Zhen Sui has never ridden a horse since he was born for more than 20 years. He was originally a barbarian in the south of Wuling County, accustomed to crisscrossing the mountains and rivers, and sometimes reluctantly rode a donkey in order to catch a long distance, but war horses are completely a luxury for the Jiangnan region, especially for these barbarians, and there is nowhere to buy them if they have money, and even if they buy them, they can't support them.

But since he became the camp governor, Pei Gai ordered him to learn how to ride. The reason is also very simple, as a general, in the array, only on horseback can he have a broad vision and be more convenient to grasp the battle situation; The second is also convenient for the soldiers to see your figure clearly, easy to accept commands, and have a backbone in your heart. So how can a general not know how to ride a horse? Even if you don't have to gallop into battle, at least move in the middle of the formation so that you don't fall off your horse.

For these reasons mentioned by Pei Gai, Zhen was accustomed to finding excuses to be lazy, but he was irrefutable, and finally had to play tricks, saying: "The last general has never ridden a horse, and I am afraid it is not easy to learn." Moreover...... I am a barbarian, with short legs, and I am not born to ride a horse. Pei Cai glared at him, and said that it was clear nonsense, when you followed my horse's ass and chased after me, but you are used to showing off your long legs, why do you say that you have short legs as soon as you let you ride a horse? Shall we take a ruler and measure it?

Then he comforted Zhen Sui, saying that riding is difficult to master but easy to learn, and it took me less than two months to learn it. And I didn't have stirrups when I learned to ride, but now that I have "invented" stirrups, it's easier to learn - "I also give you two months, if you can't learn to ride a horse, I will quit the position of camp governor and drive you to be Lu Yan's guard!" ”

If he only said that he would be dismissed from the post of battalion governor, not a general, and returned to his own army, Zhen Sui might be able to beat the snake with a stick, so he really agreed, but said that he would put him under Lu Yan, the original subordinate, Zhen Sui was immediately very angry. In desperation, I had to bite the bullet and learn riding.

Zhen Sui is rough and unwritten on the surface, but he is actually a very clever person, and it only took a few days to be able to stand on the back of a horse without slipping down; It took a few more days, and I was able to urge the horse to trot. After all, he is good at martial arts, and there is a lot in common between mastery and technical strikes.

Especially stirrups play a big role.

In the history of cavalry development, the stirrup can be said to be an epoch-making invention, but there are two major misunderstandings in the cognition of ordinary people. One of the misunderstandings is to exaggerate the role of the stirrup, believing that before the invention of the stirrup, there was no large-scale cavalry formation, and even if there were, it was only mounted infantry, and it was necessary to dismount to fight, and it was impossible to wield weapons on horses. This is, of course, nonsense, and countless history books can be brought out to slap the face: as early as about the first millennium BC, there were records of cavalry galloping in West Asia, and in China, there were already "domain horses" in the era of Qin Mugong - not counting the historical Northwest Qiangrong.

The second mistake is to expand the scope of stirrups, thus artificially advancing the period when stirrups were created. The earliest stirrup object excavated by underground archaeology is in the tomb of Feng Sufu of Beiyan in Xiguanyingzi, Beipiao, Liaoning, it stands to reason that the real invention period should be earlier than this, but under the premise of no reliable basis, it is unlikely to exceed too much, such as advancing to the Western Jin Dynasty, or even the Han Dynasty.

As early as the terracotta figurines of the Western Han Dynasty, there seem to have been traces of stirrups, but in fact, this is not a count, because they are generally unilateral stirrups, and they are probably soft stirrups used to facilitate getting on and off horses. Soft stirrups are difficult to step on during horseback riding to stabilize the center of gravity - even if it is double stirrups - and once the horse falls, the risk factor of being entangled and dragged to death is too great, so after stepping on the soft stirrups on the horse, it is generally necessary to lift the leg and take off the stirrup.

Only stirrups—wooden or metal—can be used as a stable platform for wielding weapons and throwing bows and arrows, but stirrups are still useless, and only a fool will not fall on the other side after stepping on a stirrup on one leg finds it effective. The pottery figurines of the Han Dynasty unearthed so far are so crudely made that it is impossible to determine whether there are double stirrups or whether the knight's feet are firmly stepping in the stirrups.

