Mongol Postal Relay Military Communications

Timeline

1. c. 1230–1360Mongolian Plateau · Mongolian PlateauÖgedei Khan perfected the jam system, stipulating stations along the routes, provisioning horses, and conscripting courier riders; those holding khanate tallies could change horses and ride free of charge. This system allowed the Mongol Empire to transmit military intelligence and edicts hundreds of li per day across its vast territory, becoming a shared communications infrastructure inherited by later khanates.
2. 1361main lines of Eurasian relay routes · Silk RoadIn the late Yuan, the court still relied on the jidipu and jam to transmit battle reports; the Golden Horde maintained örtöö stations in the lower Volga for envoys and military communications; remnants of the Chagatai Khanate also retained some relay capacity. The stations of the various regimes were not interconnected, but shared the same institutional origins, together forming a 14th-century Eurasian overland military communications network.