"Besides, even if they don't know the Analects well, they are still very useful to us. Not all scholars can become officials, and we need scholars everywhere in Youzhou now. In addition, the accounts in the shops, the accountants in the banks, and even the enlightenment gentlemen in the primary schools in various places, the recorders in the workshops, and the clerks in the army, so that the number of readers is always in great demand. ”

Li Mi was stunned, "It's okay to let those people be scribes, if you let them go to the bookkeeper, be a private acquaintance, or even work in the workshop, I'm afraid these people won't be willing." ”

"How do you know if you don't try, besides, I think as long as the conditions are right, there will always be people who are willing. Not everyone who reads is a big landowner, and there are thousands of acres of fertile land at home, didn't you just say that many of them are just the children of small landowners in the countryside, or even simply farmers who cultivate and study. If you work in Huaihuang and the treatment is good, there must always be someone who is willing. Liu Wenjing agrees with Yi Feng's words, and not everyone who reads is a so-called genius and celebrity. Only those children of the family who have a family history have a natural advantage in this regard, and many ordinary readers are really just readers who have read a little bit of knowledge.

Throwing the snow in his hand into an ice ball into the distance, Yi Feng clapped his hands, rubbed his body a few times, and began to walk back, and the team was about to start again.

Walking to the road, the team was still resting, but in the distance, Yang Xiong was commanding a cavalry to conduct exercises. With the sound of his order, the flag flew over, and the team hurried into action.

"It's the Clan's Heavy Rider." Li Mimian looked there with some excitement, since the team was gathered in Kamakama. Many people in the army were very curious about this group of heavy cavalry, and they came by in groups every day to watch. It's like looking at a monkey. Even Cheng Yanjin, Wei Chigong and others beside Yi Feng have been there, and even Cheng Yanjin has been there more than once. Every time I come back. These guys are amazed.

The hoplites at this time were indeed quite mighty, and they were completely humanoid tanks.

"Your Highness, should we also form a heavy cavalry when we go back?" Qin Qiong, who was on the official road, saw Yi Feng coming over and hurriedly said. As a cavalry general, after seeing the heavy cavalry, there are very few people who can not be shocked by it. Qin Qiong was no exception, when he saw those heavy cavalry armed to the teeth, he was really moved. I wish I could command such a troop myself.

"Armoured cavalry is actually a class that must be eliminated." Yi Feng said something that splashed a basin of cold water on everyone.

"How is this possible?" Qin Qiong immediately retorted, heavy cavalry was the strongest class in his mind, and there was no one. If Huaihuang is unable to form such a team of soldiers and horses because of the heavy cavalry and expensive equipment, it can be understood. But Yi Feng said that heavy cavalry is a class of troops that needs to be eliminated, which makes him unhappy.

Yi Feng felt normal to Qin Qiong's reaction, people in this era were too superstitious about heavy cavalry. Although there are only three heavy cavalry in the imperial court today, many people also believe that it is just because of the unification of the world and the long-term peace of the world. And in fact, in history. The hoplite cavalry that became popular during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, although it experienced a short period of low tide in the early Sui Dynasty, then rose greatly in the late Sui and early Tang dynasties.

However, in Yi Feng's heart, he really didn't take the heavy cavalry too seriously.

The rise and fall of the hoplites. There is a specific historical background, the rise of each class, and even the rise of a weapon. All are related to a specific history and are related to the development of tactical concepts.

He smiled. asked Qin Qiong, "Second Brother Qin, you say." What is the most important thing about cavalry? ”

Qin Qiong thought for a moment, "Impact." ”

Yi Feng shook his head, "No, although cavalry has more impact than infantry, impact has never been the pursuit of cavalry. It should be said that the greatest advantage of cavalry is mobility, so the use of cavalry has historically focused on mobility. It can be summed up that mobility, suddenness, flank assault, and fierce charge are the basis of cavalry tactics. The trump card of the cavalry, speed and time, not striking power. The development of cavalry into hoplites was actually the wrong direction of development, because it made the most important advantage of cavalry - mobility - lost. ”

Qin Qiong was a little difficult to accept this concept for a while, and he retorted: "But since the Sixteen Kingdoms, the heavy cavalry has flourished, and they were once the masters of the battlefield, is it wrong?" ”

"The rearmament of cavalry, and even the rise of the Sixteen Kingdoms during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, was certainly not just an isolated and accidental event. Generally speaking, from today's point of view, the rise of heavy cavalry is a historical product of the entanglement of the Central Plains due to the national, military, political, and even the improvement of cavalry harnesses, etc., after the Wuhu Rebellion, and it has its own historical inevitability. At that time, the heavy cavalry was used in a wide range of areas, including the vast and open North China Plain north of the Huai River, and the Jiangdong region, which was traditionally ruled by the Southern Dynasties with a dense network of rivers. Then, judging from the use and scale of heavy cavalry, it originally originated from the Northern Dynasty of the Hu people, who were good at riding and shooting, and it was the Northern Dynasty that the heavy cavalry really carried forward.

