Background
The Mongol style of warfare was an outgrowth of their nomadic way of life, coupled with experience gained in fighting tribes such as the Naimans, Keraits, and Uyghurs. Their strategies were swift and short attacks to plunder each other, (they supported their armies and shared food with all by law, Zasag/Yassa) and disappear quickly.
There was long-standing enmity between Mongol tribes and China because Mongol nomads wanted to graze and the Chinese feudal lords wanted to rule and tax them heavily, imposing labour their nomadic constitution was unfit for. Times on the Central Asian steppes were complicated by seasonal cold temperatures such as zud that resulted in large number of livestock being lost during the winter, which made subsistence difficult, while nomads were not allowed emergency shelter in feudal lord-controlled lands. The nomads did not practice farming. The nomads being highly dependent on seasons and weather changes. The weather was extremely cold in the winter in the northern Mongolia with cold winds, blizzards blowing in from Siberia through the steppes (that can't stop the wind because of the flat surface). For instance, the average winter temperature in Mongolia can be −30 °C (−22 °F), which usually freezes the soil. The southern area of Gobi is basically uninhabitable for long durations because it is a desert.
The Chinese sought to defuse the Mongol threat by fomenting inter-tribal strife amongst the various Mongol factions who were known to habitually feud amongst themselves due to numerous reasons such as robberies, misunderstanding and vendetta. The Mongols viewed China as rich who did not share food with anyone as the Zasag/Yassa enjoins while enjoining order in the feeding of captives in a manner that can be easily exploited; the Chinese of the administrations and rulers viewed Mongols as non-Chinese not yet under their taxpaying peasant system, there to gradually disappear and be absorbed into the Empire.
Read more about this topic: Destruction Under The Mongol Empire
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