After arranging all the matters of the old home's main base, Li Jing took his little sister to board the Black Pearl again, and Yang Fan sailed away and returned to Jinling. The little sister will return to eastern Henan by land in Jinling, and take her 2,500 cavalry disguised as pack teams to gather in Ma'anshan.

Get the cuirass and weapons promised by Li Jing first. Then the Li family's fleet would transport them to Phi Island in Korea to rendezvous with other pirates, under the command of Li Jing's second uncle, waiting for Li Jing's intelligence, landing from Dandong, and then sweeping the old nest of Jiannu.

At this time, it was dark, Li Jing was having dinner with the little sister in the restaurant in the bottom warehouse, Li Jing was very satisfied with this inspection, and specially fried the steak for the little sister, looking at the little sister's clumsy knife and fork, cutting the medium-cooked, blood-streaked beef, while drinking the red wine with a goblet.

The flaming red lips made Li Jing's index finger move. couldn't help but swallow his saliva, the little senior sister gave him a hygienic eye, Li Jing had zero resistance to the little senior sister, who had a hot body and a childish appearance. And Li Jing never hides his pig brother portrait from the little sister.

"Senior brother, can you tell me what a cuirassier regiment is, can my two thousand five hundred cavalry form a cavalry regiment."

"Well, the cuirassiers regiment is the most elite unit on the side of the Franciscans, and they will go into battle at the most critical moment of the battle, dealing with the most difficult enemies on the battlefield, wearing only cuirass and helmets, in order to minimize the weight and maintain the rapid mobility of the cavalry while resisting the enemy's musket lead bullets."

"Strictly speaking, cuirassiers were heavy cavalry equipped with cuirass, sabers and muskets, and compared with the heavy cavalry of the Ming Dynasty, they canceled the whole body armor and horse armor, abandoned heavy weapons such as spears and war hammers, gave up bows and arrows, and used shorter cavalry muskets that were more powerful and suitable for immediate use. It first appeared in the Franco-man area a hundred years ago. This branch of the army inherited the position of heavy cavalry on the battlefield and will not be eliminated for hundreds of years to come. “

"Cuirassiers are a type of heavy cavalry, and the riders and horses of heavy cavalry are taller and stronger than those of light cavalry. Heavy cavalry is an important assault force on the battlefield and is used to break through the weak points of the enemy front; Deliver a devastating blow to an already shaken enemy. In view of this, heavy cavalry was rarely assigned tasks other than battlefield charges. ”

"Their cuirass was of wrought iron, five to eight millimeters thick, and weighed 16 to 24 pounds, which was not very heavy, but if it did not fit, it would have worn a man's shoulders with the jolting of his horse. It is best to make shoulder pads from cowhide to protect the shoulders. So the general cuirassiers wore cuirassiers only when fighting. “

"The cuirass consisted of two decks, front and rear, with a curvature, the main material was iron, the buckle and rivets were brass, connected by belts, and the surface polish weighed about 16 pounds. The main advantage is that it has a certain protective effect on rifle bullets and increases the survivability of cavalry. In addition, a polished cuirass can act as a psychological deterrent. The disadvantage is that the heavy cuirass has higher requirements for both men and horses, so the cost of supplying the cuirassiers is much greater than that of other types of cavalry. And once they lose their mounts, the bulky cuirassiers become inaccessible. In addition to cuirassiers, cuirassiers were equipped with helmets. “

"It is said that one inch is long, one inch is strong, one inch is short, and one inch is dangerous. If my cavalry does not use long weapons such as spears, and the heavy cavalry that does not wear heavy armor and Jiannu will suffer a great loss, why would the Franciscans abandon the heavy cavalry and develop cuirassiers?"

"Do you know that Genghis Khan swept across the Eurasian continent in the pre-Yuan period?"

"The people of this Ming Dynasty know it," the little senior sister said with a roll of her eyes.

"Then do you know that the Mongol cavalry were all light cavalry, and their opponents were all heavy cavalry. Every time Genghis Khan fought, the heavy cavalry was killed by the light cavalry. ”

The little sister's eyes widened, obviously she had a limited understanding of military knowledge, Li Jing felt that if she was willing to join her camp, she should be sent to the Army Academy of the South Australian Maritime Academy to further her studies. Fighting a war is a professional skill, and not everyone can do it.