Although the heavy cavalry had appeared in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when it already had a complete structure of iron horse armor, the number of heavy cavalry was scarce at that time, and it was never the decisive force on the battlefield. This had a lot to do with the high cost of horse armor at the time and the fact that stirrups had not yet appeared. At that time, the most famous cavalry was still the representative of elite light cavalry such as the White Horse Yicong and the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, who were better at archery and light flank attacks.

Then in the period of the Five Hu Chaohua and the Sixteen Kingdoms, the heavy cavalry developed by leaps and bounds, thousands of iron cavalry equipped with stirrups were thrown into the battlefield, the scale of the heavy cavalry battle became larger and larger, and the corresponding tactical tactics also emerged in endlessly, and the heavy cavalry began to become the master of the battlefield. This qiē originated from the birth of the stirrup. Although the stirrup is only a small thing, it has a great effect, and it can even be said to be an epoch-making piece of equipment in the history of cavalry. Before the advent of stirrups, riders had little support on their galloping horses, and had to clamp their legs around the belly of their horses. When fighting, you even have to leave one hand to tighten the reins of the horse, otherwise it is easy to lose your center of gravity and fall off the horse. On the battlefield in ancient times, the result of falling off the horse was either trampled to death by the war horse behind him, or hacked to death by the enemy, and falling off the horse was equivalent to the end.

Therefore, if the cavalry charged into battle at that time, it was still quite dangerous Although the Western Han Dynasty developed cavalry weapons such as the ring head knife and the iron halberd, the main combat of the cavalry was still bow and horse archery, and there was rarely a frontal charge. However, the advent of stirrups changed this traditional state. The stirrup provided the knight with a stable point of focus, allowing the knight to balance lightly and control the direction of the horse with only his legs, thus freeing his hands to handle longer and heavier weapons such as the lance. The knights were even able to stand up on their horses with their stirrups, and dealt a fatal blow to the enemy with all the strength of their whole body and the powerful impact of the horses, and they were no longer afraid of accidentally falling under the horses and being trampled to death by their own horses.

This was a qualitative leap, and from then on, the rolling torrent of cavalry could charge in columns, and obtained an unimaginably powerful impact of the infantry phalanx.

When stirrups first appeared, they were unilateral stirrups that hung on the left side of the horse's body for use on horses, and this stirrup was not very useful. However, as the war continued in the era of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the stirrup also quickly evolved into a bilateral stirrup and became the thruster of the heavy cavalry.

It is precisely because of the emergence and evolution of the stirrup that the tactics of cavalry hand-to-hand and charging have replaced the original bow and horse archery and become the main form of cavalry combat. During the Sixteen Kingdoms, many separatist forces attacked each other, and the Sixteen Kingdoms were mostly established by the Hu people, which themselves had a large number of cavalry, so cavalry warfare became the mainstream, and the cavalry charge melee became the main form of combat by means of stirrups. As cavalry warfare changed from cavalry to melee, the armor of cavalry began to be continuously strengthened, and the emergence of large-scale heavy cavalry was a matter of course.

In the era of the Sixteen Kingdoms, there are often extremely shocking scenes on the battlefield, thousands of cavalry wearing dark color heavy armor from men to horses, lined up in a neat phalanx, holding a sharp lance more than four meters long, first slowing down, and then accelerating, and then entering the range of the enemy's crossbowmen, a shout, suddenly dusty, horses neighed, the earth shook the mountains, and the rapid impact of the sea collapse and tsunami broke out instantly. These devastating flesh and blood tanks, the imperial trump cards built with the country's financial resources, are the masters of the battlefield, and often once launched, they can determine the outcome of a battle. And these cavalry, having a common name, armored cavalry.

What is an armored ride? Equipment, horse armor, armor, human armor. Armored cavalry refers to heavy cavalry with armor, and this type of army has always been a strategic branch of the army from the Sixteen Kingdoms to the Sui. The earliest hoplite cavalry is said to have been active in Central Asia, and the cavalry equipment such as short swords, javelins, spears, war hammers, compound bows, horse armors, cuirass, body armor, and leg armor are said to have come from this fighting people.

In the face of dense infantry lines, they do not fight or pursue, but rely on their strong defensive ability to shoot without fear of swords, and directly rampage on the battlefield, tearing apart the enemy's dot matrix with sharp spears and horse lances. During the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the well-trained and well-commanded elite armored cavalry almost ignored any branch of the army, and even the so-called heavy cavalry nemesis developed later, such as archers and heavy infantry, were helpless against them. (To be continued......)