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During the Mongol invasions and conquests, which began under Genghis Khan in 1206–1207, the Mongol army conquered nearly all of continental Asia, including parts of the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe. The efforts of Mongol troops and their allies enabled the Mongol Empire to become the contemporarily largest polity in human history. Today, the former Mongol Empire remains the world's largest polity to have ever existed in terms of contiguous land area and the second-largest polity overall, behind only the British Empire. Cavalry Each Mongol soldier typically maintained 3 or 4 horses. Changing horses often allowed them to travel at high speed for days without stopping or wearing out the animals. When one horse became tired, the rider would dismount and rotate to another. The Mongols protected their horses in the same way as did they themselves, covering them with lamellar armour. Horse armour was divided into five parts and designed to protect every part of the horse, including the forehead, which had a specially crafted plate which was tied on each side of the neck. Armour Lamellar armour was worn over thick coats. The armour was composed of small scales of iron, chain mail, or hard leather sewn together with leather tongs and could weigh 10 kilograms (22 lb) if made of leather alone and more if the cuirass was made of metal scales. The leather was first softened by boiling and then coated in a crude lacquer made from pitch, which rendered it waterproof. Sometimes the soldier's heavy coat was simply reinforced with metal plates. Helmets were cone shaped and composed of iron or steel plates of different sizes and included iron-plated neck guards. The Mongol cap was conical in shape and made of quilted material with a large turned-up brim, reversible in winter, and earmuffs. Whether a soldier's helmet was leather or metal depended on his rank and wealth. Weapons Mounted archers were a major part of the armies of the Mongol Empire, for instance at the 13th-century Battle of Liegnitz, where an army including 20,000 horse archers defeated a force of 30,000 troops led by Henry II, Duke of Silesia, via demoralization and continued harassment. Mongol bow The primary weapon of the Mongol forces was their composite bows made from laminated horn, wood, and sinew. The layer of horn is on the inner face as it resists compression, while the layer of sinew is on the outer face as it resists tension. Such bows, with minor variations, had been the main weapon of steppe herdsmen and steppe warriors for over two millennia; Mongols (and many of their subject peoples) were skillful archers. Composite construction allows a powerful and relatively efficient bow to be made small enough that it can be used easily from horseback. Quivers containing 60 arrows were strapped to the backs of their cavalrymen and to their horses. Mongol archers typically carried 2 to 3 bows (one heavier and intended for dismounted use, the other lighter and used from horseback) that were accompanied by multiple quivers and files for sharpening their arrowheads. These arrowheads were hardened by plunging them in brine after first heating them red hot. The Mongols could shoot an arrow over 200 metres (660 ft). Targeted shots were possible at a range of 150 or 175 metres (492 or 574 ft), which determined the tactical approach distance for light cavalry units. Ballistic shots could hit enemy units (without targeting individual soldiers) at distances of up to 400 metres (1,300 ft), useful for surprising and scaring troops and horses before beginning the actual attack. Shooting from the back of a moving horse may be more accurate if the arrow is loosed in the phase of the gallop when all four of the horse's feet are off the ground. The Mongols may have also used crossbows (possibly acquired from the Chinese), also both for infantry and cavalry, but these were scarcely ever seen or used in battle. The Manchus forbade archery by their Mongol subjects, and the Mongolian bowmaking tradition was lost during the Qing dynasty. The present bowmaking tradition emerged after independence in 1921 and is based on Manchu types of bow, somewhat different from the bows known to have been used by the Mongol Empire. Mounted archery had fallen into disuse and has been revived only in the 21st century. Gunpowder Jin dynasty The Mongols encountered and used gunpowder weapons during their wars against the dynasties of China. In 1232 the Mongols laid siege to the Jin capital of Kaifeng and deployed gunpowder weapons along with other more conventional siege techniques. The Jin defenders also deployed gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows launched using a type of solid-propellant rocket. Another interpretation of the passage suggests they were fire lances that shot off flames. Jin scholar Liu Qi (劉祈) mentions the defenders using a type of bomb known as the heaven-shaking-thunder bomb (震天雷) that caused “many casualties, and when not wounded by the explosions were burnt to death by the fires they caused.” A description of the bomb in the History of Jin describes it as an iron container filled with gunpowder that could be heard from an extreme distance when it landed and caused fires that could penetrate iron armour. The Ming dynasty official He Mengchuan encountered a cache of these bombs three centuries later in the Xi'an area and described their appearance: they were made of cast iron and looked like two bowls that came together to form a ball that had a small hole at the top about the width of a finger. He wrote that that iron shrapnel came out when the bombs exploded and that was how they killed. Heaven-shaking-thunder bombs, also known as thunder crash bombs, were used in 1231 by a Jin general named Wanyan Eke. He had lost the defense of Hezhong to the Mongols and fled on ships with 3,000 of his men. The Mongols pursued them with their ships until the Jin broke through by using thunder crash bombs that caused flashes and flames. During the siege of 1232, the Mongols protected themselves with elaborate screens of thick cowhide while they attacked the city walls but the Jin defenders lowered the bombs using iron cords until they reached the place where the miners worked. The protective leather screens were destroyed along with the excavators. Another weapon the Jin employed was a version of the fire lance called the flying fire lance or “flying-fire spears”. The History of Jin describes the gunpowder weapon as a tube made of sixteen layers of “chi-huang paper” around two feet in length. It was stuffed with gunpowder and iron shrapnel attached to a fuse. When lit, it shot out flames over more than ten paces. The tube was re-usable. It was recorded that Mongol greatly feared the flying fire lance and heaven-shaking-thunder bomb. In 1233, a group of 450 Jin fire lancers led by Pucha Guannu snuck up on a Mongol encampment and surrounded them by river, drowning 3,500 of the Mongol forces as they fled. After the de.... Discover the Jj Purton Jones popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Jj Purton Jones books.