The Northern and Southern Dynasties were the most golden era of armored cavalry in Chinese history.

Why is this happening? In fact, it is related to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

(1) The Eastern Han Dynasty was very fond of equipment and armored riding.

In the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were more than 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry under the tent of Wu Han, who repeatedly charged into battle, called "assault cavalry".

Of course, there were more than 3,000 cavalry under Liu Xiu's account, but the main source was Youzhou.

In Youzhou, the Hu and Han people began to learn the routines of the Central Plains hand-to-hand cavalry, and the Han people also learned to ride horses and shoot arrows in large numbers, blending with each other, and became the main source of Liu Xiu's cavalry.

After the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Youzhou Tuqi was moved south to Luoyang.

At this time, there were two assault cavalry troops in Luoyang, one of which was the Wuhuan cavalry under the command of Captain Changshui, and the other was the Youzhou cavalry under the command of Captain Tuncai, which was composed of:

There are 128 officers and 700 leaders in the Tun Cavalry Captain Battalion - the source of soldiers is Youzhou, and Hu and Han have it.

The Changshui Lieutenant Battalion has 57 officers and 720 Wuhuan Hu cavalry.

At that time, there were a total of 3,526 soldiers under the accounts of the five schools of the Northern Army, and there were 1,420 cavalry troops, which was quite high, almost 40%.

Outside of Luoyang, there is a Youzhou Raid in the important town of Liyang, the number of which is unknown, and the probability is similar to that of Tun Cavalry and Changshui, seven or eight hundred riders.

In addition to these three, there are also some assault horses in the Eastern Han border counties, and the number of individual counties is relatively small, but the total number is quite large.

There is actually a grade difference between these parts.

Generally speaking, the Eastern Han government selected elites from the border county cavalry to supplement the Liyang battalion.

The Liyang battalion often participated in external wars and suppressed internal rebellions, and its elite brave men were added to the army under the command of the Tun Cavalry Captain.

Attached to the brave people of the Hu tribe, directly into the Changshui camp.

And because Wuhuan rebelled from time to time, the status of the Liyang Battalion and the Tun Cavalry Battalion, with Youzhou natives as soldiers, is very important, because the soldiers of this army are not necessarily Hu people, but "Youzhou natives" - they may be Han or Hu.

For example, Deng Xun once camped Liyang into a fox slave to quell the Wuhuan rebellion, and finally succeeded in being promoted to the captain of Wuhuan.

Some people may ask, the cavalry establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty is too small, the forbidden army + Liyang battalion is only more than 2,000 cavalry, the scale of the border county cavalry is larger than this, and the Hu cavalry is often tens of thousands, are people stupid? Why not rebel?

Very simply, after Liu Xiu founded the country, he equipped the turf horse.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty tomb unearthed in Shilipu, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, there is a picture of elite armored cavalry attacking lightly armed sword and shield infantry.

In addition, in the portrait stone of the Eastern Han Dynasty water and land offensive unearthed in Jiaxiang, Shandong, there are many scenes of sword and shield infantry attacking armored horses holding long weapons.

In the Hebo travel map unearthed from the Han Tomb of Wangzhuang in Nanyang, Henan, Hebo's attendants either carry swords and shields on foot, or ride "fish", and then look at its equipment, it is completely armored "fish" - in fact, the fish is replaced by a horse.

Armoured cavalry belongs to heavy cavalry, but heavy cavalry is not just armored cavalry.

Men and horses are dressed in armor, which is called armored cavalry, which is a high-level version of heavy cavalry.

People wearing armor, horses without armor, can only be called heavy cavalry, is an ordinary version.

There is a gap in the combat effectiveness of the two.

The Eastern Han Dynasty relied on this set, and it still played for a long time.

As soon as something happens, they will dispatch armored cavalry, requisition and dispatch cavalry of subject countries, plus infantry from the Central Plains, to quell chaos everywhere.

The regular army of the Eastern Han Dynasty was really pitiful, and it was completely an elite route, because the expenditure was small.

(2) The end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Cao Wei period

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the way of selecting elites from border counties into the Liyang battalion, and then selecting people from the Liyang battalion to join the Tun cavalry camp was not very smooth. However, the quality of those who have lived in the rich land of the Central Plains all the year round has greatly declined, and some people have even taken advantage of their privileges to start doing business, and their combat effectiveness has plummeted.

