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During the period of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period, China's equipment and combat tactics have been improved to a certain extent compared with the West, of course, the overall level of China in this period is not comprehensively superior. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the past, there was an assumption, that is, if Alexander the Great marched into China along the most feasible road of the Green Mountains-Western Regions-Hexi Corridor-Qin State, then who was superior and who was inferior in military terms between the Macedonian Emperor and the Qin State at that time?

In fact, it is very unlikely that this vision will be realized.

Although Alexander the Great's military talent is indeed amazing, there are some things that cannot be solved by military affairs. It's like the gap between geographical locations, climate adaptability, and so on.

Alexander's Macedonian Empire was able to grow strong for a while, mainly relying on the Macedonian phalanx for warfare.

In other words, the Macedonian phalanx, as a tactical formation, is indeed able to exert the power to influence the trend of the battle. But one thing is undeniable, and that the weaknesses and points of the Macedonian phalanx are obvious.

The Macedonian phalanx mainly originated from an infantry tactic of the ancient Greeks, and the important advantage of this infantry tactic was to rely on the individual combat power of the infantry to form a formation and launch a fierce attack on the enemy.

Of course, in the very important place of Thermopay, the Greeks did not rely on the phalanx to defeat the Persian army, but took advantage of the narrow passage around the Thermopay Pass, so that the Persians could not fully exert their numerical superiority and finally defeated the Persian army.

In a sense, the geographical advantages of the hot spring pass are similar to those of the Hangu Pass, of course, if it is about defense capabilities, the Hangu Pass can explode a few streets of the hot spring pass.

In the 4th century BCE, the tactics of the modified Greek phalanx reached their peak in the time of King Philip II of Macedon and his successor Alexander, with a basic formation of 16 men armed with six-meter spears, covered by cavalry and light infantry in loose formations. The various arms of the army were organically combined into a primitive multi-arm mixed army, which played a great role in Alexander the Great's crusade to the east.

This is the case with the Macedonian phalanx.

In terms of relative formations, the number of Macedonian phalanxes is not too large, because the average Macedonian phalanx has only a maximum of six platoons in terms of tactical arrangement. According to the corresponding number of people, the maximum number of men in a Macedonian phalanx is about three or four thousand.

The number of this kind of force is not bloated for the Macedonian phalanx, but there is still a considerable gap between the number of people and the mainstream battle formation in the East at that time.

On the battlefield in the east, three or four thousand people led by a lieutenant can be said to be the most basic number of people in a big battle. And the garrison of a city with a little more numbers and a relatively large outline was between three and four thousand people.

So in terms of troops. The Macedonians did not have any numerical superiority over the princes of the Warring States period at that time.

But there's no denying it. In terms of the branches of the regular army, the overall quality of the Macedonian army was stronger than that of the army under the command of the princes at that time. After all, at that time, it was still a Central Plains army dominated by peasants and soldiers, and its average quality was still difficult to compare with the semi-professional army of the Macedonians.

The Macedonian phalanx was a bit numerous, and it was highly mobile, and it was able to charge the enemy with a full horizontal formation, dealing a heavier blow to the enemy who had not yet recovered from the cavalry attack. The heavily armored soldiers, who could not escape the pursuit of the Macedonian phalanx, could not move as fast on the battlefield as the Macedonians in formation.

In terms of tactical arrangement, the Macedonian phalanx had to work closely with the cavalry, and it was not easy to win by relying solely on the phalanx, and the Macedonians would line up the phalanx in an oblique formation when fighting. That is, a right-angled triangle or right-angled trapezoid, beveled outwards, so that the enemy will be surrounded from a certain side according to specific needs. Normally, the enemy will not be killed immediately in front of the Macedonian phalanx, and will flee like a lawnmower, unless they are charged by the Macedonian phalanx. This is not reflected in the game, where the Macedonian phalanx can be integrated as a whole, and the back can be pushed forward. Then they rushed through it like a wall, and most of them would be trapped by it, and they would do their best to avoid the numerous spearheads, which was exactly what the Macedonian general wanted, and the enemy was placed on a large board, and the knife was the Macedonian cavalry.

