The snowflakes are colorful and melt at first in the soil, and soon after they form a shallow snow on the ground just past the horses' hooves.

Temperatures hover around 0 degrees Celsius, and some small puddles of water freeze a thin layer of ice at night, which melts during the day. Only on the shady side where the sun does not shine will there be ice accumulation.

It's the best season in Taipei, and people don't have to worry about the raging malaria parasites.

The hunters picked up bows and muskets and walked the forest trails into the mountains.

A group of riders stepped through the snow, their shiny cuirass reflecting the cold winter light. The red orca whale heraldic flag is very eye-catching in the white expanse all around. In the middle of the cavalry, a four-wheeled, two-seater light carriage was escorted.

Whether it is a war horse ridden by a cavalry or a horse pulling a cart, it is a palm higher than ordinary continental horses. This is a hybrid of the Indian Katiawama, Jeju and Jinjiang horses,

A generation of mixed-breed breeds can still see the shadow of the Mongolian horse's inferior appearance and hanging neck. However, the average shoulder height of the mixed horses selected by this team still reaches 140cm, which is already a tall horse in the mainland. Paired with elaborate military flags and high-quality armor and swords, at least in China, this is the best cavalry. Along the way, you will often encounter peasants who are serving in forced labor. From the look in their eyes, the orderly saw awe.

Cavalry Commander Walter. Feng. Angelis walked hand in hand with order. Brigadier Angelis came to Taipei to inspect the cavalry and horse construction, but was not on the same route as Shou Zhi and Collingwood's fleet.

The road was blocked by a large piece of rubble, and Walter raised his right hand and motioned for the team to stop.

Sweating profusely, the foreman who repaired this section of the road instructed the migrant workers to break up the stones and move them to the side of the road. He trotted over and knelt before the orderly hooves of the horse.

Shou Zhi brought the reins of the horse, and he didn't care.

Captain Lin Chuyong, who should be called Lin Shoujie now, shouted and ordered the foreman to get up quickly and get out of the way. Izumi followed Shou Yu for many years, and according to Japanese practice, Shou Yu gave him the Shou character in his name and renamed him Lin Shoujie. It means to uphold the will of loyalty and keep the festival of humility and retreat.

The cavalry returned to the road, keeping pace with the cavalry superintendent.

"Walter, do you really want to run all over the stud farm in Taipei?"

"Just like you, Archon. You inspect Taipei Prefecture and County, and I inspect the stallion farm, and no one will be left behind. ”

Shou Xuan smiled, "Of the 5 stallion farms in Taipei, there is only one left in Yilan that you haven't gone to." How does it look like from the front? ”

Walter frowned, "Taipei's horse exchange work is chaotic. ”

"It can't be helped, we have too few Katiawa stallions."

"This situation must change. The local horse administration was built earlier, and now the military horses have generally been mixed to the second generation. Mating a generation of mixed mare with a Katiawa stallion has resulted in horses that have generally exceeded 142 shoulder heights. The key is that the head is raised and the neck is raised, the limbs are light, and the face is no longer inferior. ”

Shou Xuan sighed, "The cavalry plan you have engaged in in the homeland strictly controls the use of only Katiawa stallions, and Taipei cannot reach the local standard. ”

"My standards have been lowered a lot, and according to Taipei's practice, it will cause confusion in the pedigree of war horses, including the fact that these war horses we ride do not meet the requirements of the battlefield."

The Guardian knew the new regulations of the Army Cavalry. They did a lot of meticulous work to classify the common horses.

The shoulder height of an ordinary Mongolian horse is 13hh slightly lower, that is, less than 130cm, the weight is 250kg, the load is 65kg, the camel load is 85kg, and the maximum towing load is 300kg. Two words of evaluation, garbage, only worthy of miscellaneous.

The first-generation mixed-breed horse has a shoulder height of 139-140, a weight of 350, a load of 90kg, a camel load of 120, and a maximum towing load of 400kg, which can barely meet the standards of light cavalry and light horses, but the army is still not satisfied. A 12-pounder field bronze cannon with a double diameter of 17, caliber 120mm, a gun plus an artillery front vehicle, and the entire walking system weighed 2.5 tons. Only on a straight and well-paved pavement can 8 first-generation hybrids barely pull.

