As soon as he said it, Meng Zhong immediately ordered all the chariots in the generals to gather, and a total of more than 300 chariots, about 1,000 war horses.

Some people may ask, there are only more than 300 chariots, but why are there more than 1,000 war horses?

The reason is simple, because the chariot is drawn by a horse, that is, a regular chariot should be carried by four horses.

Speaking of this, it is necessary to tell about the history of the development of combat vehicles.

Chariot, in fact, in the Shang period has become an indispensable weapon in the army, it is pulled by two horses, the people who sit on the chariot generally take the way of kneeling, and use their hands to fight (about 1 meter to 1.8 meters), not so much that the chariot at this time is a weapon of war, but rather a vehicle, that is, a means of transportation, which is used to transport soldiers to the designated battlefield - here it is a soldier, not a soldier.

When the Zhou State arrived, the chariot was gradually used as a weapon of war, first of all, the carriage has been improved, so that the soldiers carried on the chariot can no longer adopt the posture of kneeling, but can stand upright on the carriage, and the weapons used by the chariot soldiers have gradually changed from hand Ge, short Ge to long Ge (nearly 3 meters), the chariot at this time has gradually become a fierce beast on the battlefield, until now, this terrifying war weapon is still active on the battlefield.

In fact, even if the carriage of the chariot has been improved and improved for hundreds of years, and even changed from the "kneeling type" to the "upright type", in fact, the weight of the carriage itself has not increased much, and the soldiers on the chariot are still held at about three, so the question arises, why does the chariot need four horses?

According to the saying that the chariot "two suits and two geese walk", in fact, the main ones who pull the chariot are actually the two war horses in the middle - these two war horses are called "service horses", which are bound by the yoke and the balance, and must go hand in hand; The two horses on the left and right sides are called "horses", although they are also responsible for pulling the cart, but they are not actually the main role of pulling the cart, they are mainly responsible for making the chariot "turn" when galloping.

Because the two horses in the middle are unable to turn, if the front is obstructed, the soldier driving the chariot must rely on the horses on both sides, by whipping and other methods, to make the horses on both sides change direction, forcing the other three horses to move with it, the reason is that the horses are covered with a prop called "coercion", that is, it can prevent the horses from getting too close to the inner horses, and can also force the horses to obey its direction in an emergency.

Of course, even so, due to the relationship between the service horse and the "yoke", even if there are horses on both sides to pull, it is still difficult for the service horse to change direction, so that when the chariot changes direction, it will often run a very large bend, which is very inflexible.

But it's obviously much better than hitting an obstacle head-on.

In addition to being responsible for "turning the corner", the two horses also have another greater way, that is, to take their place after the unfortunate death of the two "service horses", and continue to ride the chariot on the battlefield to gallop and fight.

This is the reason why the main chariot today is a horse chariot, and a combat chariot needs to be ridden by four horses.

Therefore, there is no need to wonder why there are more than 1,000 war horses in the more than 300 chariots of the Wei army, in fact, these more than 1,000 chariots are still in the case that many of the more than 300 chariots are not "full", if the war horses are full, the number of war horses may be close to the figure of 1,500.

Of course, even if it is more than a thousand war horses, it is enough for Meng Zhong to build cavalry, after all, the main purpose of his building this cavalry is to "counter-contain" the army of Qin, and it is not mainly to fight against the Qin army, a thousand cavalry is enough.

If you have a war horse, then the rest to consider is the harness and the horseman.

Horse harness, that is, the auxiliary utensils that are convenient for controlling horses, the word first appeared in the Central Plains in the Zhao State, since the Zhao State Hufu cavalry and archery reform, the war horse was officially used as a cavalry combat horse, so the Zhao State alone designed the horse for this kind of riding war horse, in addition to the original halter and reins, and improved the "saddle" - of course, the saddle at this time was only an imitation of the horse mat of the Hu cavalry, the main purpose is not to fight, but to allow the cavalry to ride on the horse slightly comfortably.

