In the process of continuous development of human warfare, in fact, from the biological flow confrontation to the steel torrent confrontation, in the tribal era, at the beginning everyone was more stupid, you punched me a punch, and then picked up the stone and wooden stick, until the bronze and iron age appeared, the war completely changed its appearance, after the development of maturity, not only infantry, even cavalry is also armoured charge.
The difference between the types of cavalry, light and heavy
The earliest record of cavalry in Chinese history is from the Spring and Autumn Period, the earliest appearance of cavalry this type of soldier, the era is in the Xia Shang Zhou, in the ruins of Yin Shang, we have archaeologists once excavated a one-man and one-horse cavalry pit, and the pit also attached to the simple armor, which shows that at that time there was already a regularized cavalry unit, but it may be due to the lack of horses in the Central Plains, at that time we did not contact the tribes on the grassland, so the biggest restriction on the development of cavalry is that there is no horse.
Later developed into the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, basically the tribes on the grassland have been with the Central Plains is to stop and stop, the contact between the two sides has become more, materials also have mutual exchange and trading, or the spoils of war, etc., war horses flowed into the Central Plains in large quantities, cavalry troops began to take off, and because the iron-making and copper-making technology of various countries was not developed, so the cavalry at that time was mainly light cavalry.
Light cavalry in the cavalry type is the most common one, but also the best one, it itself has unparalleled mobility, is a mysterious force on the battlefield, can envelop and surprise the left and right forces, after having a light cavalry formation, we can choose the tactics on the battlefield instantly become diverse, due to speed and agility, cavalry can more easily and quickly change their own battle positions, so as to cope with real-time changes in the battlefield situation, causing the enemy as much as possible, Better protect your own people.
And if it is a cavalry unit that has been trained in professional riding and shooting, this kind of riding and shooting unit can make the enemy miserable, to achieve the top harassment effect of the enemy retreating and disturbing, the enemy chasing me to run, once the kite flying tactics, ordinary infantry is really uncomfortable, chasing and catching up, running and running, dodging is not easy to hide, the first large-scale use of riding and shooting troops in the history of the Central Plains country is the Zhao State, when the Zhao Wuling King and the grassland tribes fought many times, absorbed the advantages of the other side's combat methods, This kind of harassment of the stream horse shooting force was also incorporated into the army system, and the slogan Hufu riding and shooting to save the Central Plains was also put forward.
Light horses in the feudal history of 2000 is the absolute protagonist, basically every war has the figure of light cavalry, they are widely active in all corners of the battlefield, often in the raid war to achieve great victories, often for the white hot state of the decisive battle hammer hammer, and handed down a lot of classic stories, such as Zhao Zilong a savior, Guan Erye thousands of miles to ride alone.
Advantages and disadvantages of heavy cavalry
After the introduction of the light cavalry, next we talk about the difference between the heavy cavalry, the heavy cavalry and the light cavalry, from the literal meaning, is this heavy word, indeed, the weight of the single horse of the heavy cavalry is much higher than the light cavalry, they have to carry more armored strength per person and one horse, basically do the half of the body full armor coverage, covering the area even including the eyes, leaving only a small slit to observe the road surface, the cavalry itself is the same, the whole body armor coverage rate is nearly 100%, the helmet also protects the eyes, so the heavy cavalry in the charge, They can only see what is in front of them, just like men and horses are blind who can only see ahead.
If you look carefully, there is no problem with this setting of heavy cavalry, because on the frontal battlefield, heavy cavalry actually has only one role, that is, charging and charging again, and it is obvious that after choosing a good route, the path of the charge is naturally straight in order to increase the impact as much as possible, it is a straight line, it is constantly in a state of acceleration, there is no possibility of turning, so naturally there is no need to look left and right.
Heavy cavalry on the battlefield is an extremely terrible charging weapon, for the attacking side is the only choice to tear the enemy formation, when the enemy infantry is deployed in situ, the heavy cavalry with steel armor all over the body rushes over at a speed of 100 meters, basically can tear open a large opening.
And so repeated back and forth several times, the impact is not only the battle line is broken, but also the collapse of morale and the commander's orders can not be issued to the bottom due to the torn battlefield, the ancient battlefield encountered this situation, basically is already in the situation of being slaughtered, so this is the ancient frontal battlefield of the king of the player heavy cavalry.
