stubborn thief

Chapter 474 Two Fronts
At the foot of the Qilian Mountains in the southwest of the high platform, thousands of horses galloped wildly, and more than a dozen horsemen, not wearing armor but only wearing the cashmere armor of the Marshal's Mansion, swam around with long poles, driving the mighty Mongolian horses to Chinese army camp.

This is the second day of Liu Chengzong's Huben camp resting. Under the protection of the Tangqi defense line and Feng Ru and Zhang Tianlin's two battalions, the soldiers of the Huben camp seemed relaxed in a safe atmosphere.

As April approaches, the weather has gradually warmed up. Cavalrymen run past the camp from time to time to chase and play. Usually, a rider is dragging the haystack with a rope to roll up weeds and dust, or it may be throwing cloth balls into the sky. After that, more than ten cavalry teams scrambled to be the first, and shot long arrows at the target with riding and archery skills.

Although the march of more than [-] miles made the soldiers wear dirty and dirty clothes, all of them looked like beggars, but in the rare leisure time, people still enjoyed showing off their skills in the gallop, perhaps swaying left and right, Perhaps hiding in the stirrups.

In fact, yesterday, some people used arrows wrapped in pudunzi to simulate riding against each other, but they were stopped by Liu Shizi after an injured person appeared.

In the confrontational riding and archery training, the distance between the two sides is within ten or even five steps. Even if the arrow shaft is wrapped in cloth, it is still a fracture if it hits the body without armor.

After all, when they went out to march and fight, the soldiers of the Huben Camp were all low-level officers who had made great achievements in battle. The whole battalion could not find a bow with a bow force lighter than ninety catties. With this bow force and distance, even if you took a slingshot, The head can also kill a person.

The slingshots used in the military are not Y-shaped, but bow-shaped bows designed to shoot stone or iron bullets. First, they are used for hunting without damaging the fur;

With the enemy at hand, Liu Chengzong's army stationed at the foot of Qilian Mountain was not all for rest, but because at the westernmost end of the deserted Hexi Corridor, there were far fewer pastures in Suzhou than Liu Shizi imagined.

The land that can be used here is cycled between irrigation and abandonment, and there are not many pastures for horses, which makes it difficult to graze.

The pressure on the luggage was not obvious outside the pass, but when entering Jiayuguan, the shortage of horse food increased sharply, and it became the top priority for Liu Chengzong to worry about.

Bean cakes and wheat bran for horses are not uncommon in Hehuang. They even brought a lot of hay bales made of alfalfa. But if they finish eating these things, their more than 2 war horses will have to lie down, not to mention the pressure on logistics and transportation. Also big.

After all, the Oirat army, which served as the supply troops for the main force earlier, had already gone to Hami, and they were unable to recruit civilian husbands on the spot. The few people in Suzhou were not enough to transport the supplies.

War horses need fine materials for heavy duty, but they need more than just fine materials. No one can afford war horses with only raw materials... This problem is like that people need to eat meat, but they can't just eat meat. Have to eat food.

On the one hand, it is nutritious and comprehensive, on the other hand, the cost is also there.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong's coping strategy was to recruit additional local horses and try to use Mongolian and Tibetan horses to participate in the war.

In fact, the serious war horses of the Marshal Army have never been enough.

Take this expeditionary army with more than 3 war horses and more than 2 pack mules as an example. There are various breeds of more than [-] horses for riding.

The relatively pure ones include Hequ horses in Qinghai, Mongolian horses in Mobei, Guanzhong horses in Shaanxi, Yili horses in Tianshan, and Tibetan horses in Kangningfu; the impure breeds are various mixed breeds of unknown origin.

In addition, there are many soldiers whose mounts are not horses at all, such as the mule infantry, a legacy of the Lion Camp period; and the Bactrian camels from Batur Huitaiji.

Although the breeding of war horses on Longju Island has started long ago, the establishment of a horse farm is a long-term and extremely costly work.

From the construction of the racecourse, the mares were pregnant for eleven months, and the foals grew up in three years. Everything went smoothly and smoothly, and it took at least four years for the first batch of foals to form an army.

The Longju Temple in the Marshal's Mansion was only established in the fifth year of Chongzhen, and now Longju Island is full of little colts, far from ready to join the army.

In terms of military needs, according to reports from Longju Temple and Maying, the horse with the best comprehensive ability in the Marshal Army is the Hequ horse because of its large size, strong load capacity, and good endurance.

The breeding direction of castrated horses at Longju Temple is also in these directions, and they don't pay attention to speed... Apart from escaping on the battlefield, there is almost no need to let the horses let go and run wildly.

The situation of Mongolian horses and Tianshan horses is different from that of Hequ horses. Although Mongolian horses are generally small in size, poor in load capacity, and relatively similar in stamina, their advantages and disadvantages are not from selective breeding, but brought about by the growth environment.

The Mongolian grassland is larger than the whole of Western Europe, and the so-called Mongolian horse is more like a large-scale synonym for a pastoral dog. Under the pastoral dog, the difference between a small dog and a Jingba is no smaller than that of a small dog and a corgi.

