The soul of the cavalry

Lu Xun, who performed well in Bingzhou, was admitted to the Academy of Staff and became the youngest counselor in the Academy of Staff. So Cao Cao began to be transferred to Liaozhou.

For Sima Yi, he had been forced into a chess game by Liu Xie. If Sima Yi rebelled, Liu Xie would be very disappointed. No matter what, he was a rare talent. In Liu Xie's mind, he did have to lead the Shang army, attack the Anxi Empire and the Kushan Empire, and open up a trade channel with Rome.

During this period, Liu Xie received new news that some merchants in the Western Regions purchased very good war horses from Anxi. Liu Xie initially thought that Arab war horses had begun to enter the Anxi Empire. This was not the case. When Liu Xie saw more than ten horses, it was probably not Arab horses, but Iberian horses of the Roman Empire, because the average height of these horses was about one foot per step, which was converted into a descendant unit of more than one meters and six, while the average height of Arab horses was one meters and four to one meters and five, which was one inch per step.

The prices of these horses are very high. In order to please Liu Xie, merchants from the Western Regions spent a huge amount of money to buy them in the Anxi Empire. Liu Xie asked the chief horse trainer of Xinye Ranch Tian Yan to comment on these ten horses.

Tian Yan observed for more than ten days and presented the review results. Liu Xie found that his review level was not high, so he found it strange and asked: "These horses are so tall, strong and well-proportioned, how can they only get such reviews?"

Tian Yan said: "These horses look beautiful, but they have two weaknesses. First, although the horses are tall and strong, they have their shapes. Compared with purebred Dayuan horses, their endurance is relatively low; second, although these horses are of good quality, they can only be considered medium-sized horses in their clan. As war horses, they are not as heavy as Hequ, and their endurance is not as strong as Dayuan. They are not suitable for raising as stallions. If the emperor likes them, they can be reintroduced. If they are well cultivated, they can improve the use of horses for the Han Rangers."

Liu Xie knew that he was right, so he nodded slightly and said, "Maybe you were right, but which empire is willing to let go of the true best horse breed. Send these horses to Xinye Ranch. Don't introduce them to the Dayuan horse system for the time being to cultivate them. They will be kept independently. I want to see how their descendants are!"

Tian Yan said: "Since the emperor knows the importance of pure-blooded war horses, why not establish a family tree to facilitate the verification of the bloodline of each horse in the future. Just like the Xiaoyumao who sat down by General Zhao Yun, this is a relatively pure-bred Dayuan Liang horse. General Lu Bu also sat down by the Red Rabbit as a stallion, and he also raised six BMWs with the superior pure-bred Dayuan Liang horse. Today, it seems that they are all a few. In a hundred years, these descendants can be thousands."

Liu Xie smiled and said to Chen Qun beside him: "The method he said is indeed good. Remember to write an edict for a long article to decide on the matter and let the ranches in various places choose high-quality horses for registration."

Chen Qun nodded and said, "This matter must be handled as soon as possible!"

After Tian Yan left, Liu Xie ordered the Liangzhou merchants to reward them again and let them go to the Anxu Empire to buy better BMWs.

Liu Xie knew in his heart that the Han Dynasty had Dayuan horses now, and they were not very eager to pursue Arab war horses. The characteristics of Dayuan horses and Arab war horses are similar, and they are both typical of special blood horses. Relatively speaking, the reason why Arab war horses were famous in their descendants was more important because of their own ability to endure hardships and endurance, as well as their very good bloodline preservation, which is inseparable from the contributions of the Bedouin people, especially the birth of purebred horses, which made Arab horses more famous. However, in terms of endurance and physical fitness, they were weaker than the Akha-Takh horses (Dayuan horses in the Han Dynasty), but the tall Turkish horses and the cold-blooded horses in Northern Europe were very important.

The bloodlines of famous horses such as Yuzhi have also been carefully verified. They are relatively rare among Hexi horses. The Red Rabbit Horse is more special. Although the father horse cannot be found, the records of the Dong family are very tall, date-colored horses, which were originally owned by Anxi merchants. The mare is derived from the Western Regions' purebred Dayuan horse. The red lotus sitting on Ma Chao is the same mother. It is certainly not a hybrid of Hexi horses and Hequ horses that Liu Xie guessed in advance. The height of the Red Rabbit should be about 1.6 meters tall, which belongs to the best among Hexi horses. The relatively short Hequ horses cannot have such a tall descendant.

