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Temüjin's Early Life · Acedra
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Temüjin's Early Life
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0:00
It's a quiet morning just before dawn In Temüjin's camp the family sleeps peacefully thinking their troubles are behind them They are very wrong Even now 300 Merkit soldiers thundered towards them on horseback eager for a fight Music (Birth of the People) News traveled fast on the ancient steppe And the story of Temüjin daring escape and new alliance with Ong Khan, spread far and wide His growing success got the attention of the Merkits The tribe Temüjin's father had kidnapped his mother from
0:37
They saw an opportunity to knock Temüjin down a peg before he got too powerful At Temüjin 's camp an old woman was sleeping with her head on the ground And suddenly she was awoken by the sound of approaching hooves She alerted the camp With little time to prepare for the attack Temüjin his allies his mother and five-year-old child all mounted horses and took flight But Borte was left behind Nobody is sure if she volunteered to stay behind as her grandmother had
1:05
Or if Temüjin lost track of her in the confusion Or if he left her behind in a calculated move to give them all time to escape But in the end it was effective when the Merkits found Borte they halted their pursuit and took her captive Temüjin for his part fled to the mountains lying low and following the elk trails he had known since childhood Four days later he emerged And seeing that the coast was clear was overcome with gratitude for having survived
1:33
He vowed to always honor the mountains as the place of his deliverance Temüjin saw his survival as a sign that he was special in the eyes of the spirits Truly destined for greatness, but Temüjin was devastated at having lost his wife He had three options He could return to his old camp and his pastoral life But no matter how much he might build up and acquire for himself There would always be the constant risk that some other enemy might come along And he would lose it all in another raid
2:03
He could head north toward the wooded isolated lands of his childhood But those desolate lands lacked pasture for animals Living there would require his family to scrape by as he had in childhood Fishing and trapping and catching birds It would be a safe life But neither prosperous nor honorable The third option was to follow the river south to seek the help of his patron Ong Khan Though Temüjin had declined the offer to take a position under Ong Khan's authority a year ago
2:33
Now that his newly built life was shattered It seemed the only way to recover his bride Ong Khan was enraged that the Merkits had acted against someone under his protection And offered Temüjin twenty thousand warriors to retaliate against them He also suggested that they enlist the help of his childhood friend and blood brother Jamukha Who had become Khan of his own tribe by this time Jamukha had experienced his own adversities
2:58
Having been captured by the Merkits and forced into slavery just as Temüjin had But he too had escaped He had built his own following and was now head of his own clan He was eager for a chance to take revenge on the Merkits and to help his blood brother Providing another two cavalry division's to Temüjin force They sent messengers back and forth across the steppe Arranging where and when to meet Jamukha arrived at the appointed time and place But Temüjin and Ong Khan's forces took their time
3:28
Meeting up along the way before proceeding to the rendezvous When they finally arrived Jamukha was livid He had six thousand men under his command Each with two or three spare horses The Army's 15,000 odd horses alone were grazing 5,000 acres of grass per day To say nothing of the horses of the families already living in the valley All of his soldiers were geared up for battle sleeping in the rough and eating through their limited food supplies
3:55
And increasingly anxious to get back to their families And moreover such an enormous force of men and horses were not exactly inconspicuous Any wandering Merkit might have seen what was going down and galloped off to warn the others Jamukha scolded Ong Khan and Temüjin who were like 'Yeah fair enough, our bad' The combined armies made their way north to the Merket camp But this was the beginning of a rift between Temüjin and Jamukha That would only continue to grow
4:23
The Merkits lay in wait across a river Each soldier built a float of reeds and swam across with a horse The operation was too large to be a total surprise But as soon as the Merkits realized what was happening they panicked and scattered Temüjin frantically searched the camp for his wife calling out her name Now Borte didn't realize that it was Temüjin himself coming to rescue her Any number of raiders or rivals might have been attacking and she was not up for being captured again
