In the ancient battlefield, the existence of heavy cavalry is like today's heavy tanks, which are not invincible on the battlefield, but the lethality and deterrence are also extremely strong. However, heavy cavalry appears more often in Europe, but it rarely appears in Asia, especially in ChinaBecause this thing is not very useful in China;Heavy cavalry is not only extremely expensive to build, but also extremely demanding to the terrain, so there are very few heavy cavalry;Although it is few, there are still some after all, and here, let's take stock of the four elite heavy cavalry in history.
top, 4 Iron Harriers
The Iron Harrier is a heavy cavalry unit founded by Li Yuanhao of Jingzong of Western Xia, divided into ten teams, each team of 300 people, with a captain, who serves as the captain of the "fierce generals of all times". In the early days, the Iron Harrier was used as a guard and honor guard for the supreme ruler of Western Xia, but with the development of warfare, this army gradually developed into the main force of Western Xia, as a "front army" that charged into battle and assaulted the enemy's formation.
This cavalry was well-armed, and could not penetrate on good horses, heavy armor, and stabs, and was twisted with hooks and cables, although it did not fall on a dead horse. In case of battle, the iron cavalry will break through the formation first, and the chaos will impact it;The infantry marched on horseback". Moreover, the selection method of the Iron Harrier is basically hereditary, the father's armor is passed on to the son, the son's armor is passed on to the grandson, and the ancestors have been passed down from generation to generation, creating a martial arts that flows in the blood.
Iron Harriers mostly use fish scale formations in combat, of course, not because of any civilian formation, in fact, listen, their formation is called fish scale formation, which is not good, it is basically a wolf pack tactic. But I have to admit that this method of warfare is very effective, after all, for the heavy cavalry, the significance of the formation is not much, as long as the power of the heavy cavalry is fully brought into play;Therefore, this cavalry was one of the fiercest cavalry in the world before the appearance of the Mongol iron cavalry, and it was also the nightmare of all party enemies.
top, 3 iron float map
Tiefutu, also known as Tiefutu, is a kind of iron cavalry of the Jin Kingdom, very similar to the European Crusaders, belonging to the subordinates of the Jin General Wanyan Wushu (Jin Wushu), and the abducted horse together with the Jin Wushu in the southern and northern wars, and made great achievements. In 1140 A.D., Jin Wushu led his 100,000 troops, 15,000 kidnappers and horses, and 5,000 Tiefutu to Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. On the way, Tiefutu and the kidnapping horse were invincible, and they were invincible, and they were all the way to Shunchang on the edge of the Yangtze River.
Although the coordination of Tiefutu and the kidnapping horse is extremely perfect, one is a heavy cavalry, the other is an elite light cavalry, but the Chinese have experienced countless storms and waves, and the heavy cavalry has not appeared in history, so the smart Han people quickly thought of a way to crack it. During the Battle of Shunchang, he first sent people to quietly poison the river, and a few days later, most of the Jin soldiers fell ill and lost most of their combat effectiveness.
Liu Qi thought that the time had come, and he organized a team, each armed with a long-handled axe and a long javelin, to line up at the front of the position and cut the legs of the horse's cavalry that the enemy rushed first. After the cavalry fell to the ground, they were assassinated with javelins, breaking the Jin army's iron float and kidnapping horses, causing them to lose more than half. The remaining half of Tiefutu and the kidnapping horse were finally wiped out by Yue Fei, and it can be said that this is the worst heavy cavalry in Chinese history.
TOP, 2 Mongolian Iron Horse
In fact, Genghis Khan also had heavy cavalry under his command, and the scale was extremely large, but the Mongol cavalry team was obviously improved, because each Mongolian cavalry team was a mix of light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and the ratio was about three to two;When the Mongol Empire rose, the Mongol heavy shock cavalry was also very powerful, and during the second Mongol expedition to the west, the heavy cavalry accounted for about 40% of the entire cavalry army.
The battle between the Mongols and the European coalition showed the strong combat effectiveness formed by the cooperation of various cavalry. The Mongols first lured the European cavalry into pursuit with a small number of light cavalry, and then the Mongol cavalry archers outflanked the pursuing European cavalry from both flanks and continuously fired arrows at the European cavalry, killing and injuring the European cavalry. At this time, the Mongol heavy cavalry on standby launched an assault on the European cavalry, and the Mongol cavalry archers, outflanked by both wings, completed the encirclement of the European cavalry. Due to the constant casualties of the Mongol cavalry archers, the European cavalry formation had been scattered and crushed by the Mongol heavy cavalry.
The most terrifying thing about the Mongol cavalry is that their tactics can be replicated, and when they encounter an enemy army with insufficient strength, they will assault the whole army;When encountering a strong opponent, it is the light cavalry that lures the enemy, destroys the enemy's formation, and then the heavy cavalry charges. Some people may ask, isn't it said that it is resource-intensive to build heavy cavalry?First of all, horses, will Mongolia still be lacking?After that, there are the resources for forging armor, why do you think Mongolia has plundered so many resources?They are all here to build an army, and it is precisely because of this that there is an invincible Mongolian iron cavalry in the world.
top, 1 Xuanjia Iron Ride
Since the invincible Mongolian iron cavalry in the world can only rank second, who can rank first?Not to mention, there is still a certain gap between the Mongolian iron cavalry and the Xuanjia iron cavalry in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. According to the record of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry in the "Zizhi Tongjian": Qin Wang Shimin selected more than 1,000 elite horsemen, all of whom were soap-clothed Xuanjia, and were divided into left and right teams, so that Qin Shubao, Cheng Zhijie, Wei Chi Jingde, and Zhai Changsun were divided into generals. In every battle, the people of the world were taken as the vanguard by the Xuanjia Shuai, taking the opportunity to attack, and everything was destroyed, and the enemy was afraid of it.
The reason why this Xuanjia Iron Cavalry is so famous in history is, of course, supported by military achievements, Li Shimin once used a thousand Xuanjia Iron Cavalry to defeat Wang Shichong and beheaded more than 6,000 people. In the battle of Tiger Prison Pass, which decided the ownership of the world, Dou Jiande led more than 100,000 elite main forces to support Wang Shichong, and Li Shimin only used 3,500 Xuanjia iron cavalry to reinforce the Tiger Pass, and as a result, Dou Jiande broke more than 100,000 people, Dou Jiande only led hundreds of horsemen to escape, and then, Luoyang surrendered ......
After Li Shimin ascended the throne, he split the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry. Some of them became the palace guard "Hundred Cavalry", stationed near the palace for a long time, and only rotated internally without leaving the capital. The main part of the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry was handed over to Li Jing, which played a mainstay role in the Tang Dynasty's war of annihilation against the Turks. By the time of Wu Zetian, the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry began to expand, and its combat effectiveness also decreased significantly. In the era of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a large-scale reorganization was carried out, and the combat effectiveness continued to decline, and finally reduced to decorations.