I published a single chapter about cavalry before, and the response was very enthusiastic. Previously, due to limited space, I wrote it briefly, so I will explain it in detail, starting with the Eastern Han Dynasty.
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The invention and equipment of the Gaoqiao saddle during the Eastern Han Dynasty greatly enhanced the frontal charge capability of the cavalry, and quickly replaced the chariot unit as the main force of the charge.
It was precisely the invention of these new cavalry equipment that enhanced the advantages of the prairie cavalry archers. During the Western Han Dynasty, the advantages of the Central Plains cavalry that had traditionally "dismounted and fought on the ground" had been weakened, and tactical innovations had to be made.
In addition, compared with the Western Han Dynasty's army of about 770,000-790,000 people, the Eastern Han Dynasty's army, which only had about 290,000 people, was much smaller in size. Therefore, new equipment and new tactics must be promoted as soon as possible to make the army more "elite."
As mentioned before, during the Qin and Western Han Dynasties, the Central Plains cavalry was essentially an infantryman because of their harness. Because during riding, the knight relied on his legs to clamp the horse's belly. There were no stirrups to lend strength to the legs, and no saddle to support the waist.
It is extremely difficult to engage in hand-to-hand combat on horseback due to strength, so in most cases one has to maneuver to a location on horseback and then dismount to fight.
If you encounter Hun horse archers with extremely poor equipment and extremely weak hand-to-hand combat capabilities, they will occasionally launch a charge on horseback, but the Huns will generally avoid fighting. If you want to charge and fight in hand-to-hand combat, it depends on whether they give you a chance.
Therefore, during this period, cavalry did not replace chariots because their combat effectiveness was indeed too weak.
In the late Western Han Dynasty, the high bridge saddle appeared.
In the Western Han Dynasty bronze car decorations unearthed in Ding County, Hebei Province in 1965, it was found that the front and rear bridges of the saddle at that time were already very high.
The emergence of high-bridge saddles greatly improved the riding conditions of cavalry, and the cavalry of the Eastern Han Dynasty gradually ceased to be mounted infantry.
Wu Han, the famous founding general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "often sent five thousand cavalry as the vanguard."
Wu Han's assault cavalry were lancers, and their weapons were halberds. The Central Plains infantry were not used to the lancer's charge, and were defeated by Wu Han in eight battles in Shu.
There were no double stirrups at this time, so Liu Xiu's Youzhou cavalry still had limitations. They could only count on the infantry to waver, panic, and then charge to win. But if the infantry did not waver, the cavalry group charged into the formation and entered
In the close-quarters combat stage where humans and horses are mixed, due to the huge target of the war horses, the inconvenience of turning, and the blind spots on the flanks and rear of the cavalry, they often fall into a disadvantage in the hand-to-hand combat.
Liu Xiu failed several times.
In 25 AD, Liu Xiu conquered Youlai in Hebei. He used Youzhou Tuqi as the vanguard and charged directly into the battle. Youlai's infantry was defeated, but it did not collapse, but retreated and regrouped.
The Youlai infantry had the backbone of the county and state-owned infantry officers. The soldiers were basically from Hebei. They had seen war horses and were not very scared, so they regrouped and fought again.
As a result, the Youzhou cavalry were "defeated" and "thousands of soldiers died". Liu Xiu was "pursued by thieves". Wang Feng gave his horse to Liu Xiu, allowing him to escape with his life.
Two conclusions can be drawn here: first, after the cavalry rushes into the infantry formation at this time, if the infantry does not collapse and continues to fight you, the cavalry will be defeated miserably; second, it is impossible to use regular infantry, hungry people, and prisoners as soldiers.
Too rubbish, a regular army like the Caiguan Infantry would be much better.
But in any case, the emergence of the Youzhou Assault Cavalry represents a new direction in the development of the cavalry. Iron armor, high bridge saddles, long halberds, and horse spears have become their main combat weapons. Group charging is their main combat method. To prevent the attack, additional
One more thing, no one forbids them from learning to ride and shoot, but charging with long guns is their main method of combat. Academically, they have a special term "armored lancers", but this does not mean that they are not "pure" if they can ride and shoot.
Yes, that’s a heresy. Modern artillery also has self-defense weapons, so is it artillery or infantry?
Let me give you another example.
The Battle of Jieqiao between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Gongsun Zan placed "more than 30,000 infantrymen in the square formation" in the center, "divided into 10,000 sudden cavalry, flanking troops on the left and right", and the elite cavalry "white horse righteous followers" as the vanguard.
Yuan Shao "had tens of thousands of infantry at the rear", and Qu Yi led 800 infantrymen who "had been in Liangzhou for a long time and were familiar with Qiang fighting" as the vanguard.
Seeing that Yuan Shao's vanguard only had 800 men, Gongsun Zan "underestimated the small number of troops", so he directly ordered Baima Yi to charge in front of him, and Youzhou's sudden cavalry came out from the two wings, following closely behind, "he then let his cavalry fly to the ground."
Qu Yi's troops were infantry with halberds and shields, and he ordered "all to lie down under their shields and not move."
Gongsun Zan's cavalry approached, "within a few dozen steps", Yuan Shao's infantry "all rose up at the same time, shouting and shouting, and clashed forward", "with strong crossbows and thunder, those who were hit will fall".
It can be seen from here that Yuan Shaojun used strong crossbows to strike from a distance (should be arranged on both wings), and then the halberd infantry charged directly towards the cavalry to counterattack.
At that time, Gongsun Zan's army totaled more than 10,000 cavalry. When they charged forward, they were attacked by powerful crossbows. They suffered heavy casualties and many fell dead on the battlefield. The corpses of men and horses hindered the speed of the cavalry behind them. As a result, the cavalry in front slowed down, and the cavalry behind them slowed down.
