During the Warring States period, in order to seek hegemony in the world of great strife, the countries embarked on the road of changing the law, but only the Shang martingale transformation method of the Qin State was the most successful and thorough, which also made the Qin State leap from a small border country of "princes and princes to Qin" to the founder of China's first unified dynasty.
However, what we are talking about today is not the martingale transformation method, but the slightly confusing Hufu riding shooting.
Unlike the "law" of Wei, Chu, Han, Qin and other countries, The Hufu Riding Archery of the Zhao State does not involve political and economic reforms, but is a simple military change.
The "History of the Zhao Shijia" once said: "In the first month of the nineteenth year, the Great Dynasty Xin Palace, summoned Fei Yi and discussed the world, and after five days, he ordered Yi Hu to obey, change the military system, and learn to ride and shoot." As the words suggest, the core of Zhao Guo's reform had two points: wearing Hu people's short clothes and narrow-sleeved clothing and establishing a cavalry structure.
Purely in terms of military achievements, Zhao Guo's Hufu archery has achieved reborn results.
According to rough statistics, from 406 BC when the Zhao State was crowned a prince by Zhou Tianzi to 307 BC when hu fu, the king of Zhao Wuling, took the initiative to attack other countries 20 times, with mixed victories and losses, and the dilemma of the four wars surrounded by strong enemies of the Zhao state has not been changed.
However, after only one year of the implementation of the Hufu archery, the Zhao state was like an opening hanging, according to historical records: "Twenty years (306 BC), Wang Luozhong mountain, to Ningxian, Xiluo Hudi, to Yuzhong, Lin Hu Wang sacrificed horses ... Twenty-one years later, he attacked Zhongshan and took Danqiu, Huayang, and Hezhisai. Wang Jun took the ministry, ShiYi, Fenglong, dongyuan. Zhongshan dedicated siyi and".
By 296 BC, the State of Zhao not only destroyed the Zhongshan Kingdom, which had plagued the Zhao State for nearly a hundred years, but also began to expand in four directions, southeast, northwest, and northwest, blossoming at many points, "attacking Korea, to Lu Guanxia", "attacking Qi, the King of Qi was defeated", "attacking Wei, taking it", "attacking Wei house, pulling it out", "attacking Qin, breaking the Qin army and the lower part".
At a time when the Shandong states feared Qin like a tiger and cut off the land to survive, the Zhao state became a fierce enemy of the Qin state to unify the world, and was recognized as the second most powerful country. In this regard, the people of the Warring States period once issued the sentiment that "at present, the founding of Shandong is stronger than Zhao" and "the harm of Qin to the world is as good as Zhao".
Even the Qin army of the Tiger and Wolf Division could not take much advantage when facing the Zhao army, and although the Battle of Changping was won, the Qin state also paid the tragic price of "more than half of the Qin soldiers died, and the country was empty". In the ensuing defense of Handan, the State of Zhao not only defeated the besieging Qin army and the Yan army that took advantage of the fire, but also counterattacked the capital of the State of Yan.
Therefore, when attacking the State of Zhao, the State of Qin had to repeatedly adopt the dark means of divisive tactics, transfer away from Lian Po, and kill Li Mu, before finally completing the grand plan of unifying the world.
Then we can't help but ask, why is it that the Zhao State, which has changed into a hu costume, can be strong enough to break the wrist with the Qin State of the Shang Martingale Transformation Law?
In the past, we focused our main focus on "hufu + riding shooting". Indeed, compared to traditional vehicles and infantry, cavalry has absolute advantages in speed, off-road and attack power, and is often referred to as the "tank" of ancient times. King Wuling of Zhao promoted Hufu, in the final analysis, it was for the development of cavalry, after all, Huaxia costumes were wide robes and large sleeves, and they were not suitable for riding on war horses to rush to kill.
However, it is worth mentioning that although Zhao Guo formed an independent cavalry unit, the cavalry at this time was still in the childhood stage of the history of war development, and the limitations were very large. In the order of the main branches of the Zhao state, cavalry is still ranked behind infantry and cavalry. The Warring States Policy still titles the Zhao state as "the strong country of zhao ten thousand multiplied" when evaluating the strength of the zhao state, and does not use the number of cavalry as a symbol of military strength.
Knights were trained slowly, and the cultivation of warhorses was even more expensive. The Central Plains horses were only suitable for carrying and carrying, and good horses used for cavalry warfare needed to be purchased from nomadic areas. The cavalry trained by the Han Dynasty with the strength of the country was only more than 100,000. At this time, the territory of the Zhao Kingdom was only one-seventh of the world, and even in the era of king Wuling of Zhao, the cavalry that could be formed was only more than 10,000 horses.
According to historical records, during the Battle of Changping between Qin and Zhao in 260 BC, "Zhao Kuo came out of the sharp pawn, self-fighting, and the Qin army shot Zhao Kuo", "sharp pawn and self-fighting battle" has fully explained that at this time, more than 400,000 Zhao troops were still infantry occupying the absolute main force, and even the commander Zhao Kuo only brought infantry when he broke through.
The bigger problem is the replenishment of warhorses, as mentioned above, the training cycle of knights is long, but the replenishment of warhorses is more difficult. When Wei Qing and Huo went north to attack the Xiongnu, 140,000 horses were lost and 110,000, and the Han Dynasty had to stipulate that only the sons of the Middle Family and above were eligible to become cavalry. What is "Zhongjiazi"? According to the "Juyan Hanjian", the Middle Family must have five fields, five horses, two cattle, two ox carts, two carriages, one district of the house, and three slaves.
