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As far as gunpowder weapons are concerned, relatively primitive gunpowder weapons, such as muskets or even arquebuses, have no advantage over relatively mature cold weapons in many aspects. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Zhang Jiashi's use of the Qingyu Spirit Book is certainly the production method of most of the oriental black powder weapons, but these black powder weapons are relatively more expensive, and they are inferior to cold weapons in terms of combat performance.

In the case of muskets, even an arquebus with a bayonet is at a disadvantage in the face of spears and so on.

In general, arquebuses are no more than two meters long. The long weapons of the Qin Empire during this period were generally more than two meters, so the arquebus was largely at a disadvantage in close combat.

Of course, improving the melee ability of the arquebus or the flint gun is also a change, but there is no doubt that the Qin Empire does not currently have the basis for the more advanced flint guns. In other words, Zhang Jiashi, who didn't know what to do with the firearms exhibition, after getting out of the scope of the help of the Qingyu Spirit Book, he could only do it in this regard.

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In the same way, some of the actual combat records or formation evolution of the military books of later generations are mainly based on the military establishment and military equipment at that time as the premise of use.

The car formations that were popular in the pre-Qin period and the car formations that were used as the main body for defensive operations in the firearms period can basically be regarded as two categories.

The chariot in the pre-Qin period was the main body of the attack on the enemy's battle array, and the defensive chariot formation used as a defensive vehicle for defense in later generations required the formation and even personnel equipment training was another category.

This is undoubtedly a great challenge to the overall situation of the Qin Empire's current military establishment as the main body. Zhang himself does not want to make fundamental changes in this regard.

During the few years that Zhang Jiashi was in charge of the Qin Empire, the presence of chariots can be said to be relatively weak.

This is because Zhang Jiashi's division was based on the Liaodong Army, and Zhang Jiashi's division gradually strengthened the strength of the cavalry troops.

In the midst of the war, the cavalry units of the Qin army also played a greater role than the chariot troops.

However, this does not mean that the Qin Empire has not abolished the establishment of chariot troops at present, on the contrary, in some cities in the plains or most of the counties in the interior, chariot troops still occupy a large proportion.

At this time, the chariots were wooden structures, and were generally equipped with bronze pieces in important parts, commonly known as chariots, for reinforcement and decoration.

And at the beginning of the chariot battle, the number of combat vehicles used was less. According to the "Spring and Autumn Period of the Lü Family", in the last years of the Xia Dynasty, Shang Tang and the Xia people fought in Huyi, and only used chariots 7o rides. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, in the battle of Muye under King Wu of Zhou, the scale of 3oo multiplication was reached at a time. During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the development of productive forces and the intensification of annexation wars, the number of chariots increased significantly. By the end of the Spring and Autumn period, some of the major vassal states, such as the Jin and Chu states, had more than 4ooo chariots.

By the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the development of feudal production relations, a new type of army with a large number of infantry began to be formed. The use of iron weapons and the improvement of crossbows enabled the infantry to effectively contain the dense and neat attack of the chariot formation on a wide front. The chariot was bulky and difficult to handle, and its mobility was limited by terrain and road conditions, so it was gradually replaced by infantry and cavalry. However, the evolution of this mode of warfare was extremely slow, and until the Warring States period, the number of chariots in the vassal states was still considerable, and large-scale chariot battles were still occurring from time to time.

As recorded in the "Historical Records: The Biography of Zhang Yilie", the composition of the Qin army at that time was "more than 100,000 armor, 1,000 cars, and 10,000 horses." However, at this time, the combat vehicle was no longer the main combat mission, and the vehicle combat was no longer the main mode of combat for the army.

Chariots are tactical weapons, and cavalry has become a strategic force, and war is not necessarily a hard fight between the two sides. The mobility of the army is better in terms of strategy. The reason why China has repeatedly shown disadvantages in the war against the nomads after the Tang Dynasty is because of the loss of the horse-producing land, the troops have lost their mobility, and can only hold on and cannot pursue.

Although the army without mobility is large, it cannot find the enemy's main force, and conversely, the cavalry with high mobility can always gain the initiative on the battlefield and can safely withdraw from the battle when the battle is at a disadvantage.

Zhang Jiashi did not think about completely abolishing the chariot formation, and completely relied on cavalry troops to fight against the Xiongnu.

However, Bai Qi advised Zhang Jiashi not to act rashly in this regard.

What Zhang Jiashi, who listened to Bai Qi's advice, did not know was that even in the Ming Dynasty, a dynasty with relatively abundant horses, the chariot unit was still a very important formation force.

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There is an opinion in later generations about the understanding of the chariot troops of the Ming Dynasty:

With the advent of hot weapons after the Song Dynasty, chariots were used as mobile fortresses and transport vehicles to transport artillery.

