Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Mulek and other overseas envoys were simply shocked by the combat effectiveness displayed by the Ming army.

The envoys from Xixia, Goryeo, Japan, Annan and other countries collectively felt a sense of despair.

Taira Kiyomori was carrying a Japanese sword and wearing a pair of Ming Dynasty-style armor.

His height of 1.58 meters is considered tall and burly in Japan, but he is small among the envoys from various countries.

Ping Qingsheng was able to grow so tall thanks to his arrival in the Ming Dynasty at the age of 17 and his change in diet.

Although Japanese people are very short, they are not always as short as they were in the Edo period.

Based on the leg bones excavated by archaeologists, it is estimated that the height difference between China and Japan at the same time (taking the average height of men as an example) was actually only a few centimeters.

The closest period was during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. That was the peak height of Japan in ancient times, while China continued to decline due to long-term wars. The average height of Chinese men is only 3 centimeters higher than that of Japan.

The biggest gap was in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. The height of the Japanese continues to decline, while that of China has returned to the level of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. The average height difference between the two countries is 11 centimeters.

By the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese were getting shorter, and the Japanese continued to get shorter...

According to archaeological data, the average height difference between the two countries at this time was only a little more than 7 centimeters.

but!

Rich people in China are often taller than the average height of the country. There are many people who are 1.7 meters or 1.8 meters tall.

As for Japanese nobles, because they are prohibited from eating meat (except fish) and adhere to a vegetarian diet to show their status, many nobles are lower than the average height of their country.

The gap suddenly widened, and meeting Japanese nobles was like looking at monkeys.

In front of Ping Qingsheng is the Xixia envoy, 175 centimeters tall.

Behind him is the Korean envoy, who is 166 centimeters tall.

This guy already had low self-esteem because he was caught in the middle. Now he was frightened by the power of the Ming army and fell into serious self-doubt.

He even began to doubt the merits of the entire Yamato nation.

Jin Yungui said with emotion: "The Ming army is indeed invincible in the world."

He spoke in Korean dialect, and no one else could understand him. Only the deputy beside him shook his head and sighed.

Jin Yungui became more and more determined, believing that only if Goryeo merged with the Ming Dynasty would a small family like them have a way out.

Instead of being a dog to the wealthy Goryeo family, it would be better to be a dog to the Ming Emperor!

Hanoi Jingguo asked: "Do you understand the Ming Dynasty's tactics?"

Taira Kiyomori said: "I understand. The Ming Dynasty's chariot formation is indestructible. No matter how brave our Japanese samurai are, we can't break through its chariot formation. We can't even rush close, and they are defeated from a long distance away. Those firearms are too terrifying . Especially the ball that can explode at the end, no army can maintain its formation if it is thrown into the enemy's formation."

Hanoi Ching-Kuo said: "Mencius said, only the wise can make big things out of small things. The Ming Dynasty is strong and Japan is weak. When the two countries have diplomatic relations, we should understand the big things. We must be in awe of the Ming Dynasty and not provoke easily. Think big things first. , only by learning more can you finally become a great person.”

Taira Kiyomori smiled bitterly: "The nobles in the country only know how to have fun. They may know that things are big, but they don't really want to study big."

Several forbidden troops gradually withdrew to the periphery and began to conduct regular competitions.

The target is set up first, and the gunmen line up to shoot. The three-stage attack is equally powerful.

Then other troops abandoned their chariots and formed formations to fight. They took off their sharp weapons and dipped them in lime to judge the outcome.

These are simulating heavy rainy weather, or muddy areas after rain, where you cannot rely on tanks or fight without firearms.

"Military school students and envoys from various countries can also go on stage to show off their martial arts." Ju Ming ordered.

When the order came out, the military school students were eager to try.

Suddenly, a young man ran to the open space on horseback, holding a spear and shouting: "Who will fight with me?"

When Ju Ming saw this, he couldn't help but laugh.

That young man was the seventeen-year-old King Zhu Kang of Yu.

However, Taira Kiyomori doesn't recognize King Yu. He is now in the stage of self-doubt and is eager to regain his confidence through fighting.

"I'll fight you!" Taira Kiyomori rushed out.

Although Zhu Kang is tall and tall, he is only a military school student after all.

Taira Kiyomori was proud of his bravery. He did not dare to challenge Ming soldiers in a duel, but he was not afraid of a young student either.

An official from the Ministry of War came forward and said to Taira Kiyomori: "Please send the envoy to select war horses and weapons."

There are excellent war horses bred from crossbreeding, and their shoulder height is generally more than 1.4 meters.

But Taira Kiyomori gave it a try. It was too tall for him to ride, so he finally chose one with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters. Even so, it was much taller than the war horse he rode in Japan.

As for cavalry spears, there are different models such as six feet, two feet, one foot, and eight feet, with lengths of 5 meters, 3.8 meters, 3.2 meters, and 2.5 meters respectively.

Zhang Er in the Song Dynasty was Zhang Ba in the Han Dynasty.

If it exceeds this length, it can almost be called a horse in the Han Dynasty. Of course, the specific shape is definitely different from a spear.

After the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the names were very confusing. Long weapons such as spears, spears, and spears were often called interchangeably. Even infantry combat spears could be called infantry spears. I don’t know if it’s because it sounds majestic.

Of course, Taira Kiyomori didn't dare to choose a 5-meter lance. He picked up a 3.8-meter-long one, but after swinging it a few times, he still felt it was not smooth.

In the end, he chose a 3.2-meter-long one.

Zhu Kang uses a 3.8-meter lance, and he is still not used to the 5-meter one.

