Ch.13Tartar (1)

Thousands of mounted soldiers lined up before me.

In front of them stood the khans of Khamag Mongol.

Commanders waiting for my orders.

They looked ready to tear the Tatars apart the moment the command was given.

Soldiers showing such high morale.

Temujin, who had been watching this, noticed my gaze and rode to my side, gripping his horse’s reins.

“Father. The time for revenge has come.”

“Revenge…”

“Are you not pleased?”

Temujin’s question.

In response, I posed a question to him instead.

“Can you imagine if you were in my position?”

Temujin looked puzzled at my words.

But seeing my serious expression, he nodded and followed my lead.

“I would immediately ride with my men to the Tatar tribe, take everything they hold dear, and burn their lands to the ground.”

“Would that calm your anger?”

“It wouldn’t be enough. I would hang Megujin-se’uldu’s wives upside down and starve them to death, then tie up their children’s hands and feet and throw them onto the steppe as food for wolves.”

“Would that calm your anger?”

“…”

“That’s the nature of anger.”

Temujin looked at me with a puzzled expression.

I gazed at my son and spoke softly.

“Revenge is merely a justification and a means. That’s why this father hopes you won’t be controlled by revenge—a sword that could take your own life.”

“…I’ll remember that.”

Temujin nodded.

I turned to look at my other sons standing beside me and continued.

“Belgutei, Bekhter, and Khasar. This applies to you as well.”

Belgutei and Bekhter, born between me and Sochigel, and Khasar, born between Ho’elun and me, all nodded.

As I was speaking to my sons, Munglig approached.

Unlike his usual playful demeanor, Munglig was composed as he stood before me and paid his respects.

“Great Gurkhan. All units have completed their battle preparations.”

“The time has come.”

All eyes turned to me.

Sensing the moment had arrived, I raised my hand high.

“Brothers! Be enraged! Punish the treacherous Tatars and uphold the law of the steppe!”

Buuuuuuu.

The harsh sound of leather horns.

Flags moving in perfect unison.

The sun and moon.

The steppe.

And warriors who never dismount.

Horses gallop.

Warriors draw their swords.

The fury of the steppe began to spread like twilight.

* * *

The warriors of Khamag Mongol.

They advanced with such ferocity that it seemed they would behead the Tatars at any moment. Seeing this, the Tatar warriors hastily mounted their horses to resist.

“Stop them immediately!”

Megujin-se’uldu shouted.

The soldiers who had just mounted their horses raised their swords to block the Khamag Mongol forces.

“Show these Khamag peasants who the true masters of Yeke Mongol Ulus are!”

“Charge!”

The Tatar cavalry was full of confidence.

To their eyes, the Khamag Mongol forces appeared to be nothing but a disorganized rabble.

This was understandable, as the Tatar tribe had been raiding Khamag Mongol for a long time.

Whenever the Tatars invaded, Khamag Mongol had offered little resistance, so they couldn’t help but think this way.

Additionally, the Khamag Mongol forces were small in number.

Attacking the Tatars with only about 500 men was like hitting a rock with an egg.

Megujin-se’uldu quickly noticed the small size of the enemy force.

Looking at the Khamag Mongol soldiers, he sneered.

“They came quickly, but their numbers are far too few… and I don’t even see their commander…”

An obvious mockery.

He was almost embarrassed that he had been startled by Khamag Mongol’s surprise attack.

“Concentrate the attack on the left!”

Megujin-se’uldu shouted.

At his command, mounted archers began to target the left flank of the Khamag Mongol forces.

In mounted tactics, the left side is the most crucial.

Traditionally, Mongol cavalry would pivot to the left during tactical maneuvers.

There were several reasons for this.

Fundamentally, Mongol cavalry were herdsmen before they were warriors.

Mongols held their reins with their left hand and whips with their right.

In battle, they held the reins with their left hand and swords with their right.

If they turned right, the left hand holding the reins would be exposed.

For this reason, during a tactical charge, just before engaging the enemy head-on, they would turn left. This maneuver protected the hand holding the reins while allowing them to attack with the sword in their right hand.

As the Khamag Mongol soldiers approached the Tatar army,

Megujin-se’uldu anticipated the moment when the enemy would turn left to attack the Tatars—the brief moment when they would be vulnerable—and gave this order.

“Fire!”

“Show these peasants the terror of the Tatars!”

With those words, a rain of arrows poured down on the left wing of the Khamag Mongol forces.

Several Khamag Mongol soldiers were hit by the arrows and fell from their horses.

“Arghhhh!”

“Gahh!”

The numerically inferior Khamag Mongol forces.

As casualties mounted from the Tatar arrow attacks, their earlier confidence vanished, and they began to flee.

“Khan! The peasants are trying to escape!”

An officer reported.

Hearing this, Megujin-se’uldu laughed loudly with joy.

“Haha! Gather these peasants together and they’re still nothing but rabble!”

