Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 343 Armored Cavalry
The setting sun, like blood, was slowly sinking towards the horizon.

The dazzling sunlight of the daytime seemed to be filtered through a scarlet veil, becoming thick and dim, blending with the vast expanse of blood on the battlefield, exuding a suffocating stench of blood.

On the walls of Xuxian, the banners of the Han army still fluttered in the wind, but the crenellations were already in a state of utter devastation. Congealed dark red bloodstains and charred marks from fire were interspersed, and mutilated limbs and scattered weapons on the ground silently testified to the cruelty of war.

The scene below the city was even more horrifying: broken ladders, shattered carts, and corpses lying motionless were mixed together. The soil had been repeatedly soaked in blood, turning a nauseating purplish-brown color, which reflected an increasingly eerie and dazzling red light under the blood-red sunset.

Guan Hai reined in his warhorse, raised his hand to wipe away the bloodstains splattered on his face when he executed the deserter, and wiped the sweat from his face. Looking at the still towering Xu County city wall, he felt a pang of regret.

After all, the sooner he breaks through the city, the sooner he can prepare for the defense of Xu County, and the government army's cavalry will no longer be a threat to him.

Guan Hai took a deep breath, suppressing the surging emotions in his heart. He was about to wave his hand to order the troops to retreat to camp and prepare for another battle in the future.

Just then, a pool of blood in front of the horse's hooves, which had not yet congealed, suddenly moved without wind, as if a pebble had been thrown in, creating fine ripples!

Immediately afterwards, the ground began to tremble slightly but continuously without warning.

Guan Hai froze, then gripped the reins tightly.

The vibrations were initially weak, but soon became clearer and more intense, like countless giant war drums being pounded at the same time, with the rhythm getting faster and the force getting stronger!
The ground beneath their feet began to tremble noticeably, even causing the tattered armor on the ground to buzz and collide with each other.

"Hey!"

Guan Hai's warhorse also sensed unease, rearing up and neighing. Guan Hai hurriedly reined in the restless horse, his hands bulging with veins.

A strange chill instantly shot up my spine, even overpowering the surrounding stench of blood.

Two years ago, the terrifying memory of Cao Cao, the governor of Qingzhou, personally leading a cavalry force of 500 men to raid his 3,000 Yellow Turban soldiers suddenly resurfaced before his eyes.

I heard that the elite cavalry later expanded to two thousand men and was given the name "Tiger and Leopard Cavalry" by the emperor. They are now fighting in the northern frontier.

On that day, there were also tremors that made people's hearts tremble, but there was no such earth-shattering scene!

"Form ranks! Form ranks immediately!"

Guan Hai suppressed the horror in his heart, brandished the long-handled axe in his hand, and roared at the top of his lungs, trying to maintain his composure as the commander-in-chief.

Cavalry is indeed a formidable enemy for light infantry.

However, if it is an infantry force with all its soldiers in armor, it may not be unable to contend with them. In fact, if commanded properly, the cavalry can be bogged down in the quagmire of the army formation, losing their speed advantage and becoming easy targets for the infantry, thus turning the tables and achieving victory!

However, he ultimately overestimated the organization of his team.

After two rounds of siege warfare, although they were not exactly exhausted, their physical strength and morale were far from what they had been before. The soldiers were already physically exhausted. When they heard the general's order, the soldiers, who were mixed with a large number of former Yellow Turban soldiers, barely obeyed the order and began to move. However, their movements were slow, their formation was scattered, and they pushed and shoved each other, forming only a loose and disorganized military formation.

When a deep black line suddenly appeared on the horizon and thickened at an alarming speed, like a dark cloud sweeping across the ground, all the clamor and commands were instantly drowned out.

The neighing of warhorses pierced through the smoke and dust, causing many rebel soldiers to tremble uncontrollably, their faces drained of color, and their remaining courage swallowed up by fear.

Before the battle even began, their courage had already vanished!
Guan Hai stared intently at the oncoming torrent of iron-colored banners. He could clearly see that the banners fluttering in the wind belonged to the Valiant Cavalry!
How is this possible? How could they be here!

