There was an incredibly insightful series of articles at the acoup blog about pre-industrial armies (https://acoup.blog/2022/07/15/collections-logistics-how-did

There was an incredibly insightful series of articles at the acoup blog about pre-industrial armies (https://acoup.blog/2022/07/15/collections-logistics-how-did-they-do-it-part-i-the-problem https://acoup.blog/2022/07/15/collections-logistics-how-did-...) What I got from that is that moving an army of more than 10000 men was a monumental effort in and off itself. The real genius commanders were the ones who had more than 5% of their attentions and talent to actually do any sort of tactics on the battlefield. Just showing up in proper order would more often than not lead to winning, since it was so damn hard. So managing to move such an army across asia was an incredible achievement that warrants praise, regardless if he himself was responsible or just recognizing the talent and keeping it in the right position.