Han Yunhua is very aware of the gap between the cavalry units of the military region and the cavalry of the Yue Army, although he is not from cavalry, but as a commander with heavy troops, understanding the enemy is one of the tasks he must do. In the battle with the army in Saibei, cavalry is an absolutely indispensable link, and the vast grassland cannot be controlled by infantry divisions with extremely poor mobility alone, so the duel between cavalry has become the key to fighting for the Saibei grassland.

Therefore, since the decision to lag behind in the development of Saibei, Han Yunhua has paid special attention to the construction of cavalry. The vast majority of the cavalry of the Inner Mongolia Military Region came from the Mongolian ethnic group, and the cavalry here refers to both knights and war horses. The vast majority of the knights of the Inner Mongolia Military Region came from the Mongols and other ethnic groups living on the Mongolian plateau, such as the Hui and Manchus. The war horses of the Inner Mongolia Military Region are also from the Mongolian steppe, except for a small part of the captured purebred war horses, the rest are war horses produced in China.

The duel of the cavalry troops was extremely tragic, he was not like the infantry across the trenches to shoot, the performance was relatively "subtle", once the cavalry troops met, it was definitely the most primitive confrontation between the knights, and the horses and sabers became the key to determining the outcome of the battle.

The military horse is said to be the most important weapon in the army, second only to firearms—and it is a living weapon—and the two central pillars of the army's cavalry division are men and horses. There is no doubt that the war horses of the Yue army are much better than those used by the Chinese cavalry. In terms of the acquisition and education of military horses, China has done relatively little work, while the military has done relatively well in this regard. The military has a total of eight military horse supplement departments in Yuben and North Korea, and young horses are purchased from horse breeders and raised in the military horse supplement department for four years. And in the autumn of the year when the horses are five years old, the ponies are to be added to the troops. Ponies who "report" to the army are first trained as recruits called "new horse training". The training period is about one year and is carried out by a veterinary officer of the infantry wing. The training is divided into two phases, the first phase is seven months long, focusing on various sports methods and troop marching training; The second stage is five months long and focuses on training the horses for endurance. Horses trained by the new horses will be inspected at a parade and distributed to the grassroots units after the Wing Captain has completed the inspection. After completing the training, the horses are distributed to the units for service, which lasts for about ten years.

The army is relatively thoughtful about the adjustment and protection of war horses, and the first task of each grassroots unit after getting up every day is to complete the stable service. Every day after waking up and before breakfast, the horses of each unit are pulled out of the stables, the horses are washed, the hooves are cleaned, and the horses are provided with fodder; When the weather is fine, the hay in the stable for the horses to sleep and rest should be exposed to the sun and dried. The entire stable operation takes about an hour, and according to the relevant regulations of the battalion, all units must complete all the stable operations and feed the horses before the troops are allowed to eat breakfast.

There is another important reason why the war horses of the army are stronger than the Chinese horses, that is, the food of the military horses is much better than that of the horses. It is said that the military horses must be fed three times a day, and the four ingredients in peacetime include: barley, hay, salt, etc., and the rations of the military horses in wartime include other wheat, beans, oats, etc. At the same time, the military horses serving in the [***] team are much more pitiful, not to mention the poor food, the most important thing is that the quantity is insufficient, corresponding to China's national strength is poor and weak, and the people themselves have lived hard enough, and people have not yet eaten that there is food to feed the horses. Not to mention that the extra food and forage given by the troops to the war horses is not much, even if it can reach the average amount, it will not all go to the horse's belly. It is extremely common for people in the [***] team to eat horse food, horses are an animal, whether it is a war horse or an ordinary horse, they can't speak, even if they are robbed of food by the soldiers, they will not complain.

Not to mention the cavalry units of the national political axe, even the cavalry units of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, which attaches great importance to the cultivation and training of war horses, do not dare to compete with the army in this respect. This time, the cavalry units of the Inner Mongolia Military Region wanted to compete with the Yue army in a cavalry duel, and even wanted to completely annihilate the cavalry joint group of the Yue army, but it was not an ordinary difficulty. Therefore, Han Yunhua did not dare to bet all his treasures on the cavalry troops of Aolige, after all, he knew his own situation. Although Aurege now has nearly 50,000 cavalry, there are not many of them who actually have combat effectiveness.

