# was 13thC mongolia empty



## Thunderchild (May 4, 2006)

I was recently reading a book on Gengis Khan and his conquests - it wasn't half bad but it raised a question with me that I doubt will be properly answered anywhere (but i'll put it to you anyway).

given that sizes of the mongol armies and that they would have taken their families with them, or atleast a significant proportion of them. how many troops where left in Mongolia?
it seems that if they really wanted to the Jin and the Song kingdoms might have been able to attack the steppe while the majority of the armies where in europe.


----------



## Esioul (May 4, 2006)

I don't know much about the Mongols so am itnerested to hear your thoughts on them.

Did they have consdierable settlement on the steppe? Maybe the Jin and Song Kingdoms ddidn't think the land was worth attacking/or were rpecocupied with other conquests?


----------



## Winters_Sorrow (May 4, 2006)

Being a nomad culture, I wouldn't be suprised if Mongolia was pretty deserted once the mongol horde went on the move. 
Having said that, Outer Mongolia is a huge barren savannah environment, so there wasn't a lot of resources, loot, good arable land on hand anyway - hence the fact the mongols started invading places to start with!


----------



## Paige Turner (May 4, 2006)

There's the inherent problem with invading nomadic people in an expansive environment. You could invade your heart out for weeks, and never find anybody to conquer. That has to be deflating.


----------



## Esioul (May 4, 2006)

Unless you fill the land with sheep or something it doesn't sound very useful.


----------



## Thunderchild (May 7, 2006)

The thing about the Mongols is that even though they didn't have conventional farming and mining they still had things to trade - mainly their herds and things they hunted, with these they could trade for other things they wanted. But still it wouldnt have been hard for jin or song to send in a few regemant of their own clavary to kill or relocate the undefended mongols who stayed behind.
I suppose it boils down to that they just didn't consider them a major threat even thought they just tore the jin empire in half.


----------

