When you think of Alexander the Great, you must think that he led the Macedonian phalanx to conquer Persia, India, Egypt, and Greece, and established Alexander's Empire across Asia, Africa, and Europe. However, there are many things circulating on the Internet that "if Alexander the Great went to China on his crusade, then China will also be conquered", which is obviously extremely absurd, so what will happen if Alexander the Great really came to China?
Alexander's crusade took place from 334 BC to 324 BC. The fourth year of King Huiwen of Qin (334 BC) was the period when the Shang martingale transformation method was already stable in the Qin state, and the forty-fifth year of King Zhou Xianwang (324 BC) was the period of Zhang Yihe's vertical and horizontal period, so if Alexander came to China, the first person he encountered was Qin Ruishi under the leadership of King Huiwen of Qin (338 BC - 311 BC). So if the two meet, who will win?
1. The Macedonian phalanx
Speaking of Alexander the Great, we have to mention the Macedonian phalanx. Since the Battle of Issus and the Battle of Gaugamela, the prestige of the Macedonian phalanx has spread throughout the ancient Mediterranean region, and for a long time this method of warfare seemed to have become an invincible myth. What kind of army is this?
The Macedonian phalanx was an early form of infantry warfare, which usually consisted of 64 armored soldiers in a platoon, 128 men in a company, 256 men in a battalion, 1,024 men in a regiment, and 4,096 men in a division, which was very similar to the current military establishment. Such a well-organized army gives the enemy a great sense of oppression on the battlefield. Coupled with their spears in hand to attack, the entire phalanx advance is like a hammer hammer to the enemy, in addition, the phalanx will also work closely with the cavalry, coupled with archers, catapults, etc., can almost give the enemy a fatal blow.
But this phalanx also has many weaknesses, the most important of which is that the flexibility and defensive ability are not enough. The spear can certainly create a good opportunity for soldiers to assassinate, but if there are intruders in the phalanx, or the entire phalanx is no longer complete, then the defects of the phalanx are revealed. Although soldiers also wear weapons with auxiliary lines: daggers, daggers are generally not long enough, and can soldiers exert the power of short weapons? In addition, the entire phalanx is as dense as the hedgehog's thorns, which restricts the movement of personnel, so as long as you avoid the frontal attack and attack it from the back or both sides, it will cause a devastating blow to the phalanx, which is also a major weakness.
But the clever Alexander the Great cleverly avoided some problems, in order to prevent the two wings of the phalanx from being attacked, he arranged the cavalry on both sides of the phalanx, so that the entire army advanced in a triangle, achieving the perfect coordination of infantry and cavalry combat, and it has to be said that Alexander was really a military genius.
2. Macedonian phalanx vs Qin army
Although the Macedonian phalanx was invincible on the western battlefield, the situation would not be optimistic if it encountered the Qin army.
In terms of numbers, Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx was only 50,000 or 60,000 people, while in ancient Chinese warfare, 100,000 troops fought at every turn, and one side was completely annihilated or suffered heavy losses. Just like the Battle of Qin Zhao Changping, the total number of people invested by both sides is conservatively one million. Therefore, in terms of the number of people who can be invested, the Qin army is far more than the number of Macedonian phalanx. Some would argue that Alexander the Great conquered so many countries that he could recruit more soldiers. But they overlooked a very important point, the training of soldiers has a number of years, and in addition, the most deadly is the people recruited from different countries, they are not in harmony, which must have an impact on the morale of the army; not to mention that the ancient military experts in our country attached great importance to the military heart, and even Confucians knew that fighting wars is "the time and place are good for people" is indispensable, "the time is not as good as the place, and the location is not as good as the people." So first of all, the Qin army did not worry about the number of people.
In terms of war, since Alexander the Great was able to conquer so many countries, there must be no shortage of talented people under him; but the Qin state can rise from a small border country, and there will be no shortage of military talents. If Alexander went to China, he might encounter the white rise of his youth, or destroy Sima Cuo of the two countries of Bashu and Shu. Of course, the Qin people were originally fierce, and after the Shang Martingale reformed the law, the Qin state rewarded cultivation battles, and the bloodiness of the Qin people on the battlefield was improved. In fact, since ancient times, China has shown a bloody nature in the face of foreign enemies that no other country can match. It was indeed difficult for Alexander's army to win.
From the perspective of weapons, although the weapons of the Macedonian phalanx were made of iron, the iron at that time was not the iron of the present, it was pig iron, and its hardness was far less than that of the current iron. Our ancestors in the process of smelting bronzes have long found that the hardness of pure metal is not as large as that of alloys, so although the weapons at that time were made of bronze, they were alloyed with iron, lead, tin, zinc and so on, and the hardness was greater than that of pig iron products. The types of bronze weapons are also diverse, the spears and swords in the Qin military formation needless to say, plus beryllium, halberds, chariots and other weapons, soldiers should be much more flexible in battle, of course, there are Qin crossbows with a range of 150-200 meters that can kill the enemy at a long distance.
In addition, Alexander came from afar, and how to solve the problem of grain and grass is also a big problem. Even if all the problems are solved, there will be no victory, why? Since ancient times, when there is no foreign enemy, countries often fight with each other, but when facing foreign enemies, they are all consistent with the outside world, and although the Seven Heroes of the Warring States have fought for the head and blood in ordinary days, it is very likely that they will unite at key moments.
In fact, it does not matter who wins between the Macedonian phalanx and the Qin army, because this is only superficial; the deep level is that we must have confidence in our accumulated military culture and national blood for thousands of years. We may not know how heroic and fearless our ancestors were thousands of years ago, but at least we know that many times when they died, it was the ancestors who exchanged their lives for tomorrow.