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WARRIORS OF CHINGGIS KHAAN
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Mongolia History Timeline

The Mongol Century
1155,1162, or 1167 (horse/pig year)—birth of Temujin/Tamuchin, to be renamed Genghis Khan (Chingiz Khan), Supreme or Oceanic Ruler (d. August 18, 1227)
1206—unification of Mongol tribes under Genghis Khan's leadership, with 105,000 warriors
1227—Mongol army grows to around 130,000 (although enemy guesstimates range from 200,000 to 800,000, perhaps due to multiple horses for each warrior plus accompanying sheep and goats)
CHINA
1211—first nibbles on Northern frontiers
1226—Mongol rule established in the north
1259—Kublai Khan (b. 1215, d. 1294, grandson of Genghis Khan, son of a Nestorian Christian mother; reigned 1260-1294) seizes the throne, en route to dream of world dominance (total of 9 emperors in the Yuan Dynasty)
1264—capital moved to present-day Beijing; Song Dynasty moves south
1279-1368—Mongol Yuan Dynasty rules China, quickly becoming sinified
KOREA
1231—series of invasions, demands and withdrawals begins puppet government, participating in invasions of Japan, established marriage alliances with Mongols (son-in-law state)
VIETNAM
1284—invasion leads to puppet government, occupying Hanoi in 1285 and again in 1287; resistance by Tran kings ends in overthrow of Mongol forces
first invasion force of 500,000 pushed back;second naval invasion force of 400 ships destroyed
third invasion force dropped due to death of Kublai Khan
JAPAN
1274—first invasion of 40,000 combined Mongol and Korean forces, 13,000 lost at sea preparations (Kamikaze winds credited)
1281—second invasion of 170,000, of which 100,000 die en route
preparations for subsequent invasions drain Kamakura government, leading to disgruntled vassals and dispute over imperial succession (1334-36, Kemmu Restoration)
BURMA
1287—Timor Khan, gandson of Kublai, occupies Pagan
READ ALL ABOUT IT
James Chambers, The Devil's Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion of Europe (Atheneum)
David Morgan, The Mongols (Blackwell)
The Secret History of the Mongols (trans. F. W. Cleaves)
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[from THE KOREAN HISTORY PROJECT online]

The Mongol Century
[Source: THE KOREAN HISTORY PROJECT online]

GENGHIS KHAN, THE UNIVERSAL PRINCE
While the government of Koryo suffered the convulsions of military and peasant uprisings, events far away in Mongolia set in motion a chain reaction that forever altered the history of East Asia. In the steppe lands between the upper reaches of the Onon and Kerulen Rivers, Tatar nomads were in search of a Mongol thief. Yesugei Bahadur (Yesugei the Valiant), leader of the Kiut-Borjigin tribe, had robbed a group of Tatar men from a rival tribe who never forgave or forgot the affront. Around 1175, some three years after the robbery, a group of Tatar riders caught up with Yesugei and murdered him in his camp.
The contentious struggle for leadership that followed Yesugei's death caused a chaotic split among the once united Kiut-Borjigin clans and they broke from the tribe. The rightful heir and logical successor to Yesugei's leadership position was his nine-year-old son Temujin, whose name translates loosely as "one who forges iron" or "man of iron." Dejected by Yesugei's murder and refusing to believe a mere boy could ever be strong enough to protect them, the Mongol clans dispersed to follow other chieftains.
Though still a boy, Temujin knew why the clans left and would likely have done the same in their place. Shunned and isolated by their own people, Temujin, his mother Hoelun, and younger brothers Qasar and Bekter, survived by their own wits. For nearly a decade the small family lived a precarious existence fishing, snaring small animals, and foraging for berries and wild onions. These lean and dangerous years taught the adaptable young Mongol to be patient, steady, shrewd, and practical. One day after fishing, Temujin had successfully trapped a small bird for food. His half-brother Bekter stole the days catch for himself. In revenge, Temujin and Qasar ambushed the boy and murdered him. In a rage, Hoelun accused her sons of being unable to win back the leadership of their father's own clan; "Except for your shadows, you have no companions ... except for your horse's tails, you have no whips." Mongol children were not hardened to suffering; they were born to it.
At the age of fifteen, Temujin and Borte were married in Mongol fashion. Borte's father, who had arranged the marriage when the two were just children, prepared a feast for the wedding party. The bride then ran off to hide with relatives. In the meantime, the father ceremoniously gave his daughter to the groom with instructions to take her wherever she may be hiding. Temujin and his friends rode off in search of the girl. When they found her, they took her back to the groom's tent in a mock show of force, where the marriage was consummated. Mongol men had as many wives as they could keep. The early Mongols did not marry within their tribe, but often resorted to kidnapping a woman from a neighboring tribe in order to get a wife. This practice of "wifenapping" led to a number of inter-clan wars on the steppe.
Already a skilled archer, horseman and raider with a strong sense of loyalty to those who rode with him, Temujin attracted a small following of Mongol warriors. As a descendant of a royal bloodline of the Borjigin clan, he considered himself an aristocrat of the steppes. He had married well and headed a family that included three valiant warriors: his brother Qasar, Belgutei, and Jelme. Temujin wanted more. He wanted the power to attract strong families into alliances and force enemy tribes into neutrality or submission. To improve his station in life however, he needed the protection and help of someone stronger (Figure 1).
Temujin noticed everything and forgot nothing. When he learned from his messengers that an emissary of Jin Emperor Changzong had recently arrived on the steppes to visit Toghrul Khan, chief of the rival Kerait tribe, Temujin decided to invite the Chinese diplomat to pay him a visit as well. The Jin emissary promptly accepted the invitation, eager to gather intelligence and report back to China on all events taking place in the northern steppes. The personal encounter between these two men forged the key that opened the door to all of East Asia. From lengthy conversations with his Chinese guest, Temujin learned that a great Tatar tribe had again mounted a campaign against China's western frontier and that the emissary was to seek assistance from Toghrul Khan against the Tatars. Temujin quickly saw the opportunity at hand.
Toghrul Khan, leader of the Kerait tribe, ruled a large area between the Onon river and the northern Chinese border as a vassal of the Jin emperor. The arrangement was part of a long- standing Chinese tradition that encouraged conflict between the various nomadic tribes along China's northern frontier. Toghrul was also a close friend and blood-brother of Temujin's father, a spiritual bond that, according to Mongolian tradition, was more binding than biological kinship. Temujin offered an alliance with the Kerait against the Tatars. Toghrul felt obliged to accept the young Mongol warrior's offer and promised to help him reunite the clans who left when his father died. Influenced in part by Temujin's gift of a luxurious black sable coat that was part of his wife's dowry and a modest string of victories, Toghrul kept his promise. Temujin's alliance not only exacted a measure of vengeance for the murder of his father, but greatly enhanced his own prestige among the Mongols.
Temujin had been married for less than a year when the Merkit tribe learned of his marriage to Borte. His father had earlier stolen a Merkit bride for himself and in Temujin, the Merkit saw a long-awaited opportunity for revenge. Alerted to the ambush by his mother's servant, who heard the approaching thunder of hoofbeats, Temujin escaped death only by the speed of his horse. Some 300 Merkit warriors swarmed into Temujin's camp and captured Borte and several other women. After fleeing to the Kentai Mountains, Temujin gathered his allies, including several hundred of Toghrul's Kerait warriors and led a military campaign against Merkit tribe. He succeeded in defeating the Merkit and rescuing his wife.
Temujin's success against the Merkit marked him as a major "player" in the tangled and bloody politics of the Mongolian steppes and his daring and charisma drew followers from throughout the region. In 1187, the Year of the Sheep, many aristocrats of various clans and their families joined under Temujin's banner and offered their allegiance to him. They saw him as the ideal steppe warrior, the best man to lead them. Despite his own rapidly growing prestige and authority he took care not alienate his patron, the anti-Tatar chieftain Toghrul Khan. Instead, he concentrated on destroying his family's long-time enemies, the Tatar. In alliance with the Kerait and with the support of the Jin, Temujin defeated one rival tribe after another and all but annihilated the Tatars. The success of his campaign attracted the attention of the Chinese, who in gratitude declared Toghrul Khan to be wang, the king of all lands north of China.
