Zhong Yi was shocked, but heard Ouyang Bian say, "By the way, if these five thousand people were built into all cavalry, would it be more beneficial to the bandit suppression?"

Zhong Yi: "…"

When Ouyang Bian saw Zhong Yi's expression, he said in surprise: "What's wrong?"

Zhong Yi said with difficulty: "Can you know how much a horse costs?"

Ouyang Bian shook his head: "I know civilian horses, but I don't know much about war horses."

Zhong Yi stretched out two fingers, thought for a while and stretched out three fingers and said, "Twenty or thirty silos per horse, this is still bad. If it is a top-notch horse, fifty or sixty silos is normal, and it is not easy to buy it."

Ouyang Bian nodded: "It's okay, I'll deal with this. I just want to know whether it's difficult to build a full cavalry, and will it be beneficial to the bandit suppression?"

Zhong Yi smiled bitterly and said, "Of course it is difficult. First, it is to consume money and food, second, it is to train cavalry, and third, it is to be difficult to buy horses.

As for whether it is beneficial, it is of course very beneficial. With horses, the army will be transferred quickly, and chasing thieves will become a very simple thing!

The difficulty of suppressing bandits is actually not a head-on decisive. When facing head-on decisive, where are the thieves opponents of officers and soldiers?

Even the wing army can defeat thieves. The key is that thieves come and go like the wind, and it is difficult to pursue and eliminate them. If there are cavalry, it will become very easy to eliminate thieves."

Ouyang Bian smiled and said, "Since that's the case, it's better to build all the cavalry over there, and there's no shortage of this money."

Zhong Yi: "…this little money?"

Ouyang Bian nodded and said, "Brother Zhong, I have a task to hand over to you now."

Zhong Yi immediately stood up: "I will obey the order!"

Ouyang Bian smiled and said, "Don't be so nervous."

Zhong Yi's shy smile disappeared at all, and the rest was all serious: "Sir, please give an order!"

Ouyang Bian nodded with a smile: "Well, your next task is to recruit soldiers. You must recruit high standards. According to the standards of cavalry, the requirements are high, and the salary will naturally be high. The central bank will naturally provide clothing and weapons. The annual salary of soldiers is 80 trump cards per year. Tell them that the salary is paid in full and will not be deducted or even empty salary."

Zhong Yi was shocked: "The salary except for clothing, weapons, etc. is 80 stalemate?"

Ouyang Bian nodded: "If they don't spend money randomly, they can even send 80 stakes home every year."

Zhong Yi was dumbfounded: "Then there are still war horses?"

Ouyang Bian smiled and said, "Well, each rider is expected to be calculated at 250 knots per year."

Zhong Yi thought for a while and said, "No, even if you count the war horses, it will not cost 250 taels, right?"

Ouyang Bian smiled slightly: "One man and two horses, and people eat horses and chew it. It's quite conservative to spend 250 knots a year."

Zhong Yi: "…"

To be honest, he was already a little numb.

Only now did he know what a big dog is.

A team of only 5,000 people, only one step will cost 1.25 million knots on them every year. If the army of the Song Dynasty spent so much money, it would not be able to extract so much military expenditure from the entire Song Dynasty.

But Ouyang Bian said, "Brother Zhong, I have enough money, but what I want is elite soldiers, and what I want is cavalry that can fight head-on with the Xixia people. Can you do it?"

Zhong Yi showed a bitter smile on his face: "That's not a problem that money can solve."

Ouyang Bian: “…”

I was so stupid that I wanted to say something domineering, but I didn't expect to be slapped in the face on the spot.

"...Most of the Western Xia cavalry are poorly equipped and can easily fall into disadvantages in frontal confrontation, so they pay attention to mobility.

They are good at reconnaissance and cavalry, and are better than ordinary nomadic cavalry than ambush. They ride horses and run through mountains and walk dangerously like walking on flat ground. They are elite soldiers and generals trained over the years.

Even if our cavalry has good soldiers and horses, it still takes a lot of time to practice.

The advantage of our Song cavalry is that they "walls go forward", like iron walls rushing towards the enemy, putting great pressure on alien cavalry. In fact, in cavalry battles, Liao and Xixia rarely won against Song and Song."

