Contrary to common people's understanding, horses, a creature that still requires a lot of manpower and material resources to be domesticated until now, were used on the battlefield for the first time, not as independent single-horse cavalry, but on the back of a wooden horse. The structures are connected together, and the battle is carried out with several horses pulling a chariot.
In the ancient past, the most important criterion for measuring the military strength of a country was the number of chariots pulled by horses. In addition to the crew on top, chariots with compact size and simple structure usually also had installations in several directions. There are fixed spears, scimitars, defensive shields and other equipment, and when hundreds or thousands of these chariots charge in groups in areas such as plains, they can defeat enemies that are several or even ten times their size. Fang's infantry was completely powerless to stop them.
The large army in the open area and the collision between the major empires and city-states in ancient times are a picture full of courage. As the highest peak of the army's combat power in that era, the power of the chariot can be said to be frightening.
The fact that humans have tamed horses and used them as means of transportation can be traced back to the tribal settlement period thousands of years ago when few written records were left. Some of the mineral pigment paintings that remain on the stone walls and the ancient clay tablets that remain to this day are often found. There are pictures of humans riding horses or leading horses. No matter how far apart they are, as long as the spark of civilization bursts out, the choices of humans will be similar.
Choose domesticated livestock that are of moderate size and easy to obtain, choose the weapons and armors that are made, and even the structure of the city-state and various supporting facilities. The history of taming horses has been so long, and in the earliest times they were usually used as tools for riding rather than pulling carts - this is because making a carriage also requires a lot of carpentry skills and processing knowledge. In an era when abilities were relatively backward, it was easier to ride directly.
But then again, since the tools used by human beings have always evolved in stages over the course of history, what was the reason that led the first people to abandon direct horseback combat and instead use more sophisticated methods? It is bulky and inflexible. It can only be used on plain terrain and its combat effectiveness will be seriously reduced once it encounters rough roads, instead of riding it directly?
The answer is a gadget that people today are very familiar with - the stirrup.
It may be difficult for people who have never experienced riding to understand, but a horse is a living creature, not a chair placed on flat ground. The comfort on the horseback of a moving war horse is very poor, which is why the first lesson that every knight, whether it is Silvalier or Avenella, must learn to master balance when they ride on horseback.
As a foothold for the feet, the invention of the stirrup allowed people to stand up on the horse and use their legs to control the posture of the body instead of passively staying in the saddle. In the early days when there were no stirrups, horses were used as tools for daily transportation or carrying supplies. When encountering a battle situation and when you need to sprint or control the horse to stand up——
Unless you hold the reins tightly with your hands, you are bound to fall off your horse.
If you are unable to control your posture on the horse, in addition to being thrown to pieces and being killed by others, the accuracy and strength of your swings, which can only rely on your arms without a foothold, will also be greatly reduced - even if you don't need to Stab-type weapons such as slashing spears often swayed greatly and were unable to hit the target accurately because there were no stirrups when the war horses started to move.
The existence of anything in history has its own meaning, and the same is true for the heavy and slow chariots that are ridiculed by today's Sivalier heavy cavalry. Although many who disliked the Lamanites publicly spoke correct nonsense about the imperial army being vulnerable to the knights of modern Sivalier and were proud of their heavy cavalry, all historians As we all know, although it is known as the country of knights, the Sivaliya people were not the first nation to invent the cavalry.
In the Abu Serra Steppe in the far south, there is a group of nomads who live with their horses all their lives. Together with the stirrups, the horse archers were born nearly a thousand years ago and are still a combat force that cannot be ignored on this continent. This truly first-born cavalry unit was naturally made by them.
The exact historical origin is no longer known. Some scholars speculate that it may be related to the various animals on the prairie that are extremely good at running. This statement is supported by many evidences, such as Avenella. Hunters in such mountainous countries usually hunt in forests or plains, and they use larger longbows when traveling on foot, while nomads far to the south usually carry shortbows that are more suitable for use on war horses.
