Ch.311Side Story (10)

# Gurkhan had this kind of human side to him.

Additionally, he disliked luxury—even when living in the Great Capital, he wouldn’t sleep on the soft beds in the grand palace but slept on the ground instead.

He would even say he was a man of the steppe and always lived in a ger that he set up.

He always took pride in this.

Even before his death, he lived frugally, and his table always consisted only of jerky, Mongolian bread, and buroktan.

Even by medieval standards, his meals were so modest that officials would suggest adding vegetables out of concern for the Emperor’s health.

But the Emperor would dismiss such suggestions, saying, “As a man of the steppe, I have always eaten like this.”

While the academic mainstream opinion was that he lived frugally to set an example for the nation, nutritionists have recently offered a new perspective.

They claim that the Emperor ate this way as part of an extreme diet regimen to maintain his muscle mass.

In fact, the Emperor’s diet consisted of a ratio of 5 parts protein, 1 part carbohydrates, and 4 parts fat.

Some say this is very similar to the diet of modern famous bodybuilder Ronnie Coleman.

The Emperor was even known for reducing protein and fat once a week on the Sabbath and focusing on carbohydrates instead.

Thanks to this strict regimen, the Emperor maintained a very muscular physique until just before his death.

Given these facts, the nutritionists’ opinion is gaining traction.

“Indeed… I was extremely strict about my diet.”

It wasn’t that I wanted to live frugally.

I just wanted to maintain my physique through diet management because I didn’t want my workouts to go to waste.

That’s why I maintained this regular diet and had a cheat day on the Sabbath, which was Sunday.

It was a very stable diet according to modern science, but it couldn’t help but appear unhealthy.

So from the officials’ perspective, they couldn’t help but worry.

“It’s not like I could convince the officials by explaining protein-carb-fat ratios.”

It was impossible to convince medieval people by bringing up nutritional science.

So I just vaguely claimed that I ate this way because I was a man of the steppe.

“And that got interpreted as eating frugally.”

Human affairs are certainly unpredictable.

Thinking this, I continued reading the wiki.

While he had a human side, Gurkhan was fundamentally ruthless.

A prime example was when he attacked surrounding villages, driving people into fortresses to deplete the food stored inside.

These refugees, focused primarily on survival, lacked morality.

He even planted spies among the refugees to instigate crimes within the fortresses.

He would use any means necessary to achieve his goals.

This is why some say that Niccolo Machiavelli, a scholar from the Italian Gurun, may have modeled “The Prince” after Gurkhan.

Gurkhan was indeed skilled at psychological warfare.

He would pretend to urge surrender while attacking from behind, or use neighboring countries to make enemies anxious.

When enemies were paralyzed with anxiety, he would massacre civilians and fill moats with their bodies to launch surprise attacks on fortresses.

He even forcibly conscripted young men from surrendered villages to use as arrow shields.

Such actions are difficult to justify in warfare, but the medieval context must be considered.

In contrast, Europe, which suffered greatly, still hates him to this day.

Although he didn’t conquer Europe himself, his son Taejong conquered Europe, rebuilt Rome, and enslaved all of Europe.

The United States, which barely formed as a nation in the 19th century, was composed of European refugees and thus had strong anti-Mongol sentiment.

Until diplomatic relations were established between the two countries, even the New York Post, America’s largest newspaper, referred to him as “the devil of the 13th century.”

Gurkhan himself probably never imagined how he would be evaluated by future generations.

The Emperor never invaded another country without a declaration of war. Ulus attacks always began by sending envoys to announce the impending attack.

After urging surrender in this way, he generally showed mercy if they surrendered, but punished thoroughly if they refused.

Of course, surrender didn’t always guarantee clemency.

For example, during the conquest of Iran, Gurkhan deliberately attacked and thoroughly destroyed one city before urging others to surrender.

This was to make an example of them.

As a result, other Iranian lords and shahs surrendered immediately out of fear.

So describing him as merciful is somewhat misleading.

Additionally, he extremely disliked Chinese civilization.

This was because his ancestors had suffered greatly at the hands of the ancient Song and Jin dynasties.

For this reason, when Gurkhan conquered the Song Dynasty, he didn’t occupy their fortresses.

Some historians claim this was because, as a steppe nomad, he didn’t understand the importance of fortresses.

But this is incorrect—after becoming Byzantine Emperor, Gurkhan preserved all the fortresses in that land.

This has led some to suggest that he carried out a scorched earth policy against the Song Dynasty.

He thoroughly destroyed the Song Dynasty through complete devastation.

He even killed those begging for mercy, thoroughly destroying Chinese civilization.

Because of this, he never sent envoys urging surrender even when the two countries were on the brink of destruction.

