When it comes to the Tang Dynasty army, everyone will definitely think of some film and television dramas similar to "Zhenguan Long Song", thinking of the Tang Dynasty army in it, the armor is bright, and the Jin Ge iron horse swallows thousands of miles like a tiger, so what is the real Tang Dynasty army like? How did they fight? What kind of equipment do they have? I'm going to tell you about it today.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the Tang Army was a government soldier system, why is it called a government soldier? At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, there was no large standing army, so what should I do when I went to war? When there is a war, arm the peasants and let them go into battle, and that's it. Therefore, in order to enable the farmers to gather quickly and quickly, the rulers of the early Tang Dynasty set up hundreds of military offices throughout the country, and the names of these military houses are called Zhichong Mansion, which is equivalent to the current recruitment office of the Ministry of Armed Forces, so once the war comes, or the task of defense comes, the local Zhichong Mansion should issue an order, order the local farmers, arm themselves, and prepare to go, at that time the Tang Dynasty had a total of 634 Zhichong Mansions, and these Zhichong Mansions are divided into three categories, 1,200 people are the upper house, and 1,000 people are the middle house, Eight hundred people are under the government, and the soldiers recruited by these military governments are called government soldiers, and these government soldiers are usually peasant households, and the main tasks are: farming, the state gives you fields, what Yongye fields, mouth fields, give you this, you plant mulberry, grow hemp and grow grains, once it is time to fight, you throw down the hoe and have to go into battle with me, so these people are usually farmers, and when he throws down the hoe when he fights, who will give him equipment?

No one sent it to him, so he brought it himself. Although these people are farmers, but when they are slack, they have to practice martial arts, unlike now, when they are slack, they play cards, touch mahjong, and even say that they go to travel, but at that time, they are not at that time, and when they are idle, you will practice martial arts, and they are always ready to dedicate themselves to the country.

These peasant households, for every ten people, should prepare six horses, these six horses are mainly for transportation, not for riding, if you ten people are relatively poor, you can't afford to prepare six horses, donkeys are okay, prepare six donkeys. So what are these six horses? First of all, it is an iron horse bowl, a spittoon bowl, this horse bowl is not for horses, it is for people to eat, the reason why it is called a horse bowl, because it is very large, can hold a lot of rice, and then it is a tool for making a fire, and it must be used for eating and heating on the way, and then it is a tent, and it is used for camping and sleeping, and then there is a cloth trough, a horse trough made of cloth, that is, for the horse to eat, and the horse has to be fed during the march, and then there is a shovel, which is used for digging, camping, digging trenches, and digging pits all have to rely on it, and then is? (jué), which is equivalent to the current pickaxe, used for digging soil, and then a chisel, and a thing to bring, this thing is called 碓 (duì), what is this? This kind of thing can be used in rural areas, and we often see it in TV dramas, and it is estimated that there are also in rural areas now, that is, it is specially used for rice, remove the shell of the millet, and take this thing with it, which is convenient for cooking, otherwise how to eat it all with bran? After bringing these, you have to bring a basket for things, especially when you have won a battle, and then you have to carry an axe, pliers, and saws, the same one, which you use when you open the road, and two sickles, and two beds, these are all tools of life, and every ten people have to carry these things.

Next, there are the tools of battle, the tools of battle are like this, every fifty people, bring a fire sword, this kind of thing, this kind of short spear, when fighting, wrap cloth on it, pour oil, light it and throw it to the enemy, specially burn the enemy, and then a set of chest ropes, three sets of horse halbers, and three sets of pedals, which every fifty people have to bring.

So when it comes to each soldier, what do they bring?

A soldier, a bow, thirty arrows, a quiver, a large horizontal knife, a whetstone, a large 觿 (xī), a hammer made of ivory, generally carried on the body for decoration, but the soldier's belt is not for decoration, there are practical uses, such as prying open boxes, bottles, stones, untying ropes, dead knots of cloth, etc., as well as military hats, military uniforms, which must be brought by themselves, as well as leggings, this is a single soldier's equipment.

