Chen Ping hesitated for a moment, obviously lacking confidence.
"Following the news that the Huns sold horses to Yan, there is no updated news."
“The matter of selling horses is also vague.
How many horses were sold? Is it only for sale this time? Will you still sell it in the future? "
Liu Ji frowned, not satisfied with the information returned.
"How should I put it? The spies I sent this time have not yet broken into the royal court. They are always going around in circles and can only get some tidbits of information from the herdsmen.
Even the matter of selling horses was discovered by herdsmen on the way to transport the horses. Everyone talked about it, and then the spies learned about it.
Therefore, if things really come to that point, we have no idea what Maodun Shanyu plans. "
"Hiss—even those women can't enter the royal court?"
"Probably not yet, I am also very confused about this.
It seems that Mao Dun is more cautious than we thought. "
"Liu Jingjian didn't see Shan Yu, so he had no way of knowing?"
Liu Ji refused to give up and asked.
Chen Ping shook his head, feeling that the Xiongnu grassland was like a huge, dark, bottomless cave that could swallow up all news and light.
"That's all, I don't trust people when I hire them. I'm confident that I got Liu Jing right. He is a person who knows how to adapt to changes.
We should remain unchanged in response to all changes. No matter whether he unites with the Xiongnu or not, let's make the current preparations first. "
The circles under Liu Ji's eyes were also a little dark, and there was endless anxiety between his brows.
That's right, the "he" in the mouths of their monarchs and ministers refers to King Zang Tu of Yan, who has been refusing to come to Luoyang to see and report his work so far, claiming that he is ill.
The storm was coming, and although Liu Ji kept saying that he would wait for any news from the Yan Kingdom in the north and have some backup plans, if the Xiongnu really sent troops to help Zang Tu, it would be tantamount to putting his new emperor directly in the fire. Roast.
"Let's wait for the news from Longxi. Once we receive the memorial from Zifang, we can send it in at any time."
***
Sure enough, within three days, Zhang Liang's memorial was delivered by horse from Longxi, detailing his experience of on-site visits and expeditions for more than a month.
And, what did not disappoint the emperor was that Taifu Zhang also conducted tireless investigations into the governance and people's livelihood conditions in the northwest border counties.
For this reason, Liu Jixing summoned everyone to discuss the matter in the ban at night, and asked Xiao Huangmen to go to the North Palace, and specially invited the queen to attend.
When Lv Zhi came along the Fudao Road, she found out that it was Taifu Zhang who suggested in the memorial that the emperor should invite her to attend the meeting because "the queen is very knowledgeable about military affairs."
She curled her lips. These days, when she went in and out of the North and South Palaces, she had already sensed the tense atmosphere in the court.
Seeing that Xiao He was almost ready to work as an adult, Fan Kuai, Guan Ying and other generals, as well as the imperial servant Xia Houying, were frequently in and out of the ban to discuss matters and report, which showed that important events were approaching.
Zhang Zifang's memorial was a bit of a reassurance to the restless people in Luoyang.
However, this reassurance came only after a series of unsatisfactory circumstances. It can be regarded as a decrease first and then an increase.
"The master said three things, one of which was bad and the other two good."
Liu Ji nodded and motioned to General Huang to read out the memorial.
At the beginning of the memorial, Zhang Liang gave in and admitted that the plan could not change as quickly as it did. He had always planned every strategy and anticipated the enemy, but he was severely beaten in front of an animal like a horse.
Based on an on-the-spot visit to the Border County Animal Park, Zhang Liang found that his previous predictions about war horses were still too crude and too optimistic.
In the chaos at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Huns continued to move south to cause trouble. The official horses in the Liumu were either lost or used in the civil war. The sergeants of the pastoral supervisors also fled one after another. The various pastoral gardens in Longxi were basically abandoned.
It can be said that after the world was settled, all businesses were waiting for prosperity. Liu Mu, which the imperial court took over again, was simply a mess with zero foundation. Not only the pastures were reduced, but there were not many senior livestock supervisors who knew how to raise horses, and there was an extreme shortage of professional manpower.
Moreover, in the reports to the central government by the supervisors, the number of existing war horses was at least twice as false.
