More than an hour later, Li Xiao hosted a banquet to entertain Zu Wan'er and his group, and then sent him back.

"If I have time in the future, I will always come to see you." Zu Wan'er reluctantly, her beautiful and clear eyes that looked directly at Li Xiao seemed to be able to see through people's hearts.

"Li Xiao is waiting for Wan'er to arrive at any time." Li Xiao smiled and replied loudly.

After sending Zu Wan'er and his group to Li Buguidun, Li Xiao watched them disappear on the distant official road. The setting sun roared, dyeing his face with deep eyebrows and thoughtfulness into a warm golden yellow.

Eleven days later, Li Xiao's custom-made horse armor at Zhang Tongzhu in Jinzhou City was completed and loaded on the carriage where Li Xiao entered the city to purchase daily living supplies and sent them back together.

Li Xiao saw that this set of horses was covered with armor, divided into four parts: face curtain, chicken neck, chest and front armor. They were all made of small black iron pieces about 3 cm square in size and more than 2 mm thick. They were made of beef tendon strings. The outside was painted with varnish to prevent rust, and the inside was lined with a thick cowhide liner to prevent the iron sheet from directly rubbing with the horse's skin and even ulcerating.

Li Xiaoxian asked someone to test the effect of defending arrows.

He took the forebar to test it, hung it on a wooden stake, and then asked Wang Yishou to shoot arrows at it from dozens of steps away.

Wang Yishou pressed his bow and arrows and shot several arrows in a row. He could only hear a few slight sounds of metal impact. The arrows fell to the ground, and none of them could penetrate the dense armor leaves.

The test shot result made Li Xiao very satisfied, and everyone onlookers showed joy.

This means that even if the enemy has archers on the front, it will be difficult to cause substantial damage to heavy cavalry and armored horses with iron scales.

Next, Li Xiao began to experiment with horse dress.

Tian Wei couldn't help but hold all his vests over, he put all his mounts on his own, then put them all on his body, then he picked up his rifle and turned over to the horse...

"Hell!" Tian Wei shouted loudly and drove away.

He traveled for more than a mile, then turned around, jumped off the horse, and said to Li Xiao with a smile: "Deputy Team! This armor is very well designed, and the horses are running without any worries. Although the speed is a little slow, it is full of momentum and does not hinder. I think it is really good to put on such a vest, you can both rush to the formation and chase the enemy within a short distance!"

Li Xiao smiled and estimated the weight of the horse in his heart. The horse's armor was 50 kilograms, the human body weighed about 130 kilograms, the vest was about 65 kilograms, and the rifle was 15 kilograms, so the total weight of the horse was 260 kilograms, which is 130 kilograms. In addition, the weight of the Mongolian horse was 400 kilograms, the total weight of the entire heavy cavalry was 530 kilograms.

Li Xiao knew that in the medieval French heavy armored cavalry, the weight loaded by horses was far higher than that of this heavy cavalry with full armor and armor, and the extreme rushing force could even reach more than half a ton.

Taking the ordinary constitutional cavalry of the 15th century as an example, a constitutional cavalry includes 35 kilograms of plate armor, 55 kilograms of vest, long sword, mace (or axe), dagger, rifle, and shield weigh 25 kilograms. In addition, foreigners themselves have more than 70 kilograms of horses, and the overall weight of horses is 185 kilograms. The horses they ride are French Norman horses with a height of 1.6-1.7 meters and a weight of about 500 kilograms, and the combined weight of the personnel and horses can reach 685 kilograms!

The standard combat mode of such European cavalry combat is usually that heavy cavalry controls war horses and prepares for charge from 200 meters, first stroll, then quickly, and trot, and at the last 50 meters, lay a flat cavalry and sprint at full speed. In the face of such a terrifying impact, unless the extremely well-trained heavy armored infantry can barely bear it, this European heavy cavalry is almost invincible. After the enemy is defeated, the heavy cavalry retreats, and the light cavalry or infantry sweeps the endgame and chases and annihilates the defeated soldiers.

The heavy cavalry set by Li Xiao now has a combined weight of 530 kilograms, which is enough to stand out in this Eastern continent and show its strength. Li Xiao is convinced that unless both sides are heavy cavalry hedges, and the number of weak armored Jurchen heavy cavalry on the opposite side has a great advantage, or he foolishly attacks the well-trained spearmen's front, then an elite heavy cavalry like himself may be defeated.

Moreover, these cavalrymen are not actually fully armored, because they do not have rear armor and tail, but are actually simplified versions of semi-armed armored small complete equipment. In this way, they are much more flexible than those bulky European heavy cavalry, which can be convenient for manipulation, maneuvering, and have the remaining energy to pursue the enemy at a short distance after rushing to the formation.

