Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols (2025) s01e04 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: The mighty
Chinggis Khan
has risen to become
the undisputed leader
of the Mongols.
Uniting the once divided
people under his command.
DR MAY: Chinggis Khan did
something no one else
had done before.
Taken the Mongols farther than
they've ever been before.
This was a whole
new world for them.
NARRATOR: Having reshaped
society and quelled
all internal opposition,
his ambitions have shifted
beyond Mongolia's lands.
Chinggis Khan conquered
his enemies, the Tanguts,
who now swear loyalty
to the Mongols.
His armies in the East have
killed the emperor of the Jin
and continue to
ravage their lands.
DR MAY: You get the sense
of overwhelming dread about
the Mongol invasion.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan
is now in his fifties.
And has been in command of the
Mongolian people for ten years
and now his gaze turns west.
His forces will travel
further than ever before
where a new wave
of destruction
awaits his enemies.
PROF SNEATH: 1216
Chinggis Khan controls
the whole of the
eastern steppe.
He's also master in effect
of a lot of northern China
and he's expanding eastward.
NARRATOR: The Jin in the east
and the Tanguts to the south
have felt the awesome power
of the Mongolian army
but to the west lies a
new potential threat,
a great Empire that could
challenge the might
of Chinggis Khan.
DR FAVEREAU: There is a big
power just on the west
that is called the
Qara Khitai Empire.
Qara Khitai is the big
central Asian Empire
that is just next to
the new Mongol Empire.
This is really a core area.
Mainly on trade connection
which is super important
for Chinggis Khan.
JOHN: The Qara Khitai were the
people who were kicked out
by the Jin over
in the Far East.
They migrated on masse and
had fled one of the princes
who'd been defeated by
Genghis and he'd taken over
and was therefore a threat.
DR FAVEREAU: The Qara Khitai,
led by one of Genghis Khan's
worst enemies.
They are not going to trade
peacefully with the Mongols.
Genghis Khan starts
putting some pressure
on the Qara Khitai Empire.
PROF SNEATH: He sends one
of his ace generals, Jebe.
He begins to take over
and occupy regions
from the Qara Khitan
Dynastic rule.
DR FAVEREAU: This
conquest is very fast.
When the Mongols arrived
many people opened doors
and said ok we are happy
to make a deal with you
as long as you let us
practice our religion, Islam.
The Mongols thought that
religious agreements
they can practice their
religion as long as
they support Mongol power.
It's implemented first
time in Qara Khitai land,
then it will be implemented
everywhere in the Empire
by the Mongols and it's
gonna work very well.
PROF SNEATH: Now Chinggis
Khan's prime left tenant
is basically ensconced in
the Qara Khitan capitol.
DR FAVEREAU: So this whole
part of central Asia entered
the Mongol Empire,
absorbed by the Mongols.
And the Mongols gain access
to this trade network.
JOHN: It was an essential
part in his progress.
PROF SNEATH: As part
of that expansion,
Chinggis Khan's Empire is
bumping into another rival
Empire emerging
from the west.
DR MAY: The Khwarazmian
Empire, the largest Islamic
Empire of the early
13th century.
PROF SNEATH: Mohammed,
the king of Khwarazmian,
had expanded successfully
over much of the Middle East.
A lot of Persian areas
were now tributary to him.
Emerging from Khwarazmian way
out west to the Caspian Sea
and we're still in the
process of growing,
Mohammed the second had
been really successful.
DR MAY: He's done
some great conquests.
He's extended the Khwarazmian
Empire to its greatest extent.
DR DASHDONDOG: Khwarazmian
was the richest Empire
of their time.
Rich in the wealth, rich in
people, rich in culture.
PROF SNEATH: In many ways
there were a lot of
similarities actually
between the Mongol conquest
and those of the
Khwarazmian Shah.
Khwarazmian also controlled
a lot of urban
and agricultural areas so
they had more by the way
of infantry and other
sedentary forces.
Both of them drew upon steppe
land subjects to form
the basis of their
cavalry units.
Expanding across the
territories and gaining
this submission from
various cities and regions.
Most local rulers would often
be left in place provided
they swore fealty
to the new ruler,
in this case the
Khwarazmian Shah.
They were trying to mop up
territory and gain wealth
and power from the regions
they controlled just
as Chinggis was.