“Even a Mongol wiki would have trouble covering up this part.”

It was clear that I was a mass murderer.

A notorious killer who took the lives of as many as 100 million people.

Thinking this, I looked at the section on evaluations by different countries.

Evaluations from Around the World

As the ruler of the four seas, Gurkhan spread his fame far and wide.

Particularly in Europe, he was viewed as an object of terror.

Among Asians, he is unique as such an object of fear.

Additionally, Europe, Russia, and West Asia, which remained enslaved for hundreds of years, evaluate him as a warmonger and mass murderer.

Mongolia

The founding father of Ulus who enabled Mongolians to conquer most of the world.

It’s undeniable that his influence is why Mongolian is still used as a diplomatic language today.

Without him, the kurultai would have been merely a Mongolian internal meeting, and Mongolia might have been reduced to a landlocked country.

But through the Emperor’s vigorous conquest activities, Mongolians were able to move beyond the steppes and advance to the sea.

Thanks to this, Mongolia was able to develop overseas colonies and exert significant influence on other countries even in modern times.

If the Emperor hadn’t destroyed the ancient Chinese civilization, Mongolia might have been assimilated.

In fact, after conquering China, the Jin Dynasty quickly became immersed in Chinese civilization and lost their identity.

Countries that lost their identity in this way became part of Chinese civilization.

Gurkhan recognized the danger of Chinese civilization and thoroughly destroyed it.

Thanks to this, Mongolia was able to maintain its identity.

As a great man who elevated the status of Mongolians, there are many names honoring him today.

The current capital, Ulaanbaatar, means “Red Warrior,” which was his nickname.

Goryeo-Liaodong Federation

Despite being essentially a vassal state of Ulus, there are many positive evaluations of Gurkhan.

This is because without Gurkhan, Goryeo’s territory would have been limited to the Korean peninsula.

After unification, Goryeo continued many territorial expansion activities, but major expansions were rare.

In this situation, Gurkhan gave territory taken from the Jin Dynasty to Liaodong Taejo (Belgutei) to create the Liaodong state.

Later, when the Park Ijegiltuk Belrigotae royal family came to power in Goryeo, the territory grew exponentially.

Its size can be considered the largest among Korean peninsula dynasties.

And while the Park Ijegiltuk Belrigotae royal family ruled Goryeo, unlike other countries, they didn’t suffer much damage.

This is natural considering that most lands conquered by the Mongols were thoroughly destroyed.

Additionally, unlike the other three western royal families, the Goryeo-Liaodong Federation was never incorporated into Ulus territory.

Moreover, since the federation’s founder Belgutei lived longer than Taejong, he was respected as a family elder, and thanks to this, the Goryeo-Liaodong Federation was not interfered with by Ulus.

As a result, relations between the two countries were very good…

But after the socialist regime, they became completely twisted, and only recently have they begun to recover with the return of the Belrigotae royal family.

Japan

In Japan, as in Goryeo, he is seen as a conquering monarch and mass murderer.

Despite suffering great damage unlike Goryeo, they have this unusual perspective because of the Tenno.

The Ulus Tenno, or Khasar Tenno, ruled Japan with the assistance of Temuge, the Jeong-i Daejanggun.

The people, who had suffered under the tyranny of the daimyos until then, viewed him favorably due to the Tenno’s good governance.

This background stems from the Ulus Tenno wearing traditional Japanese clothing and speaking Japanese.

And he swore to live as a Japanese person as the head of Japan, despite being Mongolian.

Indeed, his descendants married Japanese people for generations.

In Japan, they are known as the Kasal (カサル) imperial family and lead the political scene along with the prime ministerial family, the Ochige (オッチギン) family.

Since Mongolia didn’t directly control the Kasal imperial family, they are viewed as excellent monarchs of a neighboring country, similar to Goryeo.

Because of this relationship, there isn’t much interest in Japan.

Rather, he’s building awareness through frequent activities in subculture circles.

In fact, 76% of Japanese people were shocked to learn that Yesugei was male.

A video showing this reaction spread to Mongolia, briefly causing a boycott of Japanese games there.

“I hate it too…”

Being reborn in the body of a descendant, only to immediately see such things.

I couldn’t help but be shocked.

Of course, it’s nice to be remembered, but I wish they would remember me in a different way.

“Europe and West Asia sections are left… when will I finish reading all this?”

It was longer than I expected.

Plus, there were additional evaluation sections remaining.

“I’ll stop here for today… *yawn*…”

As I was about to stretch, I heard a doorbell sound from somewhere.

Wondering what it was, I was about to go out when… I had a bad feeling.

So instead of opening the door, I looked through the peephole.

“…Why are there three women in front of my door?”