First of all, Caesar had to destroy four Hellenistic empires before he could barely border the Great Han Western Regions. Caesar, however, bullied the Celts all his life and fought the Civil War. During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Rome only destroyed two Hellenistic empires, strictly speaking, only one. Caesar didn't fight Macedonia, Ptolemy only intervened more politically, and Octavian solved it completely by force.
Second, Huo Qubing died too early. Even if Huo Qubing is alive, it is also a pawn used by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to balance Wei Qing. Expedition to Rome is impossible, and the Hellenistic empire of Persia must be destroyed first. Even if he helped the Hellenistic Empire fight Rome, Han had to solve the Xiongnu problem first. The cavalry of Huo Qubing and Wei Qing did not completely defeat the Huns, so the Han army could not feel at ease.
Third, the war between Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Xiongnu was very costly, and even set a precedent of selling officials and nobles to raise funds ... and then went to Rome to fight in vain, simply waiting for the rebellion to cause death.
Fourth, Rome happened to be at war with the Seleucid Empire. In addition, after the rule of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Roman oligarchy collapsed, and Pompeii also seized power with Caesar in the fierce civil war ... After that, the situation in Germany and Britain was tense, and it was even more impossible to fight eastward in the Han Dynasty. Moreover, the British Celtics abused the Roman phalanx for a long time, and the whole Roman legion was destroyed in one battle: the ninth legion. Rome's expenditure in Britain is huge enough, and there are many garrisons. It is impossible to fight the Han Dynasty without thinking.
Based on the above factors, the conclusion is impossible. Fighting costs money at any time.
Even tactically:
Han cavalry attacked the Roman phalanx (because the army of agricultural civilization is used to fighting in the field, not like nomads, who fight and run without fighting)
Strength comparison:
1a。 There are too few ancient books about Han cavalry equipment, which is also caused by the low proportion of military commanders in the author group. However, through the long-distance raids on Xiongnu by Huo Qubing and Wei Qing, it can be inferred that the main force of Han cavalry is not heavy cavalry, but probably light cavalry, because the opponents Xiongnu are light cavalry and archers, and it is useless to equip heavy cavalry in Han Dynasty. In addition, the literature of the Han dynasty said that the stirrup was invented by the Han dynasty, and this should be counted first. However, as the second characteristic of impact cavalry, it has Gao Qiao saddle unearthed earlier, namely Gao Qiao saddle in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which paved the way for the development of heavy cavalry in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, online analysis also said that there were heavy cavalry in the Western Han Dynasty, but in fact, that kind of heavy cavalry had no impact ability.
1b。 The main force is the Roman heavy infantry regiment, and the cavalry is a minority, mainly responsible for investigation and command. After Marius reform and some military improvements by Caesar. Roman phalanx and tortoise phalanx are fully armored, with coordinated command and strong combat capability. At the same time, there are other formations in Rome, such as the three-line formation against Celtic (the third column includes Greek heavy infantry, which was unified after Marius' reform and the three-line formation was cancelled), and the concept of reserve team was invented by crassus in the decisive battle with Spartacus. Moreover, it is possible for the Roman legion to be improved into the Alexander legion spear array.
The approximate result of the collision between the two sides:
The combat goal of the light cavalry is to stop the Roman army from advancing, but it cannot attack the Roman tortoise array, because the Han cavalry is a light cavalry. On the contrary, if you are too close to the Roman army, you will be attacked by the Roman infantry javelin (with strong penetration, the spear head is designed to be disposable, so that the enemy cannot use it again ...), which will cause heavy casualties. The only way is to break the Roman phalanx with heavy cavalry. Unfortunately, the Western Han Dynasty did not have the ability to develop heavy cavalry, and it was not until the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties that heavy cavalry equipment began to appear on a large scale. Therefore, under the condition that there was no heavy cavalry technology in the world at that time, the Roman legion did not attach importance to defending heavy cavalry, nor did it equip Alexander's phalanx with spears.
Therefore, in the decisive battle, the Han hussars could not get close to the Roman phalanx and could not stop the advance of the Roman phalanx. Roman phalanx can't catch up with Western Han cavalry if it wants to pursue Han cavalry.