Chinggis Khan's Empire
expanding to the west
and the Khwarazmian Empire
expanding to the east.
DR MAY: Sultan Mohammed
Khwarazmian Shah,
the ruler of the
Khwarazmian Empire,
he was dealing with
nomadic raiders
and stumbled across the
track of the Mongols,
Mohammed is able to
catch up with them.
He encounters Jochi.
Jochi does not want to fight
the Khwarazmian Empire.
He tells Mohammed, we're
going back to Mongolia.
Mohammed says, you're
invaders, I am powerful,
I am the second
Alexander the great
and they fight the Mongols,
even though Jochi's
armies are outnumbered,
they fight the Khwarazmian
to a standstill.
The battle ends at nightfall.
They're out on the open
steppe, it gets dark fast.
Under the cover of night,
the Mongols who never wanted
the fight, they leave, but
the battle the previous day
shook Mohammed to his core;
he'd never fought
an army like this.
So he knows the
Mongols are dangerous,
Mohamed Khwarazmian Shah,
feeling quite confident
in his power and he sends a
caravan to the Jin Empire
to gather intelligence.
And this caravan meets Chinggis
Khan and they see the siege
of Zhongdu, they see what's
happening in the Jin Empire
and they come back and
they tell Mohammed,
who views himself as the
second Alexander the Great,
it looks like there
is a new power.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis Khan
seems to have been very
prepared to coexist with
the Khwarazmian Empire.
He's occupied by the Jin.
He seems to have wanted to
initiate trading relations
with the Khwarazmian Empire.
JOHN: In which Chinggis was
interested because he liked
the idea of trade routes
which would bring him wealth
which would be useful for
preserving the loyalty
of his generals
and his allies.
PROF SNEATH: His first
advances were diplomatic;
he offers to look upon
the Shah in a kindly way
as if he were a son and so
on, so it was a little bit
patronizing but sort of
nevertheless friendly
so it's to try and
establish good relations
with his western
neighbor.
DR DASHDONDOG: Sending
three times his ambassadors
to negotiate with the
Khwarazmian Shah
about what to trade
and how to cooperate.
And a big caravan of goods
were sent to Khwarazmian.
JOHN: He sent a trade mission.
He would have regarded
them as envoys;
the idea was that a trade
mission would establish
trade links with the
Khwarazmian Empire
and everyone would benefit.
DR MAY: The caravan that
Chinggis Khan sends
to central Asia to the
Khwarazmian Empire
consists of approximately
100 merchants
and 400 camels each camel
can carry about 400 pounds
of goods so this includes
silk, and spices, furs,
and allegedly there is a
gold nugget the size
of a camel's neck. And if
you're familiar with
the size of a camel that's
a really big nugget.
JOHN: This mission was seen
by the local governor
in the town called
Otrar which exists.
DR MAY: And the Governor there
decides that these merchants
are probably spies.
PROF SNEATH: It's true
to say that the Mongols
had a reputation for
using merchants as spies
and gathered
intelligence that way.
DR DASHDONDOG: The
governor of Otrar City
took all these goods and
killed all the merchants.
DR MAY: Basically they robbed
the caravan by killing everyone.
The governor there probably got
permission from Sultan Mohammed.
JOHN: Chinggis acknowledged
if you want your own envoy
to be protected you better
protect the envoys
that come to you as well.
So it was a sort of diplomatic
no-no to kill an envoy.
DR MAY: However there
was a camel tender.
He survived the massacre.
He escapes.
He goes back to the Mongols
and he informs them
of what happened.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis
sends some more envoys
to try to establish
what's gone wrong.
DR DASHDONDOG: Chinggis Khan
asks Khwarazmian Shah
to send him the Governor of
Otrar who killed his traders.
Of course, they reject it.
DR MAY: Mohammed burns
the beards of the guards
and then kills the envoy.
JOHN: As a result, drove
Chinggis into a fit of rage,
such as nobody had
ever seen before.
PROF SNEATH: This fall for
Chinggis Khan, is undoubtedly
a declaration of war?
To him it's now unmistakable
that the Khwarazmian's,
are bent on military
conflict.
DR MAY: Sultan Mohammed
believes he's the most
powerful ruler, but he's not as
powerful as he thinks he is.
PROF SNEATH: Not surprisingly,
Chinggis feels
very much up to
the challenge.
He's never been
faced down before.
