In his previous life, Li Yi had heard some sayings that the Mongolian cavalry in the Temujin era was unparalleled in cavalry and archery, and they relied on this trick to fight most of the Eurasian continent, so the Mongols were invincible in the era of cold weapons. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

He scoffed at this.

The Mongols were in full swing, luck was on the one hand, and their armies were better equipped and more professional, and tactics were only a relatively less important factor.

In the face of pre-Renaissance European countries, the tactics of mounted archery were very effective, and Europe at that time was desperately poor, and only nobles and knights could afford to wear armor. The heavily armed knights could not catch up with the Mongol light cavalry, and the infantry who temporarily pulled the strong Ding had no combat effectiveness, and it was normal to be bullied by the Mongols.

As for the Central Plains, the Mongols faced the Southern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty, which was prosperous in etiquette and religion, and respected and martial arts. Although the wealth of the Southern Song Dynasty was far above that of Europe, the equipment of the army was not much better than that of the Europeans. Worse than the Europeans, the nobles of the Central Plains would not even go to the battlefield. Therefore, the Mongols who swallowed Liao and destroyed Jin were better equipped than the Song army, and it is not surprising that the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed.

Therefore, those scholars who worship the Mongol Tartars have been emphasizing that the Han Dynasty did not have stirrups, and without stirrups, it was impossible to carry out real cavalry and archery warfare.

As we all know, in the era of the strong man, the grassland aliens were filmed without any temper. In the eyes of the Tartar admirers, it was obvious that the steppe people at that time did not know how to ride and shoot, so they lost to the Han Chinese.

Actually, this statement is pure nonsense.

Cavalry archery is not as strong as imagined, and the range and power of cavalry bows are not as good as infantry strong bows, let alone compared to strong crossbows. In order to give the infantry array enough damage, the light cavalry had to fire a gallop shot from a fairly close distance to the enemy.

Moreover, when the light cavalry launched cavalry shooting, although they did not need to be in a dense formation, if they wanted to give the enemy enough damage, they could not really not line up, so they ran in front of the enemy's formation in twos and threes, so that the enemy could not find the target of the attack. In fact, cavalry shooting also relies on the coherence and concentration of the attack, as the Iron Cavalry of the Guards has just demonstrated with the cavalry crossbow. If it weren't for the iron cavalry firing tens of thousands of crossbow bolts in that short period of time, forming a dense coverage, it would not have been possible to cause the death of hundreds of Cao soldiers in one blow.

Before the Pro-Guards changed their clothes to become heavy cavalry, mounted archery was the specialty of the Pro-Guards.

The procedure for mounted archery is roughly as follows: the horses rush forward like a lightning speed, and at a distance of about seventy paces, the direction of the team changes again, and everyone turns their horses' heads and changes from straight to diagonal. Then it turned from an oblique rush to a sweep, and while rushing, he bent his bow and shot.

After firing about three arrows each, the distance between them and the enemy increased from seventy paces to fifty paces. The crowd suddenly pulled their horses and withdrew like a tide.

Immediately after that, there was another group of men and horses, still mainly attacking with feathered arrows, and those who were not skilled in archery were behind, shooting at the diffuse of the enemy array; Superb archery skills in front, while observing the enemy formation, while quickly taking accurate shots, hitting the enemy's dead ends.

During the retreat, there were also people who kept immediately turning and attacking backwards.

When turning and feintting, the war horse does not run fast, and only when it launches a run, the war horse will let go.

This is a complete and mature set of tactics, which includes mounted archery, feints to attract the attention of the enemy, reasonable distribution of the horse's physical strength, mutual cooperation and many other factors. Only when the command power reaches a certain level, and the technical and tactical ability of the subordinates reaches a considerable level, can it be perfectly displayed.

However, even if the most perfect display is achieved, it cannot get rid of the weakness of bullying the weak and fearing the hard. In the face of a morale-solid, well-trained enemy, there is very little room for mounted archery tactics to be used, as long as the enemy is in a position to shoot at each other.

Relying on the speed of the war horse, the cavalry can achieve a three-to-one or even higher exchange ratio, but the exchange of cavalry and infantry is a loss in itself. Financially, it costs at least five times as much to raise a cavalryman as an infantryman; And the period of training a cavalry is also much longer than that of infantry; Coupled with the factor of war horses, there is really not much room for play in the battle of riding and shooting in the array.

Exceptions are made in exceptional circumstances.

What are special cases? That is, the cavalry wears armor and has a strong long-range defense, so the power of cavalry can be perfectly played.

However, if there is armor that can defend against the shooting of bows and arrows, who wants to shoot on horseback? Under normal circumstances, the leather armor worn by cavalry is at most protected against stray arrows, and the cost of iron armor is too high to afford; Second, it is impossible for the iron riders equipped with human and horse harness to gallop back and forth like this.

Of course, there is another fact that has to be faced, that is, if the crossbow bolt flying at high speed hits the body, even if it wears iron armor and resists its penetrating power, the impact brought by the huge kinetic energy is not so easy to bear. The moment the arrow is hit, the injury seems to be hit by a sledgehammer, which will make people unable to breathe, and no matter how bad their luck is, they may be directly pushed off the horse by this impact.

