Mongol warfare
Topic: Nomadic Empires: The Mongols · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "An Empire Across Three Continents"
Meaning
Mongol warfare was built on speed and mobility. Mongol and Turkic horsemen were fast-shooting mounted archers. They sharpened their skills on hunting expeditions, which also served as army exercises. Their light cavalry could even fight in the depth of winter, using frozen rivers as roads. Steppe armies were usually weak against walled cities. Genghis Khan fixed this quickly by adopting siege engines and naphtha bombardment. Naphtha was an inflammable liquid used to set targets on fire.
Example
During the campaign against Khwarazm (1219–21), Mongol engineers built light, portable siege equipment. With it they captured strong cities like Bukhara (1220), Samarqand and Nishapur.