In the final years of the twelfth century, Temujin fought a number of campaigns, ostensibly on behalf of the Kerait. Powerful clans flocked to join under his bold and enterprising leadership and the Mongols and several neighboring tribes began hailing him as their khan, or leader. Temujin had become a hardened and impassioned warrior intent upon claiming the power that was his birthright and quickly earned a reputation as a man who had to be obeyed or forever feared. Shamans in Temujin's camp spread the word of a heavenly mandate for his power. Temujin himself reportedly declared, "My strength was fortified by Heaven and Earth."
As the rightful overlord of the Borjigin tribe, the young leader of a 13,000 man army instilled discipline and cooperation in his men and treated them with dignity and respect. As his strength grew, the once dispersed Mongol clans of the steppes gradually returned to their traditional homeland in the Onon and Kerulen river basin. A massive gathering, or quriltai, of the purely Mongol clans in 1194 proclaimed the twenty-seven-year-old Temujin "universal prince" of the Mongolian steppes, the Genghis Khan. The Mongols new that the best grazing land and hunting grounds went to the strongest khan and they expected him to lead them to conquer rich pastures, capture beautiful women, and acquire good horses and hunting grounds.
In the words of the Mongol shaman Teb-Tengri, before the arrival of Genghis Khan, "Everyone was feuding. Rather than sleep they robbed each other of their possessions. ... The whole nation was in rebellion. Rather than rest they fought each other. In such a world one did not live as one wished, but rather in constant conflict. There was no respite, only battle. There was no affection, only mutual slaughter." The shaman's words testify to Genghis Khan's ultimate purpose, to end the useless hatred and destruction and awaken the Mongolian people to their remarkable destiny.
Genghis Khan's strength and power during his early years as leader of the Mongols was unstable. Although he had authority over the tribal chieftains, he knew that if anything went badly, any or all of them could desert his camp. What tipped the scales in his favor was a core group of loyal companions who stood by him no matter what. When Genghis Khan was struck in the neck by an arrow during one battle, Jelme, one of his earliest companions, dragged him from the battlefield and sucked the clotted blood from the wound until it finally closed. Jelme would later rise to become a leading Mongol general. Following a hard-fought battle with a rival tribe and the massacre of a high percentage of its captive warriors, Genghis Khan came across a bowman accused of bringing down the Khan's own horse. The young warrior proudly admitted the fact, whereupon Genghis Khan spared his life, renamed the courageous fighter Jebe, meaning "the arrow," and won the undying loyalty of a man who would eventually become the most illustrious of Mongol military leaders.
The conquest of territory required a well-trained, well-equipped army. The Mongols had always been excellent warriors, but then so had all the nomad tribes of Central Asia. The riders from each clan under Genghis Khan were essentially small military units able to move swiftly and shoot accurately. A rigorous life and the ability to hunt skillfully permitted the steppe tribes to field groups of armed horsemen who were so savage they seemed impossible to defeat. Still, Genghis Khan realized that his collection of skilled warriors did not constitute an army. They needed discipline and organization. Genghis Khan took Mongol horsemen as young as fifteen and as old as seventy and molded them into an effective fighting force instilled with a discipline that was both practical and severe. Death came to any man who left his command to join another, who plundered without permission, who deserted a fallen comrade, or who slept on guard duty.
The scattered Mongol tribes lived according to local custom, but once they submitted to the leadership of Genghis Khan, they united under his maxims, regulations and instructions. The laws, rules, and words of wisdom, which he continued to develop during his lifetime, amounted to a codified legal standard for all Mongols that let every man know his place and know what was expected of him. The collection came to be known as the Great Yasa and it applied to all tribes. Most provisions of this code were punitive in nature, designed to ensure the execution of the Khan's personal orders, the observance of the Great Yasa itself, the carrying out of military orders, and total adherence to Mongol custom. The Great Yasa was far more than a legal code however, its powerful spiritual and philosophical content became a talisman containing secret magical formulas and ethical guidelines for the Mongol people.
To protect himself from sudden raids, Genghis Khan organized his own camp first. He appointed a personal guard of armed warriors, 80 night guards and 70 day guards. He then made provisions to care for and protect his large stable of horses and to train remounts. Whether from the pastoral tribes of the steppe or the hunting and fishing tribes of the northern forests, Mongols were natural born hunters. Since hunting was conducted like a military campaign, Genghis Khan used the hunt as a training ground for war. An idle army could mean trouble, so the hunt became both a way to keep the men in fighting trim and a method of keeping his growing armies under tight control.
Discipline and organization were key factors in every Mongol battle. Horsemen drilled in simulated fights, where they learned to obey the orders of their captains without question. Maintaining tight, well-ordered formations mounted on their study, swift horses, they turned and retreated by turns, shooting over the backs of their horses. After a short distance they would turn again to attack. This type of constant drill created a fighting force that acted as a single man and presented a united front to the enemy. It was a common practice that defeated armies tended to break up and scatter in confusion. Even though Genghis Khan's army suffered an occasional defeat, his men always retreated in an orderly formation and regrouped around him to fight again.
While still securing his ruling authority over the Mongols, Genghis Khan broke with his blood- brother Jamuqa over a rivalry. In 1201, Jamuqa joined the Jadirat tribe, where he was elected leader and given the title Gur Khan. Out of a sense of anger, Jamuqa began to form a tribal coalition against his former long-time friend. Genghis Khan's power made it almost inevitable that sooner or later he would break with the Kerait and his patron Toghrul Khan. Within two years after he broke the Mongol alliance with the Kerait, his armies suffered a tremendous defeat in a Kerait ambush near the headwaters of the Khalka River. Genghis Khan and the few followers that remained with him retreated to survive in the inhospitable wasteland of northern Mongolia.
When the quarreling Kerait tribal coalition finally collapsed in 1203, Genghis Khan and his forces stormed out of northern Mongolia and crushed them. Toghrul Khan fled to the safety of the Naiman tribe, but was accidentally killed by a warrior who failed to recognize him. The defeated Kerait people submitted to Genghis Khan's leadership and became his loyal servants, but he was never sure of their loyalty and disbursed them among the Mongol tribes.
The defeat of the Kerait left only the Naiman tribe standing between Genghis Khan and complete domination of Central Asia. At the time, the Naiman tribe had alliances with a large number of minor tribes, including the Merkits, the Jadirat under Jamuqa, the Dorbet, Katagin, Seljiut and various surviving Tatar clans. For more than a year, the Mongols of Genghis Khan defeated their enemies in battle after battle. In one of the final battles in 1205, the Naiman chieftain, overwhelmed and retreating to a nearby hill with his companions, demanded to know the identity of the four determined warriors still pursuing them like wolves. Jamuqa, leader of the Jadirat, told him they were the four hunting dogs of Temujin:
"... fed on human flesh and leashed with iron chains; their skulls are of brass, their teeth hewn from rock, their tongues like swords."
When asked who the man was who followed them, Jamuqa replied, "That is my blood-brother Temujin, wearing a coat of iron."
During the fighting, a group of Jamuqa's followers betrayed him and took him to Genghis Khan. Despite Temujin's generous offer to renew their brotherhood, Jamuqa insisted that he be executed. Temujin accepted the request, and then turned on his betrayers and executed them as well, for he could never abide by treasonous, unprincipled people who would betray their own master. As the Naiman chieftain lay dying on the hillside, his loyal warriors charged down slope into the victorious Mongols. Genghis Khan admired their loyalty and offered to spare their lives, but they rejected his offer and fought to the last man.
