On the battlefield in ancient times, swords and swords, life and death battles can be seen everywhere, and stepping into the battlefield means that life and death are uncertain. However, in the face of these brutal scenes of war, many questions often arise. Today, let's talk about those "norms" in ancient warfare.
First of all, the answer to the question of whether friendly troops could be accidentally injured in ancient wars is not complicated. Both sides of the battle usually avoid wearing uniforms of the same color as a way to distinguish friend from foe on the battlefield. As a result, soldiers often only need to judge friend and foe based on the color of their uniforms, and attack enemies of different colors. In addition, unlike the chaotic fight scenes in film and television dramas, ancient wars paid more attention to the arrangement of troops, even if the battle was fierce, it was necessary to maintain the stability of the formation. Under such tactics, the soldiers rarely have enemies behind them, and they often face frontal enemies, so the battlefield seems chaotic, but in fact it is orderly. Although manslaughter occurs occasionally, it is generally uncommon and generally not punished for it.
Some people may wonder if there is a vendetta in the army? For example, if someone offends you, can they take the opportunity to take revenge on the battlefield? However, on the battlefield, everyone needs to deal with the enemy with all their might, and it is difficult to be distracted from personal grievances. Moreover, in ancient wars, the two sides often had tens of thousands of troops, and the difficulty of finding a specific enemy in such a large crowd was tantamount to looking for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, it is really difficult to carry out a precise vendetta on the battlefield.
Next, on the question of whether someone killed a teammate in order to snatch military merit. In ancient times, it was true that the calculation of military exploits was based on human heads, but this also meant that soldiers had to cut off the heads of their enemies in battle and carry them with them, which was obviously extremely inconvenient. As a result, many later wars were changed to cutting off the enemy's left ear as proof of military exploits. However, even so, there are still attempts to exploit loopholes, such as cutting off the ears of killed teammates or killing civilians to pass off as combat exploits. Although such behavior is strictly forbidden by the army, it is still repeatedly prohibited. It is worth mentioning that some vanguard units do not need any "evidence" when calculating military merits, only the enemy's casualties are counted. Military merit is an important way for soldiers and generals to be promoted, so the imperial court is very strict in verifying this aspect. Historically, although the general Li Guang of Rufei had great military achievements, he was unable to be crowned a marquis due to the insufficient number of "heads", which is an example of the strict verification of military merits.