Chen Ping hesitated, obviously without confidence,

"Following the news that the Huns sold horses to the Yan State, there is no updated news."

"The sale of horses is also vague.

How many horses were sold? Is it only sold this once? Will it be sold in the future? ”

Liu Ji frowned, not very satisfied with the information sent back.

"How can I say it, the spy sent by the minister this time has not yet entered the royal court, and has always been circling around the periphery, and can only get some small news from the herdsmen.

Even the sale of horses was discovered by the herdsmen on the way to transport the horses, and everyone talked about it before the spies learned about it.

So, if things do come to that point, we don't know what exactly is going to be done. ”

"Hiss—even those women can't enter the royal court?"

"Probably not, and the minister is also puzzled by this.

It seems that Maudun is more cautious than we think. ”

"Liu Jingjian didn't see Shan Yu, and he didn't know?"

Liu Ji didn't give up and asked.

Chen Ping shook his head, feeling that the Xiongnu Grassland was like a huge pitch-black bottomless cave, capable of devouring all news and light.

"That's it, there is no doubt about employing people, I am confident that Liu Jing is not mistaken, he is a person who knows how to improvise.

Let's respond to all changes with the same, regardless of whether he unites with the Huns, and make preparations for the moment first. ”

Liu Ji's eye circles were also a little dark, and there was endless anxiety between his eyebrows.

That's right, the "he" in the mouth of their monarchs and ministers refers to Zang Di, the king of Yan, who is still complaining about illness and refusing to come to Luoyang to meet and report on his work.

The mountain rain is coming, although Liu Ji keeps saying that he has to wait for the movement of the Yan State in the north for a long time, and has some back-ups, but if the Xiongnu really send troops to help Zang Di, it will be tantamount to putting him, the new emperor, directly on the fire to roast.

"Let's wait for the news from Longxi, once you receive the music from the ovary, no matter when, you can submit it at any time."

***

Sure enough, within three days, Zhang Liang's note was sent from Longxi Express, detailing his experience of on-site visits and surveys.

And, what did not disappoint the emperor was that Zhang Taifu also conducted tireless investigations on the governance and people's livelihood of the border counties in the northwest.

For this reason, Liu Ji Xingye summoned everyone to discuss the matter in the forbidden night, and asked Xiaohuangmen to go to the North Palace, and specially invited the queen to participate together.

When Lu Pheasant came along the Fu Dao, he realized that it was Taifu Zhang who suggested that the emperor could invite her to come with him to observe, because "the queen knows a lot about soldiers".

She pouted, these days when she came out and went in the North and South Palace, she had already sensed the tense atmosphere in the court.

Seeing that Xiao He was about to become an adult, and the generals such as Fan Hao and Guan Ying, as well as the servant Xiahou Ying, all frequently went in and out of the forbidden middle school to report on the deliberations, which showed that the big event was coming.

And Zhang Zifang's recital can be regarded as a little reassuring pill for the restless Luoyang people.

It's just that this reassuring pill came after a series of undesirable situations, and it can be regarded as suppressing first and then rising.

"The ovary main talks about three things, one of which is bad, and the other two are good."

Liu Ji nodded and motioned for the Yellow Gate General to read out the chapter.

At the beginning of the chapter, Zhang Liang admitted his cowardice, admitting that the plan is not as fast as the change, and he has always been the first to plan and anticipate the enemy, but in front of an animal like a horse, he was hit hard.

According to the on-site visit to the border county pasture, Zhang Liang found that his previous expectations about war horses were still too rough and optimistic.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Huns continued to go south to harass them, the official horses in the six herds were lost or used in the civil war, and the sergeants of the pastoral supervisors also fled, and the various pastures in Longxi were basically abandoned.

It can be said that after the world is settled, all industries are waiting to be developed, and the six herds that the imperial court has taken over again are simply a zero-based mess, not only the pasture has been reduced, but even the senior herdsmen who know how to raise horses are left, and there is an extreme shortage of professional manpower.

Moreover, in the reports of the shepherds to the central government, the number of existing war horses was at least doubled.

