Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 571 The Core of Combat Power
In the open space outside the village, two groups of people were confronting each other.

Nearly a hundred people in Xianggongmiao Village were whispering in a corner of the open space. More than 200 people from Majiazhuang came and gathered diagonally across the open space. Many people were looking back and forth.

Zhang Baihu trotted over and asked loudly: "Old Ma, what are you doing?"

"I still want to ask you." Ma Shizhu also replied loudly: "We agreed to do martial arts together later, why are your villagers doing this alone?"

"Then didn't you come running over too?" Zhang Baihu naturally couldn't explain directly, so he could only ask rhetorically first.

"We come out to practice marching every day." Ma Shizhu disagreed: "Isn't this a basic skill?"

Zhang Baihu had nothing to say, and it was difficult to refute him for a while. Yang Lao Baihu had no choice but to come forward in person, walked to the bottom of the slope, and said: "Our village is entertaining distinguished guests, and we are going to put in a temporary show to add to the fun. Shizhu, you can continue first. Go practice, we still have to use this place.”

"Uncle, how can we not be involved in the performance?" Ma Shizhu took advantage of the situation and got entangled: "Of course, the bigger the momentum of this kind of display, the better the effect. Although we in Majiazhuang don't have great skills, we can show our strength and play tricks. We still have the skills to show off our skills. Since we happened to meet each other today, doesn’t it mean that Heavenly Father also wants us to help you in the village? If we just left like this, we would have neglected all the distinguished guests, and we would be really sorry. "

"Uh..." Yang Laobaihu couldn't answer the question for a moment.

"Okay, okay." Guo Zhaowen stood up and smoothed things over: "I know you can talk, old horse, so don't make things difficult for others. In this way, today we followed the eldest brother and happened to be here to prepare gifts for these children. Why don't we all come together and show our skills to them?"

After finishing the performance, Ma Shizhu waved everyone to stop, and then continued: "Okay, now, memorize the multiplication table!"

"I think our ideas may be different." Ma Shizhu explained: "The ancients said that if you learn from superior role models, you can probably learn at an intermediate level. Therefore, people in our village follow the example. Only by being educated according to the standards of hundreds of households can you become a good soldier. This is not a matter of who knows it and who doesn’t, but that everyone should learn it.”

"Then we have quite a few people here who know how to do it." Zhang Baihu said unconvinced, "Who would have thought that you would show this to others?"

"Nine-nine-eighty-one..." Everyone just stood there and recited it loudly.

"How is it? Is it okay?" Yang Laobaihu said to Guo Kang: "On our side, even if there is no war, everyone's training has not stopped, so you can rest assured."

"We archers need to practice our movements and postures for a long time. If the bow is pulled too long, the arrow will be too strong and fly too fast, and will not hit the target; if the bow is pulled too short, the arrow will be weak and fly too slowly, and will fall lower. According to the Tang system, in battle, the foot archers need to release the arrow at 60 steps. At this distance, the difference in arrow speed will have a great impact on the accuracy, so we must study hard and keep the posture stable."

"This is an advanced military skill. It can be used for both formation and supplies." Ma Shizhu said without thinking.

"No, what are you doing?" Zhang Baihu said in surprise.

"When we fight, we have to use our brains and knowledge. This is true even when training. If you ask me, as long as you understand it deeply, you will know the role of this knowledge." He said, taking a Taking out a short bow: "Everyone is familiar with this kind of bow. Let's take this as an example."

"Okay, okay." The adoptive father praised: "Then let Majiazhuang show it as well."

Ma Shizhu cupped his hands and greeted everyone to enter. The people in their village put down their backpacks, lined up neatly, walked in, and stood in groups of two. Then, Ma Shizhu shouted: "Start practicing!" They pressed against each other and performed wrestling.

Zhang Baihu took out his whistle and started blowing it. Everyone followed the whistle and kept moving, changing the square, circle, length and width of the formation. Sometimes they formed an inverted triangle, and sometimes they formed a circular formation. Afterwards, Zhang Baihu blew several quick blasts in succession, and the crowd quickly dispersed into three rows, separated by a gap of more than one person. The back row faced the gap in the front row, stood firm, and started pumping their fists. After a flurry of punches and kicks, Zhang Baihu blew the whistle again, and everyone stopped, tightened their formation, and lined up.

