by Boris Zubry
We are moving east again. No, I am not planning to attack, but we need a forward base. I do not want to keep all troops and the caravans in one camp that should break apart soon anyway. The fighting forces would be stationed in the forward campgrounds and rotated throughout the winter. We are going to split one Tumen into four or five divisions and keep them about twenty miles ahead of the main body. I will rotate them with other Tumens every two weeks so, as not to overtire them. These are the fighting Tumens and have to be in good shape and spirit. That will be my Blue Horde and the frontline again. I do not want to jump from the Golder Horde camp every time we need to move. That’s the recipe to lose, and we are not going to lose. Every major movement of such a big army with the trains and caravans had to be done in stages. That’s the right way. All my generals agree on that.
The forward camp’s jumping point is the answer. I want them to be ready to strike as early as possible in the spring. Possibly mid of March… I want them to wait for that day with anticipation, the dream of that day. I want them to train for that day and to collect all the information possible. We need many spies going in all directions. I want to know everything there is to know about Russia and the Russians. What are they? What is really there? What are the weak points? This war should be based on knowledge, tactics, experience, and not just the brutal force. We are on their territory, and we are going to be the attacking force. I want to be able to predict every move they make and not to lose too many people in the process. We are planning to go far so we need all the people we have and many more. I do not want to wait until the Russians are ready. I do not want to give them a fighting chance. We need to strike first and win with as fewer loses as we can. This is very important. The first strike is often decisive, and we will have a few first strikes. We know how to do that and will do it.
Even standing here on the top of this hill, I cannot see the end of the column in either direction. It is stretched for miles. We are many. What a force. It looks like entire Central Asia goes East and maybe it is. What are we going to find there? Is it going to be our death or the uncountable riches and thousands of slaves? What a choice. Our oracles predict the victory like never before. I pretended to listen and to believe them. But, I am a more practical man and Subutai is as well. I rely on my soldiers, these men in the column. I’ll watch them a little longer and then go back to the main camp. I have things to do, but I’ll visit the forward encampment for a few times this winter. That’s my responsibility, my job. I have to make sure that everything was going right. These are my soldiers, my people.
The Russian and the Polish slaves are working hard already preparing us for the next year campaign. We need so much. I use only the Khazars to advise me basically on everything and to manage the treasury and the supplies. They proved to be people to trust. Even the Mongols were too corrupt for the job but great when the fighting came. They could fight well. The Khazars could think, and that was very important when you have to run the empire. Still, they could fight well, and they fought the Russians and many others for centuries. They were fascinating people. My grandfather, the Great Genghis Khan, was so wise making peace with the Khazars and allowing them to become equal partners with us, Mongols. None of the Tatars, not even the Kalmyks and the Kyrgyz were given that privilege. And, they are trusted. The Khazars were special back then, and they are even more special now. Good people. Reliable people. Very trusted people. Whatever they did and whatever they touched becomes the best. Why is that? Does it come from their religion? I think that’s the blood and not the religion. Was that ethnic? They did not seem to be too religious anyway. Is it because of their one god? What a strange story. How could there be such a bizarre god? Just one and that did work of many. How can he manage everything and all at the same time?
Well, Muslims claimed the same thing, and many of the Tatars were Muslims. The Uzbeks brought it over, and it just spread around infecting many minor tribes. It did not affect any of the Mongols or me. Subutai laughs at it openly. He respects gods, but he is godless. Gods are there by themselves, and he is there by himself. That’s the arrangement for him. Muslims did not drink and pray for many times a day. How do you have time for that? What do you pray about? You should be deep in trouble to keep asking God for something and trying to get forgiven for something else. I do not think it productive. One has to be more careful with his time. Time is a precious gift that could be taken away in no time and with no reason. The next battle could be your last. Have you accomplished everything you wanted? Did you have time for that? No, they prayed instead and then, what.
History shows that Muslims always lost battles because of that. They prayed instead of fighting or getting ready for that. We know when they pray and always attack when they pray or just before they start. That creates confusion, and we win with minimal losses. And they lose in a total disaster. That’s a good tactic. It always works. I don’t like Islam, and there are so many people believing in it. I do not trust Islam. So far, it proved to be wrong on so many levels. It is wrong for us. There is something wrong with Islam altogether, but Subutai teaches that religious tolerance is one of the best and most important assets the Great Khan should possess. I think he is right. That’s how it should be. Respect all people and all beliefs. Do not discriminate on any grounds. Do not discriminate at all. If you start to divide people on the religious grounds, you will demolish the powers of one nation.