I remember that when I was in the Zhao State, Meng Zhong and others also tried to ride a war horse naked, that is, without relying on any saddle - this is what every Zhao cavalry needs to experience, but the taste is really uncomfortable, Meng Zhong and others were not only turned upside down to their stomachs at that time, but the tender flesh in the crotch position was also drenched in blood by the horse's back and cloth rubbing when it was bumpy, so that for a while they could only stride with their straight legs, and when they moved slightly, there was a sharp pain like tearing in the crotch.

All in all, the saddle at this time was mainly used to protect the rider for a long period of time.

In addition to the halter, bridle and saddle, Zhao Guo also has a very key harness, that is, the stirrup.

Similarly, at this time, the unilateral stirrup of Zhao was not used to assist the cavalry in battle, its function was only to facilitate the knight to turn over and get on the horse, and during the period when the cavalry rode the war horse, the cavalry mainly relied on the legs to tighten the horse's belly to stabilize the body, which caused the cavalry to be in a state of muscle tension in the lower body at all times when riding, so that after a long time of riding, when the cavalry dismounted may not even be able to walk steadily.

In view of the fact that these war horses that were originally used to pull chariots originally had halters and bridles, the harness that Meng Zhong and the others needed to prepare only needed saddles and stirrups.

The saddle is easy to solve, just find some thick cloth and clothes to tie on the horse's back, anyway, the main function is to prevent the cavalry from being torn by the hard horse bones - although Meng Zhong knows that this kind of thing is not a saddle at all, and the real saddle is far more than that, but there is no way, where will he build a batch of saddles at this time?

This is not in Zhao State, look at the 60,000 Wei troops under his command, how many of them know the "saddle"?

As for the stirrups, it was even simpler, Meng Zhong simply asked the soldiers to make ropes, in short, two rope sets were connected to a rope, hung on the horse's back and fixed, and the left foot and right foot just stepped on one each.

That's right, although extremely simple, Meng Zhong did not use Zhao Guo's "unilateral stirrup", but chose the "bilateral stirrup" that had never appeared in the world in his mind.

Why not have a stirrup on the left and right? If there is a stirrup on the left and right, and the soldier steps on the stirrup, wouldn't it be more stable to stabilize the body?

I remember that when Meng Zhong first arrived in Zhao State, when he saw Zhao Guo's cavalry, he couldn't help but have a question in his heart.

However, because he first arrived in Zhao at that time, his heart was also a little immature, so he did not dare to ask the question in his heart, and when Zhao's father taught them traditional riding skills, Meng Zhong also forgot about this matter - he did it all when he rode a war horse naked, and it didn't matter if there was a stirrup or not, after all, Meng Zhong and the others had never encountered the experience of having to ride a war horse to kill the enemy.

Just like Meng Hu said, their riding skills were trained by Master Zhao's father, and they didn't know how much they had suffered, how many times they had wailed, and even had the experience of being unable to sleep all night because of the severe pain in their hips.

Old horseman, this is really not Menghu's boastful words.

All in all, Meng Zhong and the others were not the best cavalry, but they were definitely qualified cavalrymen, after all, their riding skills were honed under the strict teaching of Master Zhao's father, and they were trained by regular and systematic Zhao-style cavalry.

"Yuyu—"

With a whistle, Meng Hu galloped from a distance, and he stopped his momentum in front of Meng Zhong, only to see him tighten the reins, forcing the war horse under his crotch to take off, and standing on only two hind legs, this scene stunned the Wei generals who were watching nearby, and even Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Tang Zhi and other military Simas were dumbfounded, and sighed.

Only the brothers of Meng Zhong and Meng Hu did not think so, such as Hua Hu, he pursed his lips and muttered "I don't like it to use", which caused Mu Wu, Le Jin and others to echo it.

Obviously, Meng Hu's riding skills that stunned the Wei generals were actually like that in their eyes - who wouldn't?! Is it worth showing off?

"Ah Zhong."

Without paying attention to the expressions of Hua Hu and the others, Meng Hu turned over and dismounted, pointed to the rope nooses on both sides of the horse's belly and said with a smile: "This thing is very good, I just tried to tighten these two rope nooses with my legs as you said when riding, and I feel that my body is really much more stable...... It's just that this thing is not strong, so we seem to hear the sound of breaking, and we don't dare to push too hard. ”

"How strong can the rope be?"

