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Chapter 140: The Cavalry Problem (Part II)

As he gradually pacified the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, Zhang Jiashi had already begun to make small-scale production of stirrups, horseshoes, and saddles from Takahashi, three items that were of vital help to the cavalry. Pinshu.com

However, since relations with the Xiongnu did not completely deteriorate, in order to avoid some accidents, such as the leakage of these items to the Xiongnu, Zhang Jiashi did not carry out the corresponding cavalry development plan even if he carried out a small amount of production.

It was not until after the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty that Zhang Jiashi officially began to make relevant arrangements for the establishment and drills of these new cavalry.

It's just that there are some things, Zhang Jiashi is a little taken for granted, that is, even with the assistance of these three items, it may be much easier to train a passing cavalry without these three items, but more importantly, for a farmer, the difficulty of training a passing cavalry is always much greater than that of a nomad who has basically grown up on horseback.

......

The technology of horseshoe has already appeared in the Western Han Dynasty.

"The Treatise on Salt and Iron: Scattered Less than Twenty-Nine" has a description of this:

"The ancients, the princes do not have horses, the Son of Heaven has a life, and he grazes with chariots. The horse-riding man of the common man is enough to do the work for him. Therefore, the line is to serve the mast, and the stop is to plow. Today, the rich ride in a chariot and ride in a row. The micro is short and the hooves are fashionable. The husband and the horse are in charge, the food of the family of six, and the death of the man. ”

But this kind of horseshoe is very different from the horseshoe of later generations, which was invented by the Romans. The horseshoe during the Han Dynasty was more of an iron "riding boot".

According to historical records, horseshoe was first invented by the ancient Romans around the first century BC, and it was not widely used in the original region until the Yuan Dynasty. Horseshoe may sound very stiff and cold-blooded, but in ancient Rome there was a very casual and romantic name called "horse sandals". The appearance of the horse sandals is very playful, although it is made of iron, but the weight is quite light, the edge outline is wavy, and it is put on the horse's hooves, and the horse walks with a very elegant look. Listening to it from afar, the sound of "click" is very rhythmic. If you are traveling with a horse in a lot of pebblestone or rough mountainous terrain, a few "horse sandals" must have spikes to prevent the horse from slipping, which will keep the horse's hooves firmly on the ground.

The record of horseshoe in our country is about five generations. In the third year of Tianfu in the Later Jin Dynasty, Gao Juzhu, the judge of Zhangwu Jiedu, sent an envoy to Khotan, and began to enter the vast Gobi from Ganzhou, where the Uighur tent was stationed at that time. At this time, the people of Ganzhou taught them a technique, "teaching the Jin envoys to make horseshoe wood astringent, wood astringent four tricks, horse hooves are also chiseled and embellished with four tricks, and camel hooves are wrapped in yak skin." "Mu astringent" was the common name for the horseshoe of the northern people at that time. It can be seen that the Uighurs of Ganzhou, who were in the Hexi Corridor at that time, had already mastered the technique of nailing horses.

Horseshoes are very important for the longevity of a horse. Because the horse's hoof can greatly reduce the wear and tear of the horse's hooves, once the hooves of a horse are severely worn, then the horse is basically unable to run, which is very fatal for a cavalryman.

However, such a technique as a horseshoe did not require much demand, and even if Zhang Jiashi nailed the horseshoe of the newly formed cavalry troops, it was more of a secret arrangement.

......

In the cavalry formation, the highly mobile light assault cavalry became Zhang Jiashi's first choice.

The Turquoise Cavalry is a synonym for the Archer with some melee ability.

Like the Xiongnu archers, the Huns' cavalry was actually inferior to the better-equipped Han cavalry in close combat, and was stronger in cavalry than the Han archers.

And as a later generation believes, in order to develop cavalry, the most important thing is to have enough war horses.

However, in the current new cavalry troops, although the number of horses can be roughly one horse for each knight, if this point requires long-distance running, such a number is of little significance.

And the situation of the Han Dynasty also illustrates this:

The feudal dynasty, which was based on agriculture, always valued cattle more than horses, and due to the limitations of geographical conditions, the quantity and quality of horses produced in the original areas were difficult to compare with the nomadic areas in the north. The solution is to establish a national horse farm that can use national resources and strength, has an effective management system, and can adopt more advanced horse breeding technology. The garden horses and herd pastures in the history books are all national horse farms. It is designated by the state, and special funds are invested to breed horses, raise and train horses, and finally deploy horses to the army.

National horse farms are managed by a dedicated body, which is usually managed by senior officials appointed directly by the state. This national form of horse breeding has actually appeared since the Warring States period and tended to be perfected in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. In the second year of Emperor Jing, "the first garden horses were built to be widely used", and Emperor Wu "raised horses for the sake of cutting down Hu, and tens of thousands of horses were eaten in Chang'an, and those who were in charge were insufficient, so they were transferred to the nearby county." It can be seen that the strategy of the national horse farm is effective, and since then, it has been in the history of our country for a long time, and has gradually developed, becoming an important part of the horse politics of the past dynasties.

