In the Penza region, during archaeological excavations, traces of an unknown battle dating back to the 13th century and the ruins of a fortress dating from the same time were found. There is not a single mention of a battle in these places in the chronicles. Found an incredible amount of weapons, jewelry, armor and various utensils. How did it happen that for over 800 years such historical treasures lay untouched in the ground, and the warriors were not buried?
In August 1227, the great conqueror Chinkhiskhan died. But with his death, aggressive raids on other countries did not stop. Genghis Khan had many successors, but his grandson, Batu, was the most fortunate. He went with his horde to the Great Western Campaign, which is called in the historical chronicles - the invasion of Batu.
Batu was well aware that the victory over the Polovtsian and Russian troops in 1223 (the battle on Kalka) did not mean complete submission to Kievan Rus and the Polovtsians. It was necessary to confirm their right to strength, and to replenish their treasuries with new riches. The only thing that held back Batu from an immediate campaign was the war with the Xi-Xia Tangut state and the Jurchen empire of Qin.
After the main fortresses of the enemies were taken, Batu began to prepare for a great western campaign. Batu gathered in 1235 a congress of the nobility (kurultai), at which a decision was made to march to the west. The commander was appointed an experienced military leader from the former entourage of Genghis Khan - Subedei-Bagatur, who had previously been directly involved in the Battle of Kalka.
The total number of troops was small - only 40 thousand soldiers. This was due to the fact that the empire needed soldiers to maintain order in the already occupied territories: there were 60 thousand in China, 40 thousand soldiers were serving in Central Asia, whose main duty was to pacify the Muslims. An urgent mobilization was carried out for the campaign, taking the eldest son from each family.
For each warrior there were three horses (fighting, riding and pack), siege weapons and numerous carts moved behind the soldiers. As further events confirmed, the number of people and horses was optimal for a long hike across the steppe, the resources of which are not unlimited, and only so many people and animals could not let them die of hunger.
In this regard, we can recall the famous campaign in 1941 on the rear of the Germans by the Russian corps under the command of General Dovator. The raid passed through the forests and the forest could not feed such a number of people gathered in one place: people were experiencing hunger and lack of water.
It must be admitted that the experienced warriors of Genghis Khan turned out to be much more experienced in organizing long campaigns than the famous commander of the Red Army. Therefore, the 40,000-strong army of the Mongols was the most optimal in terms of the number of soldiers.
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The time for the invasion of Subedei-Bagatur and Batu was chosen very well: winter was beginning, and snow could replace water for people and horses. The troops of the Mongol conquerors crossed Mongolia, passed the mountains and Kazakh steppes, the Usyurt plateau, and finally reached the Volga. After passing 5 thousand kilometers of bagatur in the fall of 1236, they found themselves on the banks of the great river, but there they did not manage to rest from the difficult campaign. The thirst for revenge on the Volga Bulgars, who in 1223 "dared" to defeat the army of Subedei-Bagatur, provoked them to immediately storm the fortified Bulgar city. The Mongols destroyed it and forced the surviving inhabitants to bow their heads in front of Batu. Other Volga peoples also submitted to the invaders: the Bashkirs and Burtases.
Batu with his army brought grief and tears to the Volga peoples, destroyed everything that had been created for centuries. Emboldened, the Mongol conquerors moved towards the Russian lands. Part of the troops of the Mongol aggressors went south under the leadership of Genghis Khan's grandson Möngke Khan to defeat the Polovtsian Khan Kotyan. Batu himself moved with another part of the army towards Ryazan. At this time in Russia, there was a constant war between various principalities, which considered themselves independent and did not obey the Kiev prince. It should be noted that this period of feudal fragmentation was typical not only for Russia, but also for all of Europe.
Once on the border of the Ryazan principality, Batu sent parliamentarians with a demand to provide him with horses and food for the army. Prince Yuri, who ruled in the Ryazan lands, refused and decided to fight the enemy. Soldiers from Murom came to his aid. But when the Mongolian lava moved on the defenders of the city, the Russian squads wavered and hid behind the walls of Ryazan. The city was not ready for a serious siege and only lasted 6 days. The princely family died, the city was plundered and destroyed.
While the Mongols were celebrating the victory over Ryazan, the Vladimir prince Yuri Vsevolodovich gathered a squad, which included Chernigov, Novgorod and the remaining Ryazan regiments.
Russian troops met the Mongols in January 1238 near Kolomna. For three days the Russians fought against the Mongol conquerors. Vladimir Voivode Eremey Glebovich died. Prince Vsevolod took the remnants of the army to Vladimir, where he had to appear before the strict court of his father, Yuri Vsevolodovich.
The next to fall under the pressure of the Mongol conquerors were Kolomna and Moscow. Further, the horde moved to the city of Vladimir. Prince Vladimirsky tried to resist the enemy with small forces. But the city was able to hold out for only 8 days. The entire princely family and most of the inhabitants died. The invaders destroyed and burned the city itself.
