traditional methods of defending their land when the enemy moved along the gorge: blockades, throwing rocks, battling in the forest, luring the enemy into their territory and massive pursuit, exhausting and demoralizing enemy forces, and only after that, a decisive victory. Thus, giving the Durdzuks enough time to prepare for a larger battle. Battle of Khankala After having severely hatled the Mongol advance, the Durdzuks allied themselves with the Alans, Lezgins and Circassians. The Cumans also joined the army, and convinced the Volga Bulgars and the Khazars to join. This army counted around 50,000 men. The Cuman khan, Koten, placed the army under his brother, Yuri, and his son, Daniel. In the following battle of Khankala, despite the coalition's victory, it's victory was indecisive. In the second battle, the Mongols convinced the "Polovtsy" (Kipchak Turks, Cumans, Khazars and Volga Bulgars) to leave the battlefield by reminding them of the Turkic-Mongol friendship and promising them a share of the booty gained from the Caucasian tribes. The trick worked, and with the tide of the battle turned, the Mongols successfully defeated the Caucasian alliance. Aftermath After the crucial defeat of the North Caucasian alliance, the Mongols ravaged the region and then attacked the Kipchak Turks, who were returning back in their home country, and scattered them accross the Caucasus. One group fled south, conquering Derbent and then breaking into the South Caucasus, while the other part fled north, asking for help from Russian princes. The Mongols then continued north, reaching the southern Russian steppes and eventually todays Ukraine, where they defeated a European alliance, among whom were the Principality of Kiev, the Cumans and others in the Battle of the Kalka River. Uprising of 1227 In 1227, after the death of Genghis Khan and his son Jochi, thus leading to powerful waves of urban and peasant uprisings by the conquered peoples that swept across the empire, such as in the North Caucasus, Eastern Europe, China, Iran, South Caucasus and Central Asia, allowing the conquered people to politically break free from the Mongol Empire. All this frightened the Mongol feudal lords, who rushed to enthrone a new emperor. Second Mongol invasion In 1228, the newly elected Ögedei Khan sent an army around 30,000 men strong to Eastern Europe and the North Caucasus to crush the rebellion. In 1229, after 6 months, the army arrived at it's destiny and began military operations. In the