Zhu Cixiang was always impatient and did whatever he thought of. When he thought of building a chariot to fight against the Tatar cavalry, he immediately summoned all the carpenters and blacksmiths among the generals.
Zhu Cixi didn't understand spinning machines and looms, but he had his own ideas about chariots.
Zhu Cixiang naturally disliked traditional tanks. The tank he wanted to build must have the advantages of flexible steering, strong off-road capabilities, and high speed.
But when Zhu Cixiang finished making his request, all the carpenters and blacksmiths had heads as big as buckets and expressions of confusion on their faces.
Because if you want to have flexible steering and meet Zhu Cixiang's requirements, you must have a two-wheeled chariot pulled by a single horse.
But this kind of chariot places a heavy burden on the horses. It cannot run fast or far, nor can it carry a heavy load.
After all, there are only two wheels, which means that part of the strength of the chariot must be pressed on the shoulders of the war horse.
Although four wheels can reduce the burden on the war horse, the steering and flexibility cannot meet the requirements.
For a time, all the craftsmen were scratching their heads.
However, it is difficult for the ancients to solve this problem of having both your cake and eat it too, but it is not difficult for a modern person like Zhu Cixiang.
The burden on the two-wheeled war horse is too heavy, and the four-wheeled steering cannot handle it, so use three wheels.
Two large load-bearing wheels in the front and a small steering wheel in the back can perfectly solve this problem.
And in order to make the chariot strong, the axle is directly cast from wrought iron. Although bearings cannot be made to reduce the friction during rotation, the principle of bicycle axle connection can be used. Make a groove at the connection in advance, and then put iron balls.
Applying oil again will have the same effect as the bearing.
Compared with this era, if two objects directly rub against each other, it is unknown how much friction will be reduced, which will also greatly increase the speed of the chariot.
Under Zhu Cixi's personal guidance, it only took ten days to build a weird three-wheeled chariot.
I saw that the front two wheels of this chariot were very huge, almost a person tall, and much higher than the body.
The steering wheels at the back are smaller than the wheels of ordinary carriages, and are two meters away from the body. They are connected by two pieces of wood. The connection is very flexible and can be moved left and right, just like a walking tractor.
The chariot only needs one horse to pull it, and one person drives the horse in the front. The position is relatively low, and the rear compartment is higher. There are baffles in the front and left and right, and there is an umbrella cover above the head, so the field of vision is very wide.
It can accommodate up to two people, one holding a halberd and one operating the crossbow on the chariot. There is a crossbow at the front and rear of the chariot, which can shoot forward, left and right, and backward and left respectively. The range is more than a hundred steps away, and it needs to be far away.
More than riding a bow.
At this moment in the wilderness, the red lady and the generals looked at this chariot and were very curious. After all, they had never seen a three-wheeled chariot before.
The craftsmen were very nervous, while Zhu Cixiang was a little hopeful, because it could be said that this chariot was designed by him.
"Your Majesty, the chariot has been inspected and the driver is ready. It can be tested at any time. Please give your Majesty's order!"
"Then let's start, first try how fast it is, then try the steering and load, and finally try the off-road capabilities."
Zhu Cixiang waved his hand and said, "Although it is a wooden wheel and has no springs, he doesn't know how fast it can run and whether the wheels will fall apart if it goes too fast, but with those two big wheels, at least the off-road capability will not be bad."
Immediately, an experienced chariot started moving in the chariot. The speed became faster and faster, and finally it started galloping on the flat official road. It was more than twice as fast as an ordinary carriage, and it was almost as fast as the cavalry.
speed.
This really shocked the red lady and all the generals.
Because although this chariot is not big, only the axle is made of iron, and the total weight is still no less than four or five hundred kilograms. How can we not be surprised that a horse can pull such a heavy chariot so fast and so easily?
But Zhu Cixiang frowned slightly, a little dissatisfied. The speed was much slower than he expected. It was only thirty or forty kilometers per hour at most, which was quite a bit lower than the sixty or seventy kilometers the cavalry could run when they were running wildly.
The chariot ran for more than ten miles in one breath before the war horse began to struggle and slowed down. Then another war horse was replaced and a series of operations such as steering were performed while running at high speed.
Finally, it carried two fully armed soldiers and went directly out of Zhangjiakou to conduct field experiments on the grassland.
"The steering and off-road capabilities are sufficient, but the speed is somewhat unsatisfactory, especially after carrying two soldiers. The gap with the cavalry is too obvious."
Zhu Cixiang sighed, obviously dissatisfied.
His plan was to build three types of chariots, one of which was a light chariot, pulled by a single horse, capable of long-distance running, flexible steering, strong off-road capability, and about the same speed as a war horse, and specialized in roundabout pursuits, etc.
The second type is a heavy chariot, which is similar in style to the first light chariot, except that the chariot is equipped with some knives, and the whole body needs to be reinforced. It is pulled by two war horses, and the war horses also need to be armored, and are specially used for short-distance charges.
The third type is a transport chariot, with four wheels and four horses pulling it. It can transport not only food and weapons, but also infantry and firearms.
The combination of these three chariots and the use of cavalry can create a fast mobile force that will not be afraid of large groups of Tatar cavalry.