During the time of the Second Emperor Huan Ling, there was still a matter of buying and selling the military quota of the forbidden army, and the troops that had made great achievements such as the Fifth Colonel of the Northern Army and the Liyang Battalion became a miasma.

The Eastern Han Dynasty was not without its efforts.

For example, recruit newcomers from Youzhou to go south to supplement the Tunqi and Liyang Second Battalion.

At this time, the Changshui camp was also flooded with a large number of Xianbei people, replacing the previous Wuhuan people.

I don't know why, it may be because the combat effectiveness of the Xianbei people exceeded that of the Wuhuan people during this period, and the Eastern Han Dynasty court was not willing to use Wuhuan relations anymore.

Another reason may be that the Eastern Han Dynasty used to levy Wuhuan people for free, but not by the time of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty.

However, the proportion of Wuhuan people decreased, but the proportion of Han cavalry decreased even lower.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the largest number of turquoise cavalry were the Xianbei people, followed by the Wuhuan people, and then the Han people.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were even slightly more Han people than Wuhuan people.

The Eastern Han Dynasty summed it up very well: "Han Lord Hu Fu", "Han Hu Equally Important", "Hu Heavy Han Light", corresponding to different historical periods of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that because the Xianbei people entered the forbidden army as soldiers in large numbers, they themselves mixed with the Youzhou people - Youzhou is an important source of soldiers for the forbidden army and the Liyang battalion - they began to practice a large number of Central Plains tactics, that is, using halberds and spears as horse combat weapons, which is an important symbol that distinguishes them from other tribes.

After the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the north was unified by Cao Cao.

Cao Cao received the three counties of Wuhuan, thinking that he was famous in the world.

This three-county Wuhuan was a subordinate cavalry of the Youzhou Turquoise Cavalry in the Eastern Han Dynasty, that is, a servant army, and its combat effectiveness was actually average.

It is worth mentioning that Cao Cao did not choose the military name "Turf", which may be a bit taboo, after all, this is Liu Xiu's glorious army.

During this period, including after the establishment of Cao Wei, the second lieutenant of Tun Cai and Changshui was already the commander of the light pole, which became an honorary position and did not lead the army.

After all, the Cao family is not stupid, especially during the Cao Cao period, if the second lieutenant of Tuncai and Changshui continue to lead the troops, and restore the establishment of the Youzhou Turquoise, it will make people have strange associations - Sanxing Han Chamber?

On an extra note, when Zhao Yun defected to Liu Bei, he brought hundreds of cavalry, and Liu Bei asked him not to publicize it, and not to let Yuan Shao know. These hundreds of cavalry may have come from the troops of the Turks' hometown (Youzhou), and maybe they were the remnants of Gongsun Zhan - "Hundreds of people were recruited by the secret dispatch Yunhe", "all called General Liu Zuo's troops", "Shao can't know".

As for whether Liu Bei has the ability to make equipment for these people and make them powerful shock cavalry, it is difficult to say, at least not at that time.

(3) Western Jin Dynasty

After Sima usurped Wei, in response to the policy of the Cao Wei period, he came to "set things right".

The establishment of the Youzhou Raiders was restored, called "Youzhou Raiders", and it was fully equipped.

The Book of Jin directly records the emperor's travel: ten teams of horses, each team of fifty horses. One person, one person holding the building, one person in the sheath, and riding in front, one person in charge of the war, and riding behind, the Yulin Riding Governor, and the Youzhou Turquoise Cavalry Governor divided it.

At that time, the Youzhou Turquoise was not a separate army, but was divided into five divisions, one with 250 people, and a total of 1,250 armored cavalry.

Moreover, the Western Jin Dynasty was not taboo to recruit troops from Youzhou.

The main soldiers of Youzhou Tucai Governor were mainly Han, Xianbei and Wuhuan in Youzhou, and by the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Xianbei people had become the mainstream.

(4) Eastern Jin Dynasty

Some readers may wonder where did the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Northern Dynasties fight and often hedge with cavalry?

If you can still open up a lot of horse breeding land in the south, then where does the tradition of riding and warfare come from?

Without the tradition of cavalry warfare, the mass base of those who are familiar with cavalry warfare is not large, and it is even more difficult to recruit excellent cavalry.

It's actually quite simple.

