Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 165 - 160: Consulting Historical Materials

Chapter 165: Chapter 160: Consulting Historical Materials

Zhao Haiping was bewildered, as were his deputy generals.

"What happened to General Qin?"

"How did he manage to stab the enemy general and also fall off his horse?"

"There’s something wrong with General Qin’s spear technique... How could he make such a basic mistake?"

The deputy generals were puzzled, but there was no time to react at this point, for the enemy troops had already surrounded them, and they could only strugglingly hold out around Zhao Haiping.

Zhao Haiping did want to remount, but amidst the chaos of battle, with the enemy constantly attacking him, their primary target, he couldn’t find a suitable opportunity to do so.

Moreover, the lance in his hand was too long, a weapon meant for mounted combat, yet if he were to use a ring-headed blade, it was too short, allowing the enemy commanders on horseback to attack him at will.

In the end, he could only fall to the ground, filled with resentment, amidst the encircling enemies.

Once again, back to square one.

Zhao Haiping began to doubt his life as he reviewed the previous battle.

"Why did I, perfectly fine, stab at the enemy general with my lance and also fall off my horse?

"Momentum is mutual, that’s correct, but the recoil from that seems a bit too strong. Despite my legs clamping the horse’s flanks, I still got knocked off.

"Could it be that without stirrups, I need to consider other ways of generating force?"

Zhao Haiping was sure that the reason he fell from his horse was due to the direct collision of the two charging warhorses at the moment he crossed the enemy general, the enormous force transferred in a flash.

And at that time, Zhao Haiping was holding the lance with both hands, and despite using his legs to clamp the horse’s belly, he still fell off due to an incorrect posture.

After all, counting on the friction of clamping the horse’s belly with one’s legs to combat the several times heavier impact force was somewhat too fantastical.

"One hand continues to hold the reins while the other launches an attack?

"It seems possible, but then the choice of weapon for one-handed combat becomes very limited. A saber is more suitable in comparison, but a long weapon like a lance becomes cumbersome to use single-handedly.

"Because long weapons are typically heavy, they are difficult to wield with one hand. If one fails to hit their target, readjusting becomes difficult.

"And using both hands for a lance, without stirrups, means that it’s very easy to lose balance on horseback.

"Dealing with forces from the front and back is manageable, at least I can use my legs to clamp the flanks and distribute some of the force through the saddle; but sideways forces are another matter entirely – there are no points of resistance, and falling off is almost inevitable, no matter how physically exceptional one is.

"This means...

"In this era, the top warriors mostly fought with long weapons in both hands because using long weapons on horseback against shorter ones has too great an advantage in terms of range.

"But it’s only when facing the enemy head-on could one briefly use long weapons in both hands to fight, and even so, one must constantly be aware of their own posture and method of exerting force, especially guarding against the sides and trying to avoid them.

"Without stirrups, it’s just too hard!

"Wait, if I reverse the thought, everyone is without stirrups and finds it difficult. So if I could attack the enemy from the side, wouldn’t that significantly increase their chances of falling off?

"Without stirrups, it becomes a real test of genuine riding skills."

After reviewing, Zhao Haiping decided to give it another try.

Just as before, he led his deputy generals and soldiers charging into the enemy ranks, confronting them head-on.

An enemy commander charged over once again, but this time Zhao Haiping was cautious, not charging straight with his lance with both hands as he had before. Instead, he delayed slightly before thrusting, stabbing at an angle.

Sure enough, the force transferred to him was much less this time around. With his mental preparation, he wasn’t immediately shaken off his horse by the reaction force.

But the drawback of being slower to strike was that the opponent’s long spear also hit him.

In the instant the two horses crossed paths, both men stabbed each other, and both fell off their horses simultaneously.

"Damn!"

Zhao Haiping felt helpless.

Seeing another impending embarrassingly clumsy encounter on foot, Zhao Haiping didn’t bother to exhaust himself further and simply drew his Ring-Headed Blade to end his own life.

A time saver.

This time, Zhao Haiping didn’t blindly restart the trial; instead, he first exited the game, preparing to do some research.

He focused on two aspects: firstly, during eras without stirrups, what were the prevalent combat strategies for cavalry; secondly, to confirm which battle of General Qin Kaiyun he was indeed experiencing and to see if there were any specific details recorded in historical texts.

