"Your Majesty, how are these war horses?" Zhuang Gong asked from the group of horses on the school field outside the imperial camp.

"Yes, these are not as bad as the horses that were sent last time, but they are not bad!" Zhao Yu walked to the group of horses with his hands behind his back, raised his hand to touch the mane of a horse, patted the horse's buttocks, and then bent down to take a closer look at the horse's legs and said with a smile.

"My subordinates don't understand Soma, and I'm worried about being fooled by the Tartars, after all, we're a bit hard this time!" Zhuang Gong breathed a sigh of relief. This time, according to the little emperor's strategy, he caught the shortcomings of Dehuan and asked for 3,000 horses, he felt that Dehuan would definitely feel that the number was large and he had to bargain, but surprisingly he sent someone early the next morning.

"The number of Soma is profound, in fact, as long as you remember a few of the points, it will not be too bad, as the so-called: four big, three high and two small, double long, two short and one flat, the hooves are strong and the bones are beautiful, the shape is like a crane, the ears are small, the eyes are big, and the chest is wide. As long as the war horse meets these requirements, it can be called a good horse, and the Maxima is just a legend that can be hoped for! Zhao Yu looked at Zhuang Gongcong's bewildered face, knowing that he was puzzled, so he simply said a few words and explained.

Since the main horse breed in ancient China was the Mongolian horse, although other horse breeds were also introduced from the Western Regions. However, due to the strong genetic assimilation ability of Mongolian horses, the introduced Western Regions horse breeds are very easy to be diluted. Therefore, the Mongolian horse was the largest and most widely used in the ancient Chinese army, because it was relatively short, with an average shoulder height of only about four feet, so it could only be selected on this basis.

Generally, if the shoulder height of the war horse is four feet, it has passed the primary selection, and the standard of the high-grade war horse is higher. Although this shoulder height is still not comparable to the tall horses that have been bred and bred for hundreds of years in modern times, it is not short in the current range. Zhao Yu just took a big look and estimated that most of the war horses were taller than four feet, and they could be classified as high-class horses. Of course, in addition to the rigid requirements of shoulder height, there is also a selection mode for the appearance and physique, and the Soma song recipe he just said is actually a summary of the Ming Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty for the selection of high-quality war horses.

Four of them are to have big eyes, big noses, big legs, and big sleeves; The three major ones are high longevity, knee height, and high metacarpal bones; The second is that the ears should be small, and the three bones of the mountain should be small. Among them, the meaning of the double is that the horse's left and right chests are each of the three pulse points, that is, the chest is broad, and the eyes are as big as a bell. The ancients believed that the eyes are big, and the eyes are big, and the heart is big, and the heart is big, which means that the horse is durable; Small ears are best like sharpened and thinned bamboo chips, they think that small horse ears are small liver, liver Ming horses are docile and humane; Therefore, those with large eyes, small ears, broad chest, and long and powerful legs are "good walking" horses with strong durability.

In addition, the double length refers to the long face of the horse, the long neck of the horse, the short waist, and the short joint spine. The hooves are strong that the horse's hooves should be strong, the best is the round hooves, the bones are like cranes, in fact, it is said that the ribs of the horses are more and denser, the ancients believed that the more ribs of the horses, the faster they run, and the "Qi Min Yaoshu" believes that the horses can travel 500 miles a day with 11 ribs, and they can travel thousands of miles a day with 12 ribs, and more than 13 ribs, which is the only one in ten thousand. In Zhao Yuji's commentary, Li Yuanba's mount has no ribs, but a rib plate, of course, this point of view is really a pit, and it is already a violation of the laws of nature, unless it is the product of developmental deformity.

"Your Majesty, this batch of horses should be distributed to his subordinates!" The deputy brigade commander of the Guards Brigade and the commander of the second regiment who was accompanying him*** said with a smile after listening to the little emperor.

"Hu Tongzhi, you are already everyone with horses, what do you want horses to do?" Tan Fei asked with a smile. The task of the Guards Brigade was to protect the perimeter of the palace and the safety of travel, and the Guards Regiment sent by the Emperor was to serve as the guards of the Imperial Camp. Although the soldiers of the Guards Brigade have been trained in infantry, cavalry, and even water warfare, because of the lack of horses, only one cavalry battalion is formed in each regiment, but there is a risk in fighting.

"Commander Tan said this, and the Sprinkle family really doesn't like to hear it." Twisted his face and said, "Your guard camp is still equipped with two horses, but didn't Your Majesty still allocate all the hundred good horses sent last time to the guard camp, everyone is the people around Your Majesty, and you can't be the sole leader of Tan Commander!" ”

"It's, it's, it can't all belong to your guard camp!" At this time, Tian Zhong, the commander of the first brigade of the Guardian Army, also stepped forward and said.

"Tian Dutong, don't follow and make trouble, the lower officials beg you!" Of course, he knew that he would not speak for himself for no reason, but would share a spoonful of soup from it, and said to him with a wry smile.

"Hu Tongzhi is really cautious, can you serve three thousand horses? I only need a thousand horses, and I can help you share your worries! Tian Zhong stroked his beard and said with a smile.

"Ahem......"

"Your Majesty, your subordinates will listen to Your Majesty's orders!" When several people heard the emperor's light cough, they immediately realized that His Majesty was still on the side, so they fought on their own.