"Tsk, I knew those lawless people would definitely do this -"
The servant Xia Houying, who was listening quietly at first, couldn't hold back and punched his thigh hard, his face full of frustration.
Falsifying the number of soldiers and horses in order to fill the gap in the court's allocation was a common practice for officials who trained troops and raised horses. Xia Houying was in charge of horse administration and chariot troops all year round, and was well aware of the dirty operations involved.
Therefore, before leaving, he repeatedly emphasized to Zhang Liang, asking him to take stock clearly on his behalf. "Don't believe a word of the numbers reported by those veteran pastoral supervisors."
In addition to the serious shortage of numbers, the quality of the existing horses did not meet the minimum standards for fighting against the Huns.
***
Most of the horses in the animal husbandry, including the foals just born this spring, are pure Central Plains horses.
The counties in Longxi are located in the northwest border of the country, close to foreign countries. One or two horses of unknown origin are still easy to find.
Zhang Liang put the Hu horses he had found together with the top-rated Central Plains horses in the animal husbandry. After careful observation and comparison, he painfully stated the three major weaknesses of the Central Plains horses -
One is short and cannot withstand long distances;
Second, the limbs are short and the running speed cannot be increased;
Third, the fur is short and not cold-resistant.
The Xiongnu grassland is extremely vast and devoid of human habitation, which tests the horse's ability to run long distances.
Moreover, the weather in the grassland changes suddenly, with cloudy and sunny weather changing suddenly. From the scorching sun to the sudden snowstorm, sometimes it only takes half a day.
The physical conditions of the Central Plains horses are only adapted to the mild climate in the mainland. If they enter the grassland rashly, they may die of frostbite before fighting.
In a word, the horses currently in the hands of the imperial court are not large in number and of poor breed. They run slowly, have poor endurance, and cannot withstand the temperature difference in the grassland. In the imagined battle between Han and Hungary, they were defeated before the battle. .
"When it comes to important matters for the country, don't rush your troops; when it comes to important military matters, don't rush your horses."
Zhang Liang said sincerely in the memorial.
The importance of horse politics to the Han-Hungarian war is obvious to all. If we want to defeat the Huns, we must start by improving horses.
Fortunately, Zhang Liang immediately added two pieces of good news.
***
First of all, although horses are not good at it, the local people are very good at it.
To be more precise, he discovered a group of natural warriors among the local residents of Longxi counties——
These soldiers are the sons of good families in the six counties that Queen Lu Pheasant once secretly mentioned.
The so-called good people from six counties are good people who are from the six counties of Longxi, Tianshui, Anding, Beidi, Shangjun, and Xihe. They are not doctors, witches, or merchants, and they have a clean family background.
These six counties are located on the border, adjacent to the Xiongnu and Di and Qiang regions. Their living habits are very similar to those of the nomadic people. The folk customs are martial and warlike, simple and tough, and have strong nomadic military cultural characteristics.
When Zhang Liang visited the home of a fellow villager in Tianshui County, he happened to see a local fox hunting competition:
The young people born and raised in the county, ranging from twelve or three years old to weak crowns, are roughly divided into two teams to compete, with the number of foxes hunted as the winner.
What stunned him was not only the superb mounted shooting of the young men who far surpassed the Central Plains cavalry, but also the tactics they adopted.
Zhang Liang couldn't forget to recall the taste. It was an extremely rare cavalry formation in the war between China and Earth. It was flexible, ethereal and treacherous:
Seeing a group of men and horses galloping towards the city, they were as dense as black clouds pressing over the city. However, following the leader's whistle, they fled to all directions in an instant, disappearing without a trace like a flock of birds entering the forest.
Among their heroes, Han Xin, the king of Chu, was the best at using cavalry, and the rough fox-hunting competition at the local village had some shadows of Han Xin's generals.
Of course, it can't be as watertight as Han Xin, but almost all the leaks can be made up by the riders with their superb personal riding and shooting skills.
He vaguely remembered that when bidding farewell to the Queen, she once reminded her,
“All things in the world are interdependent and interdependent.”
After personal visits and inspections, he was absolutely certain that these good men from the six counties who lived next to the Huns were their natural enemies.
The good families in the six counties can not only produce elite cavalry, but also select generals.
