Zhao Ziliang smiled: "Although not all, most of them are mares, and a small number are stallions, stallions are not used for fighting, but for breeding!" Moreover, the mares that use war horses are all mares that have given birth to foals, and they cannot be weaned, and in the future mare's milk will become a staple food for our soldiers, who will take care of their horses, feed themselves, milk their own milk, drink themselves, and ride them on battle! ”

"Hiss-" Yu Sai and Yu Zhu gasped, as a nomadic tribe, after listening to what Zhao Ziliang said, where do they not understand the benefits of this short-legged Mobei mare as a war horse, not only as a foot force, but also as a mobile table with their own food, in this way, such an army can basically not need logistics, and the Mobei bantam mare is full of endurance, it is not suitable for charging, but it is more than enough for riding and shooting, and their endurance and cold tolerance far exceed other horse breeds, Even on the most difficult roads, it is possible to march as usual. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In addition to Zhao Ziliang's plan to spend several years, or even ten years, on the basis of this batch of war horses, to form a light cavalry corps with a strength of more than 30,000 and suitable for long-distance and long-distance attacks, he also decided to form a heavy cavalry corps.

Regarding the formation of the heavy cavalry corps, Zhao Ziliang has another plan, of course, the war horses needed to form the heavy cavalry cannot be bantam horses, even if the high war horses in the Mobei horses are not qualified in his heart, He Qu horses and Ili horses can barely be, it is not difficult to get tall and strong Ili horses with fast sprint speed, and they can trade with the barbarian tribes in the Ili River Valley, but it is not easy to get He Qu horses, and now the Tubo people have reoccupied the Jiuqu area of the Yellow River, and the origin of He Qu horses has fallen into their hands again, Even smuggling is not easy to get.

Zhao Ziliang is not in a hurry about this matter, and now the soldiers who formed the heavy cavalry have not yet landed, even if they get the war horses, it will be useless, but they have to send people to take care of them.

Seeing that it was about to come to the day when he agreed with all the tribes to send troops to fight against the powerful tribes, according to the agreement, on June 20, the tribes would meet on the shore of Alahu Lake, the territory of the Qarlu tribe, and Zhao Ziliang's side had not set off until June 12.

Because of this, Wang Can came to the Detention Mansion on the night of June 12 to remind Zhao Ziliang, and Zhao Ziliang said after Wang Can's words: "How can I forget this? I have already decided to set off on June 15, and we will arrive at the shores of Lake Alahu in five days! ”

"Five days? Hiss - General, you're not kidding, it's a thousand miles from our Xilin Guard to the Yinshan Governor's Mansion, even if it's all cavalry, it's enough to arrive in five days, not to mention that we have to bring infantry! ”

Zhao Ziliang asked rhetorically: "Is it difficult?" Other infantry can't do it, but my Zhao Ziliang's infantry marching a thousand miles in five days is not a difficult task! I have made up my mind on this matter, and I don't need to say it again! ”

On this day, Zhao Ziliang convened the generals and officials to discuss the matter, and ordered Zheng San to prepare dry food and drinking water for five days for 2,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry, and then prepare a carriage to load the grain and grass needed by the army for a month.

Now the two thousand cavalry can barely fight on horseback, although they are not elite, and their riding skills are not as good as the nomadic tribes who have lived on horseback since childhood, but their combat effectiveness is not bad.

The big competition was also held a month ago, the captain, the team and the brigade commander were all selected from the soldiers, but the captain, lieutenant and above the generals and colonels were basically served by Zhao Ziliang's subordinates, this mechanism of selecting grass-roots officers let the ordinary soldiers see the hope and fairness of promotion, and the grass-roots officers selected in this way are generally supported by the soldiers, these officers are handy with the management of the low-level soldiers, and the cohesion of the army is far from being comparable to other armies. Moreover, the servants who were responsible for teaching them educated the soldiers ideologically from the very beginning, so that they were loyal to Zhao Ziliang, loyal to the country, and protected the people.

The 1,000 cavalry sent by Beiting had completed the protection task and returned to Tingzhou, and the city walls and houses in the city guarded by Xilin were also built by them, and Zhao Ziliang's initial training of recruits had been completed and they had the strength to fight, so their task was completed and they went back to Tingzhou.

There are now only 2,000 cavalry in the new recruits, and the remaining more than 5,000 people are infantry, Zhao Ziliang's idea is to train these two thousand cavalry into specialized cavalry, and then train heavy cavalry based on them, and these infantry, Zhao Ziliang's idea is to train these people into light cavalry that can fight on foot, and then train light cavalry that can be mounted and shot on their basis, but now the past commercial taxes that can be collected by the Xilin guard are really pitiful, not to mention the training of 10,000 heavy cavalry and 30,000 light cavalry, even less than 8,000 people and horses are difficult to feed now.

