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Slack.com slash DHQ. It's a cool March Day in the year 1220. We're in Bukhara, a thriving

city on the Silk Road. It's part of the sprawling Choresmian Empire, located in what today

is Uzbekistan. It's been 14 years since Chinggis Khan united the peoples of the Mongolian

steppe and was proclaimed great leader of the Mongol nation. Much of that time has been

spent away from home, pursuing his enemies and gaining territory. Bukhara is just the

latest in a long line of cities to fall to him. But there is something different about

today. Chinggis Khan never normally sets foot in a

bankwit city himself. He leaves it to his trusted commanders to oversee the plundering of treasure,

the slaughter of the ruling class and the taking of prisoners. But today he wants to make a

point. Two years ago he sent a merchant caravan of 400 treasure-laden camels and a hundred

men to the Choresmian city of Otra. He'd hoped to encourage greater trade between his

empire and theirs. The Mongol merchants took with them items including the Xerius Furs

from Siberia and the slab of gold said to be a stick of the camel's neck. But the merchants

were masochered. Their goods were brought here to Bukhara. Unable to ignore such an insult,

the Khan is now ready for revenge. With the city's defenders defeated, Chinggis rides triumphantly

through the gates, past the wooden houses and market stalls, into the centre of town.

The Khan dismounts when he arrives at Bukhara's great mosque. He walks inside and slowly

...