He decided that he was
unable to live alongside
such an aggressive power
as the Khwarazmians.
JOHN: He headed west
instead of finishing
the campaign against Jin.
PROF SNEATH: And he summons
his armies to prepare for
a major new campaign into the
Empire of the Khwarazmians.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan,
enraged by the Khwarazmian
Shah's rejection of
diplomacy and the slaughter
of his envoys,
gathers his armies,
they will enter the biggest
war the Mongolian Empire
has ever faced.
DR MAY: The Mongols then
start attacking various parts
of the Khwarazmian Empire.
DR DASHDONDOG: It became the
start of the Mongol war,
which was directed
towards the Middle East.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis
Khan's Invasion of
the Khwarazmian Empire was an
enormous military campaign.
Quite how big his forces were
isn't really well established
down from 70,000 way
up to maybe 200,000
but whatever the size
of the invasion force,
it's pretty certain that
the most reliable troops
would have been his step
cavalry that had taken
the Mongols to victory so
many times before, augmented
and supported by other kinds
of specialist troops.
They've got siege
engineers and so on,
some of them drawn from the
areas of what is now northern
China and Manchuria, as well
as other kinds of specialist
troops, which they bring in for
this big new western expansion.
Chinggis Khan makes his sons
key military commanders there.
He also relies upon one
of his ace generals, Jebe.
NARRATOR: Anticipating
the tough war ahead.
Chinggis Khan calls upon
his subjects, the Tanguts,
for assistance.
DR MAY: One of the
generals says, well,
if you don't have
enough troops, perhaps
you shouldn't be the Khan.
PROF SNEATH: It was certainly
considered to be an insult.
BULAG: Chinggis Khan was
very angry, of course,
by saying that I have a
more important thing to do,
but I'll come back to you
after I finish my business.
NARRATOR: The Tanguts
refuse to assist.
Then Chinggis Khan continues
leading his armies toward
the Khwarazmian Empire.
Readying their first assault
on the city of Otrar,
where his envoy
was massacred.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis himself
marches through along
the main trade routes
where armies
might be expected
to appear.
DR DASHDONDOG: Chinggis Khan's
army was very well prepared.
It was not difficult to
have long distance travel
because they used to have
this at their own homeland,
usually Mongols, they do start
their raids in the Autumn.
If you start from Autumn,
you have to pass
also through the winter.
But winter was not the
obstacle for the Mongols,
because we have in Mongolia
a really harsh winters.
So everybody is
ready for this,
and we are well
equipped for this.
PROF SNEATH: Livestock was in
many ways a key ingredient
in the success of
Mongol steppe armies
because it enabled mobility.
Camels were certainly used
crossing the deserty regions.
They could carry heavy burdens
where they're particularly
valuable for that.
But the mainstay of the
Mongol fighting force was,
of course, horses.
JOHN: As long as
there's grass there,
you have fuel for the
horses, cattle and sheep
as well, you have food. And
that's the crucial element.
PROF SNEATH: Typically, any
Mongol force would bring
a lot of spare horses,
remounts, as they were called.
So a single Mongol Trooper
would often have a string
of four, five or perhaps
six remount horses,
so that when one steed
tired, they could swap out
and ride another one, which
meant that you could cover
much greater distances.
DR DASHDONDOG: They waited
until the horses gained weight
to be ready for crossing.
They endured all this, mainly
due to Mongols survival
skills and Mongol horses'
survival skill.
NARRATOR: Having strategically
prepared for their invasion,
the Mongol forces descend
upon their first target.
DR MAY: The Mongols
come to Otrar.
JOHN: The city where
the governor ordered
the death of the traders.
DR MAY: And the governor
tries hard to survive.
The garrison they're
trying to escape,
and the Mongols realize it's
a lot easier to kill people
when they're running away, so
they wipe out that garrison.
The Governor was greedy.
His avarice led him to
massacre the caravan
and steal everything.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan has
shown the city of Otrar
no mercy.
He now targets the heart
of the Khwarazmian Empire.
He splits his army into
different battalions, leading
his own troops through the
treacherous Kyzylkum desert.
If he succeeds in this
dangerous journey,
his forces will be able to
strike directly at the heart
of the Khwarazmian Empire.
Chinggis Khan's forces
have advanced deep
into hostile lands.
They now prepare to strike
one of the Khwarazmian's
most prized cities.
