The Mongols have a characteristic that everyone is familiar with, that is, slaughtering cities. From East Asia to West Asia and then to Europe, every city conquered, except for a few young and beautiful girls who were conscripted into the army, everyone else, including children, was beheaded.
Their slaughter city is more distinctive, the slaughter city is not caused by indulgence of military discipline, but with obvious political overtones, the slaughter of the city is to make the opponent submit. Before the siege of the city, they will generally say hello, surrender will not slaughter the city, do not surrender the consequences you think for yourself. But their lack of virtue is that if they do not surrender, they will inevitably slaughter the city, but they will not let them go if they surrender. Why? This is to protect the needs of the rear, they believe that it is not safe for someone to stay behind them, and they must kill all to be at ease.
Many people believe that the power of Mongolia began after Temujin, which is debatable. In fact, the Mongols have always been quite strong in combat, they are natural warriors.
The reason why this strong nation has never entered the stage of history is only because of its own division. And when Temujin solved this problem, its terrible destructive power and war capabilities were unleashed around the world like a wild storm.
It is not uncommon in history for culturally advanced peoples to be conquered by relatively backward nations, such as the demise of the Western Jin Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty. But there is a misconception that these backward peoples can become conquerors because their soldiers are brave and good at fighting, not because their military institutions are advanced.
In the eyes of those people, how could these barbarians, who did not even know a word, only by virtue of their so-called bravery, be superior in military strategy to the officers of a culturally advanced nation who had long been trained in systematic military theory?
As it turns out, they could be wrong. Military and economic development is often divorced, a phrase that has been proven many times by history.
The Mongol military system, though simple but practical, did not have the useless bureaucracy of the Southern Song Dynasty, and used small groups of cavalry to test and then attack the enemy's weak points by surprise attack. As soon as the attack is frustrated, withdraw immediately, and then seek the opportunity to break through from the side.
Mobility, which was the greatest advantage of the Mongol army.
What is even more unbelievable is that the weapons of the Mongol army are also more advanced than those of the Southern Song Dynasty, and they have the genius to invent the most terrible bow of the time, which can reach a range of up to three hundred meters, no matter how thick the armor is, it is difficult to resist. Only the most elite Southern Song Dynasty army equipped with the Divine Arm Bow could be compared.
But in war, weapons are never the most important, and the soldiers who fight are the key to victory or defeat. Fighting the Mongols was a painful one, because they did not fight directly with their swords, and their most important weapon was the bow and arrow. When you encounter the Mongol cavalry, your nightmare begins. Archery before the attack, archery during the attack, and even as he escapes, archery. You can't catch up, you can't fight, this kind of rogue-like play is enough to drive people crazy! This is why when the Mongol armies attacked Eastern Europe later, those Europeans who were far stronger than them were beaten to death. Basically, they were not hacked to death by swords, but by arrows.
The Mongolian frenzy swept the world, but Europeans seemed to be more self-disciplined, they thought that the reason for these terrible guys was because they had made too many mistakes, and God used the whip to teach himself, so they called the Mongols "God's whip". This honorary title was conferred for the second time in European history, the first time to attila, the Hun king.
Historians have given the Mongol army a very precise definition of this massacre — state terrorism. There also seems to be some people in the Mongol army who were quite fond of performance art, which was embodied in the Battle of West Asia, where the heads of those killed were cut off and piled into a triangular mountain.
They also have some black humor, such as after the capture of Baghdad, they locked the Supreme Leader Caliph in a house full of gold and silver jewelry, leaving him to starve to death.
They solved the problem of eating tens of millions of people all over the world, but in the most brutal way - massacre.
This is a terrible enemy, and their destructive power is extremely amazing. Here we'll enumerate a few numbers. These numbers are chilling to watch.
The figures of the remaining population at the time of the Mongol invasion of the Jin Dynasty are as follows:
At the time of the golden heyday (1207), there were 7.68 million households, and when mongolia extinguished the gold (1234), there were 870,000 households left, down 89%.
The figures of the remaining population of Mongolia at the time of the southern Song Dynasty are as follows:
In the sixteenth year of the Southern Song Dynasty (1223), there were 12.67 million households, and when the Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty, there were 9.37 million left, down 26%.
In this way, Mongolia was still quite lenient towards the Southern Song Dynasty, of course, there is a reason for this. The Mongol army's attack on the Central Plains was indeed severe, and it took twenty-two years (1205-1227) to destroy the Western Xia Kingdom and twenty-three years (1211-1234) to destroy the Jin Kingdom, which had swept the world.
So why did such a powerful Mongol Empire rule as a unified regime of north and south for less than a hundred years?
Because the Mongols loved to fight in their bones, Genghis Khan created great wealth for the tribal chiefs and great khans under him by frantically expanding, and once the war machine stopped, he could no longer grab things for the greedy hungry wolves under his command, and these subordinates would in turn tear the Mongol Empire itself, which was also the biggest drawback of the "Temujin model".
After the death of Genghis Khan, the Mongol Empire was divided into four khanates. The Mongol conquest movement brought countries and regions that had little contact in the past under the rule of the Great Khan. However, this kind of large empire is only a loose military-administrative consortium, and the regional and ethnic social structures within the empire are complex and diverse, the level of economic development is very different, the historical and cultural traditions are very different, and the Mongolian aristocratic group that has just crossed the threshold of civilization cannot overcome its own shortcomings, and even lacks the ability to integrate the economy and culture of the entire empire. Therefore, the great empire is bound to become a fleeting passerby.