Meng Zhong said casually, reaffirming the role of bilateral stirrups in his heart.

He believed that this thing would make it easier for them to ride their horses, especially for the Wei pawns who had no previous riding experience at all.

Yes, cavalry is not something that can be trained casually, and in the modern era when horse harness is not complete, every qualified cavalryman must first be a person with great perseverance, that is, a person with a strong heart.

Why do you say that, it is because the biggest problem in riding a war horse is to stabilize the body during the galloping of the war horse and firmly attach it to the horse's back, otherwise it will be thrown out, dizzy, or even killed or injured on the spot.

And in order to be attached to the horse's back, the cavalry must tighten the horse's belly with both legs, and the whole person lies on the horse's back, and the result of doing so for a long time does not care about other hardships for the time being, at least the left and right sides of the hip bone, it is inevitable that because of the bumps during riding, the body will constantly rub against the clothes and the horse's back, so that in the end the skin will be broken and drenched in blood - Meng Zhong and others have experienced first-hand that they only need to ride for half a day to end up with this kind of ending, if there is no indomitable willpower, if there is no willpower to endure this pain, even the door of the cavalry can not be touched.

And this door ragged, Meng Zhong and others adapted to it for nearly three months, during which the two pieces of tender meat on the inside of the hip bone suffered a lot.

But there is no way, if you want to become a cavalryman, you must endure this pain.

And when you can stabilize your body on the back of a galloping horse, and then you can adapt to attack on horseback, the easiest is the sword, the most difficult point is the two-handed Changge, and the most difficult thing is to open the bow on the horseback.

The reason is very simple, first of all, riding skills need to be practiced over time, a year and a half may not be able to make a new pawn grow into a qualified cavalry, and the same is true of archery, the average person at least a year or two of practice, in order to barely shoot a target dozens of steps away.

As for opening a bow on horseback, this requires riding and archery skills to be higher, and almost no one can practice this skill in three or five years, and in the Yanmen Pass of Zhao State, even if they are old horsemen who have been fighting with the Hu cavalry for nearly ten years, they may not be able to hit the enemy with arrows - they can have half or even a thirty percent chance of hitting, it is worth their joy for this.

Bow cavalry, that is, the knight who has mastered the bow on a galloping war horse, this is undoubtedly the highest ragged type of cavalry in the cavalry series, in the decades-long war between the warriors of the Zhao State and the grassland peoples, a single archer killed a dozen, or even dozens of Zhao foot soldiers, which is nothing new at all.

It was not until later that cavalry and even archers also appeared in the Zhao Kingdom.

Since Meng Zhong is preparing to form a cavalry, his priority is naturally the first to invest in the 2,500 Wei soldiers under his command, among which there are various reasons, but the main thing is that Cao Chun, Wei Xu These soldiers are already very familiar with Meng Hu and others, and Meng Hu, Meng Sui and others, it is not an exaggeration to say that Wei Guo should be the group of people who know the cavalry best, after all, they can also be called the cavalry of Zhao State.

Cavalry, even if it is the cavalry of Zhao State, is not the main force fighting the enemy on the battlefield for the time being, its advantage is far beyond the mobility of the charioteers, so it is not too condescending to use him as a tactical arm on the battlefield, and its real power should be reflected in the strategy - this is a strategic arm.

The so-called strategy and tactics, tactics usually refer to local wars, and generally need to be specific to the situation at the time, for example, a while ago, Meng Zhong looked at the Qin army's weak period to take countermeasures, which is a kind of tactic; For example, in the past two days, Bai Qi, the commander of the Qin army, led the army to flee to South Korea, and used the sneak attack on the cities of South Korea to force the Wei army to run back and forth in vain, trying to take the opportunity to ambush the Wei army halfway after consuming the physical strength of the Wei army, so as to change the current situation of "the Wei army is strong and the Qin army is weak", which is strategy.

In terms of strategy, it is natural to use strategy to counter, and this newly formed cavalry is a strange move used by Meng Zhong to fight against the Qin army.

