black Kalmyks from Kankai?
What will I be if I do not drive the Chinese with their black designs
Back to Beidzhin?
Let me then die not as Manas,
Let me be torn from everything dear to me,
Rather than so disgrace myself!
I would have been better off not being born.

Manas uttered this oath and leaped onto Akkulu. He began to mow down the Chinese to the right and left in his swift charge, and no matter how much Kodjodzhash shot at him, he could not pierce his thick akolpok. He despaired of killing Manas and, deciding to leave him on foot, shot the batyr's war horse Akkulu.

Then Manas, enraged by grief, pulled out from his collar a special bullet that Chiyyrdy had sewn there at his birth, as a gift from the duvana, and, looking through his tube, saw in what ambush Kodjodzhash was hiding, and with one shot killed him with that bullet.

Epic "Manas". The Great Campaign. The Wounding of Manas and the Return of the Kyrgyz to Talas. Part-2