It was impossible to catch up with those prey with human foot strength, so one had to ride a horse; in order to facilitate use when riding a horse, the bow was made short and powerful; but even so, it was still impossible to shoot accurately because there was nowhere to stand, so the bow was invented. The stirrup was invented as a hunting tool.
As time goes by, this convenient invention becomes more and more popular. Through conquering and being conquered, killing and robbing, I don’t know when it spread to all over the world, but no matter what, as the most terrifying light cavalry in the world, the grassland The formation of cavalry archers of the nomadic people is still frightening to this day.
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about it is not simply its strength as a unit, but what it represents behind it. These nomadic peoples who are divided into tribes and still retain their original social structure are called barbarians by the major settled ethnic groups.
The fact that all people are soldiers.
Even a little girl can skillfully stand on a horse and draw a bow and arrow. Unlike the old and weak women and children of "civilized society" hiding in stone castles who can only cry and tremble when encountering war, every grassland As long as a person picks up weapons and his beloved war horse, he will become a great warrior.
…
A sense of tension filled everyone's hearts. When they saw smoke rising from the horizon in front of them into the sky from a distance, they realized that the purpose of this trip was to find the grassland nomads. This goal took nearly 10 years. It's almost done in two weeks. This alone is not a big surprise, because although the grassland is large, the resources that can provide an entire tribe with survival resources do not exist everywhere.
The rain clouds they encountered a few days ago gave them a general direction. After all, as a nomadic people, humans and animals require a lot of water. Although temporary wetlands will appear in most areas of the Abu Sera Grassland during the rainy season, It is also in those places that already have terrain differences or even dry valleys, it is easier to gather small lakes or rivers that can exist for a long time.
When the two scouts serving as guides decided to move in this direction, many people in the team were a little uneasy, especially those who knew little about it. The real native steppe people had the same bad reputation as Thoradin in the South. So they walked directly towards the area where they knew that a large number of grassland tribes were likely to appear. From their perspective, it was like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth.
But if you have a little knowledge of the unique customs of this vast and sunny land, you will probably sneer at this.
Human beings are always good at trying to figure out other people or other ethnic groups with prejudices and stereotypes. Just like the people in the South often talk about the fact that brave men on the grassland will get fresh meat from the mouths of lions who are enjoying food. It seems so unbelievable that people who don't understand the customs and habits of these people often regard them as ferocious beasts, and contact with them is naturally the same as eating from the mouth of a lion.
It is true that the customs and habits on the grasslands are indeed very different from the so-called civilized society, and it is very normal to start fighting and bleed when they disagree, but in some aspects, they are actually better than any West Coast or Southern people or even Padrosi. and the Otolo people, both pure and simple.
As mentioned above, the incomprehensible person who seems incredible to grab food from the lion's mouth is actually a set of strict rules of experience accumulated over a long period of time - choose the time when the lion has eaten half of the food. When you are full instead of hungry, and you will not be greedy when grabbing prey, but cut off some and leave immediately, leaving a lot of remnants - the best time to contact and even trade with the grassland nomads is also this kind of seemingly large number of them. Large-scale gatherings are extremely dangerous during the rainy season.
They are also human beings. Although all the people are soldiers and all of them have excellent riding and shooting skills, the prairie people are not undefeated gods of war and they will still bleed and die. Therefore, every time the prairie people plundered the settled people, it actually happened in the dry season when supplies were scarce. They were not as ferocious as the White Church preached, and would plunder and kill people whenever they saw them. The prairie people cherished the members of their own tribe. Only when supplies are scarce and they cannot rely on grazing to be self-sufficient will they choose to attack on a large scale and survive by plundering.
From this point of view alone, it is much better than the greedy people in some "civilized societies". Human beings are always good at judging others by judging others and taking their own values as natural justice. If all the people on the west coast were as simple as the prairie people, maybe no one would believe what the white church preaches.
Returning to the original point, choosing to set off at this time can be regarded as just right. Most of the people in the rainy season grasslands with abundant water and grass are busy grazing cattle, horses and sheep. Therefore, although the settlement looks much larger than usual, their aggressiveness is actually reduced. A lot.