At this moment when they are most tired and most relaxed!
Could it be that Lü Bu really dared to launch a long-distance raid with his exhausted army?
A barrage of questions struck his mind like a hammer blow, momentarily stunning Guan Hai. But he quickly regained his composure, controlling his warhorse which was spinning in fear, and shouting at the top of his lungs to calm the increasingly agitated and panicked soldiers: "Raise your spears! Form ranks! Don't panic! The government troops are exhausted from the long journey; they're just at their last gasp, here to die. Don't be intimidated!"

Before setting out that morning, many of the rebel generals and officers had heard Guan Hai's analysis and now they were somewhat convinced of it, or rather, they were trying to numb themselves by thinking that the cavalry that had suddenly attacked was just a tired army. They shouted orders to their soldiers to keep their ranks.

However, Guan Hai believed he had calculated the speed of the imperial reinforcements' arrival very shrewdly, and even Guan Cheng was temporarily convinced by these simple figures, thinking that at least for the time being, there was no need to worry about the threat of the imperial reinforcements.

But officers who have truly honed their skills on the battlefield would scoff at this so-called "shrewd calculation."

How can military strategy and its provisions possibly cover all the wars in the world?
Military strategy states, "Scouts and ambushers should be located a hundred li away from the camp, and scouts should be fifty li away from the camp. They should follow the net day and night, repeating the cycle, in order to prepare for unforeseen circumstances." However, this does not mean that scouts can only be discovered fifty li away, nor does it mean that the main force of the army is still far away when the scouts are discovered.

Perhaps only a soldier who believed in the military strategy of "putting oneself in a desperate situation to survive" and voluntarily set up camp on a dead-end mountain with no water source would agree with this.

It is better to have no books than to believe in them completely.

How can military strategy predict future generations, hundreds or thousands of years from now, and train such elite troops?
Guan Hai's limited vision restricted his thinking.

He simply couldn't comprehend the extent to which the individual soldiers' skills and organizational abilities in the Central Army had reached!

It was built with massive amounts of money and supplies and rigorous training—a true meat grinder of war!
As the distance between the two sides rapidly closed and the dust dissipated, Guan Hai could vaguely see the cold, reflective metal visors of the front-line cavalry.

However, a strong sense of unease gripped his heart.

The cavalrymen were dressed in black armor, so their bodies were entirely black. Why... why were the warhorses they rode also a somber black?

Could it be...? A terrifying thought struck his mind like lightning!
That is?

Horse armor!!!

(The image below shows horse armor in the style of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.)
He had seen cavalrymen wearing horse armor around Prince Liu Chong of Chen, but those were merely ceremonial guards to display the prince's majesty.

Even with the full strength of the entire Chen Kingdom, they could only muster twenty sets of horse armor!

At this moment, he looked around and saw that the cavalry of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion, which was surging forward, was all wearing horse armor!

The instant he realized the problem, Guan Hai's facial muscles stiffened, and the color drained away at a visible speed, leaving only a horrified pallor. His hand holding the reins trembled violently uncontrollably.

Cavalrymen clad in horse armor are far superior to ordinary cavalrymen!

(2315 words)
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PS: The bamboo slips in the "Armory Collection of Weapons and Chariots in the Fourth Year of Yongshi" record "5,330 armored cavalry and shoes", which means that in the mid-to-late Western Han Dynasty, they were actually able to form a complete armored cavalry unit.

The *Taiping Yulan*, Volume 356, "Wei Wu's Military Strategy," states: "Yuan Shao had 10,000 sets of armor, while I had 20 sets of heavy armor. Shao had 300 sets of horse armor, while I had less than 10. Seeing their shortage, they did not deploy their armor. I then launched a surprise attack and defeated them. At that time, the soldiers' armor training was not as advanced as it is today."

When Cao Cao campaigned against Ma Chao, he led "five thousand iron cavalry in ten layers of formation, their brilliance shining like the sun," a feat only armored cavalry could achieve.

(End of this chapter)