Chapter 1755： important task

After breakfast, Zhu Pingan called Liu Dadao, who was carrying a tiger squatting cannon to practice endurance, into the commander's tent, and gave him a stack of bank notes.

"My lord, this is?" Liu Dadao held a stack of banknotes, a little dazed.

The eyes of the uncle Zhu Shouren, who was reading and preparing for the exam in the handsome tent, were all red. His eyes were like a rabbit with chicken blood, and he wanted to **** all the bank notes from Liu Dadao's hand.

"Da Dao, this is three thousand taels of silver. You take people to the city to buy horses, and you can buy as many as you can. If you have good horses, you should buy good horses first. If you don't have good horses, you can buy ordinary horses. If there are no ordinary horses, you can buy them." Mules. Remember, both horses and mules must be in stock, we don’t have time to wait for them to transfer horses from other places.”

Zhu Pingan confessed to Liu Dadao that he was ordered to go to Suzhou City to buy horses and mules, the more the better.

The three thousand taels of silver is the income from selling secret magic swords and medicines.

Zhu Pingan knew it well. According to the current market price, a good horse costs about thirty taels of silver. An ordinary horse costs about fifteen taels of silver in half. As for a mule, a mule is three cents cheaper than an ordinary horse. , a blue and white mule is about six taels to ten taels of silver.

The Japanese pirates are about to attack Suzhou City, and a big war is about to start. With the ferocious and greedy nature of the Japanese pirates, Suzhou City and surrounding towns and villages will all face the threat of Japanese pirates.

Zhu Pingan led the Zhejiang Army to sit in Suzhou City, and had the responsibility and obligation to protect Suzhou City and surrounding towns and villages.

Then, it is very important to form a mobile and flexible cavalry team.

Cavalry is much more mobile and flexible than infantry. With cavalry, troops can be quickly delivered to where they are needed.

Moreover, cavalry is still a key arm during the period of excessive cold and hot weapons. It plays a prominent role in scouting, harassing, chasing, covering lines of communication, and breaking the front, such as the famous dragoons, carbines, cuirassiers, and hussars in Napoleon .

The Zhejiang army now has 700 mules and horses, which is far from enough to cope with the current situation, so Zhu Pingan asked Liu Dadao to go to Suzhou City to buy horses.

However, Zhu Ping'an also knew that Suzhou was located in the south of the Yangtze River, not a place where horses were produced.

Even though Emperor Hongwu encouraged the people in the south of the Yangtze River to raise horses and gave special subsidies and tax incentives, if the people raise horses, it would take up time and land for farming, and the input and output ratio is not cost-effective, and the people in the south of the Yangtze River don’t raise many horses.

Even if the city of Suzhou is the richest in the world, the number of horses in the horse market in the city will not be too many.

Of course, if you give time to adjust the horses, hundreds of thousands of good horses are still not a problem.

Not enough, what is lacking now is time.

So, the next best thing is to buy an ordinary horse if you don’t have a good horse, and if you don’t have enough ordinary horses, you can buy a mule.

Actually, mules are not very suitable for war horses. Compared with horses, mules are small in size, and their disadvantages are quite obvious. Mules are slower, less courageous, and less powerful than horses, about one-fourth to one-third smaller than horses.

However, at critical times, mules can also be used as war horses.

Although mules are smaller than horses, their stamina and endurance are far superior to those of horses. They can carry a load for more than 40 miles at one go, even on good and bad roads, even mountain roads.

In addition, mules are not easy to get sick, they are very durable, and have no requirements for forage. Unlike war horses, they not only need maintenance, but also need to be fed fine grains at critical times. Mules only need coarse grains.

In history, Li Xilie formed a mule cavalry because of the lack of horses, and the combat effectiveness was quite strong.

Perhaps, everyone has no impression of Li Xilie, but the famous calligrapher in history—Yan Zhenqing, everyone must have heard that Yan Zhenqing was killed by Li Xilie.

"Nephew, why don't you leave it to us, and promise to buy a good horse for your nephew."

Uncle Zhu Shouren was jealous of the 3,000 taels of silver in Liu Dadao's hand, got up and patted his chest to invite Ying.

"Uncle, you are new here and you are not familiar with Suzhou, so let Da Dao handle it. You can study and prepare for the exam with peace of mind."

Zhu Ping'an smiled and resolutely rejected his uncle's offer.

Hehe, just kidding, I leave it to you, isn’t that like a meat bun beating a dog without return. The three thousand taels of silver will be handed over to you. I guess you will go to the flower house to buy a skinny horse if you turn around. I don’t know you yet.

"Okay, time is tight and the task is heavy, Dadao, you go quickly." Zhu Pingan waved his hand, telling Liu Dadao and the others to leave immediately.

"Your order, my lord." Liu Dadao put the banknote next to him, left with fists in his hands, and called for deployment to buy horses in Suzhou City.

"Oh, nephew." Seeing that the deal was done and Liu Dadao left with the money in his pocket, the uncle slapped his thigh angrily and looked at Zhu Pingan and said, "Didn't we say that, we are here to help you, if you have something to do, just Tell us, we can do things like studying and preparing for exams when we rest at night."

"Yes, Master Zhu, we are willing to do the work of a dog and a horse for Master Zhu, studying for exams, we can do it at night."

Hu Wei and Xia Qiang also got up and said.

The corners of Zhu Ping’an’s mouth twitched. Don’t you know how many brushes you have? You are careless to an outrageous degree. What you are talking about is you. I have no time to send you away. How dare you use you.

"Hehe, I don't feel embarrassed if you are so active. I do have something important to tell you."

Zhu Ping'an smiled.

"Important matter?" Uncle and the others looked at each other with excited expressions.

"Nephew, you are right. Don't worry, we are right to entrust important matters to us. We were careless last time, and arithmetic and copying are not enough to show our actual level."

Uncle Zhu Shouren patted his chest and said.

"My lord, please tell me that we will complete the task." Hu Wei and Xia Qiang followed closely.

"Nephew, if you have any important errands, you can order them. Do you want to buy more important things? Give me the money quickly, and we'll set off right away." Uncle Zhu Shouren swallowed and urged again and again.

You got into the eyes of money, right?

Zhu Ping'an was speechless.

"It's like this. The Japanese pirates will attack Suzhou in a few days. How to improve our army's combat power as soon as possible is a top priority. I hope that my uncle, Mr. Hu and Mr. Xia can help me think of one or two good strategies to help me quickly increase the combat power of the Zhejiang army. .”

Under uncle's repeated urging, Zhu Ping'an narrowed his eyes, curled the corners of his lips, and said slowly.

"Quickly increase the combat power of the army?" Uncle Zhu Shouren, Hu Wei, and Xia Qiang were suddenly stunned. How did they know.

However, even though their minds were muddled, Uncle Zhu Shouren and the others patted their chests and took over the package, "Nephew/Master Zhu, please rest assured, we have left this matter to us, and the custodian can come up with a good plan."