Herald of Steel - 349 Reinventing the Cavalry (Part2)
“My lord, this new bow you invented has proved to be an amazing weapon,” As Alexander was about to show off the weapon, Menes could not help but interject as he continued, “We had our soldiers test it out a few days ago, and the results were fantastic! Just a scant number of soldiers protected by ditches and stakes were able to face off against a much larger number.”
“Yes, especially against cavalry,” Melodias added to his colleague’s claim, detailing what their mock battles produced.
“We saw that if these new bowmen were behind fortification or protected in some other way where they could shoot freely without fear of getting run over, then they were able to deal large casualties to cavalries, and even stop them.”
And Melodias then finished by claiming, “In fact, if we used these new bowmen correctly, we might not even need the armored cavalry.”
Alexander certainly agreed with this analysis as he said, “You may be right. Crossbowmen might be able to deal very effectively with light skirmishers.”
And then gave what he thought the consequence of that, “But to counter that, they might start armoring their horses like we did. So, we will need the heavy cavalry then to fight those off.”
After Alexander said this, he quickly switched to the topic at hand, the crossbow.
“Anyway, now let’s look at this,” He said, as he described the weapon. “I made it so that the weapon can be reloaded by a rider even when sitting down, as opposed to using the stirrup which needed one to stand.”
“And it is this,” Alexander then showed off a curved metal piece with a hangle level attached to two pairs of curved hooks at the front and back which was to draw and span the crossbow’s bowstring,
This was the goat’s foot lever and showing the steel metal piece, Alexander then proceeded to show how it worked.
Alexander pressed the butt of the crossbow to his belly, attached the front pair of hooks to the bowstring, and along the lower pair to two steel pegs jutting out of the sides of the crossbow’s tiller, and pulled the level back to slide the curved rails against two.
This provided a smooth spanning motion for the mechanism, and as the lever was pulled back, the lower hook spun downward using the peg as the center of rotation, pulling the front hook with it. and also the crossbow string attached to it.
“And thus the crossbow is reloaded,” Alexander finished by saying, as he then handed the mechanism to Menes to inspect.
This kind of small crossbow would have about 300 poundage and be relatively lethal at close ranges.
“As expected of the great Pasha. He has thought of everything,” Menes could not help but let out a smile as he inspected the simple but ingenious mechanism.
Menes could see the cavalry carrying this goat’s lever attached to a belt, and quickly reloading the crossbow after each shot.
And because there was no reason to align the arrow with the bow, but rather the bolts were slotted into place, it was much easier and faster.
Menes imagined one could be launched every 3 seconds.
Though it had to be said it was not like this crossbow was some kind of wonder weapon.
For example, one drawback that the crossbow had over a regular bow was that it had to be pointed at an opponent, and it could not be aimed.
Meaning the arrow could only go in a straight line, and not in an arc.
But such problems were not deal-breaking, and the mounted crossbow was determined to be a very potent weapon, able to crush opposing light cavalry.
There was also another type of crossbow that Alexander wanted to develop called the latchet crossbow.
This was a small moderately powerful crossbow with a top trigger and most important an inbuilt cocking lever, which was like embedding the goat’s level into the crossbow.
So they would be fast to reload and could be shot with one-handed, perfect for cavalry.
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Also, such crossbows were much weaker and had poor aim.
Alexander would still produce them, but for now, done making his case for the mounted crossbow, Alexander moved on to the next exhibition, in which he said, “The crossbow will be cavalry ranged weapon. And its melee weapon will be this,” as he bought out the lance.
Alexander then proceeded to describe the weapon “All of you might think this is an over-enlarged spear with. But it’s not.”
“You see a spear is about 2-3 meters long, and can be usually thrown, something similar to a javelin. It is a very versatile weapon and can be used throughout the battle.” He gave the definition.
“But, this stick, this lance is not this a spear. It is over 4 meters long and is too heavy to be thrown. And the most important distinction is that this is often a one-time use weapon!”
This claim garnered some confused murmurs from around Alexander.
The military commanders seemed a bit confused because according to their understanding of the sentence, it appeared that Alexander was saying that this lance would be only used in battle, much like an arrow.
And this naturally raised the following question in their head, ‘What use is a single arrow?’
They thought such a foolish weapon could not possibly exist and thus they were asking themselves to figure out where they had made the mistake, assuming things like perhaps their proficiency in Azhak was not high enough and had misunderstood certain words.
But in fact, the military commanders had not made a mistake, as soon this understanding was reinforced by the following sentence.
“The lance will not be used like a spear, which is used to engage infantry. No, a lance’s main job will be to engage cavalry, or more specifically knock off the enemy riders from their cavalry.” Alexander detailed.
And then proceeded to explain, “And it is for this purpose that a lance is so long, to reach the opponent before their spears can. And that is also why this small circular plate exists.” Alexander pointed to the lance’s lower half, saying, “It is called the vamplate and it prevents the hand from sliding up the shaft upon impact and allows you to hold tightly onto the lance. Because you will need a lot of force to knock someone off a horse and so get a lot of recoil in return.”
Alexander at last finished by saying, “But you see, this large force is most times too much for the wooden shaft, and it snaps easily upon impact with the target. Hence the lance is single use.”
“…..” The military leaders were a bit silent after the function of the lance.
And Menes even managed to cleverly figure out, “Ohh, this is also where the stirrups could come into play. You could use the feet to brace for impact.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Alexander nodded.
Graptos, the main authority in cavalry analyzed the new weapon for a while and then spoke, “The lance is a very good weapon, my lord, I’m impressed,” though his reaction was not as enthusiastic as Alexander had expected.
This was because the former had never seen a knight’s charge and so was unable to visualize using mass, fully armored knights to shatter enemy lines and break entire armies with a single charge.
Because Adhanaia generally had a very strong cavalry culture.
And if he wanted to deal with that
And his legions would not be able to effectively deal with them.
Instead, he saw the new weapons as potent horse killers who would be able to secure grounds from enemy cavalry, which was very important but did not inspire the shock and awe of a middle knight charge as imagined by Alexander.
There was also the consideration of terrain by Grahtos.
Cavalry could not operate in hilly terrains.
Because by their very nature, horses needed flat ground.
And there really was no good workaround, because cavalry needed flat ground like submarines needed water.
So in simple words, you used horses on flat grounds or you didn’t, that’s it.
And thus cavalry charges which did not seem to fit the topography of Zanzan.
So, Grahtos was in fact right in this thought, but Alexander’s aim was not to just take over Zanzan, but other provinces too, and for that a highly effective cavalry was essential.
Adhania was in general a country with a strong cavalry culture and if Alexander wanted to counter that he had to start developing tactics from now.
Because his legions would not be able to fight horses effectively.
“It seems the cavalry then will have to carry a main weapon such as a sword or spear to complement the lance.” Grahtos then added, which got a nod from Alexander.
“Couldn’t we make the armor out of the iron?” As Alexander was about to move on, this was asked by Menes, who reasoned, “That should not break,” And steel is cheap or us. Sometimes cheaper than wood.”
“That would make them weigh too much,” Melodias gave the obvious answer, but was soon countered by Menes with the words, “Make the insides hollow. We don’t need the thing fully solid.”
This was a good suggestion and promoted Alexander to say, “Okay, I will see what can be done.”
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