How many soldiers were actually in the army of Genghis Khan?
The Mongol Empire’s army is the legendary state’s main armed force. After Genghis Khan came to power, he carried out military reform. Thanks to him, scattered armed nomads were united into an army, which gradually developed and increased in numbers.
In the early years of the empire’s existence, army troops served as an effective tool for expansion and were the most critical mechanism for governing the state. There is a lot of talk and speculation about the size of the army was a million, if not more. Thanks to this, they took the enemy in mass. In fact, such an opinion is erroneous.
Historians voiced various data regarding the number of Mongol troops in different time periods. The largest number given in an official source is 600,000 soldiers (from the writings of Plano Carpini).
Historian Karamzin N.M. estimated the number of Mongols who invaded the territory of Russia at 500,000 people. However, a little later, he reduced the number to 300,000 warriors. In fact, these figures are overstated. Historians working later offered completely different estimates of the number of Genghis Khan’s troops.
The complexity of calculating the total number of soldiers of the Mongol army lies in the fact that the number fluctuated greatly at different stages of the reign of Genghis Khan. The Kalmyk historian E. Khara-Davan claimed that for the entire period, the army of the Mongol Empire numbered no more than 230,000 people.
The researcher’s works were based on data from authoritative English experts. In the annals of Rashid ad-Din, one can find information that at the time of the death of Genghis Khan, the Mongol troops included 129,000 people.
Many researchers agree that the Mongol army became great, first of all, thanks to the iron discipline established by Genghis Khan. The guilty person was sentenced to death for numerous violations of the rules. If one warrior fled from the battlefield, a dozen were executed; if ten fled, they executed the whole hundred. Minor offenses were traditionally punished by corporal punishment, fines.
