On the south bank of the Santai River, a large meadow is lush and green, with hundreds of horses strolling leisurely on the meadow, rows of stables not far away, and tall forage warehouses.

This is the horse ranch of the Tiger Forest Army covering an area of hundreds of hectares, and the war horses and horses of the whole army are grazing here, of course, the two are separated, and the stables and warehouses are located on higher ground, in order to prevent floods.

This was originally a barren beach, since the state government built a river embankment on the south bank of the Santai River, the Hulin army relied on the newly built drainage ditch to drain the stagnant water, and then used thousands of prisoners of war to level the land and tamp it, sprinkle grass seeds to cultivate pasture, and now finally have their own horse ranch.

The horse-producing land of the Central Plains is in the northwest direction, such as Hetao and Longyou, and there are few large grasslands suitable for raising horses in the Yangtze River Basin.

"It's rainy in the south of the Yangtze River, and I'm afraid it will be very troublesome to raise horses." Wei Chishun said that he is now accompanied by his son-in-law to visit the horse ranch, looking at the artificially sorted out pasture, and he is moved to ask questions.

"It's difficult to raise horses, but no matter how difficult it is, there are also war horses in Jiangbei states, and there are a lot of lessons from breeding, and my son-in-law has summarized them one by one, hoping to succeed." Yuwen Wen replied.

"It takes at least five years for a foal to grow into a qualified war horse, and you can't rely on a war horse that can only be ridden in five years, right?" Wei Chishun asked again.

"This is natural, but there is no horse land in Shannan, and most of the war horses of the official army are captured, if it is not for Yang Jian and Yang to rebel against the chaos of the imperial court, why should the states in Shannan raise their own horses, they can directly rely on the allocation of the imperial court."

"Now that the land has been connected, the imperial court will transfer war horses to Shannan, so why bother so much?" Wei Chishun continued to ask, "The captured war horses of the Chen army are not as strong as the war horses of the northern land, if these war horses are to be fully clothed, how many of them can be eaten." ”

"It's better than nothing." Yu Wenwen spread his hands and said the cruel reality.

Since three years ago, that is, in late May of the second year of the elephant, the Great Zhou Civil War broke out, and the Anzhou army at that time had no source of war horses.

But this is a symptom but not a cure, the battlefield cavalry is a sharp weapon, today's Shannan Zhou cavalry 'can't afford to be injured', although the water network in the Jiangchu area is vertical and horizontal, relying on the infantry can barely resist the enemy cavalry, but to attack the outside world is not enough, after all, to fight in the Central Plains without cavalry is death.

The Southern Dynasties have made countless northern expeditions for hundreds of years, even if the initial momentum was like a bamboo, and the results were extraordinary, but after the cavalry of the Northern Dynasties moved south, they were left and right, not that the officers and men of the Southern Army were not good at fighting, but that the cavalry was not strong and lost its strategic mobility ability, and the Northern Army, which had a large number of cavalry, gradually grasped the initiative in the battle.

Seeing that Wei Chishun was silent, Yu Wenwen said that when his father-in-law arrived in Yecheng, he would have to say a few kind words in front of the prime minister and transfer a large number of war horses for the Shannan Zhou army, after all, if the Zhou army on Shannan's side can fight, it will also be good to deal with the war on the main side of the imperial court.

"I should do my best." Wei Chi Shun can only say so much, he is not a fool, he knows that the court has to consider many aspects, in fact, it stems from the delicate relationship between his father and Yu Wenliang.

This kind of topic is hurtful and angry, and both sides also know it in their hearts, anyway, in order to take care of the overall situation, it is natural to cooperate, solve Yang Jian first, and then think about the next step.

Yu Wenwen naturally wouldn't be stupid enough to ask his father-in-law to pack the ticket, anyway, if there are dates or not, he has a thick skin, so when he arrives in Yecheng, he has to pick out some war horses from the hands of Prime Minister Wei Chi, which is also an important strategic resource urgently needed by the Zhou army in Shannan.

"That meadow seems to be dedicated to pasture?" Wei Chishun asked, he saw a large meadow in the corner of the horse farm that was different, and the grass grew quite tall and did not look like a place for horses to run.

