Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 928 0923 [Military Exchange]

Overseas envoys such as Mulek were simply shocked by the combat effectiveness displayed by the Ming army.

However, the envoys from Western Xia, Goryeo, Japan, Annan and other countries all felt a collective sense of despair.

At this time, Taira no Kiyomori was carrying a Japanese sword and wearing a set of Ming Dynasty style armor.

His height of 1.58 meters is considered tall and strong in Japan, but he looks short among the envoys from other countries.

Taira no Kiyomori was able to grow so tall thanks to coming to Ming at the age of 17. His diet changed and he grew three centimeters taller.

Although Japanese people are short, they have not always been as short as they were in the Edo period.

According to leg bones discovered in archaeological excavations, the height difference between China and Japan at the same time (taking the average height of men as an example) was actually only a few centimeters.

The closest period was during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. That was the peak of height in ancient Japan, while China's height continued to decline due to long-term wars, and the average height of Chinese men was only 3 cm higher than that of Japanese men.

The biggest gap occurred in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The height of Japanese men continued to decline, while that of Chinese men returned to the level of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, with an average height difference of 11 cm between the two countries.

By the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese were getting shorter, and the Japanese were also getting shorter...

According to archaeological data, the average height difference between men in the two countries at that time was only a little over 7 centimeters.

but!

Rich people in China are often taller than the country's average height, with many being 1.7 or 1.8 meters tall.

As for Japanese nobles, since they were forbidden to eat meat (except fish) and adhered to vegetarianism to show their status, many of them were shorter than the average height of their country.

The gap suddenly widened, and meeting Japanese nobles was like looking at monkeys.

In front of Taira no Kiyomori is the Western Xia envoy, who is 175 cm tall.

Behind him is the Goryeo envoy, who is 166 cm tall.

This guy was already feeling inferior enough being stuck in the middle, and now he was frightened by the military might of the Ming Dynasty and fell into serious self-doubt.

He even began to doubt the merits of the entire Yamato nation.

Jin Yungui sighed: "The Ming army is truly invincible."

He spoke Korean, which no one else could understand. Only the deputy envoy beside him shook his head and sighed.

Jin Yungui became more and more determined that only if Goryeo was incorporated into the Ming Dynasty would their small and poor family have a way out.

Rather than being a dog for the noble families of Goryeo, it is better to be a dog for the Emperor of Ming Dynasty!
Hanoi Ching-kuo asked, "Have you understood the Ming's tactics?"

Taira no Kiyomori said, "I understand. The Ming chariot formation is impregnable. No matter how brave the Japanese warriors are, they can't break through their chariot formation. They can't even get close to them. They are defeated from a distance. Those firearms are too terrifying. Especially the round balls that can explode at the end. If they are thrown into the enemy's formation, no army can maintain the formation."

Hanoi Jingguo said: "Mencius said that only the wise can use small things to serve big things. When the Ming Dynasty is strong and Japan is weak, we should know how to serve big things. We should have awe for the Ming Dynasty and not provoke it easily. We should first serve big things and then learn from them, and then we can eventually become big."

Taira no Kiyomori smiled bitterly: "The nobles in this country only know how to enjoy themselves. They may know how to do great things, but they will not really learn how to do great things."

Several imperial guards gradually withdrew to the periphery and began the regular competition.

First, set up the target, and then the musketeers line up to shoot. The three-stage attack is also very powerful.

Then other types of soldiers appeared, abandoning their chariots and fighting in formation, with the victory or defeat determined by dipping their sharp weapons in lime.

These are simulating heavy rain weather, or muddy areas after rain, where it is impossible to rely on chariots or fight without firearms.

"Military academy students and envoys from various countries can also demonstrate their martial arts on the field." Zhu Ming gave the order.

When the order was given, all the military academy students were eager to try.

Suddenly, a young man rode into the open space, holding a spear and shouting, "Who wants to fight me?"

Zhu Ming couldn't help but laugh when he saw this.

That young man was the seventeen-year-old Prince of Yu, Zhu Kang.

Taira no Kiyomori did not recognize Prince Yu. He was now in a state of self-doubt and was eager to regain his confidence through fighting.

"I'm here to fight you!" Taira no Kiyomori rushed out.

Although Zhu Kang is tall and strong, he is just a military academy student after all.

Taira no Kiyomori was proud of his bravery. He did not dare to fight against the Ming soldiers in a one-on-one duel, but he was not afraid of a young student.

A clerk from the Ministry of War came forward and said to Taira no Kiyomori, "Please ask the envoy to select the war horses and weapons."

There are excellent war horses bred through crossbreeding, whose shoulder height is generally over 1.4 meters.

But Taira no Kiyomori tried it, but it was too high for him to ride, so he finally chose a horse with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters. Even so, it was much taller than the warhorse he rode in Japan.

As for the cavalry spears, there are different models such as 5 feet, 3.8 feet, 3.2 feet, and 2.5 feet, with lengths of meters, meters, meters, and meters respectively.

The "Zhang Er" in the Song Dynasty is the same as the "Zhang Ba" in the Han Dynasty.

If it exceeds this length, it can almost be called a horse lance in the Han Dynasty. Of course, the specific shape is definitely different from that of a spear.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the names were very confusing. Long weapons such as spears, lances, and halberds were often used interchangeably, and even infantry long spears could be called infantry halberds. I don't know if it was because it sounded more impressive.

Of course, Taira no Kiyomori did not dare to choose a 5-meter lance. He picked up a 3.8-meter long one, but after waving it a few times, he still felt uncomfortable.

In the end, he chose a 3.2-meter-long one.

Zhu Kang, however, used a 3.8-meter lance as he was not yet used to the 5-meter one.

