(2nd update today)

Everyone joked with Pang Wanchun and Liu Fa for a while, and when everyone had made enough trouble, Zheng Fei patted the table with a smile and said, "Okay, go back and sit down and get down to business!" ”

Then everyone smiled and returned to their original positions,

Zheng Fei asked Pang Wanchun and Liu Fa, "Wanchun, Liu Shuai, what do you think of the combat effectiveness of our Heavenly Dao Army compared to the Xia Army in this trip to the Northwest?" ”

The hall immediately fell completely silent, everyone looked at Pang Wanchun and Liu Fa, everyone started from Liangshan, first defeated the civilian armed Zengtou City, and then defeated the state soldiers under the mountain, and then defeated the elite forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty.

Pang Wanchun replied, "Commander, Liu Shuai and I have thought about this issue carefully, we have been in the northwest for five months, and we have fought no less than 50 times with the Xia army, large and small, and there have been big victories and defeats. We believe that although the party members are strong and strong, they don't want to die when they fight, but the soldiers of our Tiandao Army are not bad, especially we are very well-equipped, the Xia Army fights with us, often more than half of the casualties are killed and wounded before they get close, and in the later stage of the battle, the Xia Army will retreat as soon as they hear the name of our Tiandao Army. But there is one thing that we are lacking! ”

Zheng Fei raised his eyebrows, "Oh? What is it? ”

"It's a horse!" Liu Fa said, "The party is good at riding, they stay on horses longer than standing on the ground in their lives, this war, 400,000 Xia troops are almost all on horseback, whether it is rushing or retreating, it is extremely fast, the Great Song Dynasty, but only the horse army is only 20,000 horses, and our Tiandao army of 30,000 people is only 5,000 horses." The horse army has been an infantry army since ancient times, and when they meet in close arms on the plain, the infantry army of the Great Song Dynasty is not an opponent at all. ”

"That's right," Pang Wanchun said, "If it weren't for the fact that our equipment is much better than that of the Xia army, and our training level is much stronger, I'm afraid that our casualties will be even greater!" In particular, their elite heavy armored cavalry 'Iron Harrier', from the mount to the rider, was wearing heavy armor, and this heavy armored cavalry was extremely powerful when it formed a phalanx to charge, and the Song army's ordinary divine arm bow could not shoot through their iron armor. During the First Battle of Hezhou, if it weren't for the timely arrival of our cavalry brigade, nearly 20,000 people of the two generals in Hezhou would probably have been removed. And then our cavalry brigade started a big battle with them, and our soldiers' swords and axes could not cut them, and in the end, they were repelled by the constant harassment of the Soul Breaker Crossbow. ”

Zheng Fei continued to ask, "Liu Shuai, you have fought with the Xia army all your life, how did you fight against their Ma army when you were in the Song Western Army before?" ”

Liu Fadao, "In order to fight against them, the subordinates gathered all the war horses to form a special cavalry army, and it has been proved that as long as the Han people can also have enough horses, and then after strict training, they are not worse than the horse army of those nomads, and the Tang Dynasty was able to sweep the Western Regions in the past, because of the establishment of a powerful cavalry army!" It's a pity that since the founding of the Song Dynasty, the land of horse production has always been in the hands of the Khitans, so it is impossible to establish a cavalry army! ”

"Liu Shuai, there is something unclear about the junior brother," Shi Yong asked, "just now you also said that you have fewer defeats and more victories, which shows that with our current equipment, we can defeat them by relying on the infantry, so why do we have to build a cavalry army?" ”

Liu Fa replied, "The reason why we were able to defeat the cavalry of the Xia army in the northwest hinterland by relying on the infantry was that in addition to our sophisticated equipment, it was also because there were two advantages, one was that the northwest hinterland was mountainous, and there were many pillboxes in the city, which limited the play of the opponent's cavalry to a certain extent. The second is also because there are more bunkers in the northwest hinterland, so we don't have to worry about supply. But when we drove the Xia army from the northwest hinterland to the border, the terrain began to become empty, and the advantages of the Xia army's cavalry gradually came into play, and the war repeatedly fell into a stalemate. ”

"The old man fought with the Xia army in the northwest all his life, and once led the army to fight deep into the territory of the Xia country three times, the hinterland of the Xia country is full of Gobi and desert, as far as the eye can see, and the infantry army will completely lose the protection of the terrain and be exposed to the impact of the opposing cavalry. And there is an extreme shortage of materials, it is not easy to find a water source, from the border of the Great Song Dynasty to the capital of Western Xia, stretching for nearly a thousand miles, only relying on the two roads of the infantry, it is difficult to reach even if the Xia army is not harassed, not to mention such a long front, it is clearly giving the Xia army countless opportunities to take advantage of! ”