Zhong Yi carefully analyzed.

After hearing this for a while, Ouyang Bian reacted: "We, the cavalry of the Song Dynasty, aren't we actually suffering from the cavalry battle?"

Zhong Yi nodded: "Yes, if a cavalry battle occurs, it means that our number of cavalry is not at a disadvantage. In the case of losses, we will cooperate with a small number of cavalry and a large number of infantry units, and there will be no cavalry battle."

Ouyang Bian felt a little confused. What if the cavalry of the Song Dynasty that he had agreed was weak?

Well, it was his impression that it was.

Ouyang Bian thought about it and asked, "Then how do we use the cavalry of our Song Dynasty?"

Zhong Yidao: "Because we are not many, most of them use tactics such as roundabout encirclement, frontal attack, infantry and cavalry coordination, rapid pursuit, long-distance raid and sneak attack, and the effect is actually quite good."

Ouyang Bian nodded, so it was actually because there were too few horses. If there were enough horses, the training would be enough, and the level should not be much worse.

The long-range raid of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing in the Han Dynasty and the war against the Turks by the Tang Dynasty was a large-scale battle example in which the Central Plains dynasty won by the proactive attack of the cavalry. As long as there were enough war horses in the Central Plains, they could also have powerful cavalry.

"Okay, then follow the plan. If you recruit soldiers, I will get you ten thousand horses no matter what!"

Ouyang Bian made a flag.

Zhong Yi said: "...this is a bit difficult."

However, he did not say this because Ouyang Bian looked quite confident and excited, and he couldn't bear to attack Ouyang Bian.

He said yes.

Zhong Yi thought so, after all, he came here to try his best. If he could seize the opportunity, he would make a profit. If he really couldn't do it, he would go back to the northwest. At that time, he begged his family to give Yin a position and always be able to become an official.

Ouyang Bian usually doesn't brag about what he said, so he went to find Wang Anshi that night.

“…Ten thousand horses?”

Wang Anshi looked at his disciples like a fool.

Ouyang Bian said: "Why, can't you buy it?"

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "You know I have been the judge of the group shepherd department, so I came to me and it is not impossible to buy a horse, but the number is too large, so it is impossible."

Ouyang Bian said: "If there are no ten thousand horses, five thousand horses are fine.

Wang Anshi was angry and laughed: "Do you know? In the second year of Zhihe, there were only 1,640 horses in the north and north of Henan Province, and only 264 horses could be used as war horses. The rest could only be used as postal horses. Where did the Tribute Division find 5,000 war horses to sell to you?"

Ouyang Bian opened his mouth wide: "Is it so miserable?"

Wang Anshi sighed and said, "It's just that miserable. During the Zhenzong period, horses were the most prosperous, with more than 200,000 horses.

The cost of raising horses is that 4,000 horses need to eat more than 3 million stones of grain per year, and raising a horse requires about 800 stones of grain per year.

At that time, there should be 153,634 horses in the world, but since then, it has been worse than it has been.

By now, Ma Zheng has almost fallen into defeat. Most of the war horses in the army are bought from Liaoxia."

Ouyang Bian was surprised: "Can you buy it?"

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "Of course I can buy it, but how can I not buy something with money?"

"But this war horse is a strategic resource. Can Liao and Xixia be willing to sell it?"

Ouyang Bian doesn't believe it.

Wang Anshi smiled and said, "War horses are consumables, and they can only serve for a few years. How many years have there been no war between the Song and Liao dynasties.

Every time we fight with Xixia, the Liao Kingdom will sell us a large number of war horses. After a big battle, the war horses will be almost consumed. After they make money, they are not afraid that the Song Dynasty will use their war horses to fight them. What a good business?

Even in Xixia, we can buy war horses, even when fighting.

The only thing that can make money in Xixia is salt. When we fight, we will block their exports, so they will also secretly sell war horses to make some money in private, but the number is not large."

Ouyang Bian was secretly shocked. These people’s business practices are really good!

However, this is a great thing for Ouyang Bian, at least he can buy a horse.
Chapter completed!