Shao Xi took Lao Wu and Wu Qiu'er to the stable with the palace attendants, and since he had already been here the day before, Shao Xi and these horse masters had already met.

After a general look at the state of the horses, he instructed the horse master to take good care of the horses before the race begins, and there must be no mistakes.

In fact, Shao Xi's instructions are basically superfluous, if something really goes wrong with this royal horse, none of these horse masters can save their heads, so they are more nervous than Shao Xi.

However, for Shao Xi, this horse race is also very important.

If he wins this race, he will be able to gain the trust of Fa Yi Ze, and everything he wants to do in the future can be done with the help of Fa Yi Ze.

But if he loses, his cowhide will be blown out, and he can only take Lao Wu and Wuqiu'er to flee around like lost dogs.

Before coming, Shao Xi had already made two preparations, if he could successfully win the horse race, everything would be fine.

If something went wrong and he lost this Marseille, it would not be difficult for the three of them to escape from the palace and Loulan City, but then everything he had planned would be ruined.

Therefore, this horse race is very important, and Shao Xi cannot lose no matter what.

In addition to taking care of these horses on weekdays, those horse masters also have to control these horses during horse racing, so they are extremely familiar with the stable and the venue of the competition in previous years, which is also convenient for Shao Xi to provide some inside information.

From the mouth of the horse master, it was learned that the horses and horse masters of the Western envoys had also come to the palace early in the morning, and the location of the stables was not far from them.

So Shao Xi secretly gave Lao Wu a look, and Lao Wu naturally understood, nodded slightly, and then left the stable under the pretense of going to the toilet.

This was something that the two had already discussed, and Lao Wu secretly sneaked into the stable where the horses of the Western Turkic envoys were located to find out the order in which the other party arranged the horses to race in today's horse race.

Although it was a common practice in previous years, Shao Xi always had to prevent some accidents, in case the Western envoys made some moths this year and adjusted the order of the horses, it would seriously affect his plans.

Everything must be prepared for a rainy day, so as to be safe.

And Lao Wu is the most suitable person to do this, whether he was a thief back then, or a secret agent in the "Jing Chengsi", he is the most suitable person to listen to the news.

After Lao Wu left, Shao Xi stayed in the stable and chatted with those horse masters about horse racing in previous years, and at the same time observed the horses that were going to race today.

I have to say that the high-quality horses of the Western Turks are indeed incomparable to the horses of the Central Plains, even if these horses of the Loulan Kingdom are the war horses eliminated by the Western Turks, these horses used by the royal family for horse racing are also quite outstanding.

The more Shao Xi looked at it, the more he liked it, these horses were tall and strong, and they were very energetic, which were completely different from the horses he rode on the grassland back then.

Rivers horses are good at running, have great endurance, and are easy to tame, but the only drawback is their short stature.

Shao Xi's "Listening to the Snow" riding back to the Central Plains from the grassland is one of the few tall horses in Hezhou, I don't know if it is a genetic mutation?

As a cavalry, Hezhou horses are very good at long-distance running, but when they are used to charge on the battlefield, they are a little lacking in physique, and the impact is not enough, so they are not suitable for heavy cavalry.

Although they are both cavalry, there are many kinds of cavalry on the battlefield, which are generally divided into light cavalry and heavy cavalry.

The greatest advantage of the light cavalry is that it is faster than the infantry, has great stamina, and is enough to drag the infantry down by constantly wandering and pursuing.

The heavy cavalry is equivalent to the ancient armored force, which is more suitable for attacking and defeating the enemy, and can break up the enemy's formation from the front or flank, forming a sudden and powerful impact.

To put it simply, heavy cavalry is used to charge and break the formation, facing the enemy's surprise attack head-on, while light cavalry is more of a roundabout strategy, outflanking the enemy, and quickly dividing the enemy's formation in order to break through each one.

Therefore, the combination of light and heavy cavalry on the battlefield will be more beneficial to the battlefield situation.

However, the Central Plains is far inferior to the Hezhou grassland and the Jinzhou desert in the cultivation of horses.

First, the environment of the Central Plains is difficult to produce high-quality horses, after all, there is no large area of high-quality pasture to herd horses.

The second is that the Central Plains has long been dominated by infantry, because the cost of infantry equipment is lower.

