"Every man in a guard brings what he was before the guard," Batu said. "His family's debts. His clan's alliances. The men his father fought beside. None of that stops being present simply because he's standing in front of a tent."
Subutai's eyes hadn't moved.
"An operation that wants to infiltrate a guard doesn't approach the guard. It approaches their family, their debts, their claims."
"So you eliminated the prior connections," Subutai said.
"I reduced them in the steppe riders. There's more than two from any single mingan, no cousins together, no clan leaders from any tributary touching my camp."
Batu looked at his cup.
"For the norsemen it doesn't exist. A man from the northern shores has no family inside any eastern tribe. His only position here runs through their merits, and the guard exists only as long as the man at its center is alive."
"And you run them together rather than separately."
