Chapter 180

Liu Bu has other arms in his army except artillery. For example, they also have cavalry.

Liu Bu is quite complacent about their cavalry. Since the destruction of Zhang Yongxin, they have more than 300 cavalry men and more than 300 horses. It can be said that they are quite good among the major military towns in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Liu Zhongyong looked at them and was not satisfied with them.

Liu Bu said, "boss Liu, what else do you think our cavalry needs to be improved?"

Liu Zhongyong said, "there are many areas that need to be improved. If our cavalry is compared with the elite Mongolian iron cavalry and Jianzhou iron cavalry, it is equivalent to a horseback. He is just riding a horse."

Liu Bu asked modestly, "what does a real cavalry look like?"

Liu Zhongyong said: "the real cavalry, even if they can't eat and sleep on the horse, can at least bow left and right on the horse, ride and shoot. Cavalry and archery are inseparable."

It's hard to say this. Among the Liu family army, the most powerful Archer is their Archer Mao Shengli, who can walk through the Yang with hundreds of steps, but there are no other outstanding people. Their archer's attack is covered by the number. A large number of bows and arrows shoot past. Whoever you are, you will die directly.

Their arm God crossbow has been improved in range and speed, but its accuracy is much lower than that of ordinary crossbows. Therefore, if they gain, they will lose. Although their Archer troops are also trained every day, there are indeed few outstanding figures like Mao Shengli. They go to battle and rely on arrow rain.

Liu Zhongyong said: "In this respect, we are more than a few blocks away from the nomads outside the pass. You know, the nomads outside the pass all rely on hunting. Since childhood, they have used bows and arrows to shoot mice and rabbits. Think about the rats everywhere on the grassland, running around and fast, but they can shoot mice directly with bows and arrows and kill people. Our soldiers are like If you attack a static target, the effect is OK, but if you attack a moving target in a moving state, it's very bad, and this aspect needs to be improved. "

When Liu Bu heard what Liu Zhongyong said, he poured him a cup of tea and listened to him.

Liu Zhongyong said: "It's no problem for our archers to line up and shoot arrows. However, if the other party sends out Rangers, it will give us great pressure. The other party swims quickly on a fast horse, serves outside your army, looks for your weaknesses, looks for your flaws and shoots. The other party has a hundred steps through the Yang. You can't defend and hide. It's just the other party's fault Live target. "

Liu Bu said, "so we also need our own Rangers, right?"

Liu Zhongyong said, "that's right, but it seems that Mao Shengli is the only qualified Ranger."

Liu Bu felt a little too demanding after hearing this. He said, "boss Liu, you are a reliable person. I believe you won't mention a problem to me for no reason. What can you say?"

Liu Zhongyong said: "Our cavalry need to further strengthen their training to make them more powerful, but in fact, these things are not only a one-day effort, but also pay attention to one thing, that is, talent. After so long training, we have not trained many talents, which can only show that our soldiers do not have this talent. Therefore, the lower officer wants to recruit some from Mongolia Riders join our army. "

Liu Bu said to him, "recruit Mongols."

Liu Zhongyong said: "Yes, they recruit Mongols. Many of them can't get along in the Mongolian tribe. They can't even eat a full meal in their tribe. There are many Mongolian mercenaries in major military towns. Even many of our generals are Mongols, but there is one thing that is taboo. We must report it to the imperial court and put it on record in the Ministry of war. We Liu It seems that our army is not suitable to file with the Ministry of war. "

Liu Bu said, "what we need now is talents to quickly strengthen the strength of our troops. If he is Mongolian, he can also be used exceptionally. As long as he can work for us, I don't care who he is."

Liu Zhongyong said: "If you say this, I'm relieved. When I fought in the border town, I also dealt with many Mongols. If I signed a contract with them, they would generally perform well. Therefore, I mean to recruit a group of Mongolian riders to enrich our troops, and even let them act as instructors to teach our soldiers to ride and shoot Kung Fu, I believe it's not difficult to keep them with the treatment of our Liu Jiajun. "

Liu preached: "yes! There's no problem at all. Unfortunately, the ways to deal with the Mongols are in the hands of those businessmen in Shanxi. We can only buy horses from Mongolia through them. In fact, our Liu family can also buy horses through them. Uncle Liu has talked with them. If we can negotiate, we can get 100 horses a month."