To be strong, a nation should be united no matter what. These people are just your people. The weak little fractions based on religion and tribal connections should be on the other side, and you should have one powerful people to conquer all that and to rule. Genghis believed in this; the Chinese taught him that. That was a powerful lesson. The Chinese educated him in many things, and he used it every time he could. That was so wise. He was so prudent. Oh, he was wise and learned well. I want to be the same way. He taught his brother-in-law, Subutai and Subutai taught me, Batu. And, I am the Great Khan of the Easter Empire now. I was skilled well. I can rule, and people love me.
The Khazar advisors told me that we would need to feed possibly one hundred thousand horses if we want to start in the early spring. Of course, there would be many more horses, but in the following camps and the rear commanders will take care of them. So, I broke my main ten Tumens (ten thousand each) into five encampments. Each camp is two days ride from each other and farther south and the west. The last campground with only one Tumen and two thousand slaves is responsible for all one hundred thousand horses. Horses can graze there better because the climate is warmer, and the place is surrounded by the hills keeping the warm air in. We always kept horses there, even when we fight. This is our main herd, not counting what we are holding in Mongolia. This is a Kyrgyz Tumen tending horses, and they know horses. They know horses almost as well as we, Mongols, do.
The Kyrgyz are good people, relatives. We trust them. They are close. I can trust them well enough. I know we will have enough horses for the war and, when it’s not enough, we have the other herds hidden away and more horses and soldiers could be brought in and fast. I always have more soldiers trained in these camps. Every three-four months, if I need it, a new Tumen would march to any destination I desire. That is how fast we can train them.
A Tumen is usually enough to take an average town. Well, one-fifth of a Tumen often could do an excellent job of it. Many towns do not fight. They hear the stories, and they see thousands of us. The panic sets in, and they start offering us anything we want in exchange for life. I usually kill the leaders but people… People can live if they did not fight me. We need people in our lands. Often, I don’t even enslave them. Someone had to pay taxes. These people should go free, work, make children, and pay taxes. The more, the better. Well, in some cases, I have to change my rules and allow the field commanders to make their own decisions. They can take any slaves (beautiful women, good craftsmen, children) if they want them. The new women and the craftsmen would grow up soon enough. There is always more where that came
from.
This territory is vast, and I am not sure if we will see all of it. I am not sure if it is possible to see all of it. That’s how huge it is. There is always enough for everyone. I know. Each Tumen is a tribe by itself, and the field commander must take care of his people. That’s like his own kingdom, and he has to take care of many things. He is the ruler and the judge, but he is responsible for his people and to me. Slavery is good for our nation, and slaves to help us to run it. Also, slaves are a good reward. Often, this is a better reward than gold. The gold you spend, and slaves would multiply and keep on giving. Treat your slaves well, and they will be many and useful. Even if they are slaves, keep them on the level of servants. Reward them when the reward is called for. I demand from my people that they treated slaves well. We need healthy and well-trained slaves. Don’t waste their lives even if you think you are right. Think it over, give it time. Sleep on it and cool down. It usually helps. Don’t waste the treasure you own already. Cherish, and multiply it. Hm… My grandfather used to say that, and I could not understand him back then. Oh, how well I know him now.
I took Kiev with only three Tumens. Well, actually, it was more like two and a half Tumens. About two thousand horsemen, mostly Kalmyks, were skirting the area, making sure that no help was coming to Kiev. We did not expect any but who knows for sure. We tried to split the already shaky relations between the Russian Princes, and the warlords by spreading gossips and paying bribes. We could do both of it well. The invented scandals and the lies did not bother or affect us at all and the bribes we will get back soon enough and probably ten times fold. The Chinese taught us that, as well. Our goal was not to let the Russians unite. We would win anyway, but why do it the hard way? Be smarter and even smarter than that. So, we kept helping them to divide. Well, they did not really need our help there, but we did not mind. It rarely did not work, and in Russia, it always did.
There were some small towns in the way, and we took care of them as well. That was not hard. I also stationed some garrisons around. We did not need the large garrisons in most towns yet, that took some people. So, it was less than three Tumens in Kiev, much less. Hm… I never analyzed it, but it should be closer to two Tumens. Kiev was built like a solid hold. Only two of my Tumens were attacking charging the walls, and I kept the remnants of one Tumen in reserve. It was not much, and Kiev had more defendants than we had people to attack. Some of my generals thought that we did not have the needed number of soldiers to take a stronghold as Kiev and should request more from the horde. They suggested to start a siege and wait.
