Masters of the Battlefield

by Davis, Paul K.

  Left with nothing, Temuchin experienced several lean years during which he developed a number of traits that would fashion future actions. He spent some time in captivity, held prisoner by his father’s former followers. Other sources claim he was held captive on more than one occasion, possibly for up to a decade, by the Chinese. These experiences certainly made it easier for him to look outside traditional tribal ties to establish his future following. In another incident, Temuchin’s two half brothers had been bullying him and his brother for some time. After a quarrel over dividing the limited food supply, Temuchin and his brother ambushed and killed one of their half brothers. Though their mother abused them soundly for this offense, Temuchin never expressed regret or guilt for the bloody act of fratricide. As he was to show frequently later in life, Temuchin was not a man to suffer lightly any affronts; those who challenged him or impeded his path to power were always made to pay a heavy penalty for their behavior.6

  Conversely, and perhaps surprisingly, Temuchin showed a remarkable capacity for gaining and keeping lifelong friends and followers. When he was a teenager, a raiding party stole his family’s string of ponies. When he returned from a hunt and found out what had happened, he immediately set out in pursuit. Along the way he stopped at a campsite to ask those surrounding the fire if they had seen his lost horses. A young man in the group not only had seen them but volunteered to go along and help. The two recovered the horses, whereupon the young man, Bogorchun, offered himself to Temuchin as noker, “the tie of friendship [that] held Chinggis’ followers to him in a relationship rather like that between Europe’s medieval lord and liegeman,” according to Onon in The Secret History of the Mongols.7 Such people became lifelong adherents to Chinggis and his goals, and he rewarded them with similar loyalty by placing them in command positions. None of these people were from his tribe; that, too, became a foreshadowing of his unification of the multiple steppe tribes into one nation. Chinggis is perhaps the best example of Roman statesman Lucius Sulla’s comment: “No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.”

  After the return of his ponies, Temuchin began to tread the path that would take him to power. First, to establish his own clan he returned to Dei and claimed Borte as his bride. With a valuable sable coat given as a wedding present, Temuchin went to Togoril (later to be known as Ong Khan) of the Kereyids. Togoril had been a blood brother (anda) to Temuchin’s father, Yesugei. Temuchin used this tie (and the sable coat) to claim virtual membership in Togoril’s family. Temuchin thus acquired a powerful ally and, as he was now officially an adult (fifteen being the age of majority),8 some of his father’s followers began to return.

  A test of the new relationship between Temuchin and Togoril came quickly. Upon returning from his trip to the Kereyids, Temuchin found that Merkid raiders had attacked and kidnaped Borte. Temuchin called on Togoril for assistance, and it was immediate. Togoril also suggested asking help from Temuchin’s boyhood anda, Jemugha, from another Mongol clan. In 1184 the forces gathered and launched a surprise raid on the Merkids, quickly defeating them and recovering Borte. She had been in captivity for roughly nine months and soon gave birth to a son, but Temuchin always treated the boy as his own.

  The cooperative effort reestablished the childhood relationship between Temuchin and Jemugha. For a year and a half their clans traveled together and the bonds of anda were reinforced. Or so it seemed. One evening Jamugha suggested the two clans camp in different spots, a proposition that may have troubled Temuchin. As biographer John Man comments, “If the two were not as one, what then? If they part, they cannot be companions; if they are not companions, then they are rivals; if rivals, then one or the other must dominate; and Temuchin is surely not prepared to be a mere follower.”9 As Temuchin moved on, not only to a new camp but off on his own, large numbers of Jemugha’s followers broke away and joined him. Some who followed were relatives, including a great-grandson of Borjigin, the first khan (Khabul Khan). Many were senior to him in the family but seemed to see in him the mark of greatness.10

