The most tragic war in the history of the Mongol conquest
Last review: Revealing the rise and fall of Kievan Rus': What is the fate of the Vladimir Principality after **? Since the 13th century, the Grand Duchy of Kievan Rus' has become a number of countries, and the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal has become the most powerful of them, and we will continue to tell the story of how the Mongols destroyed the regime of Kievan Rus', and we will also introduce the Kingdom of Galicia and the Novgorod Republic in the follow-ups.
On a snowy night in 1223, a group of mysterious Orientals rode to the castle of the lords of the Duchy of Galich, and the leaders took off their hoods and revealed their eastern faces.
Koten, one of the khans of the Kipchak nomadic tribal alliance, suddenly visited his son-in-law, Grand Duke Galich, "the bold" Mstislav. He brought with him the urgent news that a troop of cavalry had appeared in the east, leaving nothing but death and destruction in its reach.
With fear in his eyes, Khan warned: "These terrible strangers are taking over our country. Tomorrow, if you don't come to our aid, they will also occupy your homeland! ”
The lights flickered in the wind, and the howl of wolves in the distance added to the bleakness.
Five years ago, the clock of history pointed to 1218 AD, when the Mongol Empire was in the midst of a fierce battle with the Jin Dynasty. At the same time, the Khorezm dynasty, located in western Mongolia, was adjacent to it.
Khorezm, the name ** from the Turkic word meaning "boiled fish", was originally just a geographical name that later evolved into an independent state, created by the Sunni Turkic people.
The Khan intended to seek cooperation with Khorezm, and sent a camel caravan of about 450 men to this end. However, on their way to their destination, they were intercepted by the governor of the city of Tatara, Yinalsu, who directly killed all the caravan members, and only one survived.
Despite this, the khan still did not want to turn against Khorezm, but once again sent an emissary in the hope that Sultan Allah Adin Muhammad II would punish **.
The Sultan planned and ordered the Mongol caravans of the Yinalsu**, whom he believed to be a disguise for the Mongol invasion. To this end, he beheaded the chief envoy and shaved the beards of the two lieutenants and drove them away.
Genghis Khan was greatly humiliated by this and decided to immediately attack Khorezm.
I'll use my talent to help you rewrite this text to make it more appealing while keeping the original meaning. Here's the new copy: Why should I delve into this incident?
This was the Mongol Empire's first westward expansion, and it was also a turning point for them to move from a nomadic regime in East Asia to a diverse ethnic and cultural empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa.
Although we call it the Mongol Empire today, there was no such thing at the time. It took only two years for the Mongols to destroy the Khwarazm dynasty, and Genghis Khan's cavalry looked west from Samarkand, and at that moment, they began their journey to conquer the civilized world.
Ogedai ordered Batu to lead the army of Jochi's second son to attack Europe westward.
The westward expedition of the Mongol army, led by Batu in the Aral steppe and the Ural Mountains, was also the "firstborn westward expedition". Under the leadership of Hülegü, the Mongol Empire destroyed the Arab Empire and established the Ilkhanate.
However, on 3 September 1260, the Mongol Empire lost to the Mamluks of Egypt at the Battle of Ain Jaru, ending the expansion of the Mongol Empire to the west.
Subutai, a 60-year-old veteran, was the true leader of the Second Western Expedition. Throughout his life, he fought in the north and south, covering Korea, Poland and Persia, leaving behind countless outstanding military exploits.
In the Second Western Expedition, the Mongol army was deployed with a strength of 13-150,000 troops, of which the Mongols accounted for less than 30,000. The war began in the autumn of 1236 with a conflict between the Mongols and the Bolgars of the Volga Valley, the founders of the Kama Turkic State.
At first, the conflict was not well documented, except for the Arab historian Ibn Adil briefly mentioning that in late 1223 a small Mongol army clashed with the Bulgarian army several times.
In the course of the battle, the Mongol army showed great strength, and they completely wiped out the Kama Turkic state. After attacking Bilar, Bulgaria's second largest city, the Mongol army slaughtered all the city's people, whether monks or babies, robbed them of everything and burned one of the most prosperous cities in the Volga Valley.
The Mongol army went down the river and began an offensive against the Kipchak tribal alliance. The leader of the Kipchak tribal alliance, Hulu Suman, surrendered directly to the Mongols, while another leader, Bachiman, firmly confronted the Mongols.
However, in the end, he was captured alive and put to death. Some of the Kipchaks fled to Europe and became mercenaries; The other part was joined by the Mamluks.
In the spring of 1237, the Mongols succeeded in capturing the capital of the Alans, and the southern Kipchak steppe was annexed by them, thus opening the gates of Kievan Rus'.
Regarding the military prowess of the Mongols, I am sure that most viewers will be surprised and curious about this at **this**. Here I would like to state my point of view in advance and give some brief analysis.
However, due to space constraints, I am not able to elaborate. To put it simply, I think there are several reasons for the strength of the Mongols: First, Genghis Khan's political feat of unifying the Mongol tribes.
He succeeded in uniting the previously scattered and powerful forces, and further institutionalized the steppe cavalry by establishing the Cowardly Xue Army and promulgating the Great Zasa Order.