DR MAY: Genghis Khan
turns up at Bukhara,
300 miles behind enemy lines.
PROF SNEATH: It was
wondrous urban center,
famed for its architecture,
its mosques,
beautiful buildings and so on,
and it was very well defended.
DR MAY: This is where
Mohammed has stored
the treasure from
the caravan,
and again, Chinggis Khan is
demanding the treasure.
NARRATOR: The Mongols
encircled Bukhara,
relentlessly battering the
city with their powerful
catapults for 12 long days.
JOHN: It was quite a siege.
The siege goes on
for a while.
It was eventually
successful.
DR MAY: And then we have the
great scene where Chinggis Khan
enters the Great
Mosque of Bukhara.
PROF SNEATH: And he's
supposed to have given
a sermon from the pulpit.
He said, the reason
that you are suffering,
the reason that I have
been sent is because
God has sent me as a
punishment upon you.
JOHN: This was picked up
by the Muslim historians
and repeated as a truth.
PROF SNEATH: So this gives
you a sense of the way
in which the Mongol Empire
tries to make Mongol victory
a kind of manifest destiny,
historical inevitability
willed by God or Heaven.
And the best way when
you're faced with that kind
of inevitability, is
simply to surrender.
NARRATOR: The people of
Bukhara finally surrender,
but not soon enough
to save themselves.
The Mongolians slaughter
30,000 people
and burn the city's
buildings to the ground.
Those who are not killed
become fodder
for the next battles.
JOHN: Great cities like Bukhara
and Otrar taken one by one.
DR MAY: The Khwarazmian Empire
sends 50 war elephants,
the Mongols have never
met war elephants before.
Now, elephants tend
to frighten horses
because they're loud,
they're scary,
but the Mongols have a pretty
good record fighting elephants
because it turns out
elephants don't like
being shot by arrows either.
Some of the elephants, they
killed, some of the elephants,
they let them go.
PROF SNEATH: The Khwarazmians
find it difficult to note
the best way to defend against
these simultaneous strikes
from different directions
by Mongol forces.
The information that the
Khwarazmian Shah is getting
is very confused.
They don't have a single
location where they can
be sure to find the
main Mongol force.
NARRATOR: Word of the Mongols
brutality spreads fear across
the Khwarazmian Empire, city
after city fall in fierce
campaigns led by Chinggis
Khan and his sons.
JOHN: Chinggis devised a new
and rather dramatic way
of taking the Empire.
PROF SNEATH: In general, if
the Mongols besieged your city
and you surrendered straight
away, the terms of surrender
weren't too bad.
JOHN: Siege warfare is
extremely expensive.
Each was an operation,
and it's far simpler,
if you can persuade a city
to surrender in advance.
PROF SNEATH: Very often,
the local rulers
would be left in place.
A Mongol Garrison
might be placed there
to keep an eye on it.
This might include extracting
artisans and crafts people
and so on, to be relocated
somewhere useful
to the Mongol conquerors.
But in general, early
surrender meant relatively
good accommodation with
the new conquerors.
However, if the siege
lasted, and particularly
if they stretched out
and were stubborn,
and the Mongol forces
began to suffer losses
from disease or attrition
or something then
the terms shortened to
something really brutal.
There were very often
massacres as a result.
JOHN: So the purpose,
for instance,
of destroying Samarkand was
not so much to destroy it,
but to convince next cities
down the line to surrender
in advance, having been told
that this would be their fate
if they didn't.
And this happens extremely
quickly, as you can imagine.
It would take a matter of
minutes for one Mongol
soldier to slit the throat
of, say, 10 people.
You can deal with 10s of
1000s of people in a morning.
And it destroyed the heart
of Khwarazmian Empire,
from then onwards.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis Khan
has this very well entrenched
reputation as a
brutal conqueror.
But the reality is that if
you compare his conquests
to others, the
scale is enormous.
The scope for massacre and
bloodshed, just simply,
is larger.
Other famous conquerors
in history like Alexander
the Great, they were
also very brutal.
It was a standard feature
of pre-modern Empires
included massacres.
The civilian population were
frequently killed in large
numbers as a result of
these huge conquests.
So, these were brutal times,
and Chinggis Khan being
the most powerful, the
most successful conqueror,
in a way that brutality
was amplified.
