I want to be emperor

Chapter 497 Jeju Raising Horses
As for why the armor used by cavalry is only light half body armor, there is no full body armor or even standard half body armor.

That's because the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire were never equipped with heavy armor. They used to use light half-body armor like musketeers before... Not to mention the cavalry of the Great Chu Empire. Neither is heavy armor.

Because there are no heavy cavalry in the traditional sense on the eastern battlefield today, they are basically all oriental classical light cavalry, including the famous so-called Liaodong iron cavalry, Guanning iron cavalry, and Eastern captive Mongolian cavalry, as well as the Chu army. A large number of recruited cavalry are typical oriental classical cavalry, with cavalry and shooting and fighting in scattered formations as the main combat methods.

In addition, the Chu army has developed some new styles on its own, cavalry, but they are all light cavalry.

Why only light cavalry?There is no special reason, it's just that there is a lack of tall horses suitable for heavy cavalry!

In recent years, in order to offset the cavalry advantage of the enemy in the north, the Chu army has considered many new cavalry.

For example, the main combat weapon is the sudden-fire gun, and the dragoons who maneuver on horseback and dismount and fight on foot;

The saber is used as the main combat weapon, and the pistol is used as the auxiliary weapon. The hussars who mainly fight in dense formations and assaults, well, this kind of cavalry was pistol cavalry before, but because the pistol was too good when it was the main weapon. Too bad, the top army has reorganized all the pistol cavalry into hussars, with sabers as the main weapon, and pistols are only auxiliary.

In addition, they also tried to train a group of light cavalry with cavalry spears as their main combat weapons.

The cavalry developed by the Chu army by themselves paid more attention to dense formations, and they also achieved some results on the battlefield.

However, because these new cavalry are all new products, many tactical applications are immature, and the soldiers are not trained enough. The overall number is relatively small and it is difficult to take advantage of collective combat, so they have not yet shown a particularly large advantage on the battlefield. .

On the contrary, sometimes they are beaten by the enemy's elite cavalry and archery cavalry in small-scale battles...

I have to say, this is a very sad thing.

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The various cavalry in the Chu army are all light cavalry without exception, and the armor they wear is light armor, or simply leather armor or even no armor.

You have to know that some of the cavalry units of the Chu army fighting in the south are still using southwest horses with a shoulder height of about 1.1 meters... If there is a cavalry with a tall horse and a big horse, the horse will not be able to stand without armor Get up, let alone put on a heavy armor.

Moreover, if the cavalry is very tall, their feet can directly touch the ground when they ride up... At that time, charging on horseback will not be running on four legs, but running on six legs!

It sounds ridiculous...but it's reality!
The Great Chu Empire Army also wants to get taller and better war horses, and then get a group of heavy cavalry in heavy armor. Whether it is possible to fight is another matter, but at least it looks very powerful, isn't it...

But there is no suitable war horse!

Not to mention the excellent horse breeds such as Arabian horses, even Mongolian horses are lacking...

Although the Great Chu Empire has tried to obtain a large number of horses from the Western Regions and even more western regions through the Northwest Region, don't expect to get much in the short term. At this stage, Mongolian horses are still the main ones.

This also means that the Great Chu Empire Army will actually only be able to use light cavalry for a long time to come.

As for the armor used by the light cavalry, the army attaches great importance to it. Several cavalry generals in the high-level army hope that through this new type of plate armor, they can improve their ability to use bows, arrows, and swords as much as possible while ensuring that their own cavalry is light. The protection ability of cold weapons such as spears.

However, the use of better light armor is only a compromise method. The most important thing is to obtain a large number of excellent horses.

Regarding this issue, Luo Zhixue specially called the cavalry director and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for a rare civil and military meeting in October of the fifth year of Chengshun.

The meeting was dedicated to discussing how to solve the problem of high-quality war horses. After some meetings, a number of horse management decisions were finalized.

These include increasing the funding for the Damaying Army Horse Farm, and striving to build a large-scale comprehensive war horse breeding base in the northwest region.

In addition to the Damaying military horse farm, relying on the relatively rich horse management resources in Gansu and Shaanxi, expanded or restored, and rebuilt multiple military horse farms, and planned to use Shaanxi and Gansu as important breeding places for military horses.

Expand the scale of Shandong Yidu Military Horse Farm to ensure the supply of military horses in North China and Central China.

At the same time, in the provinces, choosing a place suitable for raising horses to build more military horse farms does not necessarily have to be large in scale, but there must be more or less.

In addition, Luo Zhixue personally assigned the task to the horse administration agency, requiring them to introduce and breed excellent horse breeds from various places in the Western Regions, and try to use Arabian horses, horses from Central Asia in the Western Regions and other places for crossbreeding, and try to breed them. Better and better war horses that are more suitable for the needs of the country.

This horse administration meeting aims to solve the problem of the army's lack of military horses, especially the lack of high-quality war horses.

