Bones Of the Hills c-3 Page 47

  The man who fell from the walls at Herat is a peculiar part of the histories. The abandoned fortress city still stands today, much as I have described it. Genghis did indeed spare the man, astonished that he could have survived such a fall. As with so many other times, Genghis the man was quite different from Genghis the ruthless khan. As a man, he enjoyed displays of courage, as when Jelaudin took his horse over a sheer drop. As khan, Genghis ordered the slaughter of every living thing in Herat, knowing that it would send a message to all those who thought his control had been shaken by Jelaudin’s rebellion. The killing at Herat was his last major action in Afghanistan. Like that city, the Chinese region of Xi Xia thought the Mongols were too stretched to defend distant outposts, so stopped sending tribute. Their refusal would bring the khan out of Arab lands at last, intent on resuming the utter subjugation of the Chin empire, begun more than a decade before.

  In 1227, only twelve years after taking Yenking in 1215, Genghis Khan was dead. He spent about eight of those twelve years at war. Even when there was no obvious enemy, his generals were always on the move, reaching as far as Kiev in Russia, where Tsubodai made the only successful winter attack in history. Of all Genghis’ generals, Tsubodai is rightly known as the most gifted. I have barely done him justice here.

  Genghis died after falling from his horse in the process of attacking the Xi Xia for a second time. His last command was to wipe out Xi Xia. There is a persistent legend that the great khan was stabbed by a woman before that last ride. As he was on his way to destroy Xi Xia, it made sense to give that role to the princess he had taken as his wife. Given that his birth date can only be estimated, he was between 50 and 60 years old. For such a short life, and from such humble beginnings, he left an incredible mark on the world. His immediate legacy was that his sons did not tear the nation to pieces in deciding who should lead. They accepted Ogedai as khan. Perhaps there would have been civil war if Jochi had still been alive, but he was gone.

  The army of Genghis Khan was organised in tens upwards, with a rigid chain of command.

  arban: 10 men – with two or three gers between them if travelling fully equipped.

  jagun: 100

  minghaan: 1000

  tuman: 10,000

  Commanders of 1000 and 10,000 were given the rank of ‘noyan’, though I used ‘minghaan’ and ‘general’ for simplicity. Above those, men like Jebe and Tsubodai were ‘orloks’, or eagles, the equivalent of field marshals.

  It is interesting to note that although Genghis had little use for gold, plaques of the substance known as paitze became the symbol of rank for his armies and administration. Jagun officers carried one of silver, but noyans carried one weighing approximately 20 oz of gold. An orlok would have carried one weighing 50 oz.

  At the same time, the growth of army organisation, field weapons and messenger routes required a quartermaster type of rank to come into existence. These were known as ‘yurtchis’. They chose camp sites, and organised the messengers across thousands of miles between armies. The most senior yurtchi was responsible for reconnaissance, intelligence and the day-to-day running of the camp of Genghis.

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