Determination: A major expedition to the west
The invasion of the Chincha steppe and parts of Rus in 1220-1223 by Tetsubetsu and Subutai made sense of the mountains and rivers along the way, the country's strength, and other conditions, laying the foundation for a large-scale western expedition in the future. After Wokoutai succeeded to the Khan's throne, he first focused on the destruction of the Jin Dynasty. In 1234, the Jin Kingdom was destroyed under the combined attack of the Mongols and the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, in the following year (1235), Wokoutai convened the Kulitai Assembly and made a decision to go west again on a large scale.
Wokoutai Khan
In fact, when Wokoutai first ascended the throne, he sent an expeditionary force to the west, and the goal at that time was to fight against the former prince Zalandin, who was plotting to rebuild the Khwarazm State. After Genghis Khan's return to the east in 1224, Zalandin returned to Iran from India and soon regained Erman (between Samarkand and Bukhara), Isfahan and other places, and was supported as king by the old generals of Khwarazm and local princes. For the next four or five years, Zalandin captured all of Azerbaijan, occupied Taoli Monastery, invaded Guerdu (present-day Georgia), attacked Baghdad, and restored many of the places that had been captured by the Mongol army. Therefore, as soon as Wokoutai took the throne, he sent the archer Mahan to lead 30,000 troops to conquer Zalandin. When Qarmahan attacked Azerbaijan from Khorasan, Zalandin fled without a fight and died in the mountains of eastern Turkey in August 1231.
Stills of Zalandin, the prince of Khwarazm
When Wokoutai decided to launch a major expedition to the west in 1235 AD, since Qi'ermahan had already established a foothold in Central Asia, the main targets of the western expedition were concentrated in the Chincha steppe and the Rus' region, where many places had been swept by Zhebei and swiftly more than a decade ago. It is said that Wokoutai originally wanted to personally conquer the Chincha grassland, but at that time Möngke was beside him, saying that there was something that could be obeyed by his sons, so he gave up the idea of pro-conquest. According to Chagatai's opinion, he ordered the eldest sons of the various branches to participate in the Western Expedition, and each of the ten thousand households, a thousand households, and the hundred households of Nayan, as well as the eldest son of the princess and the horse, should all participate in the expedition. Wokoutai said: "The opinion of sending the eldest son on this expedition was put forward by Brother Chagatai. Brother Chagatai once said: Reinforcement of Subutai can make the brothers of the princes go out on a campaign. If you go out as the eldest son, the number of soldiers will be wide. The more soldiers, the more powerful they are. There are many enemies there, and the enemy country is widespread; the people of the country there are also powerful, and it is said that when they are angry, they can hack themselves to death with knives, and their weapons are also very sharp. According to the cautious words of Brother Chagatai, he sent his eldest son on the expedition" Because of the words of Wokoutai, some history books call this western expedition "the western expedition of the eldest son." However, the participation in the Western Expedition was not limited to the eldest son, and Rasht listed the names of the participants in the "Historical Collection", they were: Shuchizi Batu, Erda, Beerge, Xiban, Chagataizi Baida'er, Sun Buli, Wokoutaizi Guiyu, Hedan, Torazi Möngke, Baqi, and so on. Wo Kuotai clearly instructed: "The princes and ministers of these expeditions were led by Batu", so it was customary to call this western expedition the Western Expedition of Batu. The soul of the Western Expeditionary Army was Subutai, who had already had experience in the Western Expedition, and had once again shown his ability to unify the army in the War of Annihilation of Jin, which was enough to guide the kings.
Statue of Subutai
First Battle: Sweeping the Chincha Steppe
In the spring of 1236, Subutai and most of the kings who participated in the Western Expedition set out to the west, leading an army of about 100,000 people. They reached the territory of the Briars (Volga Bulgars) in the autumn to join the Battus Brotherhood, who had already arrived earlier. The Mongol army soon conquered the city of Briar, a large wooden castle that Subutai and Tetsubetsu attacked in 1223 without success. After this attack, the city was plundered and completely burned down. After the winter, the Mongol army descended the Volga River, and Banducha, the son of the chief of the Chincha tribe who lived in the Yulibury Mountains between the Volga and Ural rivers, led the people to return. Another Chincha chieftain, Bachiman, refused to surrender, was defeated by the Mongol army, and fled to hide on a small island in the Caspian Sea. When Möngke heard about it, he quickly went to the island, waded into the water, killed the Eight Red Barbarians, and slaughtered his people. Möngke then attacked the nearby Athodites.
