"Genghis organized the Mongol soldiers into groups based around the number ten (i.e. 10 (arban), 100 (zuun), 1000(myangan), 10,000(tumen)), and each group of soldiers had a specific leader whom would report higher up in his rank to the rank of tumen. This command structure proved to be highly flexible and allowed the Mongol army to attack en masse, divide into somewhat smaller groups to encircle and lead enemies into and ambush, or divide into small groups of 10 to mop up a fleeing and broken army. The Mongol army also was highly flexible due to the durability of its soldiers. Each Mongol soldier would have between 2 and 4 horses allowing them to gallop for days without stopping or tiring. The Mongol soldier also could live for days off of only his horse's blood and eating dried yak meat if times were hard".
Another interesting fact I came upon was that if 1-2 soldiers were found to have deserted, the entire squad was killed. Well I guess that explains how one effectively quells distention.
Oh, and just to re-iterate how revolutionary an advancement this was, nearly the same organization is in practice today in our military.
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