Tian Yan said that the descendants of the ten Hexi best horses, including the red rabbit, jade horse, shiver, vigor, thunder, mysterious jade, floating clouds, silver mane, golden wings, and Ma Chao's red lotus, were focused on the issues that Liu Xie also asked the court horse coach Chang Ji to do it very early, but he had not registered it.

Especially the four Red Rabbit, Jade Bird, Jifeng, Jueying, are determined by more than 20 famous horse trainers from all over the world as the best in Hexi. The best one is the Red Rabbit. It not only maintains the excellent endurance of the Dayuan horse, but also has excellent explosive power. It is a very special Hexi horse.

Liu Xie even suspected that the Red Rabbit was probably descended from the Turkish horse system or Siberian cold-blooded forest horse and thoroughbred Dayuan horse. Otherwise, how could there be such a high physical fitness, almost equivalent to the physical fitness of warm-blooded horse and thoroughbred horse.

Someone once proposed castration, and even Lu Bu had this suggestion, but it was decisively rejected by Liu Xie. According to the descendants of the Red Rabbit, the quality level of each horse is very smooth, and one is even close to the level of the Red Rabbit. It can be inferred that the red Rabbit's bloodline is relatively pure, and it is very likely to be descendants of Dayuan horses and Turkish horses. Dayuan horses are Central Asia hot-blooded horses, and Turkish horses are descendants of the natural fusion of Central Asia hot-blooded horses and Siberian cool-blooded forest horses tens of thousands of years ago. So according to common sense, such a stable bloodline may appear. However, if you want to continue the Red Rabbit's bloodline, you must find the purest Dayuan horses, and this can only be found in the Anxi Empire. At present, the purebred Dayuan horses of the Dahan are not pure in nature. The two retained by the Dong family were also purchased through the Western Regions and Anxi.

Unfortunately, the two were Red Rabbit's mother, and the other one was too old to be Red Rabbit's grandmother. Liu Xie probably Red Rabbit doesn't have this appetite.

If you choose a purebred Dayuan horse, the descendants of the Red Rabbit will continue their endurance characteristics. When choosing a pure Iberian horse, you can maintain the characteristics of a warm-blooded horse, retaining the characteristics of a tall and endurance. Relatively speaking, perhaps the Iberian horses sent this time will be some good choices, so it will be difficult to choose a pure one.

No matter how good a famous horse is, it will never become the main force of cavalry. If you want to truly improve the cavalry's ability, you must work hard on the entire horse breed.

Currently, there are three categories of war horses that are most widely used in the Han army. The first one is Hexi horse. This is the modified war horse that the Han Shandan army relies on the Dayuan horses in the Western Regions (Dayuan, which has lower blood purity than the Dayuan). It is mainly cultivated in Longxi and Tianshui ranchs. It is better than the Shandan army horses, but the figure is longer and well-proportioned. It is not very suitable for heavy cavalry. The main cavalry of the Han Dynasty are rangers between light cavalry and heavy cavalry. If you have good flying ability, you can use a bow, and if you have poor flying ability, you can use a Xiangyang crossbow. The scales used are only arranged in the key points and joints, and thick cowhides are used on the limbs and legs.

This kind of cavalry was developed from the charge cavalry, especially absorbing the advantages of the Western Liang Iron Cavalry. During the charge, they can use crossbows to shoot, or they can quickly change to wide-backed sabres. The representative cavalry teams are Lu Bu's Tiger and Wolf Camp, Tang Zhan's Rotary Camp and Pang De's Eastern Expedition Cavalry.

(There is an episode here that although Cao Cao led the power to conquer the Eastern Army, Xiahou Yuan also obtained his wish to take charge of the Guanxuan cavalry among Jueji's old subordinates, the initial 50,000 cavalry of the Eastern Army was still directly under the jurisdiction of Pang De. This design is like Ma Teng's conquer the Western Army, but the 50,000 surrendered troops in Jizhou were in the hands of Zhang He.)

The unified war horse configuration of the Han Dynasty's Guanxuan cavalry is still a well-proportioned and tall figure, with an average height of more than 6 feet 5 (1.5 meters), excellent endurance and able to endure hardship.