At the time of Temujin's birth, c.1167, there was no central power in Mongolia. Within the span of two generations, the son of Yesugei the Valiant, the "universal prince" of the Mongolian steppe had taken effective control of all Mongolia and ruled a nation of approximately two million people. In 1206, the Chinese Year of the Tiger, Genghis Khan proclaimed a great quriltai, a general assembly of all the minor and major leaders and shamans. Nearly 400,000 Mongols gathered under the nine-tailed white banner in an enormous city of felt tents spread across the Delugun Boldok plain at the headwaters of the Onon River. They came to select and proclaim the 39 year-old Temujin as the Khakan, the Ruler of Rulers, the supreme "Khan of all who live in felt tents," the leader of all Turkish and Mongol tribes in Central Asia, the Emperor of the Steppes.
It had been a great achievement, secured in no small part by Temujin's intelligence and intuition, his intensely ambitious yet selfless nature, and his endless capacity for devotion and loyalty. The historic gathering on the Delugun Boldok plain did more than select a supreme leader of the Mongols. It generated a sense of national pride and personal honor among the nomads for the first time in their history. Under his rule, no Mongol would be a slave or servant. His sole duty would be to bear arms as an honorable subject of the Khakan. As time passed, the ideal of personal honor became so deeply ingrained that violent robbery, murder, theft, and adultery virtually disappeared among the Mongol tribes. Sitting at the head of world-class military machine, Genghis Khan suddenly faced a problem that puzzled every nomad leader who managed to unite the fractious and predatory tribes of Central Asia. What should he do now?

MASTERS OF SURVIVAL
At the dawn of the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan had created a Mongol nation of armed cavalry such as the world had never seen before nor would ever see again. With bow and sword, Genghis Khan and his Mongol war machine spread across the steppes moving from battle to battle to establish themselves as the unchallenged leaders of the steppes. He sent his armies into neighboring lands to intimidate and subdue any tribes around his borders who did not submit to his authority. Those who could not escape or resist the Khan's onslaught came bearing gifts, announced their loyalty and devotion, and placed their best warriors at his disposal. Warned one nomad who had seen Temujin's army fight, "They pursue men like game....They slay them and take from them everything."
Born of a nation that literally lived on horseback, Genghis Khan's Mongol cavalry excelled in stamina, mobility and striking power. The typical Mongol warrior was a short, stocky, heavy-set fellow with a large round head and a broad face featuring a wide flat nose, prominent cheekbones, and dark almond-shaped eyes. Constant exposure to the sun, wind and frost, gave his skin a swarthy, almost leathery appearance, even though he smeared his face with a protective coating of grease. He wore a fairly bushy mustache, usually shaved his head except for the straight black hair on the sides of his head which he braided and looped up behind his ears. He wore a tunic which was open from top to bottom, folded over the breast, and fastened on the right side. The common tunic was made from a coarse cotton or hemp cloth, stiffened with a glue-like substance to hold its form. A wealthy Mongol might were a tunic made from brocade or velvet.
Mongol warriors wore their trousers tucked into stubby felt or leather boots. Some warriors strapped their trousers at the ankles instead of tucking them into their boots. Over the trousers they wore calf-length surcoats or long robes split at the sides and gathered in at the waist by a girdle.In cold weather he wore a knee-length fur tunic slit in the back. To keep the cold winds out, his sleeves were tightly gathered at the wrist. To complete his outfit, he wore a short fur cape over his shoulders and a fur-lined cap. They never washed their clothes, believing it made the gods angry. They also believed that hanging their clothes out to dry would cause thunder. Anyone who dared wash their clothes was subject to a beating and had their clothes taken from them.
The sparse land and fierce climate of the steppes worked on man and horse and equipment to remove everything nonessential. Unlike the heavily armored knights of Europe, the typical Mongol warrior dressed lightly for combat. The Mongols wore an iron or brass helmet with a leather neck protector. A fur-lined or felt coat worn over a loose-fitting raw silk blouse provided both warmth and freedom of movement. For protection, the Mongols wore either lamellar armor made of four pieces of overlapping plates lacquered to provide protection against humidity or iron-plate armor. The tough silk fabric also had a practical side. Should a warrior be struck by an arrow, the unpierced silk would fold itself around the arrowhead as it penetrated the flesh and the arrow could be removed by gently pulling on the blouse. This was important since the Mongols never abandoned their wounded in battle.
The chief Mongol weapon was the Central Asian composite bow, a superbly deadly device used primarily in a charge and in fighting from the saddle at close quarters. This powerful weapon had a draw that approached 165 pounds. In the hands of a skilled archer, it could reportedly hurl an arrow with deadly accuracy on a flat trajectory at a range of 200 to 300 yards. They also carried a long bow, used for fighting at long range. The sheath for this bow hung from a belt in front of his left thigh. Along with the bow, the typical warrior carried three quivers of about thirty arrows each. Suspended from his belt and hung across the small of his back, each quiver contained different arrows for different ranges and uses. There were armor-penetrating arrows, arrows for use against unprotected troops, and a third type used for arrow grenades and flaming naptha. Elite warriors carried a sword or a light sabre. Some men also carried lances with hooks on the end, which they used to drag a man from his saddle.
The Mongol warrior was always ready for war. He made his own bows and arrows, saddles, bits and stirrups and each man made sure his weapons were repaired and ready for immediate use. He carried no baggage on long campaigns. To support himself in the field, he carried a hatchet, a file for sharpening weapons, an awl, a fishhook and line, needle and thread, a length of rope, and a lasso. He carried two leather flasks to hold milk and water, a small iron cooking pot for cooking meat, and a leather kit bag. Although he generally lived off the land by foraging and hunting, he did carry some food, usually dried milk curds, cheese, qumiss, millet and dried meat. Sometimes he would carry dried blood, which he dissolved in water before drinking . If he had no cooking pot, he would kill an animal, take out the stomach, clean it, fill it with water and cook it over an open fire. When it was done, he simply ate the meat, "pot" and all. For shelter, he carried a small, one-man, felt "dog tent." The dried milk/blood "iron rations" and the single man "dog tents" were centuries ahead of their time. A Mongol warrior could travel for days with such seemingly meager provisions and not have to divert from his military objective in order to hunt food.
Even the most self-sufficient and well-armed Mongol warrior could not survive for long without his horse. The steppe pony, a short and stocky animal about thirteen to fourteen hands high, was every bit as strong and tough as its rider. With a well-trained horse, the Mongol warrior had a steady platform from which he could fire his arrows, even at a full gallop. Responding instantaneously to foot and leg commands, the horse could quickly turn, race off at full speed and still allow the warrior to turn in his saddle with his hand's free to accurately shoot arrows to the rear at his pursuers.
Some warriors made five-sectioned armor to protect their mounts. Two large panels protected the horse on each side from head to tail, fastened to the saddle, across the neck and just behind the saddle across the back. A third panel, tied to the side panels, stretched over the hindquarters and protected the animals rear with a hole for the tail. The fourth piece, also attached to the two side panels covered the horses breast area. The fifth piece, an iron late to protect the animal's forehead was fastened on each side of the neck.
Mongol horses grazed as they traveled, rooting beneath the snow for mosses, eating lichens and dried grass, even leaves from trees. Mongol horses could travel great distances without tiring. In one case, a single Mongol rider traveled some six hundred miles in just under nine days. Genghis Khan's remount system extended this distance considerably, allowing his army to ride one hundred thirty miles in just two days with no breaks for food.
Aside from their horses and weapons, the Mongol's most valued possessions were their flocks and herds, on which their very lives depended. The wool from sheep and goats was used to make clothing and felt cloth. Animal hides were used for clothing, quivers for arrows, body armor, and tallow for water-proofing leather and felt Even animal horns and bones were used to make tools and weapons.
