There are always many reasons why the Han Heavenly Army crushed the Roman legions, and there are countless reasons: like what Han army defeated The Huns can sweep through Rome, the Sabbath Empire that defeated Crassus was evaluated by the Han as weak in military strength, and so on. Although there are endless reasons, a careful analysis will find that there is such a common point, that is, these people believe that the fundamental reason why Rome is inferior to the Han Dynasty is that the cavalry is too garbage, and the han army's cavalry is incomparable in quality and quantity.
In order to demonstrate this point of view, we may wish to look at the development of cavalry in the two civilizations of the Han Empire and Rome separately.
As early as the beginning of the Han Empire, cavalry has become an indispensable part of the Han army's power. Only at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the imperial cavalry was more immature from equipment to tactics. It is not that the Western Han Dynasty was weak at that time, but compared with the world, the development of cavalry in the entire East Asian region was very backward. Although during the Western Zhou Dynasty, the cavalry had already appeared in China, but its function was more reconnaissance. In contrast, the Scythians of the same period already had a mature classification of cavalry.
After King Hufu of Zhao Wuling rode and shot, cavalry became an important role on the battlefield of Huaxia. But even so, at that time, the cavalry of the three kingdoms of Qin, Zhao and Yan was mostly based on light horseback, and the task was still reconnaissance, harassment and capture of the flag. Even if the later Qin state had cavalry that could full-time melee combat, it could not get rid of its subordinate position on the battlefield. At this moment, at the other end of the continent, the great names of the partner cavalry and the Thessaly cavalry had been resounding for more than a hundred years, and the gap was self-evident.
At the time of the Chu-Han struggle for hegemony, under the bold exploration of a generation of war god Xiang Yu, China finally appeared as a battlefield killer of shock cavalry, which marked that since then, Chinese cavalry can break away from the infantry phalanx, thus fighting independently and becoming the protagonist of the battlefield. After the Battle of Pengcheng, the defeated Han army saw the power of the chong cavalry, and immediately followed the example of the formation, formed its own charging cavalry unit, the Langzhong cavalry, and was humiliated in the battle of Xiaxia.
Although the Han army at this time already had a very high combat effective cavalry, but forced by the attrition of successive years of conquest, as well as the inferior characteristics of the Mongolian horse's short body and poor load, the Han army's cavalry compared with the Gaulish cavalry, Parthian cavalry, Iberian cavalry and Seleucid cavalry in the same period can only be a small witch, not worth mentioning.
However, unlike the environment in Western Asia and Southern Europe, the relatively isolated East Asia, after becoming a unified empire, faced a threat mainly from the Huns from the north. In the face of the Attack of the Xiongnu, the Han Army naturally could not just passively defend. However, if they took the initiative to attack, light vehicles and infantry could not match the mobility of the Huns' light horses, so only by constantly strengthening the strength of the cavalry could they fight the Xiongnu in the desert.
Driven by this driving force, the five emperors of the early Han Dynasty were tirelessly engaged in horse politics, attaching great importance to the introduction and cultivation of good breeding horses. During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court established 36 new horse farms in Longyou on the basis of the Qinbian County's Muma Garden, and at the same time encouraged civilian horse breeding to increase the number of military horses.
During Emperor Wu's reign, Liu Che appointed the former Xiongnu prince Jin Ri (金日嘽) as a lieutenant and expanded the number of horses to an unprecedented 400,000. In addition, Emperor Wu also vigorously imported good stallions from abroad. Through the marriage with Wusun in exchange for 3,000 Wusun Tianma, and through the war forced Dawan to pay tribute to 1,000 good breeds of Dawan horses. Compared with the short Mongolian horses, the fine breeding horses from Central Asia are tall and more suitable for charge combat.
In addition to horses, the Empire also worked the equipment of cavalry. In the Han Dynasty, with the vigorous development of the metallurgical industry, the Han people had mastered the technology of hundred steelmaking, and could forge steel ring heads far superior to bronze and wrought iron, as well as steel halberds and spearheads. According to the cultural relics excavated from the tombs, the cavalry in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty already had its own standard equipment: the cavalry was mainly black armor, the armor was equipped with a shawl to protect the shoulders, some elite troops could even be equipped with a neckband collar with East Asian characteristics, and a few riders would wear iron helmets.
In the use of weapons, the Han Dynasty's chong riders loved iron halberds and iron spears, which was true of both the Western and Eastern Han Dynasties. According to the scene shown in the silk painting, the Han riders are good at attacking with a two-handed spear when attacking, considering that the Western Han Dynasty did not have stirrups and Takahashi saddles, and here the riders were required to carry out difficult riding training. According to the literature, it is often the case that the Han rider is knocked off by a counterattack when attacking.
