It was these hordes, first amalgamated and mobilized by the genius of Genghis-Khan, who terrified the continent from Peking to the Crimea in the 13th century. Genghis-Khan, the evil genius of this race of marauders, was the son of a petty Mongolian prince born in Tartary in 1163. After much intestine warfare with various tribes this renowned conqueror was proclaimed Khan of the United Mongol people. He reorganized his army, made for himself a set of laws and prepared for a course of conquest to which he professed he had a divine call. In 1210 he first invaded China, the capital of which was taken by storm and plundered several years later.
He sent ambassadors to Turkestan and unfortunately they were murdered, which gave the Tartar despot an excuse for turning his conquest toward the West. He invaded this country in 1218 with an army said to comprise 700,000 men. He appeared in due time before the great cities of Bokhara and Samarcand, which were stormed, pillaged, burned, and more than 200,000 lives destroyed. He continued his operations for several years and in 1225, although more than sixty years old, he turned about and marched in person at the head of his army against Tangut, whose kind had sheltered two of his enemies and refused to surrender them.
A great battle was fought on plains of ice formed by a frozen lake, in which the King of Tangut was totally defeated with a loss of, it is said, 300,000 men. His forces also overran Manchuria, all of Northern China, and when he died he left to his four sons the largest Empire that ever existed, except possibly that of Edward VII of Great Britain.
The Empire was divided into four parts, having been established by its founder at a cost, it has been said, of not less than 5,000,000 lives.
His death occurred in 1227, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and the 52nd of his reign.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
