As the weather warms and the snow melts, the streams that flow down from the snow-capped mountains converge and merge into the rivers, spreading along the dry rivers and nourishing the grasslands. Tender green grass covered the ground, and the herders emerged from their tents that had been spent all winter and drove their flocks and horse teams around the grasslands to feed. The old man's stiff body, which had not survived the long winter, was lifted out, and a pit was dug casually and buried hastily, but his children and relatives did not have much nostalgia and sadness on their faces.

Survival of the fittest, this is the law of the steppe, and the Huns, who worship wolves, are even more convinced of this. The old people are nothing but a burden and a drag on the whole tribe, they do not produce and rob, but only consume food. The arrival of the harsh winter is to help the grassland people to screen the strong, the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled can only get a small part of the food, most of them can not survive the cold winter and are ruthlessly taken away from their lives.

No one will complain, because this is the law of survival on the grassland. If you want to survive, you can only work hard to be strong, strong, and strong! No one will have mercy on the weak, respect belongs only to the strong.

According to the practice on the steppe, spring is the season of grazing, and it is not suitable for warfare. Because of the hibernation of the whole winter, the horses have lost a lot of weight, and the horses are the soul of the steppe warriors. Therefore, in the past, most of the wars of various ethnic groups on the grassland chose the autumn season. As the so-called autumn high horse fat, the horse is the strongest time in autumn, so as to reflect the riding skills that a grassland warrior is most proud of.

But this year is different from the past, after only less than a month of recuperation, the envoys from Longcheng quickly transmitted Shan Yu's instructions to every corner of the grassland, every tribe conquered by the Huns.

The new overlord of the steppes, the more powerful Maudun Shan than ever before, conveyed his orders to all his subjects.

Before the Tengge River overflowed its banks, all the men on the grassland who were taller than a scepter had to bring their own horses and bows and arrows to assemble at the Dragon City Holy Land. Their king, their great king, the plough and the lonely, will lead them over the lakes and rivers, but hunt in the fat, oily passes.

No one dared to disobey Maudun's orders, and no tribe leader dared to disobey him.

In the past year, Mao Dun has used his iron blood and ruthlessness to show the tribes of the steppe what it really means to 'prosper and perish' those who follow me.

First the powerful Donghu, then the overlord Yueshi in the west, and then the masters of the Gobi in the north, Hun Yu and Qu Chu, all of them were expelled and conquered and eliminated under the whip of Maudun. The Aries tribe, who were the first to obey him, were richly rewarded, enjoying the same favorable treatment as the Xiongnu headquarters in the heavy snow, and basically no one starved to death throughout the winter.

Mao Dun swallowed Donghu in the east, drove the Yue clan in the west, and captured a large area of Qin territory in the south, capturing a large number of grain and Qin slaves. Relying on these booty, the originally very difficult winter became less terrible, and on the contrary, the enemies defeated by the Xiongnu were hungry and cold, and they froze to death on the grassland.

After receiving the order of Mao Dun, the leaders of various tribes gathered the qualified men in their subordinates one after another, and led the team towards Dragon City in panic. And unlike the fear of the leaders, the mood of ordinary Hun soldiers was passionate. They craved war, they longed for killing, and they had long been envious of the warriors of their tribe who had seen their warriors return triumphantly in the last year's campaigns.

And this time, Mao Dun told them that the place they would go to was Guanzhong, where the legend was that there was gold and silver all over the ground, fat sheep everywhere, and what was even more tempting was that there were countless Central Plains women.

Most of the women on the grassland are rough like men, they drink like men, eat meat happily, have a round body and smell of mutton, and even carry knives on their horses when necessary. Most of them work as substitutes for men, and being able to have children is the only thing they are proud of.

The weak Central Plains woman is the slave that all Hun men dream of, and the petite figure of the Central Plains woman can greatly satisfy the mania and wildness of the grassland men. So as soon as they heard that their Shan Yu was going to take them to attack the Central Plains, almost all the men screamed excitedly. The victors of the previous steppe wars wanted to plunder more wealth and women, while the defeated and enslaved tribes longed to regain their dignity and freedom in the Central Plains.

He had been preparing for this big battle for a long time, and he still couldn't forget the shame that Han Xin had brought to him three times and twice, which was a shame that he could not tolerate as a king of the grassland! A shame that must be washed away with blood!

He had been waiting for this time for a long time, and he couldn't bear it anymore.

He requisitioned all the available troops of the Xiongnu headquarters, and at the same time ordered the four departments of Baiyang, Lou Fu, Qi Kun, and Xinli to bring all the available soldiers. A total of 460,000 iron cavalry were assembled, plus Sima Xin and Dong Peng's two divisions in the south, and the army he could use had exceeded 500,000.

