The lack of horses in the Song Dynasty accompanied him all the time, but Zhao Bing felt that simply pushing the responsibility of the Song Dynasty without cavalry to the "no horse farm" was one-sided and even unfair. To put it bluntly, it was more like excuse. Because the most fundamental reason was his own, especially the ruling group's attitude towards this.

The Western Han Dynasty in history was surprisingly consistent with the Song Dynasty. There was no horse farm when it was founded, and its national strength was far inferior to the Song Dynasty. However, in order to fight against the Huns, the emperor personally presided over the country and implemented the "horse politics" and encouraged horse raising with various policies and even titles. Under this policy, the Western Han Dynasty and the whole country devoted all their efforts, and raising horses everywhere became a trend among the people. Therefore, it was possible to accumulate strong strength during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han and achieve "there are so many horses that are flooding the market and spreading the mountains and fields."

On the contrary, the Song Dynasty government, especially the emperor, never encouraged the people to raise horses. Song Shenzong carried out the famous Wang Anshi reform to change the status quo. One of the important ones was to try to restore the "ma government" to encourage the whole people to raise horses. However, they were fully opposed by officials and even the royal family such as the Taihuang Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager. The reason was actually very simple:

First of all, there were no pastures in the Central Plains, so to raise horses, it would inevitably consume a lot of manpower and material resources, especially concentrated feed. The concentrate feed for horses in the Han Dynasty at that time was millet, which was millet, but this was the standard ration for Chinese civilians at that time. If there were large amounts of horses, the millet needed would be astronomical, which was very economically unprofitable; however, the most important thing was that the Song Dynasty had always implemented the policy of "inside real and outside virtual", and regarded the prevention of internal strife as the basic national policy of the Song Dynasty. As a result, the Song Dynasty's national defense policy was always tight inside and loose outside, and the main accusation of the official army was to suppress domestic chaos.

War horses were the most important war resource in ancient times, and were crucial to national defense and even royal rule. The Song government army was all infantry, and it was very difficult to fight against cavalry. Therefore, it felt that horses must be controlled by the government army before they could sleep peacefully. Implementing large-scale horse raising among the people means that a large number of horses will inevitably be controlled by the people. Once civil rebellion occurs, they will inevitably be dealt with by the government army, which is absolutely not allowed by the government. Therefore, for the consideration of "peace in the world", we must make every effort to obstruct the implementation of the horse government.

The result was that the opportunity to enrich the country and strengthen the army was sacrificed, resulting in the loss of the country and the death of soldiers, which also led to the failure of the entire Wang Anshi reform, including Ma Zheng. So to put it bluntly, Zhao Bing believed that the Song Dynasty's idea of ​​"emphasizing literature and suppressing military affairs" was at work. The lack of horses was more caused by himself, not natural disasters but man-made disasters.

Zhao Bing's idea of ​​choosing and raising war horses is also forced by the situation. After all, lack of war horses means giving the initiative of war to the enemy. The specific implementation still originated from moving to Qiongzhou. Especially after seeing the horses in Qiongzhou, this idea became stronger and realized that relying on these horses to fight against the hostilities can be said to know the outcome without fighting.

In his previous life, Zhao Bing noticed that although the Mongolians were known as horseback nation, with the popularity of mechanization, not to mention cities, even rural areas, and good horses have become luxury goods, becoming pets for the rich and exhibits in zoos. However, they are nowhere to be seen in international equestrian competitions, horse racing and other events, and there are few works cultivated by the Mongolians among the world-renowned horses.

He thought the root cause was that in history, the Mongols trained horses entirely to use them as tools for production and combat, unlike European knights who also emphasized the social function of horses. Mongolian horses are far from being considered good horses compared with other horse breeds. Even the fastest Mongolian horse racing horses were about 30%. The Mongolians naturally knew this disadvantage, and their solution was to maximize the number of horses.

Even if the horses have a worse sprint speed and poor endurance, they can also use the number of horses to recover their quality disadvantages by replacing horses. At the same time, in terms of horse load, the Mongolians pursued minimization. Their saddles were wings, with wings in front and flat back, and the stirrups were round, with leather on the stirrups, and lamb fat was poured into the leather to block the wind and rain. Generally, no more than seven or eight kilograms, which was convenient for cavalry to gallop on horseback.

After the war, there were three sources of horses from Mongolian cavalry, which were drawn from herdsmen's homes, supplied from the ranch directly under the imperial court, and purchased from the private sector. Therefore, Mongolian herdsmen had to raise a large number of horses to supply themselves and their neighbors to go to war, so they were not very motivated to cultivate excellent horse breeds. However, the lack of effort in breeding does not mean that they did not train war horses.

