sweeping the world

Chapter 717
In the historical classics, you can actually find many military parade records of the Central Plains Dynasty, but their military parade is not for soldiers to form a square formation and step forward, but is generally carried out in the form of hunting.

What Cui Zong shouted was "parade", not "military parade", so what was held in Palace Square was not a military parade at all, but a necessary "going through the motions".

This kind of "going through the motions" is definitely not Liu Yan's original creation, nor did it start in the Han Dynasty today.

According to records, as early as the Shang Dynasty, there was a similar scene, and the army would be laid down during the sacrifice, that is, after a certain war was won, the Shang Dynasty would let the meritorious troops appear on the stage during the sacrifice ceremony of the Shang Dynasty.

The Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang Dynasty, and some traditions of the Shang Dynasty were carried on. When the princes entered the "Dynasty" to participate in certain activities, the Zhou royal family would also arrange "parades" to show their strength.

In the middle and late Zhou Dynasty, especially in the Warring States Period, both the "parade" and "military parade" stopped for a while. It means that the Zhou royal family did not have strong troops at all, and it was shameful not to show it.Furthermore, the various warring states are engaged in wars almost every year, and there is no need to use the form of military parades to deter and deter them, but to directly pull out troops to fight with other countries.

"Of course!" Ran Min grinned and said, "Soldiers are not actors. The reason why the army exists is to fight."

The troops conducting the "parade" were still a bit far away, so the spectators could chat casually, and inevitably they would talk about the affairs of previous dynasties.

"A military parade?" Xu Zheng thought about it carefully, and said with certainty: "Naturally, the elite need to be inspected from time to time."

It is a review, not a military parade. It is a kind of supervision and training for orders and prohibitions. It also shows that the army has always relied on obedience to orders, not just whether an individual can fight.

In fact, the "military parade" and "parade" have not happened for a long time since the Zhou Dynasty.Similar things reappeared in the Western Han Dynasty. Even though the Han Empire continued to have conflicts with the northern nomads, it generally maintained relatively low-intensity local conflicts. Then the central government had the need to frighten local princes and kings, and from time to time We need to bring out elite troops to demonstrate this, so as to tell the princes and kings: I have such an army that enforces orders and prohibitions, so don't have any bad intentions.

"The Han Dynasty is not the ancestor of the Han Dynasty. The Han Dynasty has always been engaged in war." Ran Min said a little unabashedly: "Then again... the king does not have a Queen Mother Dou."

The colleagues around looked at Ran Min strangely, most of them didn't understand how such a person could still live a good life, it seemed that he was still alive and well?

"Indeed." Xie An said with certainty: "Emperor Xiaowu of the Han Dynasty should have conducted the most military parades."

Except for Xie An, no one wanted to talk to Ran Min.There is no such thing as being convicted of words in the Han Dynasty, but it is really not good to die like that.

The person who likes the military parade the most in history is Liu Che. During the period of suppression by the Queen Mother Dou, he couldn't really pull out the troops to fight with those who wanted to fight.According to relevant records, during the suppression period of the Empress Dowager Dou, he had to perform military exercises in Shanglinyuan almost every three days. At the beginning, he shouted slogans and the like, and then gradually turned into hunting, which really made him use this method A strong army was trained.The backbone of the bloody battle between the Han army and the Xiongnu is basically the group of warriors he trained in Shanglinyuan.

After Liu Che started the war with the Xiongnu, "parades" and "military parades" basically disappeared in the Central Plains. Not only did they not happen again during Liu Che's reign, but also the subsequent emperors of the Han Empire did not do them again. The reason was that Confucianism strongly opposed it. do something similar.

In fact, the real reason is that the Han army has been too strong (and really strong) since Liu Che, and the literati, including the Confucianists, are somewhat unable to hold their heads up. It is not possible to do similar things. It can be regarded as a class struggle between literati and warriors.

Since the Han Dynasty, except for the large-scale military parades that occurred many times during the founding period of each dynasty, the second generation of heirs basically did not appear again after they ascended the throne.

In the Song Dynasty, the military parade simply became an acrobatic performance. The so-called 80 forbidden troops, there were not many who could go to the battlefield to make a film.

Later, during the Yongle period, there was a large-scale military parade, which was in response to the king of a powerful country in Central Asia saying that he would complete Kublai Khan’s great cause again, but the king died of illness in the middle of the march. up.