Next, the problem of riding and shooting appeared. Due to the lack of documentary records, we only know that the Western Han Dynasty had high requirements for the riding and shooting of ancient generals in ancient times (but how it was carried out in ancient times is not clear in historical records. After all, after the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, there were also examples of abusing power for personal gain and tearing people apart, which had a great influence and was written into the historical records, but we didn't know about it in the Western Han Dynasty. In fact, the cavalry in the Western Han Dynasty may have learned the customary playing style of the Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples (which is also lacking in the records), and will let the light cavalry shoot the feet and cracks leaked by the Roman phalanx infantry, but they can't get too close, and they don't know if they are accurate in riding and shooting. Moreover, when the Roman phalanx is in danger, it can stop to make full defense, consume the arrows of the Han cavalry, and then dash forward. In this way, the Han cavalry can still delay the advance of the Roman legion by riding and shooting. However, we haven't seen any literature detailing the riding and shooting level of cavalry in the Western Han Dynasty. The archery level of ancient famous soldiers is very common, such as Li Guang shooting tigers, but there are not many records about the overall riding and shooting level of cavalry in the Western Han Dynasty. Because the ancients were not used to recording history in detail from this angle. Therefore, the rare riding and shooting advantages of the Western Han Dynasty to Rome cannot be compared simply because of the lack of information.
The hussars raided the logistics base in Rome.
Very useful, the Roman legion will be very unhappy, which can lead to the Roman army being trapped and killed slowly. In fact, Attila's cavalry is very good at doing this to infantry in agricultural countries.
3. Crossbows and treading crossbows of the Han army
Roman troops also had crossbows. With the same amount of equipment, both sides are shooting at each other. Generally speaking, neither side is dominant. Due to the lack of data records in the Han dynasty, it is difficult to recover the data according to the records, and it is also difficult to obtain the data through experiments. In short, it is difficult to make statistics ... this is caused by the lack of physical records in the ancient Han Dynasty. The Greek crossbows in Rome were recorded in detail with the help of the Greek physical tradition, but they were all the same in ancient times, and there was no unified manufacturing model. The maximum range of the crossbow car is 300 meters, which is quite powerful. With the help of Greek physics, the goal is not bad. When the Romans attacked the city, they liked to build the siege tower, that is, they placed crossbows for bombardment.
The crossbow of the Han army had a great influence on the Roman phalanx, but the crossbow could not stop the advance of the Roman tortoise array. Han crossbow is made of 10 stone crossbow, the strongest of which is 10 stone crossbow, that is, the storage capacity of the whole bow is 300 kg, and the range is not recorded in detail. There are many versions calculated in later generations, but it seems that the 400-meter crossbow is more than 300 meters beyond the deification scope of the Song Dynasty artifact. Isn't the Song Dynasty backward? But there is no doubt that 10 stone crossbow was used by cattle people in Han dynasty, and ordinary soldiers should not use it. However, there is no relevant record to prove that ... this is the advantage of the Romans relying on generals to write war memoirs, while China's traditional history books rely on Zuo Shiji and Right Shiji, paying attention to court politics and ignoring many details. Therefore, we only have the exact record of the crossbow (this thing is not the patent of the Romans, such as the Ptolemy Empire, which was built by Alexander, who likes to engage in scientific research, and also carried out some standardized designs on the crossbow, so the Romans are not responsible for blowing it) and the data obtained after copying the crossbow according to the literature. Both of them have the tradition of Greek physics, and tearing them up is more painful and exaggerated. Moreover, mythbusters also made a video copy of the ancient Greek barrage crossbow, which has a longer range and is more powerful than the restored Zhuge Lian crossbow (there are some remnants of the Chu Dynasty unearthed in archaeology). The Greek crossbow was also a disaster for the Roman legion. Therefore, it can be seen that if the ballista equipped by the Han people is better than that of the Romans, the Romans will still use it. In the end, war is just a state of learning from each other ... it is obvious. Take a closer look at the main equipment of the Roman Empire which was independently developed: the Greek heavy infantry of the third column in the early line formation, the Spanish dagger, the crossbow gun developed by the Greeks, the breastplate of the Greek heavy infantry, and the chain mail invented by the Gauls. (During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the most typical armor of the Roman Legion was not equipped. The earliest speculation was that it was equipped around AD 140. It is not clear whether it is finished. This is the real threat of Rome SPQR to the Han Dynasty.
4. The formation of infantry formation in Han Dynasty: lack of historical evidence. This is a pity that ancient generals seldom wrote history books.
5. Siege warfare
Rome attacked Seoul.
