There are many names for bows, but they have evolved into two categories, both war bows and riding bows.

The war bow is basically synonymous with foot soldiers, and usually the name of Huaxia is a vague name of a few stones and a few stones, that is, what type of bow does not look at the shape of the bow, but only looks at how strong it is. In fact, there are many types of war bows, and the most distinctive ones are short bows and long bows.

In the Spring and Autumn Period and even the late Warring States period (almost the historical stage of this book), if the bows used by the foot soldiers are calculated according to the "historical process", the bows they use are all counted as longbow types, that is, the total length of the bow is about 1.7 meters or more, which will be like this, and people at this time are generally tall. And in the future, Huaxia didn't know what was going on, when people were getting shorter and shorter, and they couldn't use bows that exceeded their height, the bows naturally became smaller.

People who know history will probably have the impression that in the history of the Chinese War during the period of the Two Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, the range of archers could exceed 200 steps (300 meters) at every turn, and elite archers could even shoot up to 240 steps (360 meters), of course, because the strength of the bow was enough, but the most important thing was the type of bow.

During the Wuhu Rebellion, the tall Han people (northern) were once less than 1.8 million, and they were replaced by Hu people who were generally 1.4 to 1.6 meters tall, and at this time, the range of the bow dropped rapidly to the point that it could shoot a hundred paces, even if it was far away, it was precisely because the bow body of the bow was shortened, after all, the height was there, how could a short person use a longbow that exceeded his height? Then the bow becomes smaller, and its tension and strength naturally drop sharply, which drives the shortening of the range and the lack of lethality.

So far, there are three countries in China that use a large number of single horses, that is, Qin, Zhao, and Yan, but to be honest, the development process of cavalry in these three countries has been slow, and they are not following the same route.

For example, the Qin State was more open-minded and practical in military thinking. And because the domestic production process was ahead of the other countries, Qin's single horse was the first army to have the ability to shoot arrows on horses.

In the earliest days, the Qin State was originally a country of horse herding, that is, a semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural ethnic group, with a large number of elite knights who could ride and shoot on horses without stirrups and saddles.

When the Qin ethnic group tended to the status quo of agricultural society, the number of excellent knights naturally decreased, and they invented a crossbow that could be used on horseback.

In the "Battle of Changping" between Qin and Zhao in 260 BC, there was a special type of army in the Qin army, and it was also the earliest crossbow cavalry of mankind.

Since the beginning of King Wuling of Zhao, the state of Zhao has carried out Hufu cavalry shooting, which is a cavalry corps formed to deal with the continuous invasion of the Hu people in the grassland. However, in the official annals of the Zhao State, it is called the border army. This border army was formed from the period of King Wuling of Zhao, until the end of the Warring States period, their last commander was Li Mu, who collapsed after Li Mu was killed, and Zhao also because of the collapse of this border army and no longer had a field group, and went to extinction.

Zhao's single-horse cavalry has always been synchronized with the Hu cavalry, that is to say, they did not form crossbow cavalry like Qin, but only used great strength to train knights who could ride and shoot on horseback, so the scale of elite cavalry must be greatly limited. And the source of knights who can ride and shoot immediately has always been Bai Rong and Bai Di, who are related to the Zhao royal family, that is, the nomadic group of Caucasians. More single-horse knights are mounted infantry, marching at the speed of horses, and dismounting on the battlefield to fight on foot.

Like Zhao, Yan had to deal with the invasion from the Hu people. For the formation of cavalry, whether it is out of need or to seek the initiative of the Hu people, it is also necessary to train, but to be honest, Yan has always been not very good, the land is barren and the population is not large, it is also the first to develop cavalry in the land of China, and it has always been the bottom of those countries.

If it is said that Qin, Zhao and Yan are bordered by the grassland. In order to deal with the invasion of the Hu people, they had to develop cavalry, such as Qi, Wei, Han, Chu and other countries that did not border the grassland, they did not have that motivation at all, even Qin, Zhao, and Yan bordering the grassland had not been able to understand the characteristics of cavalry in the development of cavalry, or focused on the development of charioteers and infantry. How much research and understanding can these countries of Qi, Wei, Han, and Chu have about cavalry?

Because I don't understand, many things are naturally felt foggy even if I see them with my own eyes, and the popular point is that there is not much difference between seeing it but not seeing it, even if there is a good whimsical thought, everything is based on guessing.

What did Tian Guang and Yu Fanjun see as the Han army rangers? The Han rangers they saw were a group of knights in leather armor and long boots, and the horses of these knights were hung with bits and pieces, with bows and quivers on one side, and a weapon with a long handle that looked a little bent in leather on the other.

There is a lot in the boots, this thing is simply a thing to hide the stirrup and save the zài, the idea is that when Lu Zhe watched the later "Alexander the Great" movie, he heard that in order to realistic war horses do not set saddles and stirrups, in order to make the starring Colin? Farrell achieved a realistic effect The crew designed boots to cover up, and Lu Zhe, of course, also did the same, trying to delay the fact that the stirrups were saved. The most important thing is that if you do it, it is more cost-effective and easier to destroy than making iron stirrups......

