The Mongol Military Was a Meritocracy
“They are the Four Dogs of Temujin. They have foreheads of brass, their jaws are like scissors, their tongues like piercing awls, their heads are iron, their whipping tails swords . . . In the day of battle, they devour enemy flesh. Behold, they are now unleashed, and they slobber at the mouth with glee. These four dogs are Jebe, and Kublai, Jelme, and Subotai.” — The Secret History of the Mongols
The first of Temujin’s “Four Dogs”, Jebe, born Zurgudai (d. 1225), began his military career in the ranks of Genghis Khan’s enemies. During a battle in 1201, Zurgudai shot Genghis in the neck with an arrow. After winning the battle, the wounded Genghis asked the prisoners who had had shot him. Zurgudai confessed, and Genghis was impressed by his honesty and courage. He took him in his service, and nicknamed him “Jebe”, meaning arrow – the name by which he is known to history.
Jebe rose through the ranks, and within a few years had become one of Genghis’ favorite generals. He was entrusted with independent commands, such as the assignment to defeat Kuchlug, one of Genghis’ last remaining Steppe enemies, and the subjugation of his Kara Khitai state. Jebe accomplished the mission in quick order, capping off the conquest by beheading Kuchlug. He then rejoined Genghis, and participated in conquering the Khwarezmian Empire.
Genghis then gave Jebe and Subutai permission to lead a great cavalry raid. The duo rode westward through northern Persia, up through the Caucasus, around the Caspian Sea, before turning east to return to Mongolia. They capped it off with a brilliant and crushing victory over a vastly superior army of Kievan Rus at the Battle of Kalka River in 1222. That raid set the stage for a Mongol return fifteen years later, this time in a full force invasion that conquered Kievan Rus and overran Eastern Europe. Jebe, however, died in 1225, soon after his return from that raid, and did not live to harvest what he had planted or see the fruits of his work.