Subutai: the greatest military commander of all times?

[Böri]

He was the son of a blacksmith Tuvan (a Turkic group) who joined Genghis khan at young age.
History long forgot his name since he wasn't from the Genghis family, or not even a Mongolian. So, his military achievements are known to be done on name of Batu, Gengis or Ogedei.

Subutai (Classical Mongolian: Sübügätäi or Sübü'ätäi; Tuvan: Сүбэдэй; Modern Mongolian: Сүбээдэй, Sübedei; Chinese: 速不台 1175–1248) was an *Uriankhai general, and the primary military strategist of Genghis Khan and Ögedei Khan. He directed more than twenty campaigns in which he conquered thirty-two nations and won sixty-five pitched battles, during which he conquered or overran more territory than any other commander in history.

*Uriankhai is a Mongolian term applied to several neighboring "forest" ethnic groups such as the Altai Uriankhai, Tuvans and Yakuts.

Nobody did better than him.
In a 5-year operation, from 1237 to 1242, he subjugate all of Rus'. To this day, Rus' was never conquered.
After his conquest of Eastern Europe, he was also done with central Europe as at battles of Mohi (Hungary) and Legnica (Poland) in 1241, the Hungarian and joint Polish-German armies were obliterated.
Were it not for Ogedai's death, he already prepared the plans for Holy Roman empire and France.



Subutai also participated earlier and later, to the Iran and Caucasus campaigns of the Mongol Empire.
He also fought many battles in China where the Song armies were put down with his military genius.

He is number one of all times.

Neither Alexander the Great, nor Napoleon or Cesar can approach the son of the blacksmith from the Siberian forests.

[Anthony PV]

Speaking of Subutai, what made the ancient Mongol armies so formidable on the battlefield? They were not the first people to fight as horse-archers and to use hit-and-run tactics, feigned retreats or ambushes. In fact, pretty much all their opponents fought the same way they did. Yet, they still massacred them...

[Böri]

Speaking of Subutai, what made the ancient Mongol armies so formidable on the battlefield? They were not the first people to fight as horse-archers and to use hit-and-run tactics, feigned retreats or ambushes. In fact, pretty much all their opponents fought the same way they did. Yet, they still massacred them...

For the first time in history, armies of an empire were not moving as a single body. That's what made Subutai formidable. Troops were separated and each moved sometimes 100s of miles far away from each other but synchronous. Subutai was organizing that.

For example Rus' didn't see the invasion happening. The Mongol army was moving as different tumens, each attacking through a specific route and obliterating cities resisting to them. Russian princes didn't have time to gather a proper army to face them since it wasn't clear where Mongolian army was going.

They did same in Kharezm and central Europe or also China. They fought Hungarians and Poles almost same week so that they couldn't gather. Each was caught alone and eliminated.

In fact, that battle strategy of Subutai disappeared in the 14th century and didn't appear again until modern era.

Germans (Subutai campaign against Rus, Hungary, Poland) and Japanese (Subutain campaign against Song China) are known to have studied Subutai's strategy. That brought them success during WWII but they weren't as successful as Subutai.
65 pitched battles victory and 32 nations conquered even better than Alexander Great or Julius Cesar.

Subutai wasn't emperor unlike Alexander or Cesar, that's why his name was forgotten and he is not remembered. He was just a military commander. The best ever.

[Böri]

Sergei Shoigu, chief of Russian army.
He is from Tuvan father. Similar ethnicity as Subutai.



Russians understood Tuvans are good marshalls

[Watson]

erab turk

[Böri]

erab turk

He didn't lead the sack of Baghdad. Though he should have been there. Arabs weren't worth being perceived as threat back then. The strong military times of Abbasids were long gone.

[Böri]

Subutai conquered Korea in far east, and Croatia in far west.
That's simply incredible even by today's globalized world standards that a military general, a single man could achieve that.
However, since he was a commoner who never became emperor, history forgot his name.

Some of his expeditions:

[Watson]

He didn't lead the sack of Baghdad. Though he should have been there. Arabs weren't worth being perceived as threat back then. The strong military times of Abbasids were long gone.

i was talking about you

[Böri]

i was talking about you

I am genetically closer to Turcoman soldiery of the Hulagid army which devastated Baghdad than to Arabs.

[Papa]

Speaking of Subutai, what made the ancient Mongol armies so formidable on the battlefield? They were not the first people to fight as horse-archers and to use hit-and-run tactics, feigned retreats or ambushes. In fact, pretty much all their opponents fought the same way they did. Yet, they still massacred them...

I think that the particularity of this kind of army compared to the neighbouring armies was the overwhelming cavalry element which was, if I am correct, less prevalent in the armies they encountered = those would be rather using a lot of infantry in order to keep their standing possessions more efficiently and for the sake of disposing and being able to summon greater amounts of troops. In essence, the predominantly infantry armies encountered by the Mongols were unable to deal efficiently with such a mobile and unpredictable force... even in sieging action where the horsemans would be able to roam around for some time, cutting the besieged from all possible land supplies and reinforcements they could get, forcing them to surrender; they could also, for example, storm strongholds which would have been left poorly defended, because they could easily outmaneuver the slow infantry armies sent to deal with them, and reach enemy capital, and so forth.