So is it okay to bring all this equipment? No, you have to bring nine buckets of wheat rice, two buckets of rice, and bring your own dry food, so we often watch TV series and movies, and the Tang army in it is covered in armor at every turn, and the armor is very good-looking, isn't it? Actually, it's not the ground, the armor, at that time it was a very expensive thing, not everyone could afford it, so the soldiers didn't need to bring their own armor, the armor was issued by the state, but it was not sent as soon as it was dispatched, so it depends on what you were going to do this time, for example, if you were going on an expedition this time, you were going to fight Tibet, fighting the Turks, and dying for a lifetime, then it could be sent to you, but if you just went to the palace on duty this time and took turns to guard, it couldn't be issued to you, you just had to carry a horizontal knife, bow and arrow.

So let's see, how many things did you need to fight in ancient times? Just a soldier has to have six kinds of equipment, and he has to bring his own military uniform, every ten people, he has to bring thirteen kinds of tools, six horses, every fifty people, he has to bring eight kinds of equipment, these have to be brought by himself, so every time we watch a TV series, every soldier has bright armor, light and skillful, and holds a spear or a short knife in his hand, which is very inconsistent with history.

Then bring everything with you, it's time to go to war, before the war, we have to divide the system, just like now, a squad, a platoon, a company, we have to divide the system before we can start it, so how to divide the military system? Three hundred people is a regiment, and the regiment commander is not called the regiment commander, but the captain; The team below the regiment is divided into fifty people, and the leader is not called the captain, but the team; Divide the fire below, and ten people will be one fire, and the leader will be called the chief of the fire. Then if it is 30,000 people, it is a hundred regiments.

Who will lead the troops when they go out on the expedition? It's not the general of Zhichong Mansion who leads the troops, he is equivalent to a director of the recruiting office, he doesn't have the power to lead the troops, and of course he doesn't have the ability to lead the troops, so who leads the troops? For example, Li Shimin sent Li Jing to be the chief manager to crusade against the Turks, that is, Li Jing went to lead the troops, but Li Jing must not say that he ran to Zhichong Mansion in a big way, saying that you give me the soldiers, and the generals of the Zhichong Mansion will definitely not give them, so what should I do to give you soldiers? Just like now, you have to have formalities, you have to have certificates. For example, Li Jing, if he wants to lead the troops to fight, he must first go to the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War has given you a certificate of leading the army, so that you can lead the army, this certificate is called "Fish Fu" in the Tang Dynasty, then Li Jing took the fish Fu and went straight to Zhichong Mansion, saying that I want to lead the troops, and the Zhichong Mansion and the local Thorn History should check this military talisman, and there is no problem after the inspection, so I will give you soldiers, but if you say, this war is very big, such as the war to destroy the Turks, the war to destroy Tuguhun, then the person in charge of Zhichong Mansion, you also have to go with you, if the scale of the war is not large, Then it is Captain Guo Yi, that is, the deputy goes, and the scale of the war is smaller, that is, Captain Guo Yi's subordinates go again, and so on. So it's time to go on the expedition, how old are these government soldiers? The current conscription system is very young, generally at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, that is a veteran, but at that time it was not, at that time, you were a soldier at the age of 20, and you were exempted from military service at the age of 60, that is, when you reached the age of 20, you reached the age of military service, and you could not retire until you were 60 years old, a veritable veteran. If you can ride a horse and shoot arrows, great, immediately become a cavalry captain, this kind of cavalry captain is called Yue Cai, which belongs to the most powerful cavalry generals, who can't ride horses, or can ride horses but can't shoot arrows on horses, some do infantry, some do cavalry, and train slowly. But before the war, these people always have to train, as I just said, when the farming is slack, they practice martial arts, but martial arts training is only an individual drill, can a group drill be carried out? Of course.

