12. He [Genghis Khan] forbade his people to eat food offered by another
until the one offering the food tasted of it himself,
even though one be a prince and the other a captive;
he forbade them to eat anything in the presence of another
without having invited him to partake of the food;
he forbade any man to eat more than his comrades,
and to step over a fire on which food was being cooked
or a dish from which people were eating.
The Great Yasa of Genghis Khan
Nobody likes a poison in his food, be it a captive or a prince. And stepping over the fire can burn your pants -- all kinds of nasty stuff can fall into your food when you are stepping over it! This
Yasa quote also explains why all that talk about child obesity was absent in our Mongol Nation
. If everybody eats no more than the worst eater among your comrades -- how can you possibly gain weight? The only awkward part comes when you constantly check how much the others are eating -- to make sure you are not eating more than them. But, hey, staying slim and fit comes with the price!
War also comes with the price and our first hundred years of war with Russia prove that point. Take the disastrous death of Jebe for example (see Part 11). He was scouting around Kiev when German Knight came from the East (!), basically from the very wrong side, and ambushed our hero:
If you are used to the glorious stories of super big stacks taking city after city after city -- this
History can only provide you with painful truth -- we were constantly balancing on the edge of defeat and total annihilation of our few troops. Only the lack of coordinated efforts from our opponents helped us to survive and prevail little by little.
More bad news came the very next turn (AD 1342), when Ottomans, the only civ we had an open borders with, capitulated to Russians and declared on us! Can you imagine? Russian stack conquered Turkish capital Konya, so Ottomans moved their capital to Baku ( :cough:, :cough: ) and became Russian protectorate:
As you could imagine, most world leaders are furious with us, so any attempts of tech trades are met with the same silly reply: We will never trade with you, our worst enemy. Ironically, the only exception came from the civ, that was supposed to spell our downfall -- the Mameluks of Egypt. They opened borders and gave us very valuable Theology:
We immediately changed civics and finally adopted state religion, which will help the great deal with our domestic as well as military efforts:
Our beloved Tengriism (very naturally represented by Taoism in my screenies) incorporates elements of shamanism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship. In Tengriism, the meaning of life is seen as living in harmony with the surrounding world. Tengriist believers view their existence as sustained by the eternal blue Sky, Tengri, the fertile Mother-Earth, spirit Eje, and a ruler who is regarded as the holy spirit of the Sky. Heaven, Earth, the spirits of nature and the ancestors provide every need and protect all humans. By living an upright and respectful life, a human being will keep his world in balance and maximize his personal power. The Mongolian Great Khans of the 13th century ideologically based their power on a mandate from Tengri himself, and began their declarations with the words "by the will of Eternal [Blue] Heaven."
The Tengriist universe consisted of three worlds, a lower or underground world, the middle world in which human beings lived, and the upper spiritual world. The lower world could be entered by means of a spiritual “river.” The middle world connected with the upper world by means of a sacred World Tree. There are no official symbols of Tengriism, however the symbol of the World Tree with nine leaves and the four directions symbol are common, as can be seen on this shaman's drum:
Our military efforts did not gain us anything during the 1340s. Our few troops in Russia were engaged in constant skirmishes, followed by periods of healing, while our Chinese forces finally trained a Trebuchet and commenced the VERY protracted siege of Kaifeng:
We also met with very exotic (for us Mongols) civilization of Portugal. Predictably they paid a tribute to Great Khan, even though we are at the bottom of the scoretable:
The actual name for the Portuguese king during AD 1348 was Afonso IV, nicknamed "the Brave" (Portuguese: o Bravo). Well, he wasn't very brave with us, was he
? He was the only legitimate son of King Denis of Portugal by his wife Elizabeth of Aragon. However, he was not, according to several sources, Dinis' favorite son; his half-brother, the illegitimate Afonso Sanches, enjoyed full royal favor. From early in life, the notorious rivalry led to several outbreaks of civil war. As king, Afonso IV is remembered as a soldier and a valiant general, and Portuguese troops played an important role in the victory of the Battle of Rio Salado over the Marinid Moors in October 1340. But perhaps his most important contribution was the importance he gave to the Portuguese navy. Afonso IV granted public funding to raise a proper commercial fleet and ordered the first maritime explorations. What strikes me the most, however, is how closely my screeny represents the historical portrait of Afonso
:
The early 1350s did not bring us any good news. To the contrary -- the last surviving son of Genghis Khan was killed in Middle East fighting against the overwhelming force of Independent Elephants and Cataphracts. This Cataphract unit was the same we have seen in Kandahar back in
Part 3! They deserted Byzantium after she managed to conquer Kandahar long before we spawned, joined Independent Afghan forces, and all of a sudden made their surprise raid to Arabia and Iraq
. I mean, we really need a break from this losing streak
Our long awaited break-through in war with Russians came only in AD 1354. Russian Pikeman guarding capital Kiev left the city to score an easy (as they thought) victory over one of our Keshiks -- the odds were overwhelmingly in the favor of Russians and Batu Khan was getting ready for yet another KIA report. But the tide finally turned in our favor
With strongest unit guarding Russian capital gone, our forces attacked Kiev without any delays. The chief commander in Kiev was voivode Dmytro, the number of defenders inside the city was only about 1000 (two regiments of Axemen). On December 5th, Kiev's walls were breached, and hand to hand combat followed in the streets. The Kievans suffered heavy losses and Dmytro was wounded by an arrow.
When night fell the Mongols held their positions while the Kievans retreated to the central parts of the city. Many people crowded into the Church of the Tithes. The next day, as our Mongols commenced the final assault, the church's balcony collapsed under the weight of the people standing on it, crushing many. After the we won the battle, they plundered Kiev. Most of the population was massacred (out of 50 000 inhabitants before the invasion, 2000 survived). Most of the city was burned and only six out of forty major buildings remained standing. Dmytro, however, was shown mercy for his bravery:
The fall of the second Russian capital (after Moscow) was a heavy moral and military blow to Russians and allowed Batu Khan to proceed westward into Europe. You can see that Russian stability turned into collapsing -- just like we planned. We are hoping to collapse Russia and see all the Russian troops to loose promotions.
When the news of Mongol victory reached our only city Qara Qorum -- the spontaneous jubilation erupted and carried on for nine days and nine nights. To sweeten our succes a new Great General was born to lead Mongol Keshiks -- the famous Kublai Khan! He was a the second son of blessed memory Tolui and Sorghaghtani Beki and a grandson of Genghis Khan, and younger brother of Möngke, our current Great Khan and supreme Mongol ruler. I believe that the day will come when Kublai will established the Yuan Dynasty, which will rule over Mongolia and China, and some adjacent areas, and he will assumed the role of Emperor of China, claiming Mandate of Heaven: