It is no exaggeration to say that the Tang army symbolized the peak combat power of China's cold weapons era. Not to mention the Song army, Yuan army, Ming army, Qing army, none of them were the opponents of the Tang army. The Song army was more capable of fighting when they unified the world. After Emperor Taizong of Song conquered the Liao Kingdom, he consumed all the powerful military power accumulated by the Song army to defeat the country. The Song Renzong and Yingzong Shenzong were both dragged down by the Western Xia and could not stand up.

The Yuan army should not be precisely the Yuan army in mainland China, and the army corrupted rapidly, but the Mongolian army under Genghis Khan. However, the Mongolian army and the Yuan army should be distinguished. The Mongolian Empire and the Yuan Dynasty in China also need to be clearly distinguished. Of course, their decline was also very fast. In 97, they were expelled from the mainland by the Red Turban Army and Zhu Yuanzhang's army and went back to their hometown.

The Ming army maintained its combat effectiveness for a long time. After all, the Ming army had never stopped fighting from the founding of the country to the destruction of the country, but its performance was not very good. The system of civil servants leading troops limited the combat effectiveness of the Ming army very much. At the last moment, the troops divided into two groups to fight against the rebel army and the Qing army, and the battle was still at the last moment.

Let’s not talk about the Qing army. After the Eight Banners soldiers who swept the world entered the pass, they corrupted at an extraordinary speed, and their speed even exceeded the corruption speed of the Yuan army. Most of the Han soldiers who relied on Kangxi to pacify the Three Feudalists. By the Yongzheng era, the Eight Banners soldiers were completely useless. It was better to say that they were the Han army than the Manchu army. The few armies that could be fought in the late Qing army, whether they were the Hunan Army, the Huai Army or Yuan Shikai’s new army were all dominated by the Han people.

So. From the founding of the country to the destruction of the country, the Tang army was not constrained by the system of civil officials leading troops in the Ming Dynasty. Even if the Tang army did not obey the central government's orders in the middle and late periods, the Tang army's combat effectiveness was still possible. The major vassal states were vicious, and the military forces were strong. The country always died because of its weakness, and the Han and Tang dynasties were strong...

To put it bluntly, the Han and Tang Dynasties were destroyed by warlord separatism, so of course they became stronger.

Moreover, the Tang army's record can be regarded as the best army outside the Han Dynasty. The Qin army is indeed strong. However, the Qin army's existence has been relatively short, and the Qin army's combat ability was not fully utilized. It was unable to completely deal with the Huns in the north and then the country was destroyed. Therefore, the Tang army was really unique in ancient and modern times. The number of victories and the number of destruction of countries in foreign wars were the best. China's cold weapons skills were also exerted to the extreme in the Tang Dynasty. For example, the Modao, which made the grassland cavalry tremble.

Suning personally experienced the power of Modao. With his sixteen-year-old strong body and strong martial arts, he could not withstand the attacks of five Modao soldiers. Whether it was riding a horse or in the infantry battle, Su Dingfang was better, at least he remained unbeaten, and exhausted the physical strength of those Modao soldiers. Suning directly knelt down gorgeously. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the big sword that the ** team was proud of was completely a scumbag in front of the Tang Dynasty Modao, and he could not raise his head at all. Our descendants really embarrass our ancestors.

The power of a sword is broken, and it is really not a big deal.

Therefore, Suning never thought that with a hot weapon called a burning tank, it could replace the dominant role of close-knit combat in combat, it could replace the dominance of the Modao Army in war, it could replace the straits of the Tang Dynasty's iron cavalry on the battlefield, and it could replace the rain of arrows in the sky of the bow and crossbow troops. This is unscientific. If you have seen the joint combat of multiple armies in the Tang army, you will understand the combat effectiveness and destructive power of a powerful army in the era of cold weapons.

