Horse harness is a name, which refers to tools that can assist cavalry including saddles, bridles, whip, stirrups, breeches, etc. Among these tools, the saddles and stirrups play the greatest role in military purposes.

The saddle is between the rider's butt and the horse's back. Its function is somewhat similar to the suspension of a car, which allows the cavalry to sit on the bumpy horse's back more comfortable, thereby enhancing the durability of the cavalry when advancing for a long distance.

If you have ever taken a long-distance bus (non-sleeper) or long-distance train hard seat, you know that a good seat can actually greatly relieve people's tolerance and mood during the journey. The saddle plays the role of such a good seat.

Not only that, horse harnesses like Takahashi Saddle can also be very convenient to fix the knights, making it an excellent auxiliary tool for heavy cavalry.

As for stirrups, it is even more amazing. It is precisely because of the emergence of stirrups that the ancient Chinese cavalry army has directly jumped from auxiliary troops like chariot soldiers to become the main force troops on par with infantry and even above infantry.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the Mongol Empire, the largest empire on Earth, swept through most of the civilized world at that time in just a few decades with its invincible cavalry.

It was not until the two world wars that the rise of mechanized troops led by tanks finally brought the cavalry to a dead end.

It can be said that in the two thousand years since the emergence of stirrups until the large-scale deployment of mechanized troops such as tanks into the battlefield, the cavalry is the well-deserved number one in the world!

Why can stirrups play such an important role in the history of cavalry in the entire China and even the world?

The existence of stirrups can make it easier for cavalry, especially light cavalry, to control their bodies more easily, and to maintain balance on horseback when advancing at high speed than before.

With stirrups, it will be easier to do things like riding a horse and shooting an archery, rushing to the formation immediately, and raising a knife to slash.

The word "easy" is actually the essence of the stirrup.

With stirrups, learning riding is no longer as difficult for the people in the Central Plains to learn riding as before.

To give a well-known example, a qualified riding technique is equivalent to a driver's license, while a horse without stirrups is equivalent to a manual transmission, and a horse with stirrups is equivalent to an automatic transmission.

You learn manual gears. After ignition, you have to step on the clutch, gears, release the handbrake, loosen the clutch to the half-clutch state and step on the accelerator slightly. Then you have to control the clutch steadily to start. The clutch cannot be loosened too fast, otherwise the engine may be shut down, and the accelerator cannot be stepped on too much, otherwise the car may be run away.

What about automatic transmission? Ignite, step on the brake and hang D gear, release the handbrake, loosen the brake, and leave steadily with one foot of the accelerator. Turn off the engine? It does not exist.

Just from the word count of the above two sentences, you can experience the cumbersome and difficult learning of manual transmission compared to automatic transmission.

In terms of obtaining a driver's license (ride), manual transmission without stirrups will definitely be crushed several streets by automatic transmission with stirrups.

For the nomads on the grassland, because they grew up on horseback, it is equivalent to driving on mountain roads every day. They can just move at will, and the manual transmission will be the same. It doesn’t matter whether there is a stirrup or not.

However, for the farming people in the Central Plains, the emergence of the automatic stirrup greatly reduced the difficulty and threshold for obtaining a riding license, and allowed more soldiers who had never ridden a horse to quickly pass training to become cavalry, thus having the capital to compete with the number of cavalry.

This is the greatest significance of stirrups!

Pingyuan Jun Zhao Sheng is not a fool. On the contrary, although this Zhao Prime Minister is not the smartest group of people in the Zhao era, he is definitely a smart person. So he immediately understood the significance of the set of horse harnesses of stirrups and saddles. His eyes shone brightly and said excitedly: "King, if our Zhao cavalry owns this set of horse harnesses, it will be no problem to sweep the six countries!"

During the Spring and Autumn Period, chariot soldiers were the protagonists of the battlefield, so people like to use the number of chariots to measure a country's national strength, such as "a country of thousands of chariots", "a country of thousands of chariots", etc.

In the Warring States Period, it was the era when the chariot soldiers gradually declined and cavalry began to rise, but cavalry was actually not the main force at this time.

The most direct evidence is that there are still chariots and soldiers in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, and there are no stirrups under the feet of the cavalrymen.

The main reason is that there is no emergence and large-scale application of saddle stirrups, which leads to problems with cavalry in terms of mobility, durability and lethality, and the threshold for cultivating cavalry itself is too high.

So at this time, the significance of the stirrups and even the entire set of harnesses is absolutely unparalleled.

Zhao Dan's youngest son Zhao Yan ran to the side of the horse and touched it, looking curious.

Zhao Heng stood aside and listened carefully to the conversation between his father and his uncle. The eldest prince of Zhao felt a little bit like that. The thing his father brought him to see today was probably not just "fun".

Zhao Dan smiled slightly and said, "What my uncle said is very much. These horse harnesses will definitely become a powerful weapon for our Zhao Kingdom to sweep the world. However, in my opinion, horse harnesses are fashionable and not suitable for large-scale promotion."

"Ah?" Zhao Sheng was stunned.

Looking at Zhao Sheng who was unknown, Zhao Dan smiled and said, "Uncle thought, what about my country of Zhao when it comes to cavalry?"

Zhao Sheng yelled and said, "My cavalry in Zhao State is invincible!"

What Zhao Sheng said was really not bragging. At this time, the cavalry of Zhao State was really the best in the world.

