Temujin pioneered a radical meritocratic system of loot-sharing and social welfare that inspired intense loyalty, setting him apart from traditional steppe elites who hoarded plunder for themselves.

84:12for thousands of years adhered to an ancient  system by which the elites and nobles took all the best plunder for themselves, and then  divided the rest among the other men as they saw fit. Common people were usually left out of this  system. In the harsh world of the steppe, strength was everything, and the strong took the lion's  share. But Temujin appears to have been different. He had grown up on the freezing bank of the Onon  River with his siblings, and learned to share

84:46everything in common. He had once killed his older  brother Begter partly for taking the best food for himself, and since then must have harbored a  distaste for this ancient system, and perhaps he had learned that inspiring loyalty in those around  him was worth any amount of gold or any number of horses. As a result, he pioneered a new and  somewhat radical system in the world of the steppe. In his party, loot would be shared  according to merit, and those who did well in

85:28battle were given a greater share, even  if they were just common people. Among his followers, he also at times introduced a  kind of insurance policy, decreeing that any soldier who was killed in battle would have  their share of the loot given to their widow and orphaned children, a policy perhaps inspired  by his own experience of losing his father and being plunged into poverty as a child. A certain  amount of loot was also distributed to the elderly