Casca 22: The Mongol

by Barry Sadler

  The wounded were treated as best as they could be by their companions. Hot irons were applied to sword cuts, thin-bladed knives used to remove arrowheads stuck deep in flesh. Many of the wounded died shortly after these tender ministrations.

  Weapons and usable gear were gathered from the dead. Temujin ordered for all booty and weapons to be put into a common pile. Later, to each man in his force he would allot the same amount of gear. It was important to standardize equipment as much as possible. Each would have the same minimal number of arrows, lances, and horses, two horses to each man. The rest were put into the common herd to provide spares they rode. Only food, weapons, and robes against the cold of night were permitted. All other things were to be left behind.

  There was some grumbling when among the effects of the Kereit were found items that had belonged to the Borjigin and Merkits, recently acquired when the Kereits had raided their abandoned camp.

  Only those personal items were permitted to be returned to their original owners. Mostly they were of little value – amulets, some knives of poor iron, and other such trash. Temujin would not permit their possession to cause a disruption between his forces.

  As for the wounded who could still ride but were not fit to fight, they were to return to his camp. There they would gather the women and children who had fled to the hills and return to the camp. Under pain of death, the wounded Kereit were not to leave for their own encampment. To insure this he also dispatched with them a force of two hundred of his Merkits to serve as guards and security.

  To Ashif Khan, the father of Bortei, he sent word of his victory, sending the captured standard of Ong Khan as proof. With it came the request that he send forces to the camp of Ong Khan and there take command until the return of Temujin from his raid.

  He was then to send the standard of Ong Khan on to the Reldas, khan of the Naimans. The gift of Ong Khan's horsetail standard should please him greatly, for this was the end of an open wound between them that went back many years. He was also to say that the tribes of Ong Khan were now under Temujin's banner and the enmity between the Kereits and the Naimans would soon be no more.

  He, Temujin, ally of the Quonqurats and khan of the Merkits and the Borjigin, and who also commanded the survivors of the army of Ong khan, would come at the first opportunity and pay his respects to Reldas, khan of the Naimans.

  Once Ashif had done these things, he was to move the tribes of the Borjigin and Merkit to the winter pastures in the south.

  The Kereit tribes would be in disarray, and it would soon be too late in the season for any other tribe to mount a campaign. He would have only enough time to make one quick raid, then return before the great cold of the Gobi swept across the plains to close the land.

  Temujin saw all this, and Casca watched him carefully to see how he would manage the situation and bind these different tribes together. For now he had three. His own Merkits, the Borjigin, and now the Kereits of Ong Khan. If he was able to take this force and gain plunder and slaves, many of the other smaller tribes and clans would willingly submit to him.

  The dead or too badly wounded horses were butchered quickly and the meat cut into thin strips over campfires. Horsemeat would be their staple until they found plunder. Each of the nomads was to have the same portion as the other. Most would place it under their saddles to tenderize the flesh as they rode.

  It was fortunate that there were more than enough dead Kereits to provide pack animals for the extra gear and weapons and still leave a sufficient number for the wounded to take back to his camp so they could move to the south. All things considered, with the exception of the escape of Jemuga, this had been a most rewarding day.

  That evening there was a strange atmosphere in the campground. The piles of the dead had been gathered together and moved away from the springs. After having them buried in a mass grave, Temujin ordered them covered by the loose boulders that had killed many of them. A mass grave with over six thousand bodies under the boulders. There were other graves in the gorge at the site of the first and second engagement with Ong Khan. There another three thousand had to be disposed of.

  Temujin thought about this. Masses of dead would always be a problem, and the Old Young One had told him of the many times when the dead had caused sickness to spread among healthy soldiers. The dead must always be disposed of as rapidly as possible.

  That evening, before the pale gold sun of the Gobi set and the Noyans would come to him, he sat by his campfire and spoke with Casca. "Old Young One, why did you stop me from speaking this afternoon? I had much to say."

  Spreading his fingers, Casca warmed his hands at the fire. Looking down at the coals, it was as if he were seeing something that was lost to the rest of the world. Shaking his head, he raised his eyes to Temujin. "I was afraid that you were going to say you were going to go into Chin."

  Temujin was shocked. Why should that have bothered the Old Young One? "I was going to say that. Do you think it is wrong? It has always been where we go when we have the power."

  Casca nodded his head, the red of the fire turning his weathered face a reddened bronze. "That is the problem. From what you have told me and what I know, the Empire of the Chin is now controlled by the Jurchen, who, as you said, came from these same steppes. They are like you, Mongols. To the south of them is the Sung Empire, whose members are the real Chin. But they are too far away for now.

  "If you go against Chin, you go against the Jurchen, and I don't think we are ready for that now. You can put less than ten thousand in the field. They, if what you told me is correct, can mount several hundred thousand. Those are not good odds.

  "Sun Tzu said, `There are some bridges not to cross, and some battles not to fight. I think this would be one of those, for even if you were successful in a raid on a single town, do you think the Jurchen would not mount a force against you in the spring? Remember, they think and fight much as you do."

