Even though Li Xuan is a liberal arts student, he also knows that three acids and two alkali are the foundation of modern and even modern chemical industries, and most chemical products are inseparable from these five things.
As for sulfuric acid, the Royal Institute of Technology and the Royal Institute of Technology have developed artificial production methods a few years ago, but they are all using local methods, with small output, high cost, and difficult to produce on a large scale.
This was far from enough for the Tang Dynasty, which had already started industrialization.
Therefore, the Royal Institute of Technology has been looking for ways to produce sulfuric acid cheaply and in large quantities. Now, it has finally made a good start.
Although the current method of producing sulfuric acid from glassware still has a small output, it is still much better than before.
Li Xuan has always been very supportive of this kind of breakthrough in basic materials!
Because of breakthroughs in various materials, various subsequent technologies can break through and invent and manufacture various finished products.
Therefore, with a stroke of his pen, Li Xuan directly gave instructions at the back of the booklet, paying attention to the production process of new sulfuric acid, promoting it quickly, and giving generous rewards to the R&D team.
After reading the day's excerpts, Li Xuan left the palace and went to the Guards barracks for inspection!
However, the troops he inspected were not the Guards. The Guards followed him every day. Li Xuan was very familiar with the situation of the Guards. He did not dare to talk about every officer, but basically officers above the battalion level, Li Xuan
They all just casually talked about their resumes.
Because every officer at the battalion commander level was promoted by him personally, and most of them were students from the young military camp and had attended the Royal Academy.
He came out for inspection today to inspect a cavalry unit that had just arrived in Jiujiang, and it was a rather special cavalry unit!
This is a cuirassier unit and the first heavy cavalry unit in the Tang Dynasty!
This gun does not refer to a musket, but to a hollow spear used exclusively by cavalry!
Although the cavalry generals in the Tang Dynasty all had a soft spot for light cavalry equipped with swords, they were unwilling to use muskets, even flintlocks, and they were also unwilling to equip themselves with armor, turning themselves into heavy cavalry.
Armored cavalry.
But Li Xuan knows very well that in this era, a heavy armored lancer still plays an irreplaceable role!
They didn't do it in the past because the Tang Dynasty did not have war horses that could be used as heavy cavalry. In the early days, there were not even enough Mongolian horses, and the short Mongolian horses were simply not suitable for use as war horses for heavy cavalry.
So the heavy armored lancers in Li Xuan’s plan have always been delayed!
Until the first half of this year!
In the first half of this year, the Northern Expedition of the Tang Dynasty King's Division was successful. At the same time, the Fourth Army entered Shaanxi, established contact with the nomadic peoples in the Western Regions, Oara and other areas, and began to trade with each other, directly spending heavily on purchases, etc., and quickly moved from here
Horses are introduced into an area.
At the same time, after the success of the Northern Expedition, although the early Tang Dynasty and the Tatars were still in a state of hostility, not every Tatar tribe was hostile to the Tang Dynasty. Some Tatar tribes close to the border towns of the Tang Dynasty were also hostile.
Secretly conducted horse trade with the Tang Dynasty.
Not for anything else, just because the Tang Dynasty gave me money easily!
Since the Tang Dynasty had strong financial resources and was willing to pay the price, the purchase of horses was very smooth. According to the report from the Shaanxi governor, just in the month of October, many people in northern and northwestern Shaanxi and other regions traded with foreigners.
In the horse market, more than 3,000 horses were purchased through various trading methods, and the trade in horses has not stopped yet.
Most of what the Tang Dynasty paid for this was tea, silk, cloth, salt and other materials. It rarely gave cash, because it was of no use to the nomads if you gave them gold and silver. They needed tea even more.
, salt, ironware, silk, cloth and other daily necessities.
These materials are not a problem for the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty is more willing to exchange these daily consumption materials for strategic resources such as horses, and even pays a price higher than the market price for it. Then
Also willing.
Most of the horses purchased in these places are handed over to the military!
The military will use most of these horses directly as military horses, while a small number of uncastrated male horses and mares will be used as stallions and began to be bred in Shaanxi.
Most of the horses introduced are Mongolian horses, which can basically only be used by light cavalry or as service horses!
However, those who traded horses with the Tang Dynasty were not only the nomadic tribes on the northern grasslands such as the Oara and Tatars, but also the countries in the Western Regions. However, the horses imported from these areas were different.
Because the horses introduced from this area have different breeds and different names, but these horses, which are called Central Asian horses by officials of the Horse Administration Department of the Ministry of War, are generally tall and explosive!
Their shoulder height generally reaches over 1.45 meters, and a few can even reach 1.5 meters. They are relatively powerful in terms of explosive power, but their endurance is somewhat lower than that of Mongolian horses, and their feeding requirements are also relatively high.
