Oh wait... that didn't go too well for Eastern Europe. ripuwu

Anyone familiar with the Mongol campaigns and especially Subutai have probably heard about the invasion of Hungary and Poland, culminating in the Battle of Mohi. There's also the great western expedition conducted by Jebe and Subutai where they invaded the Kievan Rus and crushed their principalities at the Battle of the Kalka River.

However, you would think that a lot more folks would know about Subutai's greatest campaign, considering he's one of history's most acclaimed generals. After all, folks tend to know of Issos and Gaugamela for Alex; Trebia River, Trasimene, and Cannae for Hannibal; Alesia and Pharsalus for Caesar; as well as Ulm and Austerlitz for Napoleon.

However, when it comes to Subutai, his most famous works are what he did in the West. So, here I am to glaze his magnum opus. Context below:

>After having strategically outflanked the entirety of Henan Province via the mountains of Shaanxi Province, fighting Song forces along the way in which he repeatedly turned and destroyed the enemy via narrow ravines — all in the middle of winter, might I add — Subutai debouched from the mountains into the northern end of Hubei Province, whereupon he bypassed the main Jin army laying in wait to ambush him, crossed the Han River, and fought numerous small actions while turning the enemy by screening his movements along wooded defiles.

>Having overtaken the Jin on the march from Dengzhou to Yuzhou, Subutai seized their baggage train, cut their communications, and ravaged the surrounding land to deny the Jin army forage. Demoralized from the exhausting winter march through their own lands, which lay pillaged before their eyes, and bereft of any sources of food, the Jin army eventually crawled its way to Sanfengshan, a mountain outside of Yuzhou, where they hoped to encamp so as to negate the Mongol cavalry advantage (they had been choosing eminences, forests, and other sound places to encamp in order to do so for the most part).

>However, at this point, despite being a professional army, the terrible conditions they were subjected to had led to a total breakdown in discipline and morale. When the Mongols which shadowed them at every turn, constantly harassing the Jin army, finally gave way and opened a path of retreat towards the closest fortified city, the soldiers broke ranks and scattered, hoping to find safe refuge, only to be run down and slaughtered. So it was that, with an initial army of 30,000 men (rising to 40,000 after Ogedei Khan sent him reinforcements), Subutai had annihilated a Jin army 70,000 strong.

>That wasn't the end of the campaign, because having assumed the strategic central position dividing both halves of Henan, Subutai was able to make a junction with Ogedei's army. They then dispatched forces east, cutting off a remnant Jin army of 15,000 from seeking refuge in Kaifeng. An operational pincer led by Alci from further east would move west to herd the enemy into the deathtrap, whereupon they were also destroyed. In the west end of Henan, a 110,000 strong Jin army guarding the mountain pass of Tongguan, between the Shaanxi mountains and the Yellow River, having their communications cut and the Mongols in their rear, tried to seek refuge by evacuating via the mountain strongholds. However, the Mongols bottled them up and annihilated them by privation as well.

>It was probably one of history's greatest campaigns, in which Subutai set the strategy for the invasion of Jin territory and planned the operations of three separate armies (plus a diversionary force opposite Tongguan) in a concentric pincer movement that saw the enemy polity outflanked and cut up from multiple directions. In an era without radio, telegraph, or the like, Subutai was able to execute such an operation across hundreds of miles — from the initial starting point of the Mongol strategic right at Tianshui under Subutai's direct command to the Mongol strategic left beyond Xuzhou under Alci is nearly 800 miles.

>The end result saw three Jin armies annihilated in roughly a year. When the Jin commander at Sanfengshan, Wanyan Heda, was taken prisoner and brought to Subutai, he was sentenced to death, but asked to give his last words to his conqueror. Subutai asked him what he wanted, to which Heda replied, *"I was devoted to my master, but you are superior to all generals. The sky gave birth to a hero with whom I accidentally met. I met you and now I can close my eyelids with a light heart."*

Also, yes, I unironically use em dashes.

pwz spare me since dis mai 1st mem here

We should take this Subutai guy... and push him somewhere else!