The Mongols lived primarily on a diet of meat, millet, cheese and qumiss, a potent liquid created from fermented mare's milk. When hunting was good, they ate the meat of such wild animals as gazelle, wild ass, mountain sheep, fox, and wolf. They also fed on such domestic animals as the ox, horse, dog, sheep, goat and camel . Meat was generally cooked in salted water and served in the broth. After a meal, dishes were never washed. When they cooked meat, they just rinsed out the serving bowl using boiling broth from the cook pot and poured the broth back into the cook pot. Mongols never wasted food. If food could not be eaten it was stored in a small bag carried on their belt to be eaten later. They would gnaw on bones and suck out the marrow. Only then would it be given to a dog. After eating, they would wipe their greasy hands on their trousers, the grass, or anything else nearby. Napkins and tablecloths were unknown and unnecessary. The "table manners" of more civilized people were unimportant to the Mongols. All that mattered was survival.
Mongol society was based on a patriarchal family structure, one in which fathers and husbands held a great deal of power and authority. Men built the houses, carts and wagons, tended the camels and horses, milked the mares, and made the animal skin bags used to store qumiss. They shared the job of loading the camels with the women. Everyone tended the goat and sheep herds and took turns milking them. A woman's social position was generally good compared to much of the rest of the world. Women, particularly the wife's or mother's family, were shown a certain degree of respect. She could freely dispose of her property and manage her own affairs. She alone had the responsibility for bringing up the children. Mongol women were also accomplished horse riders and rode just like men. Tying their tunics at the waist with a length of sky-blue silk and binding their breasts with another piece of cloth tied around their chest, some women carried bows and arrows and were known to fight alongside the men.
Genghis Khan gave women new and greater responsibilities, principally in order to release the men for war. They became responsible for literally everything the family owned. Men built the carts and wagons used to carry the family's belongings, tended the horses and camels and milked the mares. In addition to the large four-wheeled wagons upon which the Mongols carried their tents, they also used smaller two-wheeled carts covered with black, waterproof felt to carry family possessions and food. Mongol women loaded and drove the wagons and carts drawn by horses, oxen and camels, and when the family arrived at its destination, they unloaded the carts and wagons as well.
Women milked the cows, made butter and cheese, and boiled sour milk which they then dried and stored. They slit animal tendons into long, thin strands which they then twisted into a single long thread. This thread was then used to sew socks, shoed, boots and other clothing items. Women also made the heavy felt blankets used to cover the large tent houses . In addition, they had to ensure their husband's war equipment and his sheepskin cloak and riding boots with their felt overshoes were always ready for use. They also had to ensure their husband's saddle bags were filled with food rations.
Building on the foundation set in place long before he was elected Genghis Khan, Temujin organized an army without equal. All able-bodied men between 14 and 60 years of age were liable for military service. He expanded his original night and day guard units from 80 and 70 men each to 1,000 men each. In time, they were further expanded to 10,000 men and combined as the Imperial Guard. From this unit, 1,000 men were selected as Genghis Khan's personal guard and fought only when he went to war. In peacetime, they acted as quartermasters, responsible for such duties as the issue of all weapons, the care of horses, and loading and unloading the palace tents. They also assisted in enforcing the law.
The united Mongol army organized itself along familiar lines using the simple, yet effective decimal system. Ten men formed an arban, the army's smallest unit. Ten arbans formed a single squadron, or jagun. Ten jaguns made up a single regiment, or minghan. Ten minghans made up a single division, or tumen. A typical Mongol Army would contain two or three tumens. Genghis Khan maintained three large armies: the Jungar, Army of the Left Wing, the Barangar, Army of the Right Wing, and the Khol, Army of the Center. Since no officer ever had to give orders to more than 10 men and every warrior was responsible only to the officer directly above him, order and discipline could be effectively maintained.
Genghis Khan was a practical man who did not like to take action without a good idea of what would happen as a result. He learned not to make military decisions without a great deal of information. Only then would he begin drawing up his battle plans. He employed a network of spies to gather intelligence from travelers, merchants, dissidents, scouts, and anyone else who might have the smallest bit of useful information. Tribes under his rule were under orders to immediately inform him of any remarkable or unusual occurrence. Mongol messengers constantly patrolled the steppes, eagerly seeking out anything that could be reported. From such sources, Genghis Khan learned about mountain passes, river fords, roads, fortresses, towns, cities and military forces they might encounter on a campaign.
Plans for a major military campaign were discussed at a quriltai, where the senior generals discussed such issues as manpower, livestock (at least two to three horses per man), logistics, and which season was best suited for the campaign. After everything had been discussed down to the smallest detail and preparations completed, the campaign commander would conduct a general inspection of his army, including all horses and equipment, to ensure it was up to strength. Only then were marching orders given.
A Mongol military expeditionary force usually entered a country in widely spaced columns. To prevent discovery and surprise attack, large scout groups of up to 200 men each rode two days ahead of and behind the main force. Similar groups covered the left and right flanks. In the area of open field warfare, the Mongols had no equal. When they encountered a large enemy force, hard-riding messengers capable of carrying information across vast distances in an incredibly short period of time alerted the main army. Through a signaling system that used the squadron's black and white battle flags in daylight and lanterns at night, the troops could be rapidly united and deployed with unbelievable speed in relative silence.
In a typical Mongol battle formation, the tulughma, five ranks were spaced at wide intervals, two heavy cavalry ranks in the front and three light cavalry ranks to the rear. The heavy cavalry, comprised of warriors with complete armor protection on both man and horse, was armed with swords, lances with hooks on the ends and maces. The more mobile light cavalry wore no armor and carried bows, javelins and sabers for hand-to-hand fighting.
Once in formation and ready for a fight, the pounding of large war drums carried on the backs of camels signaled the attack. The pounding noise of the drums was quickly overwhelmed by the ferocious screams of charging Mongol horse archers. The battle usually began with the two units of light cavalry sweeping around both ends of the tulughma to harass the enemy flanks as he advanced. Horse archers would ride in, fire a deadly volley of arrows, turn and disappear, then reappear just as suddenly to continue the assault. As the enemy drew closer, the third light cavalry unit charged forward through the heavy cavalry into the front lines to overwhelm the enemy with arrows and javelins. Once the enemy ranks collapsed in disorder, the light cavalry retired back through breaks in the front lines and the heavy cavalry charged in for the kill. Horse archers continued to harass and demoralize the enemy until he finally gave up. Only after wearing down the enemy and his horses by repeated charges did the Mongols ever fight at close quarters.
No Asian army ever equaled the Mongols in mobility, horsemanship or archery. Unquestioned obedience, the ability to endure unspeakable hardships, unbelievable mastery of the bow, and excellent horsemanship made the Mongol warrior superior to his enemy. This well-trained, highly disciplined fighter was treated fairly by his leaders and, by and large, was much better off than soldiers in most armies. The Mongols believed the guardian spirit of the Golden Family resided in the great white standard that led the Army. More importantly, they were convinced of their invincibility and that the Everlasting Blue Sky had sent them to conquer the world. A relentless and bloody march against a succession of empires was about to begin.

BUILDING THE EMPIRE
To the east and southeast of Genghis Khan's empire, hidden behind China's northern frontier defense line, lay the perpetual stimulus for the nomad's lust for plunder, the ancient Empire of China. The fine textiles, laces, weapons, and utensils that had been the age-old target of casual thieving raids paled in comparison to the rich cargoes that regularly passed through the Mongol Empire along that overland artery of heavily worn trails and paths known as the Silk Road. Massive trade caravans loaded with furs, lustrous silks, gold, and silver traveled this fabled trade route across the vast landscape of central Asia between China and the coastal cities of the Black Sea and the eastern Mediterranean.
