Fear Thy Name: How Genghis Khan's Brutality Created one of History's Largest empires by Michael Klein

Author:Michael Klein [Klein, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hewlett-Packard
Published: 2016-07-07T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

A Great Rise and A Mighty Fall

The year was 1220. Genghis Khan stood mightily, with yet another victory under his belt. The Khwarazmian Empire had sufficiently fallen, and it was time to return home. Genghis was approaching sixty years old at this time, and had obviously been through quite a lot for his age. It’s hard to imagine that Genghis’ victories were so much more overwhelming in his elder years. The accomplishments of his youth paled in comparison to what he managed as an adult. He was already in his forties by the time he had conquered and unified the Mongolian tribal confederations, and now, for what seemed like his first time, at the age of fifty nine, Genghis Khan was tired.

Genghis’ time in the West, personally, was done, but Mongolian presence in the area was far from over. Under the suggestion of Genghis’ most trusted general, and a man he referred to as his “dog of war,” Subutai, he split the army into two factions. Genghis himself took the bulk of the Mongolian army with him on his path back to Mongolia. This force would conduct a series of raids in the northern regions of Afghanistan and India, fanning Mongolian influence out just a bit more. Genghis saw expansion in every direction he looked, and gave himself the authority to attack anywhere he felt he could push his borders. He may have been tired, but that wasn’t going to stop him from taking military advantage of his route. At the time though, another pressing issue was on Genghis’ mind, and that was the still living Jalal ad-Din of Khwarazmia. He sent Subutai and Jebe on a mission to track down the Shah with 20,000 Mongol soldiers at their disposal.

The Shah was in no hurry to rebuild an army, and deemed it best to lie low for a while. He went deep into hiding in India, and wouldn’t emerge again until about three years later. With little in the way of leads or hunches, Subutai and Jebe knew they had little chance of tracking down Jalal ad-Din, and called off their search. Of course, they weren’t going to squander their time in this new uncharted territory deep into Eastern Europe. They found themselves with a chance to make their Khan proud, and begin to put pressure on the various kingdoms scattered about the region, who were all on edge about what would happen next, due to the fall of one of the area’s largest empires, the Khwarazmian. More importantly, it was going to be a type of reconnaissance mission, scouting the area figuring out how to effectively invade, and where to force Mongolian influence first. They sent a request to Khan, asking for permission to spend the next year or two leading a campaign across these territories, and bring great wealth and pride back to the empire. Obviously, messages travelled slow at the time, so it would be a while before the message would reach Genghis’ ears. Subutai and Jebe weren’t going to sit by idly twiddling their thumbs waiting for a response.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.