Also, people were terrified of the Mongols. Often, cities would surrender the moment the Mongols arrived, just to escape slaughter. But of course, that only happened because there were occasions when the Mongols did, you know, slaughter entire towns. So with all that background, let us return to the question of Mongol awesomeness. First, five arguments for awesome. One, the Mongols really did reinvigorate cross-Eurasian trade. The Silk Road trading routes that had existed for about a thousand years by the time the Mongols made the scene had fallen into disuse.