However, poor endurance and high feeding requirements are not a problem for the Tang Dynasty!
Isn’t it just that the food is more expensive? Our Tang Army has money and can afford to feed it. At worst, we can only feed it with eggs, soybeans and other mixed ingredients every day.
Isn't it just that the stamina is a bit poor? It's okay. We Tang cavalry never use nonsense tactics like cavalry running for thousands of miles. The cavalry can only ride horses before fighting. Who dares to ride before then?
Hurry and be dealt with by military law in a matter of minutes.
The cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, regardless of whether they were light cavalry or heavy cavalry, actually played the same routine, that is, they only carried out charge operations on the battlefield and walked on their feet during daily marches.
So after getting these Central Asian horses, the horse administration officials of the Tang Dynasty were quite enthusiastic!
Some of the horses that were castrated and could no longer be used as stallions were not wanted and were thrown directly to the army. However, they themselves kept nearly dozens of uncastrated stallions, and some mares.
, began to be bred in the racecourse.
And they don’t mean to simply continue to breed these Central Asian horses, part of them is to continue breeding, and the other part is to select some excellent Mongolian horses for cross-breeding and improvement!
They look forward to one day cultivating an ideal war horse: tall and strong in weight-bearing capacity, strong in short-distance explosive power, good in long-distance endurance, easy to raise, able to live on just some grass, and not careless about the climate.
The geographical environment has a wide adaptability range, and it can go to northern ice fields, southern jungles, plains, and plateau areas!
In this case, the Tang cavalry will be able to obtain an excellent war horse to fight around the world in the future!
Well, even Li Xuan himself thinks that they are daydreaming. Let alone this era, even in the modern times, there are no such all-round excellent horses. At most, they can highlight a few of them.
That’s all!
However, as a horse administration official, how can we not have some dreams?
So even though they knew it was very difficult, they still devoted themselves to it and began to breed horses. They walked on two feet. On one side, they were breeding the original breeds, including Mongolian horses and Central Asian horses, and on the other side, they were cultivating horses.
Hybrid breeds.
During the horse trade with the Western Regions, the army obtained about 500 castrated Central Asian horses, all with a shoulder height of over 1.45 meters.
In the Army of the Tang Dynasty, a group of Mongolian Malians with a shoulder height of only 1.3 meters each looked extremely tall!
Regarding the use of this batch of Central Asian horses, the army originally planned to distribute them to middle and senior generals at all levels to serve as mounts. After all, the tall and powerful war horses are what the officers like!
But after Li Xuan found out about this, he issued an edict to seize all these horses, and then specially ordered to mobilize personnel to form the first lancer of the Tang Army!
In this way, the First Lancer Regiment of the Tang Dynasty was officially established!
The leader of the regiment is Song Zhilin, a disciple of the famous cavalry general Lieutenant General Lu Yu. Hearing that his name is similar to Song Zhiwen, an important assistant under Zhang Yue and the governor of eastern Sichuan in the regime of the pseudo-King Mingjing, people who don’t know them think they are
They are brothers, but in fact these two people will never get together for eight lifetimes.
Song Zhilin was a serious bandit. During the Huangzhushan period, he was a member of the Long family. He was an early military officer with the most upright roots and the most senior qualifications. If you ask him if he and Song Zhiwen had been separated for many years.
Brother, people will fall out with you every minute.
He followed Lu Yuzhi as a cavalryman in his early years. He is one of the very few bandit-born officers in the Tang Army who has not fallen behind and is still serving in the field army. He is now an army colonel and a member of the First Lancer Regiment.
long.
When Li Xuan came to the barracks of the Guards, the first thing he saw was this Lancer Regiment!
Although there were not many troops, there were only more than 400 lancers, and there were originally more than 500 horses. However, after arriving from the northwest region to the Central Plains, nearly a hundred horses were not accustomed to the acclimatization and died one after another on the way and after arrival.
But the horses present were far more than just the more than 400 Central Asian horses, there were also more than 400 Mongolian horses!
In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of these lancers, the Tang Army luxuriously equipped these lancers with two horses. Of course, the other horse assigned to them was just an ordinary Mongolian horse, mainly used for transportation.
Equipped with it, occasionally the cavalry can ride on this Mongolian horse for rapid marching.
As for the more than 400 Central Asian horses, they are very precious. Except for training and combat, they will never be ridden during daily marches.
Even these cuirassiers are equipped with an additional attendant. They do not participate in the battle. Most of the time they help carry various equipment, manage the horses, help put on the cuirass before the battle, and help the knights mount their horses. When necessary, they also
They will ride on Mongolian horses to fight together.