A tragic beginning,
a daring escape,
and a rise to power.
The steppe has come to life with gossip.
Could young upstart Temüjin be the one to defy custom
and unite the Mongol clans under one ruler?
Music (Birth of the People)
Rumors of Temüjin's daring escape from Jamukha's band traveled fast across the steppe.
Respected prophets and religious leaders began to report
that Temüjin's ascension to power was destined by the spirits.
And Temüjin was 100% okay with that.
He summoned his followers to participate in a council called a Khurultai,
which was essentially an election.
Families, lineages, and clans voted by showing up.
Their presence served as an endorsement, or their absence as a vote against him.
Attracting a simple majority counted as a victory.
Unfortunately, the turnout was scarce.
The majority of steppe lineages still supported Jamukha.
Temüjin could work with this though.
Having now gathered all of his allies in one place,
he consolidated this small but loyal group to establish himself as a minor Khan;
and thus, Temüjin became Temüjin Khan.
He quickly sent an envoy to Ong Khan, to reassert his loyalty, and seek his patron's blessing,
reassuring him that this new title was not meant as a challenge.
Ong Khan was fine with it.
He preferred that Temüjin and Jamukha's ambitions stay focused against each other, instead of him.
With his patron's blessing secured, Temüjin built up a revolutionary system of government within his tribe.
A Khans court was known as an "Ordu" or "Horde," and traditionally the Khans horde consisted exclusively
of his relatives, and served as a kind of Aristocracy over the rest of the tribe.
Temüjin, however assigned positions of power based on loyalty and ability.
Without regard for familial ties.
He appointed butchers, cooks, archers, guards, and keepers of prized herds of livestock and horses.
He also created an elite regiment of bodyguards to surround his camp at all times.
Jamukha, meanwhile still refused to acknowledge Temüjin as anything other than an insolent upstart,
who needed to be put in his place.
He carefully planned and bided his time.
Waiting for just the right moment to take Temüjin down.
That moment finally came a year after Temüjin's Khurultai.
One of Temüjins followers killed one of Jamukhas distant relatives, during a cattle raid.
And Jamukha used this as a justification to attack Temüjins camp with his vastly superior army,
quickly routing Temüjin's forces.
Then, to prevent them from regrouping and retaliating,
Jamukha perpetrated a horrific show of revenge.
Beheading one of the captured leaders and boiling seventy captive prisoners alive.
Unfortunately for Jamukha, this cruel show of force backfired hard,
horrifying even his staunchest allies.
By treating his enemies this way, he further emphasized the divisions
between the old aristocratic lineages and the abused lower classes.
Temüjin may have lost the battle, but this moment was a turning point in terms of public support and sympathy.
More families flocked to join Temüjin's camp, and he slowly began to rebuild.
In 1195, a thirty-three year old Temüjin would be handed an unexpected opportunity in the form of a foreign raid.
A group called the Jurched approached Ong Khan asking him to raise an army
and attack their enemies, the Tartars.
For this raid, Ong Khan enlisted Temüjin's horde.
Now, Temüjin had much to gain from this venture, so he gathered support of his own.
He approached a small clan directly to the south of his camp, the Jurkin,
and offered them spoils and glory for participating in the raid.
The Jurkin gave their word, they were in.
Shortly before the raid, Temüjin invited the Jurkin to a feast.
Unfortunately, during the celebration, Temüjin's half-brother, Belgutei,
spotted two Jurkin attempting to steal horses.
He identified one of the thieves as a renowned wrestler named Buri,
and readied himself to fight the man as an equal,
thinking that they would wrestle honourably.
Instead, Buri drew his sword and cut Belgutei across the shoulder,
A grave insult.
When the rest of the feast heard about this, it turned into a drunken brawl,
and by brawl, I mostly mean food fight, because,
in keeping with tradition, everybody had left their weapons behind.
Needless to say, when the time came to set out on a raid against the Tartars,
the Jurkin never showed up to help.
As with the Khurultai, absence constituted a vote of no confidence in Temüjin.
Victory was swift and easy, all the same, and the spoils were astounding.
The Tartars had access to manufactured goods from the Chinese Empire,
including silk clothes, and blankets, and gold and silver jewellery.
Captured children wore jewellery the likes of which the ragged Mongols had never seen on anyone,
let alone a child.
The opulence was astounding.
But more importantly,
Temüjin saw clearly how the powerful Jurched had just used one border tribe to fight another.
And the lesson was clear;
A tribe conquered today will rise up and have to be defeated again
in an endless cycle of warfare with no decisive victory or lasting peace.
Temüjin will remember this.
