The Khan Series 5-Book Bundle: Genghis: Birth of an Empire, Genghis: Bones of the Hills, Genghis: Lords of the Bow, Khan: Empire of Silver, Conqueror (191 page)

The shaman Mohrol is fictional, though of course the khan would have had diviners and shamans. In Mongolia it remains the case that an extra finger will mean a child is “chosen” to be a shaman. They do not hunt or fish and are supported by the tribes to be magic- and medicine-workers as well as keepers of history and tradition. They are men of power still.

The ancient Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan did exist. One was around 114 feet high, the other 165 feet. They were dynamited by the Islamic Taliban in 2001. There are still legends of a third, “sleeping Buddha” in the hills there.

Tsubodai’s campaign against the West lasted from around 1232 to 1241. Over that time, he encountered Russians, Bulgars, and Hungarian Magyars, took Buda and Pest, attacked Poland and modern-day Serbia, and sent scouts as far as northern Italy. In just one winter, over a period of two months, his tumans took twelve walled Russian cities. They had learned the use of catapults, ballistae, even a form of wall-smashing trebuchet in their wars against northern
China. Russia had nothing capable of stopping the war machine of the Mongols.

It is true that Tsubodai preferred to campaign in winter and used the frozen rivers as a network of roads through the cities. Like Genghis before him, he and his generals were ruthless with fallen enemies, slaughtering vast populations. His one worry seems to have been the wide battlefront making it easy to flank or encircle his tumans. Time and again, he sent tumans out in sweeps into Poland, Hungary, or Bulgaria to clear the way of possible enemies.

The legendary French Knights Templar said at the time that there was no army between Tsubodai and France that could stop him. Yet even the death of Ogedai might not have halted Tsubodai had he not had the princes of the nation with him. Batu, Jochi’s son, was there, as was Guyuk, Ogedai’s son. Ogedai’s grandson Kaidu was also present. It was he who raided into Poland with Baidur and fought the extraordinary battle of Liegnitz, preventing the Polish armies from flanking the main attack against Hungary. I have not used Kaidu as a character here, for fear of the “Russian novel problem,” where every page brings new characters until the reader loses track. I did include Mongke in the campaign—he was there for most of it, including Kiev. Kublai was not present as one of the princes. He remained in Karakorum, studying Buddhism and establishing the Chinese influence that would dominate his adult life.

Jebe too was absent for that campaign, though I have kept him as a minor character. The
Secret History
does not tell his ending, unfortunately. As with Kachiun and Khasar, a once great leader simply slipped from the pages of history and was lost. Early death was common in those days, of course, and they almost certainly met their end through disease or injury, a death so ordinary as to be ignored by chroniclers.

Temuge did make a final, rash attempt to become khan after the death of Ogedai. It was unsuccessful and he was executed.

Interestingly, Sorhatani
was
given her husband’s rights and titles on his death. In that one decision, she instantly became the most
powerful woman in the khanate—and in the world at that time. Three of her four sons would become khan through her influence and training. She supported Ogedai as khan and was consulted by him as the empire grew and became established. The one time she refused his wishes was when he offered to marry her to his son, Guyuk. She turned the offer down, preferring to concentrate her considerable energies on her sons. History confirms her wisdom in that matter.

When Tsubodai’s tumans entered Hungary over the Carpathian Mountains, he faced the armies of the Hungarian king Bela IV. That monarch had accepted 200,000 Cuman refugees from Russia. (The Cumans were a Turkic people similar to the Mongols in many ways.) In exchange for their conversion to Christianity, they were given a brief sanctuary. Their leader Köten was baptized and his daughter married King Bela’s son to seal the agreement. In exchange, King Bela was able to field an army of nomadic horsemen in addition to his own forces. He also expected help from the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, who was king of what is now Germany, Italy, Sicily, Cyprus, and Jerusalem, or perhaps Pope Gregory IX. However, they were locked in their own struggle for power, with the Pope excommunicating Frederick II and even declaring him the Antichrist. As a result, the king of Hungary was left to resist the Mongol invasion almost without support. He did have forces from Archduke Frederick of Austria, but they withdrew after the death of Köten in a riot. The Cumans also left.

It is true that King Bela sent bloody swords throughout his kingdom to raise the people. There is a record of Batu’s missive to the king, demanding that the Russian Cumans and their leader Köten be handed over. Batu’s message was stark and simple: “Word has come to me that you have taken the Cumans, our servants, under your protection. Cease harboring them, or you will make of me an enemy because of them. They, who have no houses and dwell in tents, will find it easy to escape. But you who dwell in houses within towns—how can you escape me?”

It is interesting to note that the demand was sent in Batu’s
name. As a senior prince and son to Jochi, the firstborn of Genghis, he was in nominal command of the Golden Horde, as they were known. Yet it was Tsubodai who led them strategically and tactically. It was a complex relationship and it came to a head when news of Ogedai’s death finally reached them.

Budapest is around four and a half thousand miles west of Karakorum in the same landmass. Tsubodai’s extraordinary campaign took the Mongol tumans right across Kazakhstan, into Russia to Moscow and Kiev, and on into Romania, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Eastern Prussia, and Croatia. They were knocking on the door of Austria when Ogedai died. It was in fact the French king Louis IX who fixed a confusing name for the Mongols in European minds. As he prepared his armies to march, he told his wife that his soldiers would send the Tartars to hell, or the Tartars would send them to heaven. He deliberately punned on the Latin word for hell,
Tartarus
, and the erroneous name “Tartar” stuck for centuries as a result.

