Chen Bing also heard some rumors about the growth of the Huns.
The news came from the Hun herders.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the north were inevitably bought with the Huns, such as using grain, metal to exchange for fur.
This is actually very normal. Unofficial exchanges between the Central Plains and the Huns have always existed, and this cannot be stopped no matter how hard it is.
Some of the people in the north were of the Hun blood... Some of these were migranted and settled in the north in the early days, and the other was prisoners of war and their descendants during the Li Mu period.
Their view of bloodline and country have long been blurred, and it can even be said to have been assimilated by the people of the Central Plains... Nomads are used to living a nomadic life through water and grass. If a small number of people can settle somewhere, they can still be called "nomadism". Nation?
During the transactions between the people and the Huns, some news came to Shen Bing.
This matter was reported to Shen Bing.
On this day, Shen Bing was watching the training of the Shenwu Army. The person in charge of the training walked to Shen Bing in three steps and bowed and said:
"Can you know that the Huns are becoming stronger and stronger?"
Chen Bing said "Oh" and knew that he could speak some Huns, so he asked:
"Did you hear any news?"
Answer:
"I heard that Maodun had defeated Donghu after he succeeded Shanyu, and took over all the Donghu territory and herdsmen."
Chen Bing couldn't help but frowned.
It would take at least a few years to happen.
but……
The Touman Shanyu was killed by the Qin army in the first battle of Jiuyuan. Maodun inherited the position of Shanyu in advance, so he defeated Donghu in advance and completed the great cause of unifying the northern nomadic peoples.
This is a bit ironic. It is almost the same when the Central Plains were unified, the northern nomadic peoples also completed the unification.
There is no problem with this.
But after the unification of the Central Plains, Ying Zheng began to be foolish and ruin the country. Then there were rebels riots everywhere, and then the Chu-Han dispute.
But Maodun's will continue to expand outward.
As one goes up and down, the Han Dynasty bowed down and surrendered to the Xiongnu and wanted to pay tribute to the Huns and seek peace.
It is no trivial to be destroyed by Donghu.
Although there may not be many Donghu troops being incorporated by the Huns, almost everyone in the nomadic people can ride and shoot, which means that the people are almost all warriors.
Therefore, it is estimated that the Huns' troops increased by at least 100,000.
Let it continue to eat the small fish, or defeat the Yuezhi to recruit the herdsmen of the Western Regions... It is not a big problem to expand its troops to 200,000.
What is the concept of having two or three hundred thousand cavalrymen on the grassland who are good at riding and shooting?
According to statistics, Mongolia had only more than 300,000 troops during its heyday, but it destroyed the Song Dynasty in the south and stepped on Russia to fight against Europe in the west... Even if the Song Dynasty was equipped with primitive firearms and entered the budding of capital society, it would be useless.
Fortunately, the two and 300,000 cavalrymen of the Huns were not equipped with saddles, stirrups, and their strategies and tactics were not yet mature, otherwise they would be invincible.
After hesitating for a while, Chen Bing asked:
"How is our army's cavalry and shooting training?"
Excited answer:
"The general's method is indeed effective."
"Each division practices diligently, although there is still a gap with the Huns, it has made rapid progress."
"At this time, there are more than 300 people who can pull strong bows, riders and shooters."
The so-called "strong bow" is the two hundred and fifty Qinjin bow used by the Huns.
If you want to be able to compete with the Huns for a long and shorter period, you must be able to pull the same bow on the horse. Otherwise, the objective fact is that the shooting range is not as good as that of others, so how can you be better than others?
The way to sink the soldiers is to let the cavalry do anaerobic strength training like infantry.
When drawing a bow, especially a bow that can pull more force, it is mainly power.
Chen Bing usually tried to practice pulling the bow, but found that the main purpose of opening the bow is to the posterior deltoid muscle, the latissimus dorsi and trapezius muscles to contract and exert force.
This is actually very easy to verify, especially like a novice who has never practiced drawing a bow before...
He just needs to let the archer in the correct posture, and then exert force the archer over and over again in a short period of time. When he wakes up the next day, which muscles are sore and unbearable, that is, these muscles exert the most force.
Then there is no need to mention the training of cavalry, which mainly focuses on the shoulders and back... The deltoid muscle and trapezius are the shoulders, and the lats dorsi is the back.
Of course, the legs and buttocks need to be tempered.
The reason is that riding and shooting is on the back of a horse. The cavalry must use their legs and hips to clamp the horse's body with their legs and hips to stabilize it, and the bow also requires the hips and torso to exert force.
Strength training must of course be accompanied by nutrition.
However, this seems not a problem for the North at this time, and you only need to sell a few more pieces of cloth.
This will be effective after more than a month of training. More than 300 of the more than 6,000 Shenwu Army can pull out strong bows, riders and shoot.
The Huns grew up on horseback and played with bows and arrows since childhood, but they still couldn't escape the irreparable shortcomings of nutrition and lack of scientific practice.
Chen Bing believed that in the days of time, the Shenwu Army could at least tie or even surpass the Huns in range.
As for the accuracy...
In fact, the range and rate of fire are more important in the confrontation between the two armies.
For example, when two cavalrymen with tens of thousands of people meet, is it really important whether they shoot accurately?
The opposite side was filled with people, and the cavalry also changed positions at any time.
What is required at this time is to shoot far and fast.
Shooting accurately is only useful only when a team of people meets.
Then he changed his mind and said with some concern:
"only……"
Chen Bing asked:
"Just what?"
Answer:
"Most people in the north do not know how to ride horses."
"I have inquired about it and most of the people who can ride horses were requisitioned by Zhao Wangjia as cavalry."
"Either died in battle or were captured and turned into enslavement."
"This means it is difficult for our Shenwu Army to expand its scale."
"If the cavalry only started learning from riding a horse at this time, it would be a few years before it could achieve something."
Chen Bing nodded.
In fact, this is not a unique phenomenon in the North, and it is almost the same in all countries in the Central Plains.
First of all, the Central Plains is an agricultural ethnic group. Although the population is large, there are few people who can ride horses. Those who can ride horses and shoot arrows are the only cavalrymen of various countries.
Secondly, at this time, the Central Plains did not attach much importance to the cavalry.
This makes it very difficult for Shen Bing to expand the cavalry... The cavalry training cycle is very long.
The reason why Emperor Wu of Han was able to defeat the Huns was that on the one hand, the iron tools were widely used to double the combat power, and on the other hand, Emperor Wu of Han consciously encouraged the people to raise horses and ride horses.
So much so that horses are everywhere in the wilderness, and even scholars gather together to have a glass of wine.
This shortens the training cycle of cavalry in a stage, and the Han army can recruit a large number of high-quality cavalry in a short period of time.
But at this time, the Northland... was deeply trapped in this trap without cavalry sources.
This is also one of the reasons why Shen Bing has always wanted to get in touch with the Western Regions and recruit troops from that.