How ancient Chinese wars were fought

How ancient Chinese wars were fought

Historians through the ages have not understood

In "The Complete Tale of Yue," Jin Woodruff had an army of ace soldiers called the "Chained Horses," which used iron cables to link 30 horses together, making them unstoppable, but was broken up by the Yue Family Army in the Battle of Placebo with hook-and-sickle spears and "horse-leg-cutting tactics. However, in the Battle of Placebo, Yue's army used hook and sickle spears and "horse leg cutting tactics" to break them. The inspiration for the chained horses in The Complete Story of Yue probably came from Water Margin, in which the Liangshan warriors used hook-and-sickle spears to defeat Hu Yanzhuo's chained horses.

In the real Song and Jin wars, the Jin army did have an elite unit called "abduction horse". But what exactly is the abduction horse? In Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke pen, abduction horse for the first time with the chain between the horse equals, "abduction horse" is characterized as a "through the Weisuo, three people for the United" of the chain of horse tactics.

In Yue Ke's "authoritative authentication", "abduction horse is a chain of horses" has become a definitive conclusion. On the one hand, Yue Ke popularized the saying and made the mysterious tactic of the chained horses a household name; on the other hand, he exaggerated the chained horses of the "Three Horses Connected" into the "30 Horses" with a strong sense of picture.

To the present cognition and military common sense, the argument of the chain horse is extremely ridiculous, the three horses or 30 horses together, not to mention the speed of the horse is not the same, will be involved in each other, if a horse is suddenly injured or killed in action, then it is the other horses fell down in a chain of tragedy. It can be said that the chain of horses is extremely amateurish military conception, in the actual battle is absolutely impossible to apply.

"The abduction of horses that is the chain of horses" from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, from the court to the civil society, but became unchallenged the final word.

About the same time as the popularity of "The Tale of Yue", the Qianlong Emperor, who had experience in military maneuvers, was the first to see the light, and challenged the myth of the chained horse, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, arguing that it wasn't feasible in actual combat, and that it might be the Sung Dynasty's way of finding a hyperbolic excuse for its own defeats. But it was Mr. Deng Guangming who really tackled the issue on an academic level, and his detailed examination of Yue Fei's biography completely disproved the idea of the chained horses, and the idea of "abducted horses as left and right-winged cavalry" became indisputable.

In the hundreds of years since the "abducted horse is the chain of horses" blackmail, it is surprising that before the Qianlong, almost no one has raised a strong challenge to this ridiculous statement.

This shows that, although ancient China has a great historical narrative tradition, but on the "ancient war is how to fight" this, in fact, even the generations of historians do not understand, not to mention the blackmail of the novel.

Original history intentionally or unintentionally ignored the details of the war

As Li Shuo wrote in the preface to "Three Hundred Years of the Civil War," "How was the war fought in ancient China? Historical records are often not so detailed. For example, in the famous battle of Gaixia between Chu and Han, how many troops did both sides put into the battle? How long and wide were their respective arrays? Is it the same as the terracotta warriors dug out of the Qin mausoleum? How was the battle fought? In the "Records of the Grand Historian" can not be seen, "the ancient Chinese history books, these most basic conditions of war are a lot of 'white space'. In fact, not all the blame for the ignorance of the historians, the generals of the ancient period of peace, but also can not figure out how to fight the real war (cold war) should be fought. Those experienced generals who fought during the chaotic times were mostly uneducated and couldn't record them."

Chinese historical records also have a tradition of writing about the ways of the world, always conveying a certain "pro-virtuous ministers and far from the small man" values, while technical content such as tactical details and weaponry in war has relatively no such carrying capacity, so it has been downplayed.

For example, in ancient China, when it comes to war, there are many treacherous ministers behind the defeat, either blindly commanded, or framed to fight the loyal and good, self-destructive, which is almost the classic writing of the history of the formula: the Tang Dynasty, Anshi Rebellion in the early days of the debacle is because of the selfishness of Yang Guochong, Jingkang tragedy is because of the Caijing Tong Guan chaos, the Southern Song Dynasty lost the battle of Xiangfan and even was destroyed by the Mongols is because of Jia Sidao, the Ming Yingzong's civilization of the Tumu Fortress, the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's Tumu Fortress, the Ming Dynasty's Tumu Fortress, the Ming Dynasty's Tumu Fortress.

So, in the end, the analysis and record of the victory and defeat of many wars, to assume the function of the "book of knowledge".

Simply put, the war narratives of Chinese history are "de-detailed" and "de-technicalized".

It is precisely because of the details of the history of war that the official history intentionally or unintentionally ignores, in the "ancient Chinese war in fact how to fight" this problem of aphasia and dislocation, and the folk of such a demand for the real existence, then, the right of interpretation to the novel here, the war is thus "acting War is thus "dramatized", "mystified" and "mysticized". It's like, in ancient times, when some supernatural phenomena could not be explained scientifically, the right of exposition was given to religion and folklore.