Therefore, in Pei Gai's opinion, it is likely that the first to invent the stirrup was the northern nomads during the Han and Wei dynasties, such as Xianbei, and it was introduced to the Central Plains with the "Five Hu Chaohua" and soon became popular. However, after wearing this life, he did not find traces of stirrups in the Central Plains - it may not have been invented, or it may not have been able to be transmitted from the grassland, after all, the Xianbei people are not as good as the Xiongnu, Di, and Qian, and have not yet penetrated into the Yellow River Valley.

Therefore, he preemptively "invented" the wooden stirrup in the Central Plains to equip his own cavalry. Originally, he wanted to pass it on to Zu Ti, but unfortunately Zu Shizhi glanced at it and didn't take it too seriously, so Pei should be embarrassed to rush to offer the treasure. Because the stirrup is not very important for people who are really skilled in riding, only the two knives like Pei Gai and Zhen Sui can produce a reborn effect.

For example, if the riding skill is one hundred, then Zu Ti is ninety-nine, even if the stirrup can be added to the value of twenty, in Zu Ti's opinion, it doesn't matter if this plus a little bit of stuff is not big. But for Pei Gai, who is sixty years old, and Zhen Sui, who is only forty, is different, Zhen Sui relies on this magic weapon against the sky, and his riding skills can pass in an instant!

Most of the common people in the Central Plains, halfway to the home, no matter how diligent they practice equestrianism, they will definitely not be able to compare with the nomads who grew on horseback since childhood, so the role of stirrups can be greatly highlighted. Although the stirrup may well have been an invention of the nomadic people, it was the farming people who really strengthened it, giving them the opportunity to assemble a considerable number and quality of cavalry.

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Zhen Sui stepped on the front line, and immediately led the three battalions of the "Fire Robbery" to take the lead, and with the rhythm of the drums, several phalanxes marched forward in unison, pressing the enemy formation. The Jingzhou soldiers blocked with bows and arrows, and the Xuzhou army also shot arrows to counterattack - the archers were lined up behind the infantry phalanx, and also followed the sound of drums, walking five steps together, then pulling the bow and projecting, and then walking five steps after collecting the bow, and shooting again, and so on, gradually moving forward.

Anyway, the distance is still very far away, and there is no need to deliberately aim at the target, just shoot an arrow into the air according to the general direction and angle, and the arrow will naturally fall into the enemy position along the parabola.

There were not many bows and arrows in Jingzhou, and they shot sparsely, causing little damage to the Xuzhou infantry phalanx. Although a few people were occasionally hit by arrows, if they were slightly injured, they did not dare to stop, and still moved forward bravely; If you are seriously injured, or you are shot in the legs and feet, and it is difficult to move forward, then according to the rules of the discipline, you can crouch on the ground for the time being, and wait for the soldiers behind to come up and fill the position. The phalanx is tightly organized, and there is an indomitable momentum.

It is true that Pei Gai's soldiers have not experienced any hard battles, but with such a little injury, it is completely impossible to shake the hearts of the generals. This is where the platoon training comes into play, and the soldiers march almost instinctively to the beat of the drums, not to be frightened and staggered because they have their robes falling beside them.

You must know that when you train in the queue, you can brave the rain of arrows, which is also an important project. Although the arrows are all sent without clusters during training, they are not likely to hurt people, and because the arrows are light and heavy, they are often light and fluttering, and I don't know where they will fall, but after all, thousands of arrows were fired at that time, and the sky was pressed by a black pressure, which was quite scary to look at, and it was much denser than the arrow rain of Jingzhou soldiers now. I'm used to seeing big scenes, do you still care about these little tricks?

The Xuzhou soldier array was not chaotic at all, but it caused a panic in the Jingzhou array - they had never seen such a team. Immediately, the first two rows involuntarily shrank back, and the last few rows did not know the importance of the position, still standing in place, and the formation immediately began to waver......

If you want to say that the backbone of the Jingzhou soldiers, it is also a veteran who has followed Du Zeng's rebellion and attacked and plundered everywhere for several years. But the problem is that according to the usual organization of troops in these years, military law is not strict - how can a non-commissioned soldier who walks all the way to grab the road be restrained by strict orders? Therefore, the more veteran soldiers, the more the word "oil" must be added to the back, and the heart of saving life is more intense than the intention of fighting.

