readx;???? Facing the flank impact of the Hun riders, Su Jiao naturally would not be at a loss when he had been prepared. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The rear knight unit under the command of Su Ling and Chen Heng has become the best combat power to snipe the enemy.

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In the confrontation on the battlefield, although the overall combat effectiveness of the Qin army is not necessarily inferior to that of the Huns, the Qin army, which is mostly infantry troops, is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of mobility.

In such a situation, once the battle array collapsed or was interspersed with attacks by the Huns to break through the defense system of the corresponding area, it would undoubtedly be a catastrophe for Su Jiao and the Qin officers and soldiers in this operation.

But in this case, the disadvantage of the Huns was even more obvious.

Because whether it is physical consumption or the corresponding level of supply, the Huns can be regarded as a big gap with the Qin army.

Many Hun riders had a great physical exertion, and even did not go through a certain amount of recovery and recuperation, and it was easy to fall behind in terms of combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the Huns relied most on the advantage of cavalry and archery, because the number of arrows they carried was very large, and many Hun riders had empty quivers on their horses after firing two or three arrows.

In such a situation, the number of riders of the Huns had a very big advantage over the partially lost knight troops of the Qin army under the command of Su Xuan and Chen Heng, but there is no doubt that in addition to the advantage in numbers, the Huns were almost completely at a disadvantage.

For the Huns, most of the Hun riders may not think this is a big difference, but soon, they will try to pay with their lives.

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Falling from the sky were several waves of arrows fired from the military formations of the flanks and external defenses, and many Hun riders paid a lot of casualties under the relatively dense rain of arrows.

But what made the Huns even more angry was that under the rain of arrows flying in the sky, thousands of Qin knights were also constantly on their mounts, riding their horses forward, bending their bows and arrows.

Many of the Hun riders had to be distracted by the rain of arrows that hit them in two directions, and many of the Hun riders threw away their relatively backward bows and crossbows, drew out their scimitars in their scabbards, and constantly fiddled with the arrows flying towards them.

But these Hun riders were often only able to use their blades to push away arrows in one direction, and before they could make another move, they would also insert one or several arrows from other directions, and after screaming, they were unable to stabilize their bodies on the war horses again because of the pain, and fell to the ground.

And the means of counterattack of the Hun riders, because the bows and crossbows they use are not as well-equipped as the standard of the Great Qin Empire, even if some Hun riders who are not afraid of death fight back against the danger of being shot, but what they can do to harm is not the infantry of the Qin army, but the knight troops of the Qin army who are closer to them and shoot again.

The bows and crossbows they were equipped with, whether in terms of range or power, were far behind the standard equipment of the Qin army.

In such a situation, the arrows fired by the Huns did far less damage to the Qin knights than the arrows fired by the Qin knights.

This is also because, compared with the archers and cavalry units of the Huns, most of the Qin knights under Zhang Jiashi have become a kind of light assault cavalry combining archers and light cavalry.

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The nomads were basically an all-cavalry force, especially archers. Because the personnel of a nomadic tribe are basically relatively skilled in arching horses.

Of course, this is not an exception, as far as the Mongols and Huns are concerned, once the corresponding foundation is established, many cavalry will become a kind of light cavalry to increase the use of armor.

Such a situation was more clearly reflected in the Huns after the annexation of Donghu and the expulsion of the Dayue clan.

Because the Huns in this period of history got more weapon production personnel and corresponding production workshops, which improved the production capacity of weapons and the corresponding equipment quality.

The large-scale popularization of light cavalry or light archers with a certain armor rate by the Mongols was mainly after the Mongols conquered most of the Jin Kingdom.

The assault cavalry developed by Zhang Jiashi during this period was mainly to improve the long-range strike capability of a large number of light cavalry units of the Great Qin Empire.

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The biggest gap between the archers and the light cavalry is the use of mounted archery techniques.

Basically, a cavalryman who knows how to mount and shoot can be considered an archer.

