“I am the punishment of God...If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.” "The greatest happiness is to scatter your enemy, to drive him before you, to see his cities reduced to ashes, to see those who love him shrouded in tears, and to gather into your bosom his wives and daughters."- Genghis Khan

As well as a cunning military strategist Khan was also incredibly ruthless when he had to be. If he encountered any sort of heavy resistance from an enemy city he usually dealt with this by massacring the people once he'd broken through their defences. This was often women and children included. He only allowed two or three people to keep their lives as he wanted them to run off to the next settlement and tell them of Khan's terrible army. This made it easier for everyone as the settle could just surrender instead of being crushed by the superior Mongol forces.

 Khan's army was incredibly mobile as all warriors were mounted on horseback. The soldiers of his army had three different roles. These were as swift, lightly armored cavalry, heavily armored cavalry and mounted archers. His men were more organised than any other army than people had ever seen. His archers stood at the back and sent a rain of arrows from overhead to constantly pester and abuse the enemy. Any undisciplined resistance was no match for Khan's fast paced, well armed force. Its believed Khan never really lost a battle during his ruler-ship. The Mongols went on to move up into the China, breaking through The Great Wall defeating the Xia Dynasty to the West and the Jin Dynasty in the South. One feature of the Mongol force which became highly influential was a portable siege structure that could be used to breach and scale castle walls. They were later dismantled after battle and could be carried on horseback to the next city, allowing him to transport the structures between towns easily.

Having conquered his ancient enemies, the dynasty's of  China, Khan took a look to the West. Within no more than a few years later Genghis Khan had toppled both the vast empires of Russia and Persia. The Persians presented the greatest resistance the Mongols had yet encountered so when the Persian capital, Baghdad, was eventually captured, the ruthless Mongols decided to wrap up the Sultan of Persia (leader) along his family in a huge rug and then  brutally trampled him with their horses. Another story describes how  the Mongols, having just come over the high Russian slopes stormed into Kiev.  Some legend says that they put wooden planks over the bodies of captured Russian generals and princes and began to slowly crush them to death by gathering his men and having a feast on top of them.  Khan had conquered most of the Eastern world before he reached his death. He was certainly ruthless, he was certainly bloodthirsty, but he was also efficient and clever and because of this he earned himself a reputation as one of the greatest leader that ever walked the Earth.