Chapter 714: Breaking the Old and Welcoming the New

In 1223 AD, the Kipchaks in eastern ancient Russia were invaded by the Mongols, and the Russians, who felt the cold of their lips and teeth, decided to send troops to help, hoping to fight to the death with the Mongols on other people's land, so they were free from worries, so the principalities sent troops to form a huge Rus' coalition army, but this coalition army was purely feudal, each army was commanded by the feudal lords, each fighting for itself, and was full of hostility and distrust between each other, the overall combat effectiveness was greatly reduced, and the Europeans knew almost nothing about the Mongol army at this time, It is not clear how much the Mongols loved fighting on the plains...... So the final fiasco can be imagined.

At the beginning of the Battle of the Kalka River, Grand Duke Galic fought the Mongols for the first time, easily repelled the Mongol vanguard, and based on this, he came to the conclusion that "the Mongols were nothing more than that", and began to adopt a more aggressive strategy, leading the allied forces in full pursuit, leaving his fortress and reinforcements far away.

It was not until they reached the banks of the Kalka River that they met the main Mongol forces that had been waiting here for a long time, and in this wide plain, the forgetful Grand Duke Galich immediately organized a charge, but fell into the trap of the Mongols, and was shot by the Mongol cavalry like a play, and was unconsciously surrounded, almost completely destroyed, the already loose alliance immediately collapsed, and the princes retreated to the fiefdom with their own little family background, and the Mongol army took advantage of the victory to pursue and kill six princes, and surrounded the camp of the leader of the coalition Kiev Hou, after three days of siege, They surrendered under the bait of letting them go home, but were all slaughtered.

The defeat at the Battle of the Kalka River was seen by the Russians as a national disaster, and Russia, which had lost its main force, could no longer organize a decent coalition army, and 10 years later, in 1236 AD, during the second westward expedition of the Mongol army, it took only three years to occupy almost all of Russia. The Mongols slaughtered every city they breached, and 270,000 people were slaughtered in Moscow alone.

After the fall of Russia, the European countries were shaken, and new coalitions were established and "close" alliances were formed, and the Mongol general Su Butai realized at this moment that no matter which European country was invaded, it would be against the whole of Europe, and it would inevitably be besieged, so he simply divided his troops into four and marched in three ways in order to disperse the enemy and break each one; The middle route was in charge of Subutai himself, leading two main forces to march into Budapest; The left side is responsible for the protection and plundering along the road; On the right, Haidu led his troops north to Poland, which could support Budapest, where the first pivotal battle, the Battle of Valstadt, took place.

Henry, Duke of Poland, as the commander of the coalition forces, led an elite force of 40,000 troops consisting of Polish cavalry, Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller, and Teutonic Knights, with a total of 40,000 troops, to face 20,000 Mongol horsemen led by Haidu, and the two sides met in a decisive battle on the Varstadt Plain.

Henry divided his forces into four fronts, with the Polish cavalry forming the first two, the Teutonic Knights as the third, and himself forming the fourth front with the Templars and the Knights Hospitaller, launching wave after wave of fierce assault on the Mongol legions.

However, when the European cavalry easily rushed into the close Mongolian army, the Mongolian cavalry did not engage it head-on, while riding back and retreating, flexibly turned back and shot arrows, under the dense rain of arrows, the European knights suffered heavy casualties, it was difficult to advance, the spears in their hands were useless at all, and the first wave of Polish cavalry was almost all killed by bows and arrows.

Despite this, looking at the "retreating" Mongol cavalry, Henry actually thought that the Mongol army was cowardly, thinking that he had found a good opportunity to win, and organized the knights to rearrange and form an unusually wide front, and rushed towards the Mongol legions together, wanting to pursue the Mongols in the "escape".

However, in fact, in the continuous retreat, the main force of the Mongol cavalry had already quietly circled the sides and behind the Polish coalition army, surrounded the Europeans, and when the Mongol army poured out from all directions, Henry knew that he had fallen into the trap, and the battle really began at this moment, but in fact it was over, the surrounded Europeans were driven around by the Mongols like sheep, and the formation collapsed instantly, completely unable to form an effective impact, and they had become prey in the eyes of the Mongols at the moment, and were being wantonly slaughtered.

The so-called "encirclement must be que", the Mongols also deliberately released a gap in the encirclement, and the last fighting spirit of the Polish coalition army was completely collapsed, and they threw down their weapons and fled towards the gap, and were easily shot in the back by the Mongols one by one. After this battle, the Knights Templar were almost completely wiped out, the Knights Hospitaller suffered heavy casualties, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights was seriously wounded and killed, the Polish coalition suffered about 25,000 casualties, and the Mongols cut off the left ear from the heads of the fallen and counted the number of kills, which was enough to fill nine sacks.

The defeat of Valstadt made Hungary the last bastion of Central Europe, and the two sides fought a second key battle on the banks of the Shoyo River, where the first Mongol general Subutai once again used the tactics of luring the enemy deep into the siege of the Europeans, 100,000 European troops were destroyed in an instant, and more than 100,000 people were slaughtered in the city of Budapest. ”

After the two victories, the Mongol army had arrived in Venice, and the countries of Western Europe were very frightened, and they were busy organizing self-help armies, and fell into chaos, but at this time, the news of the death of the Mongol Great Khan Okodai suddenly came, and the lives of the Europeans were saved, according to the Mongol tradition: "The Great Khan died of illness, and all the men of Mongolia outside the country must return to the steppe to participate in Kuritai and elect a new Great Khan." Subutai thus led the Mongol army to retreat to the steppe.

After that, the Great Khan Möngke launched the third and final Mongol expedition to the west, but this time the opponent was mainly ***, and the Mongol army first successfully conquered most of Persia and began to rule for hundreds of years; Later, he targeted the Assasin faction of the Assassin state, captured hundreds of fortresses, and finally slaughtered all their people; Continue to attack west to occupy Baghdad, massacre, destroy the Abbasid Empire, 7 months later captured Damascus, at this time the whole world only Egyptian Mamluk armed forces can fight, the situation is precarious, but history once again dramatically repeated, the Mongolian Khan Meng Ge was injured and died during the expedition to the Diaoyu City in Sichuan in the Southern Song Dynasty, limiting the momentum of the Mongol army's westward march to destroy the world, and the Khans of the Mongolian army had to return to the steppe again to compete for the throne.

The three western expeditions of the Mongols brought great disasters to the Christian world and the world, and the slaughtered were countless, but they also objectively forcibly terminated the Crusades, which lasted for more than 200 years.