On the Orientation of Ancient Archers

In ancient times, the army faced the United front of soldiers. In most cases, the front of the formation is heavily armored infantry with heavy shields, and the rear is often lined with infantry with spears to resist the impact of cavalry. Cavalry are deployed in the rear or flank as fast mobile units, while archers are usually deployed in the rear or flank to provide fire cover and long-range killing.

1, the two armies fought in the field. At first, the archers of both sides should try their best to suppress each other. This is written in an ancient novel, "When two armies are at war, shoot first". Archers use long-range weapons such as crossbows to shoot intensively, forcing the other side to form an array outside the range of the bow and arrow, and trying to open the impact distance of the other side; At the same time, if the other side sends cavalry or light infantry to launch a quick assault, the archer's shooting can also hit the enemy's exploratory attacking troops, giving their own infantry and cavalry enough time to complete the formation.

2. When the two armies are at loggerheads, there is often no "street gang fight" scene where all soldiers are fighting together. Many times, when the two armies are in hand-to-hand combat, only some troops will fall into melee, while most other troops in the formation have not yet entered the state of receiving the enemy, especially the archers. Therefore, there is no need for archers to intervene in melee combat at this time, and there is no need to retreat to cover other troops. They will continue to shoot at the enemy, shooting at the other side vertically in the distance to kill the enemy's follow-up troops.

Of course, when fighting, it is not excluded that our melee troops in front are defeated or the enemy cavalry is circuitous from the rear. At this time, the archer was forced into a melee, and he could only draw his sword and fight with the enemy. Because archers often have light armor and unfavorable melee weapons, they have not received strict combat training. So they will suffer huge losses at this time.

3. "When the enemy comes into contact with our army, the archers will continue to shoot at the enemy's rear team." Like the second reason, the archer's task is to kill the enemy from a distance. They have no obligation, no necessity and no ability to engage in close combat with heavily armored enemy infantry.