The production and development of stirrups also went through several periods, although the high-ranking officials of the Jin Dynasty had the so-called "jade stirrups" such luxuries, but the popularity of stirrups must naturally require simple production technology and low production costs. As a result, stirrups have also gone through the stages of development of wooden or rattan stirrups, stirrups with wooden cores clad in iron or copper, and stirrups made of metal.

Of course, like the stirrup that once appeared in India, only the big toe was put in, because of the extremely high requirements for the weather, the use of different methods, and the effect of maintaining balance is not great, so this is not a real stirrup, and the mainstream academic community has never studied it in the category of stirrups. Because this kind of stirrup can only be used in India and even Southeast Asia, where the climate is warm or even hot near the equator, if you go to the bitter cold grasslands of northern China, I am afraid that no one will want to risk freezing off the whole foot to take off the boots in order to use the stirrup.

Guo Bin admired the men on the Mongolian steppe who could ride on the back of a smooth horse, but it did not prevent him from coming up with this crooked trick very similar to the function of stirrups in order to reduce the difficulty of riding horses and reduce the difficulty of cavalry training, and at the same time for the success of this raid battle.

Using the blanket as a stirrup not only makes it easier for the cavalry under his command to maintain physical stability, but also reduces the consumption of horsepower and soldiers' physical strength on galloping, and it also has a certain degree of concealment by stepping on the feet in the pocket. At this time, the matter is urgent, and it is really bold to want to capture the king of a country with fifty people, so it is natural to use all strength and all means to do everything possible to achieve the goal, otherwise I am afraid that we will only have one way to annihilate the whole army. However, Guo Bin didn't want to expose the stirrup as a riding weapon too early, at least not yet.

In troubled times, new technologies or novel designs that are of great strategic importance to war and can greatly affect the success or failure of war are spreading rapidly. Like the trenches and barbed wire positional warfare model that quickly spread during World War I, like the tactics of lining up and shooting in the West in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The reason why Guo Bin wanted to use stirrups and prevent the leakage of secrets was nothing else, just to prevent the Hu people from learning from the north. Because the extremely novel design of the stirrup is not expensive, it will greatly enhance the combat capability of the cavalry, greatly improve its combat radius and strategic movement ability, improve the cavalry's delivery ability, and at the same time will greatly change the way of warfare.

The number of cavalry that the northern horse-riding peoples could muster far exceeded that of the Central Plains Dynasty, and if the stirrup was popularized, it would help the steppe peoples far more than the Central Plains peoples. Although the cowardice of the Central Plains Dynasty was also an extremely important reason, it was obvious that the combat effectiveness of the cavalry, which was the main force of the battle, was greatly improved. And this period coincided with the emergence of bilateral stirrups.

The appearance of bilateral stirrups made the cavalry more impactful, and also made the armor of the cavalry heavier. The so-called armor and cavalry equipment is the combined name of human armor and horse armor, and it is the protective equipment of ancient heavy cavalry. There is a cloud in "History of the Song Dynasty: Yiwei Zhi": "A horseman, a man is also armored; Equipped, horse armor also. ”

The continuous wars in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty made the regime in the Central Plains extremely unstable. If we take the Yellow Turban Rebellion in 184 AD as the beginning and the end point in 266 AD, when Sima Zhao's eldest son Sima Yan forced the Wei Yuan Emperor Cao Wan to establish the Western Jin Dynasty, the turmoil in the Central Plains lasted for 82 years. And if we take May 1, the fourth year (280 years) of Sun Haotianji, the late emperor of Wu who died in the Western Jin Dynasty, as the end point, then the time of Bandang in the Central Plains is really close to a hundred years.

It was this turmoil of nearly a hundred years that squeezed out the strength of the Han people in the Central Plains little by little, making it difficult for the scattered military formations, low morale, and untrained infantry to withstand the charge of the cavalry of the northern horse riding brigade.

Originally, the infantry was not powerless against the cavalry. Because the powerful Central Plains Dynasty had advanced scientific and technological strength and strong production capacity, the Central Plains infantry after the array, as long as they would not turn around in fright, would run, and the cavalry of the grassland people would not dare to rush to attack. This is because of the powerful bows and crossbows made of horns and tendons in the Central Plains, and the three-stage shooting method of the crossbowmen allows them to ensure a continuous attack on the enemy. If the enemy cavalry does get closer, there are still strong antlers and melee troops armed with spears, so a forced charge will only break the head and bleed.

The so-called array without fighting refers to the fact that when the cavalry of the cavalry nation faces the phalanx of the Central Plains infantry, if the Central Plains infantry has already formed a formation, it cannot directly attack.

