The Mongols Might Have Had the Greatest – and Most Overlooked – General of All Time
Subutai (1175 – 1248) was the Mongols’ most brilliant and successful general. He was the main military strategist of both Genghis Khan and his successor, Ogedei. Hailing from a humble background, Subutai rose through the ranks, and eventually directed over 20 campaigns, conquered or overran 32 nations, and won 65 battles. He conquered more territory than any other commander in history.
Subutai joined the Mongol army at age 14. Genghis made him his door attendant, and from that close proximity, Subutai learned strategy and the Mongol art of war. When Genghis gave him his first opportunity to demonstrate his ability, Subutai rose to the occasion. He convinced an enemy garrison that he was a Mongol deserter, won their confidence, lulled them into letting down their guard, then signaled his comrades to attack. Deception would be Subutai’s trademark, and a great factor in his success. In 1211, he secured a great victory over the Jin by convincing them that he was hundreds of miles away, only to appear out of the blue and rout them with a flank attack.
Subutai was in charge of the Mongol advance during the conquest of Khwarezm, and chased its defeated ruler to his death. After that campaign, he and another brilliant Mongol commander, Jebe, led a reconnaissance in force on a circular passage around the Caspian Sea to the north, en route back to Mongolia. In the meantime, Genghis returned home with the main Mongol army via a circular southern route that would brush against India.
Subutai’s route led through the Caucasus, where he defeated the Georgians, then subjugated the Cuman tribe. That brought him into conflict with the Cumans’ Rus allies. So he and Jebe lured them with a fake retreat into chasing him for days, before crushing them at the Battle of Kalka River. They then returned to the east, where Subutai conducted successful campaigns against the Chinese for the next decade, before returning to the west and subjugating the Rus in the late 1230s.
After reducing the Rus to vassalage, Subutai invaded Eastern Europe in 1241. In that campaign, he oversaw history’s biggest strategic offensive to date, planning and coordinating the operations of Mongol armies separated by hundreds of miles. Despite the distance between his forces, Subutai brought his armies to crushing victories over their respective opponents, in Poland and Hungary, within one day of each other.
Subutai was in personal command of the Mongol army at the second of those victories, at the Battle of Mohi, which destroyed the Hungarian army. In the aftermath, Central Europe was left open to further Mongol conquests. Subutai was drawing plans to advance along the Danube to Vienna, then conquer the Holy Roman Empire, when news arrived of Khan Ogedei’s death.
Although he wanted to press on into Europe, Mongol politics necessitated the return of Subutai and his forces to Mongolia to participate in the selection of a new Khan. Subutai never returned, and spent his final years campaigning against the Song Dynasty in southern China. Thus, Central and Western Europe were miraculously spared the Mongol yoke that Russia would endure for centuries.