"Uncle, the Jiannu have all retreated, and they seem to have been attracted by the Baojun cavalry, what should we do now?" Cao Bianjiao asked.

"How do I know what to do?" Cao Wenzhao said sullenly, although he really wanted to become famous in a battle, and wanted to show the Mongols, the treasure army, and the Jiannu the combat effectiveness of the army he led.

But Cao Wenzhao, as a generation of famous generals, also has overall strategic thinking, knowing that his task is to protect the safety of the flank of the Inner Khalkhas, he can't give up and run to Jiannu to fight.

"Shall we go over and have a look? The army stood still. Cao Bianjiao asked.

"How can a general break away from the army?" Cao Wenzhao said: "Otherwise, you can go and have a look!" Feel free to come and tell me if there's any situation, and remember, don't fight alone. ”

"Good!" Cao Bianjiao agreed, and rode away with a few of his own soldiers.

At this time, Mang Gurtai's army had already entangled the Baojun cavalry regiment, and the armies in the middle and on both flanks came to surround it, trying to trap the Baojun cavalry regiment.

The treasure army was in danger, and discharged a neat queue, showing a square appearance, with a large square on the outside and a small square in the middle, like a hollow word.

The frontal charge of the Jiannu Iron Cavalry, just the archers and spears are enough for the average cavalry corps to drink a pot, not to mention that there are countless means of sprinting, even the frontal charge of the heavy cavalry is not completely sure that it will succeed.

The kind of heavy cavalry in movies and television that rushes straight to the enemy head-on is for artistic effect, just look cool, and the advantage of cavalry is high mobility and harassment.

The cavalry charge was mainly a flank charge, and the frontal charge was too bad.

Let the enemy fight head-on first, and ride on the side charge.

Cavalry is a highly mobile mobile team, and an elite cavalry can be said to be a sword of Damocles hanging from the enemy's head, which can make the enemy always take into account the presence of your cavalry when strategizing, and have to divide forces to deal with your cavalry.

If the enemy also uses a highly mobile team to deal with it, it is the best solution.

If the enemy does not have a corresponding high mobility force, it may take several times as many infantry as your cavalry to render your cavalry useless.

If the enemy does not have good cavalry to capture your cavalry, then your cavalry can be active in the enemy's logistics line, putting great pressure on his logistics, forcing him to deploy a large number of troops on the long supply line to protect the fragile supply line.

In this way, the pressure on the frontal battlefield is greatly reduced.

It plays an excellent role in the production.

At the same time, attacking everywhere attracts rumors and soldiers, and it is also a threat to the psychology of the enemy's grassroots soldiers.

This is the greatest role of cavalry in strategy.

At the tactical level, when using cavalry to fight in formation, you can understand the trickiness of the situation faced by cavalry at the tactical level.

Frontal charges, not to mention pikemen, even sword-and-shield men and greatswordsmen who are not good at cavalry can cause the enemy to lose nearly a quarter of their strength in a single charge.

If a cavalry general is unfortunate enough to get out of the infantry sea, then the cavalry has already perished.

And they may have the same losses, but who loses when comparing a heavy cavalry with a cheap infantry?

In short, the cavalry can never appear on the frontal battlefield on the battlefield where the army is opposed, and the scenes in film and television works in which people and horses are armoured, and hundreds of iron cans carry billowing smoke and dust to tear apart the infantry defense line are almost impossible in the history of warfare.

How to fight tactical cavalry? Wait until the infantry lines of the two sides have been glued together, and after a long battle, the men are tired and dull, find a space, throw off or defeat the enemy cavalry, and then make a roundabout, insert from the side, tear up the enemy infantry's array line at any cost, assist the infantry to break through a big hole in the enemy line, and wait until the enemy's infantry's will to resist gradually collapses back and forth, or try to intercept or contain the enemy's support forces.

If the enemy collapses completely, this is the time for the cavalry to be rampant, and there is no need to pay too much attention to timing or anything, just chase and kill frantically to expand the results.

In the 17th century, the ratio of cavalry to infantry in major European countries often reached 1:2 or even 1:1 or even simply cavalry, which was the period with the largest proportion of cavalry in European history.

Whether it's the famous Rocroix 1643 or the not-so-famous Dinene 1658.

As for worldwide comparisons, heavy cavalry and light cavalry often perform different tasks, so it is not possible to generalize.