And the more veteran the soldier, the more well-informed, seeing the Xuzhou soldiers braving the arrows forward, the array is not chaotic at all, and he knows that he has encountered a strong enemy today - not strong in equipment and weapons; If a child is armed with a sharp blade, the adult has nothing to fear, but on the contrary, he will think about killing the child as soon as possible and snatching all the good things to equip himself. Therefore, seeing that the Xuzhou phalanx was about to approach, the front army of the Jingzhou soldiers began to stir.

Du Zeng strictly ordered all the generals on the front line to hold the front line steadily, and ordered those who took a step back to be killed! A few knives went down and raised a few heads, which was barely able to stabilize the position. But then the Xuzhou soldiers also killed in front of them, the spears were like a forest, and the miscellaneous sword and shield soldiers were close to the protection, like a hedgehog in armor, and they directly crashed into the Jingzhou array.

The sound of gold and iron clashing immediately resounded through the four fields, and the screams and screams became denser and denser. The front of the Xuzhou soldiers were mostly armor-clad soldiers, and the protective range of those hard leather armor was very narrow, only the chest, and the arms and legs were still exposed; The protection is also weak, and it may be difficult to shoot through the stray arrows at a distance of 100 steps, and it is very likely that a direct shot or projection within 100 steps will penetrate the armor; As for spear stabbing, leather armor is basically unguardable, and slashing with knives and axes has a certain chance of reducing damage.

But among the infantry of the Jingzhou army on the opposite side of the problem, there are less than one-fifth of the people wearing armor, so there is no need to really do it, even if they are facing each other, the Jingzhou soldiers will naturally be timid.

When Pei should not actually raise soldiers, he will inevitably despise military spending, and feel that in the era of cold weapons, most of the soldiers should be spent on food, and serious equipment does not have to be provided with new ones every day. Shi Lesheng has 100,000 soldiers, Pei should have studied the account book of the "craftsman battalion" in his army, and he feels that the total amount is not so terrible.

However, it was not until they actually raised and trained the troops that they realized that fighting a war was indeed a costly business. Except for a few elites in the Shile army, most of the soldiers and equipment were self-raised, and the generals did not care about it at all, so the equipment was generally poor, and rusty arrows and blunt spears abounded—the big guys were looking forward to going to the battlefield to grab the enemy's good weapons and armor to use. In fact, this was also the norm for the vast majority of the army at that time.

In troubled times, human life is not valuable, and if you die, you can find a place to pull a horse; In contrast, equipment is a big expense, how can it be possible for ordinary soldiers to use good things?

Pei Gai threw countless money on the equipment of the Xuzhou soldiers, especially the 10,000 soldiers, if it wasn't for the seizure of iron mines, and the copper mines made huge profits, it is estimated that the equipment would not be too different from the Jingzhou soldiers in front of him. But he can guarantee a sharp spear or a sharp knife in his hands, but he cannot guarantee that he will have leather armor in his hands—armor is not much worse than a bow......

In desperation, I can only give priority to the so-called "selection of forwards" in the front.

When fighting seriously, the role of these armor "selection fronts" comes into play. Even if their combat skills and experience were not as good as many Jingzhou veterans in front of them, they quickly tore apart the array of Jingzhou soldiers in several places by virtue of their excellent equipment. Because when the army is fighting, personal combat skills are really not very important, even if you have the ability to penetrate the sky and the earth, and the courage of a hundred people, once the spear pierces the flesh, the knife cuts into the bone, and the enemy is injured, it will inevitably produce a short "hard stun" time, and it is easy to be taken advantage of by other enemies. This requires the robe by your side to help share some of the protective functions, and at the same time, you must also help the robe to block the incoming soldiers when he hurts the enemy. The role of the battle formation can be brought into play in this way, so the skill points necessary for a thousand people to fight and a hundred people to fight are completely different.

On the battlefield, the more complete the array, the stronger the combat effectiveness, once the array is scattered, resulting in separate battles, the combat effectiveness will plummet......