According to records, Mongolia's war horses have the following advantages: "Hundreds of groups, silent and without neighing", "Broad and powerful, soft and without nature, able to wind and cold for a long time", "Historing hundreds of miles will naturally have no sweat, so you can fight with far away", "simply put, it means to endure hardships, obey orders, and abide by discipline, and are "migrant workers" among horses.

During combat, Mongolian horses can also set up dummies at the horse, drag branches and wood to dust, drive away cattle and sheep to attack the enemy formation, etc. They also obey the command of strangers. When Mongolian cavalry attacks, women, young and old who stay in the camp can keep them quiet. Under the command of cavalry, not only can they complete side attacks on both sides and roundabout encirclement, but they can also gather and disperse so that the enemy can't touch them.

Various advantages allow Mongolian cavalry and war horses to cooperate tacitly. When fighting, relying solely on the support of both legs, coupled with simple commands, changes in the center of gravity of the body, and the power transmitted by the waist to the horse's back through the saddle, the war horses can make various reactions such as acceleration, advancement, turn, slowdown, etc. Good obedience, hard work and quantity advantages make Mongolian cavalry invincible in the world.

However, Zhao Bing also knew that a corner of Qiongzhou could not only fail to achieve large-scale stocking, but also the difficult financial situation did not allow him to establish a large-scale cavalry unit, so he could only find another way. He was definitely a layman in how to raise horses, but he knew that by bridging good varieties, avoiding inbreeding and establishing genealogy, the species could be improved, so as to cultivate a war horse that surpassed Mongolian horses in overall quality and take the elite military route to gain advantages on the battlefield.

Therefore, Zhao Bing established a horse breeding farm based on the Imperial Horse Camp of the Neixiu Province, and recruited capable people who were good at horse racing and raising horses to enrich the team. However, due to the small scale at that time, the test site was also set up on a river island with abundant water and grass outside the city. Instead, it changed the extensive horse herding method in the past, but instead raised good horses selected through various channels, and grouped mares and stallions, reproduced through artificial interference, and established a detailed genealogy to avoid inbreeding.

However, due to the limited channels for obtaining war horses, the influence of the environment and climate and the limitations of the site, it is difficult to implement large-scale stocking, and the results are not great, but it is not without gains. Through years of experiments, Zhao Bing first cultivated a scientific research team for selecting and breeding war horses, gained experience, and established relevant systems, laying the foundation for future development.

In addition, good horses were not not not cultivated in the test site. This type of war horse adopts the traditional hybridization method of Central Asian horses and Mongolian horses, combining the advantages of the two horses, improving the sprint speed, and inheriting the advantages of the endurance and coarse food resistance of Mongolian horses. The shoulder height of the horses has reached more than fifteen palms, which is more than 1.5 meters above modern times.

According to the evaluation standards formed in previous dynasties, shoulder height of 1.5 meters has already fallen into the category of top-notch horses. For example, the famous horse emperor, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, was known for his love for horses. The "Salu Zi" in his "Six Horses of Zhaoling" was about 150 cm to 160 cm according to the restored shoulder height; and according to the French "Horse Conquest Act" in the 19th century, horses of 1.529 meters-1.597 meters were used to supply breastplate cavalry, horses of 1.502 meters-1.543 meters were used to supply dragon cavalry, and horse requirements for light cavalry were 1.434 meters-1.489 meters. It can be seen that until modern times, horses of about 1.55 meters were still excellent war horses.

It can be seen from this that ancient Chinese war horses were not at a disadvantage compared to other regions, and the horse breeds bred by Zhao Bing’s imperial horse farm were also considered good breeds. Unfortunately, after years of hard work, they only received less than a thousand horses. The huge demand can only be said to be a drop in the bucket, and the problem of the century could not be solved. Fortunately, after the recovery of Jiangnan, it was turned around, and the channels for obtaining stallions were more open, and the increase in land also made large-scale breeding possible.

Whenever Zhao Bing wins the battle, he pays attention to collecting good horses as stallions. After the Jiangnan gradually stabilizes, he also obtains good horses through trade, but this road is very difficult. You should know that it takes a long time to sail at sea to reach Persia, and the horses trafficked in this process are extremely unacceptable and the mortality rate is very high. When it reaches the Song Dynasty, one out of ten is often left, and the current situation of lacking good horses cannot be fundamentally solved.

To achieve large-scale acquisition of war horses from Central Asia, we can only after the large-scale operation of the fly-scissor ships. At that time, the shipping time was shortened, and the survival rate of horses would naturally be greatly improved. But what made Zhao Bing feel a little relieved was that the sea horse trade could not alleviate the current situation of lack of horses, but he obtained stallions from his origin. After the Imperial Horse Camp moved to Jiangnan, he began to select suitable horse farms, and remembered the Chongming Prefecture he had been to.

