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After several days of nightmarish positional warfare, the Mongols were finally defeated in their best cavalry warfare, and suffered the most terrible collapse on the battlefield. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In fact, the strength of the Mongol cavalry greatly exceeded that of the Qin soldiers, and even if the battle was unfavorable and the losses were thousands, at least they could choose to retreat. But once the whole army collapses, everyone loses the courage to fight, and becomes a headless fly running around, then it is no longer a battle, but a unilateral slaughter. In the battle of Tumubao, he also defeated the more than 200,000 troops of Ming Yingzong with tens of thousands of cavalry, which is the same as today. The Mongols who fled for their lives in a panic couldn't help but lament in their hearts, it seemed that God's retribution was unhappy, and more than a hundred years later, the fate of themselves and the Han people was completely lost.

At this time, Li Dingguo's victorious infantry also outflanked from the rear, and with the cover of shield bearers and pikemen, they once again blocked the Mongols with skillful bird guns in three stages, cutting off the enemy's retreat. Hao Yongzhong and Li Dingguo each led a light cavalry to outflank from the flank, and the heavy cavalry interspersed back and forth in a chaotic battlefield, killing the Mongols with no way to go to the sky and no way to enter the ground.

This one-sided battle lasted for nearly an hour, and the Mongols suffered more than half of the casualties. Finally, when they were compressed into a small circle with a radius of less than 100 zhang, and the heavy armored cavalry of the Qin soldiers was about to storm again with a overwhelming force, the remaining thousands of Mongols finally completely despaired, and they threw down their weapons and dismounted to surrender.

"His Royal Highness King Qin is a thousand years old! Chitose! Chichitose !! In the wave of cheers of the Qin soldiers, Zhu Youzhen rode his horse into the encirclement. Looking at the thousands of Mongol soldiers with their heads in their hands, squatting on the ground and shivering, he was as excited as all the warriors. How much effort he has put in and how much suffering he has endured for this day!

Since he personally experienced the Battle of Ningyuan, Zhu Youzhen has clearly realized that the reason why the Ming army is always passively beaten is because it cannot conduct field battles with the Jurchens and Mongols. And the reason why it was impossible to fight in the field was that there were no cavalry that could compete with the enemy. This gap is too huge, whether it is in terms of the quality of individual soldiers, combat courage, the quantity and quality of war horses, or the proficiency of cavalry warfare, the Ming army can hardly look at the enemy's back.

Of course, the Ming army also knew its weakness, and since the defeat in the Battle of Salhu, it gave up the battle with Houjin Field and turned to stick to the city. Although there is a so-called "Ning Yuan's great victory", as a witness, Zhu Youzhen knows very well that it is just a fluke. The reason is also very simple, the initiative in the city battle is all on the attacking side, people want to attack, want to withdraw, and can completely control the casualties within an acceptable range. The defender has no choice, the enemy can only attack hard, and the enemy can only wait stupidly if he does not attack.

The biggest weakness of defending the city is that it is difficult to last. The Houjin could have adopted the tactic of "besieging the city and sending reinforcements", besieging the isolated city without fighting, but only cutting off all contact between the Ming army and the outside world, and annihilating the Ming army in the field if it dared to come for reinforcements. Ning Yuan is hundreds of miles outside the pass, how many materials can be stored in the land of projectiles? When the food and grass are exhausted, everyone is starving to death, and they are still guarding a fart? Historically, Zu Dashou's surrender is proof of this. Therefore, the more Zhu Youzhen pondered it, the more he felt that Sun Chengzong's "Guanning Jin Defense Line" was a cocoon and self-restraint, which was tantamount to making a few big living coffins for the Ming army!

Since resisting captivity with this line of thinking was bound to fail, Zhu Youzhen had to find another way and think of other strategies to resist captivity. Since the Jurchens are strong in field battles and cavalry battles, Zhu Youzhen started from how to restrain cavalry warfare to break the game.

He knew that in history, it was not until the First World War that the cavalry was completely eliminated from the battlefield, because the appearance of machine guns, especially heavy machine guns, with their extremely fast rate of fire, completely destroyed the advantages of cavalry in maneuverability and strong impact. Prior to this, even the technology of rifle production had been developing, and it was still impossible to contain the cavalry, since the weakness of the slow rate of fire could not be overcome.

Obviously, with the existing technology, Zhu Youzhen could not have come up with a machine gun no matter what. Then he can only give up this unrealistic fantasy and use other methods against the Jurchen cavalry. Then there is only one option left: ride against ride.

But if you simply imitate the Jurchens, it will definitely not work. Horses are not as fast as others, archery skills are not as good as others, soldiers are not as strong as others... Everywhere is a piece of difference, and these factors together are a huge and insurmountable gap, and they must be defeated on the battlefield. Even the most elite Guanning Iron Cavalry in the Ming Army could only compete with the Jurchen Elite Cavalry. Moreover, the number of Guanning iron horses is too small, and it was trained by Li Chongyao; After Chongyao is gone, whether he can train such an elite army, Zhu Youzhen really has no bottom in his heart.

After months of hard thinking, Zhu Youzhen finally thought of a way to restrain the nomads' cavalry tactics, that is, to use heavy cavalry against light cavalry. The cavalry of the Jurchens and Mongols was not characterized by the "riding and slashing" of the European cavalry, but focusing on archery, which also brought the characteristics of cavalry mobility and agility to the extreme.

Back then, the Mongols went on a westward expedition and crushed the European cavalry, which was stronger than them, and they used this almost shameless "kite flying" tactic. If I can shoot you, but you can't cut me, then I'm invincible. The European cavalry blindly chased stupidly, and in the end, they were all shot to death without even being able to take a shot, which made the Mongols the notoriety of "God's whip".

Zhu Youzhen thought from this, since he couldn't stop the Jurchens and Mongols from shooting arrows, could they make their arrows lose their power? The method is also very simple, that is, your own cavalry and war horses are wearing heavy armor and become heavy armored cavalry! Bows and arrows are fired by manpower, and neither the speed nor the penetrating power can be compared with firearms. If your bow and arrow can't kill me, then what am I afraid of you?

But to put it simply, it is much more difficult to build a real heavy cavalry. First of all, the war horse must be good, otherwise the weight of the armor will be increased so much, the horse will not even be able to run, and what kind of battle will it take.

Secondly, the armor must achieve full coverage of cavalry and war horses, and it must have sufficient strength. Because the Jurchens and Mongols were so skilled in archery, especially good at shooting horses. In the battle of Ningyuan, there were also many cases where the armor was pierced by bows and arrows, and this kind of unreliable protection was better than nothing.

In addition, the heavy cavalry must also have weapons at hand, which can ensure that the opponent is completely destroyed in close combat. Otherwise, someone can't hurt you with a bow and arrow, but you can hack you to death with a saber, and such heavy cavalry is meaningless.

Despite all these difficulties, heavy cavalry was the only feasible way. Now that he has chosen this path, Zhu Youzhen no longer hesitates, and his method is very simple, just two words: throw money!