The yoke of Tatars: the conquest of the Rus' kingdoms
In the autumn of 1237, Battus held a kuritai and decided that the kings would jointly conquer Rus' (Rus' in the 13th century was not the same as today's Russia, it included the middle reaches of the Dnieper River, and the capital of present-day Ukraine, Kiev). The Mongol army first conquered Mordovia, located in the northwestern part of the Volga Hills, and reached the Ryazan state. They first made a request to the Grand Duke of Ryazan, Yuri Igorevich, for all the inhabitants to pay tithes, but they flatly refused. Yuri Igorevich sent his men to the other grand dukes in the vicinity for help, and on the other hand sent his son Fedor to lead an envoy to Batu with gifts, but his efforts failed. On 16 December 1237, mongol armies besieged the city of Ryazan. After six days of fierce fighting, the city was captured on the seventh day. The Grand Duke was killed; the inhabitants were either killed or burned to death. "Nothing remains, only smoke, scorched earth and ashes." The Mongol army then circled around the Duchy of Vladimir via Kolomna and Moscow, where it defeated the army of Grand Duke Yuri Vshevolodović of Vladimir. At that time, Moscow was still small, the inhabitants did not resist, they were still slaughtered, and the grand duke who guarded the city was also captured. On February 3, 1238, the Mongol army arrived at the city of Vladimir, and four days later captured the city, plundering it and then setting it on fire. Yuri Fusevolodovich was out gathering an army, and the entire Duchy of Vladimir soon fell into the hands of the Mongols. On 4 March, Battu's army defeated the Rus' army on the Sizi River, and Yuri Vishevolodovich was killed. The next day, the Mongol army captured Torzhok. During this period, the Mongol army divided its forces and captured the cities of Rostov, Yaroslav, Gorodjets, Yuriev, Dmitryev, and Wallock.
The Mongol army attacked the city of Rus
In mid-March, the Mongol army advanced towards Novgorod, but was soon forced to retreat due to warmer climates, thawing lakes and muddy roads. Battus turned southeast on the loop and attacked the city of Kotursk along the way. It was a small town, but its soldiers and civilians resisted heroically, and it took seven weeks of bitter fighting before it fell, and the inhabitants were slaughtered. Further south from Kozilsk it enters the western chincha steppe. Chincha Khan was defeated and fled to Hungary with the remnants. The Battus army rested for a while in the Chincha steppe, then returned to Rus, advanced toward the Dnieper River, and destroyed the Principality of Peryaslavl. In the winter of that year, Möngke and Guiyu commanded troops to recruit the Asok people of the Kuban River and attacked the capital of Asok, and in March Fangke. The leader of Azov's army, Hang Kusi, led the crowd to surrender, and Möngke ordered his son Atachi and a thousand men of Azov's army to march.
Capture of the Princes of Rus
In the summer of 1240 AD, Möngke led an army to Kiev, and it is said that he was amazed by the beauty and grandeur of the city, did not want to destroy him, and sent emissaries into the city to persuade him to surrender. The Kievs killed the emissaries, and Mikhail, Grand Duke of Kiev, fled to Hungary. Despite the critical situation, the Princes of Rus did not forget the infighting. A prince of Smolensk was invited to power in Kiev, but was captured by Daniel, Grand Duke of Garic, who left Demiter to guard Kiev. Soon after, Battu personally led a large army to besiege Kiev. The Mongol army broke through the city walls with siege machines, rushed into the city, and fought the inhabitants near the church. Demiter was injured, and after the fall of the city he was pardoned by Battus for his bravery. The day Kiev was captured, one said it was November 19 and the other said it was December 6. Batu, Subutai, Möngke, Guiyu, Hu'erda, Baidar, Buli, and Hedan all participated in the siege campaign. After that, Guiyu and Möngke were recalled to Mongolia by Wokoutai.
Mongol heavy cavalry
Lignitz: Nine cannabis bags of ears
In the spring of 1241, the Mongol army continued its westward advance. They were divided into two groups, one led by Baidar and The Son of Subutai, Wuliang Hetai, who invaded Poland (Bale'er), and one led by Battu and Subutai invading Hungary. Poland was divided and the king was powerless to organize resistance. The Baidar army crossed the Vistula River in February, ravaging Sandomierz and Krakow, the Polish capital. Then enter Silesia, cross the Oder River, and attack the Silesian capital of Vlotsrav. Henry, Grand Duke of Silesia, gathered 30,000 Polish troops, Germanic soldiers and Teutonic Knights at lignitz and prepared to meet the enemy. The Mongol army was superior in numbers and equipment. On 9 April, the two armies engaged in the Plain of the Nice near Lignitz, where the Polish Teutonic Army was defeated and Henry was killed. Legend has it that Mongol soldiers counted the number of enemies killed on the battlefield, cutting one ear from each corpse, and filling a total of nine large bags. That month, the Mongol army entered Moravia and burned all the way to the present day at the junction of Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. Baidar also led an army to besiege the city of Lomuc in Moravian territory, and the soldiers and civilians in the city held firm and did not take it. On June 24, the military and civilians in the city raided the Mongol military camp, and the Mongolian army was unprepared and suffered heavy damage, and Baidar was killed. The Mongol army killed prisoners of war and worshipped D'Ardard, and three days later withdrew south and entered Hungary to join the Batu army.