The Silk Road threaded its way between China and India and the prosperous Middle East trade centers of Samarkand, Bukhara and Baghdad, providing a communication and trade link that spanned a continent. Clever merchants and traders passing through the Mongol domain presented gifts of tribute to the Khakan and enjoyed perfectly satisfactory relations with the Mongol ruler. Genghis Khan enjoyed talking with the caravan merchants about the outside world. Whenever he asked them about the Jin Empire, he heard stories of inconceivable splendor and wealth. He questioned caravan after caravan. They all told him the same story.
Because the Mongols knew nothing about architecture or sailing, the words of caravan merchants evoked strange images in Genghis Khan's mind. He heard tales of roads paved with great slabs of stone laid atop arches that crossed rivers (bridges) and stories of great floating houses that traveled both up and down stream (boats). Chinese nobles did not ride horses, but were carried in gilt chairs slung on poles. The cities and towns of China were surrounded by walls so high that no horse could ever leap them, nor could any man climb them. These walled camps were so large that all of the Mongols could live in just one of them.
More disturbing, Genghis Khan learned that the Jin emperor's army far outnumbered his own, and that his soldiers fought with bows so sturdy it took twenty men to draw them. China had war chariots drawn by as many as twenty horses; mighty engines that could hurl fire at an enemy; missiles which burst with the sound of thunder and tore everything in the vicinity into fragments. The more Genghis Khan learned about China, the more his curiosity became deep concern. Thoughts of plunder gradually turned to thoughts of protection. For centuries, the Chinese displayed great skill in pitting one nomad tribe against another and the Chin's principal policy had been to prevent any attempt among the steppe nomads to unite. Deeply scarred by Jin oppression and their persecution of his ancestors, Temujin always knew that he would eventually have to fight them. With all the skill, caution and thoroughness in his nature he began to contemplate a decisive war of conquest against China.
South of the Gobi desert lay the large Tangut state of Xi Xia, a vast kingdom of nearly five million subjects protected by fortress cities and a 150,000 man force modeled after the Chinese army (Figure 1). Xi Xia became the perfect training ground for Genghis Khan's armies and the touchstone of his strength. In 1207, Genghis Khan's battle hardened warriors rode nearly 600 miles (965 kilometers), surviving the crossing of the Gobi desert by drinking milk and the blood of their horses. Caught in the open, the disorganized warriors of Xi Xia were easy prey for the highly disciplined Mongols. The heavily fortified defenses of Xi Xia were another matter. This was the Mongol's first clash with a settled agricultural urban state and Genghis Khan soon learned the futility of using cavalry against a highly fortified position.
The first large-scale Mongol attack in Xi Xia happened at the mighty fortress at Volohai. Unable to breach the walls of Volohai, Genghis Khan resorted to a clever trick. He sent a message from his encampment to the Tangut general announcing that he would end his siege in exchange for a gift of one thousand cats and ten thousand swallows. Astonished by the unusual request, the fortress commander gratefully complied. After the animals arrived in the Mongol camp, Genghis Khan ordered his men to tie a small cotton-wool tuft to the tail of each creature then set the tuft afire. When the panicked and frightened animals were turned loose, they made directly for their nests and lairs inside Volohai, igniting hundreds of small fires. While the panicked defenders were preoccupied with putting out fires, Genghis Khan's warriors stormed the city in conquest.
The fortified capital of Xi Xia, situated near the Yellow River on the arid Ningxia Plain, presented the Mongols with another challenge. Unable to take the city by direct attack, the Mongols tried to divert the Yellow River into the surrounding moat to flood the city and drive its inhabitants into the open. It didn't work. After a devastating three year campaign however, Genghis Khan finally subdued the Tanguts in 1209, forcing the Xi Xia emperor Tiansheng to accept overlordship under the umbrella of Genghis Khan's growing empire.
The decisive victories of Genghis Khan cannot be ascribed solely to speed, surprise, or the unbridled terror and fury of his Mongol armies. While they were terrifying and fought with great fury, and often played ghastly tactical tricks on their opponents with horrific effect, the Mongols succeeded in battle principally because they were careful planners. They organized with great detail and used a level of cunning unmatched in all Asia.
In the spring of 1211, about 200,000 battle-hardened Mongol warriors gathered along the Kerulen River for a great quriltai at Genghis Khan's encampment. He told them the Jin Empire no longer had allies among the nomads. The time had finally come to exact vengeance. Temujin had the mind of a herdsman, a keeper of goats and sheep, and now he would collect nations in the same manner. The noblest of the Mongol chiefs belatedly came to the realization they had not chosen a ruler who would modestly steward their interests, but a harsh, strong-willed sovereign.
With the immense wealth of China beckoning them southward, the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan traveled some 450 miles between their Kerulen River encampment and the Chinese frontier in 1211 without losing a man. When the first news of the advancing Mongols reached Emperor Yuenji, the former prince envoy to Genghis Khan, he readied his army and laid plans to entrap the Mongols in the mountain passes leading down from the steppes. After feigning a strike from the north, Genghis Khan diverted his army to the west, where they penetrated a lightly defended region of China's northern defenses. The fast moving Mongol cavalry descended onto the rich agricultural lands of northern Shanxi Province without having struck a blow.
Genghis Khan's ultimate goal was the Jin capital of Zhongdu (Figure 2)(located where now stands), a formidable fortress-city surrounded by three moats. Walls forty feet in height stretched for twenty-six miles around the city. Chinese troops watched the countryside from some 900 guard towers atop the walls. Tens of thousands of soldiers defended the city from behind twelve closely guarded gates. Subterranean tunnels linked Zhongdu with four smaller cities nearby, each about a mile square in size and well-supplied with food and weapons. Zhongdu's impregnability left Genghis Khan undecided as to how he could take the fortress. Rather than attack the city, he ordered his army northward for the winter where he could keep close watch on the Chinese.
As Genghis Khan's armies marched northward beyond China's defensive perimeter during the autumn and winter months to practice the art of siege warfare, they were surprised to find herds of imperial brood mares grazing in the lands between the inner and outer frontier line. In a single fortunate stroke, the Mongols not only solved their need for remounts, but cut off the supply of horses for the Jin army. Without the competition of Chinese cavalry, the Khakan no longer feared the Jin and felt the Chinese army could be dispensed with at his leisure.
As the Mongols withdrew, the Jin sent a Khitan army general to parley with the Mongol leader. Genghis Khan, ever-suspicious of Jin intentions, carefully questioned the Khitan general, who revealed himself to be a member of the Liao family. More importantly, the general divulged the true internal condition of the Jin Empire. The Khakan learned that although the Jin had unified northern China and adopted the culture and customs of China, they were, in truth, the same Manchurian Jurchen who had conquered the Khitan Liao dynasty and menaced the Korean kingdom of Koryo. The Khitan general offered his personal services to Genghis Khan in exchange for Mongol help in driving the Jin from the Liao kingdom. Quick to see the potential benefits of the general's offer, Genghis Khan decided to let the Jin capital wait.
The following spring, imperial Chinese troops crushed an uprising of Khitan rebels in the Liao state and threatened the Liao prince. Genghis Khan sent one of his sons across the Liaodong Peninsula at the head of an army to take the eastern capital at Liaoyang. In a harsh winter campaign in 1212, the cunning Mongol leader sent to relieve the Khitan prince successfully breached the Liaoyang fortress and took the city by storm. The Khitan prince, once fearful for his future, now declared himself king of the Liaodong and gratefully placed his entire kingdom under the vassal protection of the Mongols. At approximately the same time, the Khitan general sent to negotiate with Genghis Khan a year earlier honored his former pledge by bringing various Jin generals of Khitan lineage and their entire command of forty-six Chinese divisions under the Mongol banner.
In the spring of 1213, Genghis Khan organized a far more serious assault against the Jin Empire. Once the Chinese realized that the Mongol incursion was no mere raid for wealth, but a carefully planned invasion of conquest, a sense of heightened danger enveloped the throne in Peking. During a palace revolt that erupted behind the city walls, an army commander settled a personal vendetta against the throne by murdering Jin Emperor Yuenji. He immediately proclaimed himself commander-in-chief of the Jin army and installed the Jin prince Xuanzong as emperor. When news of the palace revolt reached Genghis Khan, he quickly ordered his troops to break off their engagements in the countryside and rush south to Zhongdu.
