Composition of the Mongolian Iron Horse
From the time when Temujin was called Khan Mobei to Kublai Khan destroyed the Song Dynasty, during which time 71 years passed through the three dynasties and five dynasties (Yuan Taizu Genghis Khan, Yuan Taizong Wo Kuotai, Yuan Dingzong Guiyu Khan, Yuan Guangzong Möngke Khan and Yuan Shizu Kublai Khan).
In this seventy-one years, the Mongol army traveled tens of thousands of miles, and three times used troops to break through the west, thus establishing an unprecedented vast Mongol Empire.
The Mongol Iron Horse was able to sweep across Eurasia and be invincible, which was not a fluke.
In the "Black Tartar Chronicles" (a volume) written by the Southern Song Dynasty peng daya and evidenced by Xu Tingshu, there are quite detailed descriptions of the training of Mongol riding, the breeding of warhorses, and the strategies of marching and fighting.
Regarding the riding training of the Mongols, Peng Daya said;
Mongolian children grow up from an early age in a cart on horseback, which is four feet long and one foot wide.
When the child reaches the age of three, he can sit on the saddle. Adults tie children to saddles, and as adults gallop their warhorses on the prairie, they practice riding without saddles, so that they can free up their hands to bend their bows and shoot arrows in the future.
When children are four or five years old, everyone carries a small bow and a short arrow, and practices archery whenever they have time. Therefore, when the Mongols grew up, they were all good at riding and shooting. When they stand on the ground and shoot arrows, their waists are low and wide, and their feet are separated, so the center of gravity is low and steady, the quasi-head strength is large, and the ability is through the leather.
When they ride on horseback to shoot arrows, they stand upright and do not sit, and their whole body weight is on their feet and one-twelfth on their hips, so their center of gravity is low and stable, they are not affected by the galloping horses, and they can open their bows left and right and hit the target accurately.
The Mongols also trained horses, Peng Daya said that the Mongolian horse has no millet to eat, only eats wild grass, the stallion is castrated after giving birth to four teeth, in order to reduce its violent habits, and grow a strong body, can withstand wind and cold and live a long life.
If they do not use the force, the horses are prone to fright and hissing, and they cannot ambush and attack the enemy, nor can they withstand the wind and cold. After the horse gallops, it is not allowed to feed the water weeds immediately, but must be tied to the horse's head with a rope, and only after the horse's atmosphere subsides and the four hooves are cold will it be allowed to eat water and grass. There are special people who raise horses, called "Vulture Red",
Xu Ting also said: The Mongols raise horses, starting from the early spring strike, let the horses eat water and grass as much as possible to rest, and do not ride it. In early autumn, it began to saddle the horse's back, tied to the accounting room, and fed it only a little water and grass every day.
After a month or so, the extra flesh on the horse was gone, and the riding began. So the Mongol war horse can run hundreds of miles a day, enduring labor without sweat.
When a horse is marching, it is not allowed to eat water and grass, and if it eats and runs, the horse is prone to disease. Except for a few of the strongest and most handsome stallions, the rest of the stallions are all castrated, called horses, so they are hardworking and good at walking. The Mongol horses were in groups of four or five hundred, each of which was guarded only by two vultures, who held the iron of the chicken's heart in their bare hands as a whip, and the horses were fearful.
Every morning, Vulture leads the herdsmen to the master's tent, and after the master sees it, if there is no special order, Vulture leads the horses to eat water and grass.
The water source in the desert is limited, some wells and caves can only provide water for four or five horses at a time, and as long as the vultures wave the iron at a distance, the horses will drink water in order, and they dare not rush to compete for the lead. Every fifty or sixty horses are guarded by an unselected stallion, and if the horses go out of the herd, the stallions will bite and kick them back to the team, so the work of Vulture is also very easy.
At dusk, Vulture Led the Horses back to the master's tent, and after the Master saw it, Vulture took the Horses to rest. The Black Tartar Chronicle also says that when the Mongol soldiers rode each time, they were accompanied by several horses, so that they could change horses in an emergency and move more quickly.
The weapons of the Mongols are also worth mentioning. Originally they were made of wooden arrows, which were made of grinding camel bones. Later, they annihilated the Hui people in the Western Regions, and only then did the extremely skilled Hui craftsmen produce and supply iron arrows and various armor soldiers (such as lancets, compass armor, ring knives, long and short guns, siege cannons, etc.).
The saddle of the Mongol cavalry is made of white wood, flat and light, and can be twisted and turned arbitrarily on the riding seat, and the horse's pedal is made of sheepskin, coated with mutton fat, which can be continuously rotten by the rain; The pedals are round and wide, and the feet are easy to take without slipping, so it is extremely convenient for The Mongol soldiers to ride.
In addition to the Mongolian cavalry's excellent riding skills, excellent war horses, and excellent weapons, they also had a set of clever tactics when marching and fighting.
When the army travels, it must first dispatch elite horses to inquire around, and ascend to the far horizon, patrol an area of up to one or two hundred miles deep, and capture the residents and pedestrians in between, so as to inquire about the terrain environment, such as a certain road is feasible, a certain city can be attacked, a certain place can be fought, a certain place can be camped, a certain side has enemy soldiers, a certain grain and grass, and so on.
The Mongol garrison must choose a high ground, the main camp tent facing southeast, in front of the horse riding alternate guards. Tents and tents are far apart to allow horses to graze; Two horses were kept in each battalion, and the saddle was not unsaddled at night, in case of an accident.
The password every night, often used in the name of a battalion; If one battalion has a police officer, the neighboring battalion prepares horses for pursuit, while the other battalions do not move. There are also sentry horse battalions dedicated to patrolling and guarding responsibilities. Every day at dusk, the camp fire is lit by the camp tent, called the "fire shop".
After night, the Mongol soldiers often sneaked from the tent to the nearby deserted place to sleep, in case the enemy soldiers robbed the camp, but the fire of the tent burned all night long to lure the enemy.
Sometimes the Mongol soldiers drove cattle, livestock, wild horses, or captives to attack the enemy, and then rode into the enemy position when the enemy was stupid and the enemy's strength was exhausted; If the enemy lined up obstacles such as horses, the Mongol soldiers galloped around and waited for an opportunity to shoot arrows to trap the enemy division and cut off its food;
If the enemy soldiers are small, the Mongol soldiers mop the ground with wood, so that the dust will soar into the sky, and the enemy suspects that there are many Mongol soldiers, and they often collapse without a fight;
If the enemy has many soldiers, the Mongol cavalry is three, three, five, five, and five, and each of them is in a position, and they will never gather together to surround the enemy soldiers, because the infantry should be reorganized and the cavalry should be divided, and the division is conducive to the rush, and when they are reduced to zero, they listen to the sound of the trumpet, gather and scatter, and come and go like electricity, which is really to the point of being out of the blue.
Such a tactically sophisticated and fast-moving iron test, when modern weapons such as guns and guns were not yet invented, of course, could be invincible and dominate eurasia.
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