In the great peasant uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the rebel army crushed the heavily equipped Sui Dynasty army with high morale and flexible and mobile combat methods, and also destroyed the clan gate valve system and the tribal private army system on which the heavily armored cavalry depended.
In the war, the contest between light cavalry and heavy cavalry was manifested in the contest of mobility and armor protection, which eventually led to the re-emergence of light cavalry as the main service. But the heavily armored cavalry remained, but it was no longer as important as the light cavalry.
In the Tang army, the number of cavalry was extremely large, and the total infantry and horse ratio was about 3:1, which was unattainable by other generations. The Tang Dynasty was the heyday of the cavalry of the Central Dynasty and the heyday of the Central Dynasty.
Since the Qin and Han dynasties, Tang ma has been the most prosperous.
Li Yuan raised an army in Taiyuan and received the help of 2,000 Turkic horses, some 3,000 Sui horses, and oversaw the pasture at Longyou, which was the earliest cavalry base of the Tang army. Since then, horse breeding has become increasingly popular, and attention has been paid to learning the lessons of the previous dynasty, paying attention to horse breeding methods, and often buying good breeding horses from northern nomads to cross, and the horses are even stronger. Its number is more than that of the Han Dynasty, from Zhenguan to Linde, with 700,000 horses. All horses used for conquest, choose a good horse, must be strong. Due to the excellent breeding of horses and the use of horses, the horses of the Tang Army's war horses in the Turkic Western Regions were not inferior, not like the Han Dynasty, although there were many horses, the quality was not very good. After Tianbao, all the military horses moved tens of thousands
。
Horse politics was the material basis for building a strong cavalry, so the tang dynasty cavalry strength was superior to that of all dynasties.
The Tang Army was good at war, and there were reasons for its social level. After the Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains were in turmoil, the Hu people competed to enter the Central Plains, divided into territory for many years, frequent wars, bandits, the people in order to protect themselves, can only unite with each other, so they have erected fortresses, trees are high, everyone practices bows and knives, the people's customs are fierce; and many family door valves do their best to develop private soldiers in order to protect themselves or annex weak. These private soldiers are not only numerous (assembled to be the main army of the country), but also well equipped (a large number of heavily armored cavalry), conquest for many years, and fierce soldiers; coupled with the integration of a large number of Hu people into the Han nationality, the courage of the Han people has increased suddenly. In the early Tang Dynasty, it inherited this open and brave folk style.
In the early Period of the Kaibian War, especially in the Taizong period, Tang implemented the strategy of using Yi to control Yi, and most of each war received military support or logistical support from the nomadic people in the northwest, and Tang soldiers were brave and good at war, and each battle won many battles, and the number of officers and horses increased, so the number of officials and horses increased without decreasing; and to the Anshi Rebellion, the internal and external difficulties, the Cut off of China and the West, and the Turks rebelled, so the Ma government tended to decline, coupled with the long period of peace, the people's customs did not return to the year, the prefectural military system was destroyed, and a large number of recruits could not fight, so the military strength deteriorated extremely seriously.
The military system of the Tang Dynasty was the fu military system, and the military government was scattered throughout the country, called wei fu, and in wartime, it was assembled and marched out, and there were border soldiers in important border towns, and it was also the prefectural soldiers who took turns to recruit. The prefectural soldiers are soldiers for life, serving in the army regularly every year, and returning to their hometowns at the end of their term. When serving in the army, it is necessary to bring their own weapons, food, clothing, horses, etc. Because of the prevalence of civilian horse breeding, there is no shortage of horses in the army, even if it is an infantry army, it is also equipped with a large number of horses, so the Tang army marches very fast.
The Tang army was organized, with the team as the basic tactical unit, a team of 50 people, jurisdiction over 5 fires (gangs), each fire had 6 pack horses (infantry). Above the regiment is the regiment, and above the regiment is the army. The general went out on a campaign, about 20,000 troops, divided into 7 armies (such as soldiers, subordinate powers), for the front, rear, left, right army and left, right Yu Hou army (Yu Hou Army, similar to the Janissaries). This 20,000 people, 14,000 combat troops, 6,000 heavy soldiers. Among the 14,000 combat soldiers, 10,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, they belonged to the Seventh Army, which was the largest number of The Chinese Army and the other Six Armies were similar. Among the infantry, there are 2,000 crossbowmen, 2,200 archers, and 2,900 jumpers (commandos) and 2,900 odd men (reserves). Judging from the proportion of various branches of the army, among the combat soldiers, the cavalry is the largest, and the main force in the ten cavalry armies is undoubted. There are powerful cavalry and the combat effectiveness of the Tang army, needless to say.
