Why did the soldiers in the front row in ancient times willingly become "cannon fodder"?

Why should ancient wars be "cannon fodder" at present?

In the era of cold weapons, there were many wars in the world, both at home and abroad. At that time, it was basically hand-to-hand combat. Fighting is bound to kill people, especially in ancient times when medical rescue measures were limited. Even minor injuries may lead to infection and death. Soldiers are human beings, and people are afraid of death. Then the problem is coming. Why did the soldiers who charged in the first row willingly become "cannon fodder" in ancient wars?

Let's look at how wars were fought in ancient times. Take the ancient war in China as an example. Basically, there are two situations: hard battles and encounters. Fighting hard: one side attacks the city and the other side defends the city; An encounter is to line up and attack each other. Let's talk about tough battles first. When attacking a city, the attacker will first use the weapon "Thunderbolt" to smash incendiary bombs and big stones into the city. The attacking troops are divided into: well railings, rushing cars and ladders. Under the cover of the shells of the mine car, the well platform, Mercedes-Benz and the ladder troops moved forward together. The well hole is actually a movable arrow tower, which directly attacks the archers on the wall; The rushing car crashed into the gate; The ladder troops climbed up the wall.

Let's talk about chance encounters. Encounter is a battle between two sides, and the forces are divided into chariot array, fighter array, crossbow array and infantry array. The main function of the chariot array is to impact the other front and lead to chaos; Fighter array is a powerful force, which mainly kills the other infantry array; The crossbow array is mainly used to cover the charge of the infantry array, mainly aimed at the opponent's crossbow array and iron cavalry array. Infantry array is the main elite force, and the final victory or defeat of the battle depends on infantry array.

Whether it is a tough battle or an encounter, infantry plays the biggest role and the cost of casualties is the highest. So why are the frontline soldiers in the infantry willing to be cannon fodder? There are several main reasons for this: First, the soldiers in the front row are most likely to kill more enemies. Under the cover of artillery fire and bows and arrows, the enemy had to avoid the dangers brought by these weapons, which easily led to chaos. Defense is naturally the lowest in chaos, so soldiers in the front row are most likely to kill more enemies. You know, in a military camp, whether you can be promoted or not depends on the number of enemies killed.

Secondly, the commander in the infantry array decides the order in which the soldiers charge. Generally speaking, elite infantry will definitely not bear the brunt of the tough battle. The old, weak and disabled soldiers will take the lead, and then the coach will decide to advance and retreat through war. Therefore, the military commanders in the front infantry array must not be generals. These front-row soldiers also had to become cannon fodder.

Time and time again, the survival rate of soldiers in the front row is actually higher than that of soldiers in the back row. The range of the bow and arrow is limited, about 150 steps, which is farther on the city wall. Archers can only shoot arrows when the whole infantry array is in range. Because the movement of the bow and arrow is parabola, the probability of soldiers being shot in the front row is much lower than that in the back row.

To sum up, the soldiers charged in the front row in the war may not be the real cannon fodder in the war, but most of the soldiers in the front row have better defense equipment, which will also increase their survival probability. Perhaps this is why they are willing to charge ahead!