BULAG: There is a term
in Chinese culture
Jing guan, big spectacle
in translation,
which means that the
enemies who were killed,
their skulls would be
collected by the victors,
and they were piled into
mountains to showcase
your own achievement.
But your victory over the
enemies, at same time,
you try to frighten
the enemies,
they would need to
establish aura.
Try to awe and shock the enemies
so that you do not resist.
This kind of practice was
never denounced as some kind
of symbolism of brutality
in East Asia.
This is a standard practice.
DR DASHDONDOG: Of course,
every invasion in conquest,
it has lots of casualties,
lots of death,
lots of cruelty, that's obvious.
So if you look at
European history as well,
so many slaughtering as well.
BULAG: Mongols didn't
write their history.
Mongols' history was written
by the losers, by the victims.
Therefore, they will,
of course, naturally,
sort of characterize Mongol,
as you know, as brutal.
The Mongols were brutal,
just like anybody else.
NARRATOR: The stories of the
Mongol's terrifying massacres
spread across the land.
The Khwarazmian realize
they are powerless against
the invading force.
DR MAY: Muhammad, he's seeing
his Empire fall apart.
He had fought for this.
He had plotted to get
this from Kara Khitai
for most of his early reign,
and then it's gone.
The Mongols have taken
it in less than a year.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan's
armies have weakened
the Khwarazmian Shah.
Can his Empire withstand
the force of the Mongolian
onslaught.
JOHN: The Khwarazmian
are overrun.
The cities are taken.
The Emperor chased away.
PROF SNEATH: He's stripped
of all his power,
living from pillar to
post, and he's fled.
DR MAY: And then Chinggis
Khan sends a task force
led by his commander,
Subudai and Jebe.
Jebe and Subudai chase
Mohammed all over Iran.
PROF SNEATH: It makes
sense for Chinggis Khan
to make sure he is dead.
After all, he is
the rival ruler,
and he doesn't want
him rallying support.
DR MAY: Muhammad has to flee
with some of his troops
on an island in
the Caspian Sea.
JOHN: In complete
poverty and surrender.
DR MAY: Muhammad went from
being one of the most powerful
people on the planet
to basically a beggar.
PROF SNEATH: Jebe and
Subudai are way out west,
and they have at least
one division each.
NARRATOR: Jebe and
Subudai eventually find
the Khwarazmian Shah
hiding place,
but he has already
met a grim fate,
succumbing to the
ravages of dysentery.
PROF SNEATH: He is
eventually chased to death.
NARRATOR: Meanwhile,
the remaining forces
of Khwarazmian Empire
rally under the leadership
of the Shah's son.
Their resistance
is short lived.
DR MAY: Mohamed Khwarazmshah's
son Jalal Al-Din has put up
an effective resistance
in Afghanistan.
JOHN: Which is where
Chinggis pursues him.
DR MAY: Eventually, Chinggis
Khan will chase him down
to the Indus River.
Jalal All-Din will
flee into India.
The Mongols will send a
pursuit force after him,
but eventually give up.
JOHN: Chinggis withdrew
from Afghanistan,
which was as far
west as he ever got.
He still had unfinished
business in the Far East,
Jin still remained
to be taken.
DR MAY: At one point,
Chinggis Khan thinks,
let's invade India, and
then we'll cross Tibet
and then invade the Jin
Empire from that direction.
But they encounter
rhinoceros,
it's mentioned the
sources as a unicorn.
His advisor says
this is an ill omen.
We shouldn't do this.
And eventually return
back to Mongolia.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan
returns east to fight
his old enemy, the Jin.
Although he has
left their lands,
he dispatches troops to
eliminate the last pockets
of the Khwarazmian resistance.
It will take the Mongols
two more years to finally
wipe out one of the largest
Empires known to mankind.
PROF SNEATH: The Mongols
are the supreme force
in the region.
They've defeated the
other conquest dynasty.
They've got supreme access
to the trade along
the old Silk Road.
DR FAVEREAU: Silk Road is the
trade network in Central Asia.
This trade network connected
what is Mongolia today,
northern China, southern China
to Central Asia, to Iran,
up to Anatolia, up to Europe.
It included Russia.
It included Siberia, their
connection with Western Europe,
their connection with
1000 Asian powers also,
but it's bigger
than the Mongols.
All this allowed a
traveler, a trader,
to cross almost all of Eurasia
safely and make good business.
And at the time
of the Mongols,
there were so many
communities exchanged.