Every year in winter, at the end of the year, the crops have been harvested, and when there is time, the Zhichong Prefecture will find this group of farmers and order them to start training. The commander of Zhichong Prefecture ordered two captains on the left and right, each with ten teams of infantry, that is, five hundred people, a team of cavalry, fifty horsemen, a hundred paces apart, and waited for the battle, and then listened to the horn hand, that is, the trumpeter, blew the first trumpet, lined up, the second trumpet, the flag died down, the three trumpets, raised the flag, heard the drums, the two teams shouted and rushed forward, and then one of the teams sounded the gong, and as soon as the gong sounded, the team of men and horses withdrew, and the other team continued to advance, and then the advancing team suddenly sounded the gong, then the team also retreated, and so on, This is military training, of course, military training in ancient times, it seems that it is simpler now.

We know that in the early Tang Dynasty, the Tang army was invincible and often won battles, so in addition to good training in peacetime, strict military discipline is also a very important guarantee. How strict was the military discipline of the Tang Army? I can't go into detail because of the time issue, but here I will give you a few examples, so you can see the leopard in your tube.

When it was time to go on the expedition, all the soldiers of the prefectures arrived, and began to march, and if they found anyone who was sick on the way, they immediately notified the military doctor for treatment, and if the patient could not walk, he rode a donkey, and if he could not even ride a donkey, he should give two donkeys, build a bed in the middle, and carry them away, and whoever dared to abandon the sick person would be beheaded.

For example, if you pick up a horse, worth 20 taels of silver, and you hand it over to the public within a day, and you still have 4 taels of silver, then you are greedy and cheap, and you don't pay it for a while, well, if you are found within three days, you will be punished for a felony, beaten board, locked up, and punished you anyway, if three days have passed, you still don't pay it, and once you are found, you will be beheaded immediately.

Who dares to deduct military salaries and behead. Also, donkeys and horses used to pull military supplies are not allowed to ride, and when grazing, donkeys must be placed on the periphery and horses on the inside, why, first, to prevent the horses from running away, and second, to prevent people from stealing the horses. If a donkey or horse dies, you must check the mark on the donkey and horse, and then you are allowed to dispose of the corpse, if the mark is not from your team, it is stolen, and it will be beheaded immediately.

Then there are all beheadings, including bringing women into the barracks, not saving them when they see death in battle, beheading the whole team, losing the flag, killing innocents, beheading, destroying crops, cutting trees, beheading, etc., etc., I will not go into details.

So it is not enough to be disciplined, it is also very important to be able to fight and be able to fight, so what is the first thing to look at if you can fight? It depends on whether the weapon is good or not, if your knife is rusty and your gun is not sharp, then what kind of battle is there to fight? So before the battle, you should first take a few sets of armor, shoot a few arrows at it, cut a few knives, try whether the weapon is good or not, and after trying the weapon, then use the mound of earth to form twelve fake horses, pay attention, use the mound of horses, as big as the real horse, what to do, let the soldiers ride on it, dance knives and guns, and train to fight on horses. Because there is a war coming soon, for example, tomorrow is going to be a war, and you will practice your skills tonight, then you can't really ride a horse to practice, so just be a dirt horse and sharpen your spear in battle.

This is the preparation to be made before the war.

So what should we do when all these preparations are done and the next day the war begins?

Set up the formation first.

Suppose that in this battle, 20,000 people are dispatched, 14,000 people go to the battlefield, as well as men, medical officers, etc., and they can't all go to the battlefield, then these 14,000 people, there are a total of 280 teams, 80 cavalry teams, 200 infantry teams, and then the formation, divided into three armies on the left, center and right, 36 teams in the middle army, a total of six armies on the left and right, a total of 164 teams, once the fight starts, not as we see in the movie, a boss shouts and rushes, everyone rushes up, that is looking for death, after the fight, the first is not to attack, The first is defense, defense is the first, an order, the left, middle and right three armies immediately dispersed, respectively formed two battle formations, each 85 teams, the previous 85 teams of the big battle formation immediately forward, this is called the team, in other words, they go first, after the 85 teams of men and horses, retreat, this is called the garrison, the reserve, the front is finished, they can go up, what about the 80 teams of cavalry? They stand on the right and left of the reserve, and they are not allowed to attack without orders, and they are not allowed to ride on horses, but they must stand on the ground, and you are not allowed to mount when they attack.

