On reaching Breslau, they discovered that it had been reduced to ashes by the inhabitants, who had taken refuge in the citadel with the garrison. The Mongols, after investing the fortress for several days, raised the siege and joined another corps of their army to march with it against the forces assembled near Lignitz, where Henry, Duke of Silesia, was commander of about twenty thousand men. The Mongols were led by a prince (in Polish chronicles called Péta) whose army far outnumbered that of Duke Henry. The defeat of the Poles was complete. Henry fled from the field with but four of his officers; retarded by the fall of his horse, which was wounded, he mounted a second, but was surrounded, captured, and his head cut off. The Polish loss was heavy. It is told that to discover the number of the enemy killed, the Mongols cut an ear from each corpse, and with those ears filled four large sacks. They now moved forward, carrying fire and blood even to the frontiers of Bohemia and Austria. While one part of Péta’s army besieged Olmütz in Moravia, several corps of it plundered and devastated the surrounding region. Sternberg, commander of Olmütz, made a successful sortie from the citadel, killed some three hundred of the enemy, and returned in safety. A few days later the Mongols raised camp and marched toward Hungary to join the great army under Batu. It was evident that they had besieged Olmütz only for the purpose of pillaging the country round it. Before marching into Hungary, Batu had written to King Bela, demanding that he yield obedience to the Mongol sovereign if he wished to save his own life, or the lives of his subjects. Bela paid no heed to this demand, and the only measure of defense he took was to send small detachments to hold the passes of the Carpathians. There was much dissatisfaction with King Bela, for he had no military ability; another cause for the dissatisfaction was that he had received Kotyan, the Polovtsi Khan, and allowed him to settle, with some forty thousand families, in Hungary. The acquisition of this number of subjects increased the power of the king, and the hope of converting the pagans to Christianity gave him pleasure. But these Polovtsi were so displeasing to the people that in 1240 Bela had to convoke an assembly of the clergy, and the nobility of his kingdom as well as the chiefs of the Polovtsi. It was then resolved that the Polovtsi should be dispersed in different provinces, and should be assigned uncultivated districts where they could pasture their flocks and herds. Kotyan was baptized, so also were his chief officers. Still the hatred of the people continued.