Yellow River

1[ it means my death 1 will exterminate them!

-Genghis Khan

n the early thirteenth

ry, Genghis

the Mongol
campaign.
time

After spending
the

machine

history's

queror

was

Exactly

Tangut

born

is

Khan

dor between

South
China ..
"/ Sea

Bay of
Bengal'

Throughout

summer

of 1226,

had long

the spring
the Mongol

Above: The Tangut Empire controlled the

route into {he heartland o/ China. Riqht:
History's greatesl conqueror-the
Mongol
Genghis Khan.
riority

over

the Mongols.

territory,

Ieaving a

Tangut

were

trail of devastated

farmlands

littered

steppe

people,

Ling-chou,

twenty miles (32km)

capitol. Li Hsien,
dispatched

they were

a city Iess than

from the Tangut

the Tangut

emperor,

an army to raise the siege

and, if possible, drive the Mongols

Little

is known

composition
Contemporary
prone

about

of the

size to be about 30,000;

this large is debatable,
Tangut

commander,

enjoyed a considerable

back.

formed
army,
number

recoiled

and

fled

back

from

whence

they

had

Asha-gambu,

gleefully

the retreat, believed

to smash the Mongol

horde

by counterat-

Asha-gambu

always

frozen

whether

it was
the

Asha-gambu,
nurnerical

only

supe-

his

This act

would be a gamble,

s in c e o n ly

close cooperation
b e twce n foot

cavalry

force of their

probably

River.

bitterly

meeting

the

along
Yellow
The

bat-

ally part

of the

river's

fl o o dand

le d his

through

tlefield was actu-

plain,

and

the

the

those

m o u n ted

horses

011

could

nor-

a large

mally defeat

of Iesser

the Mongols,
b u

southward
Mongols

but certainly

of infantry,

the

ur ba niz ed

it is likely that

qualiry.

weather,

its

a recently

the main striking

force.

estimated

Since

but they also possessed

the exact

Tangut

chroniclers,

to exaggeration,

of the Tangut

then

soldiers

and
horde

swept across Tangut

besieging

the center

light

headlong

cavalry.

the Kansu corri-

with corpses. By late autumn

These

dashed

ly with

the easiest route into the heart of China

coveted.

of

tacking immediate-

have been

the Mongols

a group

he had an opportunity

the Gobi desert and Tibet,

and an avenue

troops."

watching

between sixty and seventy years old.

Hsi Hsia occupied

mangudai,

army,
come.

the

China),

rnust

The bat-

light cavalry whose name means

into

..

of Hsi Hsia (10-

empire

terrain

with a charge by the

"suicide

the Mongol's

in northwestern

Genghis

Tibet

the

treacherous.

cavalrymen

age.

oldest and fiercest adversary,

cated

the

but in 1226, when he

set out to destroy

.ff

con-

his

he was

Tangu~
Empired

Wall of

greatest

Mongol

COEL VESERT
.

by

waters had frozen

making

tle opened

into

from

feeJing

when

unknown,

over,

extremeJy

of unparalleled

stretching

pools left behind

the retreating

quarrelsome

Black Sea to the Great

China,

jJ,

a life-

ferocity and using it to carve out

an empire

numerous

for his final

of his homeJand

fighting

\?

Khan gathered

host

weJding

tribes

centu-

troops
cold

the

The lV1ongols
The secret to Genghis
ability to transform

Khan's success was his

the nomads

Mongolia

into a highly disciplined

organized

army. While

of his native
and tightly

the Mongols

employed

subject peoples from time to time as infantry or

engineers,

they themselves

invariably

from horseback, using a combination

ed archers

and heavier

almost unbeatable
firepower.

lancers

combination

fought

of mountto create

of shock

an
and

The Mongols' success on the battlefield

not entirely

unmitigated

was

by failure. They

did,

from time to time, suffer setbacks, including

one

notable defeat brought about by their own error

in judgment.
northern

campaign

in

China, before they had acquired

During

an early

the

services of skilled Chinese

engineers,

the Mongols

faced with the task of taking a strongly fortified

the Great Wall. Bloodily

repulsed

were

upon a scheme to force a quick surrender.

Channels

if not rash.

Consequently,

his cavalry

he unleashed

in pursuit of the fleeing mangudai.

Asha-garnbu

and his cavalrymen,

intent on their quarry,

an ingenious

Mongol

ing mangudai,
Mongol
arrows

blundered

trapo The surviv-

controlling

their tough

ponies with their knees,

over their

withdrew.

shoulders

Once the pursuing

Tanguts

concealed

archers suddcnly

ranks

to add to the barrage

Tangut

horses,

of

emerged

previ-

mounted
from cover

of arrows.

The

shod with iron horse-

shoes, could not maintain

their footing

on the ice, and they careened

the slippery surface,

with whole

across
ranks

Unfortunately,

river

were

spilled

Mongol

the

out,

not

into

the

ately abandoned

The

combination

of ice and

horrified

guickly

the disci-

support,

Tangut

cavalry

take, desperately

had

into a confused

realizing

his mis-

tried to rally his forces

and turn them toward

heavy cavalry

charged

little

tion.

slaughter

grit

be spread

along

certain

that

horses'

allowed
the
into

hooves

the Mongols

ice unimpeded,
the

vengeance.

floundering

with

felt.

to thunder
and

they

enemy

though,

vainglorious

lunge across the ice

his horsemen,

Demoralized

but

protec-

by the spectacular

they had just witnessed,

and

unable to either flee from or drive away

avenues

over the river and that his soldiers wrap

their

as spectators,

had left his foot soldiers without

Genghis

ordered

time

too far away to offer

their cavalry die. They

not only had doomed

across

the ice into both flanks. Before the barhad

infantry,
watched

side of the river, the

of light horse and heavy cavalry. Asha-

tle,

Khan

the

immedi-

before they were also assailed by a mixture

gambu's

the near bank.

Before they could escape, however,

Mongol

through

Mongols

On the Tangut

masses.

transformed

The

the siege.

arrows

Asha-gambu,

city, but

campo The sodden, chagrined

congested

mob.

the Mongols

bank to release the waters, they dis-

in heaving,

plined

when

that they had made a slight miscalculation.

down

shot

as they

were well out onto the icefield,

ously

into

going

covered

hit

cut from a nearby river to divert its flow and drown

Chinese.

broke the last earthen

in several assaults, yet

reluctant to settle down for a long siege, the Mongols

Tangut general was nothing

recalcitrant

city near

the relentless Mongol archers, the Tangut

This

infantry

over

cohesion dissolved, they became easy prey

routed.

for the merciless Mongol

waded
with

was guickly

Asha-gambu's

As their

lancers. Few of

men escaped; the survivors

faced either death or slavery.

Ancient

Shortly after the battle at Yellow

River, Genghis Kban laid siege to tbe
capitol ofHsi Hsia. In JLU1e1227, the last
Tangut emperor surrendered the city.
Genghis Kban, near death bimself, executed the emperor along with thousands
ofTangut officials, scbolars, and intellectuals. Tbe destruction of the Tangut culture was so thorough that even now only
,/ fraction of their written records can be
translated.
Undoubtedly, me Mongols would
ultimately bave triumpbed over tbe
Tangut without this victory-but just as
assuredly that triumpb was made far
cbeaper and easier the moment Asbagambu ordered his men across the frozen
waters of the YeUowRiver.

& .Medieval

If Varus and Asba-gambu were able to
defend tbeir failures, tbey migbt point
out tbat they were both victims of ruses
in one form or another, a circumstance
that partly explains, tbougb perhaps
does not justify, tbeir poor judgment.
But not all ruses work 011tbe mind of
tbe commander-some
are intended to
fool bis soldiers.
At tbe Battle of Hastings in 1066,
for example, the Englisb king saw
tbrougb tbe simple trick designed by
the invading Duke of Normandy to
entice his men from their secure position. Unfortunately, no matter bow he
tried, be could not prevent bis men
from falling victim to it.

W"arfare

19

A lifetime on horseback made the Mongols

extraordinary riders. They were able to wield
their weapons effectively at full gallop.