MONGOL CAMPAIGNS. This article deals with the military methods of the Mongols during their great period of conquest, and illustrates it by an outline of the chief campaigns in that brief but unparalleled span of 3o years wherein they overran the Asiatic and European continents from the Yellow sea to the Baltic and the Adriatic.
If we study a physical map of Asia and Europe, we can trace a vast belt of open and level territory, though of varying alti tudes, which stretches from the Yellow sea in the Far East to the Baltic sea and the Danube in the West. This chain of plains and plateaux is practically unwooded, and only broken by a few well defined mountain ranges. It is the trough of the world's migra tions, the path by which the great racial invasions have come to Europe and to China. Along it have passed the transcontinental routes of commerce, from the early caravans to the Siberian railway. But in even greater volume has it been the channel for armies, for it offers few obstacles to movement, and there uniquely the paramount principle of mobility has full rein.
In the centre of the continent lies the Mongolian plateau, barred by lofty and inaccessible Tibet from the fertile plains of India, but with comparatively easy access to the rich fields of China to the East, and of Western Turkistan and Russia to the West. This bare, bleak enclosure is the birthplace of the Turco-Mongol race, and the conditions of their environment have given the race their special characteristics. The European peoples became seafarers by reason of their lengthy coastlines and close touch with the sea. The Mongolian peoples became horsemen because constant and far-reaching land movement was necessary to obtain pasturage, and a warlike race because the barrenness of the land and the resulting migrations brought them into re peated conflict with other tribes and peoples. Long before the days of Jenghiz Khan, this lateral expansion of the Turco-Mongol race, and their pressure on the peoples who lay to the west, had produced barbarian invasions which overran Europe and over threw the Roman empire, culminating in the invasions of the Huns.
Organization and Equipment.—Fuller knowledge has dis pelled the excuse of mediaeval historians that the Mongol vic tories were due to an overwhelming superiority of numbers.
Quality rather than quantity was the secret of their amazingly rapid sequence of successes. Alone of all the armies of their time had they grasped the essentials of strategy, while their tactical mechanism was so perfect that the higher conceptions of tactics were unnecessary.
The supreme command was in the hands of the emperor ; but once the plan was decided upon, the subordinate generals executed the actual operations without interference, and with but the rarest communication with the supreme command. The nominal command of the various armies was held by royal princes, but the actual control was exercised by generals of experience, of whom the most famous were Chepe and Sabutai in the western campaigns, and Mukhuli in China.
The organization of the army was on a decimal basis. The strongest unit was the touman, a division of io,000 troops, which could act as an independent force. The army was made up by a temporary grouping of toumans, generally three. Each touman was composed of io regiments of I,000 men, and each regiment of 10 squadrons, and that again was divided into 10 troops of 10 men apiece. In addition there was a touman d'elite, the guard, which usually formed a general reserve in the hands of the commander-in-chief. There were also various formations of auxiliary troops.
For their protective equipment the Mongols had an armour of tanned hide in four pieces, composed of overlapping plates, which were lacquered to prevent humidity. The shield was only used when on sentry duty. Their weapons comprised a lance, a curved sabre with sharpened point, suitable either for cutting or thrusting, and two bows—one for shooting from horseback, and the other, for greater precision, when on foot. They had three quivers, each with a different calibre of arrows for the various ranges. One class could penetrate armour, and the other was suitable against unprotected troops. In addition, their light artillery consisted of various missile-throwing machines, man gonels, and catapults. These were taken to pieces, and formed a pack-artillery. They could fire rapidly and accurately, could go anywhere, and were adequate for open fighting.