I didn’t know what was happening in front of me, but I was still moving forward, but everything stopped.
Eight hundred heavy armored infantrymen with halberds and shields rushed through a distance of dozens of steps, killing and slashing. The white horses followed, and the Youzhou cavalry were defeated miserably. It was almost a one-sided massacre, and more than a thousand people were beheaded on the spot.
Yuan Shao took advantage of the situation and led the main infantry to attack, but Gongsun Zan "ran on foot and cavalry and never returned to camp."
Ge Congzhou's battle example in this book is somewhat similar. He led 2,000 men to take the initiative to attack, and counterattacked 3,000 cavalry from Hedong. The infantry used long spears, and the cavalry was forced to stop by the big guns. They defeated them and captured Li Keyong's son Li Luoluo.
It can be seen that after the infantry with courage, determination and equipment forced the cavalry to stop, it was a one-sided massacre. Because the cavalry was on horseback, with huge fighting gaps and blind spots on the wings and behind, it was not as good as on the ground.
Flexible. The war horse under the crotch is still a good target for thieves. The infantry usually hits the horse first, and the cavalry lands directly. Needless to say what happens after landing.
Of course, the cavalry equipment used by Li Ke in this book has far exceeded that of the late Eastern Han Dynasty.
Gongsun Zan's cavalry is less effective in a stationary state because there are no double stirrups to borrow strength.
Let me emphasize again, you must use well-trained regular infantry! It is not advisable for the Northern Song Dynasty to use prisoners as soldiers to defend the Khitan! It is not advisable for the Jin Dynasty to use hungry people as soldiers to defend the Mongols!
Of course, it is pointless to say that most of the infantry in history were hurriedly raised. It would be nice to have a wooden gun. Armor and crossbows were very lacking, not to mention the level of training. Year-round campaigns like the late Tang Dynasty
Professional martial arts may not be the historical norm.
Closer to home, after the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to the tax system, tyranny and other factors, financial revenue was not high, so the army was demobilized in large numbers.
If the number of troops is small, they must be refined.
The first thing he reformed was the Youzhou sudden cavalry, which was equipped with equipment.
First a definition.
Armored cavalry, that is, heavy armored cavalry with both men and horses, appeared in small numbers in the late Western Han Dynasty, and was formally established after Liu Xiu founded the People's Republic of China.
Note that those who wear armor but their horses do not are not called armored cavalry. Heavy armored cavalry that have both men and horses wearing armor are called armored cavalry.
After the equipment was completed, the Eastern Han Dynasty army began to use light sword and shield infantry with heavy armored cavalry as a new army building model. This also became the main army building model in the early Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The armored cavalry here were used as the main force on the battlefield and were the core of the army. They were very different from those in the Sui, Tang and subsequent dynasties.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty water and land attack portrait stones unearthed in Jiaxiang, Shandong, and in the Hebo travel portrait stones unearthed in Nanyang, Henan, there are many portraits of light infantry with swords and shields and armored cavalry.
The sword-and-shield infantrymen hold swords and shields, and the armored riders hold halberds to fight together.
At this point, the Eastern Han Dynasty's army building ideas were very different from those of the Qin and Western Han Dynasties.
The Western Han Dynasty was a mixture of light and heavy infantry, combined with light mounted infantry and chariot troops.
The Eastern Han Dynasty had elite armored cavalry, paired with light infantry with swords and shields for defense. The Eastern Han Dynasty also had heavy armored infantry.
Armored cavalry began to develop greatly, and profoundly influenced the Northern and Southern Dynasties for hundreds of years, reaching its peak in the late Southern and Northern Dynasties. Because the enemies during this period were the barbarians from the grasslands, armored cavalry was the core of the army, and all tactics were built around it.
The combat effectiveness of this army is powerful. In addition to suppressing internal rebellions, it also performs well on external battlefields.
In the sixth year of Emperor Zhang's founding (81 AD), he sent troops to frighten Wuhuan and Xianbei so that they did not dare to approach the fortress.
In order to prevent the gongjing from saying that the prairie cavalry archers are flexible and you can't hit them, yes, this is true. However, in the Western Han Dynasty, the Central Plains cavalry could not defeat the Huns on horseback, so they had to dismount and fight on foot. How did they solve this problem? They must attack you.
save.
As a unified dynasty, people always have connections and informants. If I know where your nomadic land is, I will kill you directly and capture your old, weak, women, children, cattle and sheep. Are you still a guerrilla?
In the first year of Yongjian of Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty (126), the Huns rebelled and Xianbei invaded the border. They sent out troops twice to defeat them.
There are also Qiang rebellions, so I won’t list them all.
The Eastern Han Dynasty had more than 200,000 soldiers and horses in the whole country. They were equipped with armored cavalry with halberds and light infantry with swords and shields. They temporarily recruited Tibetan soldiers from the surrounding tribes and continued to fight foreign wars until the end of the dynasty.
In the last years of the year, this method of building an army had a serious side effect: corruption in the government, selling off officials and conferring titles, and after the Youzhou Tuqi had a better life, they were no longer brave, and the Han people were increasingly scarce, so they had to recruit a large number of Xianbei and Wuhuan soldiers into the army.
, Hu-Han ratio imbalance.
In particular, the Forbidden Army's assault cavalry guarding Luoyang has become a weak force.
Of course, it's the end of the year, not only the assault cavalry, but also other troops.
Wang Lang once criticized the five schools of the Northern Army, saying that "either they are lazy businessmen, or they are dull people in the countryside" who "do not teach military formations" and "do not live up to their name and are difficult to prepare for emergencies."
This means that the Northern Army is either a naughty businessman's son, or a cautious and honest farmer with poor combat effectiveness.
There is no solution to the difficult problems in the last years of the dynasty.