Mongol army against the Knights of Lineton
Sayo River: The Fall of Pest City
The Battus army entered Hungarian territory in March 1241 and marched directly at the Hungarian capital, Pest. King Beira IV of Hungary had reigned for five years and was at odds with the princes and nobles. In 1239, Bella IV welcomed tens of thousands of people into the Mongol defeated Chincha Khan Kutan, who were harassed and resented by the indigenous people. These contradictions intertwined and weakened Hungary's fighting power. On 12 March, when the border general reported that the Mongol army had entered, Bella was summoning a meeting of princes and nobles in buda. He immediately asked the participants to recruit troops locally and gather their own armies to garrison the city of Pest (now known as Budapest) on the other side of Buda. The Mongolian army did not go to Pest City, continuous challenges, Bella could not hold out. At this time, the residents saw that there were many Chincha people in the Mongol army, so they suspected that Kutan was complicit with the Mongol army, so they killed Kutan and his around personnel. When the peasants in various places heard the news, they killed the Chincha people one after another, and the Chincha people also killed the Hungarians to avenge kutan, and there was great chaos in the country. Bella had hoped that the Chincha would form an army to fight the Mongols, but all of their hopes were dashed. In April, reinforcements arrived, Bella led the army to battle, and the Mongolian army retreated to the east of the Sayo River. Bella camped in hexi, there was a bridge nearby, thinking that the Mongolian army could only cross the bridge to attack, and sent a thousand people to guard the bridge. On the night of 10 April, Subutai smuggled a raft downstream, detoured to the rear of the Beira barracks, and Batu led the kings to cross the river from the upper shoals first, and set seven cannons to attack the bridge. At dawn, the Hungarian army found itself under siege, and the soldiers lost their morale and raced to take the road. The Mongol soldiers chased after them, killing countless enemies, and under the leadership of Subutai, they took advantage of the victory to attack the city of Peisi, killing all the inhabitants and setting fires.
Battle of the Bridge on the Sayo River
Vienna: The westernmost viewpoint
In the summer and autumn of 1241 AD, the Mongol army was stationed in the Hungarian plains east of the Danube River, cultivating soldiers and horses, and sometimes going out to plunder. In August, a Mongol army approached the new town of Vienna, where there were only fifty defenders and twenty crossbowmen. The Grand Duke of Austria and the King of Bohemia came to the aid, and the Mongols retreated. This was the westernmost point reached by the Mongol Western Expeditionary Army.
Balkan Chase: Pursuit of the Hungarian King
In December 1241, Battus crossed the Danube river with his army on ice and captured The Grand, another large Hungarian city, on Christmas Day. In early 1242, Battus sent Hedan to lead an army in pursuit of King Bella IV of Hungary. Bella fled to Austria first, and The Grand Duke of Vienna, Friedrich II, at first pretended to welcome him, but soon took advantage of the danger to persecute Bella in many ways. Overwhelmed, Bella fled Zagreb, Croatia with her family, and finally fled to an island on the Adriatic Sea. In pursuit, Hedan led his army to chase and plunder along the way, and in March he camped on the seashore to watch over the island where Bella lived. Soon after, the Mongol army marched into the Dalmatian highlands, taking Serbia to meet the Battus, at which point the news of Wokoutai's death had arrived and Batu was preparing to return east. They were stationed in the northern Caucasus Mountains for several months, and because the Chincha people rose up against Mongol rule and attacked Batu's brother Shenghuo'er, they needed to send troops to suppress it. In early 1243, the Batu army returned to its camp on the lower Volga.
Section
As a result of this expedition, a great power was formed on the vast expanse of the Chincha steppe and its neighbors, known in Central Asian sources as the Shuchi Ulus and in Russian chronicles as the Golden Horde.
The Russians' image of The Ruler of the Golden Horde, Battus
Evaluation of later generations
Modern Western historiography has given a very high evaluation to the combat capability of the Mongol Western Expeditionary Army, which was actually headed by Subutai. The English historian John Bagnell Bury (1861-1927 AD) once said: "It is only recently that European history has come to understand that the Mongol army that ravaged Poland and occupied Hungary in the spring of 1241 won because of a perfect strategy, not just because of numerical superiority." It is astonishing that the deployment of commanders in military operations stretching down the Lower Vistula river to Transylvania was so punctual and effective. Such a battle was completely beyond the capabilities of any European army at that time, and beyond the imagination of any European commander. In Europe, from Emperor Frederick II to his command, there is not a single general who is not a novice with shallow experience in strategy compared to Suobutai. We should also note that the Mongols were fully aware of the political situation in Hungary and the situation in Poland before engaging in this war — they obtained information with a well-organized system of spies — while the Hungarians and Christian states, like naïve barbarians, knew almost nothing of their enemies. ”
Map of the Situation of the Mongol Expedition to the West
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