Therefore, when we watch movies, we watch ancient movies, and the cavalry are all in good spirits on their horses, although they are very good-looking, but that is wrong, why do the cavalry dismount? First, to confuse the enemy, so that you do not know where our cavalry is, and second, to prevent the cavalry comrades from becoming targets.

Okay, the formation is finished, the defense is done, and the attack begins. The attack is not like in the movie, everyone rushes up with one order, and the war in the era of cold weapons must not be rushed blindly, so what should I do? The first is the beating of the drums, and as soon as the drums are sounded, the crossbow archers go first. In ancient times, wars were by no means like in movies and television, with a red tassel gun in hand, or a steel knife, saying that the red tassel gun would rush up, that was pure nonsense, the ancient army, the division of arms was very strict, when the time, which part of the people went first, this is very saying, chaos can not come, so the first drum sounds, the crossbow archer goes first, the crossbow archer advances, when the enemy is one hundred and fifty paces, the arrow, the crossbow weapon has a long range, so after one hundred and fifty steps can exert its power, then continue to move forward, Shoot while walking, when there are still sixty steps away from the enemy, the crossbowman does not stop, continue to shoot, at the same time, the archer appears, the archer relies on the bow, there is no crossbow range, so when it is sixty paces, the archer is powerful, but also while attacking, when there are still twenty steps left with the enemy, the crossbowman, the archer, no one shoots, if you shoot again, you will meet, what to do at such a close distance, they each put away the bow and crossbow, the formation is scattered, the reserve behind That is, the garrison of the other 85 team rushed up at this time, will you think of some ancient war scenes shown in Hollywood? So what should the archers who were still shooting arrows do after the garrison joins the battle? All they had to do at this time was to put away their bows and arrows, take out the long knives and sticks they carried with them, and fight forward with the newly joined brothers stationed in the warband.

By this time, hand-to-hand combat had begun, but the cavalry was still not allowed to move. You can't go up until you're on, when can you get on? If you find that the infantry can't beat the enemy, and you find that the infantry can't do it, and you start to be flattened, then the cavalry will go up, but the cavalry will not go up to the death, and the book of soldiers says that it is called "Teng Attack", what is it called Teng Attack? Jumping and tumbling to attack, that is, to hit and run, run and come back to fight, and so on, so when the cavalry is attacking the enemy, what does the infantry do? The infantry immediately adjusted their formation, and after they had adjusted, they went up again, fought again, and in this way they combined horses and feet, and fought repeatedly until the enemy army was defeated.

After the enemy is defeated and retreated, the cavalry can chase, but they must not let go of their hands to pursue, and they must observe while chasing, to confirm whether the enemy is really defeated, and what if he is defeated? What about an ambush to lure you? Until it is confirmed that the enemy army is really defeated, for example, the formation is also scattered, and the banner is down, then the fierce pursuit will completely defeat the enemy, but the infantry cannot be dispersed no matter what, and the infantry must not move when the cavalry is pursuing, why? Assuming that the cavalry pursues unfavorably, such as when they are ambushed and retreats, at this time, the infantry without chaos can resist the enemy without panic and respond to the cavalry, only in this way can the final victory of the battle be guaranteed, at least, without suffering heavy losses. This was the consistent style of play of the Tang Army at that time.

So when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, I said that both the garrison and the team are armed with long knives and big sticks, and they attack bravely, so is this kind of weapon useful? How effective are they in battle?

Needless to say, everyone knows that a big stick can kill people, it is hard and strong, so what is this long knife? Is it something similar to a Japanese sword? In fact, this long knife is neither a thing like a Japanese knife, nor is it something like a waist knife that we often see in TV dramas, this kind of thing is called a Mo knife.

