This cost advantage of nomadic cavalry will last for more than ten centuries. On the vast lands from the Western Pacific to the Baltic Sea, from the Persian Plateau to the Mesopotamian Plain, from the Yellow River Basin to the Danube, the herders will use their tireless horse hooves to write magnificent iron-blooded epics.

Of course, the emperors of the East and West Roman Empire, which were brutally ravaged under Attila's horse's hooves, probably wouldn't like to use the adjective "magnificence". The Jurchen emperor, King Wei Shao, who was bullied by light cavalry from the Mongolian Plateau, and Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty, would definitely protest angrily.

However, this is the fact of history. The balance of fate has indeed favored the soldiers on horseback, allowing these prides of heaven to break into the civilized world at an extremely low cost. However, there is no perfection in the world, and spears and shields always rise and fall.

Although the farming people were in a passive situation most of the time in the war against nomadic peoples, the two sides had been entangled for thousands of years and did not fall at a disadvantage. Instead, they often had the advantage to keep nomadic people out of the Great Wall, and even forced them to migrate north and west to win the victory of the war. The reason does not need to be said much about Zhao Bing, it is fundamentally the power of knowledge.

The early Central Plains dynasties had certain advantages in weapons and equipment, which benefited from the developed handicraft technology of the Central Plains. The farming side had the advantage of overwhelming victory balance: they had sharp metal weapons, able to reach far-reaching crossbows, sharper arrowheads and strong armor.

At the same time, the farming corps also have more advantages in organization. Their skillful use of ancient communication methods such as banners, golden drums, and documents allows the commanders of the imperial army to more efficiently judge the battlefield situation and make up their minds. More importantly, they can also summarize experiences and lessons from their predecessors through detailed written records.

Chen Tang, a famous general in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, compared the combat effectiveness of the Han soldiers and the Hun soldiers, and believed that the five Hun soldiers were not as good as one Han soldiers. Even after they obtained slightly better equipment, the Han soldiers could still maintain a one-to-three advantage. Therefore, the cost advantage of the nomadic people was indeed greatly offset by the empire's technological advantages.

However, any practical technology always tends to spread. The creation and invention of the Chinese world is difficult to keep secrets for a long time. As time goes by, trade exchanges, population migration, and the capricious nomadic peoples gradually learn advanced technology in their contact with the Central Plains dynasty.

Cai Yong of the Eastern Han Dynasty blamed him: "In addition, the barriers are not strict, the prohibition is leaking too much, and the fine gold and iron are all thieves; the Han people fled, and they were planning their masters, and their soldiers were sharp and their horses were too fast, which was too much better than the Huns." Although he was talking about the Xianbei situation, such a situation also applies to other nations. Zhao Bing certainly understood that cultural exchanges are the general trend of historical development, and this is just one aspect.

However, in the historical process of the rise and fall of various empires in the Central Plains, the export of metal, especially the export of nomadic peoples to the northern nomadic peoples, has always been strictly controlled. However, the leaders of nomadic tribes who were eager for metal tools can always obtain what they wanted through various abnormal means. As a result, the technological advantages of the imperial army became smaller and smaller, until they were eventually surpassed by the nomadic cavalry.

However, Zhao Bing knew that with the advent of the industrial era, the development of science and technology, and the continuous innovation of weapons, nomadic peoples finally found it difficult to keep up with the progress of farming people's knowledge, and war horses and bent bows could no longer compete with tanks and cannons. The goddess of fate finally completely kicked the nomadic people out with vigorous technological revolutions.

In Zhao Bing's previous life, he could no longer see the cavalry roaring across the fields and villages, bringing war and destruction, but it was only more than two centuries away from that era. In other words, the distance cannot quench near thirst, and now there is still at least 500 years of generation gap to that era...

Destiny is always unimaginable. Zhao Bing sometimes can't figure out that it was God's imperfection, the retribution of the Mongols, the luck of the Song Dynasty, and the unluckyness of himself. He threw him into this turbulent era. Whether it was good or not, he became the emperor, forcing him to survive, maintain world peace, and change the course of history.

Zhao Bing knew that he had brought changes to the world, not that he was a destiny man, but that he had knowledge that surpassed this era for nearly a thousand years. But he also understood that the Great Wall could not be repaired in one day, and the current world's technological level is still in an era of extreme backwardness, so he could not bring them into modern society in a short period of time.

In order to save his life and for the victory of the war, Zhao Bing "invented" the crossbow cannons, borebore cannons, borebore guns, and tinkered with grenades, minimalist rocket launchers and mortars and other messy firearms. Although these things surpassed this era, they brought the Song army from the age of cold weapons to the age of firearms.

However, Zhao Bing was also very clear that due to the limitations of history, the things he created were still in their original form and lacked technical content. In other words, they were very easy to imitate.