With good horses, there must also be well-trained knights. The army of the Han Dynasty was very good at selecting soldiers according to specific conditions, and the mountainous counties such as Sanhe, Yingchuan, Peijun, Huaiyang, Runan, and Bashu could choose personnel and officers; In the land south of the Jianghuai River, there are many waters, and you can choose to build boats; And "Tianshui, Longxi...... and Anding, Beidi, County, and Xihe, all of which are close to Rongdi, practice combat readiness, high strength, and give priority to hunting. "The people of this place are the choice of the elite cavalry. Even carefully selected soldiers are still subject to rigorous training. Huang Cuo Zeng Shu said: "Scholars do not choose to practice, pawns do not obey the practice, do not live well, do not collect movement and static, tend to the Richer, take refuge and do not finish, the front hit and the rear solution, and the fingers of the golden drum are lost, this is not the fault of the soldier, and it is not ten."

The ruling class of the Han Dynasty, which had won the world from horseback, had a clear understanding of the fact that it was impossible for the rabble to win the war, so it stipulated that "non-clergy are not allowed to enlist", and "clergy" should be "not allowed to answer the call if they are not accustomed to it." Therefore, the conscripts of the Han Dynasty have undergone strict training and have strong combat effectiveness.

Decades of recuperation and recuperation have enabled the Western Han Dynasty to achieve unprecedented national strength, and at the same time, it has also trained a powerful army. The national strategy of the Western Han Dynasty gradually shifted from defense to offense, and the cavalry, the most elite military force of the Han Dynasty, played an important role in the strategic counteroffensive. As early as a military campaign in the third year of the Han Emperor, "the border officials rode 85,000... At this time, the cavalry of the Han army had already begun to become a climate, and there were 80,000 cavalry on the border alone.

After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came to power, the Han Dynasty launched a long-term large-scale military attack on the Xiongnu, and the Han cavalry became the vanguard of the attack. In 133 B.C., the second year of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty set up a plan for Mayi: "More than 300,000 Han ambush soldiers and chariots and cavalry officers hid in the valley next to Mayi", and the Han cavalry participated in the prelude to the strategic counteroffensive of the Western Han Dynasty.

However, the Huns were not defeated by the Han cavalry, but more often by the Han army's fairly mature mixed formation.

Cavalry played a very important role in all the wars of the Western Han Dynasty.

The cavalry of the Western Han Dynasty was born in the flames of the Chu-Han War. Liu Bang, who was the king of Han at the time, led his troops to fight against the Chu army led by Xiang Yu. The Chu army under Xiang Yu's demon was dominated by cavalry, and its combat characteristics were to gather elite troops and attack quickly to achieve a quick victory. The Han army, which was dominated by infantry, was no match for the Chu army, which was mobile and powerful in attack. In the Battle of Pengcheng in 2 BC, "the five princes of the Han Dynasty, 560,000 people, went east to Chu." Xiang Wang Wenzhi...... With 30,000 elite soldiers, he went south from Lu to Huling...... to Pengcheng, the day, the Han army".

After this defeat, the Liu Han group was deeply aware of its serious shortcomings in cavalry construction. It's not too late to make amends, so "the king of Han is a soldier who can be a horseman...... It is to worship the infant as the doctor, and order Li Bi and Luo Jia to be the captains of the left and right, and the Lang cavalry will be attacked and ridden in the east of Rongyang, and it will be broken. Liu Bang, who had tasted the fruits of victory for the first time, paid more attention to the cavalry, not only paid attention to the equipment and training of his own cavalry, but also paid much more attention to the enemy's cavalry. In the autumn of the same year, Liu Bang ordered Han Xin, Cao Shen, and Guan Ying to attack Wei. Before the war, Liu Bang asked the name of the general, then the cavalry general, and then the infantry general. It can be seen that in Liu Bang's mind, the position of the cavalry is already before the infantry.

However, we must not ignore or even belittle the value of the existence of other arms because of this, and the view that cavalry can dominate the world is very biased. The ancients had a very clear understanding of this point, such as Huang mistakenly said about military affairs: "The ditch of Zhangwu, the water of the gradual car, the mountains and forests accumulate stones, through the Sichuan and Qiufu, where the wood is, the place of the infantry, the two chariots and horses are not one." The earth hills and hills, the Manyan belong, the plains and wilderness, the place where the chariot rides, the infantry is not one in ten." It can be seen that every branch of the armed forces has its place, and the key lies in adapting measures to local conditions and using them properly.