  Now, in 1187 or 1189, Temuchin and his followers camped at Koko Naur (the Blue Lake) and a khuriltai, or clan meeting, was held. According to some sources, Temuchin was named Chinggis Khan at this point. Although the term “Chinggis” is widely debated, the general consensus is that it means “oceanic” or “limitless.” Other sources say he was named gurkhan, a position held also by Jamugha, making him the highest clan leader rather than leader of the universe (or at least of “all those who dwell in felt tents”) and the title Chinggis was actually given during the larger khuriltai of 1206, when all steppe tribes swore their loyalty. Either way, it is at this point Chinggis Khan began to implement his organizational scheme for the future Mongol nation. He named his closest followers to key positions and to his noker he gave supervisory roles. His household and its staff tended to the new khan’s personal needs and economic interests and became the core around which the imperial guard and administration later formed.11

  Between his elevation to leadership status and 1196, little is known of Chinggis’s activities. He emerges again as an ally of Togoril, who had spent the previous several years in exile in China. The Tatars to the east, long subject to the Chinese Chin Dynasty, were becoming too independent for Chin tastes, and Togoril had been requested to bring them back in line. Along with Temuchin’s newly enlarged clan, the two defeated the Tatars, gaining revenge for Yesugei’s murder and recognition from the Chin: Togoril was given the title of wang, or king, thus taking on the Mongol title of Ong Khan. Temuchin received a lesser title, but it was not important; he had received more experience and a greater reputation. Capitalizing on their strengthened bond, Chinggis soon convinced Ong Khan to name him as heir, upsetting Ong Khan’s natural sons. From this point forward, the relationship between Ong Khan and Chinggis Khan was strained and inconsistent, with Ong Khan often fighting alongside Chinggis, but occasionally listening to slander and plotting against him.

  Realizing the reputation Chinggis had established, the other steppe tribes decided to work together to crush his growing power. Unfortunately, he struck first. Between 1197 and 1204 he defeated the Merkids and the Naimans, both of whom had conspired with Jamugha or Ong Khan. Chinggis defeated both of those leaders, killing Jamugha and driving Ong Khan to his death in a foreign land. The survivors of these tribes were either exterminated or incorporated into units of Temuchin’s army. This uninterrupted series of victories and the complete defeats of the hostile tribes raised Chinggis in the course of a decade to the position of absolute sovereign of Mongolia, and gave him a power over his own people such as no previous Mongol tribal ruler had ever come close to achieving.12 Having total control over the steppes, Chinggis began reorganizing the population into one nation, and the army became the vehicle for that transformation.

  Subedai

  SUBEDAI WAS A LATECOMER TO CHINGGIS’S new nation. His brother preceded him by a few years, brought to Chinggis by their father, a blacksmith from the forest-dwelling Uriangkhai, or Reindeer Peoples, along the western shore of Lake Baikal. This settled tribe lived by hunting and trading, and they provided furs and some manufactured goods to the steppe dwellers. The blacksmith apparently held Yesugei, Temuchin’s father, in high esteem, for he offered his firstborn son to Yesugei the same year that Temuchin was born. Yesugei accepted the offer, but asked for him to bring him the boy as an adult. Around 1187, when Temuchin was first allying himself with Togoril and beginning his own rise in life, the blacksmith returned and fulfilled his promise, giving his own son to Yesugei’s son. This was Jelme, who stayed with Temuchin through the earliest days of his adulthood and earned his position as noker.

  Jelme’s younger brother was Subedei, then ten years old.13 His mother had died in childbirth and as the only remaining son, he was to take over his father’s trade. Subedei seems to have been no more interested in blacksmithing than Jelme had been, and at age fourteen he left his father to join his brother. At his age, every
boy of the steppe would already be trained to ride, shoot, fight, and live off the land; Subedei could do none of those things. Apparently, however, he had a good mind and learned quickly. As Jelme’s brother, he was allowed to protect the tent flap when the Mongol leadership held their planning meetings. By watching and listening, as well as learning the practical talents necessary to engage in Mongol warfare, he absorbed the finer points of strategy and tactics.