1.The Mongol army was in the lead among all the armies of its contemporaries, in terms of mobility, cohesion, and efficiency of assembly. Their great mobility allows them to choose the battle terrain in their favor and deliver fierce attacks on enemy weak points.
In addition, they are able to easily form a local advantage of playing more and playing less. The tactics of the Mongol armies were often to retreat quickly after a defeat and inflict heavy losses on the enemy after a victory.
2.The Mongol army was unrivaled in mobility, cohesion and efficiency of assembly among all the armies of its time. Strong mobility allows them to choose the terrain that is favorable to them for battle, to carry out onslaught on the enemy's weak points, and at the same time easily form a local advantage in terms of fighting more and fighting less.
Their tactics are usually to retreat quickly after losing a battle, and to inflict heavy losses on the enemy after a victory.
1.Powerful disintegration forces, defeat the enemy one by one, and widely absorb the elites of various ethnic groups to serve them. 2.When the Mongols rose, it coincided with the Xiaoice Age, which made pastures from East Asia to West Asia more extensive, further reducing military costs.
3.During the same period, all the major civilized countries were in a phase of civil strife, ** or decline, and none of them could have the same unity and cohesion as the Mongols.
6.The Mongols fought by taking in large numbers of prisoners of war and unknown soldiers, including driving women and children to attack cities. In this way, while disintegrating the enemy, it can also reduce the losses of the nation, so as to achieve the goal of nourishing the war with war and constantly strengthening itself.
7.The Mongol army was ruthless, slaughtering anyone who resisted wherever they went. Even if the other party does not resist, they may be **.
The decrease in population made the rear more stable. 8.The Mongols were pure conquerors, and they had a love for the war itself. Particularly in non-core areas, they seldom consider the establishment of the grass-roots administrative units needed for long-term rule.
For the conquered regions, they simply demanded that the local people pay the corresponding taxes. As a result, the Mongol Empire's war machine was extremely costly to run and extremely profitable.
The Mongol army possessed the pinnacle of military technology, including a variety of siege equipment, rations, horses, and armor**. However, the challenge is that once they stop fighting and try to rule the territory, the first problem is that the people they conquer are more civilized than they are.
Although cultures such as poetry and songs, the Four Books and the Five Classics were useless on the battlefield, the Mongols could not kill them. Instead, they must embrace these cultures, or they will not be able to establish effective rule.
As a result, the Four Great Ulus were quickly assimilated, and then quickly degenerated and died out in song and dance. After the Mongolian cyclone swept across Eurasia, it eventually returned to the steppe.
The Mongols looked for a pretext for war, and even the enemy would take the initiative to create it for them. For example, Koten, one of the Kipchak Khans, was unwilling to submit to Mongol rule and fled to Kievan Rus' to warn his son-in-law, Grand Duke Galich.
Grand Duke Mstislav knew that the Kipchaks were known for their fierceness, but now their opponents were unfathomable.
Faced with the great threat of a mysterious adversary, Mstislav did not underestimate the enemy, put aside his grievances and formed an alliance with the Kipchaks, and won the support of Kyiv Mstislav III and Vladimir Yuri II.
The Mongols, waiting for the main reinforcements of Jochi, did not rush to attack the Rus for the time being, but sent emissaries to express their will for peace. However, the Grand Duke of Kiev had the Mongol envoy executed, and the war broke out.
The exact number of the combined Rus-Kipchak army is difficult to determine, but is estimated to be between 45,000 and 80,000, while the Mongol army had about 23,000 men. As with most tragic battles, the Rus' coalition forces, despite their outnumber, were not unified in command.
The major dukes had serious disagreements over their tactical choices, which eventually led them to fight on their own. The Mongols lured the combined Rus' forces into pursuit with decoys, and the two sides went head-to-head near the Kalka River near the Sea of Azov.
There is no need to elaborate on this process, as the Rus' lack of cooperation created an excellent opportunity for the Mongols to break down one by one. Even at the most dangerous juncture of the Rus' coalition army, the Grand Duke of Kiev with 10,000 people chose to preserve his strength.
Having defeated the main forces of the coalition forces, the Mongols surrounded the Kiev army and promised them that they would survive as long as they surrendered. However, this promise was not fulfilled, and the Mongols turned their faces after entering, resulting in the total annihilation of the Kiev army.
Although the exact losses of the combined Rus' forces are not clearly recorded, the Novgorod chronicle states that the coalition forces lost more than half of their troops. In this battle, only the Grand Duke Galich led the guards to break through desperately, while the other nine Grand Dukes were packed into felt blankets and pressed under the floor, and the Mongol nobles held a celebratory banquet on them, which eventually crushed all the people below.
The Battle of the Kalka River took place on 31 May 1223, the first battle in which the Orientals had completely eliminated the regular army since Attila. After the Mongols conquered Volga-Bulgaria, they attacked Kievan Rus with all their might, eliminating their worries and calling the former "Uras".
However, the Rus' kings were not well prepared and continued to engage in quarrels and infighting. Although we cannot be harsh on them, we can see their shortcomings from God's perspective.