For example, in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of firearms were transported, such as primitive rocket vehicles and rockets. With the exhibition of hot weapons, the people of the Ming Dynasty began to combine the new chariot combat ideas of the hot weapons exhibition and the chariots of the primitive hot weapons era. This was especially reflected in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

The Ming chariot has a combination of shielded vehicles and powerful artillery.

The car battalion composed of many combat vehicles is a combination of the city's defense, vehicle mobility and artillery lethality, which can attack, defend and move, which is the prototype of the current self-propelled artillery and even the current tank and combat vehicle.

The period of the chariot exhibition was during the period from Jiajing to Wanli, and the two generals who made very important contributions to the chariot exhibition were: Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou.

The Ming Dynasty and the historical Central Plains agrarian regime, were threatened by the northern nomads, due to the exhibition of hot weapons made the Ming Dynasty have more war ideas to deal with these nomads, such as combining the long-range strike ability of hot weapons and the mobility of large vehicles to deal with nomadic cavalry - this is very different from the previous dynasties, although the Ming Dynasty also attached great importance to raising horses - unlike the Song Dynasty because there was no formed cavalry, so the Song Dynasty people used infantry formations to fight against cavalry, and even did not hesitate to become a heavy infantry armor with poor mobility, which was also the Song Dynasty's response to the Jin, Why did the Liao have a high victory rate and few enemies, and the infantry could not take advantage of the victory to pursue the cavalry troops or even the cavalry.

Ming has a good horse ranch in Ningxia, but Ming does not focus on riding and riding, but uses a car to ride.

It is precisely with the exhibition of firearms that this kind of thinking has become popular, according to Qi Jiguang, it is that the chariot "is all in the firearms." If the firearm is useless, how can the car be controlled".

For this reason, Qi Jiguang took more into account that he could be invincible in war, so Qi Jiguang's chariot thinking paid more attention to defense - that is, partial vans: cars and cars are connected to form a car city, which is more conducive to defense. Yu Dayou pointed out: "The car must use firearms to defeat thieves, and firearms must use cars to reject horses. ”

Yu Dayou stretched out the front van: there is a barrier in front, which is more conducive to forward combat. The two types of chariots, the partial carriage and the main carriage, can be said to be the representatives of many chariot forms at that time, and became the two main chariots of the Ming Dynasty; no matter which chariot, under the influence of the idea of firearms and chariots, they were equipped with more and more advanced firearms on the chariots.

It is said that Qi Jiguang's heavy vehicle battalion is equipped with 2 big Franc planes per vehicle, each of which is equipped with 9 sub-systems, and the whole battalion is equipped with 256 Franc machines; the bird gun is equipped with 1 bird gun, and the whole battalion has 512 bird guns; and the rocket driver is equipped with 6o rockets per person, and the whole battalion is equipped with a total of 1536o rockets. The number of people using firearms in one vehicle has reached more than 7oper per cent of the total population.

In addition, there are 4 rocket vehicles per battalion and 4 artillery vehicles. The quality of firearms has also been greatly improved, and the bird guns and franc machines introduced from the West have replaced the handcuffs and bowl guns in the early Ming Dynasty, and the invincible general cannons made in the West have replaced the traditional cannons. It can be seen that Qi Jiguang's army has changed from being mainly cold weapons to hot weapons.

It is estimated that Qi Jiguang defeated the Mongolian nomadic tribes many times when he was stationed on the Great Wall in the north, and basically completely suppressed them, forcing them not to dare to rely on the cavalry to rob quickly, but had to sit down honestly and coexist peacefully through mutual markets.

Qi Jiguang's thinking on army building was also in line with the science and technology exhibition at that time and the trend of moving from cold weapons to hot weapons exhibitions at that time, which was still quite advanced at that time.

In line with this, Qi Jiguang's tactics were to attack with enemy cavalry, and the chariot battalions were cast in turn. If the enemy does not retreat, the firearms on the rocket car and the general's car are in order. These many powerful firearms are used in turns, and they can be used all day long.

In such a situation, the enemy horses are in turmoil, and there are few who are not defeated. Even if the enemy is strong and can retreat without defeat and approach, the soldiers attached to the car will line up in formation, with the rattan player in front, the second pikeman, and the second bird gun hand will use a long knife to kill the enemy in the intestines, and then retreat back to the car in an orderly manner. If the enemy is defeated and retreats, the cavalry will be sent out to pursue. It can be seen that Qi Jiguang combined the technical conditions at that time, and adopted the combination of long-range firearms and close-range cold weapons of infantry, plus after repelling the enemy soldiers, the cavalry pursued and expanded the results.