  Subedei arrived in Temuchin’s camp on the occasion of the separation from Jamugha. The clan leaders swore allegiance to Temuchin and gave him the title of Chinggis; at the same time he picked out Jelme and Bogorchun as his two oldest and closest companions and gave them the most authority.14 At this point Subedei swore his fealty as well, in a way that perhaps only a boy who is eager to please might do, as described in Paul Kahn’s translation in the Secret History: “I’ll be like a rat and gather up others, I’ll be like a black crow and gather great flocks, like the felt blanket that covers a horse, I’ll gather up soldiers to cover you. Like the felt blanket that guards a tent from the wind, I’ll assemble great armies to shelter your tent.”15 As Subedei’s main biographer, Richard Gabriel, notes, “Although of no military status whatsoever, Subotai was permitted to pledge his loyalty to Temuchin along with the other clan leaders as if, somehow, he was already one of them.”16

  Throughout the following several years the details of Chinggis’s life are unknown, but one can assume that Subedei learned the soldiering trade on the training field and battlefield, as well as by listening in on the staff meetings held in Chinggis’s tent. Subedei next appears in the sources in 1197 before the Battle of the Tchen River against the Merkids, by which time he was in command of a jaghun (company) of a hundred men. He volunteered to be the point unit for the attack, a mission he undertook with unusual style. He refused Chinggis’s offer of a hundred elite troops; instead, he left alone. He went to the Merkid camp and “turned traitor.” The Merkids were so thrilled with this development that they failed to take the usual precautions and found themselves the victims of a surprise attack. Thus, Subedei illustrated what would become his trademarks: deception and boldness.

  In 1203, Chinggis fought Jamugha and Ong Khan to a draw at the Battle of Red Willows. With a severely depleted force he withdrew to Lake Baljuna. It is indicative of Chinggis’s personality that those who retreated with him did not abandon him, as was traditional steppe practice. Those who stuck with him, including the brothers Jelme and Subedei, received intense loyalty and rewards in return. The following year, with a rebuilt army, Chinggis defeated his two former allies for good. He also reorganized his army and launched a campaign against his last major enemy, the Naimans. By this point Subedei commanded a minghan of 1,000 men. In the Battle of Chakirmagud he is described as one of Chinggis’s top commanders, whom he called his Four Dogs. Jamugha offers a powerful description in The Secret History of the Mongols:

  [Chinggis] fed four dogs with human flesh, then held them back with iron chains.… These four dogs have helmets of copper, snouts like chisels, tongues like awls, hearts of iron, whips sharp as swords. These four dogs feed on the dew and ride on the winds. These four, when they fight an enemy, feed on his flesh. These four take human flesh as their spoils. Now he’s cast off their chains and set them on us. He’s let them loose and they charge at us, mad with joy, their hungry mouths foaming.17

  The Naimans were defeated after an all-day battle, with many dying by falling off mountain cliffs while retreating during the night. In 1205 Chinggis and his armies defeated the Merkids for the final time, but their chieftain escaped. Subedei was given his first independent command: hunt down the escaped Merkid leaders. Again, the Secret History has Chinggis wax poetic in his orders. “If they sprout wings and fly upward to Heaven, you, Subetei, become a falcon and seize them in mid-air. If they become marmots and claw into the Earth with their nails, you become an iron rod and bore through the Earth to catch them. If they become fish and dive into the depths of the Sea, you, Subetei, become a net, casting yourself over them and dragging them back.”18 The sources do not tell how long the pursuit lasted, but it was ultimately successful.

  Warfare of the Mongols

  WITH ALL THE MAJOR STEPPE TRIBES defeated and under his control, Chinggis transformed many tribes into one nation. For the Mongols, military training was almost as much a way of life as hunting and tending herds. What was necessary for survival, primarily use of stealth and weaponry, was necessary for warfare.19 With such a built-in military base, Chinggis did not introduce new tactics, but instead focused on organization and discipline. He maintained the traditional method of dividing up the Mongol forces by tens. The smallest unit was an arban. Ten arbans made up a jaghun of 100 men. Ten jaghuns made up a minghan, and ten minghans made up a tumen of 10,000. The tumen was the primary striking force. The major commanders in campaigns would be assigned one or more tumens with which to operate, one of which Chinggis would command.