Before the official Mongol invasion, Kievan Rus** became 56 principalities and 1 kingdom, and the princes recruited civilians to fight with a core of several hundred personal soldiers, and the elite personal soldiers could be equipped with high-quality armor** and trained, but other conscripts could only fight in cloth clothes or simple leather armor.
Vladimir, Ryazan, and Smolensk, which had completed feudalism in the early days, had standing armies. The Mongol army was led by five kings, Batu, Baidar, Guiyu, Möngke, and Korejian, who were collectively known as the Jochi Ulus, or Jochi tribes.
The total number of Mongol troops was between 10,150,000 men, of which less than 30,000 were Mongols, and the rest were servant armies of the conquered areas. In the autumn of 1237, Batu's army approached the city of Ryazan.
He sent emissaries to demand tithes from the Grand Duke of Ryazan, Yuri Igorevich, and pledged allegiance. Yuri, however, refused, and warned: "If we surrender, you will occupy all the Rus' lands." ”
Aware of the dangers of peace negotiations, Yuri I decided to send his son Fedor as an envoy to the Mongols to reconnoiter their strength. However, at the Mongol banquet, Batu made an unreasonable request: he asked Fedor to send his wife to Khan's bed.
Fedor resolutely refused, so the Mongols brutally murdered all the envoys. They demanded Fedor's wife, just for a kind of humiliation, and the war was already inevitable.
Yuri I gathered troops on the Voronezh River on the border and waited for reinforcements from Vladimir in the north. However, Grand Duke Yuri II of Vladimir despised the Mongols and was reluctant to send troops to their aid, thereby weakening Ryazan's combat effectiveness.
Yuri I led his army to stubbornly resist and inflict certain losses on his opponents, but in the end he was defeated. The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan records that the Grand Duke of Ryazan was killed in this battle, but other chronicles record that he died in the defensive battle of the city of Ryazan.
From December 16 to 21, 1237, the defense of the city of Ryazan was empty and lasted only five days. After the fall of the city, the Ryazans put up resistance in the streets and stone churches, but none of them could change the fate of the defeat.
The tragic history of the city of Ryazan has become a brutal portrayal of the merciless killing of the Mongols. What was once a vibrant city is now nothing but ashes. The fall of Ryazan was a wake-up call for the cities of Central Rus', and it foreshadowed an even greater crisis on the horizon.
Grand Duke Vladimir only really realized the seriousness of the problem after the destruction of Ryazan. He immediately sent his most elite troops, led by his two sons, to the city of Kolomna for defense.
On January 1, 1238, the Mongols launched a fierce attack on Kolomna, and the battle between the two sides was extremely fierce, and the young son of the Mongol Great Khan Genghis Khan died heroically in the battle.
Despite the full resistance of the Rus' army, they were eventually defeated by the Mongols and fled to a small city. On 20 January, the Mongol army succeeded in capturing the city, which would later become the capital of Russia.
On 7 February, the city of Vladimir fell, and on 4 March, Grand Duke Vladimir gathered his forces to fight the Mongols in a desperate battle at the Sit River, only to be completely annihilated again.
The Mongols then plundered, destroying at least 14 Rus' cities, with the exception of Novgorod and Pskov. One of the cities, Kitezh, is said to have been prayed by the Mongols before the Mongols prayed when a spring gushed out of the city, engulfing the city in a lake.
And this story is the inspiration for the final chapter of Tomb Raider Rise - Kit City**.
When the torrent of Mongol iron cavalry surged, the power of the entire central Kievan Rus' was unstoppable. In December 1240, the bells of fate rang in Kiev, and the city's 50,000 people were tragically killed by 48,000 people, and 36 of the 40 important buildings were burned.
The end of this battle marked the end of the main battles of the Second Mongol Expedition in Karas, and also marked the end of the Kievan Rus' regime. In order to comply with the Great Khan's will to "fight to the sea", the Mongol army once again waged war against Galicia, Poland, and Hungary.
Although the Galician kingdom ** Neil I fought hard, the disparity in strength made it impossible for him to resist. Eventually, he chose to travel to Sarai in 1246 to pledge allegiance to Batu in the hope of gaining asylum.
Although space is limited, we cannot go into detail about the war in Hungary. The story of the Mongol invasion of Poland will be described in detail in this article on Poland in the future. After the withdrawal of troops from Eastern Europe, the Mongols established the Jochi Ulus regime in the lands of the former Kievan Rus', and the Aral Sea in the east was ruled by Batu's elder brother Urda, known as the Orda Ulus.
The main area to the west is, of course, the Batu Ulus, also known as the White and Blue Tribes. Somewhere in the lower reaches of the Volga, Batu established the city of Sarai as its capital.
The word Sarai is derived from the Persian word meaning palace.
While delving into the reasons for the success of the Mongol expansion and detailing the decline and fall of the Kievan Rus' regime, we have prepared a wealth of knowledge for you. In the next issue, I will explain in depth the influence of the Ulus of Jochi on Rus' civilization, reveal the rise of Muscovy, and tell the story of how the Grand Duke of Moscow successfully defeated the Mongols and finally unified the Rus'.