Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 250 Legion Soup
"I understand what you mean." Joanna seemed to understand: "Compared with the armies of the Mediterranean world, your military style is generally closer to the East. So even if these Ross people have experience, they are under a completely different system. .”

"If they join your army, these experiences may not be suitable at all. Even here, these experiences may be useful. Is that so?"

"That's right." Guo Kang nodded: "Our political system, military system, and combat methods are all far from here. And it's not easy to change..."

"The Ross Auxiliary Army has actually been around for a long time. At that time, Toto Mamatinikus fought against the Ottomans in Asia Minor. Because of the shortage of troops, he temporarily recruited a large group of Ross people. He has no idea about the combat effectiveness of these people. Let them be in charge of guarding the fortifications, as long as they can recharge the number."

"However, the Ross people were very active. We found out later that their life was too hard, and many people thought it was the same as Lord Boyar's arrest of young men before, so they just left them there. But even if our auxiliary army , and tried to make people full, but the Russians were overjoyed and fought very hard, and they actually repelled the Ottomans in several battles. After that, this organization stayed. "

"But even so, we don't intend to incorporate them into the regular army. Because these people are likely to be cumbersome on the formal battlefield." Guo Kang explained: "But it is too troublesome to train from scratch. Therefore, we generally put these people Leave it alone and let them do things like guarding."

"This system has been going on for decades. It has formed a set of cultural traditions." He thought for a while and said, "Do you know Legion soup?"

"Huh? What's that?" Joanna obviously hadn't heard of it.

"Oh, it's normal if I don't know, it's a kind of food invented by Ross's auxiliary soldiers and military slaves." Guo Kang said: "The legionnaires eat much better than them, so these people often pick up other people's leftovers, and then put them on the table. Bones, hard bread crusts, etc., were thrown together and stewed to make a thick soup. Later, they collectively called this kind of food 'legion soup'."

"That sounds really disgusting..." Joanna frowned.

"You are rich, of course you think so. In fact, it would be good for them not to starve to death." Guo Kang shook his head: "If we incorporate them into the regular army, it will benefit everyone in the long run. I just don’t know how long it will take them to adapt.”

"Is it hard?" Joanna asked.

"It's not difficult to train this Russian soldier, but it's difficult to train the 'Russian soldier'." Guo Kang sighed: "The most difficult thing is not to train personal skills, but to romanize the Ross area. If the latter can't be done, then train these soldiers." A few soldiers don’t mean much. But it’s very difficult to change the customs of a place.”

"Let's take the previous example." He said: "Look, I just said that Seris had a lot of chariots. But you know, why were there so many chariots at that time? Such a useful thing, why later Is it gone?"

"I don't even know the situation of the chariot, you just said it. Now you ask me if I know this..." Joanna said speechlessly, "Did you do it on purpose?"

"Uh, I didn't mean that. I usually talk to Tuo Huan and the others like that, and I'm used to it." Guo Kang quickly explained.

"The situation here is fairly easy to understand. To put it bluntly, it's actually a matter of having money or not."

"The chariot is really easy to use, but the price is that it is very expensive. The cost is far from the car itself, but mainly the people on the car."

"Driving a chariot is a very difficult skill, and there are a series of high requirements for the driver. The Seris chariot has four horses and six reins - and a person has only ten fingers in total." He stretched out his hand.

"So, even with the aid of tools, driving a chariot and performing various maneuvers is a very high test for the driver and the horse. This requires long-term training and practice, and ordinary people simply cannot afford this expense. Therefore, the chariot It can be said to be a typical noble weapon."

"At that time, it was mainly low-level nobles called 'shi' who undertook such tasks. But as the scale of the war expanded, although all countries were opening up arable land and increasing production, the number of warriors still could not meet the requirements. .”

"What should be done in this situation? The plans of different civilizations are very similar. In fact, they are all 'enrollment expansion', which loosens the threshold for joining the army. The efforts made by the reformers of Seris are even different from those of Sparta. Cleomeni's idea is similar. Everyone is granting land to ordinary people and lowering the threshold for citizens."

"But after lowering the threshold, new soldiers are often poorer. They have no conditions to accept the training of driving chariots, and can only fight as infantry. But the improvement of organizational level and weapon technology has made infantry more and more efficient."

"The size of the chariot troops is indeed still increasing, and their functions are becoming more and more perfect. The horses are covered with armor, and some of the bodies are fixed with metal plates for protection."

"The functions of chariots have also gradually matured and differentiated. Some chariots have been concentrated and used to form a pure chariot group for independent operations. Since then, there have been heavy vehicles that cooperate with infantry, and light vehicles that cooperate with cavalry or fight alone. points."

"But like many other weapons, the most mature and perfect period is often when they are about to be eliminated. Although the tank is also developing, it is far less rapid than the infantry. Their proportion in the army is gradually decreasing, and eventually they are reduced to auxiliary arms. .”

"By the time of the Qin Dynasty, the core of the army was already infantry. But there is one thing to pay attention to here, that is, this evolution happened gradually." He reminded: "That is to say, in the process of gradually increasing the proportion of infantry, the army The impact and impact resistance of the formation has not weakened, and has even been enhanced. Otherwise, the new army formation cannot beat the old army formation in actual combat, and it will definitely not develop in this direction."

"So, even with the increase of infantry, the overall combat thinking has not changed much. This new infantry formation still attaches great importance to impact, but the main work has been transferred from chariots to infantry."

"In the army of the Qin Dynasty, the main weapons were beryllium and halberds. The positioning of these weapons is different from the spears in Europe today. They are not used as human flesh to resist horses and support the front. They are similar to two-handed swords and axes. It is a two-handed fighting weapon. Of course, the weapons at that time must not be as advanced as they are now."

"In the entire army, more than 80% are soldiers wearing armor and holding two-handed combat weapons. Like the Romans, they are composed of small teams of 200 to [-] people. But these small formations are not arranged horizontally, but They are connected end to end, and finally form an exaggerated large column that may exceed [-] people in depth."

"The entire formation, except for the front and rear rows of shooters, is all this kind of soldiers. You don't need to be too professional, you can see the combat thinking of this army at a glance. In the words we are familiar with here, it is to use A large number of infantry armed with halberds, with the help of a large and deep formation, tried to crush the enemy as soon as possible."

"The ancients on our side always said that barbarians prefer to charge and attack, but in fact, civilized people are much more wild than them when they charge. Qin people, or in the Warring States period, all qualified troops that can last several times on the battlefield, Both went down that path and it made a huge difference. Until now, our formation has been built around it."

"This situation is so special that there is no need for other people to do such extreme things." He spread his hands, expressing pessimism: "So, we can't expect them to understand and adapt quickly."

(End of this chapter)