Wei Bao likes to call all cavalry whose main function is to charge into battle as heavy cavalry, and all auxiliary functions such as reconnaissance, harassment, vigilance, and patrol are called light cavalry.

On the whole, the quality of heavy cavalry in the 17th century ranked first in the world was the French cavalry of Louis XIV in the latter part of the century.

Although they had abandoned their armor, and although the quality of the French horses was not good in the West, their discipline, training, tactics, sense of collective pride were the best, and they showed very good control when working with the infantry.

The momentum of sweeping the battlefield at critical moments, and the incredible average level of martial arts of the French aristocracy.

Although the Polish cavalry in Eastern Europe was famous, judging from its performance in the era of the Great Flood and the era of 1683, it was obviously inferior to the French cavalry, and there were many defects in the old knightly style.

The most famous hussars are examples of blind charging and then being ambushed by Crimean Tatar cavalry, there are examples of disjointed from each other in the charge and then being eaten by Swedish infantry cavalry, and there are examples of withstanding a wild attack by the Turkish Sipahi cavalry and almost breaking up en masse.

Referring to the entire war from 1683 to 1699, it can be clearly seen that the cavalry of the HRE Empire, including the cuirassiers hired from Italy, performed better than the Polish cavalry in the face of the Turks.

The cavalry of the HRE is not on par with the French, so there should be no dispute that France is first.

Outside of Europe, the first-class heavy cavalry is largely not considered.

Louis XIV's French heavy cavalry, no armor, often fought on foot, there were too many siege battles in that period, and it was also recognized as the first heavy cavalry in Europe, and indeed made many quite good achievements, many performances were as brave as the three musketeers, whether it was a cavalry charge in the field or a leader in climbing the wall during the siege, it was legendary in Europe.

The Manchurian Iron Cavalry was extremely fierce in the wars on the East Asian continent, such as this record: "In the previous year, our army relied on gunners. When the soldiers clashed, they didn't have time to hide anymore and the thieves and horses had already entered the battle. The armor of the thief is so strong that it cannot penetrate a hundred paces unless it is strong, and if it is so thin, it is unstoppable."

This level can be fought in the Western world, but it is impossible to judge excellence in the West alone.

The Polish and Turkish cavalry did the same when confronted with pure musketeers, as did Sweden and England, and the cavalry of these countries was generally able to "hide before the thieves were in battle." If it is close, it will be unstoppable".

Without the protection of spearmen or fortifications, musketeers would not have been able to withstand the direct onslaught of 17th-century cavalry.

Considering that Western horses were taller and stronger, that Europeans were more scientific and effective in their command systems and discipline, and that East Asian cavalry did not even have pistols in close combat, the best of the Western cavalry could only do much better than the Manchurians.

The only advantage of the Manchurian iron cavalry in this period compared with the Western cavalry was that the armor defense was not bad.

Of course, it's not the early 17th century tin cans.

It is difficult to say about the light cavalry, from Mongolia to Eastern Europe to North Africa everywhere there are excellent light cavalry, it is difficult to compare Hungary and Maratha who has more powerful light cavalry.

The reason why the heavy cavalry can be ranked first is because it can be limited to Europe, so there can be direct or indirect comparison of battle examples, excellent light cavalry is worldly, and many do not even have indirect comparisons, so they cannot be ranked.

The only thing that is certain is that France, which won the first place in heavy cavalry, is not worth mentioning in terms of light cavalry, and it is difficult to find good light cavalry in the whole of Western Europe during this period.

In the 16th and 18th centuries, there were many light cavalry in Western Europe, many of which were excellent, but not in the 17th century, when the light cavalry in Europe was indeed in decline.

When the Hungarian rebellion, the HRE Empire could only use regular cuirassiers against the Hungarian light cavalry, which was effective, but not ideal.

The cavalry side in general suffered.

If you don't consider the overall battle situation, just a separate cavalry duel in a competitive manner, then the side with the most advantage in the light cavalry will be the final winner.

The real war is not a cavalry competition, fighting in a civilized area full of cities, farms, fortresses, and military fortifications, the infantry is always the core force, and whoever can cooperate better with the infantry, who can better protect the infantry and deal with the infantry, who is the better cavalry.

This is the case with the cavalry regiment of the treasure army, although they are all cavalry, but the circle in the middle of the word 'hui' will dismount and become infantry.

The cavalry on the periphery was also all light cavalry.