Even so, they still can't be said to be as friendly as civilized society. The pain caused by years of disputes is equal to both parties. Even if there is no deep hatred, it is not easy to make these people accept the existence of outsiders or even trade. There are independent rules here. For regions like the West Coast and the South to gain the right to speak through dialogue and the suppression of noble status, it is only a fantasy.
In fact, they have already known how attractive the stable life of settled peoples is in areas like the southern border and even the Thoradin Highlands on the west coast. Since they started to have contact hundreds of years ago, they have already known that the earlier nomadic peoples also had They tried to make contact with this side and obtain such a life through peaceful means. However, due to the forcible interference of the White Church on their primitive totem beliefs, coupled with the incompatibility of the national character and cultural customs, the conflicts caused by friction eventually heated up and further This has led to today's stalemate and hostile situation.
Whether it is to preserve their traditional culture and way of life or for a series of other complex reasons, prairie people are instinctively wary and repellent of people from settled nations, kingdoms, empires, and city-states—and this further The location makes it difficult for the team to complete the next goal of this trip.
"Hiss--" A not too loud neighing sound came from a hundred meters away. The Thoradin mercenaries who often fought with them had a slang saying--"When you see the smoke curling up from the kitchen, be careful. Because you have already entered the bow and arrow range of the grassland sentry." - Obviously, as the nomads who first invented the cavalry and were familiar with all kinds of things as companions of horses, they did not set up cordons around the camp. Something like that is actually something even stranger.
"Wave the flag, hurry up! Wave the flag!" Mira heard a businessman in front shout. After another two weeks of hard study and the previous month of spending time with people from the South, she could finally hear it. Understand the language they speak - and following the businessman's words, the problem that the girl had been wondering about before about how they would convey their goals to the prairie people even if they met them was finally solved.
As one of the scouts, an experienced mercenary took out two flags and waved them vigorously. One of them was half blue and half green, which should represent peace, while the other was a leather flag with a white goat's head painted on a black background. It looks like a gift from a tribe in the past.
The two archer sentries from the grassland on the opposite side were parked far away. They did not come over and were probably observing. Several nervous Thoradin mercenaries took out their longbows and planned to aim at each other with bows and arrows. However, such an obvious display of hostility would only lead to a complete failure of the trip, so some others, including Henry, quickly stopped them. them.
The two horse archers stood there for a while, then whispered to each other from a distance, then turned around and ran towards the place where the smoke was curling behind them. The few mercenaries who planned to draw their bows and arrows were relieved, but others who knew more about this understood that the real test had just begun.
Although they have the blue and green flag that symbolizes the happy rainy season water and grass, a symbol of peace and trade, and the identity certificate given by the tribal leaders in the past, in fact they are still extremely lacking in the means to communicate with the grassland people. The nature of the nomadic people is destined to make their traces difficult to trace. Although there is a general direction, the Abu Serra Prairie is so vast that there are more than 300 tribes, large and small, here. They can only bet on the past transactions. The tribe that I have visited or the people who know that tribe can be located in this low-lying basin area at this moment.
"Melee hands are ready, as well as shields. Everyone lowers their body and pays attention to find cover." As one of the scouts, the mercenary who waved the flag before was about fifty years old, and his aquiline nose showed that he had Part of the bloodline of the grassland people, coupled with the gray beard and deep green pupils, he looks quite stable and reliable.
"At worst, I hope it won't be a hostile tribe..." A mercenary under Felix's command next to him muttered to himself, and the waiting time felt like an eternity. After about forty minutes passed, which felt like several hours, the sound of galloping horse hooves came from the distant horizon.
"Lower your body and hold on to your shield!" the scout shouted, but when those people appeared in the place where the two horse archers were in the next second, everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
"Huh-huh-"
A cavalry team appeared on the opposite side with different attire from before. The leader was also trying hard to wave two flags that were exactly the same as here.
"What a stroke of luck..." The gray-bearded scout let out a long breath, as did the rest of the team. (To be continued.)
