They feasted on the supplies they captured. Genghis Khan turned Beijing into a prison. Within the walls, thousands starved to death. The survivors resorted to cannibalism. Finally, Genghis Khan's army was ready to attack.

"All who surrender would be spared. Those who did not surrender but opposed with struggle and dissension would be annihilated."

Despite enduring months of starvation, the commander of the Chinese army still controlled a formidable garrison with thousands of men and a powerful array of weapons. Genghis Khan knew that few in the first wave of the attack would survive. So he forced captured enemy prisoners to wheel the siege engine forward into the killing zone. It is said that each of his own warriors was given a silk shirt. If the arrow penetrated the body, it took the silk with it, making it easier to draw the arrow out and minimizing the wound.

feast: gorge, devour, consume

cannibalism: act of eating human flesh

annihilate: destroy, demolish; exterminate