This brilliant but wicked tactic had somehow escaped me even as I taught world history in high school for years. Given the young age of my audience, I told tales about the Mongols’ cruelty almost the same way I described the Assyrians.I recently read a new and recent take on Genghis Khan and couldn’t help but draw parallels with our modern world, but this essay is mainly about then rather than now.When Genghis Khan wanted to take down a rich and powerful city, he meticulously planned his steps. The most important step was to ravage the countryside around the city in order not so much to plunder as to chase frightened and devastated people out of their homes toward the city. The city would take pity on countless refugees and let them all in.