Chapter 243: Heavy Cavalry Tactics Research

However, Sun Hui believes that Qianlong's explanation is not accurate, and he said in the imperial approval that "the horse is heavily armored, and it is also bound in vain and cannot use its power, especially if it is indispensable", it is obviously wrong, ancient China from the Han Dynasty to the Tang and Song dynasties, the heavy cavalry of people and horses wearing heavy armor has always existed, and the heavy cavalry of Qianlong's era has withdrawn from the battlefield, and he has not seen it, so he thinks that "horses are heavily armored" is impossible.

Later scholars have also done research on "Kidnapping Horses" and "Iron Floating Massacre". It is believed that the word "kidnapping horse" first appeared in the Shunchang Battle in May of the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140), from the mouth of the Hebei Han people who were forcibly conscripted into the army by the Jin people. Therefore, this word should be a Han language rather than a Jurchen language, and the word "kidnapper" was used in the customary language of the people in the Northern Song Dynasty. For example, in the "Continuation of Capital and Governance Tongjian Long Edition" and "Wujing General Essentials", there is a "crutch horse in the east and west", which refers to the "left and right wings of the great array". For example, there is the word "kidnapping city" in "Tokyo Menghualu" and "Three Dynasties Northern Alliance", which refers to the two opposing walls of the Acropolis Gate, each at right angles. In this way, "crutches" means "flanks", "two crutches" refers to the left and right wings, and "two crutches horses" or "east and west crutches horses" are the left and right wing cavalry.

"Tiefutu" refers to the heavily armored and fully armored Jin Army Iron Cavalry, mainly refers to the guards of the Golden Vulture (Wanyan Zongbi), also known as the "Iron Tower Soldier", mainly refers to its strict defense with iron armor, and the carpet pillow is also spread on the horseback, it is two concepts with the "abducted horse". The earliest to make a wrong interpretation of the "Iron Floating Massacre" was Wang Ruohai, the general judge of the Shunchang Prefecture during the Battle of Shunchang, who wrote a "Zazi" and sent it to the imperial court, calling the "Iron Floating Massacre" of the Jin Army: "Three people are in a team, connected by a belt"; And the explanation of the Jin Army's abducted horses is correct: "With the iron cavalry as the left and right wings, the number is the abducted horse." When Yue Ke compiled the "Chronicle of King E", he integrated the two, so as to spread the falsehood.

So, why did Yue Ke and others in the Southern Song Dynasty have no idea what "kidnapping horse" meant? One explanation is: "After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, this word fell along with the Central Plains and North China, and although it is still preserved in the spoken language of the inhabitants of the Central Plains and the Lianghe region, it was never brought to the south by the soldiers and civilians who crossed to the south." In other words, it was originally a language used by northerners, and southerners did not understand it at all, if there were some northern immigrants who went south in the early Southern Song Dynasty and knew a little about some northern customs, but after the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty, people were at a loss to know what the "kidnapping horse" was.

In addition, Yue Ke's "Chronicle of King E" also believes that since the Jin people started their army, all the abducted horses were invincible, and it was not until Yue Fei recognized their weaknesses and used infantry to cut off their horses' feet and break their formations, and since then the abducted horses have withdrawn from the stage of history. These statements are also not in line with historical facts, the Battle of Dayi Town and the Battle of Shunchang before the Battle of Yuncheng, the Yuejia army did not participate, and the Song army adopted the tactics of cutting the feet of the "kidnapping horse", and achieved good results, especially the victory of Shunchang, and the Jin people were "terrified and demoralized". More than 20 years after the Battle of Yuncheng, there are still records of Jin soldiers using "kidnapping horses" in historical books.

After talking for a long time, the "kidnapping horse" is the cavalry on the left and right wings. With such a simple answer, why did the ancients actually misunderstand and attach it for hundreds of years? As an idiomatic expression, why do so few people know about it? Is the use time so short, too? In particular, Sun Hui was puzzled by the fact that since the "kidnapping horse" only refers to the left and right wing cavalry, then as long as it is a large-scale battle in ancient times, the frontal position is dominated by cavalry, and there is a need to configure the left and right wing cavalry to fight together.

"Kidnapping Horse" and "Tiefutu" had caused a long time of trouble for Sun Hui, who loved history and military affairs, and in this era, he finally had the opportunity to solve this eternal mystery.

And Sun Hui brought the "Buren Armor" he received from the Pingrong Armor Arsenal today, also to verify a statement, that is, the armor of the "Tiefutu" heavy cavalry of the Jin Army in history actually came from the "Infantry Armor" captured in the arsenal of Tokyo City.

The specific structure of this set of step armor brought by Sun Hui is that the body armor is a whole piece, composed of twelve rows of small rectangular armor pieces, on which are chest guards and back guards, tied from the shoulders with straps, and the waist is tied from back to front with straps, and the waist is hung with two knee skirts on the left and right. The helmet is round and bowl-shaped, with three long tassels inserted on the top, and the style is very beautiful.

But beautiful is beautiful, this set of step armor is really heavy, almost fifty pounds, you have to be an extremely strong person to wear it to fight, Sun Hui has personally tried it in the library, and is deeply impressed by its heaviness.

Seeing the infantry armor brought by Sun Hui, Di Feng, Yang Huaixian, Wen Changtao and others were all surprised, and they didn't understand what he was going to do with this kind of heavy armor, until Sun Hui expressed his doubts about the "kidnapping horse" and "Tiefutu" in his heart, and told them that he planned to establish the heavy armored cavalry of the Song army, they understood, and they all seemed very excited.

After a few generals, there was a serious discussion on the question raised by Sun Hui, for the "abduction city", the knowledgeable Wen Changtao said that it does exist, but whether the "abduction horse" refers to the cavalry on both wings, he can't be sure, "turning out from both sides of the position to charge" is called the abduction horse, he does not agree, because when the light cavalry attacks, it is from both sides of the position, and if it does not rush out from both sides, can it still step on the infantry in the middle of the position?

Hu Liying, who once lived in Liao, pointed out that "crutches" is another name for lame "lame" in the northern region, and the biggest gap between "crutches" and normal people is that in the speed ratio between the two sides, "crutches" are limited by the inflexibility of one foot. This term is used for heavy cavalry with the addition of "Wesso", which means that the horses will not be in unison without a certain amount of training. In particular, after the horses enter the inertial running phase, it is difficult to control the consistency of their speed, which is bound to cause the disharmony between the groups in a group of three horses where the fast ones are dragged by the slow ones, and the slow ones are accelerated by the fast ones, thus destroying the attack ability of the hoplite cavalry phalanx. Therefore, in training, it is necessary to tie the horse's chew with a rope of uniform length, so that when the horse runs up and enters the attack speed, the fast cannot be accelerated, and the slow cannot be slowed down, and the uniform speed is always maintained. This kind of horizontal lanyard is actually nothing new, you must know that on the ancient four-horse chariot, there was this kind of horizontal lanyard, which can keep the four horses at the same pace and speed, that is, the "kidnapping horse" may not refer to its tactics, but to its speed limit.