Yu Wenwen nodded yes, and led his father-in-law to the grassland, where different types of grass were planted in the plots, but Wei Chishun was attracted by the grass planted: "This is?" Is clover alfalfa? ”

"It is alfalfa, which is naturally not available in the Jiangchu area, and it is the son-in-law who has tried every possible way to find grass seeds, try to plant them here, and expand the area if they can be successfully planted."

"I got it from Chang'an, I remember that alfalfa is common in Guanzhong."

Alfalfa is not a native plant of the Central Plains, Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty, not only brought back good horses, but also brought back alfalfa seeds, planted in Chang'an, and then slowly expanded to all parts of Guanzhong.

"Hanshu Western Regions Biography" has a record: "Dawan country, vulgar alcohol, horses love alfalfa", so Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty easily got back Dawan horses, and even brought the alfalfa that Dawan horses like to eat as feed.

Yuwen Wen saw his father-in-law's "knowledge" and began to explain his sad history of planting alfalfa, in fact, this era has mature planting experience for the cultivation of alfalfa, more than 40 years ago in the Northern Wei Dynasty Jia Siyun wrote the book "Qi Min Yaoshu", which recorded in detail the cultivation method of alfalfa.

"Now that I have experience in the cultivation of alfalfa, my son-in-law plans to expand the pasture to plant pasture, and this alfalfa is one of them.

"I remember that there are at least two kinds of alfalfa, one is yellow and the other is purple," Yu Chishun remembered the question of the category of alfalfa.

"What my son-in-law wanted to buy was alfalfa, but it turned out that it was yellow flowers and was deceived!" Speaking of this, Yuwen Wen became a nameless fire, and he sent people to Chang'an to meet and live with Peiguo Gong Zheng Yi, one of the tasks of these people was to buy things, buy some things that Shannan Prefecture couldn't buy.

Alfalfa is one of them, and the so-called alfalfa seeds that were bought as a result were all yellow flowers.

It's not that alfalfa can't be used as grass to feed horses, it's because alfalfa contains much higher nutrients than alfalfa, so Yuwenwen, who was played by unscrupulous businessmen, was extremely unhappy and made a heavy note on the blacklist.

Wei Chishun raised a new question, he said that although alfalfa grows well in Guanzhong, but it is rainy in the south of the Yangtze River, so it may not be suitable for planting alfalfa, Yu Wenwen's answer is also very direct, saying that several kinds of pasture grass have been selected to be planted together, just in case.

Looking at his son-in-law's confident appearance, Wei Chishun nodded and didn't say anything more, he deliberately stayed in Xiyang for a day this time, firstly, to let his daughter and wife get together, and secondly, to see the strength of his son-in-law.

Outsiders are spreading all kinds of evil deeds about his son-in-law, but Wei Chishun knows that most of them are false, such as robbing people's daughters, craving human flesh, etc., which are all nonsense, as for being a good woman, what is strange about a man being lustful, not to mention that he is absolutely confident that his daughter will catch his son-in-law's heart.

Wei Chishun wanted to know what kind of reputation his son-in-law had tossed in Bazhou, and said that the Hulin Army could fight, so to what extent it could fight, and said that there was river sand to select iron, so what was the quality of the things that were practiced.

He thought that his son-in-law would be perfunctory, but after walking around today, Wei Chishun got his wish and saw what he wanted to see: the construction of water conservancy facilities with amazing progress, the transformation of large areas of former barren land into cultivated fields, and the horizontal shaft windmill and its workshop that he had never seen before.

The newly expanded east city, the clean and tidy west city appearance, the bustling crowd in the city, and the hard-working farmers outside the city.

The morale is high, the well-trained soldiers of the Hulin Army, sufficient food and strict military discipline; The large-scale sand selection yard next to Ba Shui, and the hydraulically driven bellows and forging hammers in the iron-smelting workshop next to the Santai River.

The Su Iron Knife with a cold blade and a brand-new ring lock armor with a collar collar are not rare, and they will not make Wei Chishun an artifact, but the Bazhou Weapons Supervisor can make these things, and he feels that his son-in-law is indeed very motivated.

Now that he has visited the horse ranch that does not occupy a large area, looking at the patches of carefully cultivated pasture, Wei Chishun is not surprised by his son-in-law's thoughts, but deeply understands his persistence.

