Fergana Valley

Then early in 1220, Genghis Khan struck his opening blow, a shrewdly conceived diversion.

Chepe with two tumans, 20,000 men, had passed by the southern route from Kashgar into Fergana and was advancing on Kojent, which covered the southern end of the Syr Darya line.

Thus Chepe directly threatened the Shah's right flank, as well as Samarkand and Bokhara, which lay beyond, the two centers of his power.

It was a dagger pointing at the heart of the enemy.

He divided his forces into four armies, each roughly of three tumans.

Three of these he assigned to the main operation, and the fourth he used to achieve his secondary or auxiliary objective, the removal of the danger on his right flank.

This last, under the Prince Kaidu, moved first, as had Chepe's detachment into Fergana.

At the beginning of March 1241, it crossed the Vistula at Sandumir, which it took by storm.

Then early in 1220, Genghis Khan struck his opening blow, a shrewdly conceived diversion.

Chepe with two tumans, 20,000 men, had passed by the southern route from Kashgar into Ferghana and was advancing on Kojent, which covered the southern end of the Syr Darya line.

Thus Chepe directly threatened the Shah's right flank, as well as Samarkand and Bokhara, which lay beyond, the two centers of his power.

It was a dagger pointing at the heart of the enemy.

Genghis Khan had distributed his main striking force into three armies, two of three tumans each under his sons Juji and Jagatai, and the third of three tumans and the guard under his direct control with Sabutai as his advisor or chief of staff.

Chepe's southern detachment comprised two tumans, while there were 30,000 auxiliaries distributed between the four armies.

While Chepe was striking his first blows in Ferghana, The three armies which formed the main force traversed the devastated route in the north, and in February suddenly debouched on the left flank of the Syr Darya line.

The speed of this move was the more remarkable when we remember that it was made by a mounted force of more than one hundred thousand, without counting the pack animals of the train, and across a country that had been turned into a desert.

In logistical terms, this is easier.

If you're moving through a region like Fergana or the Zarshan Valley, there's plenty of food.

You can live off the land.

There's plenty of water, there's plenty of forage for your animals.

And it has to be recaptured by the Bolsheviks.

And the Bolsheviks are fighting against local resistance, the so-called Bazmachi, Kurbashi.

So these are local guerrilla leaders like Ibrahim Bek in Istanbul, Bukhara, or Ergash in Fergana.

They're fighting against local non-Bolshevik Russian forces.

Then early in 1220, Genghis Khan struck his opening blow, a shrewdly conceived diversion.

Chepe with two tumans, 20,000 men, had passed by the southern route from Kashgar into Ferghana and was advancing on Kojent, which covered the southern end of the Syr Darya line.

Thus Chepe directly threatened the Shah's right flank as well as Samarkand and Bokhara, which lay beyond, the two centers of his power.

It was a dagger pointing at the heart of the enemy.

Genghis Khan had distributed his main striking force into three armies, two of three tumans each under his sons Juji and Jagatai, and the third of three tumans and the guard under his direct control with Sabutai as his advisor or chief of staff.

Chepe's southern detachment comprised two tumans, while there were 30,000 auxiliaries distributed between the four armies.

While Chepe was striking his first blows in Ferghana, the three armies which formed the main force traversed the devastated route in the north and in February suddenly debouched on the left flank of the Syr Darya line.

The speed of this move was the more remarkable when we remember that it was made by a mounted force of more than 100,000 without counting the pack animals of the train and across a country that had been turned into a desert.

Then early in 1220, Genghis Khan struck his opening blow, a shrewdly conceived diversion.

Chepe with two tumans, 20,000 men, had passed by the southern route from Kashgar into Ferghana and was advancing on Kojent, which covered the southern end of the Syr Darya line.

Thus Chepe directly threatened the Shah's right flank, as well as Samarkand and Bokhara, which lay beyond, the two centers of his power.

It was a dagger pointing at the heart of the enemy.

Genghis Khan had distributed his main striking force into three armies, two of three tumans each under his sons Juji and Jagatai, and the third of three tumans and the guard under his direct control with Sabutai as his advisor or chief of staff.

Chepe's southern detachment comprised two tumans, while there were 30,000 auxiliaries distributed between the four armies.

While Chepe was striking his first blows in Ferghana, the three armies which formed the main force traversed the devastated route in the north, and in February suddenly debouched on the left flank of the Syr Darya line.

The speed of this move was the more remarkable when we remember that it was made by a mounted force of more than 100,000 without counting the pack animals of the train and across a country that had been turned into a desert.

Then early in 1220, Genghis Khan struck his opening blow, a shrewdly conceived diversion.

Chepe with two tumans, 20,000 men, had passed by the southern route from Kashgar into Ferghana and was advancing on Kojent, which covered the southern end of the Syrdaria line.

Thus Chepe directly threatened the Shah's right flank, as well as Samarkand and Bokhara, which lay beyond, the two centers of his power.

It was a dagger pointing at the heart of the enemy.

Genghis Khan had distributed his main striking force into three armies, two of three tumans each under his sons Juji and Jagatai, and the third of three tumans and the guard under his direct control with Sabutai as his advisor or chief of staff.

Chepe's southern detachment comprised two tumans, while there were thirty thousand auxiliaries distributed between the four armies.

While Chepe was striking his first blows in Ferghana, the three armies which formed the main force traversed the devastated route in the north, and in February suddenly debouched on the left flank of the Syr Darya line.

The speed of this move was the more remarkable when we remember that it was made by a mounted force of more than one hundred thousand, without counting the pack animals of the train, and across a country that had been turned into a desert.

A month after leaving, Zhang Qian arrived in Dayuan and met with the king there.

Dayuan, aka Ferghana, was one of the three most powerful kingdoms of Central Asia at that time.

You also had the Bactrians to the south and the Parthians to the west in what is present-day northern Iran.

So the Yuezhi were at that time occupying the Ferghana Valley, which spread through Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

They spoke Indo-European languages and had strong Greek influences.

The meeting between Zhang Qian and the Dayuan people marked the first time China had come in contact with any of these people speaking these Indo-European languages.

Next the more temperate Turkmans of the south, The Tukhuz and the lancers of Solor, And those from Atruk and the Caspian sands, Light men and on light steeds, who only drink The acrid milk of camels and their wells.

And then a swarm of wandering horse who came From far, and a more doubtful service owned, The Tartars of Ferghana from the banks Of the Jaxartes, men with scanty beards In close-set skull caps; and those wilder hordes Who roam o'er Kipchak and the northern waste, Calmucks and unkempt Cossacks, tribes who stray Nearest the Pole, and wandering Kirkizes Who come on shaggy ponies from Pamir.

These all filed out from camp into the plain.

And on the other side the Persians formed.