Zhao Tong went out to receive the order. It turned out that Wang Qing had given him armor, weapons and horses, and asked him to take people to the Hyogo Racecourse to report the results.
At present, Wang Qing has a lot of military supplies, which are basically robbed from various states, counties and the Imperial Guards in the capital. Among them, weapons are the most abundant, many of which are brand new and have never been used before.
The military depot and the racecourse are in the west of Luzhou City. The military depot is inside the city and the racecourse is outside the city. Huaixi is the southern end of the Central Plains. If there is a place suitable for raising horses in the Central Plains, it is Luzhou.
The territory of Luzhou has a suitable temperature, abundant water and grass, and land suitable for horses to run. There has been a tradition of raising horses since ancient times.
At three points, Cao Cao conquered Sun Quan and not only built military facilities such as the crossbow platform and Hu Bing Pond in Luzhou City, but also built a large number of horse farms outside and around the city to raise horses.
There are many horse ponds, horse beaches, and horse farms outside Luzhou City. Unfortunately, horses are no longer raised since the time of Zhe Zong.
It was really unaffordable to raise a horse. The money spent on raising a horse was actually 50% more than buying a horse from Xixia. I had no idea where the extra money was spent.
Half a year before Emperor Zhezong's death, he sent people to investigate the matter. Unfortunately, he passed away before the investigation could be completed. Emperor Daojun never interfered with the matter after he succeeded to the throne, and it has been settled ever since.
Now Wang Qing conquered Huaixi and harvested countless horses, especially the horses of the Forbidden Army. They were all real war horses, bought from Tubo and Xixia with real gold and silver during the Song Dynasty.
Wang Qing didn't know anything about horses, so he listened to Li Zhu's advice and simply renovated the racecourse outside the city, drove most of the horses there, and used it as a place to store horses.
Zhao Tong and Yao Pingzhong came to the racecourse first, but they saw dozens of people standing in front of the makeshift horse master's door.
After asking, I found out that the weapons and horses were not only given to the ten generals, but also to the second and third ranked generals in each arena. There were also some small village leaders who came to seek refuge. Although the small village leaders did not participate in the arena, they were also given a share. , but Wang Qing naturally has to show his support when he brings people to vote.
These people were all mountain bandits and water thieves, and how could they behave themselves? When they saw that the gate of the Horsemaster Division had not been opened for a long time, they got angry and drew out their knives and shouted: "King Huai asked me to pick up horses. What do you mean by not opening the door? Is it this?" Did you cook horse meat in it and eat it secretly?"
Zhao Tong was also a little confused. Since Wang Qing had an order, he must have received it here and he should not dare to disobey it.
At this time, I heard the soldier inside crying: "Grandpas, wait a moment, there are too many horses, and there are some that have not been rushed back from the racecourse. If you want to choose, you must gather them together, otherwise there will be one horse in the east and one in the west. There’s no way to choose.”
Zhao Tong understood what was going on when he heard this. Wang Qing didn't have any horse breeding talents. Although Li Zhu had a good idea to renovate the horse farm and manage it uniformly, no one knew how to manage the horses, so he was in a hurry every day. Guessing that Wang Qing had given the order in a hurry, and they were not prepared at all, someone came to lead the horse.
But how could those mountain bandits and water thieves listen to this? They thought that the person in charge of the horse department was deliberately delaying to gain advantage, or that he was hiding the good horses and wanted to use some bad horses to deal with them.
There was a man with a hot temper who knocked on the gate with his knife and shouted: "The King of Huai asked me to come and collect the horse, but you didn't open the door. I'm afraid you don't know what to do and die!"
The soldiers inside didn't dare to answer. In a moment, the wooden door was almost broken, and then a sweaty officer ran out, who was the leader of the horse commander.
The leader looked tired and came to the wooden door to apologize: "I have kept you waiting for a long time. We have just collected the horses. Please choose your horse."
