Contrary to the perception of ordinary people, horses, which still require a lot of manpower and material resources to be domesticated until now, were used on the battlefield for the first time, not as independent single cavalry, but through a knapsack wooden structure, connected by several war horses pulling a chariot to fight. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the ancient past, the most important criterion for judging a country's military strength was the number of such chariots pulled by horses, compact and simple chariots, in addition to the crew on the top, usually equipped with fixed spears, scimitars and defensive shields and other equipment in several directions, and hundreds or thousands of such chariots were completely powerless to stop even the enemy infantry that was several times or even more than ten times their own when charging in groups in areas such as the plains.

The army in the open area, the collision between the major empires and major city-states in ancient times, is a picture full of courage, and as the peak of the army's combat power in that era, the power of the chariot can be said to be terrifying.

The fact that humans tamed horses and used them as a means of transportation can be traced back to the tribal settlement period when few written records were left 10,000 years ago, and some of the mineral pigment paintings remaining on the stone walls and the ancient clay tablets that have survived to this day often have pictures of humans riding horses or leading horses, no matter how far apart they are, as long as the spark of civilization bursts out, then human choices are similar.

Choose domesticated animals that are of moderate size and easy to handle, choose weapons and armor to craft, and even the structure of the city-state and all kinds of supporting facilities. The history of taming horses is so old that in the earliest days it was common to use them as a tool for riding rather than pulling a cart - because making a carriage required a lot of carpenter's skill and knowledge of workmanship, and in the less productive times, it was easier to ride directly.

But then again, since the evolution of the tools used by human beings has always followed the stages of history, what reason led the first people to abandon direct horseback combat and instead use the more bulky and inflexible carriage, which could only be used on plain terrain, and the combat effectiveness of which would be severely reduced once it encountered a rough road, instead of riding directly?

The answer is a gadget that people are all too familiar with today - stirrups.

It may be difficult for those who have no riding experience to understand, but a horse is a living thing, and it is not a chair that sits on a level floor. The comfort on the back of a sporty horse is very poor, which is why the first lesson every knight on horseback, whether it is Sivalier or Avenella, is to master balance.

As a foothold for the feet, the stirrup was invented to allow people to stand up on horseback and control the posture of the body with their legs, rather than just passively staying in the saddle. In the early days when there were no stirrups, horses were used as a means of transportation or carrying supplies, and when it was necessary to sprint or control the horses to stand up in battle.

Unless you hold the reins tightly with your hands, you are bound to fall off your horse's back.

Unable to grasp one's posture on the horse, in addition to being killed by someone who has no foothold, the accuracy and strength of the swing that can only rely on the arm are greatly weakened - even the spear and other stabbing weapons that do not need to be slashed often cannot hit the target accurately because they do not have stirrups when the horse is moving.

The existence of anything in history has its own meaning, and the same is true of the bulky and sluggish chariots that are ridiculed by the Sivalier hoplites today. Although many who did not like the Lamanites openly told the right nonsense and ridiculed the Imperial army as vulnerable to the knights of the present day of Sivaliers, and were proud of their heavy cavalry, all historians know that the West Valiers, despite their claim to be a nation of knights, were not the first people to invent the cavalry.

In the far south, in the steppes of Absera, there is a group of nomads who have lived with war horses all their lives. Together with the stirrups, the archers were born nearly a thousand years ago, and they are still the most important fighting force on this continent.

The exact historical origin is unknown, and some scholars have speculated that it may be related to the variety of animals that were extremely good at running in the savannah—a theory supported by much evidence, such as that in the mountain states of Avenella, hunters usually hunted in the forests or plains, and that they used larger longbows when they went on foot, while the nomads of the far south usually carried short bows that were more suitable for use on horses.

It was impossible for man to catch up with his prey, so he had to ride a horse, and the bow had to be made short and powerful for ease of use when riding, but even then it was impossible to shoot accurately because of the lack of a foothold, so stirrups were invented as hunting tools.

Over time, this convenient invention became more and more popular, and through conquest and subjugation, killing and looting, it spread all over the world, but no matter how it was the most feared light cavalry in the world, the archers of the steppe nomads, it is still terrifying to this day.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing about it is not simply the strength of a military class, but the implication behind it, these nomadic peoples who still retain their primitive social structures in the form of tribes, and are called barbarians by the major sedentary peoples.

The fact that all people are soldiers.

Even if it is a little girl, she can skillfully turn over her horse and stretch her bow and arrow, unlike the old and weak women and children of the "civilized society" who hide in the stone castle can only hold their heads and cry and tremble when they encounter war, every steppe person, as long as they take a weapon and bring their beloved war horse, they will become a great warrior.

......

Tension hung in everyone's minds, and as they watched from afar the smoke rising from the horizon in front of them into the sky, they realized that the purpose of the trip was to find the steppe nomads, and that the goal was close to being achieved after nearly two weeks. This alone is not much of a surprise, because although the grasslands are large, the resources that can supply an entire tribe are not everywhere.

The rain clouds encountered a few days ago can be regarded as a general direction for them, after all, the water consumption of nomadic people and animals is quite large, although most of the Absela savannah in the rainy season will appear temporary wetlands, but it is also those places that originally have a topographic drop or even a dry river valley, and it is easier to gather small lakes or rivers that can exist for a long time.

The two scouts who were the guides decided to move in this direction with some trepidation from the group, especially those who knew little about it, the real native steppe people in the south were as disgraced as Thoradin's reputation, so they went straight to the land where they knew that a large number of steppe tribes were likely to appear, and to them they seemed like sheep in the mouth of a tiger.

