Path of Destruction

One of my very early alternate histories about Mongol destruction of Europe, before i started posting here, I was inspired by Peter Tsouras Rising Sun Victorious and was going to do a sort of What If: Asia with varioous PODs, but got caught up writing other things

The Sack of Europe

The small guardsman on the walls of Vienna wiped his brow. It was a particularly warm day and he had been on duty since the early morning. The winter of 1242 had been a mild one. Despite the heat the guard felt a severe chill through his blood when he saw horsemen in the distance. The day had finally arrived. Vienna had refused to submit to the Mongol envoys, in the hope that the Holy Roman Emperor’s army would arrive in time. It hadn’t and now Vienna would have to face them alone. Thousands upon thousands of horsemen poured over the hillsides and the guard felt even chillier, if even half of the stories of what the Mongols had done in Poland and Hungary were true, Vienna didn’t stand a chance. The guard called down and in shaky voice told his captain that the Mongols had arrived.

The Mongol Hordes that came from the east in 1241 were the final destroyers of European civilisation. The greatest warriors in the world, the Mongols had been united under Genghis Khan in 1206 and he had spent his life creating a Mongol Empire in Asia [1]. After the Mongol Empire had invaded and depopulated China by almost 30%, they turned towards the Central Asia. The Khwarezmid Empire was completely destroyed. A large irrigation system that existed in Persia was completely demolished, depriving the region of water for generations [2].
When Genghis Khan died the succession of his Empire came to his third son Ogadai, on the agreement of his two older brothers, who both recognised that if either one of them claimed leadership it would only result in civil war. Ogadai continued his father’s westward expansion and directed his nephew Batu Khan to invade Kievan Rus. Soon the rich cities of Kiev, Vladimir-Suzdal and Moscow were burned to the ground. The inhabitants were killed and a year later the once great trading posts had become ruined husks, with the few poor souls left inhabiting them on the edge of death and forced to pay what little they had to the Mongol tax collectors [3]. Smolensk and Novgorod only escaped destruction by submitting and agreeing to pay tribute. But even this was not much of an escape as many men were force drafted into the Mongol armies and women and children were carried off into slavery. By 1240 the Slavic peoples of the Russian steppes had been completely subdued by Batu Khan’s armies and the military genius of Sabotai. Sabotai was one of Genghis Khan’s favourite generals and Ogadai had appointed him to Batu for the invasion of Russia and Europe [4]. While Batu was in nominal command, it was Sabotai’s military plans and tactical leadership that directed the three large armies that descended on Europe. One army, under Ogadai’s son Kadan, moved into Poland. Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia had assembled an alliance of Polish and other Christian forces. Henry had assembled a large force of Poles, Templars and Teutonic Knights near Liegnitz.
They marched out of the city to engage the smaller Mongol force. A few ferocious charges by the knights seemed to break the Mongols who appeared to flee. Duke Henry's men thinking victory was at hand, surged forward chaotically to pursue the Mongols. They walked right into a trap. The Mongols had pretended to run and surrounded the forces of Duke Henry. A hail of Mongol arrows fell on the main group of knights and the remaining infantry was slaughtered to the last man as the Mongol horsemen fell on them. Further south, Sabotai and the main army of the Mongol advance had reached the Hungarian plains. The third Mongol army under Ogadai’s other son, Gyuk, was passing though Moldavia and Transylvania. As the army under Sabotai and Batu Khan marched into Hungary another force had been assembled to oppose them. This was lead by King Bela of Hungary and he lead his men from Buda to engage the Mongols on April 10 at a bridge on the Sajo River. The large Hungarian army drove the Mongols back and by nightfall the Bela had secured both sides of the bridge and fortified his position.