After briefly quitting the game, Zhao Haiping turned on his computer and began searching for relevant information.

Ever since he started playing "Dark Sand," Zhao Haiping found that his frequency of researching had significantly increased, and his knowledge of history had gradually grown.

He had to admit it was a positive sign.

Soon, Zhao Haiping found some related records.

"Hmm... Without stirrups, the combat methods of cavalry have never had a very definitive answer; after all, it’s been too long ago, and we can only infer based on some ancient historical documents and unearthed cultural relics.

"In modern times, when people are accustomed to stirrups, riding without them has become quite a rare skill. It’s said that a TV crew wanted to shoot a large-scale scene featuring a cavalry troop without stirrups, but after trying for a long time, they couldn’t complete it because they simply couldn’t find enough actors skilled in riding a horse without stirrups.

"That is to say, the appearance of stirrups indeed greatly reduced the training cost of cavalry, and also allowed cavalry to perform more tactical maneuvers on horseback.

"However, to say that it was impossible to ride a horse without stirrups would be an exaggeration. Because many unearthed artifacts and murals show that, in eras without stirrups, cavalry could indeed fight on horseback.

"There is a school of thought that believes in the era without stirrups, cavalry had to dismount for combat, or could only use ranged weapons like spears and crossbows while on horseback, which is obviously incorrect.

"So, let’s look at the main attack postures of the stirrup-less era next."

Zhao Haiping continued his research and found that there were not many records within the country, but there was more information available from Western sources.

Both at home and abroad, spears were the most commonly used weapons by cavalry.

That was normal, as the nature of the spear determined that it was the easiest and most efficient killing weapon to use, whether on foot or on horseback.

"There are basically three ways to hold a spear: the regular grip, the reverse grip, and the couched charge.

"The couched charge is a technique developed later with the highest impact force, but it is mostly an attempt made in the era with stirrups. Because when two cavalry charge at high speed towards each other, if the rider doesn’t let go, then the rider and the spear will bear the force as one entity. Even cars need seat belts to secure a driver’s body, and on horseback without stirrups to withstand such a force, merely gripping the horse with leg friction is definitely insufficient, and they would inevitably be dismounted...

"And my first unexplained fall from the horse was because both the lance and I bore the impact force of the two horses colliding, which caused me to fall off the horse along with the enemy general...

"So, the common attack methods are the regular and reverse grips. The regular grip is used to thrust at cavalry, while the reverse grip is used to thrust at infantry, especially the downward thrust is thought to be the most common attack method in the stirrup-less era because it is the most stable and less likely to cause problems.

"Of course, one cannot rule out the possibility that some famous generals with exceptional talents were able to maintain their balance on horseback without stirrups and use both hands to perform various difficult maneuvers, but that’s not something I should be dreaming about now..."

After flipping through the information for a while, Zhao Haiping gestured in the air a couple of times.

There was no other way; even with research, the specific combat method still relied largely on his imagination.

After all, there were no battle images left from that era, and even if there might be murals, the content of the murals might have been beautified and processed, not entirely reliable.

Zhao Haiping could only use his experience with the spear in foot combat to imagine the scenario of mounted combat.

After pondering for a long time, Zhao Haiping decided not to obsess over this question anymore because obsessing was pointless; he would have to continue figuring it out in actual combat.

Later, he began to consult historical texts related to this war.

The good news was that Qin Kaiyun, as a famous general of that era, was easy to research; the bad news was, Zhao Haiping had actually heard about this part of history but had not been able to connect the content of the historical texts with the battlefield scene he had seen at first.

Many modified versions of this battle exist, but they were less reliable, and the most trustworthy was only what was written in the original historical texts.

"Yi, ferocious and formidable through generations, accustomed to the array of war, unanimously acclaimed as the enemy of ten thousand... Kaiyun lead his light troops to assault, and before reaching ten miles, Yi panicked and advanced to fight. When Kaiyun saw Yi’s command banner, he spurred his horse straight towards and thrust his spear into the midst of the vast army, beheading him and returning; none of the generals dared to confront, and the encirclement was thus broken."

Here, "Yi" refers to Gao Yi, also a famous general of the time.

Zhao Haiping was silent for a long time before squeezing out a sentence through clenched teeth.

"Game designer, I thank you; you truly hold me in high regard!"