Therefore, the power of mounted archery is not as powerful as the legend says.

Cavalry, especially heavy cavalry, is where he is most powerful when he strikes head-on.

Li Yi knew this very well, so he did not abandon the basics, and let the 6,000 heavy guards cavalry become iron cavalry for cavalry shooting, although each cavalry was equipped with a crossbow that was convenient for shooting, but that was just to make up for the lack of long-range attack ability of the heavy cavalry.

Only two rounds of crossbow arrows were fired, and all the mounted iron horsemen put away their crossbows, picked up their cavalry guns, and launched a charge against Cao's army formation.

The next moment, the iron cavalry of the pro-guard army broke into the formation of the Cao army, and the bloody killing feast began.

It was, so to speak, a one-sided massacre. Because of the stainless steel cast armor, the defensive performance is very good, and the swords and guns of the Cao soldiers cut on it, except for bursts of sparks, few results have been achieved. Unless it is some generals and soldiers who use heavy weapons, they can use huge force to knock the heavy cavalry soldiers off their horses, and there is basically no way to take the iron cavalry of the northern frontier.

Under the double blow of the incredible stainless steel armor and the massive number of casualties of the iron cavalry rushing formation, Cao Jun fell into a complete passivity. The momentum was huge, the continuous salvo could no longer be organized, and the counterattack carried out by a few soldiers under the command of the general was also very successful.

The best way to deal with a high-speed hoplite charge is a frontal interception of hoplites. It's a pity that the 30,000 foot soldiers led by Xiahou Yuan are basically light infantry, and more than one-third are crossbow soldiers.

The thunderous sound of horses' hooves, the battle cries of the enemy, the screams of their comrades when they died, and the wails of the wounded...... The combination of various unfavorable factors made the morale of Cao's army more and more sluggish, and the soldiers preferred to hold their heads behind their shields rather than obey the orders of their officers, pick up bows and crossbows, and carry out useless counterattacks.

Although they know very well that if the enemy keeps fighting like this, the battle will be lost...... However, the soldiers were still unwilling to stand up and fight back, and exchanged their lives for the slim hope of killing and wounding the enemy by a tenth, or even a tenth.

Comrades fell in pieces, but the enemy was tireless and would not be wounded, and there was nothing more demoralizing than this. That is to say, Xiahou Yuan's ability to train troops is not bad, if it is replaced by a rabble like the Yellow Turban Army, the collapse will already begin.

However, no matter how high Xiahou Yuan's ability is, it is impossible to train all the 30,000 troops into dead soldiers who are not afraid of death in such a short period of time. If this situation continues, it is only a matter of time before it collapses.

………………

"Ziping, if you were Xiahou Yuan, how would you deal with it?" Seeing that Xiahou Yuan's flag was shaking desperately, repeatedly conveying the same message, but the front line was becoming more and more declining, Li Yi knew that the most critical moment of this battle was coming.

"If you don't retreat, you advance!" Gao Shun's answer was very his personal style, "If at the beginning of the engagement, after discovering the unfavorable, he decisively retreated, and our army could not pursue it in a big way, this battle would only be a small setback." After all, the mounted iron cavalry does not have the ability to run long distances, and it is difficult for foot soldiers to catch up. But at that time, Xiahou Yuan had already missed it, and now, the morale of the enemy army has been lost, and they are all supported by one breath, once they hear the order to retreat, it will inevitably turn into a rout......"

Even if it is a retreat, there are two kinds of retreats: retreat to maintain order and retreat. The former, although it is also lost, is often not too large; The latter is a precursor to the destruction of the entire army. Especially in the face of an army like the Northern Xinjiang Iron Cavalry, retreating will only bring disaster to itself.

In the end, Gao Shun said: "So, he can only move forward and rely on melee combat to counterattack." ”

After thinking about it, Gao Shun added: "Looking at his bearing in the Hebei War, he should have the courage to fight back, but with those famous soldiers joining the army, Cao Jun may not be able to make a decision quickly." The slower they make decisions, the greater the hope of victory for our army. ”

Li Yi nodded. He would make the same choice if he had changed places. You can't fight from a distance, so you can only pin your hopes on melee combat.

Counterattacks can compress the space of the battlefield, making it impossible for the mounted Iron Rider to run. The power of the Iron Rider is its impact. Once it slows down, its power is reduced by eighty. Even because of its inconvenience, it may become a passive target.

It is true that horses run faster than people, but horses do not have the stamina to be stronger than people. You must know that a war horse equipped with an iron horse not only has to carry a knight weighing nearly two hundred catties, but also has to carry armor and weapons weighing about a hundred catties on the knight's body. In addition, the armor of the war horse itself is also more than 100 catties, that is to say, the weight of a war horse is around 400 catties. Even if these horses are carefully selected and strong, it is still impossible to continue fighting for a long time.

As long as you can make the mounted iron horse unable to attack, and then slowly consume its horsepower, it is not without hope of turning defeat into victory in the end. (To be continued.) )