Chingiz’s name spread among the peoples of North Asia, many tribes and clans taking up service under him—soldiers that he welcomed with open arms. But, learning from the bitter experience of his childhood, Chingiz demanded unflinching loyalty from them. He also showed great foresight by now proposing an alliance of equals with the powerful Toghrul Khan of the Keraits. Living to the west and with an admixture of Turkic blood, these people had built permanent houses of mud and were engaged in agriculture and trade. The reason for this alliance was simple—Chingiz wished to keep the Keraits engaged on their western frontier against other Turkic tribes while he built up the strength of the Mongols in the east[1].
Chingiz got a golden opportunity for rapidly increasing his power when he learned that the Chin Empire (northern China) had launched a campaign against the neighboring Tatar tribe—the murderers of his father. Quickly gathering his men and calling on the Keraits of Toghrul Khan, Chingiz poured this cavalry over the Tatar lands, destroying their power. For this service the Chin general sent him expensive gifts and a Chinese title of commander against rebels—his ally Toghrul also received titles and rewards.
But this unnatural alliance between two powerful leaders was reaching breaking point. The enemies of Chingiz, whether Mongols or other defeated tribes, warned Toghrul of the growing power of his friend and a new alliance was quickly formed. Chingiz was engaged in a hunt with only 3000 soldiers when two horse-herders brought the alarming news that a large horde of Keraits, Merkits, and Jadrans[2] was hurling towards his camp. The rest of Chingiz’s army was then dispersed in the faraway grazing grounds of their own region.
Chingiz quickly sent off brave volunteers to keep the campfires burning and to drive away the cattle from his camp. The women, children, and treasures were mounted on horses and camels—Chingiz covered their retreat with his small army for eight or nine miles. The exhausted tribesmen finally stopped to rest in a narrow gorge among a cluster of hills.
The enemy saw the Mongol campfires burning and wasted time in attacking the empty tents—following in the tracks of the elusive Mongols they soon came to the hills at daybreak. Chingiz immediately attacked them with his refreshed army and sent their advance guard flying in confused retreat. His men formed up on the plain in their traditional clan-squadrons while the main army of Toghrul and his allies came up to that place. Again underestimating the Mongol strength they made a general frontal attack. The loyalty so cherished and nurtured by Chingiz among his men now bore fruit—the Mongol squadrons fought to the last man and yielded only the ground under their dead bodies.
The usual tribal practice of fleeing from difficult battles and living to fight another day was replaced by solid discipline and desperate courage as the different clans sacrificed themselves for the sake of their commander. The carnage continued throughout the day and as the Mongol lines were thinned the sun began to set. As a last resort Chingiz sent a picked body of men through the advancing enemy and around their lines to take a hill called Gupta. Seeing the dreaded yak-tailed standard on the Gupta hill behind them, with Mongol warriors shooting down arrows[3], the enemy checked their advance and slowly retreated. Under cover of darkness Chingiz collected the remains of his loyal army and fled.
Thus was fought the Battle of the Gupta Hill. Chingiz was defeated but he had fought a superior enemy to a standstill and had also saved all his people from captivity. On the true nature of the desperate fight and, as a tribute to the military skill of Chingiz, the wise old Toghrul Khan remarked, “We have fought a man with whom we should never have quarreled.”
The chase of the Mongols and the usual long-range maneuvers were halted by the onset of winter. Chingiz, grown even more famous in the estimation of the steppe tribes, used this period to collect his army and gather all the Mongol clans and neighboring tribes in a grand coalition to oppose the Keraits and their allies. Before the winter snows had begun melting he launched them at the unprepared enemy and defeated them—hunting out their leaders and enrolling the common soldiers in his own army.
The Turk tribes on the west, the Naimans and Uighurs[4], had only just heard of the extermination of their dreaded Kerait enemy, and were eagerly making plans for raiding the Kerait lands, when the army of Chingiz steamrolled into their lands! Without giving anyone time to think, Chingiz had pacified the Keraits by admitting them as equals to his Mongol soldiers and had immediately set them out to destroy their Turk enemies[5]. The campaign against these Turks lasted three years and ended in their annihilation and absorption into the growing empire of Chingiz.
