Mongols At war
The horde Relied on The irresistible combination of hardy STEPPE Ponies AND Powerful composite Bows
“THE MONGOL WAY OF WAR WAS A POTENT COMBINATION THAT PROVED IRRESISTIBLE FOR MANY YEARS”
Subotai had at his command the perfect force with which to mount this daring raid. The Mongol army of Genghis’s day was without doubt one of the most formidable in the history of the world. its might owed much to its tactical and strategic coordination. The Mongols carefully organised their horsemen into mingghans, or regiments, of 1,000 men and, at Genghis's own direction, into much larger tumens, or corps, of 10,000 men. Coordination of these units, even when separated by long distances, was impeccable.
Mongol battle tactics were in line with standard methods of warfare practiced by eurasian steppe nomads for many centuries. Most Mongol warriors were horse archers, being only lightly equipped, bearing just a bow and wearing little or no armour. These were backed up by a small but hard-hitting corps of heavily armoured Mongol cavalry. These elite horsemen carried spears, swords and maces as their primary weapons, and both man and horse were clad in lamellar armour composed of small, stitched-together iron plates. very cleverly, they also wore silk shirts underneath their armour. When an enemy arrow penetrated, the silk conformed to the arrowhead, making extracting the missile easier and safer. Often, the greater injury was done to a man not by the initial impact of an arrow, but when the attempt was made to pull the barbed arrowhead back out through his flesh. The silk shirt alleviated this problem to a degree. A small buckler-type shield and lasso rounded out the panoply of the typical Mongol warrior.
Usually the heavy cavalrymen were tribal aristocrats, and their job was multifold. Their presence on the battlefield forced enemy infantry to close ranks to better defend against the threat of a charge. When bunched up, however, the enemy footsoldiers made themselves easy targets for Mongolian horse archers, who showered them with deadly arrows. if the enemy decided to adopt a looser formation to escape this rain of death, they would expose themselves to a heavy cavalry charge without the benefit of serried ranks. Once the opponent had been softened up by this incessant hail of missiles, with many dead and the survivors' morale wavering, the Mongolian armoured cavalry, screaming war cries, would charge home to deliver the death blow with a powerful charge.
The bow was the Mongol warrior’s mainstay weapon, and the success of Mongolian armies would have been unthinkable without it. Unlike the Welsh/english longbow that won outstanding fame at the battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt, the Mongolian reflex bow was of composite construction, made from glued bamboo, sinew and yak horn. When strung, the bow was stressed against its curve, allowing for the storage of a large amount of energy when the bowstring was drawn. The weapon was compact, powerful and well-suited to use on horseback. A typical Mongol warrior would carry two or three such bows with him on campaign. To protect the precious weapon from the elements, it was stored in a bowcase when not in use.
Arrows would fall upon the opponent in unrelenting torrents during battle, with the great majority being launched from horseback. in combat, the Mongols utilised the superior mobility that their horses granted them. Often they would encircle an opponent, the horse archers would dart in, loose their arrows and then gallop away. This was kept up with wave after wave of mounted archers, each one riding in, shooting and then being replaced by another. The effect was to keep up an incessant rain of arrows, allowing the foe no respite. The horse archer came prepared for extended combat, bringing some 60 arrows into battle with him. Half had narrow tips for better penetration, while the other 30 had broader heads for close-range use.
Movements over large, strategically significant distances were made possible by the large numbers of horses the Mongol army contained. each warrior brought as many as ten mounts with him, changing to a fresh one as required.
The Mongolian steppe pony was a small beast but extremely hardy. Unlike european warhorses, which required expensive, high-quality fodder, the steppe horse could subsist on the grass it found at its hooves and needed to drink water just once per day. it required no horseshoes, and was a docile beast too, not prone to straying, with legendary endurance. One report claimed that a Mongol horse could cross 950 kilometres (600 miles) in only nine days. When ridden, it bore a high-backed wooden saddle that allowed the horseman a very stable seat from which to shoot arrows.
One of the Mongols’ more effective tactics was the perennial nomad cavalry standby, the feigned flight. Once engaged in battle with an enemy, the Mongols would pretend to flee the field. The opponent, considering a retreating enemy to be a beaten enemy, would very often pursue, confident that victory was at hand. Yet this was all a ruse.
The Mongols were not really fleeing at all, just pretending to do so. The purpose of the feigned flight was to lure the enemy out of a defensive stance, to induce them to break ranks and give up the protection of ordered lines. The Mongols would then quickly return to the fray and cut down the surprised and now-disorganised pursuers.
Altogether, the Mongol way of war was a potent combination that proved irresistible for many years. Just why the Mongols, who were themselves only employing the same suite of tactics that steppe nomads had practised since time immemorial, were so much more successful than nearly all of their predecessors, is hard to say with any certainty. At root, the explanation must lie not with the tactics, which themselves differed in no substantive way, but with the people who practised them. The Mongols themselves were different from earlier steppe peoples because they had been united into a powerful tribal confederation by Genghis Khan. Khan took the previously disparate tribes, each composed of hardened warriors, and welded them into an effective fighting force led by excellent generals.