After leaving the palace, Zhao Mengqi did not delay, went to the political hall for a walk, and according to the procedure, took over the official position of the herd herding envoy from Dong Huai.

The group of pastors said that it is very important, so the prime minister is in charge, in fact, there are old examples, Dong Huai basically didn't ask too much, after all, judging from the situation of the Great Song Dynasty, no one can do anything in horse politics.

This official family suddenly added a herd herding system to King Yan, which made the minister a little inexplicable, and he didn't see that it would have an impact on the government, so he didn't think about it deeply, but when King Yan pleased the official family again, he got a title as a reward.

But what they didn't know was that Zhao Mengqi then went to the Pastoral Division to take office.

A group of officials from the Herding Division looked stunned when they saw Zhao Mengqi's arrival.

The chief official who is really in charge of affairs here, according to the establishment, should be the first herd envoy, the first deputy envoy, the second metropolitan supervisor, and the second judge, but at present, there is only one metropolitan eunuch surnamed Guo, a judge surnamed Jiao, and more than a dozen subordinate officials.

After seeing the new envoy with his head bored, Guo Dujian didn't know what to do next, and led his subordinates to stand like a pile of wood carvings, waiting for Zhao Mengqi's orders anxiously.

Zhao Mengqi, who was sitting behind the public case, was not in a hurry to speak, and looked at this group of eight or nine 'petty officials' slowly.

This Guo Dujian doesn't look like an official at all, with big hands and thick feet, and his face is wrinkled like an old peasant, or rather, like a horseman.

The other officials are also quite shabby, the official uniforms are not new or old, but it is normal, but there is no spirit on the body, let alone the style of officials, it seems that this group of pastors is completely inconsistent with the fat difference imagined by Zhao Mengqi, but it is a Qingshui Yamen who is clearer than Qing Shui.

Zhao Mengqi, who suddenly felt a little bad, twisted his eyebrows, "Xiao Wang wants to know about the current situation of our Great Song Dynasty Ma Zheng, as well as the situation of the Herding Division, which of you can talk about it." ”

A group of officials, you look at me, I look at you, and finally Guo Dujian spoke, "Your Highness, let's talk to you......

Originally, Zhao Mengqi only knew that the Great Song Dynasty lacked horses, but he didn't know much about why it was lacking and to what extent.

It can be said that before the appearance of machine guns, cavalry was the most decisive type of troops, without one, without a strong cavalry, it is impossible to become a military power, and the war horse is naturally the most important equipment of cavalry.

Throughout the history of China, all dynasties that were able to control the north-central Shaanxi and Gansu regions in later generations were always in a strong military position, and vice versa were in a weak position, all because these places were traditional production areas of fine war horses.

Roughly speaking, the origin of war horses is the further northwest, the better the quality, and the further southeast the worse, and the horses produced in the southwest are actually not suitable for war horses.

It was precisely because of the founding of the Western Xia that the Great Song Dynasty completely lost the horse-producing land in the northwest, which caused a shortage of war horses and a weak cavalry army, making it more and more difficult to resist the impact and invasion of the nomadic cavalry.

Therefore, in order to obtain war horses, the Great Song Dynasty relied on buying and buying, and the other successively established a total of 81 horse prisons in various places to raise horses, and most of these horse prisons were located north of the Yellow River.

After arriving in Nandu, the land of Hebei was lost, and the imperial court still worked hard to re-establish more than 30 new horse prisons, but for various reasons, after Zhao Yun ascended the throne, only Lin'an and a horse prison for raising royal horses remained, and other horse supervisors used to breed war horses did not exist.

In other words, this will be the Great Song Dynasty basically has no other source of war horses except for buying, buying, buying.

The key point is that even the area where horses can be bought has also shrunk, and they can only be bought from the southwest, so these southwestern mountain horse breeds, which are not suitable for war horses, have become the main source of cavalry in the Song Dynasty.

If the quality is not good, you can use the quantity to make up, and you can barely go down, but the horses that can be bought in the southwest are also very limited.

On the whole, the Great Song Dynasty had the largest number of war horses of 200,000, which was the period of Taizong and Zhenzong, and there was no Western Xia.

When it came to Renzong, there were only 100,000 horses left, and then when Shenzong was in the future, because of the opening of the river, it increased to 150,000, and then it went all the way down.

Guo Dujian said abruptly, "Now, the horses bought are basically directly transferred to the army, so the herd division can be said to have no horses to herd. ”

Zhao Mengqi's face was extremely ugly, "Then how many war horses are there in the country now?" ”

"Ma Bu Sansi, a total of more than 20,000, but half of them are weak, old and sick, and the armies on the river do not exceed 50,000, so I'm afraid there is a lot of water."

Guo Dujian is a sincere person, and he will say whatever he knows, "As far as Wei Chen knows, the Ma Military Division stationed in Jiankang should have 7,830 horses according to the military registration, but when the year before last, it was less than 2,200 horses, which was as high as three-quarters. ”

"Why are there so many missing, but what's the drawback!?" Zhao Mengqi's voice turned cold.

"It's... This has always been the case in the army, and the disadvantages are certainly indispensable, but it is not so bad, and this deficiency is mainly due to war damage and the old and weak diseases of the horses themselves. ”

"Didn't you just say that the horse supervisors in the southwest and other places have been buying horses, but what about the horses they bought?"

"Your Highness, the southwest is far away, and the road is difficult, even if you buy a horse, it is very inconvenient to transport it."

"Can't you ship by sea?"

"Uh, sea freight? This horse is not resistant to the bumps of the sea road, and I am afraid that half of it will die first. ”

When Zhao Mengqi heard this, his head was big for a while, and he couldn't help pinching his forehead.

This stall is even worse than the worst situation I expected, not to mention the quality of the horses, the war horses of the Song army are the lowest quality on this continent, and the number of Kernima cannot even be guaranteed.

The number of soldiers in the Ma Xing Division is 30,000 people, and the original more than 7,000 horses are already four or five soldiers and one horse, but now it is actually more than a dozen people spreading a horse, which can still be called cavalry!?

It seems that the immediate solution at the moment is to solve the transportation problem first.

Maritime war horses, if it is improved, it is still feasible, horses are not tolerant of bumps, then let them adapt to a period of time, and then transport them in sections, turning long distances into short distances, giving horses time to recuperate, it should not be a big problem.

Since the Great Song Dynasty has absolute technological advantages in shipbuilding and navigation, how can it not be used well?

What's more, if you want to go ocean to buy horses in the future, you must first accumulate experience and technology in this area.

Hey, it's not something that can be solved in the short term, but let's start cultivating the private horse market first.

Since so many horses are not suitable for war horses, let's just bring them to civilian use first!