The huge Mongol Empire created by the great Genghis Khan surpassed the space of the empires of Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander the Great many times. And she fell not under the blows of external enemies, but only as a result of internal decay …
By uniting the scattered Mongol tribes in the 13th century, Genghis Khan managed to create an army that had no equal neither in Europe, nor in Russia, nor in Central Asian countries. No land force of that time could compare with the mobility of its troops. And its main principle has always been attack, even if the main strategic task was defense.
The Pope's envoy to the Mongolian court, Plano Carpini, wrote that the victories of the Mongols depend largely not so much on their physical strength or numbers, but on excellent tactics. Karpini even recommended that European military leaders follow the example of the Mongols. “Our armies should be governed by the model of the Tatars (Mongols. - Author's note) on the basis of the same harsh military laws … The army should in no way be waged in one mass, but in separate units. Scouts should be sent in all directions. And our generals must keep troops on alert day and night, as Tatars are always vigilant like devils. So what was the invincibility of the Mongolian army, where did its commanders and privates begin those techniques of mastering the martial art?
Strategy
Before starting any hostilities, the Mongol rulers at the kurultai (military council. - Author's note) elaborated and discussed the plan of the upcoming campaign in the most detailed way, and also determined the place and time of the gathering of troops. Spies without fail mined "tongues" or found traitors in the camp of the enemy, thereby supplying the military leaders with detailed information about the enemy.
During the life of Genghis Khan, he himself was the supreme commander. He usually carried out the invasion of the captured country with the help of several armies and in different directions. He demanded a plan of action from the commanders, sometimes making amendments to it. After that, the performer was given complete freedom in solving the task. Genghis Khan was personally present only during the first operations, and after making sure that everything was going according to plan, he gave the young leaders all the glory of military triumphs.
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Approaching the fortified cities, the Mongols collected all kinds of supplies in the vicinity, and, if necessary, set up a temporary base near the city. The main forces usually continued the offensive, while the reserve corps set about preparing and conducting the siege.
When a meeting with the enemy army was inevitable, the Mongols either tried to attack the enemy suddenly, or, when they could not count on surprise, sent forces around one of the enemy flanks. This maneuver was called tulugma. However, the Mongolian commanders never acted according to a template, trying to get the maximum benefit from specific conditions. Often the Mongols rushed to feigned flight, covering up their tracks with unsurpassed skill, literally disappearing from the eyes of the enemy. But only as long as he did not weaken his vigilance. Then the Mongols mounted fresh spare horses and, as if appearing from the ground before a stunned enemy, made a swift raid. It was in this way that in 1223 the Russian princes were defeated on the Kalka River.
It happened that in a feigned flight, the Mongol army scattered so that it covered the enemy from different sides. But if the enemy was ready to fight back, he could be released from the encirclement, then to finish off on the march. In 1220, one of the armies of Khorezmshah Muhammad was destroyed in a similar way, which the Mongols deliberately released from Bukhara and then defeated.
Most often, the Mongols attacked under the cover of light cavalry in several parallel columns stretched along a wide front. The enemy column, which faced the main forces, either held positions or retreated, while the rest continued to move forward, advancing on the flanks and rear of the enemy. Then the columns approached, the result of this, as a rule, was the complete encirclement and destruction of the enemy.
The tremendous mobility of the Mongol army, allowing to seize the initiative, gave the Mongol commanders, and not their opponents, the right to choose both the place and time of the decisive battle.
To maximize the ordering of the advance of combat units and the fastest delivery of orders for further maneuvers to them, the Mongols used black and white signal flags. And with the onset of darkness, the signals were given by burning arrows. Another tactical development of the Mongols was the use of a smoke screen. Small detachments set fire to the steppe or dwellings, which made it possible to hide the movement of the main troops and gave the Mongols a much-needed advantage of surprise.
One of the main strategic rules of the Mongols was the pursuit of a defeated enemy until complete destruction. In the military practice of medieval times, this was new. The then knights, for example, considered it humiliating for themselves to chase the enemy, and such ideas persisted for many centuries, right up to the era of Louis XVI. But the Mongols needed to make sure not so much that the enemy was defeated, but that he would no longer be able to gather new forces, regroup and attack again. Therefore, he was simply destroyed.
The Mongols kept a record of enemy losses in a rather peculiar way. After each battle, special forces cut off the right ear of each corpse lying on the battlefield, and then collected it in bags and accurately counted the number of enemies killed.
As you know, the Mongols preferred to fight in winter. A favorite way to test whether the ice on the river could bear the weight of their horses was to lure the local population there. At the end of 1241, in Hungary, in full view of starving refugees, the Mongols left cattle unattended on the eastern bank of the Danube. And when they were able to cross the river and take away the cattle, the Mongols realized that the offensive could begin.
Warriors
Every Mongol from early childhood prepared to become a warrior. The boys learned to ride almost before they could walk, a little later they mastered the bow, spear and sword to the subtleties. The commander of each unit was chosen on the basis of his initiative and courage displayed in battle. In the detachment subordinate to him, he enjoyed exclusive power - his orders were carried out immediately and without question. Not a single medieval army knew such a cruel discipline.