At present, there are very few external sources of horses in the Great Chu Empire. This is because Dongyao has almost completely controlled Eastern Mongolia and has a certain ability to control Western Mongolia. To the hands of the Great Chu Empire.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire adopted a comprehensive blockade of the Jiliao and Xuanda frontlines in order to blockade the people from the East, and directly designated these border areas as military restricted areas, prohibiting the prohibition of civilians, and also prohibiting merchants from trading with the East by sea. people trade.

With the two warring parties' respective blockades, the Great Chu Empire has no way to obtain high-quality horses from the central and eastern regions of Mongolia through obvious channels.

Only some of the Eastern Abductees do not have strong control over Western Mongolia and even the Western Regions further west can obtain war horses, but the current number is too small to meet the huge demand for war horses.

The current source of war horses of the Great Chu Empire is actually similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, mainly relying on its own source of horses.

Don't think that there are no horses in the areas within the Great Wall of China. In fact, there are, but the number is small and the quality is relatively poor.

A large number of horses were raised in the Central Plains. This has to be said in the Yuan Dynasty. When the Mongols went south to the Central Plains, in order to solve the problem of war horses in the Central Plains, they opened horse farms in many places. This process caused a large number of people to lose their land. The family is broken.

By enclosing a large amount of land as pastures to raise horses, the Yuan Dynasty established many large horse farms in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and even in the prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River.

This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was able to have a large number of cavalry troops when he was entrenched along the Yangtze River in the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, there was no shortage of horses in the land of China, especially in Jiangnan and East China.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, like all traditional dynasties in the Central Plains, still attached great importance to horse administration and asked the people to raise a large number of horses. Therefore, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were actually a large number of horses, but the quality was not good.

After all, raising horses among the people is mostly a task assigned by the government. As long as the horses are not dead, the task is considered complete. As for whether the horses raised are tall or not, it doesn't matter.

Later, the horse administration gradually fell into disuse. At its peak, the Ming Dynasty had more than 90 military horse farms, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were only nine left.

The Great Chu Empire has always attached great importance to the issue of horse administration.

Even when they were still nesting in the north of Chu, the Great Chu Empire at that time had already begun to prepare for the establishment of an official horse farm because of the lack of war horses leading to strategic passiveness.

Later, it gradually expanded, fighting all the way north to Jiliao and Xuanda, and westward to Jiayuguan. On the one hand, the Great Chu Empire took over the few remaining military horse farms in the Ming Dynasty, and on the other hand, it prepared to build dozens of military horse farms on its own. .

These military horse farms cover a relatively wide area from south to north. At the same time, they also strongly encourage the people to raise their own horses. The Great Chu Empire did not force the people to raise horses like the traditional dynasty, but raised the purchase price of horses through subsidies. Encourage private horse breeding.

In order to encourage private horse breeding, the Great Chu Empire increased the purchase price, and by the way, it was also to stimulate those who had channels to purchase or smuggle excellent war horses from places such as Western Mongolia and the Western Regions to meet their urgent needs.

The official purchase price of a Mongolian war horse with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters has more than doubled than before. If it is a Central Asian horse or even an Arabian horse from the west, the price is even higher.

In a word, now the Great Chu Empire buys horses from all over the world, and does not hesitate to pay high prices!

Anyway, the Great Chu Empire was rich, and it didn't lack the money to buy horses. What it lacked was a large number of high-quality war horses.

The high price can stimulate a large number of people's enthusiasm for raising horses.

Moreover, there are standards for the official purchase of horses. Only high-quality horses can get better prices. This also encourages the public to raise horses more attentively.

In order to better manage the horse administration, the Great Chu Empire also established relevant institutions long ago.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has a special Animal Husbandry Division, which is responsible for all kinds of mule and horse affairs. It is responsible for all kinds of affairs that encourage private horse breeding and purchase horses.

Under the cavalry director of the military, there is also a racecourse department, which is mainly responsible for the military's own horse farm.

There is no rush to raise horses among the people, and it is difficult for the horses raised by the people to be used as war horses without special training. Therefore, the horses raised by the people are mostly used as draft horses.

The war horses need special castration and training to adapt the war horses to the environment on the battlefield, such as the sound of guns and guns, so the military horse farm is responsible.

Among the current major military horse farms, the one with the largest scale and the greatest potential is the Damaying Caotan in the northwest region. Here, the Chu army established a large-scale military horse farm based on the military horse farms left by the Ming Dynasty, called Dama. Camp horse farm.

The horse administration department of the Great Chu Empire planned to use this natural horse farm to cultivate a large number of war horses.

And they not only breed a large number of Mongolian horses, they also plan to introduce a large number of horses from Central Asia and even other regions from the Western Regions, and prepare to breed better horses.

Because they purchased all kinds of high-quality mares and castrated stallions at a high price, many foreign businessmen in the Western Regions were eager to move when they heard about it.

After all, no one will have trouble with money!

In addition to the Shaanxi-Gansu Army Horse Breeding Farm represented by Dama Ying, the Great Chu Empire also plans to focus on the development of Shandong Yidu Horse Farm. This place is also very suitable for raising horses, and it is in the Central Plains itself, and the distance is also close.

When the army was vigorously engaged in horse administration, the people from the navy interrupted and said: If you want to raise horses in the army, you can go to Jeju!

(End of this chapter)