Napoleon of France was a very admirable military and statesman, he was not proud, he was not tall, but he was such an unremarkable figure who personally created the First French Empire.
During his reign, he did many things of great significance, internally he suppressed the reactionary forces, promulgated the Napoleonic Code, laid the social order of the Western capitalist countries, and led troops to break the anti-French alliance formed by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and other countries five times, and safeguarded the achievements of the French Revolution.
In Napoleon's lifetime, more than fifty major battles were won, and at his most glorious time, all the countries of the European continent except Britain submitted to or allied with Napoleon, which can really be called a major miracle in the history of European military and politics.
In the eyes of many people, Napoleon was a good fighter, and even felt that almost no one was his opponent, but few people knew that Napoleon also had idols, and even admitted that he was far inferior to him.
Presumably, many people have thought about who this person is, yes, it is the Genghis Khan who was once considered to only know how to bend the bow and shoot large eagles.
Napoleon once said:
I am not as good as Genghis Khan, and do not think that the Mongol invasion of Europe was a blind movement of Asian sands, a nomadic people with strict military organization and well-thought-out command, who were much more shrewd than their opponents.
Napoleon said this, not blindly touting Genghis Khan, but a rather pertinent evaluation, Genghis Khan is a very controversial figure, but it is undeniable that he is the world's outstanding military expert, on the leading troops to fight, Genghis Khan does not seem to be afraid of anyone.
Genghis Khan swept through Eurasia and basically captured more than half of Eurasia in his lifetime, so why did Genghis Khan not attack India alone, as the history books say, did he encounter ancient mythical beasts?
The real reason behind it is actually very helpless, let's look at it together.
Genghis Khan was attacked by a mythical beast
After Genghis Khan unified the Mongolian plateau and established the Mongol Empire, he opened a new model of foreign conquest, and in detail, Genghis Khan was really brave, it seemed to be life and death, and nothing could stop him.
After more than 20 years of conquest, Genghis Khan laid a very vast territory, established a large empire across the Eurasian continent, Genghis Khan all the way to the west, and even hit the Vicinity of the Black Sea in Europe, so why did Genghis Khan turn a blind eye to India, which is closer to him?
In fact, Genghis Khan did not think of taking India, and the "Yuan History" recorded the scene of Genghis Khan wandering outside the Indian gate:
The kingdom of Khwarazm was a stumbling block on Genghis Khan's way to expand his territory, and in order to remove this large stone, Genghis Khan repeatedly used troops against Khwarazm, and finally beat the king of Khwarazm, Zalandin, away.
Zalandin fled south, and finally to India, where Genghis Khan pursued him with a Mongolian iron horse in order to cut the grass and remove the roots, all the way to the north bank of the Indian River.
Genghis Khan felt that this was an opportunity, it was better to take advantage of this to directly destroy India, so he ordered the Mongol soldiers to cross the river and continue south, but in the end, Genghis Khan's army did not set foot on India, but soon withdrew, and never mentioned attacking India in his life.
For this problem, the explanation given in the history books is that Genghis Khan encountered an ancient sacred beast shaped like a unicorn in the process of crossing the river, named Luduan.
This divine beast can travel eighteen thousand miles a day, can also speak four languages, and its face is vicious and extremely terrifying, and after Genghis Khan's soldiers saw it, they no longer dared to cross the river, and Genghis Khan had no choice but to order the retreat.
Yerushalayim borrowed the title to play
Obviously, the Mongol cavalry recorded in the historical records met Luduan, this explanation is very far-fetched, after all, Genghis Khan had a large army, and when he encountered an unknown species, he only needed to prepare more cauldrons to solve it.
In the Biography of Yuan Shi Yelü Chucai, we find a more detailed explanation.
In the course of Genghis Khan's southern conquest of the northern war, Yelü Chucai has been giving advice, and Genghis Khan will always seek his advice whenever the war is tight.
When the Mongol army attacked India, Yelü Chucai was naturally also included in the army.
When the soldiers arrived at the north bank of the Indus River, everyone was tired and thirsty, and the soldiers wanted to go to the river to get water to drink, and suddenly, an unknown monster jumped out of the water, and Genghis Khan thought of ordering the soldiers to kill it, but the monster made a sound.
Yerushalayim then forcibly interpreted the monster's words, believing that it would say" again, and then told Genghis Khan that this monster was actually a beast sent down from heaven to warn us not to continue to attack India.
When Genghis Khan saw Yelü Chucai say this, he immediately ordered the retreat of the troops, as if in accordance with Providence, since Yelü Chucai said that it was a divine beast sent down from heaven, naturally it could not be solved by a cauldron.
However, from our current human point of view, it is obvious that Genghis Khan encountered a divine beast, which does not convince us, and Yelü Chucai's explanation is also a borrowing of the topic, so why did Yelü Chucai prevent Genghis Khan from fighting India?
The reason behind this is actually frustrating.
Genghis Khan resolutely withdrew
Yelü Chucai was an outstanding politician of the Mongol Empire, who assisted Genghis Khan and his descendants for more than 30 years, of which he served as the Zhongshu Ling for 14 years, which can be said to be the undisputed "military master" of the Mongol Empire and the most trusted minister of Genghis Khan.
The reason why he wanted to use the name of the sacred beast to advise Genghis Khan was naturally to see that it was very difficult for the Mongol cavalry to attack India.
If we spread out a map of the world and draw the vast territory laid down by Genghis Khan, we can see that his empire belongs to the "narrow" of east and west, that is, the latitude span is not too large.
Because climate change is small at the same latitude, The Mongols have lived in the Mongolian plateau and the arid zone of Siberia since ancient times, and it is difficult to adapt to the humid and hot environment.
Therefore, Yelü Chucai saw that the invincible Mongol cavalry galloping on the steppe, once deep into the humid and hot India, would lose its original combat effectiveness and it would be difficult to retreat.
In addition, India has stronger war elephants than horses, in the Mongolian steppe, the cavalry is invincible, but if you face the war elephants, the advantage will be lost, after all, the war elephants are infinitely powerful, and the skin is thick, and the Mongols' knives are sharp, but it is almost impossible to solve the war elephants in a short time.
Yelü Chucai, who was at Genghis Khan's side, had been calmly analyzing the situation for him, and presumably he had seen these two points before he advised Genghis Khan to retire in the name of the divine beast.
Of course, this does not mean that Genghis Khan did not see monsters on the Indus River, or that he may have lived in the Mongolian steppe for a long time as a monster, and Yelü Chucai took the opportunity to treat it as a divine beast.
Epilogue:
Looking at Genghis Khan's retreat, it is actually very wise, if he insisted on attacking India, there would have been no later Great Mongol Empire.
Later, Timur, the descendant of Genghis Khan, insisted on using troops against India despite the opposition of everyone, and as a result, he encountered a Mongol war elephant, and then he was defeated and had no choice but to retreat, and this failure also made Genghis Khan's descendants respect Genghis Khan again.
After all, those who become big things are informal, they should advance and retreat, and they are true heroes!
References: "Original History", etc.
(Figure net, invasion and deletion)