Tolui

Born around 1191 to Genghis Khan and Börte, Tolui matured into what contemporaries judged the finest warrior among his brothers. He commanded forces during the first invasion of Jin China starting in 1211, then cemented his standing in the Khwarazmian campaign: dispatched to Khorasan in 1221, he took Merv, Nishapur, and Herat with efficiency so brutal that chroniclers recorded millions dead, figures modern scholars call inflated but still markers of unusual savagery. When Genghis died mid-1227, Tolui became regent under the Mongols' youngest-son inheritance custom, overseeing the burial and th…