As for the rangers wearing leather armor, they are not full body armor, after all, they are a flexible and mobile class, and they don't need to charge into battle or anything, mainly to protect the vital parts. In addition, those such as bows, bow sets, quivers, horse swords, knife sets and other bits and pieces are the basic equipment of the Han cavalry.

After almost four years of development, the development process of the Han army cavalry with Lu Zhecun can be said to be leapfrogging. The cavalry of the Hu people is relatively simple, that is, a kind of light cavalry. In addition to a wide range of light cavalry and mounted heavy cavalry, light cavalry is divided into archers, crossbow cavalry, assault cavalry, rangers, scattered cavalry and so on; The heavy cavalry doesn't need to be classified in such detail, but it still delineates the single cavalry charging formation class and the iron horse company horizontal category.

The difference between archer and crossbow cavalry is the weapon, but in fact, the range of use is basically a long-range attack type of cavalry.

Many people will be at a loss for the cavalry, but this type of cavalry has always played an important role in the history of Western warfare. To put it bluntly, the cavalry is a kind of light cavalry that is different from the heavy cavalry, and even the horse and the man are armoured, and the knight also has armor, but it is generally light armor, and the horse is not armored or simply only installed a shield on the front chest of the horse, which is a protective effect and an increase in the impact force. Generally speaking, it gives light cavalry the ability to attack enemy infantry formations, but this is not the main use.

Ranger and scattered cavalry are a type of army with similar applicability, if you really want to make a hard difference, that is, the rangers are brigade operations, which are basically used to raid the grain route or blockade the area; To put it bluntly, the scattered cavalry is another name for scouts.

Qi State's deepest impression of cavalry was that Shen Hui hunt, at that time, under the same strength, the Qi Yan coalition army was wiped out by the Han army, which really shocked the monarchs and ministers of Qi State.

Tian Guang was also present when he was cautious about hunting, and he now observed that the Han cavalry was different from that time, the Han cavalry at that time looked relatively simple, nothing more than one man and one horse, and the weapons were mainly long soldiers and crossbows. What now? The Han cavalry he saw was so much equipped.

"The Han Kingdom is really rich...... Yu Fanjun said what Tian Guang thought in his heart: "That leather armor should have four or five and a half taels, a good bow is at least fifteen and a half taels, and a good iron sword is more than twenty and a half taels, not to mention the value of those Longxi horses." ”

By the way, the name "sword" does not appear now, so the short soldiers are called swords except for daggers, and this habit has been used in modern Wa countries, so it is obviously holding a katana in the way of the sword, and the Wa people also use various kendo to call it.

History has changed, and the fate of many people has also changed, Yu Fanjun should have been a general under Xiang Liang in the original history, and successively participated in the restoration and conquest of Chu State, until he followed Xiang Liang to participate in the Central Plains against Zhang Han, he was defeated by Zhang Han in the battle of Zhang Han's army in the attack on Sudi, and was killed on the spot.

In this version of history, Yu Fanjun became a member of the general during Huan Chu's conquest of Lujiang County, when Xiang Liang led the army to attack Lujiang, Yu Fanjun saw that Huan Chu absolutely could not hold on, when the Qin army went south to attack Lu, he misjudged Lu Zhe's determination to send troops to rescue, and halfway through the battle, he and Zhu Shiji broke away from Huan Chu to stand on their own mountain, and then took refuge in the Chu army, and during Xiang Liang's return to the army to rescue Lu Zhe using the Yangtze River blitzkrieg to attack Huizhang County, he broke away from the Chu army and ran to Surabaya County to lay a foundation. In the end, I don't know what the situation is, but he became one of the generals under Liu Bang.

If you want to say that creation makes people, Yu Fanjun felt much more emotion than anyone else, he felt fortunate when he heard that Huan Chu was relieved of military power, and felt that it was fortunate that he did not continue to follow Huan Chu, otherwise it would have been a waste of half his life. Later, Lu Zhe continued to gain momentum, Huan Chu was reused by Lu Zhe again, and some originally inconspicuous old acquaintances also developed well in the Han Kingdom, and he began to regret the choice he made at the beginning. Until he was valued by Tian Rong and asked by Liu Bang to give Tian Guang as a deputy general, he felt that it seemed that it was not bad to be able to develop in Qi State.

What about lately? Yu Fanjun, who originally thought that he could do a big job, followed Tian Guanghao to lead the army of 150,000 to the south, and before he had time to show the front of the 150,000 army, the Han army just dispatched 50,000 cavalry and swallowed 70,000 of the 150,000 in one bite, and the remaining 80,000 turtles cowered in Xiapi City and could only watch the Han cavalry show off their might outside, not to mention how complicated his psychology should be. (To be continued......)