In 1860 they built a fort as a basis of their operations, which they called New Sarakhs, opposite the old citadel of that name. Then, in the following year, the commander-in-chief advanced against Merv with a force of 12,000 infantry, 10,000 horsemen, and 33 guns. The Tekkes, in great alarm, offered submission and a substantial tribute. But the Persian general, confident in his numbers and armament, would hear of no compromise. The tribesmen, compelled to fight for life and freedom, acquitted themselves with a gallantry which inspired terror in the invaders. The Persian artillerymen and infantry were slain or captured to a man, and the guns served twenty years after to arm a citadel which the Tekkes built as a defence against an anticipated Russian attack.[573] The cavalry alone, including the cowardly commander-in-chief, found safety in flight, and so great was the glut of prisoners that the price of a Persian slave in Khivan and Bokhāran markets fell to a sum equal to a pound sterling.[574] This was the last organised attempt from the Persian side to subvert Tekke independence, and the tribe, settled firmly in the great oases of Akkal and Merv, were free to pursue their lawless impulses at the expense of their neighbours. For Persia was not alone in serving as a quarry. The fierce children of the steppes carried rapine and murder within a few miles of the citadel of Herāt,[575] and spread far and wide a terror as abject as that inspired by the Danish pirates in the coast towns of Saxon England. Such is the history of the rise of the Tekke division of the Turkoman race to a position which rendered it the chief obstacle to the Russian advance. It is a modern reproduction, in miniature, of the great Mongol movement which, starting seven centuries ago, has not yet spent its force. Like the other Turkoman tribes, the Tekkes were ranged in divisions and clans--the Tokhtamish inhabiting the eastern portion of the Merv oasis, while the Otamish occupied the western. In the extreme east lived the Beks.[576] These great divisions were split up into minor ones, and the latter again ramified into clans.