Tang Dynasty cavalry equipment, more mature. Cavalry short soldiers, all using knives (commanders or swords), long soldiers popular use of horse mallets (spear length of 1 zhang 8 feet for the hammer), there are also axes, such as Cheng Zhijie (Cheng biting gold), long-distance warfare with bows and crossbows. Li Shimin was extremely good at shooting, and he shot a hundred shots in the chaotic army. Wei Chi Jingde (尉迟恭) is extremely good at making horses, and although he is in a chaotic position, the enemy cannot be neutralized, and he can seize the enemy's hammer and stab him back. Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, was strong in martial arts, and Chi Jingde, the commander of Wenwei, had this ability, and wanted to compete with Yi, and ordered each of them to remove his blade to try it (pull out the spearhead, so as not to be injured by mistake). Wei Chi Jingde said: If the subject goes, the great king will not be bound." So they stabbed each other back and forth, and Li Yuanji could never stab. Li Shimin asked Wei Chi Jingde: What is the difficulty of avoiding people's hammers and snatching people's hammers? Right: It's hard to take away. Li Shimindao: Try to take it. Therefore, Wei Chi Jingde confronted Li Yuanji, the King of Qi, with his empty hand, and Li Yuanji annoyed him with contempt, and held the hammer to stab him, and repeatedly could not hit it, but Wei Chi Jingde snatched the long hammer in his hand three times in succession.
Tang Dynasty cavalry tactics, the most prominent, when pushing light cavalry surprise attacks and rapid attacks. To this end, the main force of light cavalry was often concentrated for long-range attacks. Li Shimin and Li Jing were both masters of using cavalry to carry out surprise attacks (the method of using troops by these two people, see below), such as Li Shimin leading cavalry to besiege Xue Rengao, and Li Jing attacking Dingxiang with 3,000 horses at night. This method of warfare, which was surprisingly victorious, was used until the Later Tang Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty, and even the infantry used this method, such as the Battle of Li Jingping and Xiao Milling.
In addition, the tang dynasty cavalry tactics also paid special attention to the coordination of infantry and horses, each using its own strengths to exert its comprehensive combat effectiveness, such as the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi's two battles to recover Chang'an and Luoyang, both with infantry in front and Hui cavalry attacking its flank, thus succeeding.
In the Tang Dynasty, there were many examples of using light cavalry to win battles, and now we choose one or two to entertain everyone.
1． Battle of Huoyi.
Li Yuan sent an army to Taiyuan to enter Guanzhong, and Sui led Song Laosheng to lead elite troops to defend Huoyi. Li Yuan was not allowed to advance, and there was a dilemma, so Li Shimin resolutely asked for battle, so he decided to attack. Li Yuan and Shizi Li Jiancheng deployed the array with the east of the city, and Li Shimin led the troops to the south of the city. Song Laosheng attacked Li Yuan, so Li Yuan led his troops to retreat slightly, Song Laosheng pursued, and Li Shimin himself led the elite horse to lead the troops to attack the side of Song Laosheng's troops from the south, defeated them, and finally killed Song Laosheng.
2． Battle of Pingxue Rengao (Second Battle of Shallow Water Plains)
Li Shimin, the King of Qin, refused to allow Xue Rengao's general Zong Luo to be throated in the shallow water plains, and the walls could not be found, but he ordered the jing to ride and copy the enemy's grain road. When Li Shimin came, he ordered his subordinates to line up Pang Yu and the shallow water plains to lure the enemy to attack, and Zong Luo's throat really attacked with all his might, and Li Shimin led a large army, with cavalry as the vanguard, to attack the enemy's flank and was defeated. So he took advantage of the victory to attack, surrounded Xue Rengao in the rear, and lowered him.
3． Battle of Pingding Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande (Battle of Tiger Prison Pass)
In the fourth year of Wude, Li Shimin, the king of Qin, led an army to besiege Wang Shichong of Luoyang, attacking his outlying strongholds first, and every time Wang Shichong went out of the city to support, Li Shimin took the cavalry as the forward and rushed to his position, winning every battle. Wang Shichong was trapped and could only retreat to the city and not fight again, so Li Shimin completed the full siege of Luoyang. Wang Shichong asked Dou Jiande for help, and Dou Jiande was deeply afraid that the Tang army would sit on the throne, so he led his troops westward to relieve the siege of Luoyang. Li Shimin quickly occupied the Tiger Prison Pass, blocking Dou Jiande outside the pass, holding the wall out, while sending cavalry to harass his flank and often attacking his grain troops. Dou Jiande was tired of it, and deployed his positions every day, but he sought a quick battle. Li Shimin took advantage of the long line of troops and the fatigue of his soldiers, so he took the elite cavalry as the forward and directly attacked his position, and the large army followed. The Tang army arrived suddenly, and Dou Jiande was defenseless and was greatly passive. Li Shimin's cavalry penetrated the enemy position several times, came and went several times, and then raised the Tang army banner behind Dou Jiande's front, so the enemy collapsed, Li Shimin led the cavalry to pursue closely, and Dou Jiande was captured by the Tang generals Bai Shirang and Yang Wuwei. Therefore, the Tang army besieged Luoyang again, and Wang Shichong surrendered.