But heavy cavalry is also flawed, basically its applicability is very low, the degree of versatility is much smaller than that of light cavalry, in addition to the mobility is pulled down, heavy cavalry is not suitable for mountain warfare, siege warfare, defensive warfare, etc., of course, once it reaches the plain area of Pingchuan, the heavy cavalry immediately turned over as the master, to a hundred times, in the plain area, a whole group of heavy cavalry rushed to give you the oppressive force is simply the end of the day.
King of the Cavalry of the Three Kingdoms
Below we talk about the historical record of battlefield cavalry, in the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao had a very famous unit called the Tiger and Leopard Riding, this name was still quite frightening at that time, because the enemy heard the name of the tiger and leopard riding, and thought that they were riding tigers and leopards, of course not, they also rode horses.
In the specific history, there are not many records of tiger and leopard riding, and there are many missing places, and what we can be sure of is that the tiger and leopard riding is the ace unit in Cao Cao's hands, because the leaders of this unit have always been Cao Cao's most trusted family children, they are Cao Zhen, Cao Chun and Cao Xiu, in addition to the General of the Cao family, no one else has ever been the general of this unit, so it can be seen that Cao Cao attaches great importance to this elite army and does not allow any mistakes at all.
As for the battle of the tiger and leopard riding, there is such a description, mentioning that the ordinary soldiers riding the tiger and leopard are all one of a hundred, and the person who can be a squad leader in the ordinary troop establishment, who comes to my tiger and leopard riding, can only obediently go to be a soldier, of course, the welfare treatment of the soldiers of the tiger and leopard riding is also very high, ordinary young generals dare not offend, but such an elite unit that chooses one out of a hundred miles, of course, it is very difficult to build, and where there are so many elites, so this also leads to the overall number of tiger and leopard riding is very small, The specific number of tigers and leopards riding is about 3,000 people.
Although there were only 3,000 people, the tiger and leopard rode once defeated Liu Bei at the Battle of Changshanpo, and also shined in the northern battlefield, killing countless Xiongnu Xianbei people, Jian'an 23 years, Cao Cao broke Zhang Fei in the lower part, which is also the credit of Cao Xiu's tiger and leopard riding charge, which can really be described as a tiger riding a charge, a big earthquake.
It is reported that the tiger and leopard riding it is actually divided into two different troops, one is the tiger riding, one is the leopard riding, of which the tiger riding is the top heavy horse, the leopard riding is the top light cavalry, the two cooperate with each other, in the battlefield can be described as invincible, but interestingly, the historical record of the tiger and leopard riding is basically in the Cao Cao period, after Cao Cao's death, the tiger and leopard riding seems to disappear, why such a powerful cavalry unit, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi did not continue it, and even abolished the tiger and leopard riding?
The mystery of the disappearance of the tiger and leopard riding
Regarding the disappearance of the tiger and leopard riding, it may involve continuous continuous combat, before we mentioned that the personnel of the tiger and leopard riding is very small, a total of less than 3,000 people, and these three thousand people must be elite. Long-term war is to fight attrition, in the process of continuous consumption, the number of tiger and leopard riding must continue to decrease, but the elite is not so easy to find, in other units as a general as a good, there is not enough appeal, they will not take the initiative to ask to go to the tiger and leopard riding as a vanguard charge.
Originally, if the tiger and leopard riding was well protected and the attrition speed was slow, then the slow replenishment could still maintain the establishment, but then Boss Cao was defeated in the Battle of Chibi, and the tiger and leopard riding also suffered heavy losses, and the number was too small, resulting in the long-term failure of the tiger and leopard riding nature can only be abandoned.
Of course, even if the tiger and leopard riding is completely destroyed, if its battlefield value is good enough, in fact, the later Cao Pi they can still make a tiger and leopard riding 2.0 version out, the focus is still that everyone does not want to engage in tiger and leopard riding, because many wars have proved the superiority of tiger and leopard riding, but sophisticated armor maintenance and cavalry selection have led to the extremely high cost of tiger and leopard riding.
To put it simply, the tiger and leopard riding is very strong, but it is a very cost-effective army, it is not an exaggeration to say that the cost of raising 3,000 tiger and leopard riding, may even reach the cost of 100,000 ordinary infantry, everyone really can't afford to raise it, so the tiger and leopard riding will be completely disappeared.