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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

#61

Post by rightbyte »

082349872349872 wrote: post #33
thriftwy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it originated with pooping on swords/polearms: you're a peasant, just before the battle, and you have a massive adrenaline dump, part of which involves clearing out the intestines, so if you manage to channel your inner cat, as you barely get your breeches off you stick your weapon underneath. Then you tell all your buddies you totally just did that on purpose, to cause sepsis among the enemy... If you're an…

Did they really understand the link between poo and sickness? Sounds more like some sort of insult to me.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#62

Post by sufficer »

t-3 wrote: post #29

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 earl…

> similar to the modern street lore about .22 pistols being the worst to get shot with

Where on Earth did you hear this?

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#63

Post by Yeul »

bitcurious wrote: post #34
scott_w wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being good at tactics can win battles. Being good at strategy can win a war. Being good at economy allows you to win war after war.

The typical phrase is “infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” It gets at the same idea as you. https://www.czdefence.com/article/infantry-wins-battles-logi... .

It was religion that stopped the Mongols. One of their leaders converted to Islam and broke up their empire.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#64

Post by t-3 »

sufficer wrote: post #62
t-3 wrote: post #29

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 earl…

> similar to the modern street lore about .22 pistols being the worst to get shot with Where on Earth did you hear this?

Gangsters. I've heard several anecdotes about how they get into, but don't easily come out of the body and tend to bounce around inside, leaving the victim to die slowly in agonizing pain.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#65

Post by scott_w »

Yeul wrote: post #63
bitcurious wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The typical phrase is “infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.” It gets at the same idea as you. https://www.czdefence.com/article/infantry-wins-battles-logi... .

It was religion that stopped the Mongols. One of their leaders converted to Islam and broke up their empire.

Completely incorrect. The Mongol social structure did that without religion. Like most nomadic peoples, inheritance rules split the ownership amongst a leader’s sons, fairly equally. This is because they had people and herds, not land (hence, nomads), so it was the most sensible way of doing it.

This, mixed with the fact that Russia and the Middle East are thousands of miles away from the Mongolian and Chinese capitals made it inevitable that a leader on one side of the empire would ignore their overlord on the other side. Thus, the empire would fracture quickly (and pretty much did as soon as the family ties to Genghis Khan were loose enough).

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#67

Post by kristianp »

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…

> This is probably why it appears very hard to read.

The sentences are often too long and maze-like too. This is an extract from a book. I can't imagine trying to read a whole book written like this.

Re: Silk Helped the Armies of Genghis Khan Conquer Asia

#69

Post by robertlagrant »

bitcurious wrote: post #58
robertlagrant wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> really neither the sins nor the wins in WWII belong exclusively to the Russians. Another subtlety misleading aspect of this post I didn't mention any wins. As for the sins: did you get that despite my listing something the British did and something the Americans did?

Note the context: I corrected your use of “Russians” in favor of “Soviets.”

You did that, but that didn't seem to be the context at all. You were implying I was misleading people into thinking all the sins and wins were Russian, which I obviously wasn't doing.
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