In this battle, Li Shimin pacified erxiong, the merit of the cavalry, the great!
4． The Battle of the Eastern Turks
On the fourth day of the first month of June in the ninth year of Wude (626), the Xuanwumen Incident took the actual imperial power of Li Shimin, the king of Qin, on the seventh day of the first month; on the ninth day of August, Li Shimin was enthroned by Zen as Emperor Taizong; on the twenty-eighth day of the same month, the Second Khan of the Turkic Jieli Tuli led his troops directly to the shore of Weishui, which was the "shame of Weishui". From the second year of Wude to the ninth year of Wude, the Turks entered the Kou as many as eight times, Emperor Taizong took the throne, and the world was initially determined, so they exerted great efforts to govern, trained soldiers, appointed xianneng, selected armored soldiers, and even personally led soldiers to train troops in the Xiande Hall, and the ministers could not stop. Within a few years, the country was strong. The Turks suffered years of catastrophes, first heavy snow, then drought, livestock deaths, coupled with the fact that Jieli Khan was unclear in government, there were many defections, and Emperor Taizong alienated Jieli and Tuli's uncles and nephews, and the Eastern Turks gradually weakened. Emperor Taizong thought that the conditions were ripe, so he decided to conquer the Eastern Turks. In November of the third year of Zhenguan, the Fifth Route Army attacked the Turks, and Li Shiji was made the commander-in-chief of the march. In the first month of the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing raided Dingxiang with 3,000 cavalry and broke it. Jie Li was shocked for a day, so he pretended to ask for an attachment, but in fact he was waiting and seeing, and wanted to flee back to the north of the desert. Emperor Taizong ordered Tang Jian to meet with JieLi, and Jieli was overjoyed to see it, and was not defensive. Therefore, Li Jingli dismissed the public opinion and asked to raid Jieli, and Li Shiji obeyed. Li Jing took Su Dingfang's lead of 200 first, would fog at night, and went to the tooth tent for seven miles, and Jie Li found out. When the army arrived, Jieli fled, and the Tang army beheaded more than 10,000 people, captured more than 100,000 men and women, and hundreds of thousands of livestock. JieLi fled to the moraine pass, but Unexpectedly, Li Shiji had already led the troops to wait, and he captured as many people as possible, and Jieli escaped on horseback. Wanting to run to Tuguhun, his subordinate Suni lost his troops feared the Tang army and sacrificed Jieli to the Tang army.
(Postscript: After this battle, the Eastern Turks weakened their power, and the remnants supported Hu Bo as the Great Khan, and built an account north of jinshan, disobeying the Tang Dynasty.) For twenty-three years, Zhenguan attacked it with a high voice, and his people looked down on it. ）
In this battle, Li Jinggong was the biggest. In this battle, the prestige of the Tang Dynasty shook the world, so the four Yi submitted one after another, and asked Emperor Taizong to honor him as "Heavenly Khan" (meaning a khan as vast as the sky, and can also be said to be the khan of all the peoples under the world, and his title is compared with Genghis Khan. Genghis Khan, khan as vast as the sea). The central dynasty is famous and famous, no more than Tang.
5． In the winter of the eighth year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong decided to conquer Tuguhun and appointed Li Jing as the commander-in-chief of the March of the Western Sea Route to control the Five Roads Army. The cause of this war was that Tuguhun repeatedly harassed the tang border, and the local Western Qiang tribes also rebelled against The Tang and returned to Tuguhun. The armies marched west along the banks of the Yellow River to Yanzhou, where Murong Fuyun, the Khan of Tuguhun, retreated without a fight, Li Jing ordered Li Daozong's cavalry to pursue, and Murong Fuyun defended At Kushan. When the army arrived, Li Daozong attacked him with cavalry across the mountain, Murong Fuyun's army collapsed and left, Tang All pursued him closely, Murong Fuyun's father and son were separated, and the monarchs and subjects were lost. Murong Fuyun fled westward, and the generals were not born with spring grass, and Tang Ma was thin and unfit to attack, but Hou Junji insisted on pursuing, which was in line with Li Jing's intentions. Therefore, the army was divided into two routes, advancing north and south side by side, carrying out pincer-shaped attacks, successively fighting at Mantou Mountain and Chishuiyuan, and attacking the capital city of Tuguhun. Murong Fuyun abandoned the city and fled, burning all the weeds and retreating to The Great Fei River to stop the Tang army, but Li Jing still ordered the Tang army to remain in hot pursuit. Murong Fuyun was extremely poor and had no way to escape, and was killed by the left and right. In this battle, the Tang army pursued extremely far, especially the Hou army's headquarters, crossing the Starry Sea and crossing the Qaidam Basin, a journey of thousands of miles, comparable to the Han Dynasty Huo's disease sweeping the Qilian Mountains.