There are still more than 2,000 acres of pasture left near the prison city, and more than 2,000 horses bought from North Korea are now all raised here. As for the horses that Yuanma Temple used to raise, they were all sold by Wang Yuan.
Crooked melons and cracked dates.
One acre of pasture to raise one horse is obviously far from enough, because the pasture cannot withstand consumption.
Therefore, a large amount of miscellaneous grains need to be fed, and hay must be collected to supplement it. Every three days, the horse breeder must lead people to drive the horses to the nearby mountains and forests to graze.
After Wang Yuan saw these Korean horse breeds, he couldn't help frowning and asked someone to use a ruler to measure them. The average shoulder height was less than four feet (less than 120 cm). He couldn't help but ask Ling Xiang: "Although these horses are not
He’s not weak, but how can he be a horse breeder? He’s too short!”
Ling Xiang smiled and said: "If the imperial court intervenes, the horses bought in North Korea will be shorter. We will pay high prices for the horses."
"Why is this so?" Wang Yuan asked.
Prime Minister Ling obviously did a lot of homework after he became the minister of Taipusi Temple and the minister of Yuanma Temple. He explained: "In the early years of the Kingdom, the Goryeo war horse could reach up to five feet (with a shoulder height of more than 150 centimeters).
The number of cavalry exceeds one-fifth, and tens of thousands of cavalry can be used at any time to fight. Goryeo not only expanded to the Yalu River, but its territory even crossed the Tumen River (Tumen River) at one time, and it had the potential to sweep across Liaodong. Because of the valor of Taizu and Taizong,
, how can you tolerate someone else sleeping soundly beside the bed?"
Wang Yuan immediately understood: "So, the Korean war horses were outnumbered by Taizu and Taizong?"
Ling Xiang said with a smile: "As long as there was a slight war in the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty ordered Korea and Korea to sell horses, and only paid one-third of the market price. In the first few decades of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Ming Dynasty actually had no shortage of war horses and kept buying horses from Korea and Korea.
, purely to defeat their cavalry. Of course, the Ming Dynasty also made a compromise and was forced to admit that the south of the Yalu River and the Tumen River was Korean territory. Those lands were originally the homeland of the Yuan Dynasty and should be inherited by the Ming Dynasty. Taizu,
Taizong hated this deeply!"
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it frantically suppressed Goryeo and North Korea. Not only did it seek any opportunity to weaken the opponent's cavalry, but it also implemented a comprehensive embargo on strategic materials (technologies). For example, making compound bows requires horns, and North Korea itself does not produce buffalo, so the Ming Dynasty did not allow it.
Sell buffalo and horns to North Korea. Another example is North Korea's request to learn smelting technology. The Ming Dynasty only taught North Korea the method of smelting copper. However, North Korea lacked copper mines, so it was impossible to cast firecrackers and artillery by itself.
Goryeo and North Korea, which could mobilize tens of thousands of cavalry, were crippled by the Ming Dynasty.
Ling Xiang said: "After the death of Emperor Taizong, whenever North Korea wanted horses, they kept pushing back and pushing back. If they couldn't push back, they only brought bad horses, arguing that there were no good horses in the country. In fact, although there are no good horses, they are not
As for being so low-quality, if the people go to buy it, as long as they can afford it, they can still buy war horses that are worthy of use. North Korea refused to sell the official horses to the Ming Dynasty. Firstly, they were afraid that the Ming Dynasty would ask for too much, and secondly, because the price offered by the Ming Dynasty was too high.
Low."
Wang Yuan said helplessly: "Even so, I still feel that I am at a loss. These horses can be ridden in battles, but they are inferior as horse breeds. It is a pity that I spent more than 80,000 taels to buy horses."
"More than 80,000 taels are definitely expensive, but it costs more than 2,000 horses at once. For the time being, we can only buy them from North Korea," Ling Xiang explained. "Duoyan Sanwei is resisting the left-wing Mongolia. In the past two years, the south has been trading with each other, and the horses traded have become more and more popular."
There are fewer and fewer horses coming. The Jurchens are not willing to sell good horses in large quantities and only sell horses sporadically in exchange for supplies, which means North Korea is relatively obedient. There are more than 2,000 horse breeds, which should be considered the best horses in North Korea. If we hadn't come out
If they can afford the high price, North Korea probably won’t want to sell it.”
Wang Yuan thought about it and ordered the Shenxiao camp to send war horses.
The more than 400 cavalrymen under Yuan Da's command are all from the 3,000 battalions of the capital. They are all riding the best horses. The average shoulder height is more than four feet four inches (more than 136 centimeters) - although it is not very high, the data is
The target has been met.
