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Mongols retreated on purpose
The Fake Retreat
Genghis Khan never fought a battle he thought he could lose, and he won every battle he fought. A small group of riders would charge in, shooting forward from the saddle, then act beaten and turn away while still firing backward, the Parthian shot. Some also leaned down and shot from under the horse's neck, protected by its body.
Bait and Ambush
Enemy soldiers usually broke ranks to chase them. If they hesitated, the Mongols threw out loot and valuables as they rode, and the soldiers usually could not resist. They came chasing out in every direction, and from behind two hills the Mongol army came and slaughtered them. The trick worked over and over.
Surprise by Direction
Surprise came from direction too. Mongols disliked roads, and at Bukhara they crossed a desert that nobody had ever attacked across. People saw dust and took it for a caravan.
Where did the Parthian shot get its name?
The Parthians were horse archers who ruled Iran and the lands around it from the third century BC. At the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, their horse archers wore down a Roman army led by Marcus Licinius Crassus. They fired at the Romans while retreating, and the Romans could not close with them. The Roman soldiers were left with no answer, and Crassus died in the aftermath.
What made the Mongol bow so powerful?
The Mongol composite bow was built from layers of wood, horn, and sinew glued together. Horn on the inside resisted compression, and sinew on the outside stretched, so the bow stored more energy than a wooden bow of the same length. That let it be short enough to use from the saddle. Steppe archers had used composite bows for more than a thousand years before the Mongols.
How did the fake retreat work at Kalka?
In 1223 a Mongol force under Jebe and Subutai met a combined army of Russian princes near the Kalka River. The Mongols retreated for about nine days, according to Russian chronicles, stretching the Russian columns apart. Then they turned and fell on the strung-out army. Several Russian princes were killed or captured.
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