Of course, with the progress of history, the mainstream medieval tactics of heavy armored cavalry, which was a spear-mounted cavalry in Europe, began to be gradually suppressed by well-trained heavy spear infantry and rising musketeers at the end of the 15th century. For a long time, Europe was in a declining situation. In order to ensure the value of cavalry, in traditional cavalry powers such as France, cavalry with a cowboy fired and mobile inviting to attack began to appear, which was quite similar to the combat methods of later American Western cowboys.

However, in the 16th century where Li Xiao lived, a fierce man emerged and recreated the dignity and glory of cavalry, especially heavy cavalry.

This person is the king of Sweden, Gustav II.

Gustavus2adolphus, born in 1594, died in 1632, the Swedish king (reigned from 1611 to 1632). He was the grandson of Gustavus Vasa, the founder of the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. In order to restore Sweden's status as a great power, the young king Gustav II launched a war against Denmark from 1612 to 1613, but it was a great defeat, and Sweden was forced to cede territory for peace.

The shamed young king began to slept on firewood and tried his best. He began to streamline the army organization, improve his weapons and equipment, especially the strict training of heavy cavalry, making him a new cavalry that emphasizes tactical cooperation and fights with teams, and in the battle, he cooperated closely with infantry, artillery and logistics soldiers. In the end, Gustav II's reform achieved significant results. In the next 1614-1617, he led his army to war against Russia, achieved a major victory, forcing Russia to sign the Treaty of Storpovo, ensuring Sweden's possession of the Baltic region, and gained a large area of ​​land around the Gulf of Finland.

With Sweden as an excellent example, then Prussia, France, Britain and other powerful countries began to act in the same way, and formed strong heavy cavalry teams. The group charge of heavy cavalry began to become a trick to defeat the enemy.

"This vest is very good and meets the requirements of our team. Mr. Wu, you can follow this standard to complete the other 19 pairs of horses wearing armor." Li Xiao, who came back to his senses from his thoughts, ordered Wu Liang with a smile.

"Students should abide by the orders of the 100-hundred-household adults." Wu Liang smiled and agreed.

At this time, Tian Wei and others suggested that since there are real samples, you can take this sample to other blacksmith shops in Jinzhou and let them do it. You can even get it to the blacksmith shops in Ningyuan, Shanhaiguan and other places to customize it to save production time and make the heavy cavalry into shape as soon as possible.

Li Xiao agreed with their opinions and asked General Wang Yishou to go to various blacksmith shops to customize the horses in armor. Because the room in the pier is about to be built, the families of Tian Wei, Wang Yishou, Chen Houzi and others will be taken from Shanhaiguan.

Wang Yishou and Wu Liang took the samples and took the order to leave.

A few days later, after seeing that the cavalry were familiar with using weapons, Li Xiao and Tian Wei began to train the cavalry to cooperate in combat formations.

Li Xiao focused on practicing the wedge-shaped battle formation.

Li Xiao has seen history and knows that this wedge-shaped battle formation was the majestic Teutonic Knights of that time, and the secret of the unparalleled scattered across Europe.

The specific form of this battle formation is to use heavy cavalry as the vanguard to conduct vanguard assaults, followed by infantry behind, and light cavalry to protect and expand the results of battle. This wedge formation is a common tactic used by the Knights. Its advantage is that it has strong assault ability and can quickly tear open the opponent's defense line. If the enemy's military literacy is not high, it will be easily cut by the wedge tip of the cavalry wedge battle formation, breaking in from a point, and then quickly tearing the enemy into two halves from this base point, thus eventually causing the enemy to defeat the entire line.

Back then, the Teutonic Knights were almost invincible in Europe with this move. Under his strong force, Lithuanians who believed in primitive religion had to accept Catholicism, which saved themselves from the misfortune of their country.

What really defeated the Teutonic Knights was the Battle of Lake Chud in the winter of 1242. Due to the slippery horse hooves on the ice, the heavy armored cavalry could not attack smoothly and was eventually defeated by the Russian heavy infantry coalition. This battle caused more than 10,000 outstanding knights who had been fighting or were captured. The Teutonic Knights then fell into joint attacks from Poland, Hungary, Russia and other countries. They gradually turned to decline and destruction under the embattled surroundings. In the end, the remnants of the Teutonic Knights changed their name to establish the German Knights, headquartered in Vienna, Austria. They abandoned killing and conquests, and mainly engaged in charity. They have survived to this day. In the middle of last year, German Chancellor Merkel specially received their representative figures for some unknown purpose.