Because the Bao army mainly used firearms, the clothing of the Bao army cavalry regiment was completely cloth clothing, and there was no defense at all.

Once you fight in close quarters, you will suffer a lot.

The cavalry of the Cold Weapon Era was equivalent to the armored tank troops of later generations.

In the era of cold weapons, the cavalry unit has always been the most effective type of troops, until the founding of the People's Republic of China, it still retained the cavalry system, and participated in the 49-year military parade.

In terms of the type of horse, armor and weapons, knights, horsemanship, tactics, training, etc., it is compared when the strength is at its strongest.

At its strongest, the Mongol cavalry was 60% light cavalry and 40% heavy cavalry, and before the advent of breech firearms, heavy cavalry played a surprise role on the battlefield.

The nomads, who are most aware of this, once their strength develops to a certain extent, they all rush to tighten their belts and bring out the heavy cavalry.

Obviously, the Mongols, many people think that their main force is light cavalry, but the fact is that the main force of the Mongol cavalry in its heyday accounted for about 40% of the total heavy cavalry.

The Mongol hussars, except for a helmet, did not wear armor.

The task of the light cavalry was to reconnoitre, cover, provide fire support to the heavy cavalry, clear out the remnants of the enemy, and follow the pursuit.

The main weapon of the hussars was the bow. It was a large bow that required at least 166 pounds of pull, heavier than the English longbow, and had a firing distance of 200 to 300 yards.

They carried two kinds of arrows, one was lighter, and the arrows were small and sharp, which were used for long-range shooting; The other is heavier, with large and wide arrows, which are used in close combat.

Like the heavy cavalry, they also had a heavy scimitar or mace, or a lasso, and sometimes a javelin or spear with a hook on their head.

In terms of war horses, the main tasks of the Mongolian light cavalry were reconnaissance and cover, and they were in the service of the heavy cavalry, and it was the heavy cavalry that really played a combat role.

The best breed of Mongolian horse is the "Uzhumuqin horse", which is a small horse with good endurance and is generally equipped with light cavalry.

Generally speaking, the Mongolian horses that have been trained can be used as heavy cavalry rides, and a large number of Mongolian horses have also been improved later, and the high war horses in Central Asia and Europe are a mixture of Arabian horses and Don hippos, and the improved Mongolian horses have the standard of heavy cavalry mounts, and the weight-bearing capacity is greatly enhanced, and the original endurance is still maintained due to the inheritance of the advantages of the original Mongolian horses.

The heavy cavalry was clad in armor, usually with a leather lining and scales on the outside, or chain armor taken from the enemy, and wore a helmet of the time.

Heavy cavalry horses also tended to wear a small amount of leather armor.

The main weapon of the heavy cavalry was a spear, and each soldier also carried a short scimitar or a mace, which was hung around the waist or placed in the saddle.

The Mongol cavalry was selected from among the best-trained soldiers of the time.

From the age of three or four, they were sent into the Gobi Desert for rigorous training in horseback riding and archery, so they had an amazing ability to harness horses and use weapons.

Can turn around and shoot enemies after him when quickly retreating. They are very tolerant of hardships and harsh climatic conditions, and do not covet comforts and delicious food.

They are physically strong, and with little or no medical treatment, they can keep them fit and ready for battle.

It is their duty to obey orders at all times, and everyone can strictly abide by them.

Discipline has been institutionalized, which was not heard of elsewhere in the Middle Ages.

The horses used by the cavalry were also extremely rigorously trained.

Unlike European horses, Mongolian horses live in the wild regardless of the harsh winter and heat, and can walk for days without eating anything when necessary, and have a strong endurance.

They are able to cross almost incredibly long distances in a very short time on the most treacherous terrain.

In 1241, Subutai's advance force crossed the Carpathian Mountains from the Ruska Pass in only three days to the vicinity of Gran in the Danube Valley, a journey of 180 miles, mostly covered with deep snow and marching on enemy territory.

At the beginning of the battle, the Mongol cavalry columns usually rushed forward at high speed in a very wide formation, and the main forces were transmitted by the heralds.

When the enemy is spotted, all nearby troops carry out a surprise attack with this as the target.

At this time, all information about the enemy's position, strength, direction of movement, etc., was sent to the General Headquarters, and then to the field detachments.

If there are not many enemies, the nearest commander will immediately lead the troops to meet them.