Therefore, the military reform of King Wuling of Zhao was by no means as simple as putting on a hu costume and riding a war horse to make the Zhao kingdom stronger in combat strength.
In fact, behind hufu riding and shooting is the implementation of the "hundred gold soldiers" military system of King Wuling of Zhao. The so-called "man of a hundred golds", that is, "those who can break the enemy and capture the generals will be rewarded with a hundred gold", which is the prototype of the conscription system in Chinese history.
During the Warring States period, the countries generally practiced the compulsory military system, and soldiers needed to prepare their own cars and horses to wear when they went out on expeditions, even the Qin army was no exception. The family letters of Heifu and Qi, soldiers of the Qin state at the end of the Warring States period unearthed in Yunmeng, Hubei Province, record the content of ordinary Qin soldiers asking for money and clothing from their families during the Battle of Qin and Chu.
Therefore, the military reforms of the early Wei state and the later Shang martingale transformation methods both added a reward mechanism on the basis of conscripts. For example, once Wei Wuzu was selected, he could be exempted from the tax of the whole household and the rent of the farmhouse, while the Qin army directly linked military merit to the title, which played a significant role in stimulating the combat strength of the soldiers, so that the Qin army "left the head of the people, the right side of the prisoner", lest it be backward.
However, compared with the exemption from military service and the promotion of knighthood, the stimulating effect of Zhao Guo's "hundred gold" reward is obviously more direct. According to History, when Zhao Hao commanded troops from Handan to rescue Fu and Cheng (Shanxi Heshun), he "rolled up his armor and tended to it, two days and one night", calculating that the one-day march was close to 200 miles, even surpassing Wei Wu's pawns. When Li Mu fought against the Xiongnu, he immediately recruited 50,000 soldiers and soldiers by relying on "hundred gold".
Not only that, the scope of Zhao Guo's recruitment was also expanded to nomadic areas. As early as the early days of the reform, King Wuling of Zhao set up a riding estate in Yuanyang, and in the second year of HuFu's riding and shooting, King Wuling of Zhao ordered "Zhao Gu to be the lord of Hu, to his soldiers", "In the second year of King Huiwen, the main father went to the new land, so he came out of the generation, and met the king of Lou in the west and caused his soldiers".
"To his soldiers", that is, the meaning of recruitment and recruitment, this kind of recruitment is naturally paid.
Zhao Guo's recruitment of Hu Bing was also corroborated by archaeological findings.
In the early Warring States tombs of Daiwangcheng, Xuanhua Xiaobaiyang and Liangcheng Maoqinggou in the border area between farming areas and nomadic areas, archaeologists found a large number of Zhuhu cultural remains of bubble ornaments, bead ornaments, and animal plaques such as deer, horses, and tigers, indicating that the northern region of the Zhao Kingdom was still occupied by nomadic groups at this time.
In the tomb group in the middle of the Warring States period, the combination, shape and burial customs of the artifacts found in the above areas are the same as those in the core area of The Zhao culture in Handan, which also confirms the record of the northern destruction of Zhongshan and Xiluohudi in the era of King Wuling of Zhao, indicating that the nomadic ethnic groups that were originally entrenched in the Xinding Basin at this time were expelled by the Zhao State.
However, in the middle and late Warring States tombs, the Xinding Basin, Ganlan County Yaozipo, Inner Mongolia and Linger Tuchengzi found that two different cultural groups were staggered, such as the excavation of 27 Warring States tombs in Liangcheng Shuiquan, 7 of which were north-south tombs with wooden burial tools (farming), and 20 of which were east-west tombs with cattle and sheep skulls (nomadic). Yuan Ping also unearthed 2180 sword coins and 2223 cloth coins at one time.
This peculiar phenomenon of tombs in the late Warring States period highlights the historical scene of a large number of Hu people recruiting into the Zhao Kingdom to become "mercenaries". The "Xiongnu Xiangbang Seal", now in the Shanghai Museum, is from the Zhao State in the late Warring States period, reflecting the delicate "cooperation" relationship between the Zhao State and its former enemy, the Xiongnu.
It can be seen that the Zhao Wuling King Hufu Riding And Shooting not only improved military equipment and combat methods, but also had the same change measures as the Shang Martingale Transformation French Military Meritorious Service.
However, the advantage of the Qin state is that it sits on the two major grain producing areas of Guanzhong and the Chengdu Plain, so the Qin law emphasizes agriculture and suppresses commerce. However, the advantage of Zhao Guo was that "heavy business over agriculture, relying on opportunities to eat profits", the extraordinary prosperity of commerce provided Zhao Guo with the expenses needed for recruitment.
But unfortunately, the war in the era of cold weapons is ultimately a competition between population and grain reserves, although Zhao Guo's Hufu riding and shooting has achieved military leaps and bounds, but this advantage has not been applied to agricultural development at the same time, once the war cycle is prolonged, the disadvantage of the Zhao State government's insufficient treasury will be instantly highlighted.
The Great War of Qin and Zhao Changping lasted for three years, but the Zhao army fighting at the doorstep of the family had a situation of "Zhao has no food, please Su Yuqi", which is a major example.