These 500,000 iron horsemen are all the essence that has been precipitated in the grassland for hundreds of years, and now, he will take them to conquer the Central Plains, and he is no longer satisfied with just plundering and burning.

Just when the grassland was gaining momentum, the Qin State entered a period of intense preparations. The spies sent to the steppe had already transmitted the news of the Xiongnu mobilization back to Guanzhong, and all the Qin people understood that they would face an unprecedented invasion,

Unlike any previous invasion from the grassland, this time the Xiongnu Shan Yu brought almost all the forces on the grassland, apparently determined to destroy the Qin state in one fell swoop, occupy its territory, and plunder its people.

After more than half a year of recuperation, the Qin State has gradually recovered its national strength before the War of Unification. The recovery of Shangjun and Hanzhong County doubled Qin's national strength, and its strength and strategic space also greatly increased. The available soldiers in Han Xin's hands were no longer overstretched, but rather surplus.

Considering that this was the spring ploughing period, mobilizing too many strong men was afraid that it would hurt the vitality of the Qin State, so Han Xin only carried out a limited mobilization this time. The Qin army was expanded from 180,000 in peacetime to 320,000, and at the same time, the troops stationed in Hanzhong and Wuguan were transferred back to Shangjun.

Since he wanted to preserve the vitality of the Qin State, he could only set the battlefield outside Guanzhong, so as not to extend the war to the place where the essence of the Qin State was located. Otherwise, even if Qin State wins, it will be equivalent to losing half, and accordingly, this will have higher requirements for the defense of Shangjun and Beidi County.

Fortunately, in the past six months, the Great Wall in the north has been repaired one after another, and the Qin State has one more reliance on when fighting against the Xiongnu army.

Han Xin worshiped Tian City as the marshal and Zhao Wuji as the deputy marshal, stationed in Xiaoguan, the first fortress of the Qin Great Wall in the western section, controlled the 130,000 troops in Beidi and Shangjun, and relied on the Great Wall to carry out the first line of early warning and defense against the Xiongnu. Wang Qi led an army of 60,000 troops scattered in various cities and counties within the Great Wall for the second-line troops to prevent the Xiongnu from breaking through and harassing the rear, and at the same time cooperating with the logistics of the front-line army. Han Xin personally led the main army, mainly cavalry, as a mobile force scattered around Xianyang, and in the event of a change, he could quickly rush to the northern border through the Qin Straight Road.

At this time, the construction of the developed gallop road within the Qin State became more and more prominent, along the Qin Straight Road, the reinforcements could reach the city of Fushi in three days from the Xianyang Kuaima, which was convenient for Han Xin to use the main force as a mobile reserve since the assembly, rather than scattering the troops to defend it everywhere.

The advantage of the Xiongnu lies in the cavalry, and the attack tactics that come like lightning and go like wind and thunder are the most proud tactics of the grassland. Cavalry can easily use its high-speed mobility to create a local advantage against infantry, quickly eating up an infantry before reinforcements arrive.

Of course, the disadvantage of cavalry is also obvious, that is, it is not good at attacking cities. Once the defenders were well prepared, a garrison of thousands of men could easily leave hundreds of thousands of unprepared cavalry helpless under the walls.

Han Xin himself was a master of cavalry warfare, and his several great victories were achieved by using the mobility and impact of cavalry flexibly. Looking at the whole world, the only one who can be equal to him in the use of cavalry is Xiang Yu.

Cavalry was still an auxiliary arm in the Warring States Period, and as the backbone of the infantry corps in several major wars of the princes, the cavalry was more responsible for raiding and reconnaissance, far from being qualified as an independent army. Even King Wuling of Zhao, who used to dominate the world with cavalry archery, the cavalry was only used as a flank to cover the Chinese army, to divide and outflank and drive away the enemy.

The Qin State relied on his crossbowmen and light infantry to sweep the Six Kingdoms, and the status of cavalry was much lower in comparison. It was not until after the unification that he had several fierce battles with the Xiongnu Donghu in the north that the first emperor realized the importance of cavalry fighting on the plains, so he greatly expanded the cavalry corps, and successively seized several horse breeding places such as Hetao, which constituted the pattern of the northern army's heavy cavalry.

But relatively speaking, the cavalry in the hinterland of the Central Plains was set up very rarely, and Han Xin also noticed this when preparing for the war with the Xiongnu. So he ordered the purchase of war horses from all over the country, and greatly expanded the cavalry corps, so that in the future in the field battles could be equal to the Huns, and it was at this time that Meng Shi was ordered to train new soldiers.

