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Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

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Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#21

Post by dragonelite »

fire_lake wrote: post #6
bee_rider wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK, WW1 sounds like a pretty bad time. Fighting the modern US would be also be some sort of bizarre existential dread, knowing that every move you make is probably tracked and you have a decent chance of being killed with absolutely no warning.

Most likely way to die or become an amputee in modern war is being hit by artillery out of nowhere. There’s no glory in that so recruiters don’t talk about it much.

If one thing the Russo-Ukrainian war footage has though me is that scouting drones plus artillery has given both sides big impact sniper rifles.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#22

Post by KineticLensman »

thriftwy wrote: post #18
hinkley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People putting poop or muck on musket balls to cause sepsis.

I wonder what's the payout for individual soldier to do this to have somebody die after the battle has already ended with win or loss.

It takes the opponent out of the next battle which in a long campaign might improve your chances of getting home alive

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#24

Post by Mainan_Tagonist »

thriftwy wrote: post #18
hinkley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People putting poop or muck on musket balls to cause sepsis.

I wonder what's the payout for individual soldier to do this to have somebody die after the battle has already ended with win or loss.

It mobilises a number of resources to patch up a wounded/sick soldier.

There is a myth that the 5.56 round was designed to wound and not to kill (contrary to the 7.62 round the soviet side used) as it would make war costly in a very visible manner.

I guess the idea that inducing "Sepsis by poop" follows the same line of thinking.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#25

Post by jajko »

zeristor wrote: post #19
pdevr wrote: post #14

The story starts with Genghis Khan's plunder of Merv and the mass murder that was ordered by him. It mentions the artisans who were kept alive. Then it swerves to the plunder of Merv by the Oghuz, continues in the next paragraph, and then returns to Genghis Khan by announcing his death. Again, it returns to the artisans,but mid-paragraph (as is typical in that article), switches to battles again, and returns yet agai…

I was reading up on Wootz steel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz_steel And found that Merv was a big producer of it. I had not heard of the city of Merv, seemingly at one point it had ranked as the second largest in the world, and became more fascinated. Although now just ruins, it has inspired a board game: Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road (2020) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/306040/merv-the-heart-of... “M…

Its a sad story, they were at the global pinnacle of science and arts, opened their gates to mongols without any resistance, only to be still slaughtered like cattle. Imagine how much additional positive influence on current world, how differently middle east region would look like, and islam itself.

Lesson to be learned which is still very relevant today - don't trust primitive barbarians to uphold any moral expectations just because it would be logical or nice, rather 'Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum'.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#26

Post by sharpshadow »

“…the deep structure of silk appear to be embedded proteins that are antiviral, and yet others that can damage the fortressing walls of bacterial cells.”

“Both the fibroin that forms the silk and the sericin that binds it can hasten the healing of wounds.”

“…silk without sericin, and even the sericin routinely discarded in the manufacture of silk, would be manipulated by doctors and engineers. They would create sponges and gels; films and mats of silk as scaffolds seeking to support wounds that struggle to heal; matrices for the regrowth of blood vessels and broken skin; formulations to attract cells as they migrate and regenerate.”

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#27

Post by sevagh »

jajko wrote: post #25
zeristor wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was reading up on Wootz steel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wootz_steel And found that Merv was a big producer of it. I had not heard of the city of Merv, seemingly at one point it had ranked as the second largest in the world, and became more fascinated. Although now just ruins, it has inspired a board game: Merv: The Heart of the Silk Road (2020) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/306040/merv-the-heart-of... “M…

Its a sad story, they were at the global pinnacle of science and arts, opened their gates to mongols without any resistance, only to be still slaughtered like cattle. Imagine how much additional positive influence on current world, how differently middle east region would look like, and islam itself. Lesson to be learned which is still very relevant today - don't trust primitive barbarians to uphold any moral expecta…

Arab betrayed by their own hospitality yet again.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#28

Post by robertlagrant »

jcranmer wrote: post #7
m3kw9 wrote: post #2

Wars were exponentially more brutal the further back you went

Exponentially? Not really. In pre-state societies, we generally seem to see around a 15% chance of dying due to warfare in your lifetime. Early states seem to see that fall to around mid-high single digits. And this decreases to tiny fractions in modern times, but mostly because warfare has declined rather than wars becoming less deadly. Brutal episodes of war--say the Eastern Front on WW2 or some of the theaters in…

There's a difference between "young men killed on the battlefield" and "everyone else also being killed" - while (sadly) the latter did happen, e.g. Hiroshima, or as Russian troops swept through Germany, or Dresden, it wasn't par for the course or expected as what happens after the losing side lost.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#29

Post by t-3 »

Nostalgic - Mongols using silk shirts to make removing arrows easier was a favorite anecdote of my World History teacher in High School. Movies and stories always make pre-gunpowder war seem like a face-to-face battle between warriors, but arrows were always the biggest killer, both in battle and through attrition due to infections and laming. Another anecdote I always remembered was that the lead balls fired by early muskets were often more deadly than modern firearms because they were so slow and heavy that when they got into the body they wouldn't pass through but instead roll around along the bones and mess up the insides, similar to the modern street lore about .22 pistols being the worst to get shot with. Cannonballs also rolled and bounced through the battlefield, taking out limbs and crushing people rather than exploding like modern artillery.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#30

Post by temporarely »

sevagh wrote: post #27
jajko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a sad story, they were at the global pinnacle of science and arts, opened their gates to mongols without any resistance, only to be still slaughtered like cattle. Imagine how much additional positive influence on current world, how differently middle east region would look like, and islam itself. Lesson to be learned which is still very relevant today - don't trust primitive barbarians to uphold any moral expecta…

Arab betrayed by their own hospitality yet again.

Are you trolling? Merv was Persian.
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