When Liu Xiu founded the country, he moved the family members of Youzhou Tuqi to the south, some of them were in Luoyang, and some of them were scattered to Nanyang and Yingchuan.

Occasionally, when supplementing the Forbidden Army and the Liyang Battalion Commando Cavalry, people will also be selected from these two places.

In this book, it was mentioned that someone in Yingchuan and Nanyang bought horses from Shao thief, didn't anyone think it was strange at that time?

The book mentions how many cavalry the Yingchuan Shi clan has gathered, and Xun Jian also brought a lot of cavalry when he saw Shao Thief for the first time, so no one mentioned why the Yingchuan Shi clan could organize so many cavalry?

Actually, that's why.

The source of the famous Huaiying Turquoise Cavalry of the Southern Dynasty is these places.

When the clothes crossed to the south, the scholars of Yingchuan, Nanyang and nearby counties went south and took a large number of private soldiers with them, and these people had a certain cavalry tradition, because they were all descendants of Youzhou Tucai who Liu Xiu moved over.

However, the Huaiying Raid was not so strong in combat effectiveness during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and it could not be compared with the genuine Youzhou Raid.

Liu Yu was not very satisfied, and after defeating Nanyan, a large number of Xianbei cavalry were recruited to form the "Xianbei Tabby Assault Cavalry".

When Shi Le killed Wang Jun, he once scolded him: "The throne of the crown of Yuantai, the lord of the prince, according to the country of the mighty capital, across the hometown of the whole Yan Tuqi, holding strong soldiers, sitting and watching the overthrow of the Beijing Division, not to save the Son of Heaven, but to self-esteem." ”

Look, Shi Le knows the reputation of the Youzhou Tuqi.

But the assault cavalry of the Central Forbidden Army is mostly Xianbei, and the Youzhou Assault Cavalry is just a vain name at this time, perhaps-the Youzhou Assault Cavalry here mainly refers to the Xianbei people who live in Youzhou.

In the second half of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the north entered the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms.

This period was the era when armored cavalry began to develop greatly.

Because of the regime established by the Hu people, they naturally had the advantage of cavalry.

Another point is that from the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, to Liu Han, Former Zhao, Later Zhao and Xianbei Zhuyan, the infantry are very vegetable, and they are often finished by the cavalry.

When Murong De attacked Qingxu, he boasted to Pi Luhun: "The governor of Yuanrong is 120,000, all of them are Wuhuan Raiders, and the warriors of the Three Rivers." ”

This must be an exaggeration, but Murong De, a remnant of Xianbei Houyan, also had a bunch of armored horses under his command, which shows that it was very popular at that time.

The Xianbei people are very fond of armored riding. Before entering the Central Plains, Wang Jun rewarded them with a large number of horse armor.

In other words, during the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, Duan Xianbei was already able to form hundreds, one or two thousand armored cavalry.

Throughout the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the number of armored cavalry gradually increased, the armor became thicker and thicker, and the horse lance became thicker and thicker, almost like an arms race.

By the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the armored cavalry reached its peak and became a well-deserved core of the army.

In the Northern Dynasties, for example, the cavalry of the tribe was armored cavalry, and the cavalry of other tribes was used as light cavalry or infantry.

In 450, Yuanjia Northern Expedition, Liu Yuanjing and Xue An both attacked Hongnong, defeated the cavalry of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and captured more than 2,000 infantry, who were supposed to be killed, but later these people cried: "Riding and stepping on foot, die before fighting." ”

That is, the Northern Wei Dynasty used armored cavalry to supervise the battle, forcing the infantry to die.

What was the composition of the Northern Wei army like at that time? Tuoba Xianbei's "Desert Assault Horse", plus the "Xianxia Warrior" composed of other Hu and Han people.

Matching the armored riding status, the lance is becoming more and more perverted.

Chen Liugong's pious horse lance is famous for its long size and heavy weight, and "the lance is different".

Tuoba Qian once put his lance on the ground, and the enemy soldiers could not pull it out.

In the later period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, He Batsheng pursued Gao Huan, because the lance was too heavy and had to be held in both hands, so he did not bring a bow and arrow, so Gao Huan ran away, regretting it.

During the Xiao Liang period, Shaofu made a two-edged lance, which was 5.88 meters long and more than 0.1 meters in diameter.

Yang Kan "holds the lance on the horse, stabs left and right, and does his best".