The Macedonian phalanx has a strong frontal impact. Because the first five columns of spears in the formation were in direct contact with the enemy in the initial engagement, countless spears struck each other, forming a wall of spears, harpooning the enemy and - like a mane - powerfully bouncing back the enemy's attack. The men in the back and in the middle were not idle, raising their shields to block the arrows they fired, stabbing the enemy to the ground with the spires on the butts of their rifles, and advancing with their shoulders into the front row of soldiers. Rear soldiers at the time of combat. Countless shaking butts can also inflict inevitable damage on enemies in the chaos.

However, the weakness of the Macedonian phalanx lies in its flanks and rear.

The spear-wielding soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx in the first array suffered heavy casualties and could not maintain their formation, and the enemy's melee forces broke through into the phalanx, or, worse, they had rushed in from the emptier side of the phalanx, then disaster had struck, and they would surely die. The auxiliary weapon, the dagger - just as the spear grows stupidly - is also ridiculously short, providing little security to the Macedonian soldiers, and the spear-wielding soldiers themselves cannot turn around against enemies who have come close to them.

That is to say, the possibility of a head-on breakthrough of the Macedonian phalanx is not impossible, but the price to be paid is very large.

......

If Alexander's Macedonian army was really able to attack Qin and maintain the corresponding combat capability, there would still be a lot of gaps between the Qin army in the early days of King Zhaoxiang of Qin. But this does not mean that the Qin army will be defeated. On the contrary, the Qin army had a great chance of winning.

Because the greatest weakness of the Macedonian phalanx did not come from cavalry or chariots, but from crossbowmen.

The disposition of the main forces of the Macedonian phalanx, as well as the mode of operation, were as follows:

Carry Macedonian spears (13~14 feet long, two-handed operation, later more than 18 feet. The end of the spear has a counterweight to help it balance, and it also serves as a backup weapon in the event of a broken spear. ), a round shield with a diameter of 2 feet. The shields in the hands of the soldiers in the phalanx protect the left side of their own side and the right side of the bodies of their adjacent comrades, and once the soldier in the front row falls, the soldier in the second row will quickly fill in the gap left by him. The soldiers in the first row generally squatted and pointed their spears in front of them, while the soldiers in the second row rested their spears on the shoulders of the soldiers in the first row, which increased the lethality of the frontal cavalry.

Therefore, a frontal assault on the Macedonian phalanx with immature cavalry or chariot troops will only lead to a miserable death.

But this spearman had a weakness in the eyes of crossbowmen, and that was the round shield with a diameter of 2 feet.

This round shield has a very small defensive surface. If placed in front of the chest, it will not even cover the periphery of a burly adult's ribs, let alone the shoulders.

Therefore, in the case of encountering a large number of crossbowmen, the main force of the Macedonian phalanx is likely to be defeated in the face of a rain of arrows and heavy casualties.

After all, this kind of round shield can really block the top but can't prevent the bottom. Of course, this round shield can also form a tortoiseshell formation, but this formation is a defensive posture. And what is lost is the mobility of the Macedonian phalanx itself as an advantage. It can be said that in the face of a considerable number of Qin officers and soldiers with a considerable number of crossbowmen, the commander of the Macedonian phalanx had to make a choice.

And this tortoiseshell-type defensive formation. In a sense, it is even more to expose the weakness of the Macedonian phalanx.

Although many people believe that it is difficult for the Macedonian phalanx to defend against the enemy attacking from behind and from the flanks, if it is a situation of fighting on the plains, even if the Macedonian phalanx has been deformed for a long time, or even enough to become a weak point in the combat period, it is undeniable that the Macedonian phalanx can still change its formation in the face of the surprise attack of the chariot troops one or two kilometers away. So in many cases, this weakness doesn't exist.

Of course. If a cavalry unit gets rid of or defeats the Macedonian cavalry force, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for this Macedonian phalanx force. After all, in terms of mobility, no matter how good the mobility of the Macedonian phalanx troops is, two legs cannot outperform four legs. Therefore, the weakness of this flank is more for highly mobile units with a certain long-range strike capability.

