Jiehe Commercial City, outside the suburbs. In a schoolyard that was built at some time, there were flags and tigers like a forest.

A thousand imperial knights, wearing brand new leather vests and helmets, hung on their belts with long swords and quivers filled with buffalo horn bows and arrows, stood silently. Behind them were auxiliary soldiers leading horses and a war horse with a shoulder height of at least four feet and six inches and half a pair of clothes.

The auxiliary soldiers hold horses in one hand and hold slings in the other. The sling is also known as the horse lance, which is a spear used on the horse's back. The sling head is very long, and the material selection and processing of the sling rod are very special, so it is relatively soft. When you hit the target, you will not easily hurt the knight's wrist. You can also swing and whip the target hard. Whoever is hit by it will be severely injured or disabled if you don't die!

There are also straps and ropes on the sling rods. The ropes can be tied to the saddle, and the straps can be put on the shoulders. In this way, when marching, you can carry the horse sling on the shoulders with your head upwards. When fighting, the horse sling can also be tied to the saddle, so that when the sling rod is removed, you can also use a rope to pull the horse sling back.

In other words, these thousand imperial knights who have completed all training are taking the path of both light and heavy. They can ride and shoot and hold storm, which is completely the most standard combat method for Eastern cavalry.

Of course, the legendary wall-style charge that can be won by every battle is not possible for these front knights. The purpose of their horse snails is to engage in single-ride fighting, rather than group charges.

Wu Haogu once mentioned this so-called "modern cavalry tactic" that was popular by later generations of Internet, but was rejected by the two. Now there are only 1,000 cavalry, and two groups have to be divided into two groups to serve, which cannot be used as consumables. If it is consumed completely, Hebei, which is only infantry, will be left, and Kaifeng Imperial Forces will lose its field combat capabilities.

Even if this tactic does not cause major losses to the cavalry cluster, it is undesirable. Because once cavalry is concentrated in the formation, it will not be able to perform reconnaissance, cover, cover, pursuit and other tasks.

However, the Imperial Knights who did not play group charge have been underway for a large number of queue training in the past few months. After all, they are the knights with the Imperial Horse in front of the Palace, and they must follow the escorts and show up in front of the citizens of Kaifeng Prefecture. Therefore, this formation must be practiced carefully!

The sound of the horn suddenly sounded like a sob, and I saw all the knights turn around and walk to the side of their war horses. With the help of the auxiliary soldiers, they turn over the horses and carry the long horn on their shoulders. At the same time, the auxiliary soldiers tie the rope at the root of the long horn to the saddle.

The series of movements of getting on the horse, carrying the tread, and tying the rope were very skilled, and it was completed in a very short time. During this process, the horses under the knights were also very cooperative, without any disturbance.

This shows that there is a considerable understanding between the knight, the auxiliary soldiers and the horse, and it is definitely not a temporary pieced together.

Immediately afterwards, the rapid drum sounded again. The knights on the school ground immediately rode forward and quickly gathered into ten groups. After a disturbance, the groups of knights formed ten roughly square formations. They were all ten to ten hundred cavalry teams. Although they could not reach the level of looking at a line horizontally, looking at a line vertically, and looking at a line diagonally, they were still very strict.

As the drums stopped abruptly, the war horses and knights that had formed the square formation were all motionless. The early winter sunshine in Hebei sprinkled on the tip of the horses carrying the knights, reflecting a cold light that made people feel cold on their backs!

This kind of solemnity is really beyond the imagination of Gao Qiu, the chief officer of the former knights, who is busy accompanying the official family to Cuju all day long and arrange women for the official family.

The Song Dynasty actually had such elite cavalry! Could it be that the Song Dynasty really became stronger in the hands of today's officials?

Gao Qiu, who was riding on the back of a well-behaved and gentle little mare, looked at the cavalry formation in front of him. I don’t know how long it took before he turned his head to Wu Haogu, who was also riding on the horse, said: “Da, Dalang… Is this really the iron cavalry of our Song Dynasty?”

"Of course it's our Iron Cavalry of the Song Dynasty!" Wu Haogu smiled.

In fact, these cavalry are not iron cavalry, because they do not have iron armor for iron cavalry, which is another problem that requires a lot of money to be invested in.

The riding armor should not be too heavy! If you wear a stair armor, a horse of four or five or six feet can't be carried. It must be a cold forged armor with light weight and strong defense. Brother Zhao Zhong has it, but Wu Haogu cannot mass produce it.

So there is no iron cavalry, at most there are only armor cavalry.

However, the armored cavalry is not bad. You can participate in formation battles when you have half-equipped (that is a half-body vest) to pursue the escaped enemy. If you have no equipment, you can scatter it out as a scout cavalry to stop.