If the more than 50,000 cavalry in Aolige's hands competed with the same number of cavalry troops of the National Political Axe, then Han Yunhua would definitely put a hundred hearts at ease, because in terms of combat effectiveness, the individual soldiers of the Inner Mongolia Military Region were much stronger than the cavalry troops of the National Political Axe.

In addition to Han Yunhua's troops, cavalry units were also formed in the Saibei area, but the cavalry units of the Yue Army, the puppet army, and the troops of the National Political Axe also formed cavalry units, but if you want to assign a name to the combat effectiveness of all the cavalry units, the Yue army is well-deserved to rank first in terms of the same number. In addition, Han Yunhua's cavalry troops far surpassed the national political axe and the puppet army in terms of momentum and the importance of the cavalry, so the combat effectiveness of Han Yunhua's cavalry should be ranked second, and the national political axe is also China's legitimate political axe, so there is also a considerable investment in the cavalry, even if there are many problems in the implementation process, but it is also much stronger than the puppet army that is always restricted by the army.

Although there is an extremely large gap between the two sides in terms of strength, after all, the more than 15,000 cavalry of the Chinese army is far inferior to the number of Han Yunhua's troops, but the number of cavalry duels can certainly be used as a factor to measure combat effectiveness, but it is not the most important. Looking at cavalry battles throughout history, it is not difficult to see that the number of people does not determine the success or failure of a war.

But the Inner Mongolia Military Region can't afford to lose this battle, if it loses, not only will his own Han Yunhua's own life not be guaranteed, but even the entire war situation in North China will undergo earth-shaking changes, and Saibei, which has been painstakingly operated for more than two years, will return to the state of 37 years. Therefore, Han Yunhua absolutely did not allow such a major mistake in this battle, in order to win this battle, Han Yunhua made two preparations, the first was to deliberately conceal the whereabouts and strength of the cavalry troops, until now the intelligence organs of the army do not know how many cavalry units there are in the Inner Mongolia Military Region, and how many people there are. Second, Han Yunhua ordered the cavalry's nemesis armored unit to rush to eastern Hebei to cooperate with the cavalry troops.

You must know that the armored force is the natural nemesis of the cavalry, he holds the cavalry to the death with strong armored protection and relatively superior mobile force, and every time the cavalry fights with the armored force, the result will end in a crushing defeat for the cavalry unit.

Although not a single division or regiment of the Chinese army has a cavalry unit with a different number but the least number is also a wing, but the degree of fame is still a cavalry group. The cavalry group of the army (the scale reached the division level) was organized and dissolved in Hailar, North Cyprus in July 1933, and was subordinate to the group headquarters and the 1st Cavalry Brigade (consisting of: the 13th and 14th Cavalry Wings and the Machine Gun Team). The 4th Cavalry Brigade (consisting of: the 25th and 26th Cavalry Companies and the Machine Gun Brigade). Group Cavalry Artillery Wing, Group Combat Vehicle Brigade, Mechanized Automobile Infantry Brigade, Group Baggage Brigade. Since the cavalry group is a military establishment at the division and regiment level, the group commander (actually equivalent to the commander of the cavalry division) is generally a lieutenant general. The first group leader was Usami Koya, and the next group leaders were: Hasunuma Fan, Kasai Heijuro, Inaba Shiro, Naito Shoichi (from Manchuria to North China at this time), and the current cavalry group leader is Lieutenant General Yoshida Nao.

In June 1938, the cavalry group was ordered to go to North China. The cavalry artillery company and the group combat convoy in the group were divided into two brigades and regiments. In addition, brigade rapid-fire artillery units were added. From then on, cavalry groups with strong mobility appeared in North China. Participated in the Battle of the Han River and the Battle of Gowon. In August 1938, the cavalry group was assembled in the area north of the New Yellow River in Henan Province. After the Battle of Xuzhou, the Central China Army was gathering troops in order to attack Wuhan. In order to ensure the fruits of the victory so far, the 2nd Army spent a considerable period of time in North China to recuperate and maintain law and order. After that, the 2nd Army moved south to prepare for the attack on Wuhan, and the whole of North China began to become empty. The cavalry group was ordered to make a feint and prepare to cross the New Yellow River after a false shot. The cavalry group was ordered to prepare for the crossing of the new Yellow River, but was finally ordered to stay put. Until 1939, the 1st Brigade and the 4th Brigade had carried out sweeping operations in the Guide area and the 4th Brigade in the Kaifeng area.