I was expecting about a Tumen in a few weeks but did not really want to wait. If we fail, we wait. Well, Subutai showed then how to do that, how to take Kiev with what we had. Subutai – what a master of war and what an expert of deception. He lived the war. He was war. He should have written a book on the subject of war, but he could not write. He claimed he did know how to write, but I had never seen it. I also never saw him reading anything. Subutai always had a scribe nearby. He was educated enough and knew the old ways of the storytelling but nothing of writing or reading. What a genuine hero he was. I’ll miss him, but he was getting old and tired. He was a soldier already when I was not even born. Yes, I would miss him so much if he was gone. Anyhow, I ordered one more Tumen to come over, but by the time they arrived, everything was over, and we had the city. So, I sent this new Tumen farther west to take the next town while some of the main force could rest a little. They seized three towns before we caught up with them. The young commander of that Tumen happened to be a very bright man. He was a Khazar, and that said much already. I should watch him closely. I need people like that. By the time we had reached that Tumen, they needed help. Between the losses and the garrisons and the patrols, they needed more people. They could use another thousand or so though they had more wounded than dead. So, we got there on time and helped them out. Good people all around. I had to move more soldiers forward to match our ambitions. Two more Tumens were on the march and should reach us in about a month so, we could continue moving west. That’s the nature of war, and we knew it so well. Fights, death and the need for more people…
Subutai taught me that the sheer numbers of soldiers were not enough to fight a fierce battle. The siege machines and many soldiers were not enough to scale the walls of the fortified city. If the town was well built and well defended, it could take ten to one to conquer it. It means that the attacking force would lose about ten soldiers for every one defender. Can you afford it? Maybe if the supply lines were not that long. We had to wait sometimes for months for reinforcement. You cannot win the war that way and mainly if the fight was that big. Only the size of the territory could tell you a lot. I did not have millions of soldiers, and I could not gather so many people every time I had to siege a stronghold. I had to remember the distances, supplies, horses, and the little bands of the locals we often could not catch. They were many, and they would attack us every time if we were not in force. This was tiring and costly. My people often had to travel in units of at least ten, even if only one or two needed to go.
I always sent three messengers with the same message in the hope that one of them will get through. My emissaries had to travel with at least twenty soldiers and the slaves. It could be a hundred people caravan just for a simple emissary. We have to keep about two thousand people involved in communications. That is tolling the horde and slows our progress considerably. All that was very costly, so, I listened to Subutai and learned. He preferred to apply the scare tactics as much as was possible. He was sure it worked better than anything else. He thought it was better than the display of a well-trained army. The opposition could be well-trained as well. Then what?
Often, Subutai would send the heads and the other body parts of the people resisting us to the towns we were going to attack. He would bombard the city with dead bodies from another town. People could recognize the deceased. He would let some of the conquered people go so, they would deliver the cut-off heads and spread the terror stories around (and many of them were not true) terrifying everyone along the way. Many were ready to give up and plead for mercy way before they saw us. They were horrified and did not want to be treated like the people they saw the heads of. By the way, they did not see us right away. For a few days, they would see only the Tatars and the scariest ones. I would not show the well-controlled and disciplined Tumens of Mongols and Khazars. That could send the wrong message. We meant no mercy, and that was true. None of the conquered people could be equal to us. They were slaves even if we left them free. We, Mongols, were meant to rule the world. That was written in the sky. We were the Asian plague, and we enjoyed that. So, I would not show the regular Tumens but only the dirtiest and the ugliest tribesmen. We had many tribes following us, doing the dirty work and picking the leftovers. They needed us, and we needed them.
Who needed whom more I do not know so, we co-existed and quite well. Every strong animal hunter has this type of followers. Lions and tigers have the hyenas and the vultures at their side. We have the Tatars and the Kalmyks. My grandfather came up with this arrangement, and it still works. It was one of his best ideas, and he had so many. These were the people I would not let even the leaders into my camp. That’s how dirty and ugly they were. My Tumens were clean and well dressed. They were groomed, proud, and trained. Some were educated and spoke a few languages. They owned slaves and participated in the division of the spoils. Many of them had even shares in the enterprise. It took a while and a few accomplishments to get to that level, but so many did. They were my comrades in arms, and I valued them. Many were related to me in one way or another. They loved me, and I respected them. After all, we were not barbarians like the people we conquered. Winter is soon, but we cannot just rest and wait for the warmth. I need to train soldiers, build up the supplies, and take care of people. Many things must be done, and we have to get ready for the spring campaign. Work never stops when you fight a war, and this was war. It’s a continuous process if you hope to win
. It is not going to be easy, and we must work hard to get ready.
Kiev. There it is, on the top of that hill. There are many hills here, and the town has spread out over a few of them. If we take the main ridge with that Kremlin there, we win the battle. Horses would not help much with the attack. There are hills and horses serve better in the open field. Kiev is a tough nut to crack. The location is good, and the Kremlin is well built. I can see that. We will have a hard time to maneuver, and the Chinese cannons will have to shoot uphill. Still, we have guns and the crossbows, and they don’t.
