Chapter 837 Longbow Locked Formation
As the saying goes, the north is good at riding and the south is good at boating.
But in Lingnan, especially in the area around Zuoxiju Town to the west of Yongzhou, it is a mountainous area. Although there are Zuoxi, Nanpanjiang and other rivers, the barbarians here are not very good at boats. Xidong Man knows how to paddle canoes and small bamboo rafts.
The particularity of the mountainous region, coupled with the extension of the tea-horse trade road, allowed these barbarians to have many caravans. Juding barbarians even have an army of elephants, as well as cavalry.
It’s just that their cavalry is different from the cavalry of the Central Plains. The horses of the cavalry in the Central Plains are all tall horses. The good war horses are mainly Hetao horses, Hexi horses, or Turkic horses, Khitan horses, etc., or Qinghai horses, or even big horses. Wanma.
In the Central Plains, Hebei, Shanxi, Hexi, Longyou, Shuofang and even Shandong also produce horses. Huainan, Shannan and Jiannan also produce horses, but the horses are not as good.
However, the horses of the barbarians here are mostly native horses. The unique mountain dam terrain here, and even the special climate in the mountains of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, make the horses here generally relatively short, but have good endurance.
It is not as powerful as those Hexi Mahe Taoma, but they are small in size but more suitable for dangerous mountainous terrain.
The horn sounded.
The Juding barbarians began to beat their bronze drums. As early as the pre-Qin period, the Juding tribes had mastered the superb copper metallurgy technology. They were once the top tyrants in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The bronze drums are even more developed.
The patterns on the large bronze drums are exquisite, and some of them even have a long history of inheritance. It can be said that they are passed down from a long, long time ago. The exquisite patterns on them and even their long historical records have long been lost in history. People can't understand it.
Team after team of Juding cavalry and Zuoxi cavalry were gathering and heading towards the delta.
There are more orders to come across the river by boat or raft from several other ambush locations.
More than 30,000 horses from two savages ambushed here, and there were quite a few cavalry. The most powerful elephant soldiers did not come, but almost all the Qing cavalry came. It was just that they were scattered everywhere to ambush, and Qin Lang did not expect to see through it before. After the ambush, not only did not leave, but also dared to come up.
The light cavalry missed the best charging time.
When many cavalrymen received the order, they didn't even put the saddle on their horses. They thought that the Tang people were not afraid of death, and that it would definitely be a head-on battle after a while, and the terrain there was not suitable for cavalry.
The cavalry were waiting to see the excitement, but they never expected to let them play in the first game.
The fast ones got on their horses and began to charge towards Tang Qi, while the slow ones were still picking up saddles and searching for weapons.
Fusan frowned at that chaotic look.
The bad feeling in my heart became stronger and stronger.
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And Tang Jun's side.
The two wings were about 30 feet wide, but the passage was about 20 feet deep. After the rain, it was slippery and muddy, but everyone ignored it and was preparing for the battle desperately under the drizzle.
The infantry established a line of defense with spears, heavy axes, and knives. Behind them were dense crossbowmen, and behind them were earth walls and pile arrays being rushed to build, and behind them were simple arrow towers that were being quickly built. .
For archers, no matter how simple the arrow tower is, as long as it has a certain height, it can increase their lethality a lot. Not to mention, wooden boards, shields, etc. can also be used to build defensive armor on the arrow tower, which provides great protection for the archers. Provides extra protection.
"Sanlang, why don't you return to the Zhenyuan ship to command?"
Qin Lang was unmoved.
"War is desperate. At this time, the military flag stands here, and the morale of the soldiers can be high. The military flag is here, but I stay on the boat in the river, so who is willing to work hard?"
Qin Lang looked at a watchtower that had been hastily erected in front of him, and climbed up directly.
The wet and slippery ground after the rain affected the light cavalry of the barbarian army. Those short horses, which were not as big as the Central Plains mules, were the best at traveling in the mountains, but at this time it also greatly affected the speed.
Especially the swampy area around the big pond affected their development even more.
The first batch of rushing over was about three to five hundred riders, and they were divided into two sides.
"Send the order, the crossbowman zooms in and shoots!"
It is true that archers are not good at melee combat, but archers are actually the strongest among infantry, not only because of their high long-range damage, but also because they can be archers among infantry. Generally the strongest.
Datang has archers and crossbow soldiers, equipped with bows and crossbows, which are long-range arms. But it would be a big mistake to think that they are all thin and small. These days, infantry archers generally use hard longbows.
Generals even used bows with more than three stones.
Even if it is the most common eight-dou bow, the strength required to open the bow is amazing.
The infantry bows of the Tang Dynasty were Zhemu longbows, a single bow made of mulberry and Zhemu. This kind of bow is no different from the horn bows used by cavalry. The horn bows of cavalry are made of tendons, horns, bamboo, wood, etc. A compound bow made of this material, with a short bow and strong feet.
The infantry longbow is a single-piece bow. One of its major features is that the bow rest is very long. Untie the string and put it in the bow pocket at the waist. Those who don’t know it think it’s a Mo knife.
The longbow is straight after unstringing, how straight is it?