Rome is undoubtedly used to using crossbows. There are no detailed records and reliable data about the crossbow in Han Dynasty. Mohism mentioned it when it was guarding the city, so it was normal to use it in the Han Dynasty. However, there is a lack of records about the urban defense operations of the Han army, and it is not clear whether the Han Dynasty is used to using large crossbows as urban defense equipment. However, the bows, arrows and crossbows of the Han army are far superior to those of Rome, which is related to the operational concept. In addition, the Han dynasty used more compound bows, which was a big disadvantage for the Romans to attack the city in close quarters and would be shot badly, but they were covered by crossbows. However, the ballista of the Han Dynasty didn't know how far it could hit and what its specifications were. Some say it's about 100 meters, others say it's 1.5 kilometers ... but it may be the same as the Roman crossbow, and its range may be similar, but it may be slightly worse than the crossbow, but the Han army will send people to catch the Romans and soon learn to imitate the crossbow. If it is used in the city defense, the crossbow that Rome put on the siege tower has no advantage. Besides, the walls of the Han Dynasty were too thick. Archaeology has proved that the walls of some counties in the Han Dynasty can reach 30-40 meters. Studies have shown that the walls of defensive small and medium-sized towns can be as thick as 20-30 meters. Rome's common equipment in the Mediterranean may be difficult to break the gap, so the purpose of the Roman crossbow is probably to kill the crossbowmen and defenders on the wall as much as possible, not to break the wall.
So Rome had no advantage in attacking the cities of the Han Dynasty. The Han army can rely on the tall and thick Yugoslav capital to eliminate the Roman soldiers consumed by siege as much as possible.
The Han army attacked Rome
The walls of Rome are relatively thin and short. You can search for the remnants of Roman and Yugoslav defense buildings, which is not very shocking. According to records, it seems that the catapult of the Han Dynasty can throw 12 Hanjin in 200 steps. Moreover, in view of the low defense of Rome, the compound bow projectile of Han soldiers may cause a large number of casualties behind the Roman wall. But the Roman crossbow will also cause casualties to the Han army. If the number of Roman legions is enough, at most, it will be a confrontation between the two armies. One more Yugoslav capital in Rome is actually an infantry-to-infantry battle.
6. Infantry to infantry
6a。 Because many formation records in the Han Dynasty are only written records, and the equipment, tactics and combat records are relatively scarce, it is impossible to make the simplest speculation. However, it is estimated that the combat power of both sides is probably not much different. The equipment of the Roman army is not generally good. Some soldiers are still wearing leather armor and holding a broken iron sword. Not all the troops in the Han Dynasty wore real armor and used steel knives. This is incomparable. There's not even an example to compare.
The Han army can use crossbows in large quantities on open terrain, but it is a pity that the Roman army can also use crossbows. Rome has a record of using crossbows on the battlefield. The range of the Han crossbow can't reach the range of the crossbow, because the deification data of the magic pen bow in the Song Dynasty is more than 300 meters. Moreover, it is said that Rome also built a giant crossbow gun, but because of the limitation of bowstring materials, it is not an infinitely huge version. The Roman army can also capture the archers of the Han army to imitate the training, but the archers are easy to train, and the training of compound archers takes time.
Melee may be beneficial to the Roman phalanx, but within 100 meters, the infantry moves slowly, and it is easy for the Han crossbow to pierce several people with one arrow and then break up the formation. In fact, the final melee was hand-to-hand combat with the Han infantry. The use of the first sword in the Han Dynasty and the combination of Roman and Spanish daggers and long shields are not recorded in history, nor can they be compared in martial arts. ...
6b。 The difference between generals
The Romans were a group of tactical experts, commanders and wartime consuls with great authority. Later Marius reform also formed the basis of warlord oligarchy, so for military generals, commanding operations has more advantages, and soldiers are almost all loyal Roman citizens. The Roman generals in the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty happened to be in the period of oligarchy in Rome. Their control over the army was extremely firm, and most of their ministries were loyal to foreign wars. At that time, although the military commanders of the Han Dynasty were not bound by military orders abroad, they all obeyed state affairs. But it is estimated that the senior generals of the Han army are still very clever. As a member led by Li Guang, he finally committed suicide because he was excluded ... This wonderful state of affairs was rare in the era when Rome had the strongest military advantage in the early and middle period. It can be seen from the interpersonal records in the history books that there was a certain factional relationship in the ancient Han army. If you want to fight bravely and make contributions, you have to rely on relationships (such as Wei Qing and Gongsun Ao).
