The history of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period can also be said to be a history of reform. In the history of various countries, internal reforms have basically been carried out, but among the many reforms, Zhao Guo's Hufu Riding Archery is a successful reform among them. Those who are familiar with this history probably know its ins and outs. That is, Zhao Guo learned the way of life of the Hu people, which was met with a lot of resistance, but king Wuling of Zhao still desperately promoted it. Why did King Wuling of Zhao have to carry out this reform despite his opposition? Why is its impact so far-reaching?
King Wuling of Zhao can be said to be an outstanding politician and military expert at that time, why should he learn the skills of the Hu people? You know, how to deal with the invasion of nomadic peoples since ancient times has been a thorny problem. The Zhao State in the Spring and Autumn Period also faced the same problems. Zhao Guo was very, very close to Lou Fu, Dong Hu, and Lin Hu. Every time the Zhao state was at war with other countries in the Central Plains, these Hu people would take advantage of the fire and loot, posing a great threat to the Zhao state. The cavalry was excellent and very lightly equipped. However, in the Central Plains, there were generally vehicle soldiers and infantry fighting, and it was difficult to defeat the Hu people, which gave King Wuling of Zhao a great inspiration.
In addition to the three hu tigers looking at Zhao Guo, the surrounding situation is also very grim. There is the State of Zhongshan, the State of Yan to the north, and in addition to the Hu people in the west, there are also the States of Qin and Korea. If you want to turn your weaknesses into advantages, you can only strengthen yourself. Other countries are implementing the change law, such as the Wu Qi change law and the Li Wu change law, which have played a great role in these countries. And if Zhao Guo wants to stand out from these countries, he must also change the law and become stronger. He saw the advantages of the Hu people and was determined to learn from them and turn the disadvantages into advantages. He was determined to abandon Zhao Guo's original military system and learn from it. However, after this reform was proposed, it was opposed by both the government and the public. King Wuling of Zhao demanded that the people wear bearded clothes, and many people were not happy. In particular, King Wuling's uncle Gongzi Cheng, who directly and non-violently did not cooperate, claiming that he was ill and did not come to the court, which added a lot of resistance to king Zhao Wuling's reform.
King Wuling of Zhao sent someone to explain to Gongzi Cheng that now he wanted to implement the change of law, and if his uncle did not set a good example, this change of law would not be able to continue. Gongzi Cheng replied: We are the Central Plains region, a place of etiquette and indoctrination, and we want to learn from foreign tribes, doesn't this make people laugh off their teeth? I hope that King Zhao can reconsider the matter of changing the law. Why do these people, led by Gongzicheng, oppose the change of law? This also has to start from the conceptual point of view, the Huayi debate has been a horizontal ditch between nationalities since ancient times. Han Chinese living in the Central Plains often claim to be Chinese. The ethnic minorities that are still around the clan tribes are collectively called "Yi". Especially after the Zhou Dynasty, the Lile culture flourished, and there was contempt for the relatively backward Yidi. Like "inner xia and outer Yidi", this is the embodiment of this concept. Under the influence of the "Huayi Debate", the peoples of the Central Plains despised the foreign nationalities very much. Therefore, when King Wuling of Zhao proposed to learn from the Hu people, he was very opposed to them.
Of course, King Zhao Wuling did not give up and came to the door again to explain the reason for this. He and Gongzi cheng explained why they did this bitterly. Judging from the external situation, Zhao Guo is not optimistic. Before a small Zhongshan country, it almost hung our country, which was a great shame. Therefore, if the country wants to become strong, it can only learn from the advantages of the Hu people. After convincing Gongziguang, the reform was finally carried out smoothly. In 307 BC, the reform of Hufu riding and shooting began to be implemented. What is the core and content of the reform? In addition to wearing bearded clothes, it is also necessary to learn the military techniques of the northern peoples and create a new type of cavalry team. In the process of forming the cavalry, this was greatly reformed. The first is the recruitment of cavalry, the original way of recruiting soldiers in Zhao Guo is in a fixed way, and the men of each family, when they reach a certain age, must perform military service on time.
But to form a cavalry force, some recruits simply cannot learn their skills in a short period of time. But there are some men close to the Hu area who are often very familiar with this in order to resist the invasion. To this end, the state has absorbed these soldiers with generous treatment. As a result, a large number of soldiers were recruited. In addition to selecting his own excellent soldiers, King Wuling of Zhao also absorbed excellent Hu soldiers into the team. When King Wuling of Zhao was 20 years old, he recruited a large number of Hu people in these areas such as Lou Fu and joined the ranks of cavalry, which can be said to be a very bold attempt. The cavalry has it, and the next step is to choose the venue for the first training. In addition to setting up a training ground in Handan, the capital of the Zhao Kingdom, King Wuling of Zhao also chose the place of Yuanyang, why did he choose it? Let's take a look at the geographical location of Yuanyang, probably in the current Inner Mongolia region, which is suitable for the base where the cavalry is trained.
If you want to form a cavalry, an important tool is to select the best horses, like the horses of the Zhao Kingdom, which are very weak and cannot exert real power when fighting. For this reason, it must be suitable for fighting horses, and horses here in Yuanping are very good choices. In addition, King Wuling of Zhao's army also defeated Lin Hu, and Lin Hu was forced to provide Zhao guo with many excellent horses, which greatly promoted the ability to fight. In addition to good horses, combat weapons are also very important. The Hu people often use weapons such as bows and arrows and spears in their own battles, so they use such weapons in large quantities. In the early years, a cultural relic was unearthed in Luoyang, which showed the cavalry fighting with swords, which can be seen in the state of the cavalry at that time.
In addition to the reform of riding and shooting, great innovations have also been made in clothing, which is also to adapt to the habit of fighting on horseback. Like the crown of the mink cicada used in the crown, it is decorated with bird feathers. The crown worn by the military attaché is also decorated with pheasant feathers. Like the usual soldier hat is a minion hat, convenient for combat.
The shoes also changed the original shoes into the boots of the Hu people. The clothes of cavalry combat adapted to the needs of combat, and the original heavy armor was changed to lightening, which also facilitated cavalry combat. After the zhao wuling king carried out reforms, he achieved great results. This is also a major innovation in military history, and the original cavalry is gradually replaced by cavalry. The habit of fighting at once is not there at this time. The fashion of horseback riding also began to appear in the Spring and Autumn Period, and it was not widely used in the military. It was not until the reform of King Wuling of Zhao that cavalry was widely used in the military, which greatly improved the ability to fight. Only a year after the reform was successfully implemented, Zhao Guo seized the opportunity to launch an attack on the surrounding Hu people and achieved success. In the 21st year of King Wuling of Zhao, he launched successive attacks on the Zhongshan Kingdom. It was not until King Huiwen of Zhao succeeded to the throne that the country of Zhongshan was finally destroyed.
The reform of Hufu Riding and Shooting was successful, and the military strength of the Zhao State was gradually improved. In the later period, it became a point where it could compete with the state of Qin, a country of tigers and wolves, and excellent generals such as Lian Po also emerged. It can be said that the hufu riding archery reform saved the Zhao state.