The second is the Hequ horses used by the heavy cavalry represented by Sun Ce Tieyi Camp. The Hequ horses were also pastored in Liangzhou area, mainly provided by the Qiang people. The Hequ horses were smaller than the Hexi horses, but their skeletons were wide and solid, and could withstand more weight. They had a strong explosive power in a short time. After comparing the commander's office, all the war horses of the Iron Elf Camp and several other heavy cavalry camps were changed from Hexi horses to Hequ horses, mainly for the Qiang people from the Nanli tribe and the Wuwei area of ​​Liangzhou. The 50,000 heavy cavalry lost by Zhang Liao in Bingzhou were also used by the Hequ horses.

Finally, there are miscellaneous groups, mainly used in the garrison troops in various places, mostly Mongolian horse systems that have been absorbed from You for a long time. The cavalry of the garrison troops is mainly the so-called light cavalry. This kind of light cavalry is extremely different from the light cavalry of Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms era. Although it was chopped with a knife, it uses light horses belonging to the Guanxuan cavalry, and can only be used to deal with infantry and general rebel tribes. This kind of cavalry should be said to be a relatively useless cavalry.

Although the southern garrison also used some Sichuan horses and Yunnan horses, most of these horse breeds, which are only 1.34 meters, or even less than 1.2 meters, are used by extremely special mountain cavalry, and are mainly used for the transportation of military supplies in the mountains.

The disappearance of Zhang Liao's Zhenbei Army once again reminded Liu Xie that heavy cavalry was impossible to confront the Guanxuan cavalry. After more than ten years of development, the Han cavalry gradually developed into five types in Dingyuan, namely Rangers, Charge Cavalry (traditional heavy cavalry), Guanxuan cavalry, light cavalry, and mountain cavalry.

In Liu Xie's plan, as the Nanli tribe began to raise Hexi horses, the annual transportation volume of Hexi horses will increase and become more popular. It can be fully promoted to the light cavalry in more than ten years, so that the light cavalry will also begin to be equipped with leather armor. After this transformation is completed, the level of the light cavalry will be greatly improved.

The cavalry of the Kung Xuan will mainly rely on the young and strong people from the northern part of the Nanli, Xianbei, Qiang and Wuheng tribes from the north of the Mo. The Rangers are provided by the reserve troops of the Han Dynasty and are also the main camp of the cavalry of the Han Dynasty. The range of mountain cavalry is relatively small, only in the Nanling, the Wuyi Mountains, and the Jiao and Tai prefectures. The development of this cavalry is even more difficult. Although the role is very good, only the Nanshan tribe and the Yue tribe can be competent. They can shuttle through mountains and hills and also restrain the mountain army, but the difficulty of development makes him the last of the five major cavalry divisions in the Han Dynasty.

What is really difficult to improve is the charge cavalry. The development of Chinese war horses was a peak in the Han Dynasty. The average height of war horses in the history of the Han Dynasty was ten centimeters higher than that of the Song Dynasty. The average height of war horses in the Song Dynasty was only about one meter three, which was simply a shame for the Chinese cavalry regiment. Liu Xie often did not understand the difference between the cavalry of the Song Dynasty and the donkey. A group of men over 1 meter six in height riding a 1 meter three horse was very satirical.

Although the height of a horse does not mean excellent, the cavalry of the Song Dynasty were all heavy cavalry. According to common sense, cold-blooded horses or warm-blooded horses should be used. In fact, the horses used in the passionate horses could not keep up with the small sizes. Even the horses used by the Mongolian cavalry at that time were five to ten centimeters taller than the war horses of the Song Dynasty.

Liu Xie couldn't help but sigh that it was not a soldier riding on a horse that could be called a cavalry.

Liu Xie realized that the five types of cavalry of the Han Dynasty should have reached a peak in history. If you want to improve the quality of cavalry, you must first solve the quality of war horses. Although the Hequ horse is good, it is too far from the requirements of heavy cavalry. If you want to improve it, you must select suitable cold-blooded horses for improvement. The easier to obtain are the Turkish horses of the Rest Empire and the Iberian horses of the Roman Empire. However, they are not cold-blooded horses, but naturally formed warm-blooded horses. In terms of horse breeding, perhaps taller Turkish horses are more suitable.