Chongming Prefecture is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, close to a sandbank in the south of the Yangtze River. Although the area is not as large as later generations, it is still hundreds of miles in radius. In addition, the island is not large inhabitants, a large area of ​​land has not been developed, with lush water and grass, and rivers are crisscrossing, making it suitable for grazing. Moreover, this is the area closest to the north-south dividing line in the south of the Yangtze River, and is considered to be the area closest to the northern climatic conditions.

Of course, this place is not perfect. It is across the water from the Mongol Yuan and is at the forefront of the confrontation between the two armies. If it is at the security consideration, it is not the best place. However, Zhao Bing felt that the benefits here outweigh the disadvantages and would not occupy arable land. The island is also stationed on the landing warfare brigade, which is not as dangerous as imagined. So the Imperial Horse Camp moved to Chongming Prefecture as a stallion breeding base...

"Does Your Majesty stop for a while or..." The boat sailed overnight and docked at the Chongming Prefecture Wharf. Zheng Yong, the commander of the Land War Brigade, and Yi Jie, the commander of the Imperial Horse Camp, were already waiting at the wharf. After getting off the boat, Zheng Yong stepped forward and bowed and asked.

"I have been away from Jing for many days, so I'd better go to the horse farm directly!" Zhao Bing interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

"Please get on the horse!" After hearing this, Yi Jie immediately led a war horse, grabbed the reins, and asked the little emperor to get on the horse.

"Good horse, is this also breeding in our horse farm?" Although Zhao Bing is not an expert, he has some vision. Seeing that the horse has long legs, big hooves, sharp ears, no flesh, small belly, short waist, high hips, and black hair, the most important point is the large nostrils, which means a large lung capacity, a healthy body and good at running. The horse looked up at a rough look, and he patted the horse's head and asked with a smile.

"Report to Your Majesty, yes. This horse was bred when I was in Qiongzhou. I am five years old this year!" Yi Jieyan said.

"Oh, this is the first time I have come to the horse farm. Thank you for your hard work!" Zhao Bing sighed softly after hearing this.

"Your Majesty is now many times bigger than in Qiongzhou. Everyone is looking forward to your Majesty coming!" Yi Jie replied with a smile.

"Okay, I'll take a look today!" Zhao Bing took the horse whip, pulled the reins, and flew on the saddle. The horse road was the most in short supply. The horse farm was the horse. Knowing that the little emperor and his party had already prepared the horses, everyone had boarded the horses and followed.

"How is this horse?" Although Zhao Bing can ride a horse and has good riding skills, this is still a dangerous exercise after all, so everyone should be safe. The guards in front suppressed the horse's speed and just let the horse run slowly. This made him very helpless and turned his face to ask Zhao Mengjin who was following him.

"Your Majesty, these horses are really good. They are authentic riding species!" Zhao Mengjin heard the emperor's question and followed the horse's reins and replied loudly. But he did not dare to go hand in hand, but was behind the horse's head. He had been in the army for nearly thirty years and naturally knew the quality of the horses. These horses were tall and strong, with long necks and high ridges, stretched smoothly, and responded to the reins with a very good feeling.

"It's a pity that there are too few good horses, and it's still difficult to satisfy military use!" Zhao Bing said helplessly. He knew that in ancient times, the number and size of the army were an important indicator. If the cavalry wanted to take the lead and play a decisive role in war, they must form a powerful heavy army group. The whole people of the nomadic people have sufficient soldiers and sufficient war horses. To such a strong enemy, they must use heavy army group to destroy him. The reason why the Han and Tang Dynasties were able to strike the Huns and Turks was because they had hundreds of thousands or even more cavalry groups, and they could not relieve near-thirst by breeding on horse farms alone.

"What Your Majesty said is that when the two armies fight, the horses consume a lot. After a war, there will often be five or six casualties. The Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is about to be imminent, and all troops suffer from lack of horses!" Zhao Mengjin thought it was authentic.

He knew that when Emperor Wu of Han attacked the Huns in the Battle of Mobei alone, more than 100,000 regular cavalry were used alone, and a large number of horses, camels and 300,000 infantry were used for logistical support; Emperor Taizong of Tang destroyed the Eastern Turks, and later the Tang Dynasty's series of expeditions to the west, they used hundreds of thousands of cavalry in succession, and countless horses and livestock for logistics support. This is absolutely impossible for them to match at the moment, but when they faced the enemy's large-scale cavalry in the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, they had to face the enemy's large-scale cavalry, and lack of horses and horses became a hurdle that they could not avoid...
Chapter completed!