Zhang Baihu and others responded and turned around to call for help. The people in Majiazhuang all moved back to make space. There were only a hundred of them, and they dispersed directly, forming teams of nine or ten, occupying the entire venue.

The people in Majiazhuang seem to be very familiar with wrestling. The movements of each group are very coherent, and it seems that they have practiced seriously. Come to think of it, the instructor they hired should be someone who specializes in teaching this. Wrestling is indeed a very practical move and is a common skill used in armored combat. Therefore, people are not forced to brag about themselves.

"The formation and marching are all practiced when we were in school, so it's not interesting to show them." Ma Shizhu introduced to everyone: "We will just show the battle formation skills."

No one else objected, so he continued: "Let the host come first."

"The She Jing says, 'The body is straight like a tree trunk, and the arms are straight like branches.' When standing, the cheeks should not be tilted, the neck should not be retracted, the chest should not be bulged forward, and the back should not be hunched back; when opening the bow, the Keep an eye on the target, use force to draw the bow at the same time, the bow hand must be straight and level, and the elbow joint of the right shoulder of the string control hand must be level so that a water cup can be placed on the elbow. This is considered a standard action.” he introduced.

"According to the experience of the ancients, when drawing a bow, it is best to pull the string control hand to the lower side of the cheek, pull the arrow until it is flush with the bow handle, and the arrowhead touches the thumb before it can be released. The bow arm should be fully extended. , so the position of the bow hand is fixed; the string control hand is located under the chin, so the position is also fixed. In this way, as long as the arrow hits the thumb every time, the bow opening range will be the same. Here, it is this range that we try to maintain through repeated practice over many years.”

"And if we want to save some trouble, we only need a wooden stick. The bow handle fixes a section of the wooden stick, and the bowstring is pulled to a fixed position on the wooden stick every time. By hanging the strings on the mechanism here, we can ensure that the amplitude is "It's consistent for the first time." He said, taking out his backpack again: "Then, we got a crossbow." "With so many theories and years of practice, it just clicks." ”

"When practicing bow and arrow, another problem is releasing. The tail groove of the arrow tail is buckled on the string, and the thumb hooks the bow string next to it. Therefore, when releasing the arrow, the movement must be crisp and neat, otherwise it will interfere with the arrow. The arrow cannot hit accurately. This requires long-term practice and understanding of the truth. And if we use equipment, we can release it cleanly, and the crossbow machine has this effect."

"An archer may not be able to practice well in several years. But a crossbowman can become very proficient in a few months." He raised the bow and crossbow in his hand: "Even if we don't look at the strength and the convenience of aiming, just From these technical details, you can see why the time gap is so big - the most time-consuming and hard work is saved in this way."

"However, while the crossbow saves trouble, the requirements have also changed. The effective range of the crossbow is much longer than that of the bow. According to the Tang system, it should be fired at 150 steps, which is two and a half times that of the bow. At this distance , you cannot aim straight, and you need to use various instruments to assist.”

"During the Song Dynasty, someone excavated a crossbow machine from the Han Dynasty. Shen Kuo observed the actual crossbow machine and found that it had a clear scale on the mountain. Using the scale on the mountain and the position of the arrowhead, you can aim. Shen Kuo also studied the people of the Han Dynasty He left behind formulas and discovered that the formulas for using the crossbow were actually calculations based on the Pythagorean formula. Even an inexperienced person like him could hit the target 70% of the time.”

"However, although advanced relics of the Han Dynasty were unearthed and the formula was cracked, the soldiers of the Han Dynasty could make estimates based on the formula, but the soldiers of the Song Dynasty could not. As a result, this lost ancient technology has not been popularized. ”

"I was reading books on teaching archery and was very impressed by this example." He shook his head and said, "If we want to use better technology to improve the efficiency of training and combat, we need everyone to master more knowledge. Okay. On the battlefield, this knowledge is not less important than martial arts, and may even be more important. I am afraid that our main advantage over the barbarians is here, not brute force."

This statement is indeed very reasonable, and Zhang Baihu and others cannot refute it.

"I didn't know about this before. I thought crossbows developed slowly like this. I didn't expect so many twists and turns..." Guo Ru said with emotion.