The reason for this is of course due to the "Hu Clothing and Casual Shooting" of Zhao Dan's grandfather, King Wuling of Zhao. Since wearing short-sleeved, narrow trousers and long boots, the Hu Clothing that is more convenient to move immediately, the Zhao State cavalry has greatly improved both mobility and combat effectiveness, and has become the champion of all countries.

Moreover, after defeating Lin Hu and Lou Fan, the large number of surrendered Lin Hu people and Lou Fanren became the people and soldiers of the five northern counties of Zhao State. These nomads on the grassland were born with excellent cavalry, and with their joining, the strength of the Zhao State cavalry became even stronger.

During the entire Warring States Period, Zhao State was the only country among the seven heroes who completely eliminated chariot soldiers and formed a pure cavalry legion in an all-round way, and was also the only country with nomadic cavalry.

Even if Qin Shihuang of Zhao was destroyed, there were still chariots and soldiers in his Terracotta Warriors.

Therefore, in terms of concepts and combat effectiveness, the cavalry of Zhao State is not on the same level as other countries.

Even though Zhao State later came to the brink of destruction in history, Li Mu, the god of Zhao State cavalry, was able to use a small number of cavalry to cooperate with infantry to defeat the Qin army one after another, which is also an excellent proof of the combat effectiveness of Zhao State cavalry.

If the Battle of Changping did not break out in the rugged Taihang Mountains, which could not exert the advantage of cavalry, but broke out on the vast grassland, then the offensive and defensive momentum between Qin and Zhao would be directly reversed and become Zhao attacking Qin and defending.

So when Zhao Sheng said the saying "I'm the best cavalry in the world in Zhao", he was really confident and confident.

Zhao Dan nodded in approval, agreed with Zhao Sheng's words, and then said: "Since my uncle understands that our Zhao cavalry is unparalleled in the world, then uncle think about it, if this harness is leaked, who will benefit the most?"

Zhao Sheng was stunned when he heard this.

To be honest, stirrups, and even the full set of horse harnesses on the horse at this moment, do not have much technical content in them. As long as you get a finished product, it is absolutely not too easy to imitate the gourd accordingly.

Therefore, once the Zhao cavalry is equipped on a large scale, other countries will definitely be able to imitate these horse harnesses soon.

Since the strength of the Zhao cavalry itself is the best in the world, the improvement brought by horse harness to the Zhao cavalry is actually relatively limited.

The other six countries with relatively urgent cavalry levels may have their cavalry catching up with each other because of the emergence of these harnesses, bringing the gap with Zhao.

If this is true, then Zhao Guozhen, who made the harness, would shoot himself in the foot.

When he thought of this, Zhao Sheng, who was originally full of enthusiasm, felt as if someone had poured a basin of cold water from the beginning, and his whole body was cold.

Although Zhao Sheng has such a big beer belly, he was actually a horse riding enthusiast when he was young, and his riding skills were pretty good. He would come to hunt a few times a year, otherwise he wouldn't have rode his horse like this just now.

It is precisely because Zhao Sheng is a person who understands horses that he has a deeper understanding of the benefits of horse harnesses and is more eager for the practical installation of horse harnesses.

It's like a modification enthusiast. He clearly has a supercar engine in his hand, but he can't fit it into his own modified car. Isn't this a fucking fuck!

Looking at Zhao Sheng's scratching face, Zhao Dan couldn't help but feel funny. His uncle was about to be fifty years old, but he didn't expect that there would be such unstable times.

But Zhao Sheng is actually called care and chaos. He didn't think about it. Is Zhao Dan's special creation of this thing just arousing his appetite?

Zhao Dan quickly spoke: "Uncle, if the horse harness is exposed at this moment, it is indeed unfavorable to our Zhao State. But if we build and store it first and equip our army at critical moments, it will definitely make the enemy unprepared and have unexpected effects."

This is what Zhao Dan really means. After all, it is too easy to imitate horse harnesses. There is only one chance to use them to give the enemy a heavy blow, because the enemy is prepared for the second time, and it may even be imitated on a large scale.

Zhao Sheng's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thighs after hearing this: "The king is indeed awesome! Sheng will prepare for this matter now!"

Zhao Dan nodded and reminded: "Uncle, this matter is of great importance and must not be leaked. Uncle must choose a trusted and reliable person to handle it. The matters in the Wei State cannot be left behind. Uncle arranges the matter as soon as possible and then sends the envoy to Wei State."

After a pause, Zhao Dan reached out to his eldest son Zhao Heng: "In addition, I hope Henger can participate in this matter, and I also hope that my uncle will arrange it and give Henger a chance to get in touch with ordinary craftsmen."

Zhao Sheng was stunned again when he heard this.

In this era, there were huge differences between the four classes of "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" and belonged to four completely different types of people.

As the eldest son of the monarch, Zhao Heng is even likely to become the monarch of Zhao in the future. He is a top figure at the level of "scholars". Why should he go and get along with those "workers" who are cheaper than farmers?

Is it a kind of blow and punishment to say that the king is dissatisfied with this eldest son?

But Zhao Sheng still responded and quickly put the matter aside. Anyway, it was the king's own business, so what if he was.

Zhao Sheng took the man happily to remove the set of horse harness from the horse and then left the palace.

After Zhao Sheng left, Zhao Dan took his eyes back and put it on his eldest son Zhao Heng: "Why, I don't understand my arrangements very well?"

To be honest, Zhao Heng is indeed confused now. After all, as an indigenous person of this era, the concept of "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" has also taken root in Zhao Heng's mind, so it is indeed difficult for this Zhao prince to understand his father's thoughts.
Chapter completed!