The setting sun cast long shadows over the desert at dusk, where corpses lay strewn for ten li. Severed limbs and the mangled flesh of men and horses stained the yellow sands red.0

Batu’s army invaded He Shan’s camp. Zhao Changhe and Yue Hongling mixed in with his troops, observing the scene. To their surprise, the slaughter they had expected was nowhere to be seen. In fact, since they were of the same tribe, once the main culprit was eliminated and the camp’s banner was changed, the transition to Batu’s control was swift and efficient, taking less than an hour.0

In fact, this process was not unique to only those of the same tribe. When different tribes fought, the winner would quite often also assimilate the loser in this manner, allowing the victors to snowball into larger forces. However, different tribes often formed alliances, which differed from how forces mingled in the Central Plains.0

He Lei had been a loyal subordinate to Timur. Otherwise, he would not have been sent to the Central Plains like a special forces operative to cause an upheaval. As someone...0