Liu Zhongyong was overjoyed and said, "one hundred horses a month are amazing in a year. But where do adults get so much money and food?"

Daming has no large-scale horse breeding base and can only rely on their own. Therefore, they have always had the business of smuggling horses from Mongolia or changing horses from the trading market. As for the people, it is not strange to smuggle war horses from Mongolia, but the price is too expensive.

In the early years of this dynasty, in order to obtain enough horses, the court forced the people to raise horses for the government to expropriate (free of land tax), but the people were unwilling. They would rather kill the horses and lose money than raise horses for the government to expropriate.

Later, because of the lack of horses, the court had to buy them from the people.

The price of buying horses generally fluctuates between 10 and 15.

With the implementation of this policy, a large number of private horse farms have emerged in Hebei and Shandong, specializing in raising horses and selling them to the official. At the same time, the folk carriage transportation industry is booming.

However, after Longqing opened the border, due to the victory of the perennial war against Mongolia, Mongolia officially became a vassal of the Ming Empire and opened trade channels with Mongolia. The imperial court officials could buy a large number of cheaper horses from Mongolia and stopped purchasing horses from domestic people, resulting in the closure of private horse farms in Hebei and Shandong.

It should be noted here that although it is cheaper to buy horses from Mongolia, the cost of horses officially purchased by the imperial court has not been reduced. Where is the price difference during this period? Think for yourself.

In the Apocalypse period, with the large-scale closure of Hebei Shandong horse farm and the rise of slave construction, the cost of buying horses from Mongolia surged, reaching 50 Liang silver at the peak.

To put it bluntly, some people collude with officials and businessmen to buy a horse with more than ten liang of silver, but when they come to the mainland, it will not be less than 40, and the peak is 50. If the Liu family buys on a large scale, it is estimated that the final transaction price will not be less than forty Liang, that is to say, this expenditure alone will not be less than 4000 Liang per month, This expenditure is a small part of the expenditure of the Liu family.

Liu Bu said, "I know it's a pit, but I can't think of it. I can only get a horse from them. It takes time to raise it myself."

This is the place of Daming Keng father. Originally, we had enough horse farms to provide war horses, but after getting cheap horses from Mongolia, we closed down all our horses. Now we can't buy cheap war horses from our horse farms, because they are basically closed down and changed careers.

Liu Zhongyong said, "so we should recruit people. The more, the better, right?"

They can quickly get war horses, as long as they spend a lot of money, but a qualified cavalry doesn't mean to get them, so their idea is to recruit Mongolian mercenaries.

Liu preached: "so if we have a business deal with Shanxi people, what we need to recruit is not a few people or some instructors, but a large number. Boss Liu, you should have a way in this regard."

In fact, if they are allowed to deal directly with those businessmen in Shanxi, it is estimated that even people can come and sell them to you, but the price is hard to say. For example, a horse they bought from Mongolia is only ten Liang silver at most, but what they sell to others is between 40 and 50 Liang.

Liu Zhongyong said, "I know some people in this respect. It's not difficult for the other party to get some. The key is that our Liu family army has a good treatment. It's not difficult to keep these people. Since, of course, adults have the plan to expand the cavalry, I decided to get some people for you."

Liu Bu said, "OK! Let's do this. Our cavalry is always short of people. First recruit a thousand people. It's better for people to wait for horses than horses."

Liu Zhongyong, seeing the forthright promise of Liu Bu, reminded him, "adults, our expenses will be frightening."

Liu Bu said, "since our Liu family began to transform, we won't have a way back. We don't want to go back. We can only go all out."

Liu Bu opened their own account books and saw the running expenditure. However, at this stage, he could only bite his teeth. Fortunately, they are now allied with the Zheng family and can get a lot of subsidies from the Zheng family, otherwise the situation will be even worse.

For example, if they have silver, they can still transport the most scarce grain and cloth from the south of the Yangtze River, but the freight of materials transported from the south of the Yangtze River is not low. If their father is still at Linqing customs, they can reduce these freight through equivalent exchange. But now their Liu family is no longer working at the customs, so their fleet, The operation cost is greatly increased.

Therefore, they decided to transport grain by sea from Jiangnan to Fushan, and then forward it to all parts of the country, which greatly saved their costs.