Genghis Khan, Makers of History SeriesAbbott, Jacob
History
Genghis Khan, Makers of History Series
Abbott, Jacob
Genghis Khan, 1162-1227; Mongols -- History
After all these affairs had been arranged, Genghis Khan put his army
in motion. He was obliged, of course, to separate it into several
grand divisions, and to send the several divisions forward by
different roads, and through different sections of the country. So
large a body can never be kept together on a long march, on account of
the immense quantity of food that is required, both for the horses and
the men, and which must be supplied in the main by the country itself
which they traverse, since neither horses nor men can carry food with
them for more than a very few days.
Genghis Khan put one of the largest divisions under the command of his
son Jughi, the prince who distinguished himself so much in the
conflicts by which his father raised himself to the supreme power.
Jughi was ordered to advance with his division through Turkestan, the
country where the Prince Kushluk had sought refuge, and which still
remained, in some degree, disaffected toward Genghis Khan. Genghis
Khan himself, with the main body of the army, took a more southerly
route directly toward the dominions of the sultan.
In the mean time the sultan himself had not been idle. He collected
together all the forces that he could command. When they were
mustered, the number of men was found to be four hundred thousand.
This was a large army, though much smaller than that of Genghis Khan.
The sultan set out upon his march with his troops to meet the
invaders. After advancing for some distance, he learned that the army
of Jughi, which had passed through Turkestan, was at the northward of
his position, and he found that by turning in that direction he might
hope to meet and conquer that part of the Mongul force before it could
have time to join the main body. He determined at once to adopt this
plan.
He accordingly turned his course, and marched forward into the part of
the country where he supposed Jughi to be. At length he came to a
place where his scouts found, near a river, a great many dead bodies
lying on the ground. Among the others who had fallen there was one man
who was wounded, but was not dead. This wounded man told the scouts
that the bodies were those of persons who had been slain by the army
of Jughi, which had just passed that way. The sultan accordingly
pressed forward and soon overtook them. Jughi was hastening on in
order to join his father.
Jughi consulted his generals in respect to what it was best to do.
They advised him to avoid a battle.
"We are not strong enough," said they, "to encounter alone the whole
of the sultan's army. It is better that we should retreat, which we
can do in an orderly manner, and thus join the main body before we
give the enemy battle. Or, if the sultan should attempt to pursue us,
he can not keep his army together in doing so. They will necessarily
become divided into detachments on the road, and then we can turn and
destroy them in detail, which will be a much surer mode of proceeding
than for us to attack them in the mass."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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