On that day, Meng Hu called Hua Hu, Mu Wu and their soldiers to the open space outside the camp, and ordered the Wei soldiers under their command to try to ride war horses.

The cavalry of the steppe peoples, generally rangers, that is, during the war for a long time outside the main army, responsible for hitting, harassing, sneak attack on the enemy army of the cavalry, they generally have two horses, a pack on weekdays, a horse, a man, which makes the physical strength of the war horse basically maintained at a sufficient level, so that their activity distance is far more than the cavalry with only one war horse - as far as Meng Zhong knows, there are two war horses of the ranger, his "hunting" range can be hundreds of miles, here today, Tomorrow is hundreds of miles away, so in most cases, the foot soldiers will not be able to hunt them down.

However, at the moment, Meng Zhong's cavalry had just been formed, and there were not enough war horses, so Meng Zhong naturally didn't expect these newly formed cavalry to be like the Hu cavalry - as long as these cavalry could send the movements of the Qin army in time, he would be satisfied.

Under the care of Menghu, Mengsui, Huahu, Mu Wu and others, Cao Chun, Cai Cheng, and Lü Wen and Wei Wushu under their command began to try to ride war horses.

Since the war horses of the Wei army are strictly trained, these war horses will not resist when these Wei soldiers turn over on horseback, the problem is that once the war horses start to run, the Wei soldiers on horseback are often thrown off because they cannot maintain stability.

After repeatedly emphasizing the essentials of the cavalry, he still saw the Wei soldiers under his command frequently fall off their horses, which made Meng Hu, Hua Hu, Mu Wu and others feel very annoyed.

You know, when they learned to ride, there was no such thing as a bilateral stirrup, it was all about willpower, and they tightened the horse's belly with their legs, and now, because Meng Zhong proposed the stirrup on both sides, the difficulty of the cavalry trying to ride has been greatly reduced, but even so, there are still a lot of Wei pawns who have been thrown off the horse, which makes the impatient Meng Hu and Hua Hu particularly depressed.

"Cao Chun, hold the stirrups with both feet and tighten the reins properly...... Don't tilt your body, don't tilt to the left and right, and you don't turn the direction...... Put the reins! Put the reins, and if you pull the horse again, you'll fall...... I'm not telling you to let go of the reins, tighten the reins properly, which word do you not understand? ”

Seeing Cao Chun swaying on horseback, almost being thrown off the horse several times, the more Meng Hu looked, the more anxious he became.

At this time, Cao Chun was also scolding in his heart, he didn't mind being scolded by Menghu, after all, he already knew this guy very well, knew that this guy didn't have any bad intentions, the anger came and went quickly, the problem is that Menghu is really not a good teacher, listening to what he said, is it a bit of a fart?

Not far away, Cai Cheng, who was taught by Huahu, was in a similar situation.

And just when Cao Chun and Cai Cheng were secretly scolding Meng Hu and Hua Hu for not being good teachers, they suddenly heard Lu Wen in the distance exclaiming: "I, I can ride a horse......

"Huh?"

"What?"

Meng Hu, Hua Hu, Cao Chun, and Cai Cheng subconsciously turned their heads to look, and were shocked to see Lu Wen walking slowly on a war horse, although it was very slow, but it was very steady.

"That's called horseback riding?"

Not far away, Mu Wu chuckled and said, "It's still far away!" …… When you can shoot a bow on the back of a galloping warhorse, you can ride a horse. ”

"Shoot a bow on a galloping horse? Can this be done? Under Mu Wu's teaching, Lu Wen asked in surprise while holding the reins.

"Hey!"

Mu Wu chuckled, didn't explain, casually asked a Wei Wushu next to him for a crossbow, immediately turned over another horse, and shot crossbow arrows at the passing trees on the way to gallop, and sure enough, it hit the tree.

“……”

The Wei pawns present all widened their eyes in surprise.

Especially Lu Wen, only those who have sat on horseback know how difficult it is to stabilize his body on horseback, but Mu Wu can shoot arrows on the back of a galloping war horse without being thrown off by a war horse.