It can even be said that out of the entire Ming Dynasty's hundreds of thousands of troops, only a handful of people could use a 5-meter lance. At that time, the Hezha Meng'an of the Jin Kingdom had a standard lance that was only 3.8 meters long.

Zhu Kang stood on horseback and waited quietly.

Pei Kiyomori first familiarized himself with the warhorse and weapons, galloping back and forth on his horse, waving his lance from time to time.

The spear heads of both men had been removed, replaced with wooden round heads of the same length, and wrapped with linen soaked in lime.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

The war drums sounded, and the two riders faced each other.

Mulek couldn't help but leave the envoy team and walked closer to observe carefully.

He found that the cavalry fighting on the Ming side was more similar to the style in the Middle East, rather than the silly lance-clamping charge of the Crusaders.

Of course, the Middle Eastern cavalry was also disgusted by the lance-clamping charge, and the surrounding states were conducting special cracking training.

Zhu Kang accelerated his horse with a lance in hand, and didn't take Ping Kiyomori seriously at all.

The two horses approached, their heads crossed, and the parallel distance was about two meters, and each handed out a lance to the other.

"Snap!"

The spear shafts touched.

The front end of Zhu Kang's lance shook slightly, and then he stirred it, and Ping Kiyomori's lance was actually unstable.

Taira no Kiyomori didn't know what was going on. He only felt a huge force coming from the spear, and the force was still rotating and vibrating, and he almost made the weapon fall out of his hand.

Then, a sharp pain came from his chest, and Taira no Kiyomori was knocked off his horse.

Zhu Kang slowed down his horse, turned his horse's head and said, "Have you really practiced spearmanship? I'm afraid you can't even beat the Ming light cavalry."

Taira no Kiyomori was in great pain all over his body and was dragged to the sidelines like a sleepwalker.

Of course, he had never practiced spearmanship, because in the Heian period, Japan did not have long spears for horse fighting, only spears and halberds for foot fighting.

Horse-riding warriors were not equipped with long spears, but bows and arrows for long-range combat and swords for close combat, and they were also called "horse bowmanship".

It took several hundred years for Japanese cavalry to develop long spears in combat, and it only appeared as the intensity of the war continued to increase.

Taira no Kiyomori practiced spearmanship for foot fighting, and he was invincible in Heian-kyo.

He thought it was nothing more than riding a horse and using a spear. As a result, when they really started fighting, they couldn't use any strength and were almost knocked off their weapons.

Hanoi Jingguo came over and said, "It seems that what you want to learn is not only the military strategy of the Ming Dynasty, but also the martial arts of China."

Taira no Kiyomori covered his chest with severe pain, which seemed to be broken: "I think the cavalry tactics of the Ming Dynasty can be called 'horse spear way', which is better than the 'horse bow way' of Japan. If I learn this tactic and pass it on to my horse-riding warriors, I will be able to easily sweep all the counties and kingdoms!"

"Then you work hard." Hanoi Jingguo smiled.

Taira no Kiyomori said, "Please give me a sum of gold and silver. I want to become a disciple in the Ming Dynasty and find a retired Ming cavalryman to learn martial arts!"

The competition in the field is still going on.

This time, the military attachés from the Chola and Ceylon envoys are fighting on foot there.

The two countries are feuds.

Ceylon was destroyed by Chola, and Chola was also plundered by Ceylon for a long time.

As they were competing, they began to fight for real. The weapons kept hitting the shields, and the left hand holding the shield was cracked.

In the end, the Ceylonese military attaché was better, and he broke the shoulder of the Chola military attaché with a hammer.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "The winner will be rewarded with a piece of silk. The loser will be treated well and given a silver dollar as encouragement."

The Ceylonese military attaché was even more proud after getting the silk, and he showed off his power by hitting the shield with a hammer.

The Chola military attaché next to him sneered, "Why are you so proud? First we destroyed your country, and then the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to the seaside. Even if you beat us all, the King of Ceylonese is just a puppet."

The Ceylonese military attaché was furious, and he rushed over with a hammer.

The Ming soldiers hurriedly stopped him, and the two sides kept cursing at each other.

Soon, the Seljuk and Fatimid military attachés also began to compete.

The former was the general of the Sultan's guards, and the latter was the Mamluk general of the Caliph. They were both heavy cavalry when they fought.

Persia and Egypt fought!

Zhu Ming was quite interested in this, and even picked up a telescope to observe carefully.

The heavy cavalry equipment of these two countries seemed to be inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, and their armor was only slightly better than that of the Ming Dynasty's cavalry.

When they fired their spears at each other, they were all staggered and stabbed sideways, not doing the European style of charging with spears.

At the beginning, the two met and were still sprinting, but they stopped charging as they fought, and each rode a small circle around each other, attacking with long spears.

Zhang Guangdao came over and said: "The cavalry warfare methods of these two countries are very similar to our cavalry, and even the weapons are similar. However, the scimitars on their waists are interesting, and they should be very useful for attacking lightly armored infantry."

Zhu Ming said: "After the hunting, you can communicate with the military officers of various countries. There must be a teacher among three people, so find out their strengths."

"Yes!" Zhang Guangdao bowed and stepped back.

"Bang!"

The Fatimid military officer on the field had been knocked off his horse.

The two had roughly the same martial arts, but the Seljuk military officer had been fighting for many years, and I don't know how many lives he had.

The Fatimid military officer had not been on the battlefield for a long time, and he did not dare to retake the territory occupied by the Crusaders. If he were to compete in martial arts at this time, he would lose in terms of momentum.

It was not until dusk that Zhu Ming announced: "Today is over. Tomorrow we will start hunting and see which country can capture the most prey!"