However during the night Sabotai split his army into two halves. He took one part downriver to a ford his scouts had discovered and crossed it. Batu Khan attacked the Hungarians at dawn with the rest of the army. Bela swung his forces to meet the frontal assault from Batu only to be attacked by Sabotai in the rear. A large number of Bela's troops made it back to the fortified wagon position, but it was too late. The makeshift fort was soon surrounded by the entire Mongol army and they proceeded to bombard it all day with arrows, rocks, tar and Chinese firecrackers. The Hungarian's resolve broke and when a small gap opened in the Mongol lines some of them dashed for it. This turned into a complete rout as everyone in Bela's army made a dash to escape. Sabotai and Batu were able to slaughter the Hungarian army completely. Soon the cities and towns of Hungary were subjected to the same destruction that had been visited on the Russian cities. Over the spring of 1241 the Mongols gained control of Hungary and subjugated the population by killing any who resisted them and dragging the rest into servitude. They then put their horses to graze on the wide Hungarian plains. As spring turned to summer they rested and prepared themselves for the next phase of their advance into Europe. The three great Mongol armies had converged on Hungary after their victories and now Sabotai split them apart again. The army under Kadan rode northwest, through the parts of Poland that had been subdued and crossed the Oder River and into Northern Germany. The two other armies under the command of Sabotai, Batu and Gyuk fell upon Vienna on January 18 1242 [5], which was north of the Hungarian capital of Buda, along the Danube River.
Vienna was helpless, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, was still busy fighting the Papal States in Italy and had not organised a new army from the remaining Christian nations of Europe to send to Vienna’s aide. Every able bodied man in Vienna was conscripted to man the walls and fortifications in defence of the city. As the midday arrived the Mongol army under Sabotai assembled in front of Vienna. He split his army into two parts as he had done against the Hungarians and sent one part directly at the city under the command of Batu. There the Mongol horsemen fired arrows and firecrackers at the large stone walls of Vienna. Terrifying the defenders, who meagrely fired back whenever there was a lull in the Mongol’s assault. Batu had soon forced most of the city’s garrison to the main gate and Sabotai made his move. He took his force to the north of the city which was undermanned and underequipped. His horsemen soon killed all the defenders and burned down the small gate that was positioned there. They rode through and were soon in the city in force. The slaughter began immediately and the small garrison units in the city were quickly killed. The main concentration of them at the front gate soon collapsed when Sabotai’s forces attacked them from behind in the city. Despite this the population of Vienna had been prepared for a collapse in their defence and they were ready to evacuate. Soon refugees were streaming out of the city and heading west. But they didn’t get far. The other Mongol army under Gyuk had been positioned on the western side of Vienna and the entire force charged across the flat plain at the fleeing city folk [6]. They were all killed mercilessly and soon Vienna was burning as the Mongols set fire to everything they could after looting the city. The few remaining survivors were rounded up and then systematically beheaded. More than 1,300,000 Viennese citizens had been killed [7].
Kadan’s force fell upon Germany with a fury. Many of the German towns submitted, knowing what fate would befall them if they resisted and the armies of the Holy Roman Emperor were still gathering in Bavaria [8] the Mongols were able to swell their ranks with slaves and support units by conscripting many of the men in the towns that submitted to them. Other German towns that refused to submit were not so lucky. After four towns had been destroyed and the inhabitants slaughtered, Kadan ordered his forces to kill every German citizen. Soon northern Germany was full of burning towns and the stench of death. At least three million people were killed by the Mongol advance across northern Germany [9]
After the destruction of Vienna, the two Mongol armies separated again. Sabotai took his forces into central Germany while Gyuk went through the passes of the Alps and his army prepared to invade Italy. By February, near Munich a force of knights sent by King Louis IX of France was joined by a large army of French and Spanish soldiers. This was the last army left in Europe that could stop them; if it failed the Mongols would ride all the way to the Atlantic coast. The combined armies of Europe prepared as best they could and word reached them that Sabotai’s force would be making its way through the Bavaria. The French and Spanish generals planned an ambush near Munich that, if successful, would result in the Mongol force being pinned in with nowhere to escape to and the French could use their heavy mounted knights to shatter them. Kadan was still pacifying northern Germany but, when word reached him of the large force in Bavaria he sent most of his army to attack the European forces and draw some of the army away to aid Sabotai and Batu Khan.
On March 12, 1242, Sabotai was moving his army into Bavaria and had sent a large number of scouts ahead. Several of them sighted the city of Munich and the large force of French and Spanish troops. They reported back to Sabotai, who soon came up with a plan[10]. The main block of cavalry would travel through the pass near Munich and let the European force think that they were trapping them. A smaller group of men would then attack the southern arm of the European army, where it was weakest. This would hopefully distract them enough form the pass and the Mongol cavalry would be able to travel through freely and then engage the Europeans on open ground, which would favour the Mongols. Also there were no fortifications of any kind in the area for the Europeans to retreat to and defend themselves.
