?The south bank of Santai River, a large area of ​​grass is lush and green, with hundreds of horses walking leisurely on the grass. Not far away, there are rows of stables and tall grass.

This is a horse ranch farm that covers hundreds of hectares of land by the Hulin Army. The entire army's war horses and horses are grazing here. Of course, the two are separated. The stables and warehouses are located at a higher terrain, in order to prevent water.

This place was originally a wasteland. Since the State Department built a river embankment on the south bank of Santai River, the Hulin Army drained the accumulated water with the newly built drainage ditches, and then used thousands of prisoners of war to level the land and tamp it, sprinkled grass on it to cultivate grass. Now it finally has its own horse farm.

The horse-producing areas in the Central Plains are in the northwest direction, such as Hetao and Longyou areas. There are few large grasslands suitable for raising horses in the Yangtze River Basin. Bazhou on the edge of the Yangtze River is not suitable for raising horses, but Yuwen Wen has made a pocket horse-dressing farm.

"It's rainy in the south of the Yangtze River, so raising horses will be very troublesome." Yuchi Shun said. He is now visiting the horse ranch farm accompanied by his son-in-law. Looking at the hand-tied pasture, he raised questions while experiencing it.

"It is difficult to raise horses, but no matter how difficult it is, you have to raise them. There are also war horses in Jiangbei prefectures. There are many experiences and lessons learned from raising them. The son-in-law has summarized them one by one, hoping to succeed." Yuwen Wen replied.

"It takes at least five years from a young horse to being a qualified war horse. You can't rely on a war horse that can only ride in five years to fight, right?" Yuchi Shun asked again.

"This is natural, but Shannan has no horse land. The official army's war horses are mostly captured. If it weren't for Yang Jian... Yang disobeyed the imperial court, why should the states in Shannan raise their own horses? They can just rely on the imperial court to allocate them directly."

"Now the country has been connected, and the court will transfer war horses to Shannan. Why do you have to spend so much effort?" Yuchi Shun continued to ask, "The captured Chen army war horses are not as strong as those in the North. If these war horses are fully covered, how many can they be eaten."

"Is there any better?" Yuwen spread his hands and expressed the cruel reality.

Since three years ago, in late May of the second year of the Elephant, the Civil War of the Great Zhou Dynasty broke out, and the Anzhou army at that time had no source of horses. After all the wars, most of the horses suffered losses, and they all lost the battles, and they all won the battles, and they were still quite profitable by seizing them.

But this is a treatment of symptoms but not the root cause. The battle of cavalry is a powerful tool. The cavalry in the Zhou army in Shannan is now 'not affordable'. Although the water network in the Jiangmian area is wide and can barely resist the enemy cavalry with infantry, it is not effective to attack externally. After all, if you want to fight in the Central Plains, you will die if you don't have cavalry.

The Southern Dynasties had countless northern expeditions over the past hundreds of years. Even though they had extraordinary results at the beginning, the cavalry of the Northern Dynasties went south in a large-scale manner. It was not that the soldiers of the Southern Army were not good at fighting, but that the cavalry had lost their strategic mobility ineffectiveness. During the battle, they were gradually taken the initiative by the Northern Army, which had many cavalrymen.

Seeing Yuchi Shun silent, Yuwen Wen said that when his father-in-law arrived in Yecheng, he would have to say a few good words in front of the prime minister and send a large number of war horses to the Zhou army in Shannan. After all, if the Zhou army in Shannan could fight, it would be better to support the war on the main force of the court.

"I should do my best." Yuchi Shun can only say this. He is not a fool. He knows that the court needs to consider many aspects of his actions, which is actually due to the subtle relationship between his father and Yuwen Liang.

This kind of topic is a bit harsh, and both sides know it. Anyway, it is natural to cooperate to take into account the overall situation. Yang Jian first and then think about the next step.

Yuwen Wen would naturally not be so stupid that he asked his father-in-law to guarantee his promise. Anyway, he would have to make a fuss with no dates. He was thick-skinned, so he had to pick out some war horses from Prime Minister Yuchi when he arrived in Yecheng. This was also an important strategic resource urgently needed by the Zhou army in Shannan.

"That pasture seems to be specially planted forage?" Yuchi Shun asked. He saw a large grass in a corner of the horse farm, which was unique, and the grass grew quite tall and did not look like a place for horses to run.