Before the war with the grassland cavalry broke out, the two armies confronted each other, and the Tang army and infantry formed a phalanx and formed a formation according to the instructions of their respective commands. It was as unshakable as a mountain. The crossbow team was in front of them and first released a crossbow to attack the opponent's cavalry. The grassland cavalry did not have enough iron armor, so the crossbow arrows falling from the sky could definitely kill them. These several rounds of crossbow strikes would definitely weaken their military strength and impact.

The next choice is to choose. If the number of cavalry is sufficient, the group will charge after our crossbow is launched. It usually launches a conical attack, aiming to break the enemy. The main task of the cavalry is not to kill the enemy, but to storm the enemy's formation and slow down its speed. Without speed, the lethality of the cavalry becomes extremely limited. At this time, the commander ordered the infantry to go out! The infantry shouted the slogan of fighting "Drink and drink". The phalanx is not chaotic and the formation is not chaotic. The opponent's cavalry is gradually surrounding the place where the enemy's cavalry fights, and then freely chop and kill.

Pursuing the remaining enemies is the task of the cavalry. The infantry and military formations cannot be chaotic, and they cannot be dispersed privately after winning battles. Without the commander's order to disperse the phalanx to clean the battlefield, whoever dares to leave the military formation privately, even if they are not killed by the enemy, will be beheaded by the military commander on the grounds of disobeying the military order. On the field battlefield, the military formation is the guarantee of the life of the infantry.

If our cavalry is too few and not enough to fight face to face with the opponent's existing cavalry, then the infantry formation can only be used as the main combat force to offset the enemy's impact and speed, and drag down the speed of the opponent's cavalry with the life of the infantry to ensure that the army formation is not broken before the enemy cavalry loses its impact. This is the main task of the commander.

Therefore, in this case, the crossbow team has a great effect. Before the official war begins, the number and number of arrow rains will increase, reducing the pressure on the infantry. When the infantry really drags down the enemy cavalry and has confirmed victory, it is the turn of a few cavalry to go to the battlefield and give the enemy a fatal blow. If the infantry formation cannot compete with the local cavalry, the main task of our cavalry is to protect the commander and the troops behind the palace to evacuate the battlefield safely and protect the army to the greatest extent.

The Song army fought like this most of the time. Because of the extreme shortage of horses, they had to use infantry as their main combat power. It was okay to deal with light cavalry. However, after the scientific and technological level of the Liao and Jin army increased significantly and gained the ability to build heavy cavalry, it was easy to deal with the heavy infantry formation of the Song army. Therefore, in the later stage, the Jin army was like chopping melons and vegetables, without any pressure.

However, this problem does not exist in the Tang army. The Tang Dynasty raised hundreds of thousands of horses, and the number of war horses was so large that even infantry could ride horses to the battlefield and then dismount and fight. More often, for example, fighting on the grassland, both cavalry and infantry had the minimum combat ability. They could fight on horseback and dismount and fight. There was no distinction between cavalry and infantry, and the Tang Dynasty was so luxurious.

Therefore, the Tang army was very powerful. Emperor Wu of Han could only build 100,000 iron cavalry by exerting the whole country. The reason was not only because the number of war horses was not perfect during the Han Dynasty. Cavalry had to rely on the strength of their legs to clamp the horse's belly, which was very demanding. Therefore, not everyone could do cavalry. In the Tang Dynasty, horse harnesses had been basically perfect, except for horseshoes. The most powerful cavalry should have. The Tang Dynasty had them.

As for horseshoe, Suning not until he returned from the battle in Lingzhou and saw the horse that Cheng Chu silently saw him off and was crying sadly...

That day, Suning went to Cheng Mansion to deliver things to Cheng Yaojin. When he arrived at the gate of Cheng Mansion, he saw Cheng Chumo and his war horse hugging each other tightly. Cheng Chumo was still crying. The man didn't cry easily. But he was not sad. Cheng Chumo was sad. What's wrong with his war horse? I'm sick? I'm going to die? Suning knew the relationship between the warrior and the war horse, just like the relationship between himself and Lai Fu. But this war horse should be fine. When he carried Cheng Chumo back from Lingzhou, what's wrong?

