Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [55]
Instead of keeping the coat, Temujin presented it as a gift to an influential elder named Torghil, also known as Ong Khan, leader of the powerful Kereyid tribal confederacy. Linked commercially with central Asia, the Kereyids, who were of Turkic origin, had a much more developed culture than the Mongols. The Kereyids also practiced a steppe variant of Nestorian Christianity, worshipping from their tents the powerful shaman Jesus, who had healed the sick and triumphed over death. More important for Temujin's purposes, the Kereyids were united and large in number, controlling a great expanse of the Gobi steppe. By giving Ong Khan his own wedding gift, Temujin symbolically acknowledged him as a father figure and established the first of many shrewd alliances.7
Over the next quarter century, this alliance would prove pivotal to Temujin's rise to dominance over the steppe. Early on, the Kereyids helped Temujin rescue his new wife, who was kidnapped shortly after their marriage by raiders from the Merkid tribe. By this time, Temujin had already acquired a small but loyal following. Together with Ong Khan's men, Temujin began to conquer various smaller tribes of the steppe, including most notably the Tayichiuds, the clan that had abandoned Temujin and his starving family when he was a boy. With each victory Temujin pursued the same basic strategy. He killed off the defeated tribal leaders, including most of the male “aristocracy,” then incorporated the rest of the tribe into his own following—not as slaves but as equal members.
By consolidating forces, Temujin and Ong Khan also defeated the Tatars, a tribal confederacy much richer than the Kereyids. Temujin is said to have been deeply struck by the sumptuous possessions of the Tatars—silver cradles, pearl-embroidered blankets, satin and gold-threaded clothing even for children—the likes of which the Mongols had never seen. Further breaking down the traditional tribal bonds that long had divided the steppe, Temujin encouraged intermarriage, taking on for himself two Tatar sisters as additional wives. He also asked his mother to symbolically adopt as her own sons orphaned boys from each of the defeated tribes. Thus, Temujin's “brothers” included a Merkid, a Tayichiud, a Jur-kin, a Tatar, and so on.8
Although still subordinate to Ong Khan, Temujin was now in command of a significant intertribal, interethnic army numbering as many as 80,000. In 1203, Temujin ordered a reform that would radically transform the steppe of central Asia. For generations, the people of the steppe had been bound by male kinship ties. The more closely related two men were by blood, the more loyal they were supposed to be to each other. To break down the traditional clan- and lineage-based divisions that fragmented the steppe, Temujin reorganized the Mongol army. He divided his warriors into interethnic squads of ten, who were ordered to live with and defend one another as brothers, regardless of their tribal origin. The eldest of the squad was designated the leader, unless the group decided otherwise. Ten squads in turn formed a company, ten companies formed a battalion, and ten battalions formed a tumen, or army of 10,000, the leader of which Temujin personally selected. This intertribal, interethnic decimal system eventually came to organize not just the military but all of Mongol society.9
Whereas traditional steppe leaders had always surrounded themselves with their closest relatives, Temujin selected his lieutenants and advisors on the basis of talent and proven loyalty. Many of Temujin's closest confidants and highest-ranking generals—for example, Boorchu, who commanded a tumen in the Altai Mountains, and Subodei, who eventually conquered Poland and Hungary—were not related to him at all. Conversely,