People never get that you can respect people who are bad for their virtues like bravery and competence and that if you don't do so, you're a fool.
Genghis Khan was a bad man. People who didn't respect his abilities and virtues (bravery, strategic brilliance, etc...) got wrecked.
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Quite a few people who did respect him got got, too, to be fair.
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the Chinese underestimated him repeatedly. Then there was the Afghan King who sent back the heads of his trade envoys.
Genghis genuinely didn't want that war. He had semi-retired to the steppes.
Oops.
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but of course you're right. In a lot of cases the only way to avoid getting wrecked by Genghis was to either surrender right away, or run.
He did keep his deals. If a city surrendered, there was no looting, rape, etc... Mongols were very disciplined.
And taxes went down.
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