"Cut, I knew that those people who didn't have the law of kings would definitely do this-"

Xiahou Ying, the servant who was still listening quietly, couldn't help it, and slapped his thigh hard, his face full of frustration.

Falsely reporting the number of soldiers and horses in order to eat the vacancy allocated by the imperial court is the usual operation of the officials who train soldiers and raise horses.

Therefore, before leaving, he repeatedly stressed to Zhang Liang, asking him to make sure to take stock on his behalf, and "don't believe a word of the number reported by the old fritter pastor."

In addition to the severe shortage of numbers, the quality of the existing horses did not meet the minimum standards for fighting against the Xiongnu.

***

Most of the horses in the herds, including the foals that were born this spring, are pure Central Plains horses.

The counties of Longxi are located in the northwest border of the country, close to foreign countries, and it is still easy to find one or two horses of unknown origin.

Zhang Liang put the Huma he found together with the Zhongyuan horse that was rated as the best in the pasture, and after careful observation and comparison, he painfully stated the three major weaknesses of the Central Plains horse-

One is short and not resistant to long-distance attacks;

the second is that the limbs are short, and the running speed cannot be improved;

Third, the fur is short and not cold-tolerant.

The Xiongnu steppe is extremely vast, vast and uninhabited, which is the most test of the horse's long-distance running ability.

Moreover, the weather in the grassland is suddenly changeable, cloudy and sunny, from the scorching sun to the sudden arrival of heavy snow, sometimes it only takes half a day.

The physical condition of the Central Plains horse is only adapted to the temperate climate of the hinterland, and if they rush into the grassland, they are afraid that they will freeze to death before fighting.

In a word, at present, the number of horses in the hands of the imperial court is not large, and the breed is not good, running slowly, poor endurance, and unable to withstand the temperature difference of the grassland.

"But the major affairs of the country, don't rush to soldiers; The great importance of the soldier is not to precede the horse. ”

Zhang Liang said bitterly in the recital.

The importance of horse politics to the Han-Hun war is obvious to all, and if you want to defeat the Xiongnu, you must start by improving the horses.

Fortunately, Zhang Liang immediately added two more pieces of good news.

***

First of all, although horses are not good, but the local people are very good.

More precisely, among the local residents of the counties of Longxi, he found a group of natural warriors -

These soldiers are the sons of good families in the six counties that Queen Lu Pheasant once secretly mentioned.

The so-called good family of the six counties is a good person who is from the six counties of Longxi, Tianshui, Anding, Beidi, Shangjun and Xihe, and is not born in medicine, witches, and businessmen, and has an innocent family background.

These six counties are located on the border, adjacent to the Xiongnu and Di and Qiang regions, and their living habits are extremely similar to those of the nomadic people.

When Zhang Liang visited the hometown of a villager in Tianshui County, he happened to see a local fox hunting competition:

The boys born and raised in the county, from the age of twelve or thirteen to the weak crown, were roughly divided into two teams and competed according to the number of foxes they hunted.

What stunned him was that in addition to the superb cavalry and archery of the teenagers, who far surpassed the Central Plains cavalry, there were also the tactics they adopted.

Zhang Liang remembered that it was an extremely rare cavalry formation in the Middle-earth War, flexible and ethereal:

Seeing a team of men and horses galloping towards the city, dense as a black cloud pressing down on the city, but with the whistle of the leader, it fled to the surroundings in an instant, like a flock of birds entering the forest, and disappeared without a trace.

Among them, Han Xin, the king of Chu, was the best at using cavalry, and the rough fox hunting competition in the local village had some shadows of Han Xin's generals.

Of course, it can't be as leaky as Han Shin, but almost all the leaks can be made up by the riders with superb individual riding and shooting skills.

He vaguely remembered that when he said goodbye to the queen, she had reminded him leisurely,

"All things in the world are born and restrained by each other, and restrain each other."

After visiting and inspecting in person, he affirmed that these good families in the six counties who lived next to the Huns were their natural nemesis.

Among the good families of the six counties, not only can they produce elite cavalry, but they can also select generals.