1391 The night steppe smelled of cinders. The hot wind drove the ashes, the ashes flashed with a billion fiery moths. The earth groaned and trembled, the old shepherd took shelter in his stitched yurt from the unknown storm, the yurt flapped and shook. In the morning everything quieted down and by evening the old man ventured up the nearest hill.
Beyond the bank of the Kondurcha River lay the dead all the way to the horizon, covered with a moving carpet of feasting crows. The old shepherd, clasping his staff to his breast, whispered: “When Allah leaves us, the Sun will rise, the Beast will emerge from the earth and the end of times will come.” The Beast was already here. His name was Tamerlane.
15 years ago
The Golden Horde, which emerged after the Western Mongol campaign, was like a gilded corpse after 160 years. The Yasa of Genghis Khan was forgotten, the Mongol Empire fell apart, the conquered did not pay tribute, the plague claimed 20 million lives. By the end of XIV century cities of the Horde were overgrown with weeds, caravans did not travel along the Silk Road, and Tatar khans and steppe chiefs slaughtered each other.
Golden Horde and Emirate of Timurids (border between them by arrow, capital circles).
Khans in Sarai changed like gloves: one overthrew the other, the third hung both on hooks, the fourth hung the third next to him. In the chaos of civil war and was born Tokhtamysh — a man who wanted to return everything. This great grandson of Dzhuchi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan, rebelled against Urus, the Khan of the Golden Horde, to avenge his father’s murder and take the throne.
But the first fight Tokhtamysh lost, and rushed to Samarkand for help, where ruled not the emperor, but already formidable emir Timur (Tamerlane). Timur, who was already building the Timurid empire, was dissatisfied with the chaos in the Golden Horde and thought about how to intervene in its squabbles. That’s when Tokhtamysh appeared.
Blood and Shadow
Samarkand. Tokhtamysh knelt in the throne room, feeling the stone slab digging into his skin. His hands trembled, not from fear — from humiliation. Before him on the carved throne sat a man with a scarred face and cold eyes carved of ice.
Are you asking my army to take the throne of the Horde? — Timur’s voice sounded as calm as the pounding of hooves on frozen ground. — I am asking for justice,” Tokhtamysh exhaled, ”I have more Genghis Khan’s blood in me than Urus. — Justice? — Timur grinned, playing with his dagger. — That word is for the weak. What do I need you for?
I am Genghis Khan’s blood. You are his shadow. Together we will be the sun, — answered Tokhtamysh. That’s what Timur dreamed of, to put a puppet on the Horde throne: “All right. You will get my tumeny. But remember: I created you. You are my man.” Tokhtamysh went out, red with shame and anger. And Tamerlan said to Suleimanshah: “He will betray. Everyone betrays. But for now, he’s useful.
In 1376, the Timurid army first appeared on Horde land. Urus Khan defeated it, and Tokhtamysh again asked Timur for tumens and again defeated Urus. Only after death of Urus in 1379 Tokhtamysh has grasped Golden Horde. And after defeat of Mamay and burning of Moscow in 1382, has restored the order and in its western part.
You will be my right hand in the Steppe, — said Timur, handing him a golden sword with rubies. But Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Genghis Khan, dreamed of more: he wanted to become the new Batyi, the one whom the whole world — including Samarkand — served. Victories and a huge army of the Horde made Tokhtamysh dizzy, he tasted gold and power, and did not want to be Tamerlane’s puppet.
Victories and the huge army of the Golden Horde, made Tokhtamysh dizzy…
Bely Yurt
The first spark flared up in 1385. The Horde attacked Azerbaijan, a trading partner of the Timurids. “This is a misunderstanding, I apologize,” wrote Tokhtamysh, but Timur knew the price of such ”misunderstandings.” — ‘You have raised a snake at your breast,’ said the vizier. — No. I raised a lion to skin it, — answered Timur. He will capture Azerbaijan, and then he will respond by raiding the Volga region of the Golden Horde.
His army, hardened in the meat grinder of Maverannahr, went through the interfluve of the Urals and Volga like a blizzard. — Cut down everyone above the cart wheel! — Tamerlane ordered. Children, old people, yurts, camps — everything was turned into ashes. And what survived was turned into slaves. Tokhtamysh sent ambassadors. Timur sent them back by cutting off their hands.
In 1388, Tokhtamysh began his revenge. He struck at the heart of the Timurid emirate and stormed the walls of Bukhara. The subjugated rebelled, and to quell the rebellion, one of the rebellious towns Tamerlane razed to the ground and sowed the ruins into a barley field, as an admonition to the rest. He then rushed in pursuit of the retreating Tokhtamysh, but winter storms swamped the mountain passes.
4 years ago Tokhtamysh received from Timur a golden sword. Now this sword was cutting the lands of the Timurids. If betrayed once, it’s his fault. If you betray twice, it’s yours. In the summer of 1390, Tamerlane set out his White Yurt to raise the largest army in the world. To finish off the Golden Horde.