Spring and Autumn I Am King

The tribes on the grassland are inseparable from horses. Thousands of years ago, the murals in the Yinshan area have pictures of horses and horses. Those rough lines show that in the domestication and riding of horses, the grasslands have Older history than the Central Plains.

The same is true for the Donghu people. From the very beginning of their tribe's formation, they have had an inseparable relationship with horses.

There is a legend about horses in Chishan area: after the formation of the world, the Donghu people used tools for long-term labor, and their limbs were divided into hands and feet. Although it is convenient, they can run far less fast than four-legged animals. Donghu people want to use a kind of good. Running animals to escape danger, after trying cows and sheep, they are not satisfactory. The cow is too clumsy and the sheep is too weak. Until one day, the ancestors of Donghu saw a wild horse being chased by wild animals in extreme danger, and rescued the wild horse from the danger. "

Then one day, the grassland suffered a fire, and the Donghu and the wild horses fled together, but the people ran too slowly on two legs, and the fire was about to come. In an emergency, the wild horse lowered its head and said to the man, "Ride on my back quickly!" In the end, both the man and the horse survived. Since then, Donghu and Ma have become loyal friends who depend on each other...

Whether this legend is true or not is irrelevant, but it is precisely because of the successful domestication of wild horses that the grassland ushered in an epoch-making change. Without horses, the grassland economy cannot operate, so the Donghu people attach great importance to horses, and the number of horses has become a symbol of the strength and wealth of a tent and a tribe.

Hu Er was able to ride a horse at the age of ten. Horses are the means of transportation for the Donghu people, used in warfare and hunting. In Donghu, both men and women will ride horses, and only the lowest slaves and frail old people will be deprived of the right to ride.

It is precisely because of this tradition that the Donghu people only feel that they are the people who understand horses best in the world and can make the best use of horses, until they met Zhao Jun today...

Unlike last year's hurried expedition to the grasslands, this time, Zhao Jun clearly came prepared. They not only relied on the caravans of Yidun that went deep into the grasslands to find out the habits of the Donghu people in spring and summer. In order to make this expedition foolproof, and relying on the strong national strength, an expedition force of chariot, foot, and cavalry was built.

This is a tactic that the Donghu people have never thought of or seen: the crescent-shaped barrier formed by Wugang chariots slowly advances, the three thousand Taiyuan infantry stabilize their position, and the four thousand generations of county cavalry guard the two wings. He didn't move, but slowly pushed them backwards.

And Zhao Jun's real killer move is at the post office in the north. As the battlefield space where the Donghu people can turn around is slowly squeezed, the Shangjun Zhao Qi, located in the north of the battlefield, began to put leather armor on the horses, and the riders also Wearing a simple helmet and thick leather armor, those in the front row even wore iron chain mail, which shimmered in the sunlight.

This 1,000-strong heavy cavalry, known as the "Iron Cavalry", is an elite force built by Zhao Wuxi after the "Iron Armored Army" and spent a lot of money. In the past, they had been stationed in Shangjun to guard against the Qin state. Their main weapon was a 1.5-foot-long spear. Each soldier also carried a ring-headed knife or an iron sword around his waist. Armed into the battlefield.

As soon as these guys who were almost armed to the teeth appeared, the Donghu riders were shocked. Although they also wore some equipment, they were at most some thin animal skin armor. I have never seen cavalrymen so armed. Those who are covered in armor , It seems that there are several hundred catties of cavalry, can they run? Can you join the fight?

"The heavier it is, the slower it is."

Based on past experience, he was ordered to stop the three thousand Donghu riders of the Postal Service from trying to harass them, but the heavy cavalry's horses had leather armor on their heads to make masks, and there was a leather curtain on their chests, which could withstand light arrows. So no matter how the Donghu people harassed them, only seven or eight horses were shot and injured, and the riders were indifferent even when the arrows were hit in the chest. Less than half, more are stone arrows and bone arrows, how can they break Zhao Qi's thick armor? Facing the harassing light arrows, the heavy cavalry continued to line up in an orderly manner.

What's more, there were also 4,000 light cavalrymen from Shang County of Zhao State bypassing the two flanks, limiting the play of the Donghu people.

The task of these light cavalry is to reconnaissance and cover, to provide fire support for the heavy cavalry in wartime, to clear the remaining enemy and to follow and pursue. Light cavalry generally wear no armor except for a helmet. Their main weapon is the bow. There are two kinds of arrows in the quiver, one is lighter, the arrow is small and sharp, and it is used for long-distance projection, and the other is heavier, and the arrow is large and wide, which is used for shooting the enemy at close range, and the same weight Like the cavalry, they also had a knives or iron swords, which were used for short battles.

The same is true of the Shichiyo-gun light cavalry on the Southern Front, which have been rigorously trained and carefully selected. Zhao Wuxi realized early on that it is difficult to achieve good mobility without high-quality soldiers and war horses. Therefore, the cavalry of Zhao State, except Rong and Di attached to the army, were all selected from good families who brought their own horses. Those good family members in Bianjun or Yecheng were sent to the military camp when they were thirteen or fourteen years old, and received strict horse-riding shooting training. Therefore, they all possessed extraordinary skills in riding horses and using weapons. Xundong Hu people are one of a kind.

However, the strict discipline formed by these Zhao cavalry in the training process is incomparable to the rambunctious Donghu herdsmen. , without crashing.

Now, they are back, with a strong desire for revenge!

...

On the grassland upstream of the Raole River, tens of thousands of cavalrymen gathered. Smoke and dust billowed in the center of the battlefield, and there was a faint thunderous sound. It was obvious that a large number of Donghu cavalry were running continuously. The flanking attack of the gravel mountain in the east and the Rao Leshui in the west, for a while there was no way to go, so I could only try to break through the past.