Genghis Khan hoped to find the throne in the hands of Liao supporters and the gates of the city wide open. The Mongols rushed headlong to the capital. Just outside the city of Zhongdu, Jin troops launched a sudden surprise attack against the Mongols and caught them completely off guard. Genghis Khan had misjudged the nature of the revolution. He discovered the new ruling elite in Zhongdu were as anti-Khitan as they were anti-Mongol. Following the first Mongol defeat in their two-year campaign against China, Genghis Khan called up his reserves and returned to Zhongdu. He personally commanded a savage twenty-four hour long battle that drove the Jin army back into the suburbs of the city. The Jin army's failure to take advantage of its initial victory and the resulting Mongol counterattack against the city fueled yet another palace revolt.
As the Jin government tore itself apart behind Zhongdu's walls, Genghis Khan and his Mongol army sat outside the gates, still faced with the impregnability of the city's defenses. The absurdity and frustration of the situation soon fired a wrath in Genghis Khan that triggered the most vicious Mongol campaign to date. During the autumn and winter of 1213, the Mongols murdered, pillaged and burned their way across the Jin kingdom, venturing eastward into southern Manchuria, southward across the Shanxi plateau, and southeastward across the low- lying plains to the Yellow River and the Shandong Peninsula. Genghis Khan cared little whether the Chinese lived or died, and although he spared the lives of skilled craftsmen, artists, and men of learning, he commanded the rest be put to death. No city, large or small was overlooked, and the Mongols spared few of the Jin garrisons that surrendered. They destroyed the rest. Mongol horsemen laid waste to the entire countryside, leaving little in their wake except flaming houses, depopulated towns, and smoking ruins; corpses of the dead lay unburied in the fields or floating in creeks and rivers. Famine and pestilence followed close on the heels of the Mongol invaders.
China exacted its revenge the following spring, when the Mongol armies returned to the lush plains surrounding Zhongdu. The Mongols were set upon not by troops of the Jin army, but by the disease and filth they had wrought the year before. Genghis Khan finally realized he could no more take Zhongdu than he could conquer the nearly 50,000,000 people of the Jin dynasty. Even if he could, he would never be able to hold it. With China weakened and humiliated in his eyes, he sent an envoy to Emperor Xuanzong to announce his withdrawal from China. Emperor Xuanzong sweetened the agreement by presenting gifts of gold, silver, horses, slaves, and a princess (who became one of Genghis's many wives) to the Mongol ruler. In 1214, after three years of savage fighting, Genghis Khan signed a peace agreement with the Jin emperor. Genghis Khakan, the Ruler of Rulers, retired with his armies to the oasis of Dolon-nor on the edge of the Gobi desert and never again set foot on Chinese soil.
The Mongols had barely completed their withdrawal from China when Emperor Xuanzong decided to get as far away from the Mongols as possible. He directed the removal of his throne from Zhongdu to Kaifeng, south of the Yellow River. The Song dynasty rulers in southern China saw the Mongol defeat of the Jin as just punishment for previous Jin wars against them. With the Mongol threat removed however, the Song dynasty viewed Emperor Xuanzong's move south to Kaifeng with great apprehension. His proximity made them all quite nervous. The Song court sent an emissary to the Mongol camp at Dolon-nor to discover Genghis Khan's intentions, hoping to point out the danger of letting the Jin reassert their power in China. The emissary's message neither impressed the Khakan, nor moved him to respond. The Song envoy spent days vainly trying to glean the smallest bit of information about Mongol intentions. He gave up only when he learned the sad truth that they had none. Genghis Khan had made peace with Xuanzong and that was that.
In the brief interlude of peace that followed, the Jin Empire collected its resources and began to rebuild China's war-ravaged provinces. The Jin organized a national resistance against the Liao state and new armies virtually sprang up out of nothing and marched into the state of Liao. Within weeks, Jin troops captured the capital at Liaoyang and drove the Liao prince from the city. The Khitan became targets for retribution in China. As soon as Emperor Xuanzong reached his new capital at Kaifeng, he ordered a number of Khitan troops in the imperial guard to surrender their horses and equipment. Instead of complying, the men mutinied, murdered the guard commander, and fled north, hotly pursued by government troops and harassed by cavalry detachments from Zhongdu. The Khitan sent a delegation north to Dolon-nor to tell Genghis Khan they regarded themselves as his vassals and pleaded for his help. The Jin Empire had evidently lost neither its warlike spirit, nor its ability to strike out. Believing the Jin retreat to Kaifeng amounted to a ploy for regrouping before a counterattack, Genghis Khan decided he could not allow the Jin to grow stronger.
In the summer of 1214, Genghis Khan sent three armies against the reemerging Jin dynasty, an act that forced a major turning point in East Asian history. A Mongol army under General Samukha drove south into Shanxi Province. General Sabudei, one of Genghis Khan's most trusted commanders, led a reconnaissance force into Manchuria, home of the Jurchen and the seat of the Jin dynasty. General Mukuli commanded a third army dispatched into Liao to aid the Khitan prince. His Mongol warriors swept through the Liaodong Peninsula and took the Liaoyang fortress. General Mukuli extended clemency to the Jin rather than punishing them for subjugating the Liao prince. Although a number of Khitan towns and villages surrendered to the Mongols, many Khitan tribes responded to the offer of clemency by fleeing south across the Yalu River into Koryo, pillaging and burning as they went. The sudden onrush of Khitan bedlam reached as far south as P'yong'yang before it could be halted. The Mongols soon purged the entire Liao kingdom of Jin troops.
During the brief peace of summer, Zhongdu's military commandant abandoned the city under orders from Emperor Xuanzong and returned to the capital at Kaifeng. Meanwhile, General Samukha's troops moved into Shanxi Province and fought their way to the rebelling Khitan imperial guards from Kaifeng. Soon after the two groups linked up, the combined Mongol- Khitan force captured the passes leading to Zhongdu and once again sat at the city gates. Isolated from the Jin capital, Zhongdu held out through the autumn and winter of 1214 by existing on meager provisions from the devastated countryside. The Mongols intercepted and destroyed the last of the relief armies from Kaifeng the following spring and assured the end of Jin resistance. The few remaining Jin generals fled the former capital, leaving the city and the imperial palace to be looted and ravaged by their own troops. With a small force of only 5,000 men, General Samukha virtually walked into Zhongdu unopposed. It was not the mighty Mongol hordes that finally brought down the massive fortress-city of Zhongdu, but starvation. For weeks afterward, the Mongols mercilessly looted the city and sent huge caravans northward to Dolon-nor carrying the wealth of China to Genghis Khan.
Late in the summer of 1216, Genghis Khan proclaimed General Mukuli Prince of State and Viceroy of the Jin Empire, the Kingdom of Liao, and the Korean kingdom of Koryo. Within months, the Khitan rebelled against the Mongol occupation of the Liao state. In 1217, a force of some ninety thousand Khitan rebels swarmed south across the Yalu River and plundered numerous district settlements in northern Koryo. The rebels seized several cities and established defensive positions for the winter. The private armed forces of the Ch'oe clan and units of the weaker Koryo garrison armies stationed in the Taedong basin managed to hold the Khitan in the northern districts through late winter and into summer of the following year.