Fortunately, although the power of the Qin State has been greatly reduced, most of the old foundation left by the First Emperor is still intact, and the supply of war horses is not lacking for a while, so Han Xin easily expanded the 30,000 light cavalry to 80,000.

But the problem also arose, the Qin people in Guanzhong were not as accustomed to grazing as the people of the Northland. Most of them are not good at cavalry and archery, but cavalry is very easy to build, but the kung fu of mounted archery cannot be achieved in a day or two.

In the Beida camp outside Xianyang City, Han Xin was looking at the cavalry galloping in the distance with his eyebrows, most of them were staggering in the high-speed gallop, although they could still hold on to it so as not to fall off their horses, but it didn't look much better.

Han Xin's face became more and more ugly, according to this level, let alone fighting with the Huns on horseback, I am afraid that after a long-distance attack, the team will be in an uproar.

Meng Shi's gray face that was coming from afar originally looked angry, but when he saw Han Xin Tieqing's face, his anger disappeared again, and he became a little cringe, and explained hesitantly; "General, you can't blame me, these guys used to be good at cultivating the fields, and if you are better at farming, I can guarantee that no one can be better than them. But when it comes to fighting on horseback, it's really hard for me to die, and it's no less difficult than teaching sows to go up trees. ”

Seeing Meng Shi's frightened face, Li Zuoche on the side also coughed easily and said; "Actually, General Meng is not bad, in just twenty days, these inexperienced soldiers can become decent, although it is still a little less hot, but given the time to practice, it must be an elite division."

Han Xin smiled bitterly and shook his head, "In time? I'm afraid the Huns won't give us so much time. I got the exact news that in ten days at most the vanguard of the Huns would appear under the Great Wall. ”

After a pause, he squinted at Meng Shi again, and Meng Shi lowered his head a little ashamedly. At the beginning, he took the initiative to ask Ying to train these recruits, but now he can only do it unsatisfactory, how can his proud self-esteem stand it.

Thinking of this, Meng Shi turned over and dismounted, knelt down, and said; "It's the last general who is incompetent, please punish the general, I have no complaints."

Han Xin glanced at him lightly, stretched out his hand and said; "Get up, I don't blame you. Twenty days to train like this, you're pretty remarkable, and it's hard for me to do it to myself. ”

"I sighed that I was too optimistic and didn't take these details into account, so I secretly regretted it."

Saying this, Han Xin couldn't help but take a long breath, "A real cavalry is honed in the war, where is it cultivated by hasty training, but unfortunately we only have thirty or forty thousand elite cavalry on hand, which is still too few, but these recruits are not bad as horse infantry." ”

When the elite of the Northern Army in Chinese New Year's Eve had a large number of troops similar to horse infantry, although these infantry had cavalry mobility, they dismounted and formed formations during the battle, relying on the gun shield array to resist the enemy, and it was also a powerful force, but Han Xin, who originally liked cavalry, was still somewhat disappointed.

Li Zuoche groaned on horseback; "Can we make up for the disadvantage of our cavalry in equestrianism through the superiority of equipment?"

Meng Shi thought about it and slowly shook his head; "Difficult, if the armor is increased, the weight of the horse will obviously increase, the mobility and durability will be reduced, and it will not be conducive to the knight's flexible hand-to-hand combat."

Li Zuoche was speechless for a moment, and glanced at Han Xin, but he had already seen the disappointment in his eyes.

Han Xin was silent for a long time, just staring at the cavalry galloping and training in the distance, and suddenly spoke; "Is the hardest thing for them right now to balance on horseback?"

Meng Shi nodded and replied; "Indeed, it would be better if they just galloped on horseback, but it would be really difficult for them to draw arrows with a bow, and they all shot scattered."

Han Xin stopped talking, just looked intently at the knight in the distance.

Most of those knights were born as foot soldiers, and there were not many opportunities to ride horses. In fact, Han Xincheng had already thought of this, so most of the cavalry formed had some horseback riding experience, but they were only able to ride horses after riding horses, which was far less than the superb equestrian skills that the Huns practiced all day on horseback.

He watched as a young knight was sweating profusely and practicing to cross obstacles, his legs slightly open instead of tightly clamping the horse's belly. Han Xin thought about it for a while, and then understood the truth, thinking that he was not used to riding a horse and rubbing his legs all day long, I was afraid that the inner thighs had already been blistered.

