In the long history of mankind, the time for war is much longer than the time for peace, and where there are people, there will be conflicts, and there will be wars. In China's classical masterpiece "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is said that "the general trend of the world will be united for a long time, and it will be divided for a long time." ”
There were many classic battles in ancient China, and these battles are described in literature as very spectacular. Often the two armies have to fight for days and nights, and when fighting, don't those ancient soldiers need to eat, drink, and rest?
1. Ancient warfare
Living in the present, we can often only understand what kind of scenes ancient wars were through film and television dramas or scenes described in literary works. For a long time in ancient warfare, the weapons used by both the enemy and us were cold weapons, and cold weapons with blades such as knives and swords looked full of wild beauty when fighting.
In ancient times, the "human sea tactics" were most commonly used in combat, and in the case of a large number of people, the use of cold weapons to fight would give people a strong visual impact. Therefore, whenever any ancient war movie or ancient style TV series, the conditional crew will inevitably add a long shot of the two armies fighting, making people feel the violence and cruelty of war.
But there is a saying that goes, "Art comes from life and is higher than life". Most modern people's understanding of ancient warfare is often artistically processed. In other words, what happened in real ancient wars is often very different from what is presented in film and television works.
The book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a must-read list for primary and secondary school students, and many people have read this book when they are young and like it when they grow up. Because the book is so classic and profound, it is often adapted into TV series and movies.
The Three Kingdoms period was another period of frequent wars in China's ancient history, so there are many war scenes in the book. These classic war scenes will also be presented to the audience as a classic memory when remade, but the impression of ancient warfare in these memories is wrong.
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", if a general proposes a single challenge before the two armies fight, it is after all that the two armies will lead the single-handed division to determine the victory or defeat of this battle. The general who single-handedly failed was directly beheaded under the horse, which meant the end of the battle.
But in fact, on the battlefield in ancient times, the two armies have opened up and prepared for battle, and it is impossible to have a single situation. For example, the classic shot of the ancient two armies fighting is a general with high martial arts riding on a horse, leading his own cavalry to rush to the opponent's infantry line, and killing back and forth in the infantry line with the advantage of fighting on horseback.
Such a scene does seem to make people feel "blood boiling", but it will not appear in the real battlefield. Cavalry are often protected winning formulas, and their main advantage is long-range attack. Sit on horseback and shoot arrows at the enemy camp, taking the enemy's lead a few hundred meters away. Archers can also shoot arrows on a large scale, but they are not as mobile as cavalry.
Melee combat is the key to victory and defeat between infantry, when will cavalry kill people with sabers? Only when their own infantry camp collapses will the cavalry take their sabers into battle to kill the enemy. In addition, in some film and television works, because the directors and screenwriters did not do their homework well, the war scenes they shot were like some people fighting in groups, often without a little rule.
It looks very chaotic, like simply amplifying the battle of several people to hundreds of people and thousands of people, some people with weapons from day to night, giving people the feeling of fighting all the time. Soldiers are like emotionless robots, without normal eating and drinking, and without rest. What was real warfare like in ancient times? Do soldiers have time to solve personal problems?
Second, the real ancient war
The more I understand history, the more I feel that I cannot underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, what was the real war in ancient times? In ancient times, when the Central Plains people fought, they mainly engaged in infantry combat, and before the battle, they often had cavalry to shoot arrows at the enemy. Why are there so many infantry?
This is actually very easy to understand, the number of horses in the Central Plains is not as large as that of nomadic people, so war horses are very precious. Cavalry is generally a long-range fighter who shoots arrows at the enemy behind the infantry, and the entire combat team is centered on a strong bow and crossbow.
When arranging the battle, the front of the army is the horse-rejecting array, and after preventing the other side from being defeated by the other side, the cavalry comes and kills the ring, making the defeat irreversible. Go to this rear is to defend the opponent's bow and arrow sword and shield soldiers, to maximize the protection of their own warriors from being shot.
Spearmen with spears will also be in this position, increasing the lethality of their own battles. Behind the sword and shield soldiers and spearmen are archers and crossbowmen, mainly responsible for medium-range and long-range lethality.
Cavalry is very precious and very important, so it is generally placed in the rear or flank of the infantry camp, in order to facilitate the cavalry to move, it will also leave a corresponding gap in the infantry camp. Like this, each class of soldiers is where they should be, that is, the ancients lined up in battle.
Whenever there were a large number of battles in ancient times, they would have their own methods of platooning and arranging troops, and excellent generals could make the most appropriate deployment method according to the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and us, and the differences in terrain, and finally win.
Therefore, the larger the engagement, the more the generals on both sides paid attention to the arrangement of troops. When the two sides enter a stalemate, the war often lasts for a long time, so how can the soldiers of the two armies ensure that they have sufficient physical strength during such a long period of combat? This is related to the method of warfare at that time.
Third, the soldiers eat and drink Lazar normally
In ancient warfare, soldiers did not fight like in the film and television drama, a soldier to a soldier's fight, such a "single soldier combat" is fine when there are few people, and it will be very chaotic when there are many people.
In order to solve this kind of chaos, the ancients often arranged five people for one "team", ten people for one "team", and fifty people for one "team" when deploying the formation. In order to ensure that these soldiers can maximize their tacit understanding after going to the battlefield, they will also deliberately let them train together in peacetime training, get along day and night, and cultivate brotherly feelings and combat tacit understanding.
In the training, it will also be deliberately emphasized that these five people are five people who live and die, and no one can be left behind except death. In ancient times, conscription was often a village of people grouped together, a family of people together, which also ensured that people can trust each other, but also to ensure that no one will escape.
The engagement between the two armies has entered a stalemate stage, and often the units, teams, and brigades will be rotated to ensure that each soldier's single combat time will not exceed three hours, and the replaced soldiers can eat and drink normally.
4. Summary
In ancient warfare, although there were cases where the battle lasted up to one day and one night, the soldiers usually rotated and rested, so each soldier's single battle time was not too long, and the rest of the time could be normally rested, and the wisdom of the ancients was really not to be underestimated by today's people.