"We have been thinking about this recently, so we got inspired." Ma Shizhu told him: "Historical books say that in the Han Dynasty, there were data on shooting distance. If you make a table and memorize it, you can save a lot of trouble. You don't need to I made a temporary estimate. If this can be reproduced, the difficulty can be further reduced, so we are also thinking about it and want to try it out again. "

"In our army, there are many bows and very few crossbows, so I didn't pay much attention to it before." The adoptive father said and asked Guo Kang: "Do you think it is necessary? In the future, firearms should be the main focus. Bar."

"You can try it for those who don't have time to practice bows and arrows." Guo Kang did not object: "In fact, firearms also need these things. If you accumulate experience, you will definitely use them in the future."

In fact, as far as he knew, there were even more instruments and experiences in ancient times than what Shen Kuo discovered. The people of the Han Dynasty not only had hope mountains and radiators, but also had beacons everywhere. They also had equipment used for observation and distance measurement in conjunction with heavy crossbows. The more advanced Wangshan is not just a stick, but a grid-shaped sight. These things are still instructive for long-range shooting in the age of firearms.

Of course, even if these are discovered, it will be useless. For the soldiers of the Song Dynasty, even shooting a watch was too high...

Moreover, the effectiveness of weapons goes far beyond wartime use, and peacetime maintenance is also very important. The Central Plains-style crossbow was a difficult weapon to maintain. The reason why people in the Han Dynasty used crossbows so commonly was because their system was perfect.

Even at the beacon tower on the border, various records must be made every day, called a "daily book", to register various daily activities. Soldiers also have to regularly check grain, beacon fuel, weapons, and even medicine, because the reserves of these supplies are clearly defined, and their superiors will also check them regularly and incorporate the results into their performance evaluations.

As the most powerful and complex weapon, the crossbow is also the most troublesome. Soldiers need to regularly measure the actual tension of the crossbow and conduct test firings. The name, model, serial number, bow power, loss, range, etc. of the crossbow should be recorded and checked and updated regularly.

According to the rules of the Han Dynasty, one day's work is one day's performance; and in the annual assessment, as long as the crossbow shooting reaches the standard of 12 out of 6, one extra arrow will be a fifteen-day performance reward. Therefore, although the soldiers often complained and even informed each other about the whereabouts of the inspection team, they were still willing to actively defend it in order to gain merit.

Many of these complicated tasks require calculations and written records, so whenever there is an opportunity, soldiers will try to learn to write. Later scholars discovered a large number of calligraphy slips in the beacons of the Han Dynasty, as well as enlightenment reading materials such as "Ji Ju Pian". Some people also memorize multiplication tables and even copy the Four Books and Five Classics in an attempt to improve their cultural level.

It can be seen that the real core of the army is the people themselves. Only in the hands of soldiers can weapons be used, improved and developed. Even if Shen Kuo restored the crossbows and supporting equipment of the Han Dynasty, giving these things to ordinary officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty would probably be a waste of resources, and the Song army would soon return to its normal level.

Therefore, the education of soldiers and the organization of the army are what Guo Kang considers to be the most critical.

The Han Dynasty claimed that "one Han can serve as the five barbarians", not because the Han people are bigger and stronger and five times the size of the barbarians, but precisely because of these advantages in military organization and the professional abilities of the soldiers. On the contrary, the Song Dynasty army was far inferior to this, and even worse than relying entirely on self-organization after losing its official status. It can be seen that these perfect institutional rules, and more importantly, the ability to implement them, are the key to combat effectiveness.

So Guo Kang whispered a few words to his adoptive father. And my adoptive father was also a person who often fought in wars, so he understood the meaning immediately.

"That's good too." The adoptive father finally made up his mind: "Hey, if there aren't too many people who want to participate, I would rather we have more people here. Since you are so dedicated this time, I can't refuse. You all go to Dadu and report. As for the final selection, I don’t care. Let the Ministry of War follow the regulations.”

Everyone was happy and thanked him profusely.

They then visited several sites and met with representatives from several other villages. In the evening, it was the locals' turn to entertain them. Maybe it was because they got their wish, everyone was very excited, even Guo Kang drank too much. Their trip was completed as planned.

(End of this chapter)