It can charge into battle, maintain high-speed driving, and defend in place. It is not afraid of the cavalry at all. As for being unable to catch up with the opponent's cavalry, from a military point of view, this is not important.
Because as long as the team can march without fear of the harassment and impact of the Tatar cavalry, it is enough.
After the Han army entered the grassland to fight, they often lost on this point. They were not afraid of cavalry when defending in place. But once the army moved, they had to form formations to protect themselves, and the speed was as fast as a snail.
As the speed is high, it is destined to be unable to maintain the formation, unable to take care of both the beginning and the end. Facing the cavalry's surprise attack, there is no time to prepare, so in the end, no matter how many troops there are and how strong the combat power is, they will inevitably be exhausted by the cavalry.
Because the nomadic tribes would not fight head-on with the Han infantry, they would usually choose to lure the enemy deeper. If the Han people wanted to defeat the nomadic tribes, their first consideration was not to win the opponent without a fight, but how to find the opponent's main force.
If you can't find the opponent's main force, you will find the opponent's tribe's garrison, and finally force it to a decisive battle. It can be said that the Han infantry fighting against the nomadic tribes on the grasslands is naturally in a disadvantaged and passive position.
Without a certain number of cavalry, don't even think about going to the north to conquer the grasslands. Otherwise, no matter how many soldiers and horses go, they will die.
In the early Han Dynasty and the early Tang Dynasty, the Han and Tang armies were powerful, but when facing the Huns and Turkic cavalry, they had no choice but to make peace and stabilize each other first.
It is because the war in the Central Plains has just ended, the war horses have been exhausted, and the infantry, no matter how powerful it is, has nowhere to use it and cannot take the initiative to conquer the grasslands.
As for defense, the cost of thousands of miles of border is too high, not to mention that it may not be possible to defend. After all, fortification everywhere means no defense everywhere.
It wasn't until the Tang and Han armies had rested and recuperated for decades, once again bred a large number of war horses, and trained a large number of cavalry, that they dared to take the initiative to attack, and finally destroyed the Xiongnu and Turks.
But Zhu Cixiang couldn't wait for more than ten or twenty years to train cavalry. Although he had no shortage of war horses now, and it should be almost the same in another three to five years, he still felt that the time was still too long.
Although there are cavalry from the Tumut tribe, compared to the Turks and Huns, today's Jiannu are much stronger, because the cavalry is not scary, and the infantry is not scary, but the cooperation between the two is the most terrifying.
The current Jiannu is a combination of cavalry and infantry, which can attack, defend, fight and retreat. It firmly controls the initiative on the battlefield and wins half of the battle before fighting.
They added the 50,000 cavalry of the Tumut tribe to their side. Although they also have 80,000 cavalry, which can be called a combination of infantry and cavalry, the cavalry of the Tumut tribe cannot be completely trusted, and their own cavalry is not powerful enough to deal with the Huns.
It's okay to deal with the Turks, but it's risky to deal with the slaves.
That's why Zhu Cixiang wanted to build a chariot. His purpose was not to compete with Jiannu's cavalry and chase each other.
Instead, when the army was marching, chariots were escorted on both sides at the same time. When the Tatar cavalry attacked, they rushed up to meet them, allowing the infantry to have time to assemble into formation.
If the Tatar cavalry chooses to harass the outside, they can completely ignore it and continue marching.
Otherwise, the Tatar cavalry is still pretending to charge dozens of miles away, and the army will have to stop and prepare for battle. It will stop marching twice a day.
And if the opponent's cavalry comes in turns, twice a day, the army will not go anywhere.
"Your Majesty, this speed is still slow? If you want to speed up, you can only add another war horse."
The red lady was a little surprised to see that Zhu Cixi was not satisfied yet. In her opinion, this kind of three-wheeled chariot was perfect in terms of speed and flexible steering.
"A two-horse chariot is a heavy chariot. A light chariot can only be pulled by one horse, otherwise its flexibility will be reduced."
Zhu Cixiang waved his hand. In addition to speed, flexibility is equally important for light tanks. Otherwise, it would be better to just build heavy tanks.
"Then what should I do? Isn't it like asking the horse to run away again and not giving it grass to eat?"
The red lady said with a headache. Apparently in her mind, if she wanted the carriage to run faster, she could only increase the number of horses to share the load.
"Let's do this, reduce the three people to two people. After all, they mainly use crossbows when chasing and halberds when charging. It's enough for one person to operate. Also, replace the umbrella cover and the three-sided guards with
Weaving it with rattan can reduce some weight."
Zhu Cixiang touched his chin, looked at the huge umbrella cover made of solid wood, and said slowly.
The main function of this umbrella cover is to prevent arrows. There is no need to use solid wood to build a huge umbrella cover.
Of course, he also knew that even if one person was reduced and the canopy guard was made of rattan, the weight would only be reduced by one or two hundred kilograms at most, and the speed at which it could be improved was also limited.
The real way to significantly increase the speed is to work on the wheels. After all, the wooden wheels are too unreliable. If replaced with rubber tires, the speed will definitely increase a lot, and the shock absorption effect will also be greatly improved.
However, although rubber has been introduced to Asia by Europeans, it may not be possible to obtain it in large quantities in a short time.
So for the time being we can only reduce the weight of the tank.