• article

The Mongolian military organization was built around a simple decimal system.

10 men = arban
10 arban = jaghun (100)
10 jaghun = minghan (1000)
10 minghan = tumen (10,000)

Commanders of arban and jaghun are elected by the members of the unit. Minghan and tumen commanders were selected by the Khan and were known as noyan. The overall commander was called an orlok.

They wore insignia called paitze, an ornamental tablet that was made of silver (jaghun commanders) or gold (noyan), and stamped with identifiable icons for specific ranks: tiger for commander of tumen, lion under a sun and moon for orlok, and a falcon for a prince.

The army's quartermaster was called the yurtchis, and he was the guy who managed the administrative details of running the army. An army was typically composed of three or more tumen of cavalry, several minghan of engineers and artillery, and various support staff. The distinction between heavy and light cavalry seems to be how much armor you wore.