The Mongol Conquests 275 pared to Subutai. It should also be noticed that the Mongols em- barked upon the enterprise with full knowledge of the political situation of Hungary and the condition of Poland — they had taken care to inform themselves by a well-organized system of spies ; on the other hand, the Hungarians and the Christian powers, like childish barbarians, knew hardly anything about their enemies." But though the Mongols were victorious at Liegnitz, they did not continue their drive westward. They were getting into woodlands and hilly country, which did not suit their tactics ; and so they turned southward and prepared to settle in Hungary, massacring or assimilating the kindred Magyar, even as these had previously massacred and assimilated the mixed Scythians and Avars and Huns before them. From the Hungarian plain they would probably have made raids west and south as the Hungarians had done in the ninth century, the Avars in the seventh and eighth and the Huns in the fifth. But Ogdai died suddenly, and in 1242 there was trouble about the succession, and recalled by this, the undefeated hosts of Mongols began to pour back across Hungary and Rumania towards the east. Thereafter the Mongols concentrated their attention upon their Asiatic conquests. By the middle of the thirteenth century they ^^ OTTOMAN IMVIKE lcf<n'c 14S3 .
