The Mongol dynasty made Alexander the Great’s look pitiful. Genghis Khan reorganized the world: he connected China to the west and developed gunpowder. For around 100 years in the 12th and 13th centuries the Mongols dominated from Italy to China, to Russia, to India, to Turkey—basically most of the known world.
Granted, Genghis Kahn was about the worst human being you can imagine. He would go into a city and kill everyone if they didn’t cooperate.
But on strategy alone, there’s a lot for farmers to learn from Genghis Khan and the Mongols.