The shoulder height of the second-generation mixed-breed horse is 145, and the shoulder height of the third-generation mixed-breed horse is 147, and the marginal effect decreases with the deepening of the mixed-breed. The second-generation mixed-breed horses basically reached the standard of light cavalry, and the third generation reached the standard of heavy cavalry. The Army plans to mate between mixed horses after three generations of hybrids, thus fixing the bloodline. According to Walter's idea, it would be better to fix it after 5 generations of hybrid horses, but the Army can't wait. Only by building up a strong cavalry force and a sufficient force for transporting horses can the army completely get rid of the role of naval subordination. With the local process, it will be possible to mass-produce cavalry horses on a large scale in about 6-8 years.

Shou Xuan shook his head and said: "The situation faced by Taipei is different, thanks to the relocation of Jeju Island, their advantage is that the number of horses is higher than that of the mainland, and the disadvantage is that there are fewer stallions than the mainland. The mines and forest farms in Taipei have a great demand for animal power, so they may not be able to exchange blood on a large scale. A generation of mixed stallions will have to be mated. ”

"A generation of hybrid horses can't fix the bloodline, and I'm worried that it will cause the breed to deteriorate in the future."

Shou Xu smiled, "My director, Taiwan has been a wild road from the beginning, and the actual conditions make them useless, so don't set the standards too high." ”

Walter was silent for a while, and the failure to meet the target probably made him feel bad.

Looking at the cavalry director's ugly face, he said in an orderly manner, "In this way, Walter, according to your standards, how about we keep a stud farm for thoroughbred breeding?" The rest, just let Filhoff and them toss. ”

In fact, in the Orderliness Project, the thoroughbred horse farm in Taiwan is not used locally, it is intended for Australia. The hesitation of the cavalry commander, the orderliness is actually understood. Taiwan's difficulties are obvious, but Ma Zheng is a fat piece of cake that involves the interests of many departments. The chief of cavalry, of course, hoped that the more power that belonged to his department, the better.

Walter didn't immediately agree, and the order was left to his discretion.

The official road from Taipei Prefecture to Yilan is very narrow, and the width is only large enough for a horse-drawn carriage. The road shuttles between the valleys, and the construction is very difficult. Now it is the slack season, and the farmers who have been busy for a year have not been rested, and the Taipei Prefecture has mobilized migrant workers and sent them to construction sites everywhere.

In the Fucheng expansion project, migrant workers fired green bricks, made pozzolana cement to build granaries, castles and two-story shops.

The water conservancy repair project includes the improvement of the river channels and dams of the Tamsui River and its tributaries, Touqian Creek, Zhonggang Creek, Houlong Creek and Da'an Creek.

The road construction project is to establish a reliable land connection between the states and counties in addition to Huadong on land, including an official road around the island and a transportation channel into the forest farms in the mountains.

In addition to the expansion of Fucheng, the common feature of other projects is that the grade is relatively low, and whether there are problems is solved first, and then slowly expanded. Taking the road leading to Yilan as an example, Beiyi Road does not have much material transportation capacity. The logistics of various states and counties in Taipei Prefecture still rely on offshore shipping around the island.

Along the way, there are slightly flat mountain valleys that have been reclaimed as rice paddies, and gently sloping hills that have been leveled for mulberry gardens and tea plantations.

The high altitude in the mountains and the absence of mud lakes formed by the mixing of sea and fresh water in the coastal plain area have significantly reduced the prevalence of malaria. Therefore, despite the relatively rudimentary physical facilities in the mountainous areas, the reclamation of the mountainous areas was a spontaneous action of migrants from the very beginning, and there was no need for mobilization.

The cavalry came to a post station in the upper reaches of Beishi River, dismounted in the stirrups, and walked to the carriage in three or two steps. opened the car door and got out of the carriage with Hui Xiang's right hand. The woman was wrapped in a fox fur coat and stood in the snow. Shou Xiang took her hand and entered the station.

The local governor presents the river fish he has caught.

