There were four main factors that led to the Mongol cavalry's decline from dominating the world in the 13th century to its decline in the 17th century.
First, the development of firearms, especially various portable firearms, has made the advantages of traditional cavalry less and less.
Second, the economic blockade of the Ming Dynasty slowed down the development of the Mongols and even their productivity began to decline.
As far as ironware is concerned, the Ming Dynasty's strict ironware blockade made it increasingly difficult for the Mongols to form a fully armored cavalry.
When the situation was at its worst, not to mention metal armor, even iron pots for cooking were not available, and people could only exchange broken iron pots for new ones from the Ming Dynasty.
At the end of the Wanli period, merchants could exchange a complete set of armor smuggled from the Mongols for nearly a hundred livestock.
What does it mean to have nearly a hundred livestock?
The total assets of many low-income herdsmen are not as high as this.
The Western Oirats stipulated that every forty herders must pool funds to purchase two sets of armor every year, which shows how eager the Mongols were for equipment.
The third reason is religion.
At first, the Mongols believed in Eternal Heaven and thought that war was the will of God, so they fought bravely and fearlessly.
Later, the Ming court promoted Buddhism on the grasslands to balance the Mongolian barbarians. With the secret support of the Ming court, Tibetan Buddhism was widely spread on the grasslands.
So the warriors who ate raw meat and drank blood put down their butcher knives and turned into lamas who chanted Buddhist scriptures.
When they take up arms again, their fighting power can be imagined...
The fourth reason is climate and the emergence of new enemies.
In the past, when the Mongols were defeated, they would flee to the northern desert or even north of it. Due to logistical and economic pressures, the Central Plains dynasties had to give up chasing them.
This method failed by the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
First, it was during the Little Ice Age, and the climate was cold. The winter in Mobei was already unsuitable for living, and if the herders stayed there, their herdsmen would lose half their herds and cattle, or even lose everything.
Second, the Russian forces began to invade the south, and the Mongols encountered new troubles in the northern desert.
Unable to defeat the enemy and with nowhere to escape, the Mongols in history chose to compromise.
Boom boom
On the boundless grassland, two cavalry units approached rapidly.
The Mongolian cavalry charged in dense formation, and after seven or eight flag bearers were killed by bird guns, riots broke out.
Whether attacking or retreating, the cavalry followed the flag bearers.
Now that their own flag bearer had been shot, they didn't know whether to continue attacking or retreat immediately.
"Isn't the range of the Ming army's bird guns too far? Can they kill people at a distance of a hundred steps?" a Mongolian cavalryman shouted loudly.
"Not only does it have a long range, it's also powerful! Several flag bearers wearing double armor were killed!" Another Mongolian cavalryman replied with lingering fear.
"The flag bearer is dead, what should we do?"
"The replacement flag bearer is here, everyone follow!"
As the reserve flag bearers entered the battlefield, the Mongolian cavalry stopped rioting.
With the help of superb horsemanship, the Mongolian cavalry quickly changed from a dense formation to a dispersed formation and continued to charge.
They formed a small team of three and charged side by side.
The cavalry in the middle are equipped with hook-and-sickle spears and bows and arrows, while the cavalry on the left and right sides are equipped with the traditional combination of waist swords and bows and arrows.
Use bows and arrows to kill enemies at long distances, and use hook-and-sickle spears and waist knives to attack at close range.
In addition to attacking and killing the enemy, the hook-and-sickle spear has another use: to rescue injured companions who have fallen off their horses during retreat, or to hook away their bodies.
In addition to religious factors, this behavior is also driven by interests.
The Mongols stipulated that slaves would be immediately freed if they brought back the bodies of Mongol soldiers, and would receive all the livestock of those who died in battle.
If the Mongols took back their companions' bodies, they would obtain all their property (including wives and concubines).
If you rescue an injured companion, you will receive half of his property.
Because the Ming army adopted a system of first merit, credit was based entirely on the number of enemy heads.
Sometimes a lot of people were killed in a battle, but when cleaning up the battlefield, the enemy bodies could not be found.
Therefore, this policy had a great impact on the Ming army.
However, the Ming army also had the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
The Mongols would place the bodies on the backs of idle horses and flee.
Due to the bumpy ride, corpses would sometimes fall off the horses. The pursuing Ming army would then cut off the heads of the corpses and take back the credit, which was also known as "picking up corpses."
Of course, this kind of opportunity is hard to come by.
Bang!
When the two sides were fifty steps apart, the Ming cavalry opened fire with their three-barreled guns.
Dense rain of bullets hit the Mongolian cavalry with a sound of breaking through the air.
The front row of armored cavalry took most of the damage and created opportunities for other cavalry to fire arrows.
Buzz!
Countless arrows flew into the sky, drawing countless perfect parabolas in the air and fell into the Ming army's formation.
The sharp arrows shot into the ground, penetrated several inches, and landed on the armor of the soldiers and horses, making a dull thud.
This kind of projectile arrow does not require accuracy or high damage, as long as it makes the opponent feel oppressed.
Looking at the arrows that covered the sky, although the Ming army was protected by armor, the army formation still shook slightly.
When the rain of arrows stopped, the distance between the two sides was less than fifteen steps.
"Shoot!"
"Shoot!"
The generals of both sides roared at the same time and conveyed the military orders to the flag-bearing soldiers.
The cavalry on both sides began to fire freely.
The Mongolian cavalry retreated while shooting arrows, trying to lure the Ming army into pursuit.
After chasing for a dozen steps, the Ming army stopped pursuing and returned to their previous position to regroup.
Seeing this, the Mongols launched another charge, and the Ming army fought back using the same old method.
After this happened three times, the Mongols were the first to be unable to bear it.
Under the sharp firearms attack of the Ming army, they would lose a lot of people every time they charged.
On the other hand, the Ming army suffered basically no casualties except for a few unlucky guys who were shot by arrows in the gaps of their armor.
"Lord Zhang Jing, if we continue fighting like this we will suffer too many casualties. We have to change our tactics!" A Mongolian general came up to Zhang Jingtu, the flag bearer who was in charge of the troops, and said.
Guanqi Zhangjing was a position in Outer Mongolia.
After the Mongolian tribes south of the desert surrendered to the Jiannu, except for a small number of people who were incorporated into the Eight Banners of Mongolia, most of the rest were classified as Outer Mongolia.
The organization of Outer Mongolia was similar to that of the Eight Banners Mongolia.
The highest leader of each banner is the Zasak (banner master), who is in charge of the political affairs of the banner and can be inherited from generation to generation.
Below the jasak was the assistant taiji (two to four people per banner), and after that came the banner-manager zhangjing (one person) - deputy zhangjing (two people) - cangling - zuoling - xiaoqixiao - shichang.
Tu Tai, who had a full beard, looked at the battle in front of him and waved his hand: "Order all the troops to use the wrapping formation tactic."
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