Chapter 26 "Kidnapper Horse", "Iron Buddha" and Serial Horses

Readers are no strangers to the commander of the Jin army who is in charge of attacking Majiadu in this battle against Du Chong. "Wushu" is the pronunciation of Jurchen written in Chinese characters, and it is also called "wochu", "wochu", "wuzhu", or "huangwochu", and its original meaning is "head". When the Liao Dynasty was destroyed and the Song Dynasty was invaded, the Jurchens came into contact with Han culture, so some people gave themselves a solemn and elegant Chinese name.For example, Aguda changed its name to Wanyan Min; Wu Qimai changed its name to Wanyan Sheng; , and the name of Wushu is Wanyan Zongbi.Therefore, in the records of this period of history, the titles are messy. The Jurchens have their real names, Chinese names, translated names from the Song Dynasty, retranslated names from the Qing people, etc. For the sake of convenience, this book uses their real names.

This Wushu is the fourth son of Aguda. According to the "Dajin Guozhi" in the Twenty-Five Years' History, he was born from his mother's womb, "the Qionglu is full of energy, which is very different", and he is not an ordinary generation.When he was a little older, people found that he was "a man of boldness, courage beyond others, good at shooting with ape arms, in the midst of battle, when he entered and left the battle, everyone feared him", he was a born fighter and god of killing.Whenever the battle was at its height, and his temper became very violent, he would throw the bald head on the ground on the ground, revealing his bald head and side braids, as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and he was not afraid of arrows and stones, and charged forward.

Juvenile Wushu is most famous on the battlefield in the sixth year of Tianfu (1122) when he chased Emperor Tianzuo of Liao Dynasty.At that time when the army crossed the Qingling Mountains, they suddenly encountered more than 300 Liao soldiers. Wushu had only a hundred cavalry under his command, and they were killed. He was not afraid of danger, and grabbed the swords and spears of the Liao soldiers with his bare hands. He killed eight of them alone and captured five of them alive. , mighty.The Jurchen soldiers said that he was "young and brave, the best in the past and the present".

Wulibu went south for the second time, Wushu, as the vanguard, made an emergency landing of more than 3,000 Song soldiers by way of Tangyin.Crossing the Bian River, killing more than 500 Song soldiers; Bo Biancheng, chasing Zhao Ji with a hundred horsemen for more than a hundred miles, and captured three thousand horses.Later, he defeated Song general Zheng Zongmeng and conquered Qingzhou; killed Zhao Cheng and defeated Huang Qiong's army, and fell into Linqu.Defeated more than 30,000 people in Song Dynasty with 3,000 cavalry on the river, and beheaded more than 10,000 people... Zhao Yi said in "Twenty-Two History Notes": "Every time you send troops, you must bow as a stone and serve as the first soldier. Therefore, you can attack the masses with less. In more than ten years, you have destroyed Liao and taken Song, and you are invincible."

It can be said that Wu Shu was the best cavalry general at that time.In the era of cold weapons, cavalry is the arm with the most offensive advantage in war, and it is also the most important military support.Wu Shu led his cavalry regiment to accumulate rich military experience in the process of sweeping the Daliao, and developed a very practical combat method. The world-famous "kidnapper horse" and "Iron Buddha Tu" are the foundations of his predecessors. A tactic of innovative invention. "Kizima" is a name given to Wushu by soldiers and civilians in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Jurchen name that Wushu himself gave it in the first place is no longer available.

There are many opinions in history books about the specific tactics of "kidnapper horse". Among them, the most influential one is what Yue Ke said in the fifth volume of "E Kingdom Jin Tuoxuan" "E King Xingshi Chronicle": "Wushu has a strong army, all of which are heavily armored, run through Wei Suo, three people are in a union, and they are called kidnappers. The horse, also known as the iron floating map, blocked the wall and advanced, and the officers and soldiers could not be the ones, so they won many times." Zhang Ying's "Biography of the Four Generals of Nandu" and "Song History · Yue Fei Biography" compiled by Yuan Dynasty officials also commented on this. The saying is used.

The author believes that this statement is wrong, and it confuses "Iron Futu" (also known as "Iron Futu"), another arm of Wushu. The people of the Yuan Dynasty who forged Yuwen Maozhao's famous work "Great Jin Guozhi" had already noticed this mistake, and changed it to: "Wu Shu has three thousand tooth soldiers, and they come and go for help. They all wear heavy armor. , with the name 'Iron Buddha Tu', every time you take a step forward, you use the horse to cover the back, showing no hesitation, and then use the iron riding horse on the left and right wings, and the name is 'The Kidnapper Horse'." Clearly distinguish the "Iron Buddha Tu" from the "Kaizi Horse" up.