"This is just the beginning!" Wu Haogu rode on the horse and said proudly, "They are not horse soldiers of the imperial guards, but knights, horse riders! If they are maintained well, these thousand families can continuously provide knights to the court."

Although the horse soldiers of the imperial guards earn more money than the infantry, the income of the horse soldiers who could not maintain and inherit the inheritance could not even afford a house in Kaifeng Prefecture, let alone maintain a farm that could raise horses and people.

"Can it be maintained?" Gao Qiu was a little worried, "Although 1,500 acres of land is a lot, the land in Beicangzhou is not very fertile."

Wu Haogu smiled, "It can be maintained... there is Jiehe Commercial City and Knights' School. There will be no problem in establishing Jiehe Po City in the future."

He didn't say it completely. He had another trump card in his hand, the real hippo! Six Persian and Ah-like stallions, plus hundreds of tall mares, and then breeding them from generation to generation by using the internal and counter-matching method, can always breed quite good real hippos.

At that time, the good horses and the Knights Manor will form an industry with a lot of wealth. With the wealth and horse farming industry, the Knights of the Bible River can not only maintain it, but also continue to grow... Finally, a military group closely united with the Bible River Market!

The sound of the horn sounded again, this time it was the horn that began to march. Ten square formations composed of hundreds of cavalry began to turn forward for the first time, with neat gaits and uniform speeds. No matter how you look, you look very elite.

Wu Haogu smiled at Gao Qiu beside him: "Brother Gao, I will be very happy to see such elite soldiers during the military parade of Moutuogang after the New Year... You and I have finally done several things that are very beneficial to the country in the past two years."

Gao Qiu smiled as if he was right, but thought to himself: What did he do? No matter what, just take this elite force back to Kaifeng Prefecture and settle it in January next year, his official position will be able to reach a higher level!

...

The imperial knights followed Gao Qiu away. One thousand knights, two thousand auxiliary soldiers, war horses, auxiliary horses and pack horses were more than three thousand, and they were heading towards the south in a mighty manner.

Behind them, on a three-story pavilion in the Jiehe Maritime Ware Office, several figures stood in front of an open window, looking at the horse team walking forward on the solemn plain in early winter.

When the last rider disappeared on the horizon in the distance, one of them heard sighing softly: "It's a pity that the knight I finally practiced was given to the court like this!"

Wu Haogu turned around and looked at the person who was talking. It was Murong Wangyou, who had worked hard to train these knights for several years. I wonder if it took too much effort. This old man, Haogu, had grown a lot when Yan Yun first met him.

"Dad Murong, didn't we keep some knights? There are a total of 200 knights! In addition, the Knights Academy is also in our hands. This is a hen that can lay eggs!"

The person who said this was a female, Ximen Qing, who gave birth to a son for Wu Haogu in September. She was a few years older than Wu Haogu, and now she is in her third year. She has given birth to two more children. She has grown from a royal sister to a mature woman... Her figure looks more and more graceful.

Wu Haogu smiled at her, and Ximen Qing said it was right. When he formed the Imperial Knights for Zhao Ji, he also left a hand and clearly had 1,000, but in fact he had 1,200. The 200 additional enterprises were also granted land like the Imperial Knights, but they were not registered in the Imperial Knights, but were affiliated with Jiehe Shang City, Maritime Warehouse, Knights' Academy, Yuntai Academy and Jiehema Field.

Most of these people are the children of the Ximen family, Murong family, and Chai family. Some of them are brave men from the north and south. They work in Jiehe Shang City, Maritime Affairs, Knights' School, Yuntai Academy, Jiehema Field and other departments. They are also granted land with reference to the treatment of the former knights. They will also evolve into the Knights' family in the future!

In addition, the school used to train the Imperial Knights was also preserved. A branch was opened in Jiehebei City, where thousands of Wu family's fake sons (little slave soldiers) were trained. At most, for five or six years, Jiehe Commercial City could have a fake army.

Wu Haogu smiled: "Actually, these thousand imperial knights are also held in our hands... Now they cannot live without Jiehe Market, let alone in the future?

As long as they can’t live without the market, they are ours!

Moreover, there are more than the south bank where Jiehe Commercial City can play a role. In the future, there will be dependent wealthy families on Jiehe Commercial City. There will be many Chinese people in Jiehe Commercial City... This is our strength!"

"Yes," Ximen Qing smiled, "As long as the officials firmly hold Jiehe Market in their hands, there will be a future for the king to break the soil."

"I am a king and a broken ground?" Wu Haogu smiled, not saying anything.
Chapter completed!