I have omitted a detailed description of the battle of Liegnitz, which took place as the climax of Baidur’s sweep through Poland. It is the nature of such a sweep that there are many battles, against varied opponents, but there is a limit to how many can be squeezed into a novel, even one about the Mongols. In history, Liegnitz is one of the few really well-known Mongol battles—omitting it is the equivalent of writing about Nelson without mentioning the Nile. For the sake of the plot flow, however, I think it was the right decision. At Liegnitz, Baidur used the feigned retreat, but he added the innovation of tar barrels that sent white smoke across the battlefield. This simple device prevented one half of a Polish army seeing what was happening to the other half. It could easily have been the climax of this book, but the other well-known battle is Sajó River and that was Tsubodai’s triumph.

Tsubodai’s final recorded battle combined not only a night attack and flanking maneuver, not only the masterful use of terrain in
the way he made the river work for him, but also the now ancient trick of leaving a path for the enemy to escape, only to fall on him as he does. Tsubodai led three tumans across a ford to the south of the encamped Hungarian armies, sending Batu against the left flank at dawn, while the rest galloped farther to hit the Hungarian rear. King Bela was forced to take refuge in his night camp, while the Mongols caused chaos with firecrackers, burning tar in barrels, and shooting random arrows. They had gone from the prey to the hunter and made the most of it.

In the midst of the chaos, King Bela’s men saw a ridge of ground running west that lay out of sight of the Mongols. He tested the escape route by sending out a small number, watching as they rode to safety. As the day wore on, the king tried to send his entire army from the camp. In their panic, they lost formation and were strung out over miles. It was at that point that Tsubodai’s men attacked the column. He had scouted the ground. He knew the ridge and had deliberately left the route open to trap them. Depending on the source, the Mongol tumans slaughtered somewhere between forty thousand and sixty-five thousand of the Hungarian army, ending it as an entity for a generation or more. King Bela escaped the slaughter and fled to Austria. When the Mongols left, he went on to rebuild Hungary from ruins. He is still honored as one of Hungary’s great kings, despite his disastrous encounter with Tsubodai.

In many ways, it was a fitting end to Tsubodai’s military career, though of course he did not see it like that. Hungary was in ruins when the news came of Ogedai’s death and everything changed.

The brilliant tactical maneuvers of Liegnitz and the Sajó River were rendered void by the Mongol withdrawal. They are rarely taught outside military schools, in part because they did not lead on to conquest. Politics intruded on Tsubodai’s ambitions. If it had not, all history would have changed. There are not many moments in history when the death of a single man changed the entire world. Ogedai’s death was one such moment. If he had lived, there would have been no Elizabethan age, no British Empire, no Renaissance, perhaps no Industrial Revolution. In such circumstances, this book could very well have been written in Mongolian or Chinese.

E
MPEROR:
T
HE
G
ATES of
R
OME

In the decadent city of Rome, two boys dream of glory in the mightiest empire the world has ever known. As Marcus proves his might during a bloody campaign in Greece, Gaius faces the deadly infighting of the Roman Senate. Now a bitter conflict that sets Roman against Roman will put their friendship to the ultimate test.

E
MPEROR:
T
HE
D
EATH OF
K
INGS

Julius Caesar’s soldiers are after a band of pirates who kidnapped Caesar for ransom. As Caesar exacts his revenge and builds a legend far from Rome, his friend Gaius Brutus is fighting battles of another sort. Once Brutus and Caesar were as close as brothers. Now, they will be united again to fight a cataclysmic battle for Rome itself.

E
MPEROR:
T
HE
F
IELD OF
S
WORDS

The time has come for Caesar to enter the political battleground of Rome. Strengthened by the love of an older woman, and by the sword of his loyal friend Marcus, Caesar forges his legend. Meanwhile, his political adversaries in Rome grow ever more powerful, leaving Caesar to face the greatest threat to him yet—a man who wants Rome for himself.

E
MPEROR:
T
HE
G
ODS OF
W
AR

The year is 53 B.C. Fresh from victory in Gaul, Julius Caesar leads battle-hardened legions across the Rubicon river. The armies of Rome will face each other at last in civil war, and Julius Caesar will approach his final destiny—a destiny that will be decided not by legions but by his friend Brutus and an Egyptian queen named Cleopatra.

G
ENGHIS:
B
IRTH OF AN
E
MPIRE

Genghis Khan was born Temujin, the son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the rugged steppe. Shaped by abandonment and betrayal, he is driven by a singular fury: to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies who could come without warning from beyond the horizon.

G
ENGHIS:
L
ORDS OF THE
B
OW

For centuries, primitive tribes have warred with one another. Now, under Genghis Khan—a man who lives for battle and blood—they have united as one nation, overcoming barriers, deceptions, and superior firepower only to face the ultimate test of all: the great, slumbering walled empire of the Chin.

G
ENGHIS:
B
ONES OF THE
H
ILLS

Stalked by enemies seen and unseen, Genghis Khan leads a force of horsemen beyond their known world. His brothers, sons, and commanders have made emperors bow, slaughtering vast armies of fighting men. But as Genghis enters a strange new land of towering mountains and arid desert, he stirs an enemy greater than any he has met before.