Koryo received unexpected help in 1218, when a large force of Jurchen and Mongolian troops entered Koryo out of the northeast in pursuit of Khitan rebels. Koryo quickly seized the opportunity and joined forces with the Mongols. After a year-long campaign, the combined force trapped the Khitan at Kangdong Fortress east of P'yong'yang and forced their surrender. After having established a strong presence in northern Korea, the Mongols the regarded themselves as Koryo's benefactors. They were not about to offer aid to Koryo without compensation. The Koryo royal court deeply distrusted Mongol intentions, but they had little recourse except to enter into a tributary relationship. This new relationship did not sit well with the Koryo government and the Mongol tribute delegations sent to Kaesong soon became a frustrating annoyance. On several occasions, the Koryo royal court simply refused to accede to the Mongol's excessive demands for tribute. Their recalcitrance soon led to an open rift between Koryo and the great Mongol Empire.

MARCO POLO: THE STUFF OF DREAMS
A strong, stocky, handsome man of medium height with an enormous appetite for food, drink, hunting, women, and colorful display, not to mention warfare, everything about Kublai Khan seemed destined for legend. Although he conquered the Middle Kingdom, he refrained from styling himself as the Conqueror of China. Instead, Kublai Khan attempted to master the minds of its people, preserving the best of China's earlier institutions and trying to correct the harm resulting from generations of warfare. It was no easy task. The Chinese, with an ancient literary tradition, a developed technology, and a fastidious ceremonialism, found many reasons to condemn their conquerors. The Mongols were seen as aliens, foreign invaders with a cultural legacy that clashed with China's ancient customs and traditions.
While Kublai Khan's affinity for the symbols and customs of the country drew him to China's bosom, he remained a true Mongol at heart and never fully embraced the Chinese culture. He had conquered China from the back of his horse, but discovered he could not rule his vast empire from the saddle. He needed an elaborate administration to govern, yet the Mongols had little experience, if any, in administering so vast an empire. The Chinese had an existing bureaucracy and far more government experience than the Mongols, but the Mongols were reluctant to use the Chinese, particular the Southern Song, in their government. Genghis Khan filled lower positions in his government with some Chinese, abolished the civil service exams, kept separate laws for Mongols and for the Chinese, and preferred to employ foreigners rather than Chinese in his bureaucracy as he thought they would be more trustworthy. This legacy of distrust carried over into the reign of Kublai Khan.
If the Mongols had one redeeming virtue, it was practicality. Although primitive, often cruel, and with little material or intellectual culture of their own, whenever they encountered something that was cheaper and better than the old ways, they adopted it with little opposition. They quickly saw the usefulness of new ideas and practices they encountered and were easily moved by appeals to their self-interest. They adapted themselves to the sedentary societies they ruled and rapidly absorbed whatever they discovered during their conquests. They did not however, adopt the culture of those societies. Despite their tolerant policies, they staffed high government offices with Mongols or foreigners and separated themselves as much as possible from the Chinese they ruled. Kublai Khan and the Mongols did not want to "become" Chinese. They continued to dress in their own clothing, clung to their own values and way of life, and celebrated and enjoyed their traditional feasts and festivals.
The Mongols harbored none of the xenophobic distrust of foreign ways that characterized the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Koreans. Still, according to several European monks who observed them first hand, they were arrogant toward non-Mongols, looking down on them whether they were noblemen or commoners. They displayed impatience and a quick temper toward foreigners and were known to lie to them. Sly, deceitful and cunning, if a Mongol intended to injure someone, he would keep his plans secret to prevent his enemy from building a defense.
Despite their reputation for "barbarism," the Mongols possessed many endearing characteristics. Perhaps their most outstanding trait was their immediate and total obedience to their masters. The Mongols held their leaders in high regard and did not readily lie to them. The Mongols never locked or secured their tents or the carts used to keep their valuables. They showed respect for one another, were friendly and willing to share their food with each other, even though it often was scarce. Petty theft was rare among Mongols and no one committed large-scale robbery. Killing enemies was considered to be of no consequence, yet among themselves they rarely ever argued and murder or wounding were rare. They were not fond of luxury, nor envious of one another. Mongol women playfully used vulgar and offensive language, but they remained chaste and had good reputations.
The process of cultural assimilation proved to be far more dangerous to the Mongol Empire than the internal splits in empire's political structure. At a time when the western Mongols were falling under Russian influence, the Mongols in Persia succumbed to the cultural influence of Islam and Iran. The Mongols of Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty absorbed much of the cultural influence of the Chinese. The process was so complete that after 1260, Chinese histories refer to Kublai as a Chinese monarch. The only pure Mongols remaining were the conservatives still living in the Mongolian homeland.
Not long after Kublai Khan became the Emperor of China, he ordered a population census and divided people into four categories: Mongols; miscellaneous aliens which included West Asian Muslims who performed important services for the Mongols; northern Chinese and their descendants who lived under the Jin state, including Chinese, Jurchen, Khitans and Koreans; and finally southern Chinese of the Song Dynasty, people the Mongols considered the least trustworthy. The results of this census showed that wars under Genghis Khan and his successors had decimated the Chinese population by more than 40,000,000 people.
Native Chinese saw the Mongols as aliens and invaders, and it was never easy to keep the restless Chinese people under control. Still, Kublai Khan truly loved his people and dramatically improved their daily lives as a direct result of the many new policies he put into place. Raised under the influence of Genghis Khan's Great Yasa code, he understood the importance of fair laws. He believed that with bribery, there was only enough money to satisfy a few. Since those few would become unendingly greedy, it was better to have justice. Like his grandfather, Genghis Khan, Kublai displayed a tolerance of various religious groups and Buddhism and Daoism thrived in his court. When he installed Buddhism as the state religion, he alienated the Chinese Confucian gentry, a loss which played a major role in the decline of Mongol power in China.
Realizing the importance of agriculture, Kublai Khan created an Office for Stimulation of Agriculture to promote education in better agricultural techniques and basic literacy. Instead of allowing the Mongols to establish animal herding as way of life in China, in 1262, Kublai Khan actually prohibited the nomads' animals from roaming on farm land. State granaries were filled to capacity to provide food in times of famine, especially across the northern territories where farmlands had been devastated by constant fighting. The 58 granaries in Khanbalik held 145,000 shih (9,643 tons), from which he fed some 30,000 poor people in the capital every day. He organized farmers into small groups of 50 families and encouraged them to take on self-help projects such as planting trees, working on irrigation and flood control, stocking lakes and rivers with fish, and promoting silk production.
Kublai Khan was the first Chinese ruler to put paper currency into widespread use in China. He ordered it used for payments of any kind throughout his domain and no one dared refuse to accept it on pain of death. Even merchants crossing into China were required to exchange their foreign metal coins for paper currency. He saw the wisdom in taxing people instead of killing them and organized a fixed, regular tax system. Instead of paying their taxes to local collectors, the people made a single payment directly to the government, which then paid the nobles.
The vast amount of construction and repair in China required manpower, and Kublai Khan demanded a great deal of forced labor, horses and supplies. Unlike past Chinese rulers, he did not use forced labor as an excuse to get farmers off their land so it could be turned into grazing land. Most of the work centered on expanding the postal system, constructing palaces and temples and building new extensions to the famous Grand Canal. By extending the canal further north to Khanbalik, the Mongols were able to transport grain directly to the capital. Kublai Khan also made improvements to the empire's communication system. Originally built to carry official news, it soon became a way for merchants to send and receive market information. The system was built around a network of hostels equipped with kitchens, dining halls, stables and granaries. Rider-messengers carrying messages along this network generally covered about 250 miles a day. Near the end of his reign, Kublai Khans' communication system was comprised of some 1,400 postal stations, which used 50,000 horses, 8,400 oxen, 6,700 mules, 4,000 carts, and 6,000 boats.
