First of all, the history books do mention the case of a man who killed hundreds of people with cold weapons.
For example, the "History of Xiang Yu Benji" mentions that Xiang Yu's soldiers were defeated and broke through with eight hundred cavalry. By the time Xiang Yu reached Wujiang, most of his men had already lost most of them, and only twenty-six men were left to follow. The chief of Wujiang Pavilion persuaded Xiang Yu to cross the river back to Jiangdong, and Xiang Yu felt that he had no face to see Jiangdong's father and elder, so he gave the wuqi horse to the chief of the pavilion, and he took his men to dismount on foot to meet the Han army.
In the battle, Xiang Yu alone killed hundreds of people. It wasn't until his men were completely damaged and Xiang Yu himself suffered more than a dozen injuries that he committed suicide and ended the battle.
(Xiang Yu) ordered all the riders to dismount on foot and engage in battle with short troops. The Han army killed hundreds of people.
There is also a "Biography of Song Shi Yang Zaixing" that mentions that when the Battle of Gaocheng, Yang Zaixing single-handedly entered the Jin army and wanted to capture Jin Wushu alive. But there were too many Golden Troops, and he killed hundreds of Golden Soldiers before returning.
Zaixing rode into his army alone, but did not succeed in his capture, killing hundreds of people by hand and returning.
The "Song Shi Zhi Heng Biography" also records that when the Northern Song Dynasty King Shunchen was fighting the rebellious Qiang people, the main general was surrounded by a large army of soldiers who died in battle, and he first fired arrows and killed seven of the opposing cavalry pioneers, buying time for the reorganization of the troops. In the four-hour battle that followed, Wang Shunchen fired thousands more arrows, and countless Qiang people died under his arrows, eventually repelling the rebel attack.
(Wang Shunchen) drew three shots of bows, three of them, all in the middle; the remaining four men walked backwards, targeting their backs. Wan Qi was stunned and could not dare to go forward, and Shunchen had to reorganize the crowd. Shu Shu, Qiang Fu Lai. Shunchen self-shen and unitary, draw more than a thousand hairs, no vain.
Of course, these accounts may be exaggerated, but in fact there are not so many enemies killed. After all, even if the opponent does not resist, it is very physically demanding to kill hundreds of people, even if it is a person who is born with divine power, it is difficult to do it.
But these records at least show that it is still possible for one person to kill a large number of enemies in the era of cold weapons, and it is not surprising that this situation occurs.
First of all, the ancient fierce generals were significantly stronger than ordinary soldiers.
In ancient times, the living standards of ordinary people were relatively low, and it was good to be able to eat enough. In contrast, the food of the military generals is guaranteed. In this way, the physique of the warrior is significantly better than that of the low-level soldiers.
For example, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" mentions that Zhang Fei is "majestic and majestic", Zhao Yun is "majestic in appearance", and many portraits of ancient fierce generals are also large waists and rounds, which are very powerful at a glance.
The so-called "body strength does not lose", the physique of the military general is stronger than that of ordinary soldiers, the strength is naturally greater, and it occupies a great advantage in hand-to-hand combat.
Secondly, the equipment of military generals should also be better than that of ordinary soldiers.
The weapons and armor equipped by ancient armies are all handmade by craftsmen, and the quality of the craftsmen's craftsmanship directly affects the quality of weapons and armor. Moreover, because of the complexity of processing, the armor, especially the iron armor, takes a long time, so many ordinary soldiers can only wear light armor such as leather armor, or even no armor at all. For example, even in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the armor rate of soldiers was only about 60%.
And senior generals naturally don't have to worry about this problem, and some fierce generals who charge into the battlefield are even more likely to wear heavy armor. Like Dianwei in the Battle of Puyang Xizhai, he wore double armor and charged into battle.
(Dianwei) heavy clothes and two armor, abandoning the rafter, but holding a spear to stir the halberd
In this case, the military general can easily kill and injure ordinary soldiers, but it is more difficult for ordinary soldiers to hurt the other side.
Third, the martial arts of the fierce generals are also much stronger than those of ordinary people.
In hand-to-hand combat, the level of martial arts is also very important for the outcome of the battle. In ancient times, many martial artists were highly skilled in martial arts, and it was difficult for ordinary people to fight against the enemy.
For example, Guan Yu rushed directly at Yan Liang, the commander of the Yuan army, in the Battle of White Horse, and the generals of the Yuan army naturally did not let him easily succeed and came to intercept him. However, none of them were Guan Yu's opponents, and they could only watch him rush to Yan Liang's side and kill Yan Liang. It can be seen that Guan Yu's martial arts are obviously much stronger than those of ordinary people.
In the face of such a master, don't say one-on-one, that is, several people go up together to besiege, it is also difficult to win. It is likely that the other party will have to wait for the physical exertion to be almost exhausted before killing him.
Fourth, when facing a fierce general, many people are likely to collapse and dare not fight each other to the death.
Although it was said earlier that military generals have so many advantages over ordinary soldiers, if hundreds of soldiers are not afraid to die and go up to besiege, no matter how powerful the fierce general is, it is not three heads and six arms, it will definitely be difficult to stop.
The problem is that the face-to-face fight is cruel and bloody, if it is not a person who has been in the battlefield for a long time, after seeing the other side of a fierce general continuously chopping melons and cutting vegetables and killing many people, it is likely that they will not dare to fight with each other to the death, but think of fleeing.
In this case, the large number of people is not only not an advantage, but may even cause a large number of deaths and injuries due to panic and run away, trampling on each other.
Therefore, in cold weapon battles, it is still possible for one person to kill a large number of enemies.
Of course, we also need to note that in the aforementioned examples of warfare, fierce generals who can kill hundreds of people by one person are often surrounded by people to help fight. Although this does not change the disadvantage of being inferior in numbers, if someone provides cover from the side, the fierce general can concentrate on the front. And Wang Shunchen relied on the cover of his comrades-in-arms to concentrate on archery.
If you really rely on one person to fight alone, then it is likely to lose sight of one or the other and be secretly calculated. Therefore, teamwork is also very important.