DR DASHDONDOG: Tributes
were based on specifics
of the locations Mongols
learned what to gain
from where Russia were just
good suppliers of the fur
Middle Eastern countries,
they had spice,
Chinese, they had grain.
DR FAVEREAU: It was really
key for Chinggis Khan
and his successors. They
need to attract traders,
and it's not so easy
to do that,
because you cannot force
traders from another part
of the world to come
and deal with you.
You have to make them
understand that good business
can be done.
So you have to convince them.
You have to make
yourself known.
They want people to
believe in the system.
So what they create
is a very small tax,
up to 4% of what you've
sold as a trader.
4 percent is really nothing.
You don't necessarily
pay with coins.
People can actually pay in
what they produce the best.
So you can pay in silk,
or you can pay in foods,
spices, animals.
This system functions
very well.
Actually, it pushed
them to produce more.
Imagine at the scale of the
whole system, then at the end,
it's a lot of money
that circulates
through this Silk Road.
DR DASHDONDOG: At the first
stage of the conquest,
there were military overseers
who were in charge
of collecting taxes, and it
was done just to reinforce
the military army needs.
And then there was
transformation
of the military overseers
into civil ones.
When they became
civil overseers,
they starting to take
yearly basic taxes
from the local people.
And it wouldn't be just
only for military needs,
it would be needed also
for the Khan's court.
DR FAVEREAU: The Mongols
were really keen to produce
a lot of written agreements
and a lot of documents
that could also
protect the traders.
So, the vision we have of an
Empire built upon violence
is just a very tiny
part of the picture.
NARRATOR: The Mongols have
annihilated the Khwarazmians
but their lands are so vast,
Chinggis Khan does not fully
integrate their
territory into his own.
DR MAY: He does not
try to occupy
all the Khwarazmian Empire.
Basically. He makes
the Amu Darya River
his border and pulls
most of his troops back.
PROF SNEATH: So having
returned from his successful
campaign in the Middle East,
the Khwarazmian
Empire is rolled up.
Now he's defeated
his main rival,
Chinggis Khan returns to
his Mongolian Heartlands.
The Secret History suggests
that Chinggis, around
this time, begins to decide
on who will be his successor.
DR MAY: At this time, Chinggis
Khan, he's in his 60s.
PROF SNEATH: This is
the central question
for any dynasty.
So this is a really big deal
as to who might succeed
to the throne.
Some divisions seem
to be emerging
between Chinggis
Khan's four sons.
Jochi seems to have
been a bit headstrong.
He doesn't seem to rendezvous
with other commanders
very readily.
Chagadai is supposed to
be also rather difficult.
The Secret historian writes
up Chagadai as being not easy
to get on with, and we get an
account in The Secret History
of a vicious dispute
over succession breaking
out between Jochi and Chagadai,
where Chagadai accuses Jochi
of being illegitimate.
JOHN: The sons in the rivalry
called him a Merkit Bastard,
and this was an insult
that he couldn't tolerate.
PROF SNEATH: These kinds
of family disputes begin
to emerge at this time,
particularly over seniorities,
these important markers of
one's status are also grounds
for disputes, which
increasingly emerge alongside
the victories of
the Mongol Empire.
JOHN: Jochi was off on
a mission to the tribes
of the North in Russia.
He was either dispatched
or went off his own accord.
When he mysteriously died.
No further details available.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan
appoints his middle son
Ögedei as his heir.
Ögedei is even handed
and well liked.
DR FAVEREAU: You want
someone who is peaceful.
You want someone who
would put people together.
Ögedei fits the picture.
At that point, Chinggis Khan
decided that Ögedei
would be his successor.
NARRATOR: Chinggis Khan
now turns his attention
to the Tangut rulers
who have betrayed him.
PROF SNEATH: Chinggis Khan
decides to settle old scores
with the Xi Xia,
the Tangut rulers,
who didn't support him when
he needed additional troops
for his invasion
of Khwarazmian.
JOHN: He had thought in his
first invasion he had left
a nice, obedient vassal.
Turned out that he
was not so obedient,
because when he asked for
troops from Xi Xia
the invasion westwards.
The Xi Xia Emperor
refused to give them,
so he had to be punished, and
then the rest of North China
had to be taken from Jin.
That had to be established.