I don't know why, Han Xin always felt very strange looking at the posture of the cavalry riding a horse. I didn't pay much attention to it before, but now that I have the leisure to watch carefully, I feel more and more unpleasant, and I feel that something is missing.

A thought suddenly flashed, and Han Xin remembered that when he watched the horseback riding on TV in the later life, it was a very natural posture, and he didn't seem to have seen anyone who was open! The legs look weird, and the balance of the body is not easy to control.

Han Xin had never thought about this question before, on the one hand, he was strong in martial arts, and his balance in his body was already perfect, so how could he feel this kind of discomfort. Moreover, the cavalry he has led since joining the army are all the elite of the Northern Army, and they all have superb riding skills, so they naturally do not show clumsiness.

After thinking about it a lot, Han Xin looked at Meng Shi and said; "Can you tie the knight's legs, so that you can effectively control the balance of your body?"

Meng Shi thought about it and shook his head; "General, you're talking about leggings, which used to be very popular when training recruits. But this method does not work on the battlefield. You must know that tying your legs will definitely paralyze your legs, and you will even lose consciousness after a long time, how can this work? ”

The vague thoughts in Han Xin's mind became clearer and clearer, his face looked a little weird, and he suddenly opened his mouth and shouted; "Go and pass on the horsemakers in the army."

Although Meng Shi was a little confused by him, he still didn't dare to disobey his orders, and hurriedly sent someone to send a horse maker in the army.

The horse craftsman was born in an old Qin person, and he had already turned white, looking like an old dragon clock. He saw Han Xin and the others on the horse, although he didn't recognize the identities of these three people, he still ran forward and honestly knelt down and kowtowed a few times.

Han Xin stretched out his hand to signal him to stand up, and said with a smile; "How old are you this year, old man, how many years have you been in the army?"

The old horsemaker had just gotten up from the ground, and when he heard Han Xin ask, he hurriedly knelt down and replied; "Back to my lord's words, Xiaomin is fifty and eight this year, and he has been a craftsman in the army since the time of His Majesty King Zhuangxiang, and it has been forty-three years

Han Xin nodded, forty-three years, he must have been extremely experienced, it seems that he has found the right person.

And he said; "Old man, look at it, it's not feasible." After speaking, he dismounted and patted the saddle and gestured on it for a long time.

The horseman said with a puzzled look in his eyes; "Good saddle, why do you add two nondescript shackles underneath, my lord."

Han Xin pointed to the seat of the horse's belly, "Think about it, if there are two rings, can you put the foot plate in it when riding a horse, which can greatly increase the stability of the knight, and prevent the horse from falling during the fight." ”

The horse craftsman still didn't think so, but when he heard Han Xin's words, he was suddenly shocked, and his eyes showed an incredible gaze, and he muttered for a long time before he spoke; "My lord, you are really talented, how can you think of such an unbelievable time, the old man and I have been immersed in the saddle all my life, but I have never thought of adding such a thing to it. Don't talk about me, and no one I know has ever thought this way. ”

Han Xin saw that the old horse craftsman was affirmative, so he said faintly excitedly: "Then do you say this idea is feasible?" ”

The old horseman nodded affirmatively, "It should be no problem, but the all-copper manufacturing you said seems to be inappropriate, not only is it too heavy but also the cost is too high, I think it is better to change it to wood core copper?" ”

Han Xin clapped his hands and laughed; "You can always look at the suitability, I don't have any other requirements, I just ask you to make this thing as quickly as possible, as much as possible, what do you need, just ask Meng Shi for it." The blacksmiths of the entire Qin Kingdom are now at your disposal, and the materials and cost are not a problem. I have only one request, and that is that within a month, I need 100,000 pairs for my army. ”

PS: At the request of the majority of readers, some evil little ones opened the golden finger and let the stirrups come out in advance. According to the available history, the stirrup should have been born in the Northern Yan period of the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms 500 years after the end of the Qin Dynasty. Therefore, it is not impossible for the Qin State to appear, at least there is no problem technically, but no one has thought of this. There is also the high bridge saddle and horseshoe, I want to explain it again, in the West BC these have appeared, the history of China is unknown, but a general view in the Han Wu Emperor when the northern expedition to the Xiongnu these two things have been widely used, so the end of the Qin Dynasty appeared completely said in the past. After all, this is a novel, not an academic research report, so I won't discuss it anymore~~

There is no need for some nitpickers to always grasp one or two points to ridicule Jiangnan for not understanding history, in fact, I know a lot of history, not limited to the end of Qin, if you don't believe it, you can talk about it privately. It's still the same old saying, sometimes I have to change history for the sake of the plot.