If the enemy was too large to eat it at once, the main Mongol forces quickly assembled behind the cavalry covering troops, and then advanced at high speed, scattering and crushing the enemy before they had time to gather their forces.

The most common method of warfare used by the Mongol army was to advance in a wide line by lining up the troops in many roughly parallel columns, under the cover of light cavalry.

When the first column encountered the enemy's main force, the column either stopped advancing or retreated slightly according to the situation, while the rest of the column continued to advance, occupying the enemy's flank and the area behind it.

This often forced the enemy to retreat to protect its lines of communication, and the Mongols took the opportunity to approach the enemy and cause confusion as they retreated, and finally completely surrounded and annihilated the enemy.

The standard Mongolian battle formation consisted of five horizontal formations.

Each column is a separate column.

The horizontal teams are separated by a wide distance.

The first two horizontal teams were heavy cavalry, and the remaining three teams were light cavalry.

In front of these five columns, there were also a number of light cavalry units responsible for reconnaissance and cover.

As the opposing forces drew closer, the three columns of light cavalry in the rear advanced through the gap between the first two columns of heavy cavalry, and after careful aiming, they hurled javelins and poisoned arrows of devastating power at the enemy.

Then, while still in full formation, the first two columns of heavy cavalry retreated first, and then the light cavalry in turn.

Even if the enemy's line was solid, it would have been shaken by this pre-prepared and dense barrage of arrows.

Sometimes this kind of harassment can be used to break the enemy, and there is no need for a surprise charge.

If the column commander believed that the preparatory attack had completely disintegrated the enemy, then ordered the light cavalry to retreat.

But if necessary, the heavy cavalry was ordered to charge.

Commands are transmitted by means of signal flags and pennants during the day and by lights or fires at night.

During the battle, the various cavalry companies were close together.

However, if the troops in the center have already engaged the enemy, the flanks will be flanked and circled to the enemy's flanks and backs.

In such outflanking campaigns, smoke screens, dust are often used to confuse the enemy, or the cover of hillsides and valleys is used.

After completing the encirclement of the enemy, the various units launched attacks from all directions, causing chaos in the enemy's formation, and finally completely crushing the enemy.

This encirclement was a common method of warfare for the Mongol armies, and they were particularly adept at using stratagem to carry it out.

Liaodong Iron Cavalry Liaodong Iron Cavalry refers to the Ming Dynasty Liaodong General Li Chengliang and his son under the command of the troops, Li is good at cavalry raids, the most elite troops under his command are the Li Jiajia general cavalry team, the number is about 3,000, well-equipped, well-trained, invincible in the conquest of the Mongolian barbarian department and the battle of Wanli Korea, and also repeatedly quelled the rebellion of the Jurchen tribes, the Jurchen rebellion leader Wang Gao and Nurhachi's father and ancestor died under the Liaodong elite cavalry knife.

However, after Li Rusong died in battle, the Li family no longer had a good general to lead it, so it did not achieve much in the battles of Salhu and other battles, and gradually collapsed.

The standard equipment of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry is: "Three-eyed Gun", three-eyed gun, the caliber is generally 15-20 mm, compared to the length of one foot and five inches, the length of the body tube is not high, so the accuracy, range and power are unsatisfactory.

Qi Jiguang once commented: "The fast gun is far inferior to the bird's gun, and the range is not as good as the bird's gun. However, the Northern Army is accustomed to it, one gun into the second or third son, overloading, easy to blow up, put it when it is hammered, and it is immutable. ”

It can be seen that Qi Jiguang is very uninterested in the three-eyed gun, and the musketeers under his command are all known as "bird guns can reach far, have a long range, and are multimediate, with high precision, and can penetrate armor, are powerful, and are the first sharp weapon for stepping down immediately".

Qi Jiguang's musketeers were equipped with seven-foot-long wild knives, and they relied on wild knives to charge hand-to-hand combat, probably related to the impatience of northerners.

A small number of the cavalry of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry may have been equipped with three-eyed guns, but this primitive firearm had no advantage over the strong bows and arrows of the Manchu people, and it may have been a special purpose to frighten horses.

Judging from the records of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry fighting in Korea in the Ming Dynasty, most of the Liaodong Iron Cavalry were only equipped with bows and arrows and waist knives, and the control of cannons, divine arrows, Franc machines, bird guns and other weapons were all requisitioned and deployed by the Southern Army gunners.