It's like a pole.
Longbows are usually unstringed and placed in the bow, and used to hang the strings for battle. This kind of bow is thick in the middle and small at both ends, and its power is terrifying.
But the longbow is not easy to use. One of the biggest features of this single bow is its great strength. It's not like the cavalry's horn bow, because it's a compound bow with a short body, even a recurve bow, so it doesn't take much effort to pull it apart.
The infantry longbow is straighter than a human being when its strings are untied, and the middle is really as thick as a shoulder pole. Without enough strength, it is impossible to draw it, let alone shoot it far.
So in the Tang Dynasty, an infantry archer was definitely the top-quality infantry soldier. They were all tall and mighty, and they had strong physical strength.
Many elite step archers, because of long-term archery, even lead to scoliosis of the spine.
Of course, Tang Jun also has a kind of bow, which is a short bow. But this kind of bow is not a bow for professional archers, but for infantry of other arms. The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty attach the most importance to the equipment of bows. Basically, everyone has a bow, and all spearmen, knives, and players are equipped with bows. , but their bows are not infantry longbows, but shorter soft bows like slightly bows.
The Twelve Guards’ selection criteria for the middle-step archers of the government soldiers is to shoot eight bows with armor, and eight bows with two stones. The crossbow with three stones and five buckets is the best.
Not only must you be able to draw the specified bow and crossbow, but you must also shoot with armor. At the same time, there are requirements for range and accuracy. For example, the minimum requirement is to shoot long stacks of arrows with sixty steps of armor, and ten arrows can hit more than six arrows.
Although the calculation of bow force in the Tang Dynasty was done without strings, which was different from the method of measuring force after stringing began in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the strength of the bow is equally strict.
According to Qin Lang's own estimation, the bow with one stone and two bows in the Tang Dynasty is about the same as the one hundred and sixty pounds of force in later generations.
In the Qing Dynasty, force was used as the unit, and stones were no longer used. The martial arts examination required that the pulling force of the bow should be three strengths for riding and five strengths for step shooting, and the strength of one bow was about 12 pounds. Riding and shooting three strength is about thirty-six pounds, and foot shooting five strength is sixty pounds.
And some elite guards, generals, etc. have five to seven or eight strengths.
The longbows used by step archers in the Tang Dynasty were precisely those that required extremely high force.
Therefore, archers in the Tang Dynasty always emphasized one sentence, the bow should be strong, and the longbow should be strong.
The tall longbowmen are equipped with human-high longbows, and then use special armor-piercing arrows, which can directly pierce the enemy's armor within 60 steps.
And when hundreds of infantry and longbowmen fired in salvo, coupled with those more powerful crossbows, no one could stop them.
As we all know in later generations, the English longbowmen who beat the French plate armored cavalry in the Hundred Years War between Britain and France, their longbows actually had an average pulling force of about 160 pounds.
This level is actually similar to the longbowmen of the infantry soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, and even the style of the longbow is not much different.
It's all a perversion based on personal bravery.
Such a strong infantry, of course, it is impossible to just shoot three arrows before the battle.
Three shots before the battle, that refers to the infantry of other arms, such as spearmen, sword players, etc. They are equipped with a small bow, and they shoot three consecutive shots before the enemy charges. Throwing down the bows, each took up the weapons of their own arms to fight.
The archers and crossbowmen are combined in battle, staying behind the spearmen, sword players, etc., and can shoot two pots of arrows in one battle.
Even if the brothers in front couldn't stop them, they could still use rifles, spears or big knives to fight in close quarters. Because these archers are too strong, the secondary weapons that Datang equips them are generally rifles, Or a broadsword.
Some are even paired directly with Mo Dao or Heavy Axe to give full play to their super strength.
Not only that, even infantry archers are basically equipped with armor, often with heavy armor, and those with light armor are not archers, but crossbowmen. They are far worse than archers.
Of course, sword players generally also use light armor.
How terrifying are the infantry and longbowmen of the Tang Dynasty? To put it more vividly, shooting a stone longbow is almost the same as doing one-arm bent-over dumbbell rowing exercises in fitness, and you need to use more than 40 kilograms.
Also mainly use the latissimus dorsi to exert force.
But in the gym, people with stronger bodies generally only use 15 kg for training, and women even generally only use 3 kg for training.
Forty kilograms or more, anyone who has tried it knows the horror.
These are the infantry and longbowmen of the Tang Dynasty, a group of people with the strongest physical strength in this era.
Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Hu Feng has been fierce and martial arts have become popular. The two emperors of the Tang Dynasty are both top marksmen.
And Li Shimin's Tiance Admiral's big arrow is even more amazing. His four big arrows can directly pierce the door panel.
He once sent someone to take his four-feathered arrows to Turks, and with three arrows, he was able to intimidate the Turks who were about to move.
Left wing front.
About three hundred barbarians rushed forward, getting closer and closer.
College Lieutenant Zhang Renzheng calmly took out the Zhemu longbow from the leopard skin bow at his waist, and drew the armored arrow from the Hululi.
"Lock array!"
"String the longbow!"
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(end of this chapter)