  Temujin pursed his lips as he had the manner of doing when troubled or in deep thought. "What you say is true. I spoke too rapidly. But I have promised them a battle and booty. This they must have, for I have said it, therefore it must be. If we are not yet to go against the Jurchen of Chin, then we shall raid into lands of the Tatar through the wide valleys in the great Khinghan Mountains to the north and west of the Chin and attack the Tatars. From there we can take passes that would lead us swiftly to our winter pastures.

  "I do have a great need for a victory to bind the wounds of my army. I must give them one. We will make a quick raid and return before the snows fall."

  The Noyans came to him at the appointed time, the Kereits under the suspicious eyes of the Merkits and Borjigin. Temujin sat on a saddle. He said nothing. When they were all gathered, Subetei and Temuge gave the command to prostrate themselves before the master. There was a moment of confusion among the Kereit Noyans. They had never done this before with Ong Khan.

  Subetei and Temuge each took a head from the shoulders of one of the Kereit Noyans. The rest understood. They, along with the other Noyans, prostrated themselves facedown, arms outstretched, palms down on the earth. Only Temuge, Subetei, and Casca remained standing.

  He let them lie on their faces long enough for the fear to work, for sweat to gather on brows and faces as each wondered if he was going to be able to rise and still have his head. "You may stand."

  He rose also, going to where the campfire was between him and the Noyans.

  "It is time for you to understand what you have become part of. I am Temujin, son of Yeshugei. But I am more than that, and so shall you too be more than you are if you serve me well. This day you lost a battle, but you may have gained an empire where each of you will be as wealthy as the greatest kings of Chin or Persia. You lost a battle, not because of your lack of courage but because of a lack of leadership."

  There was a muttered grumbling of agreement from the former Noyans of Ong Khan. And the talk of wealth was always a sure way to the heart of a nomad. Temujin gave his words time to register. "
As you have now one and all sworn fealty to me, I tell you this: after we finish the raid we will return to your tribes and peoples. Nothing will be taken from you. Your cattle and your horses, your women and your children are safe and will not be harmed. For they, too, are now mine. And it is a fool who damages his own property.

  "From this day forth, all who face us will have the same options: resist us and die; submit and become part of us and prosper. There is no other way."

  Temujin paused to take a drink of water from the Baljuna springs. Cleansing his mouth, he spat out the remainder into the coals of the fire, pleased at the hissing steam that rose from it. "As we ride, you Noyans of the Kereit will each have one of my Noyans with you. This is not to watch you but to instruct you. I have a different manner of waging war, as you well know."

  At this the Kereit Noyans laughed freely. They knew they had been drawn into a trap, and they admired the one who could do it.

  "See and note well these men about you, for they are tarkhan to me. Temuge, my brother; Subetei, my chief Noyan; and over here, the one with the scarred face, is Casca-Bahadur my chief adviser and counsel.

  "Obey them as you would me. When an order is given, hesitate not for the beat of a heart or I will have yours torn out of your chests.

  "The first thing you will do is return to your bands. There they are to be reorganized into tens, with one as leader of each ten. Then tens shall be under the command of a leader of ten tens, and they under a leader of a thousand. You Noyans of the Kereit will decide among yourselves who is to be your leaders and who will be your chief commander.

  "From this moment on, no man may leave his ten or hundred or thousand on pain of death. No other tribe or band may offer one who leaves his ten shelter or food. To do so is to die. To leave your command without permission is to die.

  "Think not that this is excessively harsh. Think upon it. Each man in the ten will know well the others, their strengths and their weaknesses. Each will know where he is to be at all times, and this will make them stronger, and your hundreds stronger, and the thousands stronger.

  "For we will fight with one mind and one will. Each of our separate parts will be stronger. And that is what we need if we are ever going to be able to take and plunder the land of Chin from the Jurchen, or the fabled cities of Baghdad and Samarkand for our own.

  "All are equal before me. The road to my favor is excellence and loyalty. Tribe or religion matters not – that is your affair. Serve well and prosper. Fail me and die."

  Casca was amazed. The captured Noyans broke into a spontaneous cheering for Temujin, calling his name over and over at the tops of their lungs.

  At a sign from Temujin their weapons were returned to them. With bared blades in their hands, they vowed eternal loyalty to the death.

  Casca smiled bitterly, for that was exactly what it would be.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  At sunrise the new army moved out of the valley and onto the plains. Once clear and they had room to move, Temujin formed up his new power. The Kereit Noyans had taken him at his word. Everything was organized, as he had said. By tens, hundreds, and thousands.

  There on the plains he called another meeting of the Noyans, giving them his orders for the march: how to form in columns and lines, and how to maneuver in attack and defense. This he demonstrated by using pebbles on the earth. The first lessons were basic, simply how to keep in formation when on the march and how to form up if attacked.

  The Kereits he broke up into units, placing them at point and in the center, surrounded by his Merkits and Borjigin. He was not ready to trust them completely. Not just yet. He had some time in which to gain their loyalty. At this moment they were lost, without any leader to unite them. He knew his words had brought many of the Noyans over to him. But that was a thing of the moment. The moment would pass if he was idle, and they would find a leader in their own ranks. That must not happen.