This lance also has the reputation of folding the tree lance, that is, when the sheep is riding a horse and dancing the lance, the power is too amazing, and others are so frightened that they climb the tree, because there are too many people, and the branches are broken.

Why do you want to engage in such a perverted horse lance?

Because the armoured horses were getting taller and taller, and the armor was getting thicker, they had to do it as a last resort.

But this is also the culmination of the glory of the armored cavalry.

Later, in the war, it was found that it was better to reduce the weight of the armor, reduce the weight of the horse lance, and improve the mobility than to simply stack the armor.

There is a balance to everything.

It turned out to be too extreme and undesirable.

This can be reflected in a battle in Xue Andu.

In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Xue Andu took off his armor, improved his mobility, and then played the iron cans of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

However, at this time, it was only a sign of appearing, and it did not attract widespread attention.

When the respective infantry was also trained, especially when the armored cavalry could not rush the infantry, people realized that it was time to stop.

As a result, the armored cavalry not only began to be lighter, but also greatly reduced in size.

At the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui Dynasty may still have a bit of a remnant of the atmosphere, and the Sui Dynasty retained the establishment of more than 5,000 armored cavalry.

By the Tang Dynasty, the scale of armored cavalry was further reduced, and at most it was in the early 3,000s.

I don't remember how much it was in the Northern Song Dynasty, it should be less than the Tang Dynasty.

However, at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the armored cavalry actually came to a "Renaissance".

At a time when everyone didn't play much with this type of army and the establishment was greatly reduced, the Jin army fell in love with this thing, thinking that it was the main force in the battle, and it often succeeded.

It has to be said that sometimes history is a cycle.

Finally, let's talk about the cavalry raid in the previous chapter.

I have found that many people judge a thing and lack "middle thinking".

What is the middle thinking, that is, everything is not black and white, most of the time it is gray, and it is not in an extreme state, but in an intermediate state.

People with diode thinking either think that the ancient army was super well organized and strong, or they devalue the ancient army to worthless, saying that modern middle school students can easily defeat the ancient army if they train into an army.

It's extreme.

The organization and strength of the ancient army were in the middle of these two cognitions, and there were great differences between the different armies of the previous dynasties or each dynasty.

Why do you think it's a difficult thing for the cavalry to advance in waves? Do you think too little about the organization of the ancients?

The Tang Dynasty often sent a small number of troops from the Central Plains, and after arriving at the border, they temporarily conscripted Turkic, Sogdian, Uighur, Khitan and other Zahu tribes to cooperate in the war.

And the internal composition of the Tang army that was sent out was not necessarily all Han Chinese, but all ethnic groups.

In this kind of mixed troops, the Tang army accounted for a minority, and the miscellaneous Hu of various ethnic groups accounted for the majority, most of the people did not understand the language, and the races were not necessarily the same, they were still temporarily requisitioned, they had not cooperated, they were not familiar with each other, and they could pursue them for thousands of miles.

In addition, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, the forbidden army rode to the border, requisitioned the county cavalry, and then conscripted the Wuhuan, Xiongnu, Xianbei and other tribal soldiers to go to the grassland together, and fought for a long time, all of which were temporarily grouped.

Do you think too low of the ancients?

The troops attacked by the Shao thieves were 2,500 in the Volunteer Army, 1,300-1,400 in the Xiao Cavalry Army, 2,000 in the Liangzhou Army, 300+ of their own soldiers, and 300 Wuhuan in the Beggar Army.

The Volunteer Army is its own economic army, the Xiao Cavalry Army is the forbidden army, and the Liangzhou Army is the regular army of Liangzhou, all of which are perennial wars and frequently trained troops, advancing in batches, what do you think you want Zenith Star organization?

Steppe tribes can play.

There are often steppe khans who go south, first fighting the tribes that are attached to the Central Plains, and then coercing them to go south together, also advancing in batches, and also dividing troops into multiple routes to cooperate with each other.

Do you think that these people who have been fighting wars all year round are too incompetent?

The thing that really reduces the degree of organization is that the chief officer, in order to prevent the tail of the people below from falling out, scatters all the soldiers, and then randomly arranges them into a new battalion, so that the junior officers are not familiar with each other, and the officers are not familiar with each other.

Like this, the original unit is retained, the grassroots organization does not move, and they are still familiar with each other, but it is just a matter of communication between superior officers, do you think they are not competent?

How could there be such a strange idea?