Conqueror: The Complete 5-Book Collection. Conn Iggulden
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the man who saw him in the water and did not give him away. It was Sorkhansira who hid Temujin in his own ger. When the search failed, Sorkhansira gave him a liquorice-coloured mare with a white mouth, food, milk and a bow with two arrows before sending him back to his family.
Temujin’s wife Borte was stolen by the Merkit tribe rather than the Tartars as I have it. He was wounded in the attack. She was missing for some months rather than days. As a result, the paternity of the first son, Jochi, was never absolutely certain and Temujin never fully accepted the boy. In fact, it was because his second son, Chagatai, refused to accept Jochi as their father’s successor that later Genghis named his third son Ogedai as heir.
Cannibalism in the sense of eating the heart of an enemy was rare, but not unheard of amongst the tribes of Mongolia. Indeed, the best part of the marmot, the shoulder, was known as ‘human meat’. In this too, there is a link to the practices and beliefs of native American tribes.
Togrul of the Kerait was indeed promised a kingdom in northern China. Though at first he was a mentor to the young raider, he came to fear Temujin’s sudden rise to power and failed in an attempt to have him killed, breaking the cardinal rule of the tribes that a khan must be successful. Togrul was forced into banishment and killed by the Naimans, apparently before they recognised him.
To be betrayed by those he trusted seems to have ignited a spark of vengeance in Temujin, a desire for power that never left him. His childhood experiences created the man he would become, who would not bend or allow fear or weakness in any form. He cared nothing for possessions or wealth, only that his enemies fall.
The Mongolian double-curved bow is as I have described it, with a draw strength greater than the English longbow that was so successful two centuries later against armour. The key to its strength is the laminate form, with layers of boiled horn and sinew to augment the wood. The layer of horn is on the inner face, as horn resists compression. The layer of sinew is on the outer face, as it resists expansion. These layers, as thick as a finger, add power to the weapon until heaving back on it is the equivalent of lifting two men into the air by two fingers – at full gallop. The arrows are made of birch.
Archery is what won Genghis his empire – that and incredible manoeuvrability. His riders moved far faster than modern armoured columns and for long periods, could live off a mixture of blood and mare’s milk, needing no supply lines.
Each warrior would carry two bows, with thirty to sixty arrows in two quivers, a sword if they had one, a hatchet and an iron file for sharpening arrowheads – attached to the quiver. As well as weapons, they carried a horsehair lasso, a rope, an awl for punching holes in leather, needle and thread, an iron cooking pot, two leather bottles for water, ten pounds of hard milk curd, to eat half a pound a day. Each ten-man unit had a ger on a remount, so were completely self-sufficient. If they had dried mutton, they would make it edible by tenderising it under the wooden saddle for days on end. It is significant that the word in Mongolian for ‘poor’ is formed from the verb ‘to go on foot’, or ‘to walk’.
One story I did not use is that his mother Hoelun showed her boys how an arrow could be snapped, but a bundle of them resisted – the classic metaphor for group strength.
Temujin’s alliance with Togrul of the Kerait allowed him to build his followers into a successful raiding group under the protection of a powerful khan. If he had not come to see the Chin as the puppet-masters of his people for a thousand years, he may well have remained a local phenomenon. As it was, however, he had a vision of a nation. The incredible martial skills of the Mongol tribes had always been wasted against each other. From nothing, surrounded by enemies, Temujin rose to unite them all.
What came next would shake the world.
Conn Iggulden
THE CONQUEROR SERIES
LORDS OF THE BOW
CONN IGGULDEN
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
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First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2008
Copyright © Conn Iggulden 2008
Maps © John Gilkes 2008
Conn Iggulden asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Ebook Edition © September 2008 ISBN: 9780007285358
Version: 2017-09-08
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To my daughter Sophie
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