The gunner of Li Chengliang's attack on Nurhachi's grandfather Wang Gao was Shen Yourong, a famous southern general of the Wanli Dynasty, and the gunners and bird gunners during the attack on Pyongyang were subordinate to the southern soldiers rather than his descendant Liaodong Army.

The reason why the East Iron Cavalry was able to defeat the Mongolian and Jurchen Iron Cavalry in 40 years was because of two points, one was willing to spend money.

"Chengliang Zhuzhan power borrowed from athletes. Later, the athletes Li Pinghu, Li Ning, Li Xing, Qin Deyi, and Sun Shoulian were all rich and noble, and they owned the city. ”

There must be brave men under the so-called heavy rewards, but after the generals became rich, they also became "twilight".

The second is to charge personally. The Li family has always personally led the charge, so his subordinates dare not play with their lives.

In terms of tactics, the Li clan is also very similar to the Mongols: "And the battle mostly uses iron horses, listed as a horizontal formation, and sends bows and arrows to rush the thief, if the thief does not move, then slowly retreat and rush again." After more than a dozen times, there was no one who could not be defeated. ”

It can be seen that the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, like the Mongol cavalry, is an archer, not a musketeer.

Liaodong Iron Cavalry should be a horse near Northeast China and Mongolia, and it is made of materials nearby, although the number is small, but the quality is high and the combat effectiveness is strong.

The commander is properly trained, and there is a certain superiority in weapons.

The Eight Banners Cavalry is accurately said to be the cavalry battalion of the Eight Banners, because the Eight Banners is a military system, and the Eight Banners system is a form of social organization in the Qing Dynasty, and the Manchurians used this military organization system to establish the Qing Dynasty.

In normal times, people engage in activities such as farming, hunting, etc.; In wartime, he was conscripted into the army, which originated from the Jurchen hunting organization - Niulu.

Family members with flag registration are called flag people.

The military organization system of the Eight Banners was formulated by Nurhachi.

At first, Nurhachi divided his army into four flags, which were identified by flags of different colors, known as the "positive yellow flag" and so on.

As the army grew, the four flags were added to the border to become the "inlaid yellow flag" and so on, forming the eight flags.

Each banner has regular troops such as military camps, forward battalions, cavalry battalions, Jianrui battalions and infantry battalions, as well as guards, ladders and formations.

In addition, special battalions such as the Xiangli Battalion, the Tiger Gun Battalion, the Firearms Battalion, and the Shenji Battalion have been set up to practice wrestling, archery, tiger stabbing, and gun drills.

The cavalry of the Eight Banners is the Xiao Cavalry Battalion, and the Xiao Cavalry Battalion has existed since the Jin Dynasty, and the Xiao Cavalry Battalion is the backbone and elite of the Eight Banners Army.

To be precise, the Treasure Army Cavalry Regiment is more like the European cavalry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the British and French cavalry.

The cavalry regiment of the Baojun Army paid more attention to group operations, paid more attention to the dense arrangement of formations, and did not give the opponent empty blocks.

This also caused the Jiannu Iron Cavalry to concentrate more than 7,000 people, but they couldn't find a place to speak, and the anxious Mang Gurtai was very anxious.

The Mongols and Cao Bianjiao, who were watching the battle from the periphery, were amazed, because they had not seen the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry fighting, and the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry rarely hesitated to encounter opponents on the battlefield.

The Jiannu Iron Cavalry was not afraid of the Baojun Cavalry Regiment, but had clashed with the Baojun Cavalry Regiment several times, and knew that the Baojun Cavalry Regiment was so powerful in arranging troops, and the frontal impact could not take any advantage.

"Father, the Jin people didn't dare to attack the cavalry of the treasure army right away." Ulan Tu Yaqiqi Ge said to Zhuo Liktu.

Zhuo Liktu nodded: "It seems that the treasure army has really made a name for itself, when have you ever seen the Jin people iron cavalry dare not go up, it is embarrassing to say, originally our Mongolian iron cavalry is the most brave and good at fighting, so that the enemy is terrified, but we are now in the eyes of the Jin people, it is obviously inferior to the treasure army, there are only 2,000 people, we have more than 20,000 troops, and the Jin people are still chasing us to fight." ”

Zhuotmur was a little unconvinced: "That's because the Jin people are mainly afraid of the firearms of the treasure army!" Father, we also have firearms, why not use them? ”