Night 3 Elegy of Wujiang (3)

From the foot to the Wujiang River, the straight-line distance is less than 400 miles, if the horse gallops, the rapid march can be reached in one day and night. If you don't care about the life or death of the horse, you can reach it in ten hours, but basically even the knights on the horse have reached the end of the crossbow, not to mention the horses under the crotch.

The more serious problem is that in the era of the late Qin Dynasty, Chu and Han Dynasty fought for hegemony, the stirrups were not yet known, and the knights had nowhere to borrow strength on horseback, and it was even more difficult when they ran long distances.

In combat, cavalry without stirrups was extremely dangerous when sprinting high, and it was easy to lose the center of gravity and fall off their horses. In addition, the cavalry did not dare to exert too much force when fighting on horseback, otherwise they would fall off their horses due to the reaction force of the opponent in the process of hand-to-hand combat. Or simply sacrifice one hand to control the reins to keep the center of gravity stable. In order to implement such a difficult skill as mounted archery, it is necessary to slow down or simply dismount, completely losing the high mobility that should be due to cavalry combat.

Therefore, in the period when there were no stirrups, the cavalry was of little use, and relied more on the trampling of horses' hooves to form damage to the infantry. Even for many famous generals in the Warring States and Three Kingdoms periods, their application of cavalry is still at a shallow level. As an auxiliary unit, the cavalry was placed behind the wings and armed with bows and crossbows. It is used for reconnaissance, harassment, sneak attack, broken rear, pursuit, etc.

I remember that in the Battle of Weinan, Zhang Wei and Sima Fuqiang teamed up to deal with Cheng Yi, which was to take advantage of the shortcomings of the cavalry of the Three Kingdoms without stirrups, and skillfully made the opponent lose his center of gravity, so that he could kill the opponent who had a B rank at that time.

It was not until the Western Jin Dynasty at the beginning of the third century A.D. that the single stirrup used for the horse was finally revealed, and after more than ten years of improvement, it was not until the Eastern Jin Dynasty that the practical stirrup was used in the cavalry.

For Sima Fuqiang, who studies the history of war, the appearance and exhibition of stirrups are quite clear to him. As far as he knows, the earliest stirrups in the archaeological world come from the tomb of Feng Sufu, a Northern Yan nobleman in the period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and in the tomb of the Langya Wang clan in the first year of Yongchang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (322 AD), a pottery horse equipped with double stirrups appeared.

That is, it was not until the Eastern Jin Dynasty that China really entered the post-cavalry era. There is no need for high riding skills, and after a short period of training, the average foot soldier can be converted into cavalry. At this time, large-scale cavalry warfare became a reality, and cavalry really became the main force on the battlefield and directly affected the outcome of the war.

Then there was the strong rise of the Xianbei people, a nation on horseback, and the establishment of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, Li Shimin relied on the Xuanjia Army to further promote the light cavalry.

However, Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, who was a disciple of Jiangdong, actually brought out a cavalry army comparable to the Huns outside the Saiwai, and there was no opponent among the princes who rebelled at the end of Qin. I have to say that he is very good at training and employing troops.

Knowing the significance of stirrups, Sima Fuqiang specially made nine simple stirrups for his teammates for the nearly 400-mile journey, otherwise the dreamers who were used to using stirrups in the two main lines of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the dream of the forces would be offended.

Even so, when everyone arrived at the edge of the Wujiang River and found the Wujiang Pavilion Chief first, the time had already come to noon the next day, and it was only a few hours before Xiang Yu arrived here.

After dismounting, most of the people in the dream of back pain rested on the spot by the river, but Huang Zhi and Zhang Wei, who had a trace of luck, couldn't care about being tired, and explored the terrain in all directions, trying to find an opportunity to change Xiang Yu's fate.

The chief of the Wujiang Pavilion also noticed the military uniforms of the Chu army worn by this group of people, and the old man enthusiastically came over to talk, "How many generals are going to cross the river?" ”

Huang Zhi shook his head at first, and then nodded again, he remembered that this old man was Xiang Yu's diehard, and told him that the truth should be fine, "King Xiang's army was besieged by Liu Bang Xiao'er's 700,000 army, I'm afraid it won't be able to hold on, I'll take the first step to come here to seek a way out for King Xiang." ”

Wujiang Pavilion Chief turned blue when he heard this, and immediately scolded, "Liu Bang is a scoundrel"

After a while, the old man's face looked a little better, and he comforted himself and said, "King Xiang will definitely be able to win, I think that when I was in Pengcheng, King Xiang led 30,000 elite soldiers deep behind enemy lines, and defeated Liu Bang's 560,000 coalition troops. Now the Han army is only 700,000, and it is enough for King Xiang to bring half of the men. ”

After a pause, he repeated again, "King Xiang can win"

Huang Zhi smiled bitterly and was speechless, Xiang Yu has been so beautiful in the past ten years that all the villagers and elders in Chudi think that he is an undefeated god of war.

At this time, Sima Fuqiang came over and said, "At this time and that time, in the past, King Xiang's soldiers were full of food, so they were able to win the battle of Pengcheng." Today, the Chu army confronted Liu Bang in Xingyang for two years, exhausted and exhausted, and could not reproduce the glory of that day. Yesterday, under the wall, King Xiang led the army to break through, intending to take Liu Bang's head in the million-dollar army, but it was unfortunate that the army was hidden in the rear army, which was unattainable. Han Xin personally dispatched in the center, and 700,000 Han troops surrounded our Chu legion. ”

Hearing this, the chief of Wujiang Pavilion nervously asked, "What happened next?" Is King Xiang good? "It's like listening to a story.

"Not good." Sima Fuqiang shook his head, and did not give a pleasant answer as the old man wished, "Although King Xiang is mighty and killed, the Han army is 100,000, but after all, the enemy is outnumbered, and when it gets dark, there are only 20,000 people left in the whole army, and they are hungry, and they have no strength to fight. ”

Hearing Sima Fuqiang's words, the Wujiang Pavilion Chief finally burst into tears, but he was still scolding Liu Bang in his mouth.

After a while, the old man's mood calmed down a little, and he hurriedly asked, "When will King Xiang be able to come to Wujiang?" There is only one boat here, which is not enough to carry 20,000 horses across the river. ”

"20,000 is yesterday's number, today from the wall down here, I don't know how many people will survive......" Unconsciously, Sima Fuqiang's voice also became low and hoarse, thinking that he was infected by Huang Zhi and the old man.

At this time, Zhang Wei had already circled around the neighborhood and chose a terrain suitable for the combat method of the dream man, as a stronghold to receive Xiang Yu to snipe the Han army if necessary. Hearing the conversation between the three of them, he also interjected and added, "As long as King Xiang can be saved, it doesn't matter if the others are retrieval." ”

Wujiang Pavilion Chief likes to listen to this sentence, and hurriedly catered to it, "That is, as long as King Xiang is here, there will be a day when he will win the Central Plains." ”

Seeing that the topic finally turned to the direction he was looking forward to, Huang Zhi hurriedly added, "I'm afraid that King Xiang will be stubborn, and I'd rather live and die with my subordinates than go back to Jiangdong." ”

Wujiang Pavilion Chief was stunned again when he heard this, "What should I do?" ”

Huang Zhi was depressed in his heart, thinking, "I still want to ask you."