The Mongol warriors did not know the slightest excesses - neither in food, nor in housing. Having acquired unparalleled endurance and resilience over the years of preparation for a nomadic military life, they practically did not need medical assistance, although since the time of the Chinese campaign (XIII-XIV centuries), the Mongolian army has always had a whole staff of Chinese surgeons. Before the start of the battle, each warrior put on a shirt made of durable wet silk. As a rule, arrows pierced this tissue, and it was drawn into the wound along with the tip, making it much more difficult to penetrate, which allowed surgeons to easily extract arrows from the body along with the tissue.
The Mongol army, which consisted almost entirely of cavalry, was based on the decimal system. The largest unit was the tumen, which included 10 thousand soldiers. Tumen consisted of 10 regiments, each with 1,000 men. The regiments consisted of 10 squadrons, each of which represented 10 squads of 10 people. Three tumens constituted an army or army corps.
An immutable law was in force in the army: if in battle one of a dozen fled from the enemy, they executed all ten; if a dozen fled in a hundred, they executed the entire hundred; if a hundred fled, they executed the entire thousand.
The light cavalry fighters, who made up more than half of the entire army, did not have armor with the exception of a helmet, were armed with an Asian bow, a spear, a curved saber, a light long pike and a lasso. The power of the bent Mongolian bows was in many ways inferior to the great English ones, but each Mongolian horseman carried at least two quivers with arrows. Archers did not have armor, with the exception of a helmet, and they were not necessary for them. The task of the light cavalry included: reconnaissance, camouflage, support of heavy cavalry by shooting and, finally, pursuit of a fleeing enemy. In other words, they had to hit the enemy at a distance.
For close combat, units of heavy and medium cavalry were used. They were called nukers. Although initially the nukers were trained in all types of combat: they could attack in a scattering manner using bows, or in close formation using spears or swords …
The main striking force of the Mongol army was heavy cavalry, its number was no more than 40 percent. The heavy horsemen had at their disposal a whole set of armor made of leather or chain mail, usually removed from defeated enemies. The horses of the heavy cavalry were also protected by leather armor. These warriors were armed for ranged combat - with bows and arrows, for close ones - with spears or swords, broadswords or sabers, battle axes or maces.
The attack of the heavily armed cavalry was decisive and could change the whole course of the battle. Each Mongolian horseman had from one to several spare horses. The herds were always directly behind the formation and the horse could be quickly changed on the march or even during the battle. On these short, hardy horses, the Mongolian cavalry could travel up to 80 kilometers, with carts, battering and throwing weapons - up to 10 kilometers per day.
Siege
Even during the life of Genghis Khan in the wars with the Jin Empire, the Mongols largely borrowed from the Chinese both some elements of strategy and tactics, and military equipment. Although at the beginning of their conquests, Genghis Khan's army was often powerless against the solid walls of Chinese cities, over the years the Mongols developed a fundamental siege system that was almost impossible to resist. Its main component was a large, but mobile detachment, equipped with throwing machines and other equipment, which was transported on special covered carts. For the siege caravan, the Mongols recruited the best Chinese engineers and created on their basis the most powerful engineering corps, which turned out to be extremely effective.
As a result, not a single fortress was an insurmountable obstacle to the advance of the Mongol army. While the rest of the army moved on, the siege detachment surrounded the most important fortresses and began the assault.
The Mongols also adopted from the Chinese the ability to surround a fortress with a palisade during a siege, isolating it from the outside world and thus depriving the besieged of the opportunity to make sorties. Then the Mongols went to the assault, using various siege weapons and stone throwing machines. To create panic in the ranks of the enemy, the Mongols unleashed thousands of burning arrows on the besieged cities. They were fired by light horsemen directly from under the fortress walls or from a catapult from afar.
During the siege, the Mongols often resorted to cruel, but very effective methods for them: they drove a large number of defenseless prisoners in front of them, forcing the besieged to kill their own compatriots in order to get to the attackers.
If the defenders offered fierce resistance, then after the decisive assault the entire city, its garrison and residents were subjected to destruction and total plunder.
“If they always proved invincible, then this was due to the courage of strategic plans and the clarity of tactical actions. In the person of Genghis Khan and his generals, the art of war reached one of its highest peaks”- this is how the French military leader Rank wrote about the Mongols. And, apparently, he was right.
Intelligence service
Reconnaissance operations were used by the Mongols everywhere. Long before the start of the campaigns, the scouts studied the terrain, weapons, organization, tactics and mood of the enemy army to the smallest detail. All this intelligence gave the Mongols an undeniable advantage over the enemy, who sometimes knew much less about himself than he should have. The intelligence network of the Mongols spread literally all over the world. Spies usually operated under the guise of merchants and traders.
The Mongols especially succeeded in what is now commonly called psychological warfare. They spread stories of cruelty, barbarity and torture of the disobedient on purpose, and again long before hostilities, in order to suppress any desire to resist in the enemy. And although there was a lot of truth in such propaganda, the Mongols were very willing to use the services of those who agreed to cooperate with them, especially if some of their skills or abilities could be used for the good of the cause.
The Mongols did not refuse any deception if he could allow them to gain an advantage, reduce their casualties or increase the enemy's losses.