It is very difficult to assess the activities of Genghis Khan. It is difficult because any politician is compared with someone of his contemporaries or with those who acted in the same way. There is one serious problem with Genghis Khan - there is simply no one to compare him with. This man, who throughout his adult life strived to be “like Iskander” (Alexander the Great), surpassed his “ideal” in all areas.
Genghis Khan (or Temuchin, as his name sounded in his native language) had no equal as a commander. In less than 13 years of campaigns, he has amassed an empire rivaling that of Alexander. A little later, his descendants will make the territory of the Mongol Empire six times larger than that conquered by the Great Iskander. Genghis Khan did not formally suffer a single defeat. He fought the bloodiest battle in human history - the storming of Baghdad. Genghis Khan was able to defeat the Khorezm state, which was several times stronger and larger than his then Empire, with practically no losses.
These are great achievements, but they are nothing compared to what the Mongol khan achieved as a "statesman". Historians traditionally pay more attention to the military achievements of Genghis Khan, almost completely ignoring his state affairs. And they have a very reasonable argument for this: Genghis Khan never ruled the Empire himself, advisers and officials did it for him.
Actually, this was his talent as a statesman: to recruit the right people. Moreover, Genghis Khan was not very interested in the political views of future ministers and governors, the main thing is that he knows how to work. And the superbly organized network of agents did not allow officials to step aside from the policy set by the ruler. Not surprisingly, most of the civil rulers of the Genghis Khan era were anything but Mongols. Most of them were immigrants from China, however, there were Indians, Koreans, and even Arabs.
Do not think that the Mongol Empire was a totalitarian dictatorship. Oddly enough, most decisions were made collectively, sometimes even to the detriment of the military's opinion. Why are there military men, sometimes even Genghis Khan himself was repeatedly forced to cancel his decisions. Naturally, no one openly opposed him, but the khan was not a stupid person and, before serious arguments, agreed with those who offered more correct solutions than himself.
The very same system of government of the Mongol Empire resembled what was done in China, and indeed, the Mongols adopted a lot from the Chinese. It was a system of measures, writing and legislation, and much more.
But there was one thing that the Mughals did not take over. It was the centuries-old enmity between the Chinese provinces and the constant competition between them. In fact, one people, gathered together more than a thousand years ago by the first Emperor, again represented several scattered states, each with its own "cockroaches in the head." The most surprising thing was that these states did not have any special differences either in language, or in culture, or in the structure of the state.
In general, if you look from the outside, the differences were only in the colors of the flags. In fact, at the head of each of these principalities, there was one or another dynasty. Qin, Song, Liao, Ming, Da-Xia, Tu-Fang, Nanzhao are only the main players in the Chinese arena.
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But each of the rulers had children, and the children had to be arranged somewhere. Sometimes it turned out really bad. For example, there was one ruler Liao, and now there are three of them, because after the death of the old one there were three sons left. And it does not matter who is senior there and who is not. As a result, we have a small civil war. Did it end quickly? Well, the enemies who are nearby (the same Qin, for example) did not have time to gather and "grab" a piece of Liao. And a similar mess lasted in China for more than one hundred years. The same Liao and Qin had more than 10 wars with each other. Qin and Song - more than seven. Well, and so on.
And at the same time, one should not forget that from the north to China, there were constant raids by wild (according to the enlightened Chinese, of course) Mongols, Nayans, Buryats and many others. The Qin Empire had the longest border with the lands of the barbarians. It was her warriors in the 13th century that were the "shield" of the Chinese civilization. This situation, although it was burdensome for Qin, since it always had to keep an army ready and constantly build new sections of the Great Wall, but it had its advantages.
First, due to the fact that the Qin army was constantly at war with nomads, its warriors were the most experienced in all of China. Secondly, the rest of the principalities perfectly understood that without the restraining influence of Qin, they would be swept away by barbarians, therefore they recognized the Qin dynasty as "the first among equals."
But wherever there is “first” there will be competition. And Qin has always had such a competitor: the Song empire in the south. The conflict between the two empires was deeply rooted, and in the last hundred years alone, there have been three major wars between them. Moreover, Qin won in him, imposing on Song not just unfavorable, but downright mocking conditions for concluding peace.
There was an urgent need to do something, and Song decided to act outside the box. They united with the Mongols, who by that time had already conquered most of the tribes north of the Great Wall. Qin was attacked from four directions at once: three from the north were headed by Genghis Khan and his two sons, and from the south was the army of Song. The Qin Empire was conquered, and Genghis Khan went to fight in the West. This is how official history considers these events.
However, there are some very interesting circumstances and oddities here. First, neither Genghis Khan, nor his son and heir Ogedei, even touched the Song state with a finger, despite the fact that they not only conquered the rest of China, but also planned to turn it into pastures for sheep with total extermination of the population. The version that they seem to be allies is not even considered. The fact is that the Mongols' approach to foreign policy was simple: there was no such thing as an "ally" in principle. There were either conquered peoples, or those that need to be conquered. The Song Empire was the only exception.
Secondly, absolutely the entire "top management" of the Mongol Empire, who are of Chinese origin, consisted of former Qin officials. None of them, during the entire period of their reign, did not even hint that it was time, they say, for the Great Khan to go south to conquer the Song. Even hating Song with all parts of their "Qin" soul, they were afraid to offer such things to Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan's best friend and his closest adviser Eluy Chutsay, perhaps the only person whom the great khan trusted his life, also kept quiet about this.
How can you explain this behavior of the ruler of the Mongols? There are few options: either in the Song they could influence Genghis Khan and somehow blackmail him, or Genghis Khan is generally a kind of "secret weapon" of the Song Empire, perhaps he is their spy …
The option with blackmail disappears immediately. The Mongols did not like it when someone tried to intimidate them. Which is perfectly shown by the example of the hasshashuns, or assassins. When the hashshashuns spoke unflatteringly about the army of Khulaga, the grandson of Genghis Khan, saying that they were not afraid of anyone, and, if necessary, would decorate the gates of Damascus with the head of Khulaga, then literally 3-4 days later the legendary Khashshashuns, who held the entire Middle East in fear for almost three hundred years, just disappeared. Hulaga slaughtered them all, with leaders, elders, women, children. Even with rams and camels. Now they have remained only in computer games …
This is how the grandson of Genghis Khan did it, and what would he do himself? It is unlikely that the Sunians would be stupid enough to do such tricks with threats. But the version with the spy Sun is quite justified. The fact is that Genghis Khan, even before his election as the Great Khan, traveled a lot in China and visited all its provinces. The Suntsy could not but become interested in the contender for the Mongol "throne". How, then, were they able to recruit such a truly die-hard person like Temuchin?
Most likely, the Sunts were able to attract Temuchin to their side thanks to the most popular trend of that time - the secret of immortality. It may seem ridiculous, but absolutely all Chinese emperors, starting with Qin Shi Huang Ti, did not just look for this recipe, but had a whole staff of scientists dealing only with this issue. And the Song dynasty was no exception.
Already being the Great Khan and owning an empire from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea, Temuchin continued to search for the secret of immortality. It is estimated that more money was spent on this business than on all other scientific developments combined …
However, it still did not help the Song Empire. Khubilai, the great-grandson of Genghis Khan, 50 years after his legendary ancestor, completely completed the conquest of China, conquering the Song kingdom in 1280. However, it was then that the Mongols fully adopted the Chinese way of life. Khubilai was no longer a khan, but was called “in a modern way,” fashionable: the emperor of the Yuan dynasty …