Why was the combat effectiveness of the Anxi Modao Army in the Tang Dynasty so incredibly strong?

The fame of the Mo Dao Army in Anxi is related to the process of countering the rebellion of the "Anshi Rebellion". In the famous decisive battle at "Xiangji Temple" in the west of Chang'an City, "Mo Dao General" Li Siye performed like a god descending from heaven. Inseparable.

The Mo Dao Army is actually not much different from the "heavy armored infantry" of later generations. They are all infantry wearing heavy armor and holding long-handled weapons. This unit was originally used to hold the front line and counter "heavy armored cavalry" in larger battles.

In the "Southern and Northern Dynasties" before the Tang Dynasty or in the "Two Song Dynasties" after it, there were often scenes of "heavy armored infantry" holding giant axes and hammers to restrain "heavy armored cavalry". Why did Modao Army But their weapons are all long knives?

This is a change due to different war scenes and different objects. Regardless of the nature of the war between the "Southern and Northern Dynasties" or the "Two Song Dynasties", both sides or multiple parties have the basic conditions of agricultural economy. In essence, they are civil wars of agricultural culture. At the same time, they all have the same productivity conditions. , developed almost the same armaments.

The Modao Army became famous precisely in the hundreds of years after the early Tang Dynasty and the "Anshi" chaos. It corresponded to the needs of foreign wars, not internal wars. Because at that time, the productivity conditions between the Tang Dynasty and neighboring countries were very different. Most of the opponents faced by the Tang army had leather armor and no armor.

The place where Anxi is located is too far away from the main grain producing areas of the Tang Dynasty. The two neighboring states of "Yongliang" are already sparsely populated and their output is not enough to meet the needs of Anxi. Under various conditions, the Tang Dynasty on the one hand arranged for immigrants from the mainland to settle in Anxi to solve the food problem; on the other hand, it used a strategy of elite troops to cope with the excessive demand for troops garrisoned in Anxi. In this way, we were surprised to see that given the vast area controlled by the four towns of Anxi, the standing field army directly under the jurisdiction of the Duhufu had only 25,000 people. As the elite among the elite, the Modao Army only had 800 people.

Similar to the status of "heavy infantry", "heavy cavalry" was also not conspicuous in the Tang Dynasty. Although the "Xuanjia Army" led by Li Shimin himself in the early Tang Dynasty was famous as a "heavy cavalry" in many internal wars, after the war targets changed, the significance of large-scale equipment was also lost.

Fanyang, the base of the Anshi rebels, is now the area around Beijing. It was the place where the Tang Dynasty's former civil war rival "Goguryeo" was entrenched. They had a large number of "heavy cavalry". Even if "Goguryeo" disappeared in an instant after the early Tang Dynasty, Fan Yang's army always had a need to equip "heavy cavalry".

Although the overall configuration has been much weaker than before, in the early days of the "Anshi" rebellion, this "heavy cavalry" still achieved great success in the contest between the rebels and the hastily assembled troops from the mainland. Overwhelming results, until the appearance of the Anxi Modao Army.

Li Siye, according to historical data, is over 1.9 meters tall. He has been extremely strong since he was a child. He fights all day long in front of his home and in the "Wuling" area of ????Jingzhao, Chang'an. After being persuaded and given by others, he defected to Anxi to join the army. He joined the army at the right time. It happened to be when the Tang Army was promoting the standard Modao and establishing the Modao Army.

When Li Siye saw Mo Dao, he had no other thoughts, and they formed a lifelong bond. Mo Dao and him were in perfect harmony, as if he was born to wait for the appearance of this weapon. Because of his amazing personal bravery, Li Siye, who received the Modao, was quickly promoted to the commander of the Modao Army, "Mo Dao General". The Mo Dao originally weighed about 6 to 8 kilograms. After several actual battles, Li Siye was very dissatisfied, so he hired a craftsman to create his own, weighted version of the 15 kilogram Mo Dao.

In the battle at "Xiangji Temple" in the west of Chang'an City, Li Siye's personal performance recorded in historical data was extremely amazing. At that time, the Tang army's formation was facing the attack of the rebel "heavy cavalry" and was on the verge of collapse. Li Siye took off his heavy armor, held a long sword, and led 800 soldiers with a desperate attitude, and went upstream in the crowd of defeated soldiers. Pretending to be a cavalryman, history records that he withstood the attack of the rebels and killed dozens of people with his hands in an instant.

Objectively speaking, we cannot regard Li Siye's personal performance as the performance of the Modao Army as a whole. Indeed, "turning the tide before it falls, supporting the building that is about to collapse", "the true qualities of a hero are revealed only when the sea is flowing across the sea", it is the collective credit of the 800 Mo Dao Army that reversed the collapse of the battle with decisive courage and heroism, but we cannot compare Li Siye "Both men and horses are shattered" under the personal bravery, which should be regarded as the overall performance of Modao Army. There is no doubt that Anxi's "heavy infantry" are elite, but it would be unreasonable if the whole group could be like Li Siye "cutting melons and vegetables" when facing the "heavy cavalry".

In any case, the battle of "Xiangji Temple" also provided us with a rare example of a "heavy infantry" confronting a "heavy cavalry" in the context of the Tang Dynasty. It also proves once again that the so-called "heavy cavalry" is invincible in the world is unreliable.