Jochi

While there captive, she had been remarried to one of their warriors, and only won back by Tamajin about eight months later, at which point she was heavily pregnant.

From the very first, Tamajin had claimed the product of that pregnancy, Jochi, as his own firstborn son, and by all accounts treated him in every way as such, If a man claims a child is his, he said simply, what right has any other man to dispute that? In spite of this, their relationship was a strained one throughout both of their lives, and Jocha held a dislike for his father, criticizing him as overly cold and cruel, with him both personally as well as with his laws and policies.

As McLean puts it, As easily the most intelligent of Genghis's sons, he was likely more inclined to question and disagree with his father's decisions and reasons, and the direction that he was taking with his empire.

One particular area of contention was his opposition to Genghis's long-held surrender-or-die policy toward enemy populations, and argued that such indiscriminate slaughter was simply a waste of good talent.

Genghis had frequently expressed his heartfelt belief that Tolui had been blessed by Tengri itself and had been marked out as the most truly special of his sons.

There are stories of him even being psychic, of knowing that his father would return to their camp even though he was thought by everyone else to be days of riding away.

Genghis also appreciated that of his sons, Tolui was the only of Jochi's brothers, never to taunt him about the circumstances of his birth.

Nevertheless, those same traits that had made him the spitting image of his father, Genghis had come to realize also made him unfit to be the empire's next ruler, though such a realization pained him deeply.

There was still so much left to do for his people and for his nation, so many works and conquests still incomplete, yet he could feel his own time growing short.

His sons were at each other's throats, so much so that his eldest, Jochi, had been ignoring his summons, claiming illness, and retreated far to the west to brood.

Recently, he had taken a fall from his horse while hunting boar, something that could happen to even the best of riders from time to time, yet he'd been far slower to recover from his injuries, relatively minor though they were, than he would have liked.

Though his intellect was as keen and ferocious as ever, his body had been ground down like an arrowhead sharpened too many times.

Of course, with the invasion of the Harizmian Empire, there's all these things about the deaths of the merchants.

But also there's a battle between Chinggis Khan's son, Jochi, and the Harizm Shah.

A lot of little things like this.

And this does not happen later on.

Chinggis Khan gets injured in the siege there, and they decide to fall back.

Throughout all of this, His sons have also been campaigning, getting important military experience.

And the sons are mainly led by Jochi, his oldest son.

Skip over a little bit of that now, just for sake of time.

It's the early 13th century.

It's a high watermark of, uh, like Jochi, Jochi the son, or is it adopted son, stepson, of Genghis Khan.

Jochi Khan, and the Golden Horde sweeping through what's today modern-day Russia.

That's like the early 13th century.

So by the late 15th century, you've already had Tamerlane, Timur and the Lane.

It's the early 13th century.

It's a high-water mark of, like, Jochi, Jochi the son, or is it adopted son, stepson, of Genghis Khan.

Jochi Khan, the Golden Hall, sweeping through what's today modern-day Russia.

That's like the early 13th century.

So by the late 15th century, you've already had Tamerlane, Timur the Lame, all that's happened.