In the later generations of Zhang Jiashi, some scholars believed that the accuracy of mounted archery was affected by the movement of horses and the unevenness of the ground caused by bumps. Mounted archers will wait for their mounts to leave their feet off the ground before firing arrows to minimize the impact. On the other hand, since the arrow has a certain weight, the arrow will fly downwards after a short distance. Therefore, when an archer shoots an arrow into the sky, the arrow is usually at 45 degrees to the ground, so that the arrow flies in a parabolic line, and then hits the target vertically.

Riding archers in the savannah use their thumbs to pull strings. The archer's thumb is clasped on the bowstring to pull the string and shoot the arrow. Horsemen in the steppes usually pulled the strings up to their chests before loosening them, and Mongolian archers even pulled the strings to their ears to shoot their bows and arrows.

This is also the reason why the Mongols were able to shoot arrows farther than Western archers when facing Western archers, because Mongolian archery was mainly a projectile strike rather than a flat archery method.

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In fact, the traditional infantry powers were sometimes pale in their resistance to the nomadic archers' raids, which can be seen from the tactical changes of several traditional infantry powers:

On the side of the Roman Empire, steppe archers influenced the traditional tactics of the Roman army. The Roman army has always been dominated by infantry, and cavalry is mainly used for reconnaissance, dismounting and fighting the enemy during battle. The Sarmatians invaded the Roman Empire for the first time at the end of the first century BC, giving the Romans a glimpse of the fighting power of archers. The Roxolani also introduced the Romans to the hoplite cavalry that assisted the archers in battle. During the second century AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian made a revolutionary breakthrough for the Roman army by establishing the first Roman cavalry unit---- a heavy cavalry unit to assist the infantry against the steppe archers.

The constant invasion of steppe cavalry archers made the Roman emperor, who succeeded Hadrian, attach importance to the mobility of the army. They were determined to increase the proportion of cavalry in the legions. Cavalry was also more important in combat than before, as it was mostly used to hunt down fleeing enemies or to replenish the infantry, and cavalry took the lead in battle, weakening the enemy's cavalry so that the infantry could cope with them. The Roman Emperor Gallenus became the master of a large cavalry force, able to quickly reach the border and support the infantry defenders against the steppe archers.

On the Gothic side, steppe archers introduced cavalry to the Goths. The Goths were originally from Sweden, and they knew almost nothing about cavalry tactics due to their mountainous terrain and dense coniferous forests, which were not suitable for cavalry warfare. During the third century AD, the Goths migrated south and settled in Obia. After the Goths drove out the Armeans to the east, some of the Armeans stayed behind to teach the Goths cavalry tactics. The Goths put what they learned into practice and defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Adriatic in 378 AD. The Roman Emperor Valence at the time. He led 40,000 infantry and light cavalry to attack the main camp of the Goths. His army was unable to withstand the onslaught of the Gothic heavy cavalry and was completely routed, with about 30,000 dead after the battle, including the Roman Emperor Valens.

On the Byzantine side, the Byzantine Empire was often afflicted by steppe nomads such as the Yavars and Bolgars. To fight the steppe archers, the army of the Byzantine Empire was centered on heavy cavalry. The heavy cavalry wore iron spired helmets, chain mail that covered the neck to the knees, metal gauntlets on their hands, and iron shoes on their feet. In addition to cavalry guns, they were also armed with bows and arrows. The Yavars used iron stirrups on a large scale and plundered the Byzantine Empire and Europe many times, introducing skeletal saddles and iron stirrups to the Western world. In addition, the Yavars used manual trebuchets originating in China to conquer cities, which the Byzantine Empire then used for its own purposes.

Not only that, but the archer is highly mobile, and tactics are closely related to mobility, and the archer is good at escaping, raiding, and archery. They usually attack from a distance and then retreat with speed without a trace until they are sure that they can defeat the enemy before attacking them on a large scale. In addition to this, due to the high galloping speed of the horses, the archers were able to quickly change formations on the battlefield and surround the enemy army. Under such a premise, the archers can even affect the outcome of a key battle in many cases:

In order to punish the Scythians for plundering in the territory of the Persian Empire, Darius I led a large army to the northern part of the Black Sea to attack the Scythians. Sthasia knew that the Persian army was far superior to his own, and planned never to fight against it. Scythia's archers simply shot the Persian soldiers at a distance, and the Persian army scattered and fled as soon as they pursued him.