But if you know a little about the unique style of this vast and sunny land, you will probably scoff at it.

Humans are always good at speculating about other people or peoples with prejudice and stereotypes, just as the people of the south often talk about how incredible it seems to them that the brave men of the steppe will get fresh meat from the mouths of lions enjoying their food, and those who do not know the customs of these people often regard them as beasts of prey, and contact with them is naturally no different from the lion's mouth.

It is true that the customs of the steppes are very different from those of the so-called civilized society, and it is quite normal to start bloodsheds at the slightest disagreement, but in some respects they are in fact more pure and simple than any of the people of the West Coast or the South, even the Padrosi and Ottolos.

As mentioned above, the kind of lion's mouth that seems inconceivable to the incomprehensible person is actually a set of rules and regulations that have been accumulated over a long period of time - the time is chosen when the lion is half-fed and not hungry, and the prey is not greedy, but cuts some off and leaves immediately, leaving a lot of remnants - the best time to contact and even trade with the steppe nomads is also this rainy season when they seem to be extremely dangerous to gather on a large scale.

They are also human beings, and although all of them are soldiers and all of them are quite skilled in horsemanship and archery, the steppe people are not invincible gods of war, and they will still shed blood and die. Therefore, every plundering of the sedentary peoples by the steppe people actually occurs in the dry season when there is a shortage of materials, unlike the fierce and vicious as preached by the White Church, as long as they see people, they will go up to plunder and kill, the steppe people cherish the members of their tribe quite much, and only when the materials are scarce and cannot rely on grazing to support themselves, they will choose to attack and survive by plunder.

In this alone, it is much better than the insatiable people of some "civilized society". Humans have always been good at taking their own values for granted, and if all the West Coasters were as simple as the prairie people, perhaps no one would believe what the White Church preached.

After all, it is appropriate to choose this time of year, as most of the steppe people are busy grazing cattle, horses and sheep during the rainy season, so although the settlements seem much larger than usual, they are much less aggressive.

Still, they can't be considered how friendly they would be with civilized society. The pain of years of strife is equal for both sides, and it is not easy to get these people to accept the existence of outsiders or even trade without bitter hatred, and there are independent rules here, and it is only impossible to gain a voice through dialogue and the suppression of nobility in regions such as the West Coast and the South.

In fact, as for the southern border and even the western coast of the Soladin Heights, the sedentary peoples have been interested in the stable life of the settled peoples, since they began to have contact hundreds of years ago, they have long known that the early nomads also tried to interact with this side and obtain such a life through peaceful means, but due to the forcible interference of the White Church in their primitive totemic beliefs, coupled with the incompatibility of national character and cultural customs, the contradictions caused by friction eventually heated up, which further led to the stalemate and hostility of today。

Whether it's to preserve their traditional culture and way of life, or for a range of other complex reasons, the steppe people are instinctively wary and repulsive about people from sedentary peoples, major kingdoms, empires, and city-states - which further makes it difficult for the team to accomplish the next step of the trip.

"Shh Apparently it is all the more strange that the nomads, who were the first to invent the cavalry, and who knew everything with their horses, did not set up a cordon around the camp or anything like that.

"Wave the flag, quick, wave the flag!" said Mira, who had been wondering how to convey their goal to the steppe people even if they had been in trouble for two weeks, and after more than a month of studying hard and spending more than a month with the Southerners, she was now able to understand the language they spoke—and following the merchant's words, the question that the girl had been wondering about before about how they would convey their goal to the steppe people was finally resolved.

One of the scouts, a seasoned mercenary, took out two flags and danced vigorously, one of which was half blue and half green, which was supposed to represent peace, and the other was a leather flag with a white goat's head painted on a black background, which looked like a gift from a tribe in the past.

The two steppe archer sentries on the opposite side stopped at a distance, they did not come, they should be observing. Several nervous Soladin mercenaries drew their longbows and tried to aim their arrows at each other, but this overtly hostile behavior would only lead to a complete failure of the trip, so some others, including Henry, hurried to stop them.

The two archers stood there for a moment, then exchanged their heads at a distance, and then they both turned and ran towards the smoke behind them. The mercenaries who were about to stretch their bows and arrows were relieved, but the others who knew more about it knew that the real test had just begun.

Despite the blue-green flags, which symbolize the abundance of water and grass in the rainy season, as a symbol of peace and trade, and the identification given by past tribal leaders, the means they can use to communicate with the steppe people are in fact extremely scarce. The nature of the nomads doomed them to be difficult to find, although there is a general direction, but the Abu Sera steppe is vast, there are more than three hundred tribes of all sizes, and they can only bet that the tribe that has traded or the people who know that tribe can be located in this low-lying basin area at this moment.

"Melee hands ready, shields too, everyone lowered their bodies to find cover. As one of the scouts, the mercenary who had waved the flag before was about fifty years old, his hooked nose revealing some steppe blood, and with his gray beard and deep turquoise pupils, he looked quite stable and reliable.

"At worst, I hope it's not a hostile tribe,......" muttered a mercenary under the command of Felex next to him, and the time spent waiting made it feel like a year. After about forty minutes that seemed like hours, the sound of horses' hooves galloping could be heard on the distant horizon.

"Lower your body, hold your shield!" the scout shouted, but the next second the men appeared where the two archers in front of them were, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Whew-whew-"

A cavalry team that appeared on the opposite side was dressed differently than before, and the leader was also trying to wave two flags that were exactly the same as those on this side.

"What a stroke of luck...... "The white-bearded scout let out a long sigh, as did the rest of the group. (To be continued.) )