Although the performance of the Western Han Dynasty's cavalry was very prominent, its expensive supporting equipment made the number of cavalry can only account for a small part of the total number of imperial cavalry, and the vast majority of cavalry in the empire are still equipped with half-armored or unarmored light cavalry. Their mode of warfare was no different from that of the Nomads of Central and Western Asia such as the Huns, who used Parthian tactics (slalom riding and shooting) to assist charge, light vehicles, and infantry on the battlefield.
With a powerful cavalry force, Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty was able to inflict heavy blows on the Northern Xiongnu on many occasions, and the victorious Han Empire annexed the Hexi Corridor and began to invade the Western Regions. Under the oppression of powerful force, the countries of the Western Regions submitted one after another, and the Silk Road was born.
Many of the impressions of the Silk Roads on future generations often remain only cultural and economic exchanges, but at the military level, the Silk Roads are also an important window for introducing relatively advanced military technology from West and Southeast Europe to the Far East. After Emperor Wu, the Chinese civilization could maintain a relatively strong level militarily for a long time, largely thanks to the military civilization exchanges on the Silk Road.
For example, although there were charging horses in the early and middle periods of the Western Han Dynasty, they were several grades worse than the armored riding that was already popular in West Asia during the same period. However, with the exchange of the Silk Road, in the late Western Han Dynasty, according to the "Arsenal Yongshi Four-Year Military Vehicle Catalogue", the number of vests in the arsenal at that time was as high as 5330 sets, including leather horses with "dang chest". It can be inferred from this that during this period, China may have ushered in its own half-armored cavalry.
Although historians still have doubts about this, it is undeniable that in the subsequent Eastern Han Dynasty, the half-armored cavalry was already a standing heavy horse in the land of China. We can't yet know whether The Chinese armor came from the former heavy chariots or the armored cavalry of West Asia, but the next equipment is really certain that it entered the Han Empire with the Silk Road - Takahashi Saddle.
This cavalry technology from the Parthian Empire in Western Asia really changed the development of heavy cavalry in the Han Empire, and in that era without stirrups, the impact cavalry could be knocked off the horse at any time by the counter-impact of the assault. The appearance of takahashi saddles has largely alleviated this problem. The front and rear bulging saddle bridges ensure the rider's front and rear stability, allowing the rider to focus more on clashing strikes. Correspondingly, in order to better play the impact and killing effect of the mounted, the eastern Han Heavy Cavalry was equipped with a riding spear that was significantly more than a battle axe. At the same time, according to the excavated cultural relics paintings, compared with the Western Han Dynasty Chong Riding two-handed spear attack, the Eastern Han Chong Riding is better at one-handed gun or backhand gun impact, so it is also better at attacking the infantry phalanx.
Since the long-term opponents of the Eastern Han Dynasty were still Xiongnu from the north, the Han riders still needed more lightness and high mobility, so although the Eastern Han Dynasty had been popular in the early years of the Han Dynasty, there was no substantial development and breakthrough in the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, warlords were fighting, and the opponents of the Han armies everywhere changed from lightly armored Huns to armed princes in iron armor, and the warlords' demand for armored cavalry began to become increasingly prominent. Although successive years of conquest reduced the number of Han cavalry, the proportion of heavy cavalry in the warlord armies increased significantly.
During the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao claimed that Yuan Shao had three hundred horse armors, but his own horse armor was less than ten (iron armor at the time of horse armor). After defeating Yuan Shao, Cao Cao expanded his heavy cavalry unit in a coup d'état, and by the time of the Battle of Xiliang, he already had a half-armored cavalry of about 5,000 men.
Compared with the Han Empire's love for cavalry from beginning to end, the Romans' attitude towards cavalry can be described as never paying attention to it to loving it. It is not surprising that in the early and middle period of the Roman Republic, the Roman forces had not yet rushed out of the Apennine Peninsula, and the mountainous terrain of italy was not suitable for the development of cavalry, although the Roman Republic at that time had this group of well-equipped citizen cavalry, but only as an auxiliary to the legions, it could not be compared with the old-fashioned kingdom of cavalry like Seleucus.
Even compared with the Iberian heavy cavalry and gaul heavy cavalry of the same period, the citizen cavalry of the republic was more defeated than less. To be able to have the hegemony that later crossed the Mediterranean, the Romans relied on heavy infantry legions. But large legions fought in the wilderness, and the mobility of the army was essential, that is, the Romans had to be equipped with cavalry anyway. However, since their own cavalry is unreliable, they should use someone else's. So while conquering the Mediterranean world, the Romans also used all means to win the cavalry kingdom into their allies and cooperate with themselves.
