Chapter 157 The cavalry battalion with ever-decreasing numbers
Although the Wuqi Camp has a small number of people, only 500 people, the training place is no smaller than the Wufeng Camp.
Although the cavalry battalion is a mounted archery unit, it not only needs mounted archery, but also needs to train in charging and slashing.
Mounted archery seems easy, but just shooting an arrow on a horse is actually very difficult!
The structure of the current war horse is completely unformed. The war horse only has a very simple saddle and a single stirrup for the knight to mount the horse.
In the era when there were no saddle stirrups, soldiers needed to ride on the back of a simple saddle. They only relied on grabbing the reins or mane and clamping the horse's belly with their legs. Once the horse started running, it was very easy to dismount.
This method is also very unreliable. First of all, it is easy to fatigue when riding for a long time. At the same time, it is difficult to use bows and arrows effectively on a running horse. In melee combat, the rider cannot use swords and spears as he wishes. He can only
Rely on the advantage of speed to overwhelm the enemy with momentum.
This is also the reason why cavalry is difficult to train! If soldiers are not highly skilled in riding, they cannot stabilize their bodies while the horses are galloping, so how can they develop combat effectiveness?
The difficulty of the Wufeng Battalion is low, but it is only compared to the mounted shooting of the Wuqi Battalion. After all, when the Wufeng Battalion charges, the soldiers only need to slash forward.
But the cavalry camp is different. Soldiers in the cavalry camp need to draw their bows and shoot arrows while their horses are galloping! At such a high speed, the soldiers have no stable fulcrum and can easily fall off their horses due to excessive movements.
This is why Jia Xu told Zhao Yun that just training in projectile shooting is as difficult as climbing to the sky like an ordinary archer!
Why were the Mongolian cavalry of later generations able to travel across the Eurasian continent? It is precisely because of the high-bridge saddle and double-sided stirrups that soldiers can easily maintain their shape no matter how fast the horse runs as long as they step firmly!
Doesn't Liu Zhang know this? He knows it. It's just that he can't promote it now.
These technologies can be said to be top secrets among top secrets, and the fewer people who know about them, the better!
Liu Zhang was training the 500 men under Zhao Yun as instructors so that he could train more cavalry and archery soldiers after they were equipped with high-bridge saddles and stirrups.
Hundreds of cavalrymen were running, and the dust caused was not very large. Liu Zhang could clearly see the training scene.
"Hey, how many people are there?"
Liu Zhang found that the number of soldiers in the armed cavalry camp was far from enough. It seemed that there were only about three hundred people.
Is it divided into two rounds of training?
Liu Zhang was secretly surprised in his heart and started looking around.
However, the cavalry was not found, but many people were seen falling directly from their horses.
During the charge, many knights lost their center of gravity due to drawing their bows and shooting arrows, and fell off their horses.
Liu Zhang immediately understood the reason for the small number of people. It was not that they were training separately, but that they were all injured!
Until the end of the training, Liu Zhang was watching the martial arts camp.
As he expected, at least a dozen more soldiers from the Martial Cavalry Battalion fell and were injured!
"Hey, it seems that without stirrups and saddles, riding and shooting is still too difficult!"
Liu Zhang sighed helplessly and couldn't help but feel that Zhao Yun was a little embarrassed.
No wonder the two Han Dynasties lasted nearly four hundred years. Except during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, cavalry could not develop at all!
Difficult, difficult, difficult!
Unless he saw it with his own eyes, Liu Zhang would not have realized how difficult it was.
Zhao Yun was too immersed in training and did not pay any attention to Liu Zhang, who had been observing for a long time.
It wasn't until the training was over and I returned to the tent that I saw Liu Zhang, and he hurried over.
"My lord, I am going to miss you so much. Please forgive me, my lord."
"Zilong, are there many injured soldiers today?"
As soon as Zhao Yun heard this, he knew that Liu Zhang must have been here for a long time, so he knelt down on one knee to apologize.
"You will finally fail your lord's trust! Please punish me, lord!"
Liu Zhang reached out to help Zhao Yun up and patted the dust off his body.
"Zilong, I don't blame you! I remember there weren't so many wounded when I came here last time, right?"
Zhao Yun frowned and sighed heavily.
"Hey, my lord doesn't know something! Since I started practicing riding and shooting, at least ten people have been injured every day!"
"Soldiers are not used to drawing bows and shooting arrows while riding, so they often lose their center of gravity and fall off their horses!"
Zhao Yun was also very troubled. He had experienced all these difficulties one by one. If he didn't have superb riding skills and strong stability on the horse, it would be difficult not to be thrown off!
Now it’s just about holding a bow and pulling it, but it will definitely be more difficult to shoot an arrow in the future!
Liu Zhang patted Zhao Yun on the shoulder and comforted him a little.
"Zilong, take your time! If it were so easy to master, we big men wouldn't be worried about the invasion of foreign races!"
"Let's go back to the commander's tent first. I have something to tell you!"
Zhao Yun nodded slightly and followed Liu Zhang to the commander's tent.
Not long after, Liu Zhang's four generals gathered in the tent.
"Thank you for your hard work, generals!"
The four of them stood up together and bowed their hands to Liu Zhang.
"I will go through fire and water for my lord without hesitation!"
Liu Zhang smiled and nodded, waving his hand for them to sit down.
In fact, he didn't want to be so polite every time, but this era only respected Confucianism and cared about these etiquettes very much, and he was very helpless.
"I am very pleased that the generals have trained well!"
Huang Zhong, Tai Shici, and Dian Wei looked happy, but Zhao Yun lowered his head slightly, with a melancholy look on his face.
"Lord, how is my military guard camp! Isn't it awesome! Hahahaha!"
Dian Wei patted his chest proudly and brazenly showed off himself.
"Evil, if you say you are the worst here, no one can beat you..."
Liu Zhang glanced at Dian Wei angrily, but he spared no effort to give him a good look.
"Lord! I don't accept it!"
This silly, honest man, although he has no brains, can always liven up the atmosphere and even the depressed Zhao Yun smiles.
"Come on, tell me yourself, can your military guard battalion beat any of the troops here?"
"I...I...I..."
Dian Wei's eyes widened and he kept stuttering, but he couldn't speak. Although he was honest and honest, he was not a fool!
Staying with these three people every day, no matter how unfamiliar he is with the military, he will still understand a little bit about them.
No matter how Dian Wei thought about it, he really couldn't think of anyone he could beat.
Facing Huang Zhong's martial arts battalion, he would probably be shot to death before he even got in front of him!
Not to mention the Wufeng Camp and the Wuqi Camp. Others rode horses, but I didn't even have to ride a donkey. I was so tired that my brothers were exhausted!
The more Dian Wei thought about it, the sadder he became, like an eggplant beaten by frost, it suddenly withered.
"Lord, wouldn't I become a waste..."
This was the first time Liu Zhang saw Dian Wei like this, and he even wondered if he had gone too far.
"Come on, why are you useless! Your military guard camp is our last line of defense! My life depends on you!"
When Dian Wei heard this, his depressed mood disappeared, and he immediately put on a smiling face.
"Hahaha, let me tell you! My military guard camp is the most important!"
"Okay, okay, okay, sit down quickly!"
Liu Zhang knew that he was thinking too much. How could this heartless person feel uncomfortable?
"Everyone, on the 22nd of next month, His Majesty will hold a military exercise at Pingle Garden, and we will conduct the exercise at the Rear General's Mansion and the Grand General's Mansion."
"In this battle, He Jin must be suppressed head-on!"