On June 15, Zhao Ziliang left the judges Gao Shi and Brehan to lead 2,000 infantry soldiers to garrison Xilin to guard and capture, and he took Wang Can as the vanguard and led 1,000 cavalry as the pioneer to march to the Mouluo Department first, and he himself took 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry soldiers as the main force to follow.

Zhao Ziliang gave the infantry a marching order, the daily marching speed must reach 200 miles, arrive at the shore of Alahu Lake within five days, the temperature in the northwest is high during the day, and the night is cold, in order to better march and let the soldiers have enough time to practice, Zhao Ziliang arranged the marching time to deliberately avoid the two time periods of the hottest at noon and the coldest at midnight, the daily marching time reaches sixteen hours, and the marching time reaches about thirteen miles per hour, although the marching speed is not extremely fast, but it is not slow, and even walking has to walk fast to complete the requirements.

Zhao Ziliang also wanted to use this long-distance rapid march to complete a baptism for these recruits before the final actual battle, which was also a test of the results of the previous training.

The sixteen-hour rapid march every day, with a march of 6.5 kilometers per hour, was enough for the recruits who had undergone such a long period of training for the first two days, until they crossed the Alashan Pass, and many soldiers began to march significantly lower.

Almost every morning and night after the march to rest and eat, the soldiers fell asleep at the end, they were too tired, one day was okay, two days could grit their teeth and hold on, but such a high-intensity march for several days made these recruits really unable to hold on, especially when crossing the Alashan Pass, the altitude was a bit high, many soldiers had a strong reaction, and Zhao Ziliang had to stop and rest for half a day after crossing the Alashan Pass.

Compared with the infantry, although the accompanying 1,000 cavalry was much more comfortable to ride, it was also a kind of torture for them to ride for a long time, and the bumps along the way made them feel that their whole body was about to fall apart when they dismounted and rested.

During the march, some soldiers fell ill because they were too tired, for these people, Zhao Ziliang ordered them to ride horses with them like the cavalry, but they could not be left behind, and sent special people to take care of them, so that they could follow the rear of the army, and they were too sick to ride horses to ride in the carriage of the baggage horse convoy, and the marching speed of the army could not be slowed down because of them.

On the fourth day, the main infantry caught up with the 1,000 cavalry who opened the way in front, which made the cavalry feel very shameless, they were four-legged, and the infantry only had two legs, and the two legs caught up with the four-legged ones, which made this group of very arrogant cavalrymen embarrassed? Especially the military leaders who trained and taught them, they used to be Zhao Ziliang's subordinates, but now they are officers, but they are bound to go down by the foot soldiers brought out by their former robes or brothers, and they are all disgraced, so the cavalry are scolded one by one.

On the evening of the fifth day, Zhao Ziliang led the main force of the Tang army to arrive at the shore of Alahu Lake, and the 1,000 cavalry vanguard led by Wang Can had already arrived in the morning of the same day and set up camp for the main force.

When Zhao Ziliang led the army to arrive, the leaders of all the departments personally went out of the camp to greet them, and the scene was huge.

The infantry were indeed tired from the five-day march, and after dinner, Zhao Ziliang arranged for them to sleep and rest, and the marching Sima Chen Qing was responsible for arranging patrols and guards.

Zhao Ziliang sent people to invite the leaders of the various departments to his Chinese army tent to discuss the dispatch of troops and the attack, and the leaders of the various departments soon arrived one after another, and Zhao Ziliang asked people to prepare wine and meat for entertainment.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for fulfilling your promise to lead the troops to converge! Come, Ben will represent thousands of Tang Dynasty soldiers and officials from the Xilin Guard Mansion to give you a drink! Zhao Ziliang said and picked up the wine cup.

Zhao Ziliang's words made these khane leaders feel more face-saving, and they all smiled happily, and said modestly, "The general is too polite, let's respect the general together!" ”

Everyone drank three glasses in a row, and Zhao Ziliang beckoned them to eat meat, and said while eating: "Some of the leaders of the khans came from far away, such as the transfer khan of the Heluo Shi Department and his 1,000 soldiers and horses, and there are also local landlords, such as the Mouluo Department, it is not easy for the soldiers and horses from afar to march so far, so they should take a little rest and then pull out the camp to send troops, so when to send troops and the position of each department on the way to the army, I should ask your opinions!" I wonder what you think? ”

The Khan put down a leg of mutton and said in a loud voice: "General, since we are invited by the general, then everything is subject to the general's orders, how can we bargain?" ”

When the other khan leaders saw that the Khan said this, they all said: "Yes, yes, yes, please ask the general to give an order, we will never say anything!" (To be continued.) )