  It is at this point that Chinggis altered the nature of steppe society. Survivors of defeated enemies were incorporated into his army by being distributed among the various units. This way, his Mongol faithful oversaw and indoctrinated the new men. Proven warriors such as Subedei were given command of regiments comprising men they themselves had captured. Additionally, Chinggis lessened the potential for an organized revolt from the newly incorporated men by allowing previous tribal attachments to remain only rarely, when Chinggis was positive of their loyalty.20 This was supplemented with intense discipline; the least violation could be punishable by death. Chinggis also codified and supplemented traditional steppe law to create a new set of established rules, codes, and laws known as the Great Yasa. He incorporated new codes of conduct designed to bury tribal differences. For instance, there would be no more kidnapping of brides, or kidnapping of anyone for slavery. Theft of animals was also banned, and any lost property tht was found had to be returned to its owner.

  All of this was formalized at the second major khuriltai, or military council, which convened in 1206. From that date forward there was but one people and one leader. If (as some sources say) he had received the title Chinggis almost two decades earlier, it was confirmed here by Teb Teghri, the shaman closest to Chinggis. Alternatively, the title was bestowed here. Either way, the blessing came from the representative of heaven, the creator god worshiped by the animist Mongols. With this act, what had started as the Mongol tribe was transformed into the Mongol nation. Chinggis took on an almost supernatural reputation, giving his commands a spiritual and almost divine authority.21

  The army that developed on the steppes consisted exclusively of cavalry. Chinggis’s army probably numbered roughly two-thirds light cavalry and one-third heavy. The light troops wore a helmet of bronze or iron with leather flaps protecting the neck and ears. If armor was worn it was lamellar, layers of leather strengthened with pitch and laced together in the same fashion as scale armor. In some cases horses wore similar covering. If no armor was worn, or during travel rather than combat, the traditional long felt jacket or skin coat was worn, with the fur on the inside for insulation. All soldiers wore a silk shirt under their clothes. This was as an aid for tending wounds. If a soldier was struck by an arrow, the silk would wrap itself around the arrowhead as it entered the body. This made removal much easier and less damaging. The heavy cavalry carried a twelve-foot lance, with a hook near the point for unhorsing enemy riders. The Mongols also carried lassoes, in this case long poles with looped rope at the end; there is some discussion as to whether these were used in combat.

  All the soldiers carried compound bows, with which they were trained from childhood. Two or three bows were carried, as were two quivers with thirty arrows each. Arrows and arrowheads were designed for different uses: long range, short range, armor piercing, fire arrows, and whistling arrows for signaling. This weapon gave the Mongols their major advantage when campaigning to the west, since nothing in the armies of the Middle East or Europe could match that range: more than 300 m
eters for the compound bow versus 75 meters for the crossbow. The Welsh longbow was still a century away from being used outside the British Isles. The only drawback to the compound bow was that it could not be used in wet weather.

  None of this could have been done without the Mongol horses, a tough breed able to operate over long distances with little food. They were fairly fast, and their speed and endurance were the finishing touch for the well-trained Mongol horseman.22 The nomadic tribesmen lived much of their lives on horseback, treating their animals almost as extensions of themselves. The horse gave them mobility on a continental scale, for as the steppe grew a limitless store of grass the animals could always eat and the grasslands were the Mongols’ highways into what would become their empire.23 The steppe ponies would look laughably small and scrawny to the European knight, but they provided everything the steppe warrior needed, especially since they traveled on campaign with a string of three or four remounts. The horse’s ability to survive on minimally nourishing grass and its resistance to cold made it the perfect mount for long-distance travel over almost any terrain. The animal also provided a source of milk as well as emergency nourishment for its rider in the form of blood.