Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 767 Genghis Khan, the Super Unity Man
Besides his own research, Zhu Wenkui also contacted many other people and consulted their opinions. This is because there is more than one approach to military organization in the Mediterranean world today.

Back then, Zhu Wenku even talked with Tuohuan, wanting to understand "Mongolian tactics".

For a while, Lady Jeanne had been complaining that he had been holed up in Constantinople, neither leading troops nor fighting, which was hardly befitting of a nobleman. In a fit of anger, Zhu Wenkui decided to abandon politics and take up a military career.

He hadn't systematically studied this subject before; he hadn't seriously researched military strategy and martial arts from his hometown of Ming Dynasty, nor did he understand much about combat techniques and military theory from the Mediterranean world. Being unable to answer a woman's probing questions was truly frustrating. So, he ran away from home to Guo Kang's house, insisting that the Guo family teach him some martial arts so he could use them in battle.

However, there were too many things to do at the Wu Prince's residence. Others needed to see him every day, and when he wasn't there, they searched the entire city, causing quite a stir. The whole capital knew about it. Some of the more urgent ones even chased him to the Guo family's residence and waited for him at the gate. They simply couldn't leave him alone.

Having no other choice, Zhu Wenkui decided to start with the theory and learn about "the art of defeating ten thousand men".

Guo Kang claimed he wasn't good at military affairs either, saying he couldn't teach him. So Zhu Wenku went to Tuohuan and asked him, "Now that your country has a strong and powerful army and is on such a good upward trend, are there any classic military books, collections of battle examples, or accounts of military strategists that I can read? This way, I can understand the characteristics of the military here and adapt to the various situations in the West."

Tuohuan then gave him several books: Caesar's *The Gallic Wars*, Maurice's *Strategy*, and a few popular pamphlets by biographers. He told him that reading these introductory texts would give him a general understanding of the military thinking in this region throughout history, as well as the process of change.

Zhu Wenku quickly explained that he wasn't referring to those things. He wanted to understand the Mongol strategies and tactics; why was he being given so much Roman information…

Tuohuan then said, "Isn't this Rome? If you hadn't said so, how would anyone have known you wanted information about Mongolia?"

Zhu Wenkui could only explain that the military systems of the Mediterranean world today are quite different from those of Caesar and Maurice in their time. As for now, logically speaking, the Mongol strategies should be most effective against the powers in the Western regions. He now wants to study military strategy and manage the royal army, and the goal of studying these is to prepare for battles against the Western countries. Therefore, he feels it's best to understand the most outstanding strategic and tactical ideas of the Mongols for future use.

So Tuohuan brought him books like "Li Weigong's Questions and Answers" and "Six Secret Teachings." He even asked curiously if his side didn't have such books.

Zhu Wenku felt that he might be being reassured. He confirmed that he had indeed purchased the books. But these were all Han Chinese military philosophies; they contained nothing of Mongol origin…

However, Tuohuan said that these were the most effective military texts in the hands of the Mongols. If Zhu Wenku wanted to understand the most advanced strategic thinking used by the Mongols, then these were definitely the texts to read.

He explained that among Genghis Khan's successors, the most powerful was Kublai Khan; and the core fighting force of the military system built by Kublai Khan was the imperial guard composed of Han Chinese. The backbone of the Yuan Dynasty was in the Five Guards Imperial Army Command. Whether it was conquering the north and south or protecting the capital, they all relied on these people.

Previous Khans conquered the world using the strength of the steppes, but Kublai Khan conquered the steppes using the Han army. Therefore, his approach was actually more effective. This shows that there's no need to learn the steppe people's methods; wouldn't it be better to learn from the Han people's own?

Zhu Wenkui said that he certainly knew these principles, but the problem now was that the environment was too poor and the local organizational foundation was too weak, so it was impossible to directly learn the methods of the Han people.

He gave an example, saying that in the past, storytelling had become popular. Many people would appear on the streets and alleys, telling people all sorts of stories.

It was later discovered that this was because there were too many traditional theater troupes. Not only in the vicinity of Dadu and the Greek region, but also many theater troupes from Italy followed suit and came here to perform. They believed that only by making a name for themselves in Dadu could they truly stand out and dare to declare themselves as an influential artistic creation team.

In this environment, many small theater troupes faced increasing difficulties. At this time, someone brought with them the popular Eastern storytelling culture. Influenced by this, many actors and playwrights began to transition into storytelling.

