Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 50: No-Rein Horsemanship

Therefore, in the final analysis, Yamamoto Ikki chose to give up the meaningless attack after he found that he no longer had the advantage of a surprise attack. The annihilation of the observation group was just an excuse Yamamoto Ikki found.

However, it was still too early for Yamamoto Ikki's second attack, because it was only the second half of 1940. By the time Yamamoto Ikki attacked Chenjiayu, it would have been the second half of 1941.

It was only the second half of 1940, and there was still a full year before Yamamoto Ikki launched another attack, giving Wang Gensheng a full year to train his special cavalry company!
However, training cavalry is not an easy task, especially making the cavalryman and the horse become one, and making the rider be able to command the horse obediently.

Therefore, the first cavalry course Wang Gensheng taught these novice cavalrymen was how to control horses.

At this time, Wang Gensheng, holding his own Zhuifeng, stood among a group of novice cavalrymen who were also holding their war horses and said:

“I know none of you have ever ridden a warhorse, but you have seen others ride horses and see how they can control the direction of the horse just by pulling the reins, so you mistakenly believe that you can control the direction of the horse just by pulling the reins hard.

In fact, this approach is just a superficial one. Simply doing this will often make the horse feel uncomfortable or even resist. The correct approach is to control the horse's direction by turning your body.

First, we need to understand the horse's anatomy. The loin is the weakest and most sensitive part of the horse's body. Experienced riders control direction by rotating their bodies, allowing the horse to naturally bend. Imagine yourself in a horse stance. As you rotate your body, the position of your legs shifts, allowing the horse to sense the pressure from your legs and change direction.

But you are all beginners and cannot control the horse without reins like the veterans, so reins are a good aid.

The reins are the link between the rider and the horse. Pulling the reins conveys the rider's commands. However, it's important to note that pulling the reins doesn't directly control the horse's direction; rather, it indirectly influences the horse's behavior through the bit. The bit is a piece of metal placed in the horse's mouth. When the rider pulls the reins, the bit contacts the corner of the horse's mouth, causing pain and prompting the horse to obey.

When using the bit, it's important to maintain a steady hand. The bit isn't just meant to stop the horse; it's more important to let the horse know there's an insurmountable wall ahead, forcing it to stop. The rider needs to maintain a steady hand, allowing the bit to form a synchronized "moving wall" with the horse's movement. With a loose rein, the "wall" doesn't get in the way; with a tight rein, the "wall" appears.

Finally, remember that the bit is only there to let the horse know there's a wall ahead, not to use as a weapon to hurt it. The rider should make the horse respect the bit, not fear it. Of course, you beginners will have unstable hands, so next, you should practice the horse stance to improve your stability.

Following Wang Gensheng's words, the cavalry company's first serious riding training was actually horse stance, yes, horse stance.

This horse stance is to practice leg muscle strength, which is also for the rider to ride better. You must know that unless the horse is walking slowly, the vibration of the horse when it sprints will hurt the rider's waist.

So when the horse is sprinting, the rider is actually standing on the horse's back instead of sitting on it, and he also has to rise and fall with the horse's movement, keeping the frequency of his movement consistent with that of the horse, so that the horse can sprint faster.

This is like a cyclist with someone who doesn't know how to ride a bicycle on the back seat. His center of gravity will shift in the opposite direction to yours, causing you to fall.

Of course, the most basic requirement for training a qualified cavalryman is to master the technique of controlling a horse without a bridle. You should know that a cavalryman is not just about riding a horse and galloping, but also about operating various weapons on horseback. For example, in the era of cold weapons, the most powerful cavalrymen were not the heavily armored cavalrymen, but rather those with extraordinary mounted archery skills.

To become a ranger, the most important thing is the skill of controlling a horse without reins, because to put it simply, a ranger needs to use both hands to draw the bow and shoot arrows on the horse's back, rather than controlling the reins to control the direction of the horse's running.

Because the task of controlling the direction of the warhorse's running has been handed over to the legs and waist, the upper body of the cavalry only needs to draw the bow and shoot arrows.

This tactic of light armor combined with mobile shooting can easily kill the heavy armored cavalry of Ouzhou, and the famous Temujin used this tactic to defeat Ouzhou.

Of course, it is no longer useful in the era of hot weapons. The light machine gun's range of hundreds or thousands of meters and the firing rate of hundreds or thousands of rounds per second make this tactic useless.

However, even so, it is still very useful to practice rifle shooting on a warhorse, because this can interfere with the enemy's retreat speed, and the most important thing is that in shooting, it is not easier to hit a moving target while standing still, but it is easier to shoot a stationary target while moving.

It is precisely because of these reasons that the ability to control a horse without a rein is the qualification standard for a cavalryman.

For a qualified cavalryman, controlling the warhorse is done with his legs, and his hands are used to hold swords and guns to fight the enemy. For example, Sun Desheng, the cavalry company commander of the independent regiment in "Bright Sword", was chopped off by the Japanese cavalry and only had one hand holding the cavalry sword left. However, he could still turn the warhorse around and continue charging the Japanese without reins.

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"You're kidding me! Who's standing in horse stance like you? If you keep trying to fool people like that, go back to whichever battalion you came from. We have plenty of soldiers in the New Second Regiment who want to be cavalrymen!"

The person Wang Gensheng was training was none other than Li Xiu, who had excellent night vision and had discovered the secret sentry during the night attack on Liujia Town and reminded Wang Gensheng. Of course, Wang Gensheng promoted Li Xiu to be a squad leader of the third battalion.

But perhaps because he thought cavalrymen were very cool, he rushed to join the cavalry company during the cavalry selection.

"Yes, Captain, I was wrong. I will change immediately! I will never be lazy again!"

Li Xiu's attitude of admitting his mistake was very good, so Wang Gensheng did not pursue the matter. Instead, he began to teach Li Xiu the techniques of horse stance.

That's right, Wang Gensheng has changed the horse stance into the standing stance. When Wei Dayong was teaching Wang Gensheng Shaolin Kung Fu, he found that the cavalry horse stance and the Shaolin standing stance were very similar, so he changed the horse stance into the standing stance. Unexpectedly, the effect was quite good.

This kind of Shaolin Temple standing posture is very different from Sun Desheng's horse stance which is just for exercising the leg muscles. At least, once you truly understand the key points of standing posture, your leg muscles will not feel sore even if you stand for half an hour or even an hour.

(End of this chapter)