"I understand what you mean." Joanna seemed to understand: "Compared to the armies of the Mediterranean world, your military style is generally closer to the East. So even if these Russians have experience, they are under a completely different system .”
"If they join your army, these experiences may not be suitable at all. Even here, these experiences may be useful. Is that right?"
"That's right." Guo Kang nodded: "Our political system, military system, and combat methods are all very different from here. And it's not easy to change this..."
"The Rus' Auxiliary Army has actually been around for a long time. When Tutor Memetnicus fought against the Ottomans in Asia Minor, he temporarily recruited a large group of Rus' people because of insufficient troops. He had no idea of the combat effectiveness of these people, so he just Let them be responsible for guarding the fortifications, as long as they can make up the number."
"However, the Russians were very active. We later found out that their original life was too hard, and many people thought they were just like Mr. Boyar's capture of strong men before, so they just left them there. But even if we have auxiliary troops here, , and tried their best to feed the people. As a result, the Russians were overjoyed and fought very hard. They actually repelled the Ottomans in several battles. After that, this organization stayed."
"But even so, we have no intention of integrating them into the regular army. Because these people are likely to be a burden on the official battlefield." Guo Kang explained: "But training them from scratch is too troublesome. Therefore, we usually put these people into the regular army." Leave them alone and let them do guard work or something like that.”
"This system has been around for decades now. It has formed a set of cultural traditions." He thought for a while and said, "Do you know about Legion Soup?"
"Huh? What is that?" Joanna obviously hadn't heard of it.
"Oh, it's normal if I don't know. It's a kind of food invented by the Ross auxiliary soldiers and military slaves." Guo Kang said: "The legionnaires eat much better than them, so these people often pick up other people's leftovers and put them Bones, hard bread crusts, etc. were thrown together and simmered to make a soup. Later, they collectively called this kind of food 'Legion soup'."
"It sounds really disgusting..." Joanna said with a frown.
"You are a rich man, of course you think so. In fact, it would be good for them not to starve to death." Guo Kang shook his head: "If we incorporate them into the regular army, it will be beneficial to everyone in the long run. I just don’t know how long it will take them to adapt.”
"Is it difficult?" Joanna asked.
"It is not difficult to train this Russian army, but it is difficult to train the 'Russian soldiers'." Guo Kang sighed: "The most difficult thing is not to train personal skills, but to Romanize the Rus area. If the latter cannot be done, then train this A few soldiers don't mean much. But it's very difficult to change the customs of a place."
"Let's take the previous example." He said: "Look, I just said that Seris had many tanks. But you know, why did they only have so many tanks at that time? Such a useful thing, why did it happen later? Is it gone?”
"I don't even know about the situation of the chariot. It's all what you just said. Now you ask me if I know this..." Joanna said speechlessly: "Did you do it on purpose?"
"Well, I didn't mean that. I usually talk like this to Tuohuan and the others, so I'm used to it." Guo Kang explained quickly.
"The situation here is fairly easy to understand. To put it bluntly, it's actually a question of whether you have money or not."
"The chariot is indeed useful, but the price is that it is very expensive. This cost is far more than the vehicle itself, but mainly the people on the vehicle."
"Driving a chariot is a very difficult skill and requires a series of very high requirements for the driver. The Seris chariot has four horses and six reins - and humans only have ten fingers in total." He stretched out his hand.
"So, even with the aid of tools, driving a chariot and performing various maneuvers are a very high test for the driver and the horse. This requires long-term training and practice, and ordinary people simply cannot afford this expense. Therefore, chariots It can be said to be a typical noble weapon."
"At that time, those who were responsible for such tasks were mainly low-level nobles called 'shis'. But as the scale of the war expanded, although all countries were opening up farmland and increasing production, the number of scholars was still increasingly unable to meet the requirements. .”
"What should be done in this situation? The plans of different civilizations are very similar. In fact, they are all about 'enlarging enrollment', making the threshold for joining the army more and more relaxed. The efforts made by the reformers of Seris are even comparable to those of Sparta. Cleomenes' approach is similar. Everyone is granting land to ordinary people and lowering the threshold for citizenship."
"But after the threshold is lowered, newly joined soldiers are often poorer. They do not have the conditions to receive training in driving combat vehicles and can only fight as infantry. However, improvements in organizational levels and weapons technology have made infantry more and more efficient."
"The size of the chariot force is indeed increasing, and its functions are becoming increasingly perfect. The horses are covered with armor, and some have metal sheets fixed to their bodies for protection."
"The functions of chariots have gradually matured and differentiated. Some chariots have been used together to form a pure chariot cluster that fights independently. Since then, there have been heavy vehicles that cooperate with infantry, and light vehicles that cooperate with cavalry or fight alone. divided."
"But like many other weapons, their most mature and perfect period is often when they are about to be eliminated. Although tanks are also developing, they are far less rapid than infantry. Their proportion in the army gradually decreased, and they were eventually reduced to auxiliary arms. .”
"By the time of the Qin Dynasty, the core of the army was already infantry. But there is something to note here, that is, this evolution happened gradually." He reminded: "In other words, in the process of the gradual increase in the proportion of infantry, the army The impact and impact resistance capabilities of the formation have not weakened, and have even been enhanced. Otherwise, if the new army formation cannot beat the old army formation in actual combat, it will definitely not develop in this direction."
"So, even if the infantry increases, the entire combat idea will not change much. This new infantry formation still attaches great importance to impact, but the main work is transferred from tanks to infantry."
"The main weapons in the Qin Dynasty's army were beryllium and halberds. The positioning of these weapons is different from the spears in Europe today. They are not used as human flesh to resist horses and support the front. Instead, they are similar to two-handed swords and axes. It is a two-handed fighting weapon. Of course, the weapons at that time were definitely not as advanced as they are now."
"And more than 70% of the entire army are soldiers wearing armor and holding two-handed fighting weapons. Like the Romans, they are composed of small teams of fifty to eighty people. But these small formations are not arranged horizontally. Instead, they were connected end to end, and finally formed an exaggerated large column with a depth of perhaps more than 200 people."
"The entire formation, except for a few rows of shooters at the front and back, are all this kind of soldiers. It doesn't take a very professional person to see the combat thinking of this army at a glance. In the words we are familiar with here, it is to use A large number of halberd-wielding infantrymen, with the help of large deep formations, tried to overwhelm the enemy as quickly as possible.”
"The ancients here always said that the barbarians preferred to rush and charge, but in fact, civilized people were much wilder than them when they charged. The Qin people, or in other words, during the Warring States Period, all qualified troops who could last several times on the battlefield, They have all embarked on this path, and it has had a very far-reaching impact. Until now, our formation is based on this."
"This situation is too special. There is no need for others to do such extreme things." He spread his hands and expressed pessimism: "So, we can't expect them to understand and adapt quickly."
(End of chapter)