6c。 The level of discipline of soldiers
After a series of reforms in Rome, especially after Mario's reform, soldiers began to obey the generals more and more than the Senate. In fact, there is no Senate when soldiers fight. At the same time, when the Roman Legion was the strongest in the early days, almost all the soldiers were Roman citizens with high loyalty and discipline learned from the Greek phalanx. The level of combat discipline of the Roman army is undoubtedly very high. This is also an important reason why Roman short people defeated many tall tribes of Celtic and Germanic people.
The Roman army has a great sense of honor, and each regiment has its own flag or eagle emblem (some are gold). The punishment for losing the flag or eagle emblem is very heavy, and with civic awareness, Roman soldiers who fight will have strong combat effectiveness.
After the reform in Marius, equipment and training were unified. This is a powerful thing.
At the same time, after Marius' reform, the compulsory military service system was replaced by the conscription system, and the early conscription system was still a highly loyal Roman citizen. It was not until after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the recruitment system was implemented in the Han Dynasty, which undoubtedly led to the predicament that the service time was short and the veterans could not practice medicine.
Most of the border guards in the Western Han Dynasty were ordinary farmers, serving for three years, one year in the capital or the border, one year in the local area, and one year back in the capital or the border. Exactly how to train them is not clear. However, if you don't fight any big battles at ordinary times, you may not be a veteran after three years. The most effective army in the Western Han Dynasty should be the people in the border towns, just like the military households in later generations. These people lived in the forefront of the border crisis all the year round, and fought against the looting troops of the Huns all the year round. Naturally, they also learned riding and shooting, swords and spears, and kung fu, but it is not clear whether they have received government training or not, and the records in historical documents are not very detailed. However, these people should be very strong soldiers in the Han army, and should be the main source of soldiers and a title of generals in ancient times veterans.
As far as military training is concerned, although the history books of the Han Dynasty are very detailed, they are not as detailed as those recorded in the travel notes of Roman generals. Probably officials at all levels in the Han Dynasty were in charge of training when there was no war, and they did not specifically say how to train, nor did they emphasize whether the training was unified or whether each arm had its own training standards. Therefore, we don't know the discipline level, formation mode and training level of the Han army ... this is the tragedy that military commanders write less history. This stems from the unreasonable distinction between civil and military in ancient China. In fact, it is also because the monarch needs to separate civil and military affairs to check and balance, so as not to let the military attache have too much contact with politics and the prime minister have too much contact with military power. On the other hand, the Romans were different. Their two consuls are both political leaders and military leaders, who are both civil and military and have developed well.
6d。 Force establishment and command system
The documents of the Han dynasty only wrote the basic military system, but did not introduce the various establishment and command mechanisms of the Han army in detail.
Generally speaking, in terms of headquarters command, there are many generals, such as generals, generals in title of generals in ancient times, generals in chariots, generals in guards, left and right generals ... It seems that when counting in temples, generals are equivalent to commanders, and other generals obey orders. In fact, the armies of the ministries are still under the control of the generals. In the course of fighting, you can't directly mobilize the generals, or in a bad state, there are senior (title) generals who fight at the orders of the emperor. The number of songs in a movie is uncertain, and if the general's relationship is not hard enough, even with the emperor's orders, he can't get good ammunition, so he can only train and fight by himself, and then be pitted by his colleagues (typical sad example: Li Ling) ... He is compiled into a trilogy system, and there are many songs in a movie, and one song has about 65,438+0,000 people. Song has four generals, who seem to be well managed, but his position is set like running water. Also, the number of troops of a general and a captain is uncertain, and the basic combat units are not obvious. The rank function of generals is confused with the rank function of commanders, and there is no unified command system to govern the generals' troops.
Under this command system, although it is highly centralized, the general's ministries can act according to the general's instructions, but in fact, the general's ministries are acting alone, without too many characteristics of modern military command, and the operational coordination of various departments lacks coordination and communication means, which is also an important reason for the tragedy of flying general Li Guang.