Yuwen Wen nodded and said yes, leading his father-in-law to the grassland, where different kinds of green grass were planted in the plots, but Yuchi Shun was attracted by the grass planting in it: "This is? Three-leaf clover... Could it be alfalfa?"

"It is alfalfa, which naturally does not exist in the Jiangnan area. It is the son-in-law who tries every means to find grass seeds and try to plant them here. If they can be successfully planted, they will expand the area."

"I got it from Chang'an, I remember that alfalfa is common in Guanzhong."

Alfalfa was not originally a native plant in the Central Plains. During the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian went on a mission to the Western Regions. He not only brought back good horses, but also alfalfa seeds, which were planted in Chang'an area, and then slowly expanded to various parts of Guanzhong.

"Biography of the Western Regions of the Han Book" records: "The Kingdom of Dayuan is popular with alcohol and horses are fond of alfalfa", so after Emperor Wu of Han finally got the Dayuan horse back, he also introduced the alfalfa that Dayuan horse likes to eat as feed.

When Yuwen Wen saw his father-in-law "knowing the goods", he began to explain his sad history of growing alfalfa. In fact, he had mature planting experience in the cultivation of alfalfa in this era. More than 40 years ago, the book "Qimin Yaoshu" written by Jia Sijie of the Northern Wei Dynasty, which records in detail the cultivation methods of alfalfa.

"Now I have experience in alfalfa cultivation. Xiaozi plans to expand the pastures to plant grass specifically. This alfalfa is one of them. After harvesting, it can be fed to the war horses and then appropriately increase the essence."

"I remember that there are at least two types of alfalfa. One blooms is yellow flowers and the other blooms is purple flowers..." Yuchi Shun remembered the type of alfalfa.

"The son-in-law wanted to buy alfalfa, but the one that bloomed was yellow flowers... I was deceived!" When he said this, Yuwen Wen Wuming became angry. He sent people to Chang'an to connect with Zheng Yi, Duke of Pei, and stayed there. One of these people's tasks was to buy things and buy some things that could not be bought in Shannan Prefectures and counties.

Alfalfa is one of them, but the so-called alfalfa seeds I bought were all planted with yellow flowers.

It’s not that yellow alfalfa cannot be used as forage forage for horses, but because alfalfa contains much higher nutrition than yellow alfalfa, Yu Wenwen, who was fooled by unscrupulous businessmen, was extremely unhappy and wrote a heavy note on the blacklist.

Yuchi Shun raised a new question. He said that although alfalfa grows well in Guanzhong, it is rainy in the south of the Yangtze River, so it may not be suitable for planting alfalfa. Yu Wenwen's answer was also very direct, saying that several types of forage grass have been selected to plant together, just in case.

Seeing his son-in-law's confidence, Yuchi Shun nodded and said nothing more. He stayed in Xiyang for a day, one to allow his daughter and wife to gather together, and the other to see his son-in-law's strength.

Outsiders are spreading the son-in-law's various evil deeds, but Yuchi Shun knows that most of them are false rumors, such as forcing the robbery of a commoner and eating human flesh, are nonsense. As for the good girl, what's strange about men being lustful, let alone he is absolutely confident that his daughter's heart to catch her son-in-law.

Yuchi Shun wanted to know what his son-in-law had made in Bazhou. He said that the Hulin Army could fight, so how far could he fight, and said that if he chose iron, how good the things he trained were.

He thought his son-in-law would do it perfunctorily, but after walking around today, Yuchi Shun got what he wanted to see: water conservancy facilities with amazing construction progress, large areas of once-waste beaches turned into farmlands, and lying-axle windmills and workshops that he had never seen before.

The newly expanded Dongcheng, the clean and tidy Xicheng, the bustling crowds in the city, and the hard-working farmers outside the city.

Morale was high, well-trained Hulin soldiers, sufficient food and strict military discipline; the large sand selection field next to the Bashui River, the hydraulically driven bellows and forging hammers in the iron smelting workshop next to the Santai River.

The Su Tie Knife with a cold light on the blade and a brand new ring lock armor. These things are not rare and will not shock Yuchi Shun as a magic weapon. However, a mere Bazhou military weapon surveillance can make these things. He felt that his son-in-law was indeed very motivated.

Now that I have visited the horse farm that covers not a large area, looking at the carefully cultivated grass, Yuchi Shun was not surprised by his son-in-law's thoughts, but deeply felt his persistence.

