The hooves of our Mongol horses go everywhere. They climb to the heaven and plunge into the sea.
- Yelu Chucai
Chapter 5: The Tactics
The rapid expansion of the Mongol Empire was possible because of Chinggis Khaan's military, and political tactics.
Psychological Warfare
Chinggis Khaan's conquests were based not only on weaponry and battle tactics, but also on psychology. The wars that he fought were not only fought on the battlefield, but in the minds of his enemies. Many of his battles were won through the fearful whispers in the enemy camp.
As previously mentioned, he almost always gave the enemy a chance to surrender. If they did, all the citizens would become his vassals, and therefore fall under his protection. If they did not, he would carry out his promise and massacre the entire population. He would let one or two citizens survive, and escape to the next town to tell the tale of the Mongol terror. Through this method, many towns surrendered as soon as the Mongols arrived at their doorsteps.
He also relied on methods that made his army look bigger. During the night, each Mongol warrior would light 3 fires. This created the illusion that they were much bigger than they really were. During the day, he would order his men to tie objects to their horses' tails so that they raised a cloud of dust, thus creating the illusion that their numbers were bigger.
For him, the way in which a victory was gained was not important. A victory was a victory, nonetheless. His army would sometimes feign a retreat. Once the enemy was confident and left their fortified cities to chase the Mongols down, other soldiers who were hiding would go into the city and destroy it.
Many times, his soldiers would disguise themselves as governors or leaders of their enemy, and cause strife within. The enemy would weaken because of internal conflicts, and it became easier for the Mongols to defeat them.
Military Tactics
The horse played one of the biggest roles in Mongol warfare.
Organization and Training
A vital part of the military was its organization. It depended upon strict obedience and firm discipline. Soldiers were divided into units of 10 (arban), 100 (zuun), 1000 (mingghan), and 10,000 (tumen). They were not allowed to change their unit and were expected to be completely obedient to their leaders. This created a sort of mini-armies in the main army, and often times, each unit would act as a separate unit, giving extreme flexibility during battle.
Individuals in the army were not micromanaged when completing a task. They were simply given a goal and a general direction. However, the whole army system depended upon an individual's loyalty to his unit and his Khaan. If one soldier fled during a battle, the other 9 in his arban (unit of ten soldiers) would face the death penalty together.
Mongol soldiers practiced archery, horsemanship, unit tactics and formations over and over again when they were not engaged in battle.
The most important part of the Mongol army was the cavalry: 6 out of 10 soldiers were cavalry. They had bows to take out the enemy with great ease, and could move extremely quickly. Even though their horses were smaller than their enemies', they had lighter armor, and could still outrun them. The horses were also durable and could go extremely long distances.
The other 4 soldiers out of 10 were heavily armored lancers who would take out the enemy at close distance once the cavalry had thrown the enemy into chaos.
Mobility
One of the main reasons for Mongol victories was the horse. The Mongol army was extremely mobile and swift. Each individual soldier typically maintained 3-4 horses. This meant that he could travel long distances without tiring out his horses and without stopping. While other European armies took along slow caravans that had their supplies, the Mongols had their horses. Along the road to battle, they could live off of the horses by eating their meat and drinking their milk. This made the Mongol army extremely swift, as shown by their invasion of Hungary in 1241, during which they travelled 160 kilometers per day. That speed was unheard of at the time!
Weapons
A modern Mongol Bow
The Mongol bow was an extremely efficient weapon. With a range of 500 meters, it was short enough to be used while on horseback. Its range and accuracy had no equal.
Mongol swords were similar to scimitars, but were slightly more curved. It was approximately 1 meter in length, and could be used from horseback.