In other words, the difference between Mongolian horses and Mongolian horses may be greater than the difference between Mongolian horses and Hequ horses.

The Mongolian foals bred in Longju Temple are generally one to two inches taller at the shoulder than the Mongolian foals of the same age raised in free range. Similarly, they also largely lose the advantage of having a small appetite.

Liu Chengzong is very familiar with war horses. He is very clear about the food intake of horses. Regardless of breed, male or female, there is generally an indicator for the food intake of horses: normal forage mixed with concentrate is [-]% to [-]% of body weight three; if released to only eat grass, it will be three to five times more.

The Mongolian horses raised by grassland herdsmen generally weigh four to five hundred catties. They can eat fifty catties of grass for two hours a day. If they are paired with two to three catties of concentrate, they can only eat ten to fifteen catties of grass a day. Yes, it’s not a big problem to eat less meat if it’s not possible.

Although the ability in all aspects is not very good, it can indeed undertake almost all combat missions.

The Hequ horse was selected as a war horse, with a weight of 750 to 850 jins. It can do everything, and it does a good job in terms of load and endurance. It is the weight here, and it is matched with a ration of five to six jins of concentrate. It is not enough to eat twenty catties a day, and the meat will be lost when marching out of heavy duty.

In Hehuang, Heka, Guide, Bajiao City and even Kangning Mansion, tens of thousands of war horses are released to graze casually, and the horses can eat enough. When they have had enough, they can come back to replenish the concentrate and eat some salt bricks. Well fed, the soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion can charge wantonly on the most powerful horses.

But in places like Suzhou and Gaotai where desertification is very serious, especially when their attack direction is east, this is not the case.

If you are attacking westward, it doesn't matter if you pass through the desert with a radius of [-] miles. You can't resupply here, just go to other places to resupply.

To the east are paddy fields and criss-cross ditches in the Heihe River Basin.

At this time, the Mongolian horses raised by herdsmen have the advantage of saving fodder, which is of great significance.

Liu Chengzong was chasing and shooting with the cavalry outside the camp. As soon as he shot the cloth ball nail thrown by the soldier, he heard the guard beside him shouting: "Commander, the horse is back."

Liu Chengzong, who wiped the sweat from his brow, couldn't help smiling when he saw the Mongolian horses being driven down the mountain by the shepherds with long poles.

Suzhou did not disappoint him. At least these war horses were recruited. Even if the front line battle was delayed for a few days, it could still ensure that the soldiers could push the front line through Shandan.

If you win the Zhangye Oasis, you can easily push the battle line past Shandanwei and reach the narrowest Yongchang Weicheng in the Hexi Corridor, facing the Wuwei Oasis in Liangzhouwei.

At that time, they will no longer have to worry about horse food. The Shandan Army Horse Farm founded by Huo Qubing is a real Chinese time-honored brand. There were [-] horses raised there in the Tang Dynasty. Even at this time, it is still the most suitable for raising horses in Gansu. A place for military horses.

After all, Gansu's geographical environment, in terms of large-scale horse breeding, was considered to be unprecedentedly bad during the Chongzhen period... The west is desert and the east is dry, and in the middle section, war horses can also be raised on a large scale.

Of course, Liu Chengzong smiled, mainly because he saw groups of big heads running freely with bangs tossing, which reminded him of the red flag.

As soon as he sent someone to pick up the horses, he saw a cloud of dust rushing towards the west. It was reported by Tang soldiers from the direction of Suzhou, and an envoy came from outside the pass.

After a few more messages, the cavalry squad from the west came rushing over. Liu Chengzong frowned as he looked at the man on the leading horse.

Because this person was covered in crimson red, with a patch on his chest and a black gauze hat on his head, he looked very familiar.

Although these are the characteristics of imperial court officials above the fourth rank, they are not the appearance of Ming court officials, because the crimson official robes are tied to hug the belly according to the military uniform, and the chest patch is not square but the same as the dragon pattern on the cotton armor. round.

And what is worn on the head is not a black gauze hat, but a trendy item from Tang Dynasty, the Futou.

The iron soft-footed toe worn by this man was designed by Liu Chengzong himself, and the helmets distributed by the Marshal's Mansion to senior civil officials serve as their protection on the battlefield.

It’s not original either. Liu Shizi copied Zhao Gongming from the Taoist painting, but Zhao Gongming wears iron caps with crossed feet, while Liu Chengzong prepared iron caps with soft feet for civil servants.

In addition to soldiers and generals in the Tianshan Expeditionary Army, how many senior civilians can there be?There is only one person wearing this helmet, the main hall of the navy yamen of the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion, the owner of the salted fish shop, and the captain of Huaiyuan, Zhou Riqiang.

But Sunday Qiang should follow his eldest brother to Tianshan Mountain.

Seeing him running over, Liu Chengzong was stunned... Judging by his calm appearance, it doesn't look like something happened to the army in the west.