In other words, it is ambition.

He didn't know whether he should be happy or worried with such a son-in-law, or had both moods. Looking at the three-leaf clover picked from his hand, Yuchi Shun was a little distracted.

Yuwen Wen was also distracted. He looked at the alfalfa he had worked hard to plant, and then looked at the hundreds of horses on the grass. The scene of thousands of horses galloping in his mind. It was the fantasy of the three-leaf clover.

Cavalry, until the combination of barbed wire, trench and machine gun appeared, were all important troops on the battlefield. When the tanks appeared, they really changed from the protagonist to the supporting role. The cavalry of this era was as important as the tanks in later generations.

To be strong, cavalry must first have a large number of war horses, and to raise horses, there must be a large area of ​​pastures. The natural pastures are in the grasslands, or northwest areas such as Hetao and Longyou. So the question is: Can't we raise horses on a large scale in the Jianghuai area?

The answer is yes. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Jianghuai Rebel Army had a large number of war horses, while the Ming army had powerful cavalry during the Northern Expedition. This was because the Yuan court had a large number of military horse farms in the Jianghuai River. Of course, the reason for the large number of military horse farms was that the population there had been sharp decline after wars.

After all, it is the problem of people fighting for land. This problem is especially prominent in the Song Dynasty. The common saying is that when the Northern Song Dynasty was founded, it was inherently deficient and lost the traditional northwest horse farming land. Without enough horses, there would be no powerful cavalry, so it was very helpless against Liao and Xixia.

However, the sheep raising industry in the Northern Song Dynasty was extremely prosperous during the same period, because there was a huge demand for mutton at that time, and mutton was the best in the amount of food in the palace. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song Dynasty, he bought sheep from Xixia and transported it to Hebei for grazing. As a result, "invaded people's fields, hindered planting and several counties were harmed."

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, "the imperial chef spent tens of thousands of sheep a year", and it became even more powerful in the era of Emperor Shenzong of Song. The imperial chef account book actually consumed 434,463 pounds and 4 taels of mutton in a year.

Raising sheep in grassland but not land to raise horses is not explained by the lack of horse-producing land. In other words, it is not that you cannot raise horses, but whether you are willing to raise horses.

Since the Tanyuan Alliance, Song State can maintain peace by paying annual monies. What is the effort to raise horses? What's more, the land is not enough for farming and sheep, so there is no share in the horse farm.

The deterioration of horse politics is also one of the culprits. The history of the Song Dynasty records that Raozhou "has 562 males, 305 males, and 27 males, and 307 males, and 307 males, and 307 males, and the low reproduction rate is really outrageous.

There were 562 stallions used to breed, and 315 were raised to die, and the remaining 247 stallions raised to raise 27 horse foals. Such a spoiled horse political system is no longer reasonable.

Therefore, "The Jiangnan cannot raise horses on a large scale" is a false proposition. As long as there is land, as long as you raise horses with your heart, you will not have to worry about not being able to raise a large number of war horses. Therefore, if Yuwen Wen wants to raise horses, he must first solve the problem of people fighting for land, and then there is feed and a strict horse raising system.

Therefore, no matter how tight the land in Bazhou is, he has to set a large piece of horses to raise. To raise war horses well, he must have high-quality forage grass. Alfalfa is a kind of good forage grass. The small three-leaf clover is the beginning of his dream of raising horses.

Raising horses is a systematic project. It is not enough to have land and grass alone. It is even more important for people who raise horses to grow horses. If horse raising people don’t care about it, everything will be a bubble.

"Journey to the West" tells that when Bi Ma Wen has a lot of work, even if he feeds the horse fat, he will only say "good". If he is a little thin, he will be held accountable. If he is injured, he will have to pay for his crime. If he raises a horse, he will be underestimated and has poor treatment. How can anyone work hard?

Therefore, Yuwen Wen's horse-raising soldiers are very well treated. If they keep the horse well, they can still divide the land. Although horse-raising is slow, he still has to persevere. The mutton is delicious but the horse is more important.

If the cavalry is not strong enough, they cannot defeat the enemy. If they cannot defeat the enemy, they must kneel down. During the Jingkang Incident, the empress dowager, queen, princess, royal concubines, and wife of the royal family, both inside and outside, became the toys of Jin soldiers without exception. Yuwen Wen did not want to experience that tragic experience in person.
Chapter completed!