Bamboo growing through your guts is another thoughtful invention. I am not sure, but I think the Chinese invented that one. Bamboo grows fast, and through you, but you do not die. You experience a lot of pain, and you are scared, terrified, seeing all that. Tatars do not like to waste time just talking. They use a direct approach — torture. This time they poured the boiling oil into the throat of one of the messengers making the others watch it. Of course, they spoke. Who would not? Even the mute would start talking. They were talking so fast, even interrupting each other. We had to ask them to slow down and speak only one at the time. They did not speak any of our languages, and it was not easy to translate when they spoke too fast and all at the same time. They spoke Russian, after all, and we did not. They told us everything we wanted to know and more, much more. They would not shut up, but we did not kill them. Not right away. I know they died later. We were not set up for the prisoners. Not on the move. What do you need prisoners for? Either let them go or enslave them.
I like watching the Tatars at work, whatever they do. They take pleasure in torture, rape, murder, and other violent acts. But, they never build or grow anything. All they do is tending animals, hunting, fishing, and war. All that involves killing in the end. They are not even good at the trade. What can you do? They are what they are. They always devised violence in the most horrifying and prolonged way. Disgusting creatures those Tatars but we are closely related in many ways, and so we stay together. We do not love each other, but we co-exist and well. The ancestors did it for thousands of years. It is just right. I think the Chinese are the master torturers and then, the Koreans, Japanese, and the Tatars. Kalmyks are good at it as well.
Still, Tatars used only pain to get the answer. That’s the quickest and the straightest way to get the results. Humiliation and physical pain are the two most important keys to successful torture. I tend to agree with the Tatars on that subject. At war, you do not have time to be gentle and to follow agreements. What agreements you should follow when you are killing each other? Do you want to kill each other more gently? Is it even possible? Yes, in some cases, you can kill someone fast or prolong the agony. But, in the mortal fight, you try to kill quickly and not to be killed. You want to get out of one fight speedily and go to another. You have to move. Every single victory counts and adds to the total success. That’s what we want — a complete success. The brutal force was the only force noteworthy in war. During the torture, they break you down, tear you apart, destroy you without killing, and death often comes as a reward for your cooperation. The torturers are wise and experienced, and they get results. If they fail too many times. We torture them. That works as well so, they do not fail for too many times.
The Tatars never fail to extract the information because they do not respect your life, and they showed it openly. They do not pretend to be cultural and would not discuss the higher points of being with you even if they understood it. What for? They are what they are. The Chinese, Japanese, and the others would combine the physical torture with the mental torment as well. It takes longer, and the prisoners often stay in good health and the spirit. Sometimes it’s useful if you wanted to save the prisoner. Sometimes you want to use the prisoner for something else. Maybe the prisoner is going to work for you in one capacity or another. But, the result was the same. They get the answer, and we usually did not keep the prisoner but often promise so. We, Mongols, do not torture.
We have the Tatars and the Chinese to do that for us. So, we killed the Russian messengers in the end and sent the heads back to Kiev as a reply to the message. Yet, they did not surrender. What did they hope for? Stupid. They cannot fight us. We will take the city and get what we want. All this was a useless waste of lives. Did they care? I did. But, I cared for my people more. They either accept our rule unconditionally or die. Slavery is an option but not a great way to survive. Some slaves did better than the others, but you have to have something to offer. If you know something interesting or you are a good craftsman, or good looking, we may use you. It could be good for us. But you must have something to offer.
We keep some of the noblemen alive so, they could manage their own people. It saves us resources so, we can go farther West, North or South. We own the East already. Still, even our resources are limited. Well, Ogedei was talking about Japan. We may go there yet, but we needed the fleet. We were not the sea-going nation thus far, but we were learning. That would be an exciting campaign. I do not think Ogedei would wait for me. He may go there sooner than I can break myself loose from here. It may, no, it will take a while, and he is building ships already. I heard the Koreans were doing that. It could take a few years, though. This place, Russia, is really too large and has too many problems. Resources… We do not get a break over here, any of us. Still, I like it here. I may stay here afterward. I am not sure if I want to go back to Mongolia. I would probably go there for a little while and then, come back here and rule. This is my empire.
After a few months of the siege, Kiev was ready to fall. It could take one hard push and then, some cleaning up. Losses on both sides were not that great, but the walls could not hold much longer, and the city was running out of supplies. Actually, they ran out of supplies a while back. That was the harsh reality. The walls were of wood and dirt, and they did not get ready for the siege. It was not reinforced in time. They did not understand what the real siege was and how determent we were. We did not come all the way from Mongolia just for a brawl. We were prepared to wait for the right moment to strike, we were the hunters. They could not remain there for too long because of the supplies. They were cut off the provisions, and we were getting it instead of them. We were doing just fine, but the sickness was setting in the town. We encircled them so well that nothing could be brought in the city, but they were getting water, and we did not know how. Time was on our side, but I wanted it to move faster. We had so much land to cover, so much to manage. I wanted to go to the last sea, and that was far. We did not actually know how far it was and our collaborators from western Europe were somewhat vague on the subject. I do not think even they knew it for sure. It was either they did not know, or we did not have the right people advising us. Anyhow, it was a considerable distance to cover, no matter how you look at it. I was informed that the Duke was seen eating a roasted with apples swan while the town people just finished all rats and cats in the city. Dogs were gone a while back. Food was quite scarce over there, and it was getting worse by the minute. I had some pork last night. It was not bad. My cook made it the Chinese style — sweet and sour. I like it that way with rice. I love Chinese food. It is tasty and fun to eat. The Mongolian food is somewhat dull but filling. I think that’s the purpose of it: to fill you quickly so, you could go and do whatever you wanted to do. By the way, that was the Russian pork from the nearby town.
We did not have too many pigs in our caravans. There are reasons for that: some of our people were Muslims, and they were offended by pigs. Also, pigs were difficult to tend on the move. How do you handle the grown pig? So, we prefer goats, lamb, cattle and a lot of horses and camels. They are much easier on the move, and they move faster. They almost manage it by themselves. Good animals, friendly animals. Yet, we have a few pigs here and there that started when they were still just the babies and could be kept in the wagons. It takes time for them to grow, and by the time they are fully-fledged, we stop and build a camp. So, they can keep growing until they give us young ones and we eat the old ones. The young ones may start their lives in the caravans if we are moving again. That’s the pig cycle.