In contrast, there were relatively few firearms on the chariots of Yu Dayou's Beijing battalion, with only 1 big Buddha Lang machine and 2 Yongzhu cannons in each vehicle. However, he originally envisioned that "each car should have one big franc machine, two medium franc machines, two bird guns, two ground beads, two Yongzhu cannons, and ten quick guns." In that case, firearms would be more powerful, but later they did not completely follow this idea.

Even so, the actual artillery equipped, a one-car battalion also has 36o positions, and the firepower is still strong. The corresponding supporting tactics are: enemy cavalry attack, chariot column battalion, fire weapons, strike at the enemy. Under the blow of firearms, it is difficult for the enemy to approach the chariot, and the chariots are connected, and there are shields and large spear heads in front of the chariots. The enemy retreated, and the chariot phalanx quickly changed into a chariot horizontal formation and advanced towards the enemy. If the enemy retreats, the cavalry will go out to pursue.

The chariot is still inferior to the cavalry, but it can prevent the enemy's cavalry units from being integrated in a short time, and it is also a great threat to wounded knights.

Judging from the charioteers of the above two military strategists, the chariot battalion (charioteer) is actually a mobile firearms battalion + defensive formation (ideologically similar to the current chariot tank). The vehicle-mounted firearm is convenient for maneuvering, and the vehicle can shield the enemy's arrows and protect the firearm, so as to fully wield the power of the firearm. This kind of vehicle-mounted firearm was also a pioneering feat in history, and as far as the technology of the time was concerned, it solved the problem of mobile combat of heavy firearms and coordinated combat of vehicles, infantry, and cavalry. From here, we can see that the combat mode of the Ming Dynasty has transitioned to the era of hot weapons, and the role of the cold weapon cavalry of the Ming Dynasty has been further reduced, and the cavalry of chariot + infantry formation + pursuit to expand the results of the war to restrain the opponent's nomadic cavalry has become the mainstream of the strategic thinking of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty's firearms exhibition made China transition to the era of hot weapons, and the Ming Dynasty appeared a large number of firearms manufacturing experts and these two very good military thinkers of hot weapons warfare, which is obviously in line with the trend of social exhibition, and the ideas of these two military experts also belonged to the advanced and exhibition direction in the world at that time. Sadly, the Manchu Dynasty's entry into the customs and subsequent seizure of the world interrupted this process, returning China to the era of cold weapons. In contrast, in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, there was a short-lived lightness of artillery during the Xuanye period - in order to facilitate the transportation of artillery on the mountain roads in the southwest, and there was no firearms exhibition and application except for suppressing Wu Sangui through artillery.

After the end of the Three Feudatories Incident, even the artillery technology of the Manchu Qing Dynasty stagnated - in order to increase the range, they only knew how to increase the weight, and the range of tens of thousands of catties of cannons during the Opium War was not as light as the British's cannons, and the Manchu artillery was basically a fixed battery, and some could not even adjust the firing angle, which was in stark contrast to the mobile artillery in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Throughout the Manchu Dynasty, if it is said that more attention is paid to artillery, then the exhibition of individual firearms and muskets is almost zero, probably because Xuan Ye felt that artillery needs to be operated by multiple people and can be controlled, and muskets can be operated by a single person, and once the musket continues to be exhibited, it will be the terminator of cavalry, so Dai Zi was assigned to the northeast - no longer engage in firearms research, and at the same time a large number of deliberately misleading - propaganda of invincibility of mounted archery and belittling muskets. It can be seen that from the perspective of the weapons science and technology exhibition, the entry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty into customs is a great regression.

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The above point of view is actually not perfect, and it is supplemented by some details:

Vehicle-mounted firearms were not started by Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, and the tactical mode was not a pioneering achievement, and some people in the Ming Dynasty did it earlier. Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang are just further improving.

As for the results, although the chariot array strengthened the combat power of the Ming army in the field battle with the Mongolian cavalry, strictly speaking, there was no big example of cutting the number of levels, but during the Ming Dynasty, more than 100 levels were considered good news, and the results of some car formations were still possible on this basis. It was barely possible to deal with the Mongols, who were barely equipped with firearms.

As for the battle with the Houjin, the relatively high level is still the car battalion trained by Sun Chengzong and the Houjin is a little interesting, but the artillery pulled by the Houjin ox cart is obviously more mobile, and with the cooperation of other arms, there is often a single side of the firepower concentration is too much, and the Ming army disperses the firepower of the vehicle formations on all sides. When the barrier of the Ming army's chariot formation was crushed on one side, the Houjin assault began

In fact, the appearance of the car formation represents the problem of the quality of the army, and when the Ming Dynasty wanted to get up early in the Northern Expedition to Mongolia, the car formation was equipped with the troops of logistics and grain transportation, and when it was attacked, it set up a car formation. The main force can be opened directly. With the decline in the quality of the Ming army, the car formation had to be done.