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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at IntoHistory.com. It's 1363, somewhere in Khorasan, a territory in what is now southwest Afghanistan.

To Moore, a 27-year-old warrior crouches behind a boulder. He glances to his side, making sure that the two men with him are also out of sight.

They're about to launch a surprise attack.

But Timor's intended targets today aren't other soldiers, they're sheep.

A hundred yards away, a flock raises on the short stubble grass.

Sheep rustling isn't how Timor wants to make ends meet.

He can trace his ancestry back to the founder of the Mongol Empire, Genghis Khan.

But Genghis died more than a century ago, and his realm fragmented after his death.

It's now controlled by dozens of warlords and distant relatives of the Khan like Tumor

must survive in any way they can.

Keeping his eyes on the sheep, Timore gives his men a pre-range signal.

The three rise in a low crouch and make their way toward the unsuspecting animals.

But Tumor's only covered half the distance when there's a shout from behind him

in the startled sheep bolt. Tumor whiffs his head around to see who made the noise. there's a shout from behind him in the startled sheep bolt.

Moore whips his head around to see who made the noise. It's a shepherd running toward them,

waving his hands. Timor angrily pulls his sword from his belt, determined to punish the shepherd

for disturbing his hunt. But before he can take more than a few steps, the shepherd drops to one

knee and frees a bow from

around his shoulders.

...