Wu Haogu and Wang Hou left Donghuamen together. Wu Chengjiu, who was as old as Wu Haogu (he was Wu Haogu’s 19th uncle, and now he was walking around Wu Haogu) immediately led two tall and thin war horses over.

"Dongmen, what do you think of this horse?" Wu Haogu pointed at one of the brown horses and asked Wang Hou with a smile.

"Why is it so tall?" Wang Hou then added, "This horse is at least four feet and eight...it's enough to be the imperial horse!"

Both horses were produced in the hippo farm, all of which were male descendants of Persian stallions and tall Hebei mares. They were considered the first generation hippos. Because they were not tall enough, they did not become stallions. Instead, they brought Kaifeng Prefecture to Wu Haogu after castration. Two other taller geldings were sent to Tiansijian and were sent to Zhao Ji as imperial horses.

In addition, fourteen stallions of the same generation and twenty-two mares of the same generation were left in the boundary hippo farm. For mating and breeding horses, they usually mature after three to four years old and can reproduce offspring. That is to say, the breeding cycle of horses is four to five years, and from now on to the Jingkang Incident, it is about five to six generations. It is not enough to obtain a stable horse breed, but it can still provide a sufficient number of excellent war horses.

The so-called "stable horse breed" refers to a horse breed that can be mass-produced, which means you don't have to choose a good horse from a hundred or ten miles away. Instead, each horse of the same breed has similar body shape, endurance, speed and IQ. In this way, war horses can be mass-produced, rather than choosing a good horse from a large herd of horses that can act as war horses.

The advantages of excellent war horses that can be mass-produced in cost and production efficiency are incomparable to grassland herds.

However, even if there is no way to obtain a stable horse breed, the work of the Jie Hippo farm is still very valuable. Even if the "output rate" of good horses is increased from one-twentieth to one-fifth, it will allow Jie Hippo to gain certain advantages over grassland horses and Jurchen horses in terms of cost and production efficiency, at least it can be fought against.

"There are four horses in total, two of which were picked out by the officials, and the remaining two were not favored by the officials." Wu Haogu smiled and said to Wang Hou, "It's better to be one horse each... When we go to Moutuang to be military officers, we will ride them, so that we can be decent."

Wu Haogu actually wanted to give Wang Hou a good horse, but he was afraid that he would refuse with a noble person, so he found such a reason.

Wang Hou didn't understand what Wu Haogu meant, but he did not refuse. Instead, he went up to take the reins of the brown horse, stretched out a big hand, and patted the horse's shoulder. Then he asked with a smile: "Good horse! Xuanzan, did you smuggle this horse from the Liao Kingdom? How much did it cost?"

"Dongmen, this horse was not from the Liao Kingdom, but was crossed with Persian horses and Hebei horses." Wu Haogu did not hide it either. "To be honest, Xiaguan built a horse farm in Jiehe Shang City, got two Persian stallions from the Liao Kingdom, and four folding stallions from the Tianzhu Kingdom."

Wang Hou was also surprised when he heard that Wu Haogu had set up a horse farm and got a stallion from Persia and India as far away as he could: "Xuanzan, I didn't expect you to know how to raise horses!"

Wu Haogu turned over another hippo in the realm and said, "How can I know how to raise horses? I just have a few spare money to buy a good stallion mare and also hire a good horse."

Wang Hou shook his head and climbed onto the horse's back, "The richer people are, and I understand if I can spend it on the blade... The horse government of the court also spent a lot of money? After so many years, we, the Western Army fighters, still have to buy the Qiang horses."

Wu Haogu laughed: "Can spending the imperial court's money be the same as spending his own money?"

"That's what Xuanzan said." Wang Hou nodded.

"How is the Qiang horse better than these two hippos in the realm?"

When Wu Haogu was riding a horse and walking towards the Horse Street, he asked Wang Hou about the situation of Hequ Horse.

"It's indeed not as tall as these two hippos in the world," Wang Hou shook his head and said, "but it's pretty good. Adult stallions can be about four feet, five to four feet, and six inches. If they are rude at the age of one year, four feet, seven can grow.

But what we can get now is not the best Qingtang horse. The best Qingtang horse comes from the place around Qinghai, west of Xining Prefecture. Does Xuanzan know about Qinghai?"

"I know, it's the saltwater lake." Wu Haogu knew that Wang Hou was referring to Qinghai Lake.

"Yes, yes," Wang Houdao, "The Qiangtang Tubo tribes around Qinghai have a custom of raising horses. In winter, they will send the selected good horses to a small island in Qinghai and let them mate and give birth to cubs. The foal they gave birth to is called the dragon species."

Wu Haogu knew that this was a very primitive but effective breeding method. As long as you persist, you could gradually improve the breed of horses. For nomadic peoples who rarely use artificial intervention to breed, this "custom" gradually improved the breed of Qingtang horses and turned into a very good breed.

"If we can get all the land of Qingtang horses, our court will never be trapped in the lack of good horses."

Wang Hou continued: "With enough good horses, the Western Army can build an army of tens of thousands of cavalry, and with enough cavalry, we can ensure victory in the field. In this way, our army can advance west along the Wuding River, first remove Xiazhou and Youzhou, the large strongholds east of the Gobi Desert, and then further seek the Xingling and Xingling states."