Mo knife is a heavy and long long pole knife, a bit similar to the three-pointed two-edged knife of Erlang God in Journey to the West, the longest is up to one zhang, this kind of knife is not allowed to be held in the people, can only be equipped with soldiers in the army, the Tang Dynasty used this knife to equip a large number of elite troops, when fighting, the soldiers held the Mo knife, formed a human wall, lined up the Mo knife in a row, and forged ahead, as if it was a wall of knives, the collective attack of this weapon, the lethality is particularly huge.

Later, the Tang Empire and the Arab Empire fought a battle in Central Asia, although the Tang Empire was defeated, but this battle Modao played a very big role, the Arab cavalry, in front of the Tang Army armed with Modao, could not take a little advantage, if it was the Tang Army's feudal allies suddenly betrayed, it was difficult to say who won and who lost this battle. At that time, the Mo Dao team of the Tang Army saw people cutting people, seeing horses and horses, and the cavalry was basically sent to death in front of the Mo Dao infantry, and 20,000 Tang troops were killed in that battle, but in exchange for 70,000 casualties of Arab cavalry.

This is the Mo knife, so what other weapons are there?

There is also the spear that we can often see in film and television dramas, the spear of the Tang Dynasty, eight feet long, is called a lance, everyone has seen it, the lance is used by the cavalry, and the infantry is also used, but the infantry is called a wooden spear, which is longer than the lance of the cavalry, more than eight feet, the spear is commonly used in the Tang Dynasty, and the cost is cheaper than the Mo knife, the cost is low, when Tang Taizong conquered Goryeo and the famous general Su Dingfang of the Tang Dynasty conquered the Western Regions, they used a large number of spear infantry, and the results were very good.

Mo knife and spear, this is the main weapon of the Tang army, of course, there are also weapons to wear, such as horizontal knife, the role of the horizontal knife, is equivalent to the waist knife of later generations, the Tang Dynasty horizontal knife is a weapon carried by soldiers or guards, what does the horizontal knife look like? The Japanese Oriental sword is a variant of the horizontal knife of the Tang Dynasty, but the horizontal knife has no arc, the blade is straight, and the horizontal knife is often used in battle.

So in addition to the knife and spear, the Tang Army's long-range weapon is the bow and crossbow, there are four kinds of the Tang Dynasty, longbow, horn bow, slightly bow, grid bow, which is used in the army, that is, the longbow and the horn bow, these two types of bows are long-range launchers, the slightly bow is short-range launch, which is not conducive to combat, and the grid bow is even worse, and it is decorative. The Tang Army attached great importance to the application of bows and arrows, and later established martial arts, all of which specialized in bows and arrows.

Crossbows are also equipping the whole army, there are (bò) Zhang crossbow, horn bow crossbow, wooden single crossbow, large wooden single crossbow, bamboo pole crossbow, large bamboo pole crossbow, Fuyuan crossbow, seven kinds, there are crossbows used by individual soldiers, there are also large crossbow machines, the lethality of large crossbow machines is very shocking, the sound is like thunder when launched, but it is not conducive to field warfare, defending the city or attacking the city is OK, the range of individual crossbow machines is also very far, such as breaking the crossbow can reach 230 steps, and the angle bow crossbow can reach 200 steps.

These weapons of the Tang army, at that time, can be regarded as very advanced, and there are some other more powerful large weapons, such as throwing cars, throwing big stones outward, destroying city walls, siege weapons, and rockets, which were available in the Tang Dynasty, and when attacking Goryeo, Li Shimin ordered to launch rockets to burn the city, I will not go into detail here, these weapons, in the surrounding minority regimes, are rare, so in the early Tang Dynasty, the Tang army's combat effectiveness was very strong, good weapons plus unique art of war, and the leadership of famous generals, The Tang Dynasty soldiers in the early Tang Dynasty could be said to be elite and abnormal, and it is not surprising that the surrounding countries were defeated under their hands.