After all, even if these mounted archers could not make a head-on surprise attack on the Macedonian phalanx, as long as the commander of this mounted archery unit was not stupid. Having his troops go around the phalanx and then carry out mounted strikes was a very cruel reality for the Macedonian phalanx.

The Qin chariot units were also able to do the same, but it was difficult for the large chariot units to turn the formation in a short distance, and they could only sprint back and forth and then shoot on the flanks of the Macedonian phalanx.

On the configuration of the tank units of this period. There are also a lot of bows and crossbows, and a light chariot fighter, in many ways, can be regarded as an all-rounder, and can adapt to both near and far combat.

Therefore, as long as the commander can seize the fighter plane, the chariot troops of the Qin army can also give a certain amount of damage to the combatants of these Macedonian phalanxes.

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When Zhang Jiashi popularized the current heavy infantry units of the Qin army, he did not think about equipping his officers and soldiers with spears and phalanx shields. But when you think about it, spears really don't play an adequate role in melee combat. And after the reality that it was even more useless in the melee, Zhang Jiashi gave up such an idea.

After repelling this wave of Hun riders, the officers and men of the crossbow chariot unit seized the time to replenish the corresponding consumption of war materials.

After all, in terms of the defensive chariots on the periphery, the consumption of the Qin army's crossbowmen on the carriage was still very large. After all, they fire arrows much more often than many people.

This is another reason why Zhang Jiashi did not eliminate the tank troops. After all, chariot units can help carry some of the war materiel, and crossbow chariots, if used as horse-drawn carriages, can also transport a considerable amount of military rations or other smaller equipment.

This is also the reason why Zhang Jiashi conceived that if he had the opportunity to take the initiative to attack the Xiongnu in the future, the crossbow chariot unit would become a very important auxiliary combat unit.

After all, if you go deep into the desert and use the people who transport on foot to mobilize the transportation of materials, it is obviously a very stupid thing, Zhang Jiashi himself knows this very well, and compared to the lack of mobility on the grassland on the foot transport personnel, this mode of transportation is undoubtedly a force that the Huns can easily break, after all, in many ways, there are more such troops, and the corresponding pressure on the Great Qin Empire will also increase, and if there is less, the Huns can easily eliminate this kind of transport team.

Therefore, in terms of the idea of crossbow chariots, Zhang Jiashi believes that crossbow chariots can be used as a team that is not bad in mobility and has a certain ability to carry transportation, and should play a sufficient role in the battle of the Huns.

And this defensive formation is also considered by Zhang Jiashi based on the corresponding situation. After all, fighting on the steppe, it is very likely that you will suffer a large-scale attack by the Huns. The effect of this defensive formation, Zhang Jiashi is only God knows. However, in Zhang Jiashi's mind, this tactical arrangement can undoubtedly increase the survivability of the crossbow chariot unit in the case of transporting supplies alone.

In a sense, the use of mules and horses for transportation is not a completely good thing, because in many cases, the mules and horses of the transport team also need to consume a certain amount of corresponding materials, such as special food for mules and horses.

However, compared with the possible large-scale losses and the time required for the transportation of materials, Zhang Jiashi believes that the transportation of convoys led by crossbow chariots is necessary in many aspects.

The use of a crossbow chariot unit as a material transport team is not very efficient. After all, as a military combat vehicle, the crossbow chariot does not have enough advantages over ordinary horse-drawn chariots in many aspects, such as the number and weight of the items carried.

Therefore, in Zhang Jiashi's conception, this kind of transport fleet mainly adopts five or five or four or six points.

A five-five score is a one-to-one ratio between a crossbow chariot and an ordinary carriage, while a four-six score is a four-to-six ratio of numbers between a crossbow chariot and an ordinary carriage.

Such an idea has a certain tendency in Zhang Jiashi's heart. After all, although there is a slight difference in the proportion of the two, in many aspects, they take into account both safety and the number of transportation.

Besides, even when such a transport convoy transports materials on the grassland, Zhang Jiashi will still arrange a certain number of cavalry to escort it, after all, with the crossbow chariot and the accompanying escorts, Zhang Jiashi does not think that it can be so safe. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )