Empire

The Art of the Mongol Siege
Tactics and Methodology in Mongol Warfare

Most picture the Mongol horde striking their enemies down with swift cavalry maneuvers and volleys of arrows on the open steppe.

But as Mongol armies burned their way through sedentary empires, they adopted and mastered the art of the siege.

No city was safe from a Mongol army, no matter how high or thick its towers and walls may be. As Chinggis Khan’s armies laid waste to civilizations across the known world, they adopted new tactics, mastered new technologies, and put into practice devastating methods of warfare. Chinggis recognized very early that his army lacked the ability to successfully defeat a fortified enemy. Measures and prisoners were taken that laid the foundation for a century of successful Mongol sieges.
Mongol Siege Tactics

The Mongol army practiced standard tactics and operating procedures for generations. No matter what enemy a Mongol general fought, or the size of the city, their approach remained consistent and equally effective.

Their first step was to bypass the larger fortified cities like Samarqand, and lay siege to smaller, less fortified, outlying villages and towns. The capital city was essentially cut-off from its satellite communities. This strategy yielded three decisive advantages for the Mongols:

    * The first benefit was that by attacking and pillaging the outlying area, the Mongols prevented any garrisons from coming to the aid of the capital under siege. They were allowed unrestricted movement throughout the region with their flanks secure.
    * The second advantage was that they amassed a large slave population that they used to build siege engines, and as fodder for enemy missiles and arrows.
    * The third benefit was that the population who managed to escape, raced for the safety of the fortified city, which placed great stress on the city’s food and water supply, weakening any ability to endure a sustained assault.

Once the region was secure, the Mongols surrounded the doomed fortification, blockading it from the outside world. They would wait it out and starve the city. They were in no danger or hurry, having control of the region. The advantage of a purely nomadic, highly organized, and deeply disciplined society is that no matter where they were, they were home. Mongol soldiers had the luxury of sleeping in their own beds, enjoying their own families, and having the full resources of the land to sustain them.

They remained out of danger by forcing their newly acquired corvée labor to perform the most dangerous and fatal tasks. While the slaves built and manned the siege engines, and filled moats while taking heavy defensive fire, the Mongols supervised safely out of range.

Slaves faced certain death. If they tried to escape, they were caught and executed. Forced to assault, in many cases, their own cities, they usually died at the hands of their own garrisons. Those whose skills and services were valuable to the Mongols were forced to march with the army for the duration of their new miserable lives.

Mongol Siege Engines

The Mongols employed standard medieval siege engines with the help of Chinese and Persian engineers. They fielded catapults, mangonels, ladders, and battering rams.

Scouts circumambulated the cities looking for defensive weaknesses. If no weakness was discovered, they surrounded the city, mercilessly bombarding it day and night with boulders, fire arrows, naphtha, and incendiary bombs made of human fat—which was virtually inextinguishable.

If a weakness was found, they concentrated their fire on that section twenty-four hours a day until they breached the wall. Then the Mongol warriors donned their armor and stormed the city.

The Deterrence of the Black Tent

The Mongol legend speaks of them erecting a white tent, or ger outside the gates; announcing a grace period for leaders to unconditionally surrender and spare their city and its citizens from absolute destruction. Once this grace period expired, the Mongols raised a red ger, signaling that only the defensive forces would receive no quarter, and the city would be spared. Once that opportunity passed, they erected a black ger, announcing the impending death of every soul within the walls.

Intimidation and wholesale destruction were a key strategic tools used by Chinggis and his generals. Their ambition was not solely unrestricted warfare, or hedonistic destruction, but to avoid having to lay siege to every city in their path. Spreading fear through the testimony of terrified survivors was potent publicity.

Sun Tzu states: “Therefore one who is good at martial arts overcomes others’ forces without battle, conquers others’ cities without siege, destroys others’ nations without taking a long time.”

The Mongols hoped that one fortification’s utter destruction would influence the next into a timely and compliant surrender. But in order to conquer cities without siege, they needed to establish what was at stake for those inside if they did resist.