  Overall training and discipline he turned over to Casca.

  Every dawn before forming on the march, Casca took one man out of every hundred of the Noyans and gave them training in maneuver and tactics, discipline and obedience. Mock battles were staged in slow motion as he showed the effect of cavalry on different enemy formations. To their displeasure he also made them learn to maneuver on foot. It took only one reminder that the Merkits had broken the Kereit when their feet were on the ground.

  Each of the hundreds were to return to their units and brief the commanders of tens. From them the new commands and formations went to the common warriors. Mistakes were not tolerated. There were few, and no one ever had the opportunity to err twice. Several Noyans were removed from their ranks when they just could not grasp the new ideas. Their places were taken in some cases by common warriors in whose eyes or manner Casca thought he saw intelligence and a willingness to learn.

  Temujin observed closely all of Casca's actions and his new selections. He made it a point to encourage Casca to appoint young men under thirty years, as were most of his commanders in the Merkit and Borjigin, to the new positions. He spent much of his free time having the young Noyans visit with him. There they learned they could discuss things openly, present ideas and arguments.

  Temujin never laughed or mocked. Everything they said he took as a matter of import, even if it was nonsense. That told him at least who could use their minds and who could not. And even these he did not replace at once. That was for Casca to do. And there are times when men who are not very intelligent but very loyal also have their use. It is good to have some who are willing to die for you with no questions and consider it an honor.

  True to his word from the beginning, Temujin rewarded excellence, This appealed to the common warriors who, before this, would never have had the chance to reach positions of command. All of these actions were designed with two purposes: first, to make them loyal to him; and second, to make them more efficient in the hard days ahead. They still had many leagues to travel across deserts and plains.

  The route of the march was straight across the plains and deserts of the Gobi to where the Khinghan Mountains watched over the barren plains and gave water to the thin green strips along the Rivers Shilka, Argun, and Khalkha.

  It was the eighth day of the march before Temujin told his commander of his plans to go into the region of the River Khalkha and raid the Tatar camps. There were several walled cities near the borders of the Mongol and Tatar territories. It was to one of these that they would go. He knew which one, but that he did not choose to relate at that time. It was Khalkak, the strongest Tatar fort, which lay across the River Khalkha directly across from the lands of the Quonqurat. If, as he requested, Krichka had moved all to the summer pastures, the Tatars would be much more relaxed and less wary, their strong, known enemy across the river departed until the following spring.

  His choice of a target pleased all. The Tatars had been the enemies of all one time or another for centuries, and usually they had the best of the fights they were in. The Mongols looked forward to the opportunity to kill and pillage in their lands. Normally it was the Tatars who raided and took what they wished, leaving widows and burned villages behind them to mark their passage.

  Temujin was also pleased with the reaction of his warriors. Having a common enemy would unite them more than anything else, which was exactly what he needed at this time. From that day on, all worked and trained with a ready will. Complaints and grievances came to stop.

  A three-week march brought them to where they were moving along the banks of the River Khalkha and into the Gobi Desert. The Khalkha was the line separating the Quonqurat tribes from the Tatars.

  This was his most important reason for going. If he defeated the Tatars on the banks of the river, he would remove a threat from the tribe of Bortei. Her father was close to recognizing him as overlord now, and this would complete it. The old man knew it was better to arrange a marriage with a power than to fight that power.

  Casca had told him repeatedly over these last... how many years wa
s it now? Fifteen, sixteen? "Never leave an enemy behind you." Now, if he destroyed the Tatar power base, and he would, he'd have a line drawn around the perimeters of Lake Baikal. Once the last of the Kereit tribes were finally subdued, and that should come in the spring, he would have almost all of it.

  To the north of the Kereits were the Naimans. Then the Khirgiz, Oirats, and Buryats. Each would fall easier than the first, for as they fell, they would add to his strength.

  He would have a secure base, with no enemies for a thousand miles in any direction. To the south were the Chin and Tanguts of Hsi Hsian. To the north there was nothing but the frozen lands of the Tungus. To the west lay the Empire of the Black Khitans, which had enemies in plenty on all sides. Beyond them were the sultanates of Persia and Iraq. To the east there was little, except forest and rocky mountains till one reached the sea across which lay the islands of the Nihonji.

  The physical wealth of these lands did not matter. He wanted not gold and slaves. It was power for the sake of power. His riches and wealth he gave to those who served him well. And now, this one final move and he would be the first since Attila to have the power at his disposal to accomplish that which all warriors of the steppes dreamed of. The great conquest. The founding of his own dynasty, a line with him as the fountainhead of kings that would last through the centuries. That was a true dream.

  In the shadows of the Khinghans, where the white waters streamed out to be absorbed by the sands and rocks, Temujin called a halt to rest the animals.

  Casca took advantage of it to hold mock battles, first in slow motion then faster and faster, having them play against each other so they would know both sides of a situation. Then at night around the campfires, he would have the Noyans question and answer their actions of the day.