"It turns out that this kid really has real talent and learning......

After Mu Wu returned to the front, Lu Wen thought in surprise.

After all, in his impression, the brigade commander in front of him always smirked in front of him from time to time, dreaming of catching up with his two companions, namely Menghu and Huahu, because of the number of times, so that Lu Wen always felt that he was unreliable, and it was not until today that he really changed.

"Do what I do, and you'll be a qualified cavalryman."

Riding the war horse to Lu Wen, Mu Wu said calmly.

"Whoa!" Lu Wen's tone was rarely respectful.

"Don't worry, in fact you've done a great job, at least ......"

As he spoke, Mu Wu glanced at Meng Hu and Hua Hu, and said with a smile: "Ah Hu, Hua Hu, how are you doing over there?" Lu Wen will be able to try to ride a horse and gallop soon......"

"This kid...... Why are you so disgusting?'

Looking at the smug look on Mu Wu's face, Meng Hu and Hua Hu glanced at each other, and each pulled his soldiers away with a tacit understanding.

In the farther distance, Dou Xing, Wei Qing, Tang Zhi, Jiao Ge and other military commanders also stood together and watched the cavalry drill from afar.

After a long time, Dou Xing frowned and said, "I always feel that it is not very reliable...... This cavalry is a creation from Zhao State, right? I don't know very well, Tang Zhi and Jiao Ge, the place where the two of you are stationed is close to Zhao State, and you should know the cavalry of Zhao State best...... Does it work? ”

"It doesn't seem to me to be of much use." Tang Zhi said very bluntly.

He was previously a military commander stationed in Yecheng of Wei, and had fought against Zhao's border garrison many times in the past ten years, and had also encountered Zhao's cavalry during the period, but based on his previous impression, this kind of cavalry only had the advantage of "running fast".

In terms of melee combat, the cavalry was violently beaten by the infantry, and a foot soldier holding a long gege could easily poke a galloping cavalryman off his horse, almost threatening.

In terms of long range, the crossbowman's crossbow has a longer firing range.

As for the charge, the cavalry was far inferior to the charioteers.

Tang Zhi really couldn't think of any use for that kind of limp cavalry - well, it was a good idea to monitor the movements of the Qin army.

"Probably only for the purpose of monitoring the Qin army." He said with a shrug.

"That's enough."

Wei Qing said with a smile: "Isn't our biggest problem at the moment that we can't track the movements of the Qin army?" If this cavalry could report every move of the Qin army to the army at any time, it would be of great help. …… It's faster than a chariot, which is also an advantage. ”

On the side, the military Sima Fei Hui interjected with some doubts: "Having said that, I feel that the division commander's expectations for this cavalry do not seem to be just asking these people to monitor the movements of the Qin army, I believe you have also heard that the division commander once said that the boy Menghu would train the Qin army...... I don't know what kind of military training it is. ”

Hearing this, the expressions of the generals were inevitably a little strange.

Don't look at the soldiers of the Wei army, one by one, they don't take the Qin army in their eyes at all, but they know very well that the Qin army that is currently flowing into South Korea is quite strong, so such a brave Qin army training?

The military commanders were very suspicious of the more than 1,000 so-called cavalry, and in the end, there would be a few left.

“…… Although it is the meaning of Meng Shishuai, I still feel that these cavalry are unreliable, no, I have to talk to Meng Shishuai, I dare not pin the hope of breaking the Qin army on this group of cavalry who don't know what to call it......"

Shaking his head, Dou Xing went straight to Meng Zhong.

He didn't mind that Meng Zhong collected all the war horses in the army to build a cavalry, so that in the future, even these military horses could only travel on foot, after all, after a period of getting along, Dou Xing and the others gradually accepted Meng Zhong and tolerated the latter to a certain extent.

However, Dou Xing and the others did not want Meng Zhong to pin all their hopes of defeating the Qin army on these limp cavalry.

It's no wonder, after all, the cavalry has not yet shown its presence and fame in the Central Plains.

But Meng Zhong knew that the cavalry would eventually replace the chariot and become the king on the flat ground.