On the night of March 13 Batu Khan led his force through the pass and was soon set upon from both sides by Spanish archers. Many Mongols were slaughtered and he had them take cover in a large outcropping where the arrows could not reach them. Soon arrows were flying back and forth in the pass between the two armies with neither one able to advance on the other without taking heavy losses. At the other end of the pass the French knights were ready and waiting. The plan was simple; the Spanish would keep pressure on the Mongols and then withdraw quietly. When the Mongols moved forward the knights would ride down on them unprepared. It was hoped that this would drive them back and then the archers would join again and the combined assault of the cavalry charge and waves of arrows would destroy most of the Mongol army.
The Spanish archers withdrew and the Mongols continued firing until realising they had left. Slowly Batu led his men down the pass. The knights at the end of the pass began charging and the archers on the top of the pass were ready and waiting. But they hadn’t counted on Sabotai. The old general had snuck his force behind the largest concentration of archers on the southern side of the pass [11]. His warriors rode in taking them completely by surprise and slaughtering them. He then had his own archers fire at the rest of the Spanish across the pass. The French knights heard this and thinking that their own allies were attacking the Mongols, rode faster. They slammed into Batu’s men, who quickly pulled back and retreated. The French thinking that victory was at hand, and that the archers would kill most of the retreating enemy, lost their cohesion and were soon charging after the fleeing Mongols.
This proved disastrous when Batu’s men stopped retreating and turned on the knights at the same time as Sabotai’s force began shooting arrows and throwing firecrackers on top of the knights. The knights were spread out from the charge and chasing the retreating Mongols that could not organise their own retreat. The bodies of fallen horses made retreating back down the pass hazardous and soon many retreating knights were thrown to the ground as their mounts tripped. Less than fifty knights made it out of the pass, from an initial force of five thousand and now there was no army in Europe left to match the Mongols.
Kadan’s forces were destroying what little remained of the German armies when word came of the victory near Munich. Kadan’s force was now free to attack the Low Countries. The independent nature of the Low Countries led them to resist the Mongols every step of the way as they knew that even in surrender they would be dragged off into slavery. This only made the destruction that much more significant. It is estimated that less than 2% of the population of the Low Countries managed to survive the slaughter that the Mongol army visited upon them [12]. Every single city was levelled to the ground and every man, woman and child was hunted down and killed. The centre of trade that had been developing was ripped out by its roots and devastated the regions economy, or it would have had there been any survivors to form an economy. The cities of the Low Countries were destroyed so completely that less than a decade later there was almost no sign of them. In Flanders, forests had re-grown over the sites of cities and the only sign that humans had lived there was the odd piece of building or wall in the midst of trees that a traveller might happen to come across. Further north, with no one to the dike system of the Netherlands the North Sea began to encroach on the land and slowly but surely the entire Rhine delta became a massive, fetid swampland and all signs of Amsterdam and where below the surface of the Great Rhine Swamp, even today people are unsure as to where the cities were located as the swamp as only been explored at its edges [13].
In Italy the Mongol army under Gyuk had made its way through the Alps and arrived at Venice. The large trader city meekly submitted to the Mongols who let most of the population leave the city before burning it to the ground. Any able bodied men they enslaved or conscripted and then continued in their way. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederik II had just finished off a battle near Rome against the Papal States and without breaking he pushed his army north to meet the threat of the Mongols. His army had been fighting in Italy for several years now and were used to fighting the soldiers of the Pope [14]. But these were hardened Mongol warriors and Frederik’s men didn’t stand a chance. The two armies faced each other near the Italian city of Florence.
Frederik ordered his men to hold their ground against the Mongol charge using long spears and archers. The main unit of Mongol cavalry came at them and it proved to be too much for the Empires soldiers. They broke and ran, and while Frederik tried to maintain order, ordering his men forward as he himself rode to meet the oncoming Mongols it had little effect. Frederik was killed by the first Mongol he engaged and he fell from his horse with a sword through his chest. The Mongols then continued pursuing his ravaged army and destroyed what was left of it. They swept south and into the Papal States. The armies of Rome were now match for them after being defeated by Frederik and the ancient, historic city of Rome was pulled to pieces and looted, its population killed and driven into the sea. The Mongols continued south and more Italian cities were destroyed. Italian culture was completely destroyed and the ancient Roman architecture was pulled down never to be seen again. The Pope was defiant to the end and he was captured by the Mongols. They tied him into a sack and had horses trample him to death, a sign of respect for a religious figure by not allowing his blood to spill on the ground. The rest of the Italian cities decided to surrender to the Mongol armies and were ordered out of their cities which were then burned. The Mongols only took a few captives as they had little room to spare in their forces and as they finished pacifying southern Italy their fellow Mongols were crossing the Rhine.