The most popular ways of narrating ancient wars

The most popular ways of narrating ancient wars in novels are roughly three.

First, stratagem. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the success or failure of almost every battle is dominated by stratagems, with military strength, equipment, and tactics taking a back seat. The most frequent stratagem in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is "fire attack", the key word and decisive factor of the major battles is almost always fire, the Battle of Guandu has the fire of the crow's nest, the Battle of Chibi has the fire of the Red Cliffs, the Battle of Yiling has the fire of Lianying, Zhu Geliang is the king of the fire attack, in addition to the fire of the Red Cliffs with Zhou Yu, there are also the fire of the Bowangpo, the fire of the Xinno and the fire of the vine-armored soldiers, the fire of the top of the hill, the fire of the vine-armored soldiers. fire burning rattan armor soldiers, in the upper valley also almost burned Sima Yi. Such intensive use of fire attacks is obviously impossible in a real war, and instead reveals the author's set of suits in staging the war.

Second, single combat. In Speaking of Tang and Water Margin, the single combat of military generals is one of the dominant factors driving the development of the war plot. Acting novels of one-on-one war is often the case, two generals in one-on-one, the winning side of the whole army, the losing side of the whole army routed, the main role of the soldiers is the ring in the flag-waving cheerleaders, generals of the impact of personal bravery on the war is unlimitedly elevated, and often, "the courage of the ten thousand soldiers", the subtext is that the army is unimportant. Compared to the scheme, the war of one-upmanship is more distant from the real war, just like the war scene in the Journey to the West, 100,000 heavenly soldiers and generals crusade against the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits, just the Monkey King and Nezha Erlangshen's competition.

Third, formations. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has eight formations, "every day, every time, the endless, comparable to 100,000 soldiers", a pile of stones to trap Lu Xun; "Water Margin" has a nine palace gossip array, a word long snake battle, six flower array, four door bucket bottom array; "Yang Family General" has a Tianmen array, Mu Guiying broke the Tianmen array is the whole book of the soundest battles; "Saying Yue Chuan" has a five-sided array. The "Story of Yue" has a five-square formation.

In ancient wars, formations were real, such as the Qin army's infantry formation, Liu Yu's but-moon formation and Qi Jiguang's yuanyang formation, etc. Even the eight-formation diagrams existed, but these marching formations were far from being as bizarre as the novels made them out to be, and were filled with supernatural elements. These magical formations are like the flowery fists in martial arts, without any practical combat value.

While most of the depictions of war in the novels are outlandish, it has to be said that they have defined the picture and imagination of ancient warfare for centuries. It is so y rooted that when the author of this book talks about ancient wars, his subconscious first reaction is still "playful": a fierce general standing on his horse with a sword, shouting "Tie, come to be killed by the name!

War history enthusiasts "on paper"

First, the ancient books (official history, notes). Although the history of war is not the focus of the records of the official history, the broader historical context is not lacking, and despite the independence of the history of war, there is no such thing as an ancient war that is divorced from the overall historical context. More importantly, some simplistic moral judgments and "prejudices" about war in the main history can precisely become a "target" for writing. For example, the defeat of the battle of Changping in Zhao Kuo's paper, the role of treacherous ministers in the defeat of the war, Yue Fei and other famous generals over-exaggerated, all add to the writing of the topic and the sense of the problem.

Secondly, the novels of maneuver. Though the portrayal of war in novels is mostly absurd, it provides a target just as much as the bias of official history. There are many interesting chemical reactions that can be produced by comparing and analyzing the wars of "novels" with the real wars. For example, the relationship between the abducted horse and the chain horse, "The Story of Yue" in the chain horse's nemesis is the hook and sickle gun, although in history it is the "ma za knife", but both weapons are aimed at the cavalry's "horse's legs". On the issue of cutting the horse's legs, "The Story of Yue" is not wrong, but rather a confirmation of history. For example, the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in the eight array map and the wooden oxen and horses, both existed in history, but were mythologized, and it is interesting to identify the two.

Thirdly, contemporary works and essays on the history of warfare can be divided into two main parts.

One is the work of some inter-specialties. For example, Mr. Yang Hong's "General Theory of Ancient Weapons" and other special works on the history of weapons, the evolution of ancient weapons and tactics become an important vein of "Paper on War". Some works and papers on military geography, especially when writing about the Battle of Changping, the Chu-Han War and Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the perspective of military geography is crucial.

One is a contemporary work that breaks the dreary situation of ancient war history research. First, there is Zeng Ruilong's The Strategy of Youyan and The Expansion of the Northwest, a genius who died early and defined a new paradigm for writing ancient war history; second, there is Li Shuo's Three Hundred Years of the Civil War, especially his highly groundbreaking study of ancient cavalry. In addition, Guo Jianlong's The Military Code of the Central Empire is a refreshing look at military geography.