It is Wang Hou who really dared to pull out Xiazhou and Youzhou. It is just a matter of saying that it will be Xingqing Prefecture, the old nest of Xixia, that is... That is the 400-mile Gobi, and the water source must be considered when transshipping the logistics. The limited water source will definitely be polluted by Xixia in advance!

Therefore, it is not realistic to cross the Gobi Desert and send troops. The only feasible thing is to attack Lingzhou from Huizhou and Xi'an Prefecture (Tiandu Mountain) on the Western Front. However, after this journey, the logistics line of the Western Army will be extended by hundreds of miles, and material transfer will become more difficult.

"We must have an iron cavalry to ensure victory?" Although Wu Haogu knew that Wang Hou's words were untrue, he still humbly asked Wang Hou for advice, "Is the infantry not very useful in the northwest battlefield?"

"Infantry and cavalry have their own uses." Wang Houdao, "Infantry is beneficial to mountains and rivers, and cavalry is beneficial to the Gobi grassland. Especially when fighting in the Gobi grassland, it is absolutely impossible to do without cavalry.

We have already taken the mountains and rivers in the Hengshan-Tiandushan area on the Eastern Front (referring to the Eastern Front of the Song and Xia battlefields). If we want to further remove the key points of the Xia army on the Wuding River, we must use cavalry to extend into the Gobi Desert to block the Xia army advancing west from Xingzhou.

Our army has always adopted the strategy of striking the east and attacking the west in the northwest, and putting Xiazhou and Youzhou close to Shaanxi, but repeatedly using troops in Hehuang on the western front. It is because there is no way to defeat the cavalry of the Western thieves in the Gobi sands and cannot defeat the cavalry of the Western thieves, so it is impossible to stop the Western thieves from coming out to assist the two states of Youxia when our long attacks were exhausted."

"So that's it." Wu Haogu nodded slightly, "Actually, Yanyun is the same. On the one hand, our army has to attack Jiancheng of Yanjing, and on the other hand, we have to fight the Khitan Palace Treasure Army that is descending from Yanshan Mountain at any time..."

"There must be tens of thousands of cavalry!" Wang Hou said, "Cavals can not only be used to fight dignified formation battles, but also to restrain, harass and block the battlefield. If there are tens of thousands of cavalry scattered near Yanyun, it will be difficult for the Khitans to grasp the virtual and real movements of our army. If the virtual and real are unknown, how can they dare to blindly devote themselves to the elite palace tents that rely on the backing of the country?"

"Who is the sure thing for Wang Dongmen to take over the two prefectures of Hehuang?" Wu Haogu asked again.

In fact, Wu Haogu has known the answer to this question for a long time, and now he is just a routine question.

"How can I not be sure?" Wang Hou laughed, "The so-called Hehuang Prefectures are one of the slightly stronger countries among the small countries that were divided by the Great Tubo in the past. The Tubo people called the Tsongkha Country, which was created by the Tubo prince Yao Siluo. The Tsongkha Country meant that the son of Buddha. The country was based on Buddhism, and the reason why it was once strong was because it used Buddhism to command the Tubo tribes. However, during the Xining period of our dynasty, a great country named Guge on the Tubo highlands began to hold the Grand Dharma Conference of the Tolin Temple, which seized the Buddhist leadership status of Tsongkha Country in one fell swoop. Since then, Tsongkha Country began to decline.

Moreover, after the death of Yeshiluo, his successor king could no longer gain the status of a Buddhist son, and naturally his power was unstable, and the entire country would gradually collapse. If we do not take the opportunity to seize it, we would sooner or later be obtained by the Western Xia or the ancient Luo Shizi, which would be a great harm to the country at that time."

There is still such a thing? Wu Haogu thought to himself: It turns out that the Yesiluo regime is a religious country. After the king lost his religious leader status, decline was inevitable... It seems that Wang Shao and Wang Hou and his son wanted to take over He, and Huangzhou were not unreasonable.

"But the Tubo tribes in He and Huang prefectures are not so easy to obey, right? And Xixia will also reinforce these Tubo tribes."

Wu Haogu didn't know how difficult it was to open the border in Hehuang in Song Huizong, but he knew that the failure of the two borders between the Shenzong and Zhezong dynasties was related to the resistance of the Tubo and Qiang tribes.

Wang Hou just smiled bitterly when he heard this: "Zongkha Country was originally a friendly country of our dynasty. In the era of the Chingsiluo, he still fought against Xixia with us. However, the alliance between the two sides had long disappeared, and it became an enemy... Even if we withdrew from Hehuang and surrendered to the court, Zhao Huaide (Muzheng Zilongza), who had been forced by Xi Sheluosa, who was hostile to our dynasty? Since they were going to be enemies with me, it would be better to submit it with strength!"

Wu Haogu understood that it turned out that Tsongkha Tubo originally had an alliance with the Song Dynasty to deal with the Western Xia, but later the Song Dynasty took advantage of the weakness of the Songkha Tubo and set up the border with Hehuang, and the two sides became enemies from allies to enemies. Tsongkha Tubo and Xixia changed from enemies from enemies from the Yesiluo era to their current allies... And the Song Dynasty could not sit idly by and watch the Western Xia take the power of Tsongkha Tubo into the pocket, so it was inevitable that the border would be opened again.
Chapter completed!