Outside the dock, a wide and gentle flat ground with lush weeds, a group of cavalry wearing armor and guns began to train according to Li Xiao's request.

At this time, Tian Wei, Wang Yishou and others have selected specific candidates for 20 heavy cavalry and 14 light cavalry during the training these days. The principle of selection is also very simple, with better riding skills, and those who know how to shoot archery are preferred as light cavalry, and the rest are candidates for heavy cavalry.

If you look from the sky, the cavalry lined up in battle formations would look like this.

At the front are heavy cavalry lined up in sharp angles of more than 30 degrees. Everyone holds cavalry rifles and takes the lead in the pyramid shape to break the enemy with impulse and sharpness. At the end of the pyramid is the entire team of light cavalry following the wings. Everyone holds cavalry swords. Those who know archery skills also carry arrows on their backs. After the heavy cavalry in front breaks the formation, these light cavalry immediately wave their cavalry swords and slash and kill, expand the results of the battle, and chase and kill the defeated soldiers.

In this kind of training, the most important thing is that the formation of the cavalry must always be kept compact and orderly, and whether it is accelerating charge or slow jogging, it is quite difficult for the cavalry who are just starting to practice, but it is a hurdle that must be overcome.

In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, neither side of the Ming and Qing dynasties had standard cavalry fighting methods, and there was no such special cavalry training. Both sides were elite leaders and followed their generals to rush into the formation. The main force of the cavalry fighting in the Ming army was the servants of the generals, while the Qing army was Baihuayala soldiers and vest soldiers. After the cavalry attacked, if they took the lead, they would slash and kill them. If they were not good at fighting, they would roll their flags and escape. Of course, in terms of the chance of defeat, the Ming army was more than ten times that of the Qing army.

At that time, the Later Jin Dynasty had another tactic, which was to place heavy cavalry after the heavy armored infantry used to rush forward. When the infantry of the two armies were fighting each other, they would go around to the side to attack the two wings of the Ming army. There was basically no war example of using heavy cavalry to defeat the Ming army's infantry array on the front.

In fact, to be honest, there is actually a lot of knowledge in the training of these cavalry battle formations. Not only is the cooperation between personnel, but factors such as horse speed, wind direction, spacing, etc. will have a considerable impact on the effectiveness of the battle formation. If we want to put it more in detail, including the daily training and feeding of war horses, the diet and body shape control of the cavalry themselves, etc., there are considerable requirements. European countries have been exploring for many years before they finally took shape. Li Xiao, who has returned from later generations, only knows a general idea and can only improve it in practice while exploring.

Li Xiao and Tian Wei took turns to command the training in the morning and afternoon. Li Xiao had carefully arranged the time. When the cavalry were tired of training, four or five old men selected from those refugees carried over to the horse's trough and fed the horses with essence and beans. When the afternoon training was finished, the cavalry washed their horses. In addition to feeding the horses cleansing their horses, the laborers also had to feed the horses some salt to replenish their physical strength.

When the horses are resting at night, these laborers should pay attention to keeping the horses warm so as to prevent the horses from getting cold and getting sick. Now Li Xiao has only two extra horses in his hands. If one disease comes, the war horses will be ineffective immediately.

After practicing this for more than ten days, the horses ordered from various places were taken back, and Tian Wei, Wang Yishou and other family members also took them to the pier.

After all the twenty heavy cavalry horses were wearing armor, the entire heavy cavalry team was very powerful when they marched forward, like a fierce black steel monster. Moreover, as the equipment was of higher grade, the spirit of each cavalry suddenly increased, and during the training, it became more and more energetic. This small cavalry team that Li Xiao had worked hard to build became increasingly powerful and powerful.

Another month has passed.

The sunset is setting, the autumn wind is bleak, rolling up and falling leaves all over the sky. The thick blood color dyes the entire open space into a dazzling dark red, but makes the neat wedge-shaped battle formations, like the black cavalry running in a blood curtain, with a rough and sharp beauty.

"Deputy team, the heavy cavalry team and the light cavalry team should be able to go into battle and kill the enemy after practicing for a while. But I don't know what name the deputy team plans to give them?" Tian Wei asked with a smile to Li Xiao.

"I have already thought about the name of the team. The heavy cavalry team is named Xuanhuqi! The light cavalry team is named Feihaozi!" Li Xiao's voice was clear and deep, and his handsome eyes shining like blood in the sky, like two shining rubies.

"What a mysterious tiger cavalry! What a flying kite! The name Li Baihu named it, it is full of momentum!" Tian Wei, Wang Yishou and others all laughed.

Li Xiao also laughed loudly, and the cold autumn wind blew by, spreading the cheerful and heroic laughter of everyone...
Chapter completed!