According to the standards of modern Chinese cavalry, a war horse with a shoulder height of 1.33 meters is the best. It is small and difficult to be hit by bullets, and will not affect running speed and leaping ability too much. However, the best ancient war horses should actually be more than 140 centimeters.
Being tall and mighty means strong combat capability.
The average shoulder height of war horses unearthed in the Pre-Qin Dynasty was about 138 centimeters. In the Han Dynasty, the export of horses over 135 centimeters was prohibited.
It's a pity that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it was really not possible. It was the central elite cavalry. Zhu Houzhao searched for war horses everywhere, and the average shoulder height was only 136 centimeters. The only exception was the Baofang heavy cavalry. Although that troop was not large in number, they were all tall horses, and even one of them would die.
It's hard to add.
The horse bought from North Korea has a shoulder height of less than 120 centimeters. It can be ridden to fight, but its combat effectiveness is worrying. It has short legs and cannot outrun the Mongolian cavalry.
Under Wang Yuan's instructions, Yuan Dana's more than 400 fine horses, including Wang Yuan's war horses, were all sent to Yuanmasi Ranch to be bred with the horses bought from North Korea.
Immediately, Wang Yuan wrote to Zhu Ying, asking the eunuch to buy horses from India. Whether they are Indian horses or Arabian horses, they can accept the price no matter how high the price is. He will buy two hundred horses first and then breed them.
North Korea did not produce good horses before, so it was all thanks to the Mongols to obtain Dawan horses. In just a few decades, the average shoulder height of North Korean war horses quickly exceeded 130 centimeters, and the best ones even exceeded 150 centimeters.
In the last years of the Goryeo Dynasty and the early years of the Joseon Dynasty, a farming country had tens of thousands of cavalry, and they were all riding high-quality war horses. Just think about it and you will know how terrifying it is. If it were not right next to the Ming Dynasty, North Korea would definitely be able to kill everyone everywhere.
There are little overlords in every land circle.
If it hadn't been for decades of continuous suppression by the Ming Dynasty, North Korea would probably have occupied most of Liaodong. What would happen to the Jurchens later?
The Jianzhou Jurchens were beaten numerous times by North Korea and often cried and begged Dad Ming for help.
After talking about raising horses, Wang Yuan asked again: "Is Jinzhou pretty honest?"
Ling Xiang smiled and said: "You are not honest either."
"That's enough." Wang Yuan was quite satisfied.
Honesty means that the military attache in Jinzhou did not dare to resist the imperial policy. Dishonesty means that the military attache in Jinzhou acted in various ways to prevent the imperial court from setting up civil affairs officers.
After the three guards in southern Liaoning regained civilian power, the Gaizhou Guards naturally had nothing to say under the rule of Yuan Da. The Fuzhou Guards had just been suppressed by Wang Yuan, and those officers just wanted to survive, but they couldn't do any tricks. Only the Jinzhou Guards
, has the largest population and the richest economy. It is very difficult to check the farmland and population.
Wang Yuan stayed in Liaonan just to suppress the Jinzhou Guard. Once he left, no matter where he was, he would dare to mutiny, but it would be difficult to open up the situation in the Jinzhou Guard. Those military attachés had too many means to hinder the civilian officials from doing their jobs.
Another half month passed, and Wang Yuan had nothing to do. He rode horses in the pasture all day, and occasionally went hunting in the mountains. By the way, he gave questions to the students who came to Liaodong and asked them to practice eight-part essay. Although Wang Yuan was not a great scholar,
, but he has also been an imperial examination examiner, so he knows what style the marking officers of the provincial examination and general examination prefer.
At the end of May, Xia Chan came to Liaodong.
In addition to sending the Wang family's fine horses for breeding, they also brought dozens of letters.
Among them, the letters from Nanyang are very interesting, saying that they encountered a strange fleet. It was obviously a Thai-Spanish fleet, but it came from the east. The leader of the fleet had been killed by the natives, and most of the surviving crew members also suffered from illness.
Strange disease.
The unlucky dead leader was named "Fernando McGachan".
Wang Yuan stared at the letter for a long time and finally guessed that the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty met Magellan's fleet in Nanyang and witnessed the first human voyage around the world that was about to be completed.
Well, it is estimated that the circumnavigation of the world will not be completed, because the fleet was forcibly detained, and all the crew members were made prisoners of the Ming Dynasty... This happened last winter.
Who told Magellan's fleet not to go to the Municipal Shipping Department to apply for sea introduction documents? Without a trade license from the Ming Dynasty, they are not allowed to pass through the Strait of Malacca!