This method generally only requires one actor and doesn't demand much in terms of acting skills, props, or sets. As long as there's a suitable storytelling script—called a "huaben" in Eastern parlance—one can simply find a crowded place to perform, without worrying about theater rental fees. Some popular huaben can even be performed simultaneously in many places throughout the city without interfering with each other, supporting many storytellers.

As a result, many people have started to follow suit and treat this as a hobby or even a professional job.

Guo Kang was also very happy, and even wrote a story about a future Seres who was suddenly taken to Europe by the Heavenly Brother, and then began to educate the surrounding people, fight against the barbarians, and build a country from scratch.

However, after reading the storybook, Li Xuanying said it wasn't very good. This is because the popular storytelling content these days is historical narrative. Compared to historical records, the various fictional elements in historical stories are bound to be much more exaggerated. But a good historical storybook still can't be too far-fetched. At the very least, it has to be something the audience can understand.

In Guo Kang's story, to save time and get straight to the point, the protagonist immediately adopts Seris's system and begins building an official system. This system is too advanced for the Central Plains; even the present-day Purple Horde, after the struggles of so many heroes at its founding and the efforts of several generations of Romans, has struggled to achieve it.

Such exaggeration isn't necessarily bad, but viewers will naturally judge the effectiveness of the protagonist's work in such stories. The best scenario would be that the reforms are less effective than those of the current Purple Horde.

Because if the protagonist is too strong, the audience will find it unrealistic; if they are too weak, the audience will feel that the protagonist is too incompetent. In short, it is important to strike a balance.

Relatively speaking, being slightly weaker yet stronger is more appropriate than being slightly stronger. This way, it vividly portrays the image of the "capable protagonist" and also satisfies the audience's ego, making them feel, "We are still the better ones now." In short, writing it like that is definitely not acceptable.

Even novels can't depict things this way, so the father and son's management naturally couldn't be so perfect. Otherwise, his father would have started using the complete Ming system when he settled in Lorraine, instead of waiting until now to hesitate. He was content as long as things were better than they were in Europe, so he didn't forcefully adopt the Ming Dynasty's system. In his view, the "simplified" Mongol system was already enough for Europeans to learn from for a long time.

Especially in the military sphere. Genghis Khan and his successors, relying on the limited resources and population of the steppes, almost conquered the entire known world. Even if their combat strength wasn't at its peak, their adaptability was astonishing—and they seemed particularly adept at bullying Europeans. Even the various tribes of the Golden Horde, which later deteriorated to such an extent, could still pose a threat.

And this is precisely what Wu Fan needs to study most in his current state. Therefore, he wants to see how the Mongol military group of that time considered strategy and tactics, and how they planned their wars. It is very likely that this is what the overly "civilized" Wu Prince's team lacks in this wild continent.

If these points can be explained clearly, we'll likely understand how the Mongols fought their way from the grasslands north of Seres all the way here. Understanding things from their perspective would also be very beneficial.

However, Tuohuan bluntly stated that the Mongols were able to conquer the world because they learned local military strategies and tactics wherever they went. In reality, they basically only had some basic hunting skills and organizational instincts, and didn't have anything as sophisticated as "theory."

Whether it's the Central Plains, Persia, or Rome, everyone's military theories are more systematic and comprehensive than these. Therefore, even the Mongols themselves had to learn from them, which naturally led to their better adaptability. As for understanding the unique characteristics of the Mongols, there's probably not much to learn.

Moreover, Toghon also said, "Learning from my ancestors is not as good as learning from yours." In recent years, the Purple Horde Khanate has been learning about various Ming Dynasty battles through channels from the Javanese Yuan and Timur.

Zhu Wenku felt somewhat surprised, but Tuohuan also gave him an example—for instance, these days, many people regard Genghis Khan as a powerful demon king. But what enabled him to rise to power was not his military ability, but his skill in bringing more people to his side.

In terms of actual warfare, even within the various tribes of the grasslands, he was no match for Jamukha or Sangkun. His decisive battles relied more on the efforts of his generals than on any new tactics he developed. Instead, his main innovations lay in troop training and organization.

However, these organizations are still too primitive and backward compared to those in Han China. Although the Mediterranean world is currently quite chaotic, its natural conditions are so good that it doesn't really need this low-end version; it would be better to directly learn from the Central Plains.

