3.26 Central and northern asia: a.d. 1201 to 1300  (Page 3/3)

They got their vitamin C from mare's milk, which is 4 times as high in this as cow's milk. (Ref. 211 ) The Mongol fighting tactics were far ahead of their time. In World War II, both Rommel and Patton were students and admirers of Subedei, perhaps the greatest tactician of the Mongol generals. (Ref. 27 )

We have discussed the original reconnaissance of the Russian steppe in the preceding paragraphs in the section on RUSSIA and we shall not repeat that here, but we need to pick up the narrative as the Mongols were retreating back to Asia. It has been noted that the Mongol armies had received 10,000 reinforcements under Genghis Khan's son, Jochi, as they defeated the Kama Bulgars on the upper Volga. They then rode on east to the lands of the eastern Cuman Kanglis, who had supplied so many soldiers to Muhammed II back in 1220 in the original Khwarizm war. Only when they had been annihilated and the Kangli khan killed were they ready to rejoin the Great Khan on the Irtish River. En- route Jebe died of a fever.

By this time Genghis was camped in a fertile valley, holding court on a golden throne in a huge, white pavilion that was capable of holding 2,000 people. Jochi gave his father a gift of over 100,000 horses that he had taken in tribute from the Kanglis. In two years, these Mongols had already ridden over 5,500 miles, and their real campaign of conquest into Europe had not even begun.

The career of that great instigator, Genghis Khan (1207-1227) is the most dramatic example in all history of the potentialities of nomad warfare. Superior generalship, mobility of cavalry and what today would be called "staff work", gave the Mongols superiority over every enemy they encountered. Genghis, although unbelievably cruel to his enemies and traitors, was in every other way a surprisingly enlightened and liberal ruler. His codified laws, eventually governing 50 nations, were far less cruel than the laws of Islam. Karakorum was a city where churches, mosques and temples stood side by side. This capital had been visited by William of Rubruck some forty years before Marco Polo's time, as an emissary of Louis IX of France. William described a giant silver fountain which had been constructed by Guillaume Houcher, a French goldsmith, which contained four spouts which dispensed respectively kumiss (fermented mare's milk

The death of Genghis did not by any means signal the end of the Mongol supremacy. The title of Great Khan descended upon Ogedai and Karakorum was extended so that 500 wagon loads of food were brought in every day. These wagons, which brought in more than 500,000 bushels of grain each year from China, took 4 months to make the round trip but such deliveries supplemented the meat and milk products locally available. (Ref. 279 ) Ogedai had gold fountains in the shape of elephants, tigers and horses and kumiz continually poured from the mouths of each. But like his father, he too was fond of wine and gradually the control of the empire fell more and more into the hands of the chancellor, the Chinese Yeh-Lu Ch'u-Ts'ai

Mangku, son of Tolui (also Tuli), succeeded as supreme khan in 1251 after the alcoholic death of Kuyuk at age 42. By that time the great Mongol Empire, stretching from the Pacific to Europe, had been pretty well divided into four rather distinct components. Western and southern Russia was the Khanate of the Golden Horde, while about the Aral Sea was the Khanate of the White Horde and to their north was the Cheibanid Khanate. The 4th region was China, itself. To connect the whole empire, however, the Mongols had a communication system they called Yam , similar to the old American pony express. There were Yam stations 25 miles apart, guarded by detachments of soldiers, stretching clear across the empire and messengers rode at the rate of 120 miles a day. (Ref. 27 ) An interesting result of the vast communication network as well as the slower commercial caravans and armies that marched to and fro across those vast Euro-Asian distances on a northern route, which was much different than the old Silk Road, is that this was the apparent method of spread of a new disease to the West - bubonic plague. Mongol horsemen had penetrated Yunnan and Burma in 1252 and 1253 where plague was endemic and they apparently brought the organism back to the steppe where the wild rodents came in touch with carriers of this new disease and in later centuries that became the real source of the Pasteurella pestis, which was to repeatedly scourge Europe. (Ref. 140 )

After the death of the Great Khan Mangku in 1259, succession for the first time was decided by armed conflict. For 4 years Kublai and Arik-Boke fought for the throne, and in the last part of that period Berke, then ruler of the Golden Horde also fought with Hulegu of Rum and Persia. Berke had convinced his troops that Hulegu had murdered the commanders of two Golden Horde tumens that had been with Hulegu's original forces and that the current attack was traditional revenge. Berke's forces crossed the Caucasus, led by Nogai. In the eastern conflict Kublai won but was immediately so completely absorbed in further fighting with the Sung Chinese and the Far East that he could not give much attention to the west. There was therefore a break-up in Asia and eastern Russia into several khanates, as we have detailed above. In addition to those previously listed we now add a separate Il-Khan Empire in Persia, proper. (Ref. 8 ) Kublai and his successors still apparently looked after the old capital at Karakorum, as over 500,000 bushels of grain continued to be brought there from China each year. Tibet remained a part of the empire of the Great Khan, although retaining its own king. It was in this century that the Tibetan king also became the lama and ruins of his vast 13th century fortress can still be seen with its cascading wall down a hillside at Shekar Dzong. The Tibetan lamas had great prestige and privilege under the Mongol rulers and their artisans reached a high point in independent precious metal work. (Ref. 182 , 131 , 19 )

A diagram showing the genealogy of the Mongol khans will be given on the next page in an attempt to clarify the rather complicated relationships.

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NOTE: Insert: Genealogy of the Conquering Mongol Khans