Arab war horses are an excellent breed in the central and southern branches of Central Asian hot-blooded horses. The best way to improve the cavalry of Guanxuan is to use the Dayuan purebred good horses on the basis of Arab horses to improve their bloodline. Since they all belong to Central Asian hot-blooded horses, their descendants are the most likely to have good order genetic phenomena. That is to say, as long as they can get Arab horses, they can get a better special horse for Guanxuan cavalry than Hexi horses. But there is no doubt that such war horses are very precious, that is, they can only be used in the four battalions of Yu, Fei, Xuan and Feng in the Eight-Wing Camp of the Imperial Guard.

Or there is no need to improve it at all. The pure-blooded Arab war horse is the best war horse. The decisive factor is that Arab horses are desert hot-blooded horses, which are essentially different from Dayuan horses in terms of hard work.

As the main force of the Han cavalry, what he needs is a war horse between Arabian horses, Dayuan horses and Iberian horses. Unlike the charge cavalry who chooses to use horses, he pays more attention to endurance, while the charge cavalry needs to pay attention to load-bearing, but it is unified in one thing, that is, tall.

After careful consideration, Liu Xie finally decided that the main force of the Han cavalry, the Rangers, needed the war horses that the Dayuan horses were based on the bloodline and the best Iberian horses were war horses with improved bloodline.

A large number of light cavalry will transition from the Mongolian horse system to the Hexi horse system, and the charge cavalry will develop from the Hequ horse to the Turkish horse and Dayuan horse breeding strains. The average height of the horse must exceed six feet and six, which is the degree of a good warm-blooded horse.

Considering the number of cavalry of Guanxuan, except for the horses used by the imperial guards, the rest are still mainly Hexi horses. After all, in terms of the two standards of endurance and hard work, Hexi horses are still very excellent. The most important thing is that the power of the cavalry of Guanxuan does not depend on the horses, but on the quality of people.

Mountain cavalry is a special issue. Considering the need for development in the south, Jiaozhou Zhiluotai will select excellent local varieties and conduct purebred cultivation. A purebred cultivation system will also be established for relatively rare and unique ponies.

In order to achieve this decision, Liu Xie specifically asked the Interior Department to provide the court's chief horse trainer Chang Ji with 8,000 kilograms of gold, 5,000 fine silk, and thirty boxes of high-quality pearls and jade ornaments to him and the Western Regions merchant Yan Shan to go to the Silv Empire to select the best Iberian horses and Turkish horses, and asked Ma Teng to provide military protection. He personally wrote a letter delivered by Chang Ji to the then King of Atabanu V of the Silv Empire.

Liu Xie and Chang Ji agreed to a limit of three years. After three years, Liu Xie hoped that Chang Ji could lead three thousand of the best Iberian horses and Turkish horses. In fact, Liu Xie gave Chang Ji enough money to buy 20,000 excellent Hexi war horses.

At this time, the Rest Empire was in chaos. Atabanu V should have lost the ambition to compete with the Han Dynasty. Faced with such wealth, Liu Xie believed that he should be able to get those BMWs.

In order to give war horses a better cultivation environment, Liu Xie issued an edict to cultivate purebred Dayuan horses mainly by the Nanli tribe, and in advance the improved horses with Dayuan horses and Iberian horses as mother blood were called Nanli horses, which are the future Rangers' special horses.

The war horses used by the heavy cavalry will be placed in the Yili Pasture and the Ussuri River Basin. Although the Yili Pasture and the Ussuri River Basin are still in the hands of the Wusun Kingdom and the Yiluo Kingdom, Liu Xie has enough confidence to pacify Wusun and Yiluo within two years and take the two best ranches of the Han Dynasty into his own hands.

The Hexi horse is the most important war horse in the Han Dynasty. Before the new breed appeared, it still had to rely on Hexi horses. Liu Xie also allowed some small nomadic tribes in northern Liaozhou to assume the original responsibilities of Nanli to cultivate Hexi horses for the Han Dynasty. In order to distinguish them from Hequ horses, the official title of Hexi horses was also changed to the Xiliang horses commonly used by ordinary people and herdsmen.

Regarding Hequ horses, Liu Xie agreed with the opinions of Chang Ji and others and promoted them to various places to become local farming horses. Except for Xiping and Longxi counties, which are suitable for cultivating taller Hequ horses due to the cool weather, the rest of the areas are used for farming cultivation, and are focused on promotion in Bingzhou, Yongzhou, Yuzhou, Qingzhou and Liaozhou.
Chapter completed!