The Storm on the West

CHAPTER 6 · 1236–1242 · The Mongol Empire, 1206–1294

This is the campaign Subötai filed away in 1224, executed with the empire’s full weight: a kurultai assigns the “western lands” to Batu, Jochi’s son, with perhaps 120,000–150,000 riders and the old marshal as its brain. Volga Bulgaria — which had beaten the raiders once — is erased in a season (1236). Then the stroke of genius that looks like madness: the Rus are invaded in December. Winter, the Rus certainty that made war impossible, is Subötai’s weapon — frozen rivers become cavalry highways aimed at every city’s waterfront, and the princes cannot combine (would not have anyway; see Chapter

The turn: Legnica and Mohi, 9–11 April 1241.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.