In addition, the subordinate jurisdiction of the generals of various ministries is not obvious, and they are mostly interfered by the temporary authorization of the emperor. In fact, ministries will be selfish and jealous of talented and capable people, which is the most fundamental reason for Li Ling's tragedy. No matter what future generations say, Li Ling's command level is still very high, otherwise the Huns would not desperately want to accept him. Unfortunately, although Li Ling is a kind of guards who ride a surname, other generals don't dump him, so that subordinates can perfunctory the emperor's temporary authorization to Li Ling. It can be seen that the military system of the Western Han Dynasty was decentralized, and there was no supreme military commander to control the intrigue between factions. The generals of various ministries are arrogant and unruly, and there is no sense of obedience between superiors and subordinates. As a result, Li Ling was trapped, and only 5,000 troops fought alone, acting alone, and no one came to the rescue. Finally, the diplomatic work of the imperial court was scattered, and the military in the Western Han Dynasty could not even provide the general information of Li Ling's combat experience. The enemy waited for an opportunity to vilify Li Ling, and Hanwu was moody and almost fatuous in his later years (even the prince was killed by traitors), and finally the Li Ling family was ruined. It can be seen that the basic unit of military action in the Han Dynasty is uncertain, which is roughly a number of troops led by a general (thousand-10000). Without the coordination of multi-level command, many departments are fighting on their own. The commander-in-chief only had the temporary authorization of the emperor, and he could barely mobilize all the ministries to participate in a total war in wartime. Moreover, the generals of various ministries are quite selfish, and the normal generals (Li Guang and Li Ling) who only fight without paying attention to interpersonal relationships are excluded. ...
In the aspect of Roman military system, after Marius reform and some military improvements by Caesar, the number of soldiers was expanded to all willing Roman citizens, and the number was strengthened; The extension of military service time is conducive to training veterans; The organizational system and equipment are unified, and the number of legions is increasing. The legion began to form and grow, and the legion became the main force, and the arms provided by other allies (with relatively low loyalty) were auxiliary forces; Engineers, artillery and mechanical equipment began to join. Most importantly, during the Roman War (regardless of the three military oligarchs for the time being), the consul had the highest military command and was also the highest chief executive, and the legions were strictly dispatched by the consul. A legion is the basic combat unit, and its number is relatively clear. After the reform in Marius, the number is at least 6,000. It is equivalent to the number of people brought out by a general in the Han army, that is, thousands of people (in contrast, the strength of the Han dynasty was not institutionalized and the number was unstable). Centurion is a grass-roots officer of the Roman legion, with a detailed division of labor and a clear name, which is different from other brigades (in contrast, the name of the Han army is like a running account, and the setting of grass-roots officers does not emphasize the actual command intention).
Different from the tragedy in Liling, Li Guang, the command of the Roman Legion is coordinated and unified. It is customary for the most experienced veterans to make meritorious deeds in front of the enemy and lead the battlefield victory, instead of helping their friends to make meritorious deeds and keep Li Guang away, as Wei Qing did. However, some people say that he shouldn't carry the pot, but that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deliberately asked Wei Qing to do so in consideration of Li Guang's advanced age ... Who knows?
After the Roman Legion changed to a three-line array, there was only one main arm: the Legion. All the equipment of the soldiers in the regiment is unified, which makes unified training possible. In this way, at all organizational levels, in the state that the ancient army as a whole was very lax, it was relatively easy to achieve multi-legion cooperative operations. Secondly, before the formation of the military oligarchy, all the legions were under the overall command of the consul, because the consul himself was the chief executive.
Compared with the two, the establishment and command system of the Han Dynasty had obvious disadvantages, because the Han Dynasty inherited the feudal centralized system of the Qin Dynasty, and the emperor was afraid of the self-respect of the supreme military commander, which actually hindered the coordination and centralized development trend of the military command system. This is also the fundamental obstacle for China's ancient army to move towards the modern army in Ming and Qing Dynasties. In order to grab the merits, various factions tear at each other, which is obviously unfavorable to the war situation. However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty may have neglected it politically, which led to the tragedies of Li Guang and Li Ling. Because in combat units, except for the battle of the national army, there is a certain amount of temple command, and all other operations are task forces and temporary.
In contrast, the Roman army has a strict command system, the consul himself is the chief executive, and all levels of troops are under its unified command, with strict discipline and clear organizational structure. At the same time, they emphasize the combat effectiveness of veterans in their functions, unlike the ministries of the Han Dynasty, which seriously undermine each other and use selfish people. Therefore, the Roman legion ordered access, and the legions worked together, and the number of personnel was stable and orderly. These are the places where the Roman army is far superior to the Han army in command system and establishment. Examples of the shortcomings of the military command system and institutions in the Han Dynasty are the death of veteran Li Guangzhi and the tragedy of the brave Li Ling. However, the establishment of Roman army and its command system were beneficial to the formation of warlords, and Marius' reform laid the foundation for the formation of three oligarchs, Caesar, crassus and Pompeii. Finally, Rome fell into a continuous civil war, and Caesar reunified Rome through the civil war, laying the foundation of the imperial system.