They didn't know that Zhou Riqiang's heart was surging. Looking at Liu Chengzong who was not far away, Zhou Riqiang's footsteps rushed one step at a time. When he was approaching more than ten steps, he bowed his hands early, and then stepped forward to clasp his fists and said loudly: "Marshal! , Hami, which has been lost by the imperial court for a hundred years, is back!"

"So fast?"

Liu Chengzong blurted out without hesitation that the matter of regaining Hami was far less obsessed in his heart than Sunday's. In other words, for him, it was a matter of course for the Marshal's Mansion to control Hami, and it was not worth getting excited about.

But he really didn't expect his brother's marching speed to be so fast.

Because Liu Chengzong is not ignorant of the Yaerqiang Khanate.

In the year of the Southern Expedition to Kangning, the leader of Turpan in the east of Yarkand sent a tribute team into Juerwan. They were detained as soon as they lost their political participation, and they have not been allowed to go home until now.

Yarkand is a feudal, tribal, and khanate that ruled the oasis.

In this sentence, there are four words in it, each of which means reducing the stability of the regime.

Separation of desert oases means inconvenient transportation between cities; feudalization means strong local tyrants; tribe means low ability to resist risks; khanate means poor centralization ability.

The introduction to Liu Chengzong in the political failure is that there is a khan in the west of Yaerqiang and a khan in the east. Even if it is not a sword-ridden relationship, when the relationship is the closest, it is at best the same as Liu Chengzong and Liu Chengzu.

It is impossible for this kind of relationship to last for more than three generations. Under normal circumstances, the second generation would have to fight.

Jiayuguan is [-] miles away from Hami. He counted his schedule. It is logical that the elder brother should not have reached Hamiwei yet. Why did he even send the news of the recovery of Hami?

Sunday Qiang's face was full of joy, almost beyond words.

He nodded one after another, and said: "Commander, I didn't expect that it would be easy to recover Hamiwei, which has been lost for a hundred years."

As soon as Sunday Qiang said this, the generals and guards standing beside Liu Chengzong had different expressions. Liu Chengzong has not yet claimed the title of king, and none of his subordinates has ever claimed the title of minister. What's more, this kind of thing usually requires martial arts. No one thought that Sunday Qiang It's so natural to be a minister.

They are all warriors, and no one can understand what Hami means to Zhou Riqiang, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty.

In Sunday Qiang's life, as long as he can remember, the country's power has begun to decline, but at the time when he was studying and growing up... Daming was still invincible, and the previous generation had fought all the battles that could be fought in the southeast, northwest, and north.

Sunday Johnson was at the end of that powerful era. According to the ideology of the scholars at that time, Daming was only short of a proof that he was far away from the Han and Tang Dynasties.

Without it, there is no grand unity.

Occupying Hami is far more exciting than occupying Tianshan. It has nothing to do with strategy, resources, wealth, or population. It is completely a feeling of achieving great unification.

To put it bluntly, he felt it was worth it if he could accomplish this thing in his lifetime, even if he only knew that he was dead.

This kind of major event that shines in the annals of history has been accomplished, Zhou Riqiang is not excited about Liu Chengzong at all, and feels very surprised.

Liu Chengzong is different. He was born later than Sunday, let alone Hami, and he doesn’t even have much affection for Tang Dynasty. His affection is in Beijing and Shenyang.

What's more, in Liu Shizi's view, Zhou Riqiang was excited because of this matter, and it can only be said that he is indeed just emotional, and has never considered this matter strategically at all.

Daming's inability to take back Hami was not because Hami was unwilling to join him, nor was it because Daming did not want Hami, nor was it because of how strong Hami's separation force was.

It is because the people who really decided the situation in the outer northwest have always been the nomadic Mongols. In the era when Hami was separated, the north of Hami was occupied by Oara, the south was Qinghai Mongolia, and the west was the Turpan Khanate.

The three brothers are all considered regional powers, and anyone can easily pull out more than ten thousand riders to catch Hami and beat him up, and Hami is [-] miles away from Suzhou, and Gansu itself is a few oasis strongholds on the narrow and long corridor, all relying on Heihe built a bunch of fortresses in order to keep Gansu, which is completely out of reach for Hami.

Hami is located in Pingchuan, with mountains in the north and plains on three sides. The local army is small and weak, and it has no ability to supply the army. It is completely impossible for monks to escape the temple.

After a few years of surrender, he was beaten and occupied, and the Ming army fought back, and after a few years, he was beaten again. Daming had no better way to abandon Hami.

But in Liu Chengzong's case, time has passed and the situation has changed.

Liu Chengzong snorted softly with a smile, and said: "I think back then, Hami was surrounded by Oala in the north, Mongolia in the south, and Turpan in the west. It could be said that there were powerful enemies around.

"But now Oala is me, Mongolia is me, Suzhou is still me." Liu Chengzong shook his head and said: "General Zhou doesn't have to be excited because of this, regaining his homeland is just the right thing to do, why don't you tell me how Turpan will react when Hami falls? , Are we going to fight on two fronts?"

　good afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)