As for "My Great Qing Dynasty" and the like, it is actually quite interesting, but it is basically purely a performance.

In peacetime, military drills and military parades are actually quite necessary. They are a direct and effective way to boost the morale of the army, and can also increase national pride.If some countries come to a war from time to time, the battlefield is the best parade ground. As a result, countries with real wars tend to be more entertaining during military parades, turning into a relaxing float parade.

The reason why military generals attach great importance to military exercises and military parades is that they regard similar behaviors as a way to train their troops, especially as they can remind their troops to maintain discipline at all times.

"All standing armies can be regarded as meritorious troops, right?"

"nature."

"It's just that there is no way to walk neatly like the Praetorian Guard."

"..."

That's something that can't be said at all. The Imperial Guards are "mass-produced" troops. In addition to the random appearance, the height of a unit is fixed, and they can be completely uniform when they walk in formation. People nowadays know what a robot is, and they will definitely shout that sentence.

The thirteen standing armies of Han were established in different dates.The standing armies ranked in the top five are basically the troops who followed Liu Yan from Qingzhou and went through the entire battle of revenge against the Jie clan.Among the troops ranked outside the top five, the sixth to tenth were formed in the later stages of the battle against the Jie clan, and the tenth to No. 13 were simply formed during the Battle of the Grassland and the Battle of Yan.

The thirteen standing armies are indeed meritorious troops. They have held their own prisoner offering ceremonies successively, but in recent years the ceremony of presenting prisoners to the king has been held less.

Today there will be a prisoner dedication ceremony, which is a tribute to the king for the prisoners of war captured by the Gupta Dynasty.

"The navy... is independent from the thirteen standing armies!"

"Is not it?"

"Ah San's prisoners of war are the results of the Seventh and Ninth Standing Armies and the Navy."

There are thirteen standing armies in the Han Dynasty. The Huben Army is equipped with heavy cavalry. The Habayashi Army is a comprehensive cavalry army. There are also the first, second and fourth cavalry armies. The remaining third and fifth to No.11 are all infantry. military.

In addition to the thirteen standing armies, Liu Yan also established a firearms handling unit in the seventh year of Yuanshuo, which was assigned to each standing army separately, and the Habayashi Army had the largest number of affiliated firearms units.

The firearms of the Han Dynasty were used most in the battle against Yan, and they were basically not used on a large scale later, but the experiments have not stopped.

In the seventh year of Yuanshuo, Liu Yan ordered the development of a warship capable of carrying bronze cannons. It is currently in the experimental stage and there is no finished warship yet.

The "parade" during the festival was just a formality, not a military exercise or parade in the true sense. Even so, when uniform soldiers marched to the predetermined position in the square, including members of foreign missions and civilians, People, apart from being stunned, were shocked.

"It's very ostentatious, too ostentatious!" Olus Sextus Cicero used two exclamation words in a row: "We also have similar activities in Rome, but the walk is too loose."

Kianoush Arta Ardashir simply had nothing to say, no matter whether it was the Parthian Empire or the Sassanian Dynasty, the Persians basically did not engage in activities such as military exercises, which is lacking in this aspect very.

Compared with the Persians, the Romans liked to engage in similar activities very much. Every time they won a foreign war, they would go to Rome (city) to hold a triumphal ceremony, but there were many elements to display the spoils, and then let the soldiers accept the Roman citizens. There will be flowers and cheers, and there will be a ceremony of lining up to enter the city, but as Aulus Sextus Cicero said, it is just a parade, not really a military parade.

Amidst the amazement of those who had never seen a similar scene, the phalanx that had already arrived suddenly sang.

A total of [-] soldiers sang "Shang Ode. Liezu", which was originally a poem used to praise Cheng Tang, but it was also suitable for use in sacrifices. It has no conflict with the worship of ancestors in the Xia civilization. There is a conflict. The Zhou Dynasty would not do that.

When the generals and soldiers of the Han army chanted "Song of Shang. Liezu", their momentum was extremely grand. The first sentence "呀呀父父! You Zhisihu." It is full of the characteristics of respecting ancestors of Zhuxia civilization. The translation is "" Praise the great ancestors! Great auspiciousness brings great blessings." In fact, the whole poem is the process of praising the ancestors and then praying to the ancestors for blessings.

Because of the particularity of "Song of Shang. Liezu", the Han army singing in unison ended with the sentence "Come and feast, and the blessings are boundless", just because the final ending "Gu Yuzhen tasted, soup "Sun Zhijiang" is the exclusive word of Cheng Tang's descendants.