He grabbed his horse’s reins.

He planned to dispatch a separate force to pursue the enemy.

“I will pursue the enemy and completely erase these Khamag peasants from Yeke Mongol Ulus.”

His officer was startled.

He bowed and tried to calm Megujin-se’uldu.

“Please remain calm, Khan. It could be an enemy trap.”

“Ha! A trap? Do you think those wretched people who spend their lives cleaning sheep dung and feeding horses have the brains for such tactics?”

Megujin-se’uldu openly mocked the Khamag Mongol.

Again, as the Tatar tribe had been raiding them for a long time, he could speak so dismissively without hesitation.

For steppe people, tactics consisted of nothing more than charging and retreating.

The very idea that Khamag Mongol—who had never fought proper battles like those against the Song Dynasty, Goryeo, or Jin Dynasty, and were mere bandits—could set a trap was almost inconceivable.

Of course, the Tatars were also one of the tribes of Yeke Mongol Ulus, so if people from Central Plains were to witness this scene, they might consider both Khamag Mongol and the Tatars to be equally primitive.

However, the Tatars had gained various battle experiences while serving under the Jin Dynasty, so they were not comparable to Khamag Mongol.

The Tatar tribe understood tactics to some degree.

They knew well that the best time to inflict maximum damage on the enemy was when they were demoralized and fleeing.

“The fastest cavalry, follow me! The rest of the infantry, follow behind us!”

Unlike other Ulus tribes that consisted solely of cavalry, the Tatars also operated infantry.

To be precise, they weren’t tactical infantry that moved in formation, but light infantry used for raiding.

The reason they operated such light infantry was that most of them were not Tatars but prisoners—slaves captured from places they had raided.

Since they couldn’t give horses to slaves, they gave them weapons and made them raid,

allowing them to pay for their freedom if they plundered enough wealth.

For these reasons, a significant number of Tatars operated slave soldiers.

“You take charge of the slave soldiers.”

“I will obey your command.”

The officer reluctantly nodded at Megujin-se’uldu’s words.

After receiving command of the raiding forces from the Khan, he turned and issued orders to them.

“By the Khan’s order! Everyone move!”

Slave soldiers in tattered clothes, each holding a single dagger.

It was impossible for these hollow-eyed people, who hadn’t eaten properly for a long time, to respond immediately to the command.

“These fools! They’re being lazy and not moving immediately! Hey! Whip the slaves!”

Twenty mounted soldiers began whipping them.

“Arghhhh!”

“Guhk…”

“Aagh!”

Screams echoed everywhere.

Expressions of pain in all kinds of languages—Song language, Khitan, Goryeo, Persian, and more—resounded throughout the area.

The slave soldiers outnumbered the soldiers led by Megujin-se’uldu’s officer.

But having been oppressed and tormented for so long, they chose to follow the Tatars rather than resist.

Their eyes flickered with the desire to die quickly.

Seeing their expressions, the officer smiled with satisfaction and looked at Megujin-se’uldu’s cavalry in the distance.

“We must follow the Khan immediately! That’s how our share will increase!”

The officer’s words.

Megujin-se’uldu’s officer was already thinking of this as a won battle.

* * *

“Haha! Look at those Khamag peasants! They’re running away in panic like colts with their tails on fire!”

Megujin-se’uldu was closely pursuing the retreating Khamag Mongol cavalry.

The Tatar cavalry, also elite horsemen trained on the Mongolian steppe, had no difficulty chasing the Khamag Mongol.

The Tatar cavalry was close enough to catch them if they just increased their speed a little.

With the distance close enough to annihilate them, Megujin-se’uldu drew the sword from his waist.

“It’s time to slaughter these worthless Khamag Mongol people and take their possessions!”

In mounted combat, having one’s rear caught essentially meant defeat.

It was impossible to defend one’s back while on horseback.

“Die!”

Megujin-se’uldu, with victory in sight.

In his mind, he was already envisioning the future after defeating the Khamag Mongol forces.

He planned to annihilate them here and then invade Khamag Mongol directly.

He intended to plunder everything valuable, rape the women, and kidnap the children to use as slave soldiers.

If things proceeded as he imagined, it would only be a matter of time before Khamag Mongol became part of the Tatars.

With increased power, the Tatars could break free from Jin Dynasty’s control completely, even without help from the Song Dynasty or Goryeo.

Additionally, it would be possible to annex other tribes of Yeke Mongol Ulus.

This meant that Megujin-se’uldu would become the Khagan of the Ulus, the sole ruler of the great steppe.

These thoughts brought a smile to Megujin-se’uldu’s face.

A glorious future that seemed within reach.

Just as he was about to grasp that future… an eerie sound of leather horns began to echo from somewhere.

Buuuuuuu.

“Im…impossible…”

Suddenly, Khamag Mongol cavalry appeared.

In the center, under a Mongol banner depicting the sun and moon, stood a man with a massive body.