It can even be said that among the hundreds of thousands of troops in the entire Ming Dynasty, only a handful of them could use a 5-meter lance. At the beginning, Hezhameng'an of the Jin Dynasty had a standard lance of only 3.8 meters.

Zhu Kang stood on his horse, waiting quietly.

Taira no Kiyomori, on the other hand, first familiarized himself with the warhorse and the weapon, galloping back and forth on his horse, swinging his spear from time to time. The spear heads of both of them had been removed, replaced with wooden round heads of the same length, and wrapped in linen soaked in lime.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The war drums sounded and the two horses faced each other.

Mulek couldn't help but leave the team of envoys and walk closer to observe carefully.

He found that the cavalry fighting on the Ming side was more similar to the style in the Middle East, rather than the silly charge with guns between the legs like the Crusaders.

Of course, the Middle Eastern cavalry were also disgusted by the gun-studded charge, and the surrounding states were conducting special training to crack it.

Zhu Kang rode his horse faster with a spear in hand, not taking Taira no Kiyomori seriously at all.

The two men's horses approached each other, with their heads intertwined and a parallel distance of about two meters, and each of them handed a spear to the other.

"Snapped!"

The gun barrels are connected.

The front end of Zhu Kang's lance began to shake slightly, and then he twisted it, and Taira no Kiyomori's lance could not be held steadily.

Taira no Kiyomori didn't know what was going on, he just felt a huge force coming from the gun barrel, and the force was still rotating and vibrating, and the weapon almost fell out of his hand.

Then, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and Taira no Kiyomori was knocked off his horse without knowing why.

Zhu Kang reined in his horse to slow down, turned his horse's head and said, "Have you really practiced spearmanship? I'm afraid you can't even beat the Ming light cavalry."

Taira no Kiyomori was thrown down so hard that his entire body was in great pain, and he was dragged to the sidelines like a sleepwalker.

Of course, he had never practiced spearmanship, because in Heian period Japan, there were no long spears for horse combat, only spears and swords for infantry combat.

The mounted warriors were not equipped with spears. They used bows and arrows for long-range combat and swords for close combat. This method was given a name called "Horse Archery".

It took several hundred more years for Japanese cavalry to develop the use of lances in combat, and this only appeared as the intensity of war continued to increase.

Taira no Kiyomori practiced spearmanship on foot and was invincible in Heian-kyo.

He thought it was nothing more than riding a horse and using a spear. But when the fight really started, he couldn't use any strength and was almost knocked off his weapon.

Hanoi Ching-kuo came over and said, "It seems that what you want to learn is not only the military tactics of the Ming Dynasty, but also the martial arts of China."

Taira no Kiyomori held his chest in severe pain, the pain seemed to be broken. "I think the Ming cavalry tactics can be called 'horse spear way', which is better than the Japanese 'horse bow way'. If I learn this tactic and pass it on to my horse-riding warriors, I will be able to easily sweep through the counties and kingdoms!"

"Then just work hard." Hanoi Ching Kuo said with a smile.

Taira no Kiyomori said: "Please give me some gold and silver. I want to become a disciple in the Ming Dynasty and learn martial arts from a retired Ming cavalryman!"

The competition on the field is still going on.

This time it was the military attachés from the Chola and Ceylon envoys, who were fighting on foot there.

The two countries are sworn enemies.

Ceylon was once destroyed by the Chola Kingdom, and the Chola Kingdom was also plundered by Ceylon for a long time.

As they were sparring, they started to fight for real. Weapons kept hitting the shields, and the left hand holding the shield was cracked at the knuckles.

In the end, the Ceylonese military attaché was better and smashed the Chola military attaché's shoulder with a hammer, breaking it.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "The winner will be rewarded with a piece of silk. The loser will be given a silver dollar as encouragement after receiving proper medical treatment."

The Ceylonese military attaché became even more proud when he received the silk and showed off his power by hammering his shield.

The Zhu Luo military officer next to him sneered: "Why are you so proud? First we destroyed your country, and then the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to the seaside. Even if you defeat us all, the King of Ceylon is just a puppet."

The Ceylonese military attaché was furious and rushed forward with a hammer in his hand.

The Ming soldiers hurriedly stopped them, and the two sides kept shouting and cursing at each other.

Soon, the Seljuk and Fatimid military attachés also began to compete.

The former was the Sultan's Janissary General, and the latter was the Caliph's Mamluk General. They both fought as heavy cavalry.

Persia and Egypt battle!
Zhu Ming was quite interested in this and even picked up a telescope to observe it carefully.

The heavy cavalry equipment of these two countries seems to be inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, and their armor is only slightly better than that of the Ming Dynasty's cavalry.

They fired their guns at different times and from different angles, not like the European style of charging with guns sideways.

At the beginning, the two were still sprinting when they met, but as the fight went on they stopped, and each rode their horses in a small circle around each other, attacking continuously with their spears.

Zhang Guangdao came over and said, "The cavalry warfare methods of these two countries are very similar to our cavalry, and even their weapons are similar. However, the scimitars on their waists are quite interesting. They should be very useful for attacking lightly armored infantry."

Zhu Ming said: "After the hunting, we can communicate with the military officers of various countries. There must be a teacher among three people, so we should find out their strengths."

"Yes!" Zhang Guangdao bowed and stepped back.

"Oh!"

The Fatima military attaché on the field had been knocked off his horse.

The two men's martial arts skills are roughly equal, but the Seljuk military officer has been fighting all year round and has taken countless lives.

The Fatimid military officer had not been on the battlefield for a long time, and he did not dare to retake the territory occupied by the Crusaders. In a martial arts contest at this time, he would lose in terms of momentum.

It was not until dusk that Zhu Ming announced: "That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll start hunting and see which country catches the most prey!"

(End of this chapter)