"Three thousand war horses, two thousand guards of the Guards, and one thousand horses of the first brigade are all taken care of by me, if you lose fat, I will cut your flesh to make up for it!" Seeing this, Zhao Yu rolled his eyes and said.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" After hearing the great joy, he is now a horse for everyone, and with two thousand horses, he has basically achieved the level of one person and two horses, and he is about to catch up with the configuration of the guard battalion.

"Your Majesty, there are 10,000 people in a brigade, and only 1,000 horses are given, this is too partial!" Tian Zhong listened to it, but he was sad and practiced hard.

"Don't be a fool, in the previous counterattack, more than 10,000 horses were captured, and the first brigade was divided into 2,000 horses, and you concentrated them all in the three regiments. Plus this time a thousand horses, enough to form a lancer regiment! Zhao Yu unceremoniously revealed the old truth.

"Your Majesty, but we are only enough to ride alone, and our mobility is still inferior to theirs, how can we keep up with Your Majesty's marching speed!" Tian Zhong still pleaded.

"Take care of the horses first, and then say, these horses are mostly from Tatar Henan and Shandong, and the feed they eat is still different from our horses, so we must take care of them, and step up training, not requiring everyone to be able to charge into battle, but also not to have horses that can't ride!" Zhao Yu ignored it, but told again. But I still didn't feel at ease, and asked in detail one by one.

It's not that Zhao Hao has nothing to worry about, it is useful for him to concentrate his war horses in front of the imperial guard, but he doesn't want to run away one by one at a critical moment. As the saying goes: When a horse is a gentleman, he will live for ten years. It is enough to show the importance of the quality of the breeding method to the war horse. In ancient times, the autumn high horse fertilizer refers to the lush growth of all kinds of grass and the firm grass seeds on the grassland in summer and autumn, so the horse grows the fastest at this time. However, war horses cannot only eat grass, so the feed used for raising in peacetime is basically a mixture of forage and other crops, especially in the Central Plains and Jiangnan regions, which lack grassland.

Since the crops grown in the north and south are different, there is also a difference in the feed. In the north, due to a variety of corn, it is mostly doped with millet stalks; In the south, rice is more abundant, so it is mostly adulterated with straw. Because the millet stalk is relatively stiff, it needs to be crushed before it can be mixed into the feed. Since the straw is already soft, it does not need to be milled again. In addition, alfalfa grass is the best forage, and there are many places where this grass is planted in Henan and Hebei, so it is not difficult to find. In the south, they had to settle for other grasses such as dogtail grass and root grass because the yield was too low.

The last one is all kinds of beans, and the beans used to make horse feed at this time are generally soybeans, black beans, peas, and mung beans. The ancients believed that soybeans and black beans were the best, these two kinds of beans were sweet and sweet, could thicken the stomach and muscles, and could also detoxify aconitum poison; Peas are sweet and warm, and eating them can reconcile the fat in the stomach and intestines: mung beans are sweet and cold, and eating them can go to the heart and lungs and the five organs are deficient and hot. Some people who have a lot of money will also add eggs to their feed and replace soybeans with various grains.

Among them, the grain is mainly indica rice and glutinous rice, mixed with barley and wheat bran to form concentrate. These things also have a saying, when people thought that indica rice was sweet and warm, and it replenished the spleen and fat; Glutinous rice has a sweet and flat taste, which can enrich the stomach and nourish the stomach and grow fat; After the barley is cooked, it is washed with well flower water and fed to the horse, which can relax the stomach and help digestion, and eat raw to reduce bloating; Wheat bran is sweet and warm, can thicken the stomach and protect the skin.

After picking the materials, it is time to make the feed, when the forage and crops are cut short with a guillotine and then crushed, the soybeans and black beans should be cooked and boiled hot, the peas and mung beans are all mashed, and then washed with water and mixed together to feed the horses, and the material should be added three times a night. After training, you should take it to the manger to feed it once, and then feed it again when it is time to do it.

The choice is also chosen, fed and fed, and finally the war horse is trained, after all, people need to be trained to be soldiers, and horses must be trained to fight. In addition to charging strongly and running fast, training war horses must also bear hardships and stand hard work and be good at long-distance driving. In addition, it is necessary to train the horse's flexibility and familiarity with the rider's commands, such as turning left and right, running and stopping, and dodging attacks such as one tight and one slow.

The Song army has entered the age of firearms, so compared with the previous dynasties, there is one more training for war horses, that is, immunity to the sound of firearms such as muskets and artillery, to put it bluntly, they are trained not to be affected by the roar of firearms and are out of control and frightened. Therefore, when training firearms hands, they will also pull horses over to listen to the roar of firearms, so that they can be familiar with and accept this sound, so as not to be frightened and blow up the group at that time.

"Your Majesty, can you allocate some more to your subordinates, even if it's five hundred!" After listening to the little emperor's rambling on raising horses, Tian Zhong still didn't give up, and asked again.

"If you want a horse, find the owner of the village. This time the horses were all blackmailed by him from Tuhuan, and you told him that I can't change into a horse! Zhao Yu smiled and pushed the matter to Zhuang Gongcong.

"This ...... In fact, if I can get a horse this time, I still rely on the blessing of Zahuertai, it depends on whether he can help or not! Zhuang Gongcong said with a bitter face when he heard this......