Given the chaos , the governor of Yunnan ignored the imperial orders of evacuation . The Mongol army commanded by Prince Ye @-@ sin Timour , a grandson of the emperor , marched south toward Pagan . According to mainstream traditional ( British colonial era ) scholarship , the Mongol army ignored the imperial orders to evacuate ; fought its way down to Pagan with the loss of 7000 men ; occupied the city ; and sent out detachments to receive homage , one of which reached south of Prome . But not all colonial period scholars agreed with the assessment as none of the contemporary Mongol / Chinese records specifically mentioned the conquest of Pagan or the temporary completeness of the conquest .