In March 1939, the cavalry group was transferred to the North China Dispatch Army directly under the command of the combat sequence, and was responsible for maintaining law and order in a vast area centered on Beiping. At the same time, he actively prepared for war and prepared to make another deal with Han Yunhua's subordinates, but at this time, the 4th Cavalry Brigade in the group had been transferred to the 11th Army, and in fact, there was only the 1st Cavalry Brigade in the group, which was an empty shelf for the cavalry group. This time, in order to ensure that the raid on Chengde could achieve the expected results, the headquarters of the North China Front ordered all units to concentrate all the cavalry and assign it to the cavalry group.

Lieutenant General Yoshida can be regarded as complacent during this time, although Lieutenant General Yoshida has always been in an important position, but he has not been happy since he became the leader of this bullshit cavalry group. Although the cavalry group is also a military unit at the division and regiment level, it is a real promotion in the eyes of ordinary people for an officer who has just been promoted to lieutenant general, but only Yoshida Naozhong knows that the commander of this cavalry group is a complete chicken rib. A seemingly huge establishment is actually just a cavalry brigade, said to be a cavalry division, but there is at least one brigade that cannot be mobilized outside all the year round, and if there is a combat mission that requires the cavalry group to fight, his cavalry unit can only act as a subordinate to do miscellaneous work, and sometimes can only act as a firefighting team and cannon fodder.

However, during this period of time, the progress of the Imperial Army, especially the troops of the North China Front, has not been smooth, and now the entire Front Army is already in an extremely dangerous time, so General Binshan Yuan thought of Yoshida Nao's cavalry group, this time let the cavalry troops resist the big head General Binshan Yuan also took a great risk, the cavalry unit of the Inner Mongolia Military Region General Binshan Yuan also has a very deep understanding, some time ago the Eighth Route Army in Shanxi suddenly appeared a lot of cavalry battalions and cavalry companies, This made Shanxi's Xiangyue Qingji feel extremely annoyed, so after consulting Bin Shanyuan, he sent two cavalry brigades to sweep Shanxi, and it was the Eighth Route Army. However, Shanxi was the focus of contention between the two sides, so every move of the Eighth Route Army made the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army set a strict and solid order, and under the deliberate arrangement of the headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, the method of luring the enemy to fight deep into the outer line was quickly adopted to severely damage the cavalry units of the Yue Army.

Therefore, at the special request of Bin Shanyuan, the special high-tech department of the Yue Army began to pay attention to collecting information about the cavalry units of the Eighth Route Army. Although there are not many cavalry units in the entire headquarters of the Eighth Route Army, each of them is extremely strong in combat, although the weapons and equipment are still very primitive, and they are basically incomparable with the army, but both equestrian and slashing experience are very powerful. Although the army will kill a lot of Chinese cavalry every time, it still can't rewrite the result of the defeat of the battle, so General Binshan Yuan is still very worried about letting the cavalry resist the big head attack. Moreover, what worries General Binshanyuan the most is that after a long period of investigation, the general person in charge of the Shanxi region of the special high-tech department reported to the headquarters of the North China Front Army, saying that almost all the cavalry of the Shanxi Eighth Route Army was transferred from the headquarters of Han Yunhua of the Inner Mongolia Military Region, which means that the cavalry of the Inner Mongolia Military Region is also as effective as the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters.

