The ancients often said that "soldiers are not tired of deception", in the history of ancient China for thousands of years, it can be said that this point can be interpreted vividly, in the early war, perhaps the ancients did not have much ideological awareness about tactics and the like, but in the later period of war, the ancients cared more and more about tactics and such things.
The right tactics can help the army to win more with less, the right tactics can also help the army to achieve more with less, and the inappropriate tactics may lead to the total destruction of the army, there are too many such classic battles in history, such as the Battle of Chibi, the Battle of Shuishui, of course, the Battle of the Sayo River is the same, 100,000 European knights against 60,000 Mongol cavalry, actually lost more than 70,000 people in just two days, why is this?
Victory of the Mongol cavalry at the Battle of the Sayo River
In 1236 AD, the Mongol commander Battu (grandson of Genghis Khan) and the pioneer Subutai led a mongol army of about 60,000 people on a western expedition, and the two swept across Eurasia during the western expedition, achieving many amazing achievements, and finally arrived in Hungary in April 1241, gathering a large army opposite Budapest in Hungary to wait for the conquest of Hungary.
Hungary also had a rather glorious moment in history, it can be said that they were as belligerent and very warlike as the Mongols, in the fifth century AD, Hungary under the leadership of the chief Attila swept across the European continent, people called it "God's Whip", enough to see how glorious Hungary was once.
However, after the passage of time, when the current Mongols swept across the Eurasian continent and came to the once invincible Hungary, the end of many things was more intriguing, when two strong people met, was it finally a narrow road to meet the brave to win?
The king of Hungary at this time was Bella IV, and when he learned that the Mongols were stationed across from Budapest, Bella IV was not panicked, after all, they were also in the country where they grew up on the battlefield, and they did not have much fear of war, and they also had 100,000 cavalry, which was not vain at all.
The armies of Battu and Subutai went to war with the Hungarian army, the two sides were deadlocked for a long time, Hungary relied on its superior geographical advantages, successfully blocked the attack of the Mongol army, how could they not attack the city of Budapest, just in this situation of indistinguishable victory and defeat, Subutai made a suggestion to Battus: first pretend to be invincible to the other side to retreat, in order to lure the other side's army out of the city, as long as they come out, the war will be easy to fight.
Battus listened to Subutai's advice and began to discuss tactics with Subutai, and after some careful arrangement, Battus decided to first send a relatively small army to attack the city of Budapest, pretending not to be able to defeat them when it was almost time, and then quickly retreating, while retreating and pretending to turn back to confront the Hungarian army, and when the Hungarian army was lured out of the city and the physical exhaustion was almost the same, Battus and Subutai then drove out the Hungarian army in two ways.
With such tactics in place, the next step is to see if Hungary will be deceived, if Bella IV is determined not to fight, then the tactics of Battus and others will be useless, but the real situation at that time was this, when the Hungarian army saw the few Mongol troops constantly retreating, they felt that the Mongol army was very small, and they had a hundred thousand troops, as long as they chased them out and annihilated them in one fell swoop, they could relieve their worries.
At first, Bella IV was still cautious and hesitant, fearing that he would be deceived, but at the insistence of some radicals, Bella IV shook his mind and led a large army to rush out of the city gate to pursue the Mongol fleeing troops, and this pursuit went farther and farther.
The Mongol army is actually more at ease with such a war, first of all, they are simpler than the Hungarian warhorse in terms of equipment, the Hungarian warhorse has thick armor on the side, and the Mongolian warhorse has no armor, so the consequence is that after the Hungarian warhorse goes farther and farther, the physical exertion is very serious, and once the Mongols launch a counterattack, they simply do not have enough physical strength to return to the city of Budapest.
This was true not only of the horses, but also of the Hungarian soldiers, who, though they had heavy armor and had an advantage in frontal warfare, would be the greatest burden in the long journey of war, and perhaps hungary did not expect to chase it so far.
Battus and the others watched as the Hungarian army gradually depleted, and when they felt that the time was ripe, on April 10, 1241, the army was divided into two routes and killed the Hungarian army according to the original plan, Battus was responsible for leading a group of men and horses to shell the troops guarding the bridge, while Subutai led a group of men and horses from the lower reaches of the river to sneak back to the rear of the Hungarian army to encircle, and the Mongol army that was initially chased by the Hungarian army also fought a great war with Hungary.
The Hungarian army realized that it had been deceived, and planned to flee quickly, but unfortunately, whether it was the east, south, or north, it was already surrounded by the Mongol army, and it was not easy for Bella IV to find the exit to the west with some elites, but when fleeing, it was chaotic, many soldiers rushed up to escape, in the panic, many people were directly trampled to death, only more than a thousand people escaped under the leadership of Bella IV, about 70,000 or so soldiers were annihilated by the Mongol army in just two days.
After this battle, Hungary's combat effectiveness was seriously weakened, and it was no longer able to resist the Mongol army, and Batu and others successfully rushed into the city of Pest and successfully took Hungary, laying the foundation for the later establishment of the Golden Horde in Batu. Many people thought the battle was surprising enough, so why did Hungary lose so quickly?
Why did Hungary fail so quickly
Presumably, judging from the details of the whole course of the war, in fact, we can easily understand the reasons for the defeat of Hungary, and I will analyze them in detail below:
The first reason for the Hungarian defeat was to act hastily, they did not know how many people the Mongol army was, how strong it was, and dared to lead a hundred thousand troops on a long journey to pursue the Mongol army, this decision was definitely the most important reason for the failure of the Hungarian army, if they left a back road, not so aggressive, perhaps there would be a glimmer of life.
Since ancient times, people like to say "know thyself and know each other, never lose a battle", Hungary began to send troops without knowing its own strength nor the strength of the enemy army, this action has almost determined its own fate and end.
The second reason was that Hungary's equipment was too complex to be suitable for such a war, the Mongol army had a variety of shells, and Hungary also imagined using the armor of its own army to achieve close combat, which was obviously a dead end.
Such equipment of the Hungarian army not only led to its own lack of opportunity to fight close to the Mongol army, but also led to its own physical exertion in the process of pursuing the Mongol army, giving the Mongol army the opportunity to easily take them later.
The third reason is that Hungary is seriously behind the Mongol army in terms of tactics, and the Mongol army has specially formulated the tactic of encircling on three sides according to the characteristics of the Hungarian army, leaving only one exit for the Hungarian elite to leave, and once the sheep lose their leader, the rest will become a scattered sand and be slaughtered, which is the cleverness of the Mongolian army's tactics.
The Hungarian army, on the other hand, had no strategic layout at the very beginning, and when it encountered danger, it was momentarily chaotic, in the panic, it lost its combat effectiveness in an instant, and even the dead soldiers were trampled to death by their own companions, which was simply sad.
It is by relying on this unconventional way of fighting that the defeat of the Hungarian army can be said to have been almost doomed from the very beginning, and the Mongol army at that time, not to mention that there were still 60,000 troops, was estimated to be less, and it was completely possible to win the war smoothly.
epilogue
Those classic battles in history rarely rely on brute force to win victories, most of them rely on tactics and wisdom, only these things can reduce the loss of a war to a minimum, and only these things can double the results with half the effort and achieve amazing results.
Remarks: The picture comes from the Internet, infringement must be deleted, welcome to comment to leave interesting ideas.