In order to achieve the goal of unifying the world, military conflicts between countries are naturally necessary. Because the purpose of the alliance between Shu Han and Sun and Wu was to resist Cao, most of the great wars in China took place between the junction of Shu Han and Cao Wei, and between Sun Wu and Cao Wei. The junction of Shu Han and Cao Wei is just near the Qinling Mountains, where there are many mountains and the terrain is extremely complex; The junction between Sun Wu and Cao Wei is in a vast area north of the Yangtze River and south of the Huai River, where the water network is dense and suitable for naval warfare.

In this way, it is not difficult to see that during the period of the Three Kingdoms, the main battlefield was not the vast plains that were conducive to cavalry warfare, but the south where mountains and water networks crisscrossed the south. Therefore, for Cao Wei, the role of cavalry, except to maintain law and order and keep an eye out for the invasion of ethnic minorities in the north, could not be used in the most important war to unify the whole country.

However, at this time, the strength of the ethnic minorities in the north was not very strong, and Cao Wei's attitude towards them was also extremely strong. In that year, Cao Cao conquered Wuhuan in the north and left behind the famous chapter of "Jieshi in the east", which proved the deterrent power of the warlords of the Central Plains to the ethnic minorities in the north. Therefore, it is extremely uneconomical to maintain a strong cavalry force in order to prevent the northern horse-riding peoples or to maintain local law and order.

Because the cost of cavalry is extremely high, not only does it take a long time to train a qualified cavalryman, but it is also a very expensive thing for Han people to raise horses. Moreover, there were no stirrups at that time, and it was extremely difficult for the cavalry of the Central Plains to reach the point where they could let go of their hands and maintain balance with the strength of their lower bodies alone, so the cavalry of the Central Plains could only be trained to be cavalry with long lances during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

However, this cavalry had to be very well equipped, wearing leather and even iron armor, and holding a long lance and a ring-headed sword made of stainless steel. These were a joke for the very low steel production at the time. The Central Plains has been in war for many years, and everyone can't even eat, okay?

Therefore, in the later period of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Wei spent a lot of effort and a lot of money to raise cavalry that was basically unusable in the main battlefield, which is undoubtedly not valid in the economy in the first place! Speaking of which, some people will refute, what does the famous tiger and leopard rider in history say?

The tiger and leopard ride is not mentioned in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", but it is recorded in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", which shows that this force probably does exist. "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms: Book of Wei" wrote: "The pure superintendent of the tiger and leopard rides are all sharp in the world, or they will be made up by a hundred people." It means that everyone in the tiger and leopard cavalry supervised by Cao Chun is an extremely brave and good warrior in the world, and they may be selected from a hundred generals to supplement.

It can be seen that Cao Cao attaches great importance to this cavalry unit, and in fact, this unit has also made great achievements. It's just that if you analyze it from the side, why does Cao Cao value this army so much? If you consider it from the perspective of economic rationality, because the cost of raising cavalry is too high! Whether it is buying war horses, making equipment, or daily food and grass expenses, Cao Cao has to take an elite route, and there are too many of them to raise! Therefore, he will select officers who can be generals in other units to come to this army as small soldiers, and the leader of this army can only be someone from the Cao family or the Xiahou family.

The most important point is that the existence of this tiger and leopard horse is extremely limited, I am afraid that it will not exceed 20 years.

Therefore, Cao Wei in the north did not pay attention to the development of cavalry in the late Three Kingdoms period, while Shu Han and Sun Wu in the south were extremely difficult to obtain even war horses, so it can be said that China at this time has basically entered a period of weakening cavalry power. After more than ten years or even decades of unification wars, the veterans who originally retained the experience of fighting cavalry have withered one after another, so when facing the cavalry of the northern horse-riding nation equipped with stirrups, richer tactical means, and more powerful combat effectiveness, the Han nation in China could not think of a means to deal with it for a while.

In Guo Bin's mind, maybe this is also an important reason why the chaos of Wuhu Chaohua can be formed in history, right?

The Han nation, which has always represented the development direction of advanced oriental culture and scientific and technological achievements, was defeated under a small stirrup because of its excessive attachment to internal struggles, which made the whole nation face the danger of being cut off from inheritance, which has to be said to be a very ironic drama. And the so-called "heroes" of the late Han Dynasty, who are the protagonists of this drama, are the executioners who pushed the Han nation to the brink of genocide step by step.

In Guo Bin's view, what is deceitful, what heroes are heroic, and what good birds choose trees to perch, are all nonsense by a group of careerists. The prosperity of the people's lives and the survival and death of the nation are the most important issues that should be considered at this time. Guo Bin has never felt that he is a savior, and he has never been a bad person who has suffered from the disease of the Virgin, he just feels that since he has been reborn, if he can't change the tragic dark history of Wuhu Chaohua, it is really a failure and an extreme incompetence.

Therefore, he had to use the stirrup and hide the secret of the stirrup.