However, every time I think of the backward weapons and equipment used by the cavalry of the Eighth Route Army captured by the cavalry of the Yue Army, General Binshan Yuan has a trace of confidence in his heart, and takes the saber most commonly used in cavalry combat, the cavalry was founded with the French cavalry as a sample, so the French standard saber with brass handle was used directly at first. In 1897, the army formally determined the standard of the saber, and in 1899, it was improved and standardized, and it was called the 32-style saber. The 32-year saber is divided into two types: A and B: the 32-year saber is a special saber for cavalry, and the total length of the cavalry saber is 102 cm; The Type B 32-year saber is a saber used by non-commissioned officers of other arms, and the whole factory is 93 cm. However, the A-type 32-year-style saber is directly borrowed from the results of the Western-style saber, and the short handle causes the center of gravity of the saber to be biased towards the tip of the knife, which is conducive to stabbing and not conducive to cutting or splitting. The Type A 32-style saber had many other shortcomings, so it was improved by the Army in 1930 (Showa 5) and trial-made into the 91-style saber. The blade of the Type 91 saber is slightly shorter than that of the Type A 32-year saber, and the handle is increased to adjust the position of the center of gravity of the saber. So far, it is said that the cavalry sabers referred to or improved by the army are all Western-style sabers with gauntlets. Non-commissioned officers at the grassroots level generally complained that Western-style sabers with handguards were inconvenient to use. Therefore, the cavalry on horseback basically operated on the Chinese battlefield, and most of the sabers used were unimproved Type A 32-year sabers.

In addition to some of the captured sabers of the Chinese cavalry during the same period, the rest of the Chinese cavalry used old-fashioned cavalry knives, and some even used Chinese native broadswords. In addition, there is a big difference in the cavalry rifles, the Chinese cavalry used the captured 4-type cavalry rifle and the 38-type rifle, while the cavalry used the same 12-year cavalry rifle.

The biggest gap lies in the quantity and quality of ammunition, due to China's backward industrial production capacity, so Han Yunhua's department has not been able to produce ammunition for cavalry guns, and the cavalry ammunition of the Inner Mongolia Military Region is in short supply. Different from other troops, it is said that when the cavalry is wearing a military uniform, it also carries an ammunition box on its shoulder, which contains rifle ammunition for combat. Although the cartridge box containing cavalry rifle bullets has not changed much over the years, there have been a number of improvements, including the cartridge belt. Soon after the outbreak of the 918 Incident, for the cavalry units engaged in reconnaissance and search missions, the existing ammunition boxes at that time were indeed a little less loaded. In order to solve the problem of low ammunition carrying, the cavalry introduced a new cavalry cloth belt known as the 44 cavalry belt. In addition to carrying a large amount of ammunition, the cloth cartridge belt for the Type 44 cavalry could also carry two additional grenades. At about the same time as the introduction of the cloth cartridge belt for the 44-type cavalry, in order to ensure that the cavalry was tied with a cloth cartridge belt around the waist, the horse neck was tied with a cartridge belt, and the 44 cavalry rifle was carried on the back, and at the same time, there were some horses specially used to drag ammunition in none of the cavalry wings, taking the Type 92 heavy machine gun squad as an example, the Type 92 heavy machine gun weighed 55 kg, so each squad was equipped with five pack horses (one of which was a reserve horse), in addition to carrying machine guns, the standard for carrying ammunition was that each horse needed to carry four 540-round ammunition boxes, However, in wartime, considering the effects of long marches, each horse was actually carried in two boxes per horse. In the artillery wing, if the field artillery does not include the horses of the artillery itself, the auxiliary vehicles of each artillery - ammunition trucks, observation vehicles, and reserve vehicles - need three horses. In the case of mountain artillery, the mountain artillery was disassembled and moved by six horses in a pack mode, and the ammunition pack horses carried 12 shells each. Therefore, General Binshan Yuan still gave a high evaluation of this military operation of the cavalry group, and at the same time reported high expectations, although he did not dare to say that it was inevitable, but he absolutely wanted the cavalry troops to drag the Eighth Route Army in eastern Hebei as much as possible.

On the morning of 30 August, the cavalry group of the Yue army finally took Dongping Fort, 50 kilometers east of Kuancheng, and opened the gate to Chengde, and Lieutenant General Yoshida Nao also knew the real situation of the 20th Division of the Yue Army in Xinghe County and the last infantry brigade of the Yamashita Division, so he did not dare to rub in Dongping Fort any longer, and less than two hours after taking Dongping Fort, just after lunch, Yoshida Nao immediately ordered his troops to rush to the next strategic destination -- Kuancheng.

(To be continued)