Zhu Wenkui was very curious, so he continued to ask, "What is the most worthy thing to learn from Genghis Khan?" Tuohuan thought for a while and told him, "It is benevolence and righteousness."

This result almost made Zhu Wenkui lose his composure, but Tuohuan gave him a serious explanation.

He said that when Genghis Khan was defeated by Jamukha, he was in dire straits. But when people came to seek refuge with him, he still did his best to take care of them.

There was a tribe called the Zhaolie tribe, which was oppressed by Jamukha's Taichiwu tribe. They fled to him for refuge. Genghis Khan, seeing their poverty, deliberately drove the prey towards the Zhaolie tribe during a hunt. Later, when the Zhaolie tribe faced disaster, Genghis Khan offered to "clothe them in his own clothes, ride them on his own horses," sharing his tribe's provisions and even lending them his iron pots. The Zhaolie tribe was deeply grateful and vowed to help him defeat the Taichiwu tribe in return.

However, Jamukha's power was too great, and the tribal chiefs quickly changed their minds and defected back to the Taichud tribe. Genghis Khan, however, continued to treat his people kindly and did not hold a grudge. Later, those chiefs clashed with the Taichud and were killed, while those who had pledged allegiance to Genghis Khan survived. Therefore, the various vassal tribes praised Genghis Khan as a benevolent and magnanimous ruler, and many switched their allegiance to him. In this way, he united more people and ultimately defeated Jamukha.

As for brutality, compared to the Mongols and Central Asians of that time, he really couldn't be considered brutal.

To put it bluntly, often people aren't concerned with how cruel the ruler is, but rather with whom he is cruel. If someone like Genghis Khan could distribute iron pots domestically and lead his people in plundering foreign lands, then for most herders, it would actually be a good thing.

As for what the people who suffered the massacre thought... if killing outsiders could bring a better life to their own people, then everyone would definitely be eager to do it. And if someone could use this method to unite more people and make their own forces stronger, then everyone would naturally follow them.

Ultimately, only those who can win and survive are qualified to discuss moral issues. The Han Chinese are known for their strong fighting capabilities and never fear being killed with a single punch, thus they always pursue such "high-level" concepts. However, on the grasslands, these are issues that every tribe must seriously consider; they have no time to concern themselves with such trivial matters.

Furthermore, even assuming otherwise, massacres and the annihilation of entire cities and countries are so common these days that people have become desensitized. Even if he doesn't do it, the warlords of Central and West Asia will do it every day. It's hard to say how immoral the locals perceive a massacre to be…

Zhu Wenku felt something was off, so he went to ask Guo Kang, who agreed with Tuo Huan's point of view. He told Zhu Wenku that the Liu family's specialty was recruiting people, and that statement was accurate.

In a serious discussion, the ability to rally people is actually rarer than the ability to fight. Genghis Khan himself was an exceptionally "unifying person"—he even managed to unite his father's killers, the Tatars, and then force them into the "Mongol" identity he created. That's quite a feat...

Of course, if you find it awkward to emulate him, you can learn from Emperor Gaozu of Han. He was also known as a "generous and virtuous elder," adept at winning over and uniting various forces, ultimately defeating opponents more capable than himself. Both of them had a profound impact: one created the identity of "Han," and the other created the identity of "Mongol." This demonstrates the immense achievements a true statesman, skilled at uniting people, can accomplish.

However, the prerequisite for others to be willing to be united is that they are genuinely considered one of their own and that the unity can bring tangible benefits. But this is actually not easy to achieve. Genghis Khan's descendants gradually began to disregard the "Mongols" they themselves had created, and even put more pressure on them simply because they were their own people.

As a result, it wasn't long before many Mongols stopped identifying as "Mongols" and were no longer willing to serve the Mongol Khans simply because they were nominally of the same ethnicity. When the Red Turban Rebellion broke out, some Mongols responded; and Zhu Yuanzhang was also able to recruit Mongols to join his ranks shortly after he rose to power.

By the time of the Northern Expedition, thirty-six out of forty Mongol households had surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang, far more than those under Emperor Shun of Yuan. In just a few decades, the dominant ethnic group of the former "Mongols" had become the people of the Ming Dynasty. This contrast clearly teaches later generations many lessons.

(End of this chapter)