However, not only were the Wugang chariots indestructible, Zhao Jun's light cavalry was not vegetarian. There were 8,000 light cavalry on the north and south lines, divided into four corners, east, west, north and south. They kept rushing out of the formation and threw themselves into the ranger battles two or three miles away from the front, fighting with the Donghu Rangers, covering the formation of infantry and heavy cavalry.

The Donghu people flexibly controlled their horses to come and go. From time to time, they used their bows to attack the rangers of the Zhao country. The Zhao army returned fire.

When fighting alone or in small-scale encounters, the Donghu people may be able to gain the upper hand in the competition by virtue of their familiarity with the terrain and skilled riding and shooting. However, in such a large-scale battle, the space for them to ride their horses is limited. After all, Zhao Jun has the advantage in equipment and tactics. Donghu Rangers can't get any advantage, and their scope of activities is constantly shrinking towards the center of the battlefield. .

After the Zhao army's light cavalry repelled the Donghu people, they sent sentry cavalry to report the situation to their own Chinese army.

"General, the rangers of the Donghu people have been repelled, and we have also contacted the postmaster. The northern army is ready and ready to attack at any time."

"Great goodness!" Sima Xuqu of Taiyuan County was overjoyed and ordered: "Wugang chariots, advance north!" He then personally rang the rumbling drums at the beginning of the battle.

After hearing the reply from the drum sound, Xinzhigou, who was in charge of commanding the light cavalry of Daijun, also waved his flag, and ordered the light cavalry on the two flanks of the southern line to start flanking the past, covering the Wugang chariot formation and driving the Donghu people to the middle.

The entire battlefield is more than ten miles long and wide. In addition to the quick communication through Shao Qibin, the two Zhao troops communicated mainly through the color of the smoke.

Zhao Jun also used wolf smoke, and after a while, red smoke mixed with red paint rose up in the wilderness in the south, like a smear of blood across the sky...

"This is the signal of the general attack." Putting down the telescopic mirror, Youcheng, who had endured for a long time, also had him wave his flag from side to side and commanded loudly, "Blow the advance horn! Kill with me, and tell the Donghu people with the sword in his hand. , Chinese men can also ride and fight, and their courage is far beyond the comparison of Hulu!"

...

"Ah woo woo!"

With the sound of several horns blowing through the grassland, 4,000 light cavalrymen began to retreat from the dogfight to the north of the battlefield, with 200 people as combat units, lined up in many parallel columns.

When the horn sounded again, the slow speed of each column brought the chaotic sound of hoofs, and the light cavalry lightly clamped the horse's belly and began to slowly increase their speed and run southward. These roughly parallel columns of light cavalry advanced in a wide arc.

The Donghu people had already sensed that this was the signal of the Zhao army launching a general attack. Liu He thought that this was because Zhao Qi was going to collide with the Donghu people head-on by relying on the sharpness of the armored soldiers. Therefore, a countermeasure was also made, and the southern attack was changed to containment. Two thousand horses were dispatched to come to the north to help. With tribes as a unit, the Donghu people, who were uneven in number, also roared and rushed towards the slowly southward Zhao Qi. go.

However, what everyone did not expect was that the first Zhao Cavalry column that encountered Donghu Forward chose to flee without a fight!

Watching that column quickly turn around and retreat to the side, the Donghu people were a little stunned, but they didn't have time to react. At this point, they did not directly rush into the cavalry formation of the Donghu people, but continued to circle in a circle and galloped towards the rear of the Donghu people's front.

There were surging horse heads everywhere, and the scene was extremely chaotic. The Donghu leaders who led the charge did not dare to be careless. Archery!

Zhao Qi might not be as good as the Donghu people who make a living by shooting and hunting, but if the enemy shoots intensively within a hundred steps, as long as the bow and crossbow in his hand is strong enough, the hit rate is naturally very impressive. For a time, the strong bow was like a violin, and an impassioned battle song was played. In the dense sound of strings, one after another Donghu people fell to the ground with arrows.

Although they also made some counterattacks, after all, Zhao Cavalry's armor was better, and for a while, the Donghu Cavalry's already ill-ordered front became more and more chaotic.

It turned out that after more than ten years of development, the tactics of Zhao Jun's cavalry have become quite flexible from the initial three-axes~www.readwn.com~. When they were training, the most common method of combat was to divide the light cavalry into many columns and advance in an arc. When the light cavalry of the first column encountered the enemy, the column would either stop advancing or retreat slightly according to the situation, while the rest of the troops continued to advance, using the arc formation to occupy the enemy's flanks and rear, and continue to harass.

This tactic forced the Donghu people to hesitate to retreat in order to protect their flanks. The light cavalry of each column took the opportunity to approach the enemy and shoot with their bows. The arrows of the Zhao army were an entire era more advanced than the stone and bone arrows of the Donghu, and casualties continued to appear. Let the Donghu cavalry more confused.

It is exactly the same as the light cavalry harassment of the Donghu people before, but it is more clever. On the contrary, it is similar to the "Lava tactic" that is most commonly used by the later Mongolians in their western expeditions. First, they harass the enemy line with an arc-shaped skirmish line and lure the enemy to waver...

But this is not the end, the real killer of this tactic is the heavy cavalry hidden behind the light cavalry...

Behind the light cavalry horses running around, a bright red color is constantly dancing. It is the red tassels on the top of the heavy cavalry's heads fluttering in the wind, like a flame that brings light in the middle of the night, which is extremely conspicuous on the bright green grassland!

ps: There will be a chapter later, the Spring Festival is over, and the normal update will resume in July. Please ask for a recommendation ticket!