Quote Originally Posted by Watchman
I must also say I don't really see the difference between an "ethnic" Mongol soldier in the Mongol military system and a, for off-the-top-of-head example, Iranian Turkish soldier in the Mongol military system. The two - steppe nomad warriors organized to fight under the same methods - ought to be about the exact same thing in just about all practical respects.
Except for the glaring difference that occurs in most conscripted soldiers.

Uh... you know, I don't think the Mongols ever ventured too far into the coniferous forest belt, save for raids. No nomads who'd been inhabiting the region since before they learned to ride horses ever tended to, either.
Jochi ventured quite a way into the Tigra.
Due to the simple fact they didn't need to, nor want to because especially after they went on horseback they'd have been at quite the disadvantage there.
On the contrary, he suppressed the 'peoples of the forest'
The Mongols, like all the nomad empires before them, took over the steppe part of Russia. The forested bit was largely left alone, or in any case not actually conquered and at best adminstered by local vassal lords under the threat of punitive expeditions.
During this campaign, Siban,Budjeq,and Buri rode so far north that they reported there was 'hardly any night'.

Actually when you look at it, China - which was half plains anyway, and could be conquered relatively easily by taking control of the strategic nerve centers - and Korea were about the exact only places where Mongol dominion actually went well past the limits of the Great Eurasian Steppe Belt. They kind of seemed to hit a wall (à la Vietnam, Java, Japan and Egypt/Asia Minor for some), or just give up and leave (à la Hungary and Poland), almost everywhere else.
China was hardly easy to conquer otherwise it would have been conquered before. With the incursions into southeast Asia, I will refer back to conscripted soldiers. These were naval battles, hardly a nomadic strong point, that were fought by armies that consisted hugely of Song Chinese and against countries that had been trading with the Song for years and built up good relationships. Hardly the best morale booster for soldiers who had until recently been fighting against the Mongols.
In Asia Minor, Jebe and Subedei had destroyed the armies of Georgia with a reconnaisance force of some 20,000 odd men twenty years previous. That area became a flash point between the Golden Horde and Ilkhanate

.......Orda