For example, in the Battle of Magnesia against Seleucus, the Romans defeated Seleucus's "ironclad can" with the heavy horse charge of their ally the Kingdom of Gapama; in the Battle of Zama, the Spanish cavalry that the Romans were able to finally defeat Hannibal also relied on the heavy cavalry of their ally Numidian Kingdom.
After Malleus' reforms, the citizen army became a professional recruit, and the weak citizen cavalry disappeared. Anyway, with a strong foreign cavalry to rely on, it is enough to grasp the two cards of the legionary infantry and artillery units. The Romans held this idea until they met the Parthians.
At the Battle of Calais in 54 BC, Crassus led his army deep into the Mesopotamian plains alone in the absence of supplies, and was subsequently attacked by Parthian cavalry. Although the defeat of the Romans in this war was mainly due to Crassus's repeated command errors, because from the later history of the Roman-Parthian War, the legionary infantry combined with the Roman light infantry could completely kill the Parthian cavalry in large numbers, supplies and geographical advantages. But the Romans still found some problems in this war -- the Gallic cavalry, although brave, was only a group of lambs to be slaughtered in front of the well-equipped and well-trained Parthian armored cavalry.
It was imperative to build a heavy cavalry of your own.
Time entered the imperial era, and the Romans established special cavalry auxiliary legions on the basis of foreign cavalry, which were equipped with complete lock armor or scale armor, and held specialized short spears, Roman swords and large oval shields. During combat, he was responsible for the safety of the two wings of the legion's infantry, destroying the impact tactics of the opponent's charge through the attack tactics, and instead dragging the opponent into the melee combat that he was better at.
With the help of heavy cavalry, the Romans gradually narrowed the gap with the Parthians in cavalry combat. However, the fear of the Parthians' ironclad armor and heavy horses did not dissipate, and the Romans knew that they must have an equally powerful armored cavalry to maintain their interests in the east for a long time.
It so happened that one of the Scythians, the Sarmatians, joined the Roman legions, and in addition to bringing a large number of archers, they also brought to the Roman emperor something that he dreamed of on the eastern battlefields—the ironclad horse.
The Sarmatians were not allies of the Romans, and in fact they often caused the Romans a lot of trouble in the Danube Valley, but there were still many Salmas who were willing to accept The Roman conscription to become mercenary cavalry and fight against the Persians from the east.
After several upheavals in imperial power in the third century, the formation of the Roman legions changed again. Because of the economic devastation and the endless rebellions that occurred in the lower layers of the vast territory, the Roman legionary infantry that had made the Empire proud were now an expensive burden. Along the long border, the mobility of heavy infantry was clearly no longer sufficient to deal with the barbarian warriors who were always infested. Years of conquest and excessive territory made roman citizens alone insufficient to replenish the legionary infantry in constant demand.
In order to fill the population deficit, the Empire had to continuously recruit barbarian warriors to join the Roman legions, and constantly reduce infantry expenditure to strengthen the more mobile Roman cavalry.
The changes in the Roman military system and the addition of the Sarmatians heralded the end of the era of legionary infantry, and the Roman cavalry finally rose to the rank of legionary elite as auxiliary legions on the battlefield.
For many years, the daughter-in-law has become a mother-in-law, but unfortunately, the power is still lacking in the fire.
It may be that the infantry played too slippery, and the Romans, who suddenly switched to cavalry hands, suddenly stopped fighting.
In 356 AD, the Romans confronted the Germanic Alemans in Cologne. With superior equipment and numbers, the Romans narrowly lost the battle because of the premature use of chargeback, but were caught off guard by the light infantry of the Alemans. In the end, it was only thanks to the heavy infantry and archers who had already reached the end of the mountain that they were able to save Ichijō.
At the moment, the Roman cavalry was still under-reformed, but time was running out for him.
However, in 395 AD, the Roman Emperor Theodosius divided the land among his two sons after his death, and the empire was divided into two Romes, East and West.
Immediately after, the Romans ushered in the Gothic Crisis and wave after wave of barbarian invasions. In the wave of great migration, Western Rome could not hold up and took the lead in extinction. The Eastern Romans, with the help of the Peoples of the East, escaped the crisis and regained their footing on the shores of the Mediterranean After a period of recuperation.
More fortunately, after two centuries of exploration, the Eastern Empire finally mastered the use of armored heavy horses, and fought a century-long duel with the strongest Persian Sassanid armored cavalry at that time.
But rome at this time, or Rome?
Returning to the original question, in general, the equipment of the Roman cavalry was superior to that of the Han for a long time, especially in terms of armor, which was mainly a difference in the level of technology. However, from the perspective of battle records, although the Roman cavalry became the main force in the end, it was not until the Eastern Empire period that it was able to continuously produce decent results, while the cavalry of the Han Empire created amazing results again and again.
The picture is shared from the headline number: Lao Sun's Firearms Workshop