4:51
So she was fleeing with the rest of the war prisoners But when she heard Temüjin's voice over the fray She recognized it and sprinted through the battle towards him As she ran to his horse and snatched the reins from his hands He almost attacked her thinking she was an enemy But as soon as he recognized her he called off the attack Dismounted in the middle of battle and embraced her It was a resounding victory The Merkits were scattered both Temüjin and Jamukha had their revenge
5:17
And Temüjin was quickly establishing himself among the Mongols as a leader But their joy was short-lived It was discovered that Borte had been raped by her captors and come back pregnant Nine months after she had been rescued she gave birth to a son Temüjin claimed that the boy was his but because his paternity was never clearly established The child would never be fully accepted as Temujin's hier With the Merkits dealt with Temüjin and Jamukha's families combined their camps and lived together
5:46
At least for a time the two men were inseparable Riding hunting eating even camping together They swore their friendship for the third time now as adults In a public ceremony with their combined followers as witnesses Standing before a tree at the edge of a cliff they exchanged golden sashes Key symbols of a Mongol man's identity As well as horses that they had looted from the Merkits And because of his blood Brotherhood with Jamukha, Temüjin enjoyed an elevated status within the tribe
6:16
For a year and a half things seemed ideal But time has a way of changing things Both Temüjin and Jamukha were powerful men with aspirations to unite and lead the Mongol tribes Jamukha supported traditional Mongolian aristocracy Where Temüjin believed in a meritocratic method And as such attracted a broader range and lower class of followers Jamukha came from a higher lineage than Temüjin And over time began to treat him less as an equal and more as a younger brother or a subordinate
6:47
Temüjin had killed the last brother figure in his life who had demanded subservience So as you can imagine this did not sit well And they began to drift apart One day as the two men were riding together Jamukha suggested that they split up their camps That Temüjin should take the goats and the sheep and camp by the river While Jamukha took the horses and camped closer to the mountains This was a Power Move Horses were the wealth of the steppe
7:13
Horse breeders such as those Jamukha had descended from were a noble class Horses played such an essential role in battle and steppe life that they were a status symbol The message behind Jamukha's statement was clear He was asserting his authority as a horse breeder and treating Temüjin as a lowly shepherd Temüjin was perplexed and returned to his family Relaying the order and asking his mother what she made of it Borte overheard this and interrupted
7:41
She was angry at this betrayal and didn't trust Jamukha any longer She insisted that they break from the group and set out on their own Along with any of Jamukha's followers who wanted to join them They fled that very evening Riding through the night to gain as much distance as possible in case anyone decided to pursue The following dawn something strange happened Three brothers and their families Leading members of minor clans under Jamukha caught up with them
8:08
Then more families from other clans caught up as well In the end many of Jamukha's followers chose to join Temüjin Now they weren't the greatest of families Jamukha still had the loyalty of the established leaders But Temüjin offered something that Jamukha could not The prospect of advancement At the age of 19 Temüjin had taken his first great step on the road to leadership and power The rift between Temüjin and Jamukha would grow into two decades of warfare
8:38
As each young man rose in stature as leading Mongol warriors Accrued followers and built up their bases of power They would grow from sworn brothers to the bitterest of rivals Splitting the Mongols into a vicious Civil War full of raids and killings Their rift was not just personal, but also ideological As the rightful heir to his position as Khan and coming from a noble lineage Jamukha was fighting to maintain tradition and Aristocracy
9:05
Temüjin was a radical who cared more about the quality of his followers character than their heredity His following was a motley band of mixed class and origin He had fought his way up from nothing Going from a ragged child hunting rats in the woods to a respected military leader His following lacked the legitimacy of Jamuka's noble background But it was very appealing for those who wanted to find freedom and build a better life for themselves
9:30
The fight for the future of the steppe tribes had begun Music (The Infinite Steppe) Subscribe! <3
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