"At the same time, the cavalry also has a natural advantage, that is, it comes and goes quickly, it can be said that if a cavalry army completely gives up attacking and defending the city, it is a non-stop harassment and can torture an infantry army crazy! Just like when we fought against the Xia army in the northwest this time, it was clear that we had completely gained the upper hand and were about to be able to completely annihilate the opponent, but they saw that the situation was not good and said that they would retreat, and as soon as they ran away on horseback, we couldn't catch up at all. When we gave up the pursuit, they suddenly turned back and caught us off guard, and then we counterattacked, and they ran again, but we still couldn't catch up, there was nothing we could do. ”

"Therefore, whether it is to take the initiative to strike at the enemy, or to completely destroy a cavalry army, it is completely necessary to build a cavalry army!"

After listening to Liu Fa's words, everyone suddenly realized, Zheng Fei also nodded with his eyebrows, according to the words of Pang Wanchun and Liu Fa, it can only be said that it is a mixed blessing, and the good news is that the facts have proved that his idea of training the Heavenly Dao Army is correct, and the Heavenly Dao Army that has undergone strict training has the strength to compete with the grassland cavalry. is also worried about the Tiandao Army, or the weakness of the entire Central Plains Han army, that is, in the absence of war horses, it is impossible to establish a cavalry army that can compete with the grassland cavalry.

This weakness may not be obvious when it is in the hinterland of the Central Plains, when there are many mountains and many cities, but when it comes to the endless and flat grassland Gobi Desert, with the pull of the battle line, the disadvantage of the lack of a cavalry army will only become more and more obvious! I still have some time left for myself, and I have to come up with a solution as soon as possible!

But how to solve it? In fact, it is not difficult to build a cavalry army, but the difficult thing is "horses", where to get so many horses?

Pang Wanchun and Liu Fa were still telling the generals in detail about the battle in the northwest, and the generals were fascinated by what they heard, only Zheng Fei spread out the map alone, and swept his eyes along the several horse-producing places around the Great Song Dynasty one by one, thinking of a way to solve the horses.

Do you want to go to Da Song? Definitely not, don't say he won't give it, he still lacks horses,

Going to Western Xia to buy? Definitely not, the two countries have just ended the war, and the border line will not be reopened for a long time, Mo said that the Xixia people have hated themselves, even if he is willing to sell his own horses, from the northwest to the east of the east more than a thousand miles, so many horses, the Great Song Dynasty must know, they will definitely not let go.

These two choices were immediately completely denied by Zheng Fei, and looking at it, Zheng Fei looked at the north of the Great Song Dynasty, the Liao Kingdom.

Liao also produces horses, and is particularly good at producing good horses, and he has no old grudge with Liao, so it should be a very good choice to buy horses in Liao.

But there are also great difficulties in buying horses in Liao, first of all, although the Liao and Song dynasties have been reconciled for a hundred years, and the border trade is also very smooth, war horses have always been Liao's restricted exports to the Great Song Dynasty, and the Great Song Dynasty can't buy them, can they buy them themselves?

The second question is also the same as the situation in Western Xia, even if he can buy the war horses of the Liao Kingdom, will the Great Song Dynasty let himself transport the horses to Jingdong Road through Hebei Third Road? When pigs fly!

It's just that despite this, Zheng Fei always vaguely felt in his heart that there seemed to be a feasible way to do this, but he hadn't thought of that solution for a while.

Just as Zheng Fei was racking his brains for this, Wu Yong came to Zheng Fei and asked, "Commander, what are you looking at?" ”

Zheng Fei straightened up and shook his head, "It's nothing, I'm thinking about something." Is there something wrong? ”

"Oh," Wu Yong replied, "there is something that has not been reported to you, this morning, the several people we sent out to find the shipbuilding warmakers have returned, the Dengzhou warcraftsmen who were taken away by Zong Ze, the dozens of warcraftsmen of the Southern Song Dynasty Naval Division, and the commander Meng Kang who you specially ordered people to find have all been brought back!" ”

Zheng Fei's heart jumped when he heard this, he looked down at the map again, and his heart immediately moved, and his heart was suddenly filled with incomparable ecstasy!

Ha ha! No wonder I always felt that things could turn around just now, God helped me!

These people came at ...... right time!