Is there any evidence that "kidnapper horse" and "iron Buddha" are different arms? Yang Ruyi said in "Shunchang's Victory over the Thieves", "The four princes wore white robes, armored horses, and pointed at each other. They used the canal to respond to three thousand tooth soldiers, all of whom were heavily armored. Fork thousands of households"; "When Fang Qi fought, Li Qiong, Kong Yanzhou, Zhao Tidao, etc. all rode out of the formation alone. A Hebei signing army told the officers and soldiers: 'My generation is the left guard army, and I have no fighting spirit. The only ones that can be killed are the two kidnapped horses.' Therefore, the officials and troops broke through them. They are the ones that the four princes usually rely on, and they will lose seven to eight out of ten." It can be seen that "the kidnapped horse" is different from the "Iron Buddha Tu". They are all arms, but they all belong to the "those that the four princes usually rely on".

Wang Ruohai witnessed the battle of Shunchang, and also wrote a "Zhazi" about "Iron Buddha" and "Kizima". The description of "Iron Buddha Tu" is: "The soldiers who will attack the city are called Iron Buddha Tu, also known as Iron Tower Soldiers. The leather ropes are connected together. Afterwards, use the repelling horse to show that you will not turn back." The infantry in the middle is also wearing iron helmets and heavy armor, with only their eyes exposed, and they are in groups of three. Suo, dragging the horse-rejection post behind him, every step, the horse-rejection post behind him followed, all the soldiers advanced without retreating, extremely fierce.

And the "kidnapper horse" is: "Using iron cavalry as the left and right wings, and the name of the kidnapper horse, they are all filled by Jurchen. Since the use of troops, the city that cannot be attacked is to gather this army." Relatively speaking, Yang Ruyi and Wang Ruohai's statements are more accurate than Yue Ke's. The reason is very simple. Yang Ruyi and Wang Ruohai's records are based on first-hand materials, especially Yang Ruyi, who is a field reporter with the army. The whole process of the battle, and Yue Ke did not start to organize "E State Jin Tuoxuan" until 60 years after Yue Fei's death.