The two armies pursued, and the Persian army kept fighting, but they could not get close to them. Darius I sent a letter to King Cessia to mock him for his cowering, but Scythia's archers remained the same, and they fought and retreated. Darius I understood that the Persian army lacked the motivation to catch up with the Secynian archers, and even more so, the series of small attacks by the Secian archers had caused heavy casualties and demoralization of the Persian army. So he took advantage of the cover of night and led the army to retreat at night.

At the Battle of Karare in ancient Syria, the Parthian army defeated the Roman army using typical steppe archer tactics. The Parthian army understood that the Roman infantry was skilled in hand-to-hand combat, so they planned to take advantage of the long-range attack of the quasi-solitary side at first, using bows and arrows to weaken the Roman army, and then lure the enemy deeper, and cooperate with the heavy cavalry in advance to destroy the Roman army in one fell swoop.

When the two armies met, the Roman general Crassus ordered the light infantry to charge, and the Parthian archers avoided hand-to-hand combat with the able-bodied Roman infantry and retreated to the left and right. The archers fled and shot at the Roman infantry, and the returning arrows inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman infantry, who were only lightly armoured.

Crassus was oblivious to the tactics of the steppe archers, and wanted to end the battle as quickly as possible in order to reduce casualties. He sent his son Publius to pursue the Parthian army with eight Roman infantry battalions, 500 archers, and 1,300 Gallic cavalry. Publius' troops pursued the Parthian archers, when suddenly the heavy cavalry of the Parthian army appeared in front of the Romans. On the other hand, the escaped archers returned, surrounding the Roman legions. The heavy cavalry charged the Romans, and with the archers from all sides firing arrows in the distance, Publius' troops were immediately defeated.

Cornered, Publius led the rest of his army to retreat to the hills, where he was killed himself. Publius's troops were reduced to only five hundred men, all of whom became prisoners. Crassus led his troops to his aid, and the Parthian army showed the head of Publius, causing the Romans to lose their fighting spirit in an instant. Crassus was killed in a fierce battle, and the rest fled in the darkness. Crassus' army originally numbered 43,000 men, but only 10,000 survived after the Battle of Carré.

The above two battles can be said to be successful examples of archers' tactics.

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Of course, although the archers have several advantages of mobility and a wide range of strikes, the disadvantages are also very obvious.

The defense of the archers is generally poor, especially in the case of the steppe cavalry, and in many cases, the nomads who do not have enough leather armor can only wear a leather suit to fight.

At the same time, the cavalry archers were less effective in melee combat than the light cavalry, as the cavalry were rarely equipped with heavy weapons and were even more deficient in melee combat due to their weakness in defense.

This is also mentioned in the corresponding accounts of the East and the West.

In the Western War of Medicine and Water, Alexander the Great seized the shortcomings of this one cavalry archer and successfully defeated this kind of enemy that caused headaches for infantry-based troops:

When Alexander the Great and part of his army reached the banks of the river to the north, he commanded a regiment of Greek mercenary cavalry and four groups of Macedonian pikemen to attack the enemy. The cythian archers used typical steppe archer tactics, and they immediately scattered in all directions, dodging cavalry and spearmen, and then surrounding and shooting them. Alexander the Great then led his army to attack the Scythian archers at full speed, forcing them to abandon the encirclement and return to a linear formation. He then ordered the light cavalry to attack the opponent's flank, while he himself led the main cavalry to attack in the front. The Scythian archers were counter-surrounded and forced into hand-to-hand combat. They were defeated in a battle, and the remaining thousand were killed.

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And this is also the fundamental reason why Zhang Jiashi, after thinking for a long time, decided to develop assault cavalry, a new type of combat force composed of light cavalry and archers.