Mongols' False Retreat Crushed Rus'

In 1223, Mongol generals Jebe and Subutai left a 1,000-man rearguard as bait, and the Rus' and Cuman coalition destroyed it before chasing what looked like a defeated army. The Mongols maintained their false retreat for nine days, stretching the pursuing forces across the steppe and exhausting them. At the Kalka River in present-day Ukraine, the Mongols suddenly formed for battle and overwhelmed the divided coalition before all its units could arrive. The contemporary Novgorod First Chronicle reported that only one in ten soldiers returned to Rus'.

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