Horse meat and whale meat are tumbling in the pot and dried vegetables, with spicy seasonings, and the fragrance is also slightly stimulating. A bowl of broth in the stomach, the whole body is relaxed, more like a fire burning in the belly, warm feeling.

Even if the cold climate had a greater impact on the Ming army, the logistics of the Ming army were better than those of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The clothes, pants, shoes and hats, quilts and tents, as well as the food and drink were all satisfactory to the soldiers. Undoubtedly, this is also a key factor in the high morale of the Ming army and the maintenance of combat effectiveness.

On this point, the front-line generals, including Hu Guozhu, were full of admiration. Although not all of them were aware of the hard work of the imperial court, they also understood the difficulty of the General Staff in ordering a winter break. The battle has reached this place, and the supply of materials has been supported until now, which is really not easy!

This was the main reason why Zhu Yongxing was in a hurry to transfer troops south, and logistical pressures forced him to postpone his plan to continue the attack on the Manchus. In fact, most people can also see clearly that the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which was beaten back to its original form, has almost no possibility of turning the tables. There was no need to even make a big fight, just relying on blockade and siege, and continuous harassment in the three directions of western Liaoning, eastern Liaodong, and southern Liaoning, it was enough to drag down the Manchus and exhaust their last bit of strength.

Of course, this is not the best choice for military generals. After all, only by fighting and winning can we be promoted to the rank of official and famous in history. Whether it is the founding hero or the famous general of Zhongxing, anyway, following Zhu Yongxing, there is always a name that cannot be run.

Ha hand, Hu Guozhu sat down in the position given up by an officer, clasped his hands on the fire, and said to Gao Dejie with a smile: "Old Gao, after this battle, it is estimated that the tall horse is almost here." ”

Gao Dejie laughed, shook his head with some regret, and said, "That's a stallion." If you don't have a few years of work, I'm afraid you won't be able to ride. ”

"It's not a royal horse, right?" Hu Guozhu nodded, pondered for a while, and said, "Don't worry, maybe Banzai can be rewarded with kindness!" ”

"It is good to be rewarded with grace." Gao Dejie thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "But I can only ride majestic." Who is willing to go into battle and kill? ”

"That's just as well." Hu Guozhu nodded suddenly, smiled, and said, "It's better than nothing, save the light and look at the drooling." ”

"Well, I just heard that it's a tall horse, I don't know what it looks like." Gao Dejie handed Hu Guozhu a bowl of hot soup, paused, and said: "Whether it is a big horse or a small pony, the cavalry will definitely expand." Tartars. Dongyu, without 100,000 iron horsemen, I am afraid that they will not be able to control them. ”

"In the decades since the reign of Wenjing, the country has gone from not being able to find even four horses of the same color to owning hundreds of thousands, so that there are historical merits of Wei Qing and Huo Quai." Hu Guozhu said while thinking about it: "The current shape is much stronger than that of the Western Han Dynasty, but if you have 100,000 iron horses, I am afraid it will take several years." ”

Everyone in the world knows that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty counterattacked the Xiongnu and won a complete victory, and there are also "those who commit me to be strong." Although it is far away, it will be punished". But I don't know that his confidence is the accumulation of hard work of the two generations of emperors of his ancestors. There are no supplies. There is no war horse, what to go deep into the desert, what to use to seal the wolf.

Compared with the current Ming Dynasty, the Western Han Dynasty is naturally incomparable. Whether it is the population, territory, productivity, or the level of leaders, the time for the Ming Dynasty to restore the demeanor of a strong country will be greatly reduced. But what Hu Guozhu said also has a point. The source of cavalry, the source of war horses, this is not like infantry, a spear, just practice for a few months.

"If you can get a land to produce horses. Maybe shorten the time. Gao Dejie paused, guessed and said: "Northwest, well, the army led by the King of Jin is also strong, and it may be able to take the Hetao and solve the problem of lack of horses in the Central Plains." ”

For a long time, the most important horse production areas of the Central Plains Dynasty were in the Hetao Plain and the Hexi Corridor, of which the Hexi Corridor was sparsely populated and mostly ruled by foreigners, and the rich Hetao region was the most important. The Hetao area generally refers to the east of Helan Mountain, the west of Luliang Mountain, the south of Yinshan Mountain, and the north of the Great Wall. Including the Yinchuan Plain (Ningxia Plain), the Ordos Plateau, and parts of the Loess Plateau, it belongs to Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi in terms of the current geographical division.

Although China is large, only the Hetao Plain area is the ideal horse production area for the Central Plains Dynasty to control, the Hetao is located in the northwest, the water and grass are abundant, the climate is cold and can herd good horses, but because of the irrigation of the Yellow River, the water source is sufficient, the land is fertile and can plant agriculture and mulberry, which is suitable for the Han people who are engaged in agriculture to survive and reproduce here, and can maintain a large-scale garrison by relying on local output. Although the Hexi Corridor and the Mongolian Plateau can also produce horses, the climate is harsh, the water is scarce and the sand is large, so it is difficult for the Han people to survive, and the army cannot be stationed for a long time.

Historically, when the Central Plains Dynasty got the Hetao area, the cavalry of the Central Plains Dynasty would be strong and able to sweep across the desert, and once the Hetao area was lost, the horse farms in other parts of the Central Plains Dynasty would not be able to withstand the need for a large number of cavalry, and the number of cavalry would be significantly reduced and weakened.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty also occupied the Hetao region. And the Ming Iron Cavalry at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was indeed very strong. Xu Da's northern expedition to Mongolia divided Mongolia into three tribes: Tatar, Walla and Duoyan, and Ming Chengzu's northern expedition to Tatar reached the difficult river. But later the Tatar Dayan Khan gradually became stronger, the Ming Dynasty gradually weakened because of internal corruption, and robbed this land before and after the Chenghua to the Longqing Dynasty, and the cavalry of the Ming Dynasty also collapsed because of the loss of this important horse-producing land, and there were few strong cavalry troops since Longqing.

Hu Guozhu also thinks so. Even if the Hetao area cannot be recovered, it is quite advantageous to use it as an important trade route for buying horses. The Hetao is connected to Qinghai and Gansu in the west and Mongolia in the north, and the Central Plains Dynasty has always set up a horse market here to trade horses with the ethnic minorities in the northwest. Before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it was silk to change horses, and after the middle of the Tang Dynasty, it was to change horses with tea, and the Sichuan-Shaanxi Tea Horse Road was very famous. Although Sichuan can now trade horses with ethnic minorities in the Qinghai-Tibet region, it is not easy to transship horses and goods, and it is not as convenient as the Hetao trade.

In fact, there is another point, in addition to the horse, the Hetao Plain is also known as "strong talents, strong and brave". With the level of training and logistical supply in ancient times, most of them could not afford to train cavalry from scratch, and they were all directly recruited from the border people in the northwest and northern regions who were accustomed to riding horses, and they directly formed an army with a little training. The Hetao Plain has always been a place where elite soldiers and fierce generals are produced, such as Li Guang in Longxi, Lu Bu in Wuyuan, Zhang Liao in Yanmen, Zhejia General in Fuzhou, and Chongjia General, etc., all of which are cattle people who came out of this area near Hetao.

Obviously, however, the use of troops in the northeast and northwest is indeed a test of the imperial court's ability to organize and raise funds, and to test the leaders' ability to govern the country and smooth finances.

………… (To be continued......)