"Light cavalry and heavy cavalry have experienced several rounds of replacement in history, in fact, they are all related to the changes in the battlefield environment and the emergence of new weapons and tactics. In fact, it's not that heavy cavalry is necessarily better than light cavalry, the key depends on how to use it."

"Then how did this cuirassier defeat Jiannu's heavy cavalry?"

"Quite simply, cuirassiers only have helmets and cuirassiers, because it is difficult for you to shoot on the limbs of the enemy on galloping and bumpy horses, and only the torso targets are the largest. It also has the highest chance of being hit. The rest of the body armor and waistcoat are eliminated, and the weight saved can be made very thick, and not averagely thick, because it is curved, with a polished edge in the middle, and the surface carburizing hardness is very high. The arrow is prone to slipping, and the cuirass gradually thins to the sides, with the thinnest ribs only a millimeter, thinking that the farther to the sides, the less likely it is to be shot. “

"Well, when you say that, I can understand it, it does make sense," the little senior sister said beautifully with her little white jade-like hand on her cheeks.

"The cuirass actually belongs to the plate armor, that is, the armor of the whole piece, the armor of our Ming Dynasty and the previous dynasty, whether it is the armor or the mountain armor, the scale armor and the chain mail, and even the cloth armor developed by the Ming Dynasty, the defense is not as good as the plate armor. You can go back and try to find a pair of armor and shoot it with a tiger bow, the connection of these armor pieces is a weak point, and it can't block the bow and arrow at all. If it is a large arc-shaped piece of metal, no matter which point the shot is fired at, it will be the whole deck under force, which is different from the force of only a few small pieces of iron in the armor. ”

"I understand, don't try, that's the truth," the little sister said obediently

"Let me talk about the armament of the cuirassiers. A cavalry rifle, a cavalry rifle is a flintlock pistol with a short barrel. Easy to load and carry right away. Two, or even four, short handcuffs were inserted under the saddle. A saber weighing about six pounds. It is even possible to carry several grenades. When attacking, they will take turns rushing to effective range, setting fire to their guns, and then quickly leaving the heavy cavalry entanglement that is not at all suitable for the opposing side. The heavy cavalry was too heavily armored to catch up with them."

"I understand that the full body armor and vest of the heavy cavalry are too heavy, which limits the ability to maneuver, and they can't catch up with the other side, so they can only be beaten passively. As long as the opponent maintains an effective range with the heavy cavalry, he can eat the heavy cavalry to death. ”

"Smart" Li Jing snapped his fingers,

"Then there is another situation, the heavy cavalry is also equipped with muskets, even if the two sides shoot at each other, the range is the same for everyone, and they have to stop at the effective range, and they don't necessarily suffer."

"One thing you ignore is that the whole body armor, the whole body protection, in fact, the protection is not good anywhere, the weight is limited, and the whole body can only be very weak. Cuirassiers, on the other hand, could make their cuirass very thick. The effective armor-piercing distance of the two sides is actually different. Shoot at each other immediately, and only aim at the torso at a long distance to maximize the chance of hitting. In fact, the heavy cavalry is used to shock the infantry spear formation, and the whole body armor is not advantageous against the light cavalry except for the infantry. “

"Yes, I understand, cuirassiers must have high requirements for the quality of their soldiers, and they must not have low requirements for horses, otherwise there would be no obvious advantages in mobility. Since it is the hardest bone on the battlefield, there must also be times when slashing and attacking the infantry formation, and the saber is used for this. “

"So you ask me, whether your cavalry can form a cuirassier regiment, it depends on the quality of your soldiers, but also depends on the situation of horses, to be honest, there are no suitable war horses in the Ming Dynasty, this is best to use Indian and Arab war horses, and even the Don hippo of the Ukrainian steppe. In fact, the Ming Dynasty didn't even have a good horse, and the best horse was the Sharma on the Isle of Britain. Daming doesn't even have the most suitable wool for weaving, our wool is too hard to make felt, and the best soft wool Mianyang is in the Francos of the Iberian Peninsula. “

"I don't care about those, if I really want to choose according to this requirement, I'm afraid my 2,500 cavalry won't even be able to choose 200 men. The cuirass you promised me is compared to the cuirass of the Franco-man, it won't be Xibei goods, you profiteer, you will give it to me so quickly. “