He ordered the wooden gate to be opened, and a group of heroes outside came in cursing. The leader of the Horse Master did not dare to answer, and carefully apologized, and asked in a low voice to compare everyone's names, and then led them through the Horse Master's house, to to the back.
Behind the stable master is a huge horse gallery, which connects several horse farms, and many soldiers inside are still panting and working.
Looking at the appearance of these little soldiers, Zhao Tong couldn't help but shook his head. Although he didn't do it himself when raising horses in Longyou, he had seen how the Tibetan people who were hired as teachers handled them. How could they be like these little soldiers who forced the horses to drink water? Pulling hard like a head.
"Everyone, please choose a horse." The leader of the horse master complained in his heart. This is really not a good job. There is no oil or water left. If the horse dies, he will still be held responsible. He is thinking at this moment, what should he say after today? You have to spend money to find another job, even if it is to take care of food and grass, you will not raise this horse.
The horse gallery is both wide and long. At first glance, it seems that there is no end in sight. Many horses have just been driven back from the horse farm. They have not even eaten enough grass. The horses are angry, many neigh, and there are With a fierce temper, he turned around and kicked the stone trough with his hind hooves, making a "bang bang" sound.
One of the bandits was delighted when he saw this, and shouted: "I am proud of this fierce one, just this one, just this one!"
When the soldier took a look, he recognized the horse. It was the most difficult thing to handle. It usually liked to bite and kick people. But when he was losing his temper, he dared not pull it. He couldn't help but look at the bandit.
The bandit was impatient, stretched out his hand and pulled the soldier aside, cursed "trash" and went in to fetch the horse.
Upon seeing this, the leader of the Horsemaster hurriedly shouted: "Be careful, be careful!"
The horse in the corridor saw the bandit coming, and knew something was wrong. It jumped up and down, causing the horses next to it to avoid. Finally, when the bandit approached, it kicked him backwards. Who knew that the bandit was a skilled man in hiding? After crossing the horse's hoof, he stepped forward and was beaten violently.
Although his method was crude, it worked. The horse was finally beaten into submission and limped out of the stable to the bandits.
From the outside, Zhao Tong saw that this horse was pretty good. Judging from its height and size, it looked like a horse from the Forbidden Army. It didn't look like an ordinary cavalry horse. It should at least be a mount for military envoys and commanders.
He continued to move forward. Although these horses were all war horses, he didn't care about them and asked Yao Pingzhong to choose them. Yao Pingzhong came from the Western Army and was familiar with war horses.
But Yao Pingzhong looked around and couldn't find anything he liked. Those with slightly better horses had already been selected by Wang Qing's ministers and generals, and the rest were basically the same.
After a while, many people had chosen their horses and led them away, leaving only three or five who, like Zhao Tong, were still walking forward and looking.
After a while, Yao Pingzhong's eyes suddenly lit up, he pointed at a horse in the stable and said: "Master, that's it!"
Zhao Tong looked in the direction of his finger and saw that it was a yellow horse with long hair and thin skin. Its eyes were slightly protruding. Although it had a big frame, it didn't look like a horse at all. At this time, it was gnawing listlessly on the stone trough and looking at it. Looking at a few people outside.
Although Zhao Tong didn't see anything special about this horse, he still nodded.
Yao Pingzhong pointed to the yellow horse in the corridor and said to the soldiers behind him: "That's it!"
"Choose this horse!" At this moment, someone suddenly spoke at the same time.
Yao Pingzhong was stunned. Before he could continue to speak, the man glared at him and said, "Someone was chosen first!"
Yao Pingzhong immediately said angrily: "I spoke first!"
The man hummed: "Whoever heard you speak first, it was obviously someone who spoke first!"
Zhao Tong couldn't help but frowned when he heard this and looked at the man.
What I saw was a big man with an unruly face. As he said this, he was going to the horse gallery to lead the horse by himself.
(End of chapter)