You must know that the grain and grass consumed by a horse is equivalent to three infantry, which will form a huge pressure on the supply of grain and grass in the rear, and a large number of cavalry is far less cost-effective than raising infantry.

But this also seriously affected the combat power of the Jingyuan Imperial army, and the infantry was far inferior to the cavalry in terms of speed of action, mobility and flexibility against the enemy on the battlefield, and even impact power when charging.

This is indeed a reality that has to be faced by the Jingyuan Empire, which has a large number of armaments all year round.

But now the situation is different, Shao Xi has obtained a large amount of treasure from Wuhai Kingdom, and this money can be used to train a large number of cavalry for the Jingyuan Empire.

But the question at this time is, where to get a large number of horses?

Shao Xi hit the idea on the head of Loulan Kingdom, if he could successfully obtain a large number of Western Turkic horses from here, then he could expand a large number of cavalry for the Jingyuan Empire.

This played a vital role in improving the combat power of the Jingyuan Empire's army.

I have to say that Shao Xi's abacus is really loud, and it is estimated that Xiao Changyi can hear it in the palace of Daliang in Kyoto.

Shao Xi was pondering when he saw someone come to the stable to inform the horse master to prepare for today's horse race.

In fact, strictly speaking, the annual horse race between the king of Loulan and the Western envoys is an annual form of diplomacy.

Because every year at this time, the Western Turks will send envoys to send a large number of eliminated war horses to the Loulan Kingdom, and when they return, they will bring back the tribute of the Loulan Kingdom.

To put it mildly, the eldest brother will come to the younger brother every year to collect a protection fee, and then politely give the younger brother some rags that he doesn't want.

Although the Loulan Kingdom knew that this was the Western Turk taking advantage of itself, in order to attach itself to the Western Turk and make itself the only powerful country among these many small countries in this desert, even if it suffered a loss, it could only admit it.

After all, compared with being wiped out by the Western Turks, now Fa Yize, the king of Loulan, is still doing a better job.

If it loses the protection of the Western Turks, even if the national strength of the Loulan Kingdom is stronger than these small countries around it, if these small countries attack it en masse, it may be difficult for the Loulan Kingdom to deal with it on its own.

Nowadays, it is a situation where big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimp.

In the face of the Western Turks, the Loulan State could only pass on the losses to the surrounding small countries, and did everything possible to squeeze the losses back from them, but the result of this also made the Loulan Kingdom more and more isolated.

Although these small countries around them dare to be angry but dare not speak out at the moment, they are actually not subservient to him from the heart, and Fa Yi is not unaware.

But the more this happens, the more he has to be attached to the West, and a vicious circle is formed.

The more the West oppressed him, the more he squeezed the surrounding small countries, and the more he squeezed the surrounding small countries, the more isolated he became.

Today, this situation has taken shape, and it is difficult to change it.

Judging from Fa Yize's eagerness to win in the horse race, Shao Xi can also see that in fact, Fa Yi Ze is also dissatisfied with the West Turks in his heart.

It's just that due to the huge power of the Western Turks, their Loulan State can only swallow their anger and have to surrender on the surface.

It's like admitting the wrong godfather, but offending all the relatives and friends around you.

Even if I know now that this godfather is not good, I can only admit it like this, otherwise I will really become a traitor.

Loulan Kingdom is now in the same situation as the surrounding small countries, if he turns his face with the godfather of Xiju again, he will only be the worst person who will be cleaned up at that time.

And this situation is extremely favorable for the westward expansion of the Jingyuan Empire in the future.

Because although the Western Turks conquered some of the small countries in the Western Regions, they could not form effective rule and management, so they could only choose to support and suppress a group.

In this way, it will make it impossible for the countries in the Western Regions to form a force unity, and the scattered Jinzhou Mobai tribes are what the Jingyuan Dynasty wants to see the most.

This will not cause military pressure on the western border of the Jingyuan Empire, and at the same time, it will be easier to break through each when it advances westward in the future.

From Shao Xi's previous historical knowledge, he knew very well that if the Jingyuan Empire wanted to dominate the world in the future, it would be completely useless to rely on infantry when conquering the Hezhou Grassland and the Jinzhou Desert.

These forces on the grassland and desert are mainly cavalry, and in the face of these cavalry that advance and retreat quickly, coming and going like the wind, the infantry in the Central Plains has no advantage at all.

At that time, it can only be cavalry against cavalry, strong against strong, and fast against fast, so the Jingyuan Empire must make great efforts in the training of cavalry in the future.