[1] Chingiz considered the Keraits to be a prime target for his audacious new plan…something he had announced to his council, “Our elders have told us that different hearts and minds cannot be in one body. But this I intend to bring about. I shall extend my authority over my neighbors.”
[2] The Jadrans were related to the Borjigin Mongols. Their leader Jamukha’s ancestor had broken off from Chingiz’s family to form a separate clan called Jadran.
[3] The Kerait prince was wounded in the face by one such arrow, probably hastening the retreat.
[4] Found today in the western parts of the Xinjiang military district of China.
[5] The other reason for this campaign was that Jamukha and other enemies had taken shelter with these tribes.
Basing himself in the Kerait mud city of Kara Korum (black sands) Chingiz called for a council of Khans to elect a single man to rule over them—an Emperor. The choice was natural and all the Khans chose Chingiz as the Kha-Khan (Khan ruling over other Khans). It was on this occasion that he was hailed, for the first time, by the new name of Chingiz[6].
On his part Chingiz too had an announcement for the other Khans regarding their followers, “These men, who will share with me the good and bad of the future, whose loyalty will be like the clear rock crystal—I wish them to be called Mongols. Above everything that breathes on earth, I wish them to be raised to power.”
All the Keraits, Tatars, Naimans, Uighurs, and Merkits were to mingle with the numerous Mongol clans and form a permanent army. This army was organized on the traditional decimal basis, from the basic unit of 10 (squad) to the highest of 10,000 (division)[7], but the various clans and tribes were evenly distributed into these military units. Loyalty to the clan or tribe was replaced by loyalty to the unit—men of a squad were to be devoted to each other and they could not leave a wounded comrade behind. No man of the army could leave the battlefield, or turn to plunder, until the standard of Chingiz Khan was moved. Living to fight another day had always been the ideology of wandering tribes and selfish mercenaries—it was not an option for successful standing armies.
And while this extraordinary man, with all his determination and patience, was shaping a permanent army out of wandering tribes, to the outside world all these battles and campaigns seemed to be business-as-usual in the tribal areas. Indeed the frontier commanders of the Chin Empire had even tried to intervene in the recent tribal wars—supporting one tribe against the other. Their forefathers had built a massive wall to keep the tribes out of the civilized areas—with little success—but they had thought of another way to contain the growing power of Chingiz.
The Chin Emperor asked for military assistance in his war against the Sung Kingdom of southern China and Chingiz, the supposedly loyal commander against rebels, sent some of his divisions across the Great Wall. These divisions marched across northern China, performed the assigned duty for their overlord, and then marched back to the steppes—and in doing all this they noted down all the river crossings, important forts and towns, and all the roads and passes of the Chin Empire. This valuable information was delivered to Chingiz.
By this time Chingiz had been making contact with the tribes and kingdoms[8] on the frontier of the Chin Empire—to impress them with his power and authority Chingiz had his standards displayed all along the numerous gates of the Great Wall. When the Chin Emperor did nothing in response to this provocation, the frontier tribes concluded that he feared the Mongols, and they waited for the inevitable. But the Chin Emperor was really ignorant of these antics, and knowing this, Chingiz struck a blow in an entirely different area—the tribes and kingdoms of the southwest.
If the Mongols were to campaign in the Chin Empire, their own homes in the Gobi would have to be protected from the aggression of these neighboring tribes. These campaigns lasted several years and ended with a series of alliances similar to those that Chingiz had made with the Keraits. Soldiers from Hia and other kingdoms joined the Mongol army. Chingiz also had the frontier tribes within China at his call…but the millions of the Chin Empire still outnumbered the 100,000 strong steppe army.
[6] From the various translations: “perfect warrior”, “limitless ocean”, “great sovereign”, “the sound of iron being forged” etc.
[7] The Mongol designation for these units was: 10 (Arban), 100 (Jagun), 1000 (Minghan), 10,000 (Tuman). For convenience their rough modern equivalents: respectively squad, company, battalion, and division will be used in this work.
[8] Chief among them were the princes of Liao, who had been displaced by the Chins. Chingiz promised to restore the throne of Chin to them.
Continued:
http://horsesandswords.blogspot.com/2006/02/china-campaigns-mongol-cataclysm.html