The body of the fish is round, and the scales glow with a hint of gold. A pot of stew, the fish soup is delicious, the meat is delicate, and it melts in your mouth. In the other pot, tofu was added, and no one ate the fish, so the tofu was so popular that it was added to the pot three times.

The cavalry was not interested in the small fish, and the chief sent two more mountain qiangs. The small muntjac was so small that the soldiers chopped it up with meat and bones, closed the potatoes and stewed them in two large pots, and ate them with a mouth full of oil.

Shou Xuan and the cavalry director ate and drank, "Walt, the various armies in Taipei are either going south or north, and the defense is a little empty. I brought out the untrained cavalry, not only to escort it, but also to deter people. You know, the shining cavalry armor and the knocking of horseshoes are a deterrent to the population. ”

Walter smiled, "I'm afraid there aren't many people in the country who know the power of cavalry better than I do. ”

Shou Xuan chatted with the director about cavalry warfare on the mainland.

Cavalry has extremely important tactical significance, but the saber itself can't actually kill a few people, and the bow and arrow are even more useless. Cannons are ten times more powerful than cold weapons, and Jianzhou was in the barbarian stage in Liaodong fashion, and the barbarians had no memory. Their fear of artillery was confined to a small extent and did not have too bad consequences.

This situation is changing, the Tatar civilization is evolving, and the horrific memories of the cannonballs are spreading simultaneously, which can lead to a series of interesting consequences.

Civilized societies are like this, fear has memories and is contagious, but barbarians do not. The Tatars tampered with bloody battles such as the Phi Island landing battle by massacring cities and plundering, creating the myth of the Eight Banners. This myth eventually even came to believe in them, so after all the battles, the Tatar soldiers believed that they were invincible, and most Chinese who did not understand war held the same opinion.

On the contrary, the backbone green battalion soldiers of several towns who fought side by side with the Eight Banners and knew them best now faintly did not believe in the myth of the invincibility of the Eight Banners. Admiral Wu Shengzhao of Susong was the first, and he did not succeed. Xiangyang commander-in-chief Wang Guangtai and Wang Chang were the second, and they retreated under the attack of the Eight Banners. This is just the beginning, and there will be more and more green battalion soldiers anyway.

Walter grabbed a platoon of deer, "Breaking the Tatar myth requires several victories in the battle of the Eight Banners." ”

"Heroes will eventually appear, and I firmly believe in that." ”

Walter was a little drunk, "Archon, please allow me to be presumptuous. After inspecting Taipei for so many days, my observations have been deducted from the troops we have transferred from the mainland. Whether it is a new garrison camp or a former Ming Dynasty government army, if it is against the Tatars, they lack the belief that they will win. ”

The Tatar cavalry was famous, but most of the time, the Ming army and the people scared themselves to death, and dozens of horsemen chased thousands of people to cut down, which is simply a strange story. This is by no means a manifestation of combat effectiveness.

Orderly and silent, he felt the same way. These armies could fight against the Takayama Dynasty, they could fight against the Li Dynasty, and they could fight against the Green Battalion. But fighting against the Tatars, they are afraid that they will not be able to do it yet. Tatar cavalry swords and swarthy iron cotton armor swept in, and fear was deeply ingrained in the marrow of the immigrants.

"Do you have any suggestions?"

"There's no way around it in this generation. They were good farmers, good craftsmen, but not good soldiers. I am pessimistic that we can only pin our hopes on the next generation. Children who are not infected by fear and slavery. ”

Shou Xiang sighed slightly, "From scratch, train the children to be soldiers with a sense of honor." Is this the only way? ”

Walter had never been as drunk as he was to be in order, and he would have been half-drunk. Before he lost consciousness, he said: "Archon, Ma Zheng of Taipei, I agree to follow your plan. However, the specific implementation can only be carried out by the cavalry command department, and the work of horse mixed registration and veterinarian requires good organization, and Taipei Province has no experience. ”

Shou Xuan smiled, "I agreed for Taipei Mansion." ”

"Oh, let's have a toast then."

"Walter, I'm going to borrow your cavalry in Yilan."

"No problem......"