Keshik / keshig were the guards or imperial guards. In the beginning of Ghengis Khan's reign it was a small group of loyal follower's consisting of of day guard (turghaut), night guard (kabtaut), archers (korchin) and another group of personal guard/champions (forget what they were called).

The first mention of the Keshik is in 1203 with the following numbers turghaut-70, kabtaut-80, korchin-400 and the champions around 1000. Over time this grew to 10,000 men, a full touman.

Not only were the keshik a loyal group, any member of the keshik was fit to command a full touman within the Mongol army. According to different sources there were around 9 toumans at the time of Ghengis Khan's invasion of Khwarizmia.

It is indicated the keshik made up the elite of the heavily armed cavalry carrying a composite bow, lance, mace or axe or sword, and a lasso. Armour for the men was lamellar covering much of the body and some horse's were also equipped with barding. It is not defenitive as to whether they carried shields or not but there indication the kabtaut used it. Some illustrations seem to give all the keshik a shield and barding. The keshik was normally positioned in the middle of the army to be used as a shock force when closing into combat after the light horse archers softened the enemy.

Sources; The Mongols by S R Turnbull, The Mongols by David Morgan, Mongol Warrior 1200-1350 by Stephen Turnbull, Khublai Khan: His Life and Legacy by M Rossabi.

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Mangudai "God Belonging", was a term for the advanced scouts who went ahead of the army to spy out the land. It was a "high risk" profession, but they weren't battlefield troops as such.

Keshik, is better translated as household. Temuljin's keshik is the best known but other leaders also had them. As well as the close bodyguard, night guard, arrow guard, dayguard (the elite batlefield unit of eight mingams from 1205) and 'heroes', the keshik was responsible for procuring, manufacturing, storing and issuing lances, shields, arrows and artillery (and other stuff).