China became a major trade center with a flourishing economy linked to world commerce by land and sea routes. Although Mongols themselves did not get involved in caravan trade, they certainly encouraged others to do so. Merchants felt secure in Yuan China and had relatively high status. Kublai Khan not only protected and encouraged caravan merchants, he used them to gather intelligence on the outside world. At the height of his ruling power in 1279, Kublai Khan had established himself as a great warrior and an intellectual, a man with a voracious appetite for knowledge. He enjoyed the company of scholars, intellectuals and men of wit and regularly invited scholars, painters, poets, and architects from all parts of the world to visit his court in Khanbalik. In order to impress on his fellow Mongols that he was indeed ruler of the world, he encouraged diplomats and traders from the Far West to kowtow in his presence! He thankfully accepted the advice given him by learned men. The Mongols welcomed foreigners who included Russians, Arabs, Jews, Genoese and Venetians.
Europe enjoyed a remarkable period of economic prosperity during the thirteenth century, a time that witnessed growing demand for such luxury goods as spices and silk from the East. The market demand sparked a great interest among merchants to grab a share of this exotic trade, most of which arrived over the Silk Road from China. Shrewd and far-sighted entrepreneurs, especially the Venetians, knew that great fortunes awaited those who established contacts with the Mongol overlords of East Asia. The brothers Niccolo and Maffeo Polo became the first Venetian merchants to travel into the Far East when they left Constantinople in 1260 on a journey to Sarai, on the Volga River, to visit the court of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. They were treated courteously and with honor and spent a year trading in the Khan's territory.
After being cut off from Constantinople by warfare among rival Mongol khans, the two men traveled further east for seventeen days to Bukhara, where they met Mongol envoys enroute to Khanbalik and the court of Kublai Khan. The envoys persuaded the Polo brothers to join them in their trip, as the Great Khan had never seen anyone from the Mediterranean and would treat them with great honor. One year later, Niccolo and Maffeo Polo were awe-struck at the sight of the Mongol capital with its chessboard pattern of streets surrounding the walled Imperial Palace at its core. Kublai Khan greeted the first Europeans to ever visit his court dressed in a magnificent colored silk robe so stiff with golden embroidery he appeared to be wearing gold cloth.
Kublai Khan welcomed the men with lavish hospitality and bombarded them with questions about the West, including questions about European rulers and the Christian religion. They found him to be a man of wide-ranging curiosity and possessing a keen intellect. After remaining in Khanbalik for a year answering all manner of questions, Kublai Khan was so intrigued by Christianity that he dispatched them back to Europe as his envoys with a request to the Pope for 100 missionaries educated in all the Seven Arts to teach him and his people about this strange religion and western science. A great collector of religious relics of all kinds, he also asked them to bring him some of the oil from the lamp at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
The Polo brothers arrived back in Europe in 1269, only to learn that the Pope was dead and the religious situation was very confused. After they returned to Venice, the newly elected Pope Gregory X did not offer them 100 missionaries, but assigned two Dominican monks to accompany them on their journey. They were able to obtain a sample of the holy oil requested by Kublai Khan, a fact that greatly impressed the Mongol leader and deepened his trust in their word.
They left Venice in 1271, once again bound for the court of Kublai Khan. This time, Niccolo Polo's seventeen-year-old son, Marco, traveled with them to the court of Kublai Khan. Marco Polo's presence on this journey was to be a matter of great historical import, because he took voluminous and detailed notes of his travels in Asia. From Venice to Baghdad and across the Persian Desert to Badakhsan, through the high peaks of the Pamir Mountains and down to the western edge of the Tarim Basin in northwest China, across the wastelands of the Mongolian steppes and the former kingdom of Xi Xia, it took the three Venetians three and a half years to reach Khanbalik. Kublai Khan received the Venetians with great honor and quickly sensed the talent of the twenty-one-year-old Marco. The Great Khan immediately enlisted him in the service of the court and sent him on embassies to country after country.
Whenever Kublai Khan's ambassadors and envoys returned from a mission, they never failed to report the details of their business. Unfortunately, that's about all they could report, for they rarely noticed anything else in their travels. Marco Polo however, always took great pains to learn about all manner of different things in the lands he visited in order to talk about them with the Great Khan. With the eye of a Venetian merchant surveying potential markets, he collected detailed descriptions of the provinces and cities he visited, noting the main exports of each region and the kinds of goods manufactured and sold there. His notes provided Kublai Khan a clear picture of prosperous communities with busy marketplaces in his realm. a great deal of commercial and cultural traffic passed into and out of Khanbalik from Koryo, and it is thought that perhaps Marco Polo first introduced Koryo to the Western world as "Coree," or "Corea," or "Korea."
During the seventeen years the Polo's spent in China, the always curious Marco had more knowledge of, or had actually visited more countries than any other man. Marco Polo described the province of Fu-chow as follows:
"The province has villages and towns in plenty. Silk is produced here in abundance and the silken fabrics and cloth-of-gold woven here are the finest ever seen. There are also the best goshawks in the world. There are ample supplies of everything, and commerce and industry flourish."
"In a city called Tinju they make bowls of porcelain, large and small, of incomparable beauty. They are made nowhere else except in this city, and from here they are exported all over the world. In the city itself they are so plentiful and cheap that for a Venetian goat you might buy three bowls of such beauty that nothing lovelier could be imagined."
Year by year, Marco Polo became more valuable to Kublai Khan. In 1292 however, a matter of serious consequence arose that would separate these two men forever. A special escort was needed to deliver a young Mongol princess to the Ilkhan of Persia. Persian envoys had failed to deliver her overland and had returned to Khanbalik. At about the same time, Marco Polo returned to the capital after a long embassy that took him on a sea voyage to India. The Persian envoys, who knew of the seagoing reputation of Venetians, persuaded Kublai Khan to allow the Polos to accompany them and the seventeen-year-old bride-to-be on a sea voyage to Persia. Reluctantly, the Great Khan agreed and outfitted the mini-expedition with fourteen ships and an entourage of six hundred along with supplies for two years. He also gave the Polos letters to deliver to the Pope and to the kings of Europe, including King Edward of England and King Louis of France. Upon being released from the Khan's service, Marco reportedly told his father, "It must be God's pleasure that we return to Venice to tell people of all the things the world contains."
After completing their mission successfully, the Polos returned home, arriving in Venice in the winter of 1295. Their family had long ago given them up for dead. Marco Polo soon married and settled down, only to become involved in the heated maritime rivalry between Venice and Genoa. On September 6, 1298, the "gentleman commander" became one of seven thousand prisoners transported in chains to a Genoa prison. While in prison, Marco became friends with a fellow prisoner from Pisa, Italy, a highly reputed romance writer named Rustichello. Though no literary master, he was persuasive, industrious, and a master of the genre. After hearing Marco's tales of the Far East, he persuaded him to dictate the entire story so he could write it down. Thus began the manuscript entitled, "The Description of the World," a text that would become, as some historians have claimed, "the most valuable account of the world outside Europe that was available at the time."
Originally written in French, the manuscript was first published in 1299, and eventually translated into most European languages. Marco Polo gave Europeans the first authoritative view of life in China and the mysteries and wealth of the Far East. His vivid descriptions of Kublai Khan's gilded and lacquered palace and the flourishing marketplaces filled with exotic goods from faraway ports captivated readers as no other book had done before. Marco Polo's manuscript became one of the most popular texts of the medieval period. It excited the imagination of dreamers, stirred the greed of merchants, gave new direction to the adventuresome spirit of explorers, and awakened possibilities of empire among European conquerors. Christopher Columbus became one of his most ardent believers.
Most people found the stories fascinating, if not a bit unbelievable, and many debated whether it was fact or merely fiction. Not even Marco's friends believed all the seemingly far-fetched tales contained in the manuscript. By the early fourteenth century the debate became pointless, for within a few years of the Polos' return to Venice, Turkish and Moslem advances in Central Asia closed the Silk Road and blockaded all access to China by land. On his deathbed in 1324, friends urged Marco to meet God with a clear conscience by retracting some of his more obvious exaggerations. Marco Polo never retracted a word of his account. His only response was, "I never told the half of what I saw ...."
[from THE KOREAN HISTORY PROJECT online]

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