Orda Khan: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:41, 22 May 2007

Revision as of 02:30, 15 June 2007

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{{Main|Battle of Legnica}}

[[Subotai]] & Batu Khan led two armies against [[Hungary]], while Orda Khan, [[Baidar]] & [[Kadan]] attacked [[Poland]] as a diversion to prevent Polandthe Poles and Czechs from assisting Hungary in combat. Orda’s forces sacked the cities of [[Sandomierz]] and [[Kraków]] in April [[1241]], but were unable to conquer the capital [[Wrocław]] of [[Lower Silesia]]. While Orda was preparing siege on Wrocław, Baidar and Kadan received glowing reports that king [[Wenceslaus I]] of [[Bohemia]] was two days away with an army of 50,000 soldiers. Orda Khan broke off the siege and turned to Legnica where he intercepted the military forces of [[Henry II the Pious]], before there could be any kind of merging between the forces of Henry II and the forces of king Wenceslaus I.

Orda’s deployment of 20,000 [[mounted archers]] demonstrated speed & tactical superiority versus the slower more heavily armored European armies, series of deceptive Mongolian attacks separated the Polish formation making them vulnerable for salvoes of Mongolian arrows. A smoke screen was used to conceal the Mandugai’s withdrawal, thereby misleading Henry’s military forces. After the European knights pursued the fleeing Mandugai, the Mongols were able to separate the knights from the infantry and defeated them one by one. Henry II the Pious was intercepted while trying to escape the battlefield, his head was paraded on a spear while marching through the town of Legnica. Wenceslaus I withdrew from battle to gather reinforcements from [[Thuringia]] and [[Saxony]], but was eventually hunted down by the Mandugai at [[Kłodzko]].