As early as the Battle of Quanzhou more than ten years ago, Zhao Bing discovered that the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties had equipped copper short muskets. During the Northern Expedition, the enemy had already begun to be equipped in a large scale and independently organized into an army. These indicate that the Mongolian and Yuan realized the advantages of firearms in the war and began to develop this aspect, conduct trial production, and try to form an army.

Although Zhao Bing formulated a strict confidentiality system to maintain the advanced nature of weapons as early as the time of the General Administration, in order to maintain the advanced nature of weapons, to prevent technical leakage, and to this day, although the formula of gunpowder has been improved many times according to its use, divided into launching drugs, gunpowder and detonating drugs, etc., there are still no more than five people who really master the formula.

The Mongols were not fools either. They had long discovered that the formulas inherited from the Song army's gunpowder were far inferior to those of the Song Dynasty. The quality of gunpowder determines the quality of the firearm, so they also tried every means to improve their formula. Of course, when technology was behind, they could not analyze even if they obtained gunpowder, so the easiest way was to steal.

However, as a military-industry important site, the gunpowder workshop of the military weapon supervisor has always been the top priority in defense. The guards of the guard brigade have always been the guard. There are spies from the affairs bureau lurking in it to prevent the enemy from taking risks and destroying them, and also to ensure that the gunpowder formula is not leaked. Almost every year, several people who try to steal the formula are caught, and in recent years, it has become increasingly fierce.

As for artillery, muskets and other firearms workshops, they are under strict supervision, but these weapons are widely distributed to the Song army, with a total of 100,000 equipment, and may be stolen in all aspects of manufacturing, storage, transportation, etc., and damage and loss on the battlefield are inevitable. It is not difficult to obtain by the Mongolian Yuan, and even the methods of use can be obtained through captured soldiers and military craftsmen.

Zhao Bing knew that these things were simple in structure, and it was not difficult to imitate them with the current technology as long as there were physical objects. However, it was a bit difficult to achieve the same level as the Song Dynasty. After all, their steel production and processing technology lag behind the Song Dynasty. But don’t ignore the wisdom of the current craftsmen. They cannot create firearms of the same quality, but they can be less particular, figuring out similar things, and finally creating the same things through continuous exploration and improvement of the technology.

Based on the information received by Zhao Bing, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty used the Shanxi Armor Bureau and the Military War Bureau as the basis of many years ago to carry out imitation work by using the craftsmen there. Currently, artillery, grenades and muskets have been built. However, due to the quality of steel, they had to sacrifice mobility and increase the thickness of the chamber wall. The artillery made was very bulky, which led to difficulties in marching and operation, but it was still possible to defend the city.

Similarly, the Mongol Yuan craftsmen also imitated flintlock rifles, but for the same reason, they were unable to make spring steel, so that the musket could not be fired smoothly. They could only retreat and ignite with fuses. Moreover, the gun body was heavy, and even larger, it could be comparable to the modern gun lifting.

Although the firearms made by the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties were bulky and inconvenient to operate, and were weaker than those of the Song army. However, Zhao Bing thought that this had improved a lot compared to bows and arrows and swords and guns, and the threat to the Song army was increased. According to the information summary of various parties, there are currently tens of thousands of meshes and no less than 500 large and small artillery pieces, and are mainly equipped with the personal guards stationed around Dadu to protect the capital.

Zhao Bing also learned that the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties were still using the captured Song army to teach the Yuan army to use firearms and tactics, but he knew that it took hundreds of years to transform from the cold weapon era to the firearm era in history. Even if the Song army had him, a half-baked "modern military expert", it was not just a bunch of them, but was constantly exploring and summarizing in actual combat, and it took more than ten years to get the current situation.

However, the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties will also grow, and they will gradually become strong enemies of the Song Dynasty, so Zhao Bing did not want to give them time to grow and wanted to kill them in the cradle. This is also one of the reasons why he was anxious to launch a continuous gun and to arrange troops in a short period of time. In this way, the Song army still had the advantage of crushing the Mongolian and Yuan dynasties in terms of weapons and equipment, although it was suspected that he would use a tyrant to kill chickens.

Now the Song Dynasty has met the conditions for the Northern Expedition politically and military, but it is still a shortcoming in economics. Although after five years of rest and recuperation, the country's economy has been recovered a little and the national treasury has accumulated. However, war is a machine for swallowing gold. Zhao Bing is also worried that although he won the war, it dragged down the economy, put him in a ruling crisis and made society regress.

In addition, no one could predict what accidents would happen in the meantime. Perhaps because the war could not end as planned, it would have to delay backwards, resulting in a significant increase in military expenditure; or because natural disasters and man-made disasters occurred during the war, leading to an economic crisis, and whether the country's financial resources could support the war to continue; or if there were unrest abroad, the maritime trade could not be carried out and fiscal revenues would be sharply reduced, what should we do?
Chapter completed!