While Shao Xi was pondering this, he heard the sound of drums and horns coming from the direction of the racecourse, and the horse masters became even busier after hearing these drums and horns.

They all know that the annual Marseille is about to begin.

Although there are various ceremonies and songs and dances before the start of the race, all participating horses and equestrians must be ready to compete at any time.

At this time, the three horse masters who were preparing to participate in the competition had already equipped all the horse harnesses, and all the eyes of everyone looked at Shao Xi.

For they all know that this man is the important person who has been appointed by the king to arrange the horse race for the day, and it is up to him to decide which horse will be raced in which race.

And when the Marseille was about to start, Shao Xi did not give them any instructions, which made several horse masters who were preparing to race a little apprehensive, and they were all speculating whether the person arranged by the king was reliable?

At this time, Shao Xi was more or less flustered in his heart, he didn't know if his previous ideas could be realized, and now he could make a decision by relying on the news brought back by Lao Wu.

But Lao Wu hasn't come back after leaving for so long, shouldn't he have been discovered by others?

"Young Master Shao, this horse race is about to start, shouldn't you make arrangements for the order of our appearance?"

One of the horse masters saw that Shao Xi had not moved so far, and he was secretly anxious in his heart, and couldn't help but open his mouth to remind Shao Xi.

Shao Xi secretly scolded Lao Wu in his heart for dropping the chain at a critical time, which is really unreliable!

Now that the matter is in front of him, whether he can bring back the news or not, he must make arrangements.

So he opened his mouth and asked the horse masters in front of him: "The horses participating in the competition are ranked according to their strength, which one is from strongest to weakest?" ”

The horse master turned around and pointed to the three horses behind him, one black and one white, and replied to Shao Xi: "This black horse with a white spot on his forehead is the strongest, followed by the white horse, and the one with a pure black body is the weakest of the three."

"However, these three horses lost to the horses of the West Turks in last year's competition, and I heard that the horses sent by the West Turks this year are stronger than last year, I don't know how Shao Gongzi plans to arrange them?"

Hearing that the horses sent by Xiju this year were stronger than last year's, Shao Xi couldn't help but have a headache, and said in his heart, why was he so unlucky?

At this time, Lao Wu ran back out of breath.

When Shao Xi saw him, he secretly complained in his heart that this old guy almost delayed his own business, but fortunately, it was still in time.

Lao Wu didn't notice Shao Xi's anxious expression, ran to Shao Xi's side, and whispered a few words in his ear, Shao Xi nodded after hearing this.

So he turned to the horse master who was leading the whole black horse among the three horse masters and said, "You will start the first race, don't be too nervous, just do your best." ”

When the three horse masters and the others around heard Shao Xi's arrangement, they all had surprised expressions on their faces.

As is customary in previous races, the strongest horses are usually fielded in the first race to win the first race, followed by a second win in the next two races.

At this time, Shao Xi actually let the weakest horse play the first race, which was completely different from previous years.

Such an arrangement is tantamount to giving away the first chance to win, and it is even more unpredictable to win or lose later, isn't this year's Marseille destined to lose?

The horse master who was leading another dark horse couldn't help but question: "Young Master Shao, what is your arrangement?" Everyone knows that the first game is the most important of the three games.

"In previous years, we would have fielded the strongest horses in the first race, but now you put the weakest horse in the first race, aren't you doomed to lose?

"If we lose the first game, we are forced into a dead end, and we have to make sure that we win the next two games, which is almost impossible based on the experience of previous years.

"How did you come up with such an arrangement? Did you know that if we lose a game, we will be punished very severely? ”

When Shao Xi learned from Lao Wu that the order of the horses on the Western envoys' side was still according to the previous year and had not changed, he was much more relieved.

Because as long as the order of the opponent's race remains unchanged, he arranges the order of the horses according to the method of Tian Ji horse racing, there is a great probability of winning, so he has enough confidence at this time.

"You don't have to be nervous, just do what I say, I know you can lose the first game, but as long as you follow my plan, we can win the last two."

After listening to Shao Xi's words, everyone looked at each other suspiciously, and they couldn't understand why Shao Xi made such an arrangement.

Just when everyone was expressing their incomprehension of Shao Xi's arrangement, the race officials in charge of the horse race came to the stable.

"The first horse and the master are ready to play!"