Temujin defeats the Kereit confederation

1203

On the grasslands north of the Gobi, the Mongol outsider Temujin shattered his former patron Toghrul and absorbed the Kereit into his growing coalition. The old steppe hierarchy of tribes and blood feuds was being replaced by a single war machine answerable to one man. Kereit warriors and their Nestorian Christian priests were integrated into Temujin's decimal military organization alongside his own Mongol followers.