"What are they singing?" Aulus Sextus Cicero asked the translator eagerly. He has already made up his mind that Rome can learn from Han's practice. That's how he looks eager. .

The translator was stupefied, he just understood ordinary Chinese, he really couldn’t understand something too profound!

There are three kinds of "Song" in "The Book of Songs", namely "Song of Shang", "Song of Zhou" and "Song of Lu". "Song of Shang" and "Song of Zhou" both praise the civil and military achievements of the founder of the country. The state of Lu itself is a vassal state, so it is really not qualified to compose any "ode". The question is, are the lords of Lu state the historians of the Zhou royal family, or are they? "Respect the Elder Country", and then there is Confucius who "removed hundreds of poems" when he was "innocent", leaving only what he thought was appropriate, so that the "Book of Songs" that future generations saw was actually incomplete.

As a native of Lu, Confucius would of course leave behind the "Ode to Lu", and then in "Ode to Lu", in addition to the relatively shameless praising Duke Xi's literary and martial arts, it expresses the hope that the State of Lu will restore its status as the elder in the early Zhou Dynasty strong desire.

When it is necessary to chant the "Ode" in the "Book of Songs", basically no rulers of any dynasty will take care of the "Ode to Lu". Instead, the people of Lu will sing "Ode to Lu" behind closed doors from time to time. Especially the Confucian disciples in Ludi did it the longest, because they were really eager to get something.

"It's all iron armor!" Goodhouse's eyes were wide open, and he looked like he was about to drool: "I thought Rome was rich enough, but I didn't expect Seris to be stronger!"

The troops marching to the Miyagi Square did have exquisite metal armor, the difference is that the imperial guards are of the fish scale armor system, while the rest are mainly of the plate armor system.

It's hard to say whether Rome is rich or not, but their army still mostly uses leather armor, and only a very small number of legions are equipped with metal armor.Roman leather armor is a hard-pressed style. It doesn't really require just one layer of leather. It is usually made based on the body shape of the owner. It can be said that the protective power is really not much weaker than metal armor.In terms of metal armor, Roman metal armor is a plate-shaped laminated style, which looks like a skinny shrimp.

The current Germanic people are undoubtedly barbarians. The vast majority of Germanic tribes still use stone tools. Only a few Germanic tribes have metal weapons. That is because they have not mastered the smelting technology at all, and their desire for metal weapons is unlimited. Raised height.

It's really hard to feel anything if you don't listen to the chanting of "The Book of Songs" live, but you can fully experience the atmosphere if you are in it, especially if you feel something in your heart.

Many people present had not heard the poems in the "Book of Songs" for too long, especially on such a solemn occasion, so many people were filled with tears and looked extremely excited.

"It's worth it, it's totally worth it!"

"I thought that there would be no such scene in my life, but it was really worth it!"

Zhang Kang and Sun Fang are the second ones with tears in their eyes. They were both officials of the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They could hear the poems in the "Book of Songs" in private occasions, but the small imperial court of the Eastern Jin Dynasty would not make a big scene even if they were shameless. What to celebrate, you have to recover the Central Plains from the Hulu to have the face to do it.

As long as you are a descendant of Zhu Xia, you must have sympathy for poetry, even if you don’t know a single character, you will have inexplicable feelings when listening to poetry, even if you don’t understand the artistic conception, this is the descendant of Zhu Xia an emotion.

Liu Yan is one of those people who can't understand what the poem means, but it doesn't prevent him from having the emotions of being a descendant of Zhu Xia.People of his generation grew up in a white-skinned culture, and occasionally heard popular songs adapted from ancient poems. As long as they are not difficult to hear, listening to music full of Zhuxia's characteristics will I feel comfortable, and I feel that the lyrics are simply too beautiful.

"Shen'er." Liu Yanman asked Liu Shen seriously: "Do you know what a root is?"

Liu Shen began to learn to read when he was four years old, but he did not have time to learn too advanced knowledge, and he was obviously unable to answer his father's questions.

"The root is to accept the beneficial culture from abroad, and at the same time, don't forget the part that belongs to Zhu Xia." Liu Yan looked at the ignorant Liu Shen, and emphasized word by word: "Once Zhu Xia's culture disappears, Zhu Xia will not have any." Yes. Do remember that!"

(End of this chapter)