So, what are the different types of arms between the "kidnapper horse" and the "iron Buddha"?From the Song Dynasty to the present, there have been countless textual researches, but there is still no conclusion. The author boldly speculates based on relevant historical data, and makes a false statement. "Futu" is a Buddhist term, meaning a pagoda, and "Iron Buddha" refers to an iron tower.It is used here as a metaphor that a cavalry wearing two layers of heavy armor is shaped like an iron tower.According to the "Song History" volume 197 "Bing Zhi", each pair of armor "only weighs forty-five to fifty catties in total", and two layers of heavy armor are worn on the body, weighing more than one hundred catties. Coupled with the bows, arrows, swords and long spears equipped on their bodies, these cavalry who act as "iron pagodas" are required to have strong physiques and extraordinary strength. Looking from a distance, they look like iron towers. The reason why the "Iron Buddha Tu" sacrificed the mobility of the cavalry and made them wear thick and heavy armor was to let these heavy armored cavalry regiments with good protection performance, high quality and invincibility take on the frontal task of attacking fortifications, playing a role similar to modern Tanks in war.According to Wang Ruohai's records, the horses of these iron tower soldiers were connected in a row with leather ropes, and the infantry behind them pushed the horse posts and followed them forward, like a moving wall pressing down.It is not difficult to see from this that the "Iron Buddha" cleverly used the principle of "serial horses" that we often call "serial horses" in the front of the battle. Three horses are connected in a row to form a joint combat unit. The power is far greater than the sum of the three scattered horses, making the opponent powerless to stop. Different from the frontal assault of the "Iron Buddha Tu", the "kidnapper horse" is a kind of light or medium cavalry, making full use of its high mobility and the huge impact generated when the group charges, and implements the tactics of outflanking the enemy's troops. Outflank and then attack.Lv Yihao in the Southern Song Dynasty once said: "When captives encounter Chinese soldiers, they often surround them with iron cavalry and spread their wings." Here, I have to talk about why the people of the Southern Song Dynasty called the tactic of Wushu "kidnapper horse". Volume 7 of the first collection of "Wu Jing Zongyao" records: "The southeast abductee horse formation is the left and right wings of the large formation. This camp is in the northwest, and the abductee horses are selected for fine riders. Yi Di used soldiers, and every bow and cavalry gathered violently, attacking sideways. A large formation, if one side is unable to defend, there is a risk of rushing forward, because the kidnapper formation is used as a rescue." Putting cavalry on both wings, assaulting the enemy's flanks, and finally realizing their own combat intentions, the Northern Song army called such cavalry "" Kidnapper horse". It can also be seen from this that "kidnapper horse" is not a special name for the Golden Cavalry. Since there are already "kidnapping horses" in this dynasty, why do you still turn pale when you talk about Wushu's "kidnapping horses"? The reason is that Jin Bing's "kidnapping horses" have superb riding skills and fierce combat. They are equipped with fighting cold weapons and bows and arrows. , The bow strength is only seven buckets, and in order to facilitate the drawing of the bow on horseback and ensure the hit rate of shooting, the Jin people deliberately made the arrows extremely long.Of course, the difference from the "kidnapper horse" in the Northern Song Dynasty does not stop there. The "kidnapper horse" soldiers in Wushu are each equipped with two to five war horses. Get on another horse, so that the cavalry maintains good physical strength when charging in front of the battle, and ensures mobility in wartime. This method of warfare is called "the system of secondary horses". "Auxiliary horse" refers to the horse other than the main vehicle, also known as "subordinate horse".There are books as evidence, "Golden History" contains: "Tuhe Sui Cong Mawu (that is, five auxiliary horses), Wolu broke four thousand Song soldiers in Wenshui." "Weisuo" should be used to tie them behind the main horse, so the "kidnapping horse" also gives people the image of a serial horse visually. The author speculates that this may be the reason why Yue Ke and others confuse "kidnapper horse" with "iron Buddha". When fighting, ordinary cavalry or infantry are usually used to fight in formation, and when the two sides fight inextricably, that is to say in the history books, "every battle is fierce", the "Iron Buddha Tu" begins to appear. "Iron Buddha" does not pursue speed.The tower-shaped cavalry held swords and long spears, and wore invulnerable iron armor. Like heavy bulldozers, they slowly advanced. Because the battle formation was too dense, if the opponent moved, the unstoppable enemy could only avoid the enemy to the left and right. At this time, the "kidnapper horse" has already outflanked from the left and right, so at this time, there is "Iron Buddha" in the middle destroying the city and pulling out the village, and there are "kidnapper horses" sweeping wildly on the left and right, and the opponent can only collapse completely. Of course, those who have not witnessed the use of serial horses in "Kizima" and "Iron Buddha" have good reasons to question this method of warfare. Emperor Qianlong pointed out in the "Yubi Tongjian Jilan": "The northerners use horses, but the main purpose is to control and maneuver. If three horses are connected, the horsepower is uneven, and the horsepower is bound to be different; and the three are connected, or the horsepower is different. Bravery and timidity are uneven, and the brave are tired by the timid. This principle is easy to understand. The theory of the kidnapper horse is not recorded in "History of Jin·Benji·Bingzhi" and biography of Wushu, but it can only be seen in "History of Song·Yue Fei "Biography" and "Liu Kai Biography" are not enough evidence. Kuang Wushu is a Suxian in battle, and he must know the way to advance if he can advance, and to retreat if he can retreat. How can he be willing to fetter the horse so that he can be controlled by others? This or that time line up and advance together , Invincible, the Song people saw that it was unstoppable, so they arbitrarily named it "eyes and ears." Holding this view is influenced by a "take it for granted" thinking pattern. It is true that horsepower varies, and knights are brave and timid. usage. The author's opinion is: the knights of "Iron Buddha Tu" wear double armor, and the horses are also fully armored. The load must be heavy. Three people lined up, holding long spears, forward, forward, constantly stabbing forward, simply repeating these mechanical movements, slowly advancing while the horses under the crotch can only advance and not retreat, almost invincible and invincible ! "Book of Jin" records that Murong Ke, the Xianbei commander of the former Yan, once used a chain horse to fight against the hero Ran Min. It was by virtue of this method of warfare that Murong Ke completely defeated Ran Min, the God of Killing who was "extremely courageous and unprecedented in attack".You must know that in order to save the Han nation, Ran Min, after promulgating the order to kill Hu cavalry, has repeatedly attacked and killed tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of Hu cavalry with only a few thousand Han cavalry, and has never been defeated. . When describing Xixia's "iron kite" cavalry in "Liao History Xixia Biography", it also recorded the words "heavy clothes, riding good horses, with iron cavalry as the forward, and hooked with hooks and ropes, even if they die, the horse will not fall". Xiong Tingbi, a famous general at the end of Ming Dynasty, had many confrontations with Hou Jin, and recorded their tactics: "Slave soldiers fight with dead soldiers in front and sharp soldiers behind. Dead soldiers wear heavy armor and charge forward on two horses. Afterwards, return to the front, if you dare to retreat, the sharp soldiers will kill them from behind, and wait for them to rush into our formation, and then the sharp soldiers will take advantage of their victories, and act like Aguda and Wushu one by one." It can be seen that the use of serial horses has not only been used before Jin, but also used after Jin. Its lethality is huge, and it is worth learning and learning from the Central Plains army.And everyone knows that there is a shortage of horses in the Central Plains. Since it is impossible to learn and learn from it, the only way to solve it is to study it. Wushu's "kidnapping horse", "Iron Buddha Tu" and the entire cavalry regiment are not only fierce in combat, but also full of endurance.Wu Shu said quite complacently: "If you can't fight more than a hundred rounds, what is the horse army!" At the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty, the method of deciphering it had not yet been researched, so, the battle of Majiadu, what Yue Fei and the others would face would be an unprecedentedly difficult battle.