Torzhok became the next target of the Mongols. His defenders hoped to get help from Novgorod until the last moment. But the Novgorodians discussed the situation at the veche for too long and were late with their help: Torzhok fell before the conquerors.
Although the Mongols marched victoriously across the land of the Rus, they did not go to Novgorod, but turned south. A possible reason for this step was the beginning of the spring thaw and fatigue of Batu's soldiers.
The first city that gave a worthy rebuff to the Batu horde was the Russian city of Kozelsk. The Mongols surrounded the city and made several attempts to storm Kozelsk. For a long and difficult seven weeks, the inhabitants held back the attacks of the Mongols, while repeatedly making successful sorties, causing tangible damage to the enemy.
Only after additional forces of the Mongols approached the city, and all the male soldiers died, and on the walls of the city they were replaced by children and women, the aggressors captured the city. The angry warriors of Batu destroyed all the surviving residents of the city. Although the Mongols won, the defense of Kozelsk undermined the forces of Batu's horde, and the Mongols quickly marched back to the Volga. Here they rested and replenished their thinned ranks with human resources, placing the Rus and Bulgars in line. They again moved west on the second campaign.
It must be said that Russian cities tried to offer serious resistance to the invaders. Some heads of cities preferred not to fight with them, but to pay off. For example, Volhynia and Uglich supplied the invaders with provisions and horses - for this Batu bypassed these cities.
The second trip to the Russian cities for the Mongols was less successful, because they had to go through the lands of the Russians already ruined by them. This time they have already reached the Dnieper, their main goal was Kiev. At that time Kiev, torn apart by internal strife, did not even have a prince who could lead the defense of the city. As a result of a two-month siege, the city fell to the army of Batu. The way to Poland and Hungary was open for Batu's troops.
Batu's horde had to split up: part of the Mongol army, led by Genghis Khan's grandson Baidar, moved to the Polish city of Lublin. There they sent their negotiators to the Poles, but they killed the ambassadors. Then the Mongols took the city by storm, and then went to Krakow, where they completely defeated the Polish troops who were trying to stop them. The Germans came to the aid of the Poles, but the combined Polish-German army was also defeated by the warriors of Tuman Baidar.
The Germans were lucky, Baydar did not go to their lands - Batu ordered him to go south and join his army in Hungary. There, a decisive battle took place between the Mongols and the 40,000-strong army of the Hungarian king Bel IV. And although the army of the Hungarian king outnumbered the Mongol horde, the Europeans were not familiar with the military tactics of the eastern conquerors. The Hungarian king did not doubt his victory, and a small detachment of Mongols, depicting a flight from his army, lured the Hungarian army to the Shayo River. At night, the Mongols surrounded the Hungarian camp, and in the morning they fired at the Hungarians from stone throwers, causing panic in the ranks of King Bel IV. The Mongols broke into the camp, and a brutal felling began.
The Hungarians could not withstand the onslaught of Batu's soldiers and fled. On the shoulders of these fugitives, the Mongols broke into the city of Pest. The Hungarian king fled to Austria, taking with him the entire state treasury. Hungary came under the rule of the Mongols. During 1241, the Mongol conquerors, having seized the territory of the Danube cities, reached the Adriatic Sea. Now their target was the Holy Roman Empire. Batu's army defeated the combined Austrian-Czech army. But the forces of the Mongol army were not unlimited, the exhausting battles weakened the army of Batu. In March 1242, the Mongol conquerors turned their horses eastward - Batu's campaign to Europe ended. Returning to the Volga, Khan Batu founded his headquarters - the city of Saray (80 km from modern Astrakhan). In 1256 the population of this city was already 75 thousand people. The city of Saray existed until the end of the 15th century.
Undoubtedly, Batu's campaign was a grandiose military and political event. Mongolian warriors traveled a rather difficult path from the Onon River to the shores of the Adriatic Sea. Despite the large number of military clashes, it would still be wrong to call this campaign an aggressive one, most likely, it was a usual raid for a nomadic tribe: they attacked cities, robbed, killed, but did not impose tribute on anyone.
The exceptions were the Chernigov and Kiev principalities. There the Mongol invaders collected taxes. But the population quickly found a way out of this situation - there was a massive resettlement of people to the north from these principalities. People mastered new lands for themselves, populating Tver, Murom, Ryazan, Vladimir, Moscow, Kolomna. After Batu passed here, destroying and burning out all living things, these lands began to gradually revive and thus the original Russian traditions moved to the new center of Russia.
The find in the Penza region, dating back to the western campaign of Batu, suggests that not all the events of those years are known to modern researchers and scientists. Perhaps the death of the Mongols was also associated with a serious military clash, in which the Russians defended their lands from the invasion of the wild Mongol tribe. In any case, the historical mystery of the find in the Penza region has not yet been solved.