18. Genghis Khan Rewarded a Man Who Shot Him in the Neck By Making Him a General
Mongol general Jebe, born Zurgudai (d. 1225), began his military career as an enemy of Genghis Khan. During a battle in 1201, Zurgudai shot Genghis in the neck with an arrow, but Genghis survived, won the battle, and Zurgudai was captured. A wounded Genghis asked his captives who had shot him, and Zurgudai confessed. His honesty and courage impressed Genghis, soo he took Zurgudai into his service and renamed him “Jebe”, meaning arrow. Jebe quickly rose through the ranks, and within a few years, he was one of Genghis’ most capable generals. He was entrusted with independent commands such as an 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 took part in the conquest of the Khwarezmian Empire.
Setting the Stage
Once Khwarezm was subdued, Genghis gave Jebe and another trusted subordinate, Subutai, permission to lead a great cavalry raid. First, westward through northern Persia. Then they ventured up through the Caucasus, around the Caspian Sea, before turning east to return to Mongolia. Jebe’s masterpiece occurred during that raid, at the Battle of Kalka River in 1222. He and Subutai conducted a feigned retreat before a numerically superior army of Kievan Rus and Cumans.
Jebe lured the enemy into following him for nine days, before turning on the pursuers and slaughtering them down to a single man. 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.