DR MAY: The Tangut make
an alliance with the Jin,
and now they're
fighting the Mongols.
Meanwhile, Chinggis Khan has
received word about this.
Chinggis Khan loses his
patience and invades.
And this is a campaign
of destruction.
PROF SNEATH: He
mobilizes his army.
He marches into Xi Xia and
seizures their capital city.
The extent to which Chinggis
Khan himself would be engaged
in any combat, I think,
is almost minimal.
He's the prime Commander.
You wouldn't risk him by
putting him too close
to any of the front lines.
DR MAY: He has his
top general, Subudai,
just eradicating
fortresses as they go.
Now, remember when he
conquered them in 1209,
Chinggis Khan did
not occupy Xi Xia.
He says, you guys
are loyal to me.
You can rule yourselves.
We're good.
But now he's destroying
fortifications
wherever he finds
and eventually they're
reducing their cities
one by one, if the Tangut are
foolish enough to send out
an army against them,
it gets destroyed.
The Mongols are quite good.
They have siege trains with
equipment being carried
by camels that they
can rapidly assemble
and put against any city.
They've refined
their techniques.
They have a core of engineers
able to build roads,
make bridges across rivers.
The Tangut are not safe.
NARRATOR: It is 1227, and war
rages on against the Tangut.
Chinggis Khan is now 65 and
despite his advancing age,
he still accompanies
his forces on campaign.
JOHN: He was heading south.
He had reached a part of
what is now Xi Xia in China,
inner Mongolian, near
down the Xi River.
DR MAY: Chingis Khan is
hunting wild donkeys,
and some of them come
out of the brush.
He gets flung from his horse,
and this probably has done
some internal injuries to him.
He gets sick.
JOHN: There was
typhus in the area,
and it's probable
that he caught typhus.
PROF SNEATH: His health
condition deteriorates
over some time. Could
have been weeks,
could have been months, but
he still gives commands.
As his health is worsening,
he decrees that his illness
and possible death should
remain completely secret
until the campaign is won.
They don't want the enemy to
know that the commander
in chief is dying.
DR FAVEREAU: This is
such a key moment,
we could imagine that this is
also the end of the Empire
he has built.
PROF SNEATH: So the whole
affair is shrouded in secrecy
until the campaign against
the Tangut Xi Xia rulers
is complete, but he
never recovers.
NARRATOR: In August 1227,
Chinggis Khan dies.
PROF SNEATH: A rather symbolic
end for such a conqueror
that he dies whilst
conquering.
JOHN: The whole episode is,
I think, largely poetic.
BULAG: He endured all
kinds of hardship.
He survived and he managed
to unite the Mongols
he was fighting
all of his life.
He defeated his
rivals or enemies,
and eventually he emerged
as a great leader.
For someone of that age to
survive and live that long
was actually a miracle.
DR MAY: As people began to
reflect on the enormity
of what Chinggis Khan
had completed.
His afterlife took
on new meaning
in the traditional belief
system of the Mongols.
There is no transcendental
afterlife.
The afterlife is pretty
much like the mundane.
If you are just an
ordinary Shepherd.
You're gonna be an ordinary
shepherd for all eternity.
If you are a Khan in the spirit
world, you'll also be Kahn.
But then you have someone
like Chinggis Khan,
who's done something no
one else had done before.
So he became a God, and in many
ways, his words became sacred.
Now, of course, at this time,
the Mongols did not have
a ruler and a compass to
measure the extent
of their Empire on a map to
say, wow, Chinggis Khan
just conquered more territory
than anybody else.
They just knew it was a lot.
They've taken the Mongols
farther than they've ever
been before they
entered new lands.
This was a whole
new world for them.
They just knew that he had
done something unbelievable,
unlike anyone else. So
his spiritual power
was greater than anything else
that they had ever experienced.
Any other Khan in the steppe,
dwarfed by Chinggis Khan.
BULAG: I mean he is somebody
who I admire, not just admire,
but I guess worship.
Mongolians celebrate Chinggis
Khan for giving customs.
He give law to us.
He gave custom to us.
He gave language to us.
DR MAY: The world irrevocably
changed with his actions.
It could not go back to the way
it was before Chinggis Khan.
NARRATOR: The war against
the Tangut continues.
With their visionary
leader gone,
the Mongol armies face
their greatest test yet.
Will their Empire fall,
or can it survive the
death of Chinggis Khan.