In other words, ambition.

With such a son-in-law, he didn't know whether to be happy or worried, or both, looking at the clover alfalfa picked in his hand, Wei Chishun was a little distracted.

Yu Wenwen was also distracted, he looked at the alfalfa he had worked so hard to plant, and then looked at the hundreds of horses on the grass, and the scene of ten thousand horses galloping came to his mind, which was the fantasy of clover.

Cavalry, until the combination of barbed wire, trenches and machine guns, was an important branch of the battlefield in the field, until the emergence of the tank from the protagonist to the supporting role, the cavalry of this era is as important as the tank in later generations.

In order for the cavalry to be powerful, it must first have a large number of war horses, and if you want to raise horses, you must have a large grassland, and the natural grassland is in the grassland, or the northwest places such as Hetao and Longyou, so the question arises: can't the Jianghuai area raise horses on a large scale?

The answer is yes, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Jianghuai Righteous Army had a large number of war horses, and the Ming Army's Northern Expedition had strong cavalry, this is because the Yuan Court had a large number of military horse farms in Jianghuai, of course, the reason why there can be a large number of military horse farms is that the population has decreased sharply after war.

It is said that it is the problem of people and horses fighting for land, especially in the Song Dynasty, the most prominent problem, the common saying is that the Northern Song Dynasty was congenitally insufficient, lost the traditional northwest horse breeding land, and there are no strong cavalry without enough horses, so it is very helpless to fight against Liao against Western Xia.

However, in the same period, the sheep industry in the Northern Song Dynasty was extremely prosperous, because the demand for mutton was huge at that time, and mutton was the best in the amount of court ingredients.

During the Song Zhenzong period, "the imperial kitchen cost tens of thousands of sheep", and in the era of Song Shenzong, it was even more powerful, and the imperial kitchen account book recorded that 434,463 catties and four taels of mutton were consumed a year.

There is grassland to raise sheep and no land to raise horses, this is not that there is no horse production land to explain, it is not that you can't raise horses, but whether you are willing to raise horses.

Since the Tanyuan Alliance, the Song State can keep the border safe by paying the New Year's coin, what do you do to raise horses, not to mention that the land is not enough for farming and raising sheep, where is there a horse farm.

Ma Zheng erosion is also one of the culprits, the history of the Song Dynasty has a record: Raozhou "five hundred and sixty-two horses, and three hundred and ten killed, twenty of the seven out of two", the low reproduction rate is really outrageous.

Of the 562 stallions used for breeding, 315 were raised, and the remaining 247 stallions were raised, and 27 foals were raised.

Therefore, "Jiangnan can't raise horses on a large scale" is a false proposition, as long as there is land, as long as you raise horses carefully, you will not worry about raising a large number of war horses, so Yuwenwen wants to raise horses, first of all, you have to solve the problem of people and horses fighting for land, and then there is feed and a strict horse breeding system.

Therefore, no matter how tight the land in Bazhou is, he has to set aside a large piece to raise horses, and if you want to raise war horses well, you must have high-quality pasture, alfalfa is a kind of good pasture, and a small clover is the beginning of his dream of raising horses.

Raising horses is a systematic project, just having land and grass is not enough, horses are well planted and the people who raise horses are more critical, and horse breeders don't have to worry about everything is in vain.

"Journey to the West" said that when Bi Ma Wen has a lot of work, but even if he is fed horse fat, he only has to say the word "good", if he is a little thin, he will be held accountable, if he is injured, he will have to pay money and ask for the crime, the status of raising horses is low and the treatment is poor, where will someone work seriously.

Therefore, Yuwenwen gives the soldiers who raise horses a very high salary, and they can divide the fields if they raise the horses well, although the horses are slow to take effect, but he still has to persevere, the mutton is delicious, but the horses are more important.

The cavalry can't beat the enemy if it doesn't give its strength, and if it can't beat the enemy, you have to kneel, the change of Jingkang, the queen mother, the queen, the emperor, the daughter of the clan, and the women of the inner and outer lives of the Northern Song Dynasty, all of them have become the playthings of the Jin soldiers, and Yuwenwen doesn't want to experience that kind of tragic experience in person.

"So strong cavalry is a must!!" (To be continued.) )