How the Mongols Actually Won Battles

In the spring of 1223 the princes of Rus chased a Mongol army across the steppe for eight or nine days. At a small river called the Kalka the riders turned around, and only one man in ten came home. Eighteen years later the same move destroyed two more armies in a single week: Duke Henry of Silesia at Legnica on 9 April 1241, and King Béla IV of Hungary at Mohi on the river Sajó on 11 April. Worked out here on the map: - The chase from the Dnieper, and how the Mongol army was built: tens, hundreds, thousands, the tumen, spare horses - Jebe and Subutai's ride round the Caspian and over the Caucasus, the Cumans, Köten's warning and the murdered envoys - The nerge hunt, the training behind the chase - The Kalka: the Cumans break, the princes are beaten one at a time, three days on the hill, Ploskinia's oath and the boards - Legnica: the knights pulled away from their foot soldiers - Mohi: the pull-back from Pest, the night fight at the bridge, the seven stone-throwers, Shiban's ford, Subutai late, and the open gap in the ring Where the sources disagree (8 or 9 days, who attacked first at the Kalka, Batu or Subutai at Mohi, the late Polish details of Legnica, why the Mongols left in 1242) the video gives both sides. Shield Theory takes one battle or commander at a time and works it out on the map: ancient and medieval battles, tactics and the generals who won them. If you want the next one, subscribe. CHAPTERS 0:00 The chase across the steppe, 1223 0:38 The chase begins at the Dnieper 1:07 How the Mongol army was built 2:03 Jebe and Subutai ride west 2:45 Köten and the princes of Rus 3:38 The nerge, the great hunt 4:02 The battle of the Kalka, 31 May 1223 4:59 Three days on the hill 5:42 1237-1241: the Mongols come back 6:17 Legnica, 9 April 1241 7:08 Mohi: the pull-back from Pest 7:50 The night fight at the bridge 8:19 Dawn: the stones, the ford, Subutai late 9:08 The ring and the open gap 10:11 Why they left, 1242 10:30 How the Mongols won SOURCES Novgorod First Chronicle (Michell & Forbes 1914); the Hypatian and Laurentian chronicles (the tale of the battle on the Kalka) John of Plano Carpini, Ystoria Mongalorum, ch. 6-8 (transl. Hildinger 1996) Thomas of Split, Historia Salonitana; Master Roger, Carmen miserabile; Juvaini, History of the World-Conqueror; Rashid al-Din; Yuan shi (biography of Subutai); Ibn al-Athir Jan Długosz, Annals (15th century, used only where the video says so) Büntgen & Di Cosmo 2016 (the 1242 winter) Numbers: army sizes at all three battles are uncertain; the chronicles' figures are often exaggerated. About 10,000 Hungarian dead is from a German note written soon after Mohi. #Mongols #MilitaryHistory #MedievalHistory