"Chumo, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with Saihu? Are you leaving?" Suning walked up and asked strangely. The name of this war horse was Saihu. He had a very good relationship with Cheng Chumo. He was raised since childhood. When Cheng Chumo saw Suning coming, he hurriedly wiped away his tears and said, "Yes, I can't ride anymore. I'm going to be sent away. I really can't bear to raise since childhood.

After saying that, tears couldn't help but burst out again. Suning looked up and down the horse, but found nothing wrong, so he asked: "Saihu doesn't look sick. Even if he gets sick, he'll be cured? Why should he send it away? Is it terminally ill?"

Cheng Chumo shook his head and said, "The horse's hooves are worn and can't ride them anymore. If they ride again, the hooves will rot. At that time, they will be useless. They were too fierce when they went to Lingzhou to fight. They were too crazy to chase a barbarian. As soon as they came back, they found Saihu limping. As a result... it was all my fault..." Cheng Chumo said, hugging Saihu's head and shed tears. Saihu seemed to have realized something, rubbing Cheng Chumo's face with his big horse's head, as if comforting Cheng Chumo.

Suning then asked in surprise: "Do you have no horseshoes?!"

Cheng Chumo was stunned and turned around and asked, "What is the horse's hoof? The horse's hoof? What is that?"

Suning squatted down and picked up Saihu's hooves. When he saw it, he felt dizzy. Damn, I didn't notice it! By the way! Horseshoe was brought back by the Mongolians in the Western Expedition. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had no horseshoe at all. I said that every time I returned from the battle, Li Jing and Li Shiji always had to argue about the issue of war horses. It turned out that this was the reason! Suning also realized that he had never paid attention to whether Lai Fu's hooves were worn...

After returning home that day, Suning rushed into the stable and carefully looked at Lai Fu's hooves. He found that they were a little worn, but they could still ride. He then breathed a sigh of relief. He immediately returned to the house and wrote down the production process of the horseshoe. He immediately found a craftsman from the Su Mansion to create a horseshoe for Lai Fu to nail it. Only then did he feel relieved.

After that, Suning reported the horseshoe to His Majesty Li Er. His Majesty Li Er was overjoyed. After the actual inspection, it was confirmed that the horseshoe was very powerful and even more happy. He rewarded Suning with many good things. Suning also learned that every large-scale battle in the Tang Dynasty would lose a small or even half of the war horses. It was not that the horses died, but that the horses were worn and unable to continue to use. These horses either became stallions to continue to have children, or could only kill and eat meat. It was a pity.

After that, every war horse in the Tang Dynasty was equipped with horseshoes. The Tang army expressed great satisfaction. The combat effectiveness of the cavalry once again increased, and they won several small conflicts on the border. The arrest of many prisoners of war was considered a perfect merit.

Therefore, the Tang Dynasty, whether it is cavalry, infantry, or crossbowmen, have reached the peak of China's cold weapons era in all aspects. Although the combustion tanks produced by Suning are powerful, their usage restrictions are too high. The oil crops of the Tang Dynasty have just begun to be planted on a large scale and have not improved much in a short period of time. Therefore, this kind of combustion tank can only be used as a luxury weapon and occasionally used to deter the enemy. If it is really used like it is against the Liao people, it will be gone after two or three battles.

However, when Suning received the order from His Majesty Li Er that Li Tai was destroyed by fiddling with something strange, and he was slightly injured, he was quite shocked, because the person who sent the message also said that there was a loud noise in the palace, and people were in panic, and the order in the palace was almost collapsed. His Majesty killed three eunuchs in a row and transferred troops into the palace to stabilize the palace. Now he was quite angry. King Tai was very happy to say that he would not be humiliated by his master's order. His Majesty Li Er was even more angry and asked Mr. Su to be careful.
Chapter completed!