Post 34-First Update of 'The Golden Horde'

Starting this story has proven difficult, as the balance between history book and creative fiction is more delicate than I thought. This is the last half of the introduction i already posted.

With such a massive military, the Mongols had to bring massive trains of workers and materials behind the main branch of the army. Each group of ten thousand men was called a tumen, and subsequently subdivided in factors of ten. The most prestigious of these was referred to as the Kashik, where the Khans themselves led. It was made up of all the men in the royal family, but every individual within the khan's household, from officers to servants, served in the Kashik. Any man other than this in the Kashik was there by appointment, having proven themselves capable of leading, and in the most dire of circumstances, even the most junior members were qualified to command any other unit in the Mongol army. From here Batu and Subedai led the invasion of Eastern Europe, with the Kashik's own participation in a battle occurring at the most decisive moments.

Having lived their entire lives as nomadic archers on horseback, the Mongol army lived a life of pseudo warfare until any able bodied man reached an age of 20, when they were trained and drilled constantly in the art of Mongol war. As such, they were the most naturally gifted archers and horsemen in the known world. This would come to serve Batu and Subedai well in the battles to come, where the speed and mobility, coupled with the range of their horseman's bows, would play a pivotal role in outpacing and out maneuvering the slower, more heavily armored troops of the Europeans. The Russians first taste of this style of warfare would occur just outside the Riazan principality.

1237- On the Cusp of Battle to come soon!