With his newfound wealth,
Temüjin was now prepared to push into the territories of smaller, neighbouring tribes.
When he returned home to discover that the Jurkin had raided his camp while he was away,
picking his first target became very easy.
Now that he was an experienced, battle-tested commander,
Temüjin and his mounted archers scattered the Jurkin with ease.
With this victory in hand, Temüjin instituted another revolutionary change in ruling style.
See, in the traditional cycle of Mongol raiding and counter-attack,
the defeated tribe was looted, and a few key prisoners were taken, but the rest of the tribe was left alone.
Historically, those survivors would then regroup and strike back, or seek out larger rival clans to join.
Temüjin decided that this cycle was not in his best interests.
After defeating the Jurkin, he summoned a Kurultai of all his followers,
and conducted a public trial of the aristocratic Jurkin leaders.
For failing to fulfill their promise of joining him in war,
and for raiding his camp in his absence,
they were found guilty, and Temüjin had them executed.
After that, he went on to occupy the Jurkin lands and redistribute them amongst his followers.
He then integrated the remaining Jurkin citizens into the households of his own clan,
not as slaves, but as full members in good standing.
He also adopted an orphaned Jurkin boy as his brother,
giving him to his mother, Hoelun, to raise as her own son.
Then, as a final show of force, Temüjin summoned all of his followers,
including the newly-adopted Jurkin, to a feast.
For the event, he also summoned Buri,
the wrestler who had started that great brawl by stealing horses and cutting Belgutai.
Temüjin ordered the two men to wrestle.
Buri had never lost a match in his life,
but he feared Temüjin's wrath, and allowed Belgutai to throw him.
Normally, this would mean that the match was over,
but Belgutai and Temüjin had made their own plans.
After winning, Belgutai set upon the defeated Buri, and broke his back.
With this final merciless display, Temüjin had rid himself of all the Jurkin leaders,
and sent a clear message to all who might oppose him:
If you surrender to Temüjin and remain loyal, there are great rewards to be gained,
but if you betray him, there will be no mercy,
and nobody, not even aristocrats, are safe.
Temüjin moved his base of operations into Jurkin territory,
continuing to conquer and attract lesser lineages.
Meanwhile, Jamukha worked to establish himself as a leader and advocate for the aristocrats,
who feared the threat Temüjin posed to their traditions and way of life.
Then, in 1201, once he had the full support of the aristocracy,
Jamukha made a play for the title of 'Ruler of all Mongols'.
He summoned his own Khurultai and successfully bestowed upon himself the title of Gur Khan,
an ancient and revered title which meant 'Universal Ruler'.
This was a strategic choice.
Jamukha chose this title, not just because it was ancient and respected,
but also because the last person to bear the title was Ong Khan's uncle,
who had ruled until Ong Khan revolted and killed him.
Jamukha was not just challenging Temüjin here, but Ong Khan as well.
If he could win this war, he would be the supreme ruler of the central steppe.
As Temüjin's patron, Ong Khan came out personally to lead his warriors in the campaign against their rival.
The battle was as much psychological as it was physical.
Shamans lined the rocky cliffs along the battlefield,
beating ritual drums to summon supporting spirits, and control the weather.
As they beat their drums, a massive thunderstorm gathered,
which both sides attributed to the shamans supporting Temüjin.
This shook the resolve of many of Jamukha's warriors,
and caused many to desert in fear of angering the spirits.
Jamukha was forced to retreat.
Ong Khan chased after Jamukha and the main part of his army,
while Temüjin gave chase to the Taichiud, one of the clans loyal to Jamukha, and,
coincidentally, the clan that had abandoned him and his family decades before.
They proved dificult to defeat.
Both sides fought for hours,
firing from horseback,
from fixed positions behind rocks, or hastily assembled barricades.
Toward the end of the day,
a poisoned enemy arrow struck Temüjin Khan's neck, knocking him unconscious.
Darkness fell, and both sides made camp on the battlefield to rest until daylight.
Thanks to the aid of his loyal second-in-command, Temüjin recovered by the next morning.
The Taichiud didn't even know that Temüjin had been injured, and most of them had fled in the night.
Temüjin sent his warriors in pursuit,
and, as with the Jurkin, publicly executed their leaders
and integrated the rest, taking over their lands.
He also found the family who had helped him escape thirty years prior, and freed them from their servitude.
Temüjin had won this fight, but Jamukha escaped Ong Khan,
and fled to more remote parts of the steppe to regroup and recruit new allies.
Even without the Taichiud, Jamukha still had many clans loyal to him.
The final showdown was yet to come.
Music (The Infinate Steppe)