Xiahou Ying, a famous general in the early Han Dynasty, was famous all over the world for being good at car warfare. At first, Liu Bang "took the infant as the servant and often served the car", which was originally for the "Pei Gong Royal Car", and later the strength of the Liu Han Group rose, and he has been responsible for commanding the charioteers of the Han Dynasty, but he has rarely lost in his life. During the anti-Qin struggle, the history books recorded that Xiahou Ying "attacked the east of the Qin army, attacked Jiyang, went down to instigation, and broke Li Youjun's Yongqiu...... From the Zhangzhang Han Army Dong'a, Webbing Yangxia...... From the attack on Zhao Guijun Kaifeng, Yang Xiongjun met ...... From the east of the Qin army...... Because of the resumption of the chariot from the attack on Nanyang, the battle in Lantian and Zhiyang". The result of a long list of battles is only one sentence, "Attack the battle with the fun of the troop and break it". In the Battle of Pengcheng in the Chu-Han War, the Han army was broken by Xiang Yu, but soon after, Xiahou Ying "returned to the usual chariot and attacked Xiang Ji, chased him to Chen, and died in Chu." In 201 BC, the Han king Liu Bang had just ascended the throne and became emperor, and the Han and Hungarians fought against each other. Emperor Han Gao led the army to conquer in person, and Xiahou Ying still served as a servant to command the charioteers,"

Because of the attack on Han Xinjun, Hu rode next to Jinyang, and broke it. Chase north to Pingcheng, surrounded by Hu, seven days not to pass...... The re-ether servant struck Hu Qi's sentence note north, and it was broken. The ether servant attacked Hu Qiping in the south of the city, and trapped Chen three times, and the merit was many." The chariot representing the original agricultural Ming fought against the cavalry representing the northern nomadic Ming, and its record was three wins and one loss. From this point of view, the chariot may not be able to defeat the cavalry, and the chariot's eventual withdrawal from the stage of history is the result of the development of productive forces and social changes, and cannot be simply conclusive.

Although the exploits of the Han infantry seemed to have been overshadowed by the light of the cavalry in the wars of the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, the Han infantry had a wealth of combat experience. When Liu Bang rebelled, he relied on the infantry composed of 3,000 Pei County soldiers and 6,000 Yang County soldiers, and with the growth of Liu Han's power, he formed charioteers and cavalry. Even at the height of the Western Han Dynasty's national power, the feudal government could not equip every soldier with horses, and the precious war horses could only supply the most elite troops of the empire, so the infantry has always been the main force of the Han army. So, what was the combat effectiveness of the infantry of the Western Han Dynasty, and how did it perform on the battlefield? Take the battle of Li Ling as an example.

The common opinion is that Li Ling's army was completely destroyed by the Xiongnu siege shows that the Han infantry was not the opponent of the Xiongnu cavalry at all, but a careful analysis of the facts is not the case: Li Ling's army is also elite, "all Jingchu warriors are swordsmen, and they are strong and shoot tigers". The lone army encountered the Xiongnu, and the Hou Hou Shan Yu surrounded the Han army with several times the force, "riding 30,000 troops to encircle the tomb...... Seeing that the Han army was small, he went straight to the camp. Lingbo attacked it, and thousands of crossbows were fired, and they fell in response. The captives returned to the mountains, and the Han army pursued, killing thousands of people", the Han army was not easily defeated, but inflicted heavy losses on the Hun cavalry. Shan Yu was shocked, but gathered more troops, "summoned more than 80,000 cavalry soldiers to attack the mausoleum...... At that time, the Ling army was in a hurry, the Huns rode more, fought dozens of times a day, and killed more than 2,000 people...... The Ling army has no rear, and the arrows are exhausted."

It can be seen from this that the destruction of Li Ling's army was not due to the inadequacy of the Han infantry, but the number of Hun cavalry was more than ten times that of the Han army, and the disparity in strength was too great. When the Han army fought to the end, it was exhausted and had no backup, so it had to break through on its own, and only 400 people finally escaped from the Han.

In addition, the suspicion of the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty and the intrigue between the top brass of the army also contributed to the fall of Li Ling's army.

Li Ling's desperate battle of this lone army was also positively evaluated at the time, "Lingti's infantry is less than 5,000, the land of deep thorns and horses, suppressing tens of thousands of divisions, captives save the dead and help the wounded, and the people who draw bows are all besieged together...... Although the ancient famous generals are not enough". Even the Xiongnu also believed that "the Xiongnu cavalry alone could not destroy tens of thousands of cavalry against the Han Dynasty, and there was no way to make the border ministers again, so that the Han benefited the Xiongnu", this battle was very difficult for the Xiongnu cavalry but must be won, even if they won the battle, they also paid heavy casualties. This affirmation from the opponent is more indicative of the strength of the Han infantry.

However, the 5,000 troops under Li Ling were more like a cavalry infantry with a certain amount of equestrian ability than a simple infantry. Because from the perspective of the combat situation of the officers and soldiers under Li Ling's command, it is difficult for simple infantry to be able to move quickly under the interception and harassment of a large number of cavalry.

This can be attested to by the situation of the heavy infantry units of the Song army after Duanping entered Luo. It is true that the light cavalry and the archers do not have the ability to fight against the strict infantry formation, but the frontal hard fight does not mean that these cavalry cannot harass and intercept the infantry, once the infantry unit has a chaotic formation, then these cavalry can easily solve these chaotic infantry.

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