By the end of April the two Mongol armies in Germany and the Low Countries were entering France. Kadan had his forces travel along the northern coast of France, quickly defeating the small bands of soldiers that opposed them and destroying every French coastal town and city. Sabotai and Batu’s army crossed the Rhine on April 29, just north of the Swedish town of Basel [15].
Their army quickly made its way through France and pushed up towards Paris. King Louis IX ordered that not a single person was to surrender to the Mongols and prepared the city for a massive siege. The people of the city, knowing what had happened to the other cities of Europe, organised defences as quickly as they could and armed themselves and their children with whatever they could find. A vast ring of hastily assembled fortifications soon surrounded Paris and was filled with armed citizens [16]. On the night of May 17 the first rumble of horse hooves was heard. The defenders of Paris could see the vast numbers of the Mongols by the torches that they carried. Soon arrows, fire and burning oil was thrown against the fortifications which quickly set on fire and burned, as much of it was constructed of dry wood. Thousnads died inside the inferno that the defences had become and the Mongol armies simply waited for the walls to burn down to nothing. As the sun rose Sabotai ordered his army forward and they rode through the crumbling ashes of what was left of the defences. The demoralised and ill-prepared citizens didn’t stand a chance against the superior Mongol warriors and were slaughtered like so many cattle in the streets of the city. The Mongols charged down the doors to the king’s place and captured him. They threw him form the highest window of the building before plundering any valuables and setting it on fire. One of the worst tragedies of the destruction of Paris was the loss of the university. At its time it had been one of the largest and most influential in Europe. After the Mongols were done with it, it became a ruined husk, with only a few surviving intellectuals left, who were far too traumatised to continue the study they had dedicated their lives to.
Paris was gone and with it the centre of European culture and education. The rest of the French cities and towns all surrendered immediately to the Mongols, and were given the slightly less worse fate of slavery. With France overwhelmed and Gyuk’s forces finished in Italy, Sabotai and Batu were free to cross the Andes and enter Spain, while leaving the last pockets of resistance to Kadan and Gyuk. Spain suffered slightly less than France, the Mongols allowed several of the Spanish cities to stand, as the Spanish population agreed to pay the Mongols in taxes and slaves every year.
Batu had completed his vision of conquest to the Great Sea [17] and subdued all of continental Europe. Over the next year he used the three armies to make sure that his hold on it was strong and then focused his attention northwards as had one army prepare to cross the Channel and invade Britannia while two others headed north towards Scandinavia. By the time Batu Khan and Sabotai had conquered all of Europe, more than 50% of its population had been killed and almost all of the major cities had been reduced to rubble, while any survivors were enslaved or forced into paying taxes to the Mongols every year. When Ogadai died in 1250, Batu took his victorious armies back east and with men and lands under his control he easily overcame the other contenders for the position of Khan. With his new position Batu soon directed the Mongol armies to expand further into the Middle East and South East Asia. Less than a decade into his rule the Mongol Empire was at its height and his armies were preparing to invade far off Africa, while a messenger brought news to the Great Khan that there were rumours of another land to the west of Europe and Africa, far across the Great Sea.

Notes
1 For a full account of this see The Secret History of the Mongols
2 The Death that saved Europe, Cecilia Holland, 101
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid, 99
5 The Mongol Conquest of Europe, Zheng De, 188
6 Ibid, 190
7 Ibid, 195
8 Fools of History, Johann Schiesse, 30
9 The Mongol Conquest of Europe, Zheng De, 199
10 The World’s Greatest General, Kublai, 412
11 Ibid, 414
12 The Mongol Conquest of Europe, Zheng De, 260
13 The Great Rhine Delta Swamp: History and Ecology, Jean Duval, 34
14 Fools of History, Johann Schiesse, 31
15 The Mongol Conquest of Europe, Zheng De, 341
16 Ibid, 344
17 The name that the Mongols gave to the Atlantic Ocean
 
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