Enemies can do stupid things!
For example, after the Ming army attacked from Juehua Island and went straight to Ningyuan, it sent troops thousands of miles away from Beijing. The Eight Banners force of tens of thousands of people rushed a thousand miles like a life-threatening battle to Ningyuan City, and then ignored the lack of people and horses. Have a fight with two or three divisions of Ming's new army... Didn't Emperor Chongzhen often do this kind of thing?
If Chongzhen could be allowed to serve as the regent of the Qing Dynasty, the Northern Expedition would basically be crushed!
But the problem is that Dorgon and Duduo are definitely better than Chongzhen!
As long as they are not stupid, they will not use heavy troops to fight decisive battles on the coasts of western and eastern Liaoning. Instead, they will use hundreds or even thousands of cavalry to continuously harass and attack. What will the Ming army do then? Hiding in a fortress and not going anywhere?
Therefore, if you want to use fortress tactics to pacify Liao, you must have a cavalry that can rely on the fortress to fight the Qing cavalry... It is not enough to rely on the two existing cavalry regiments of the New Army to overcome difficulties.
Wu Xiang knew that Zhu Cixiang would definitely ask about the racecourse, so when he saw his eyes turning around, he answered the question himself without waiting to ask.
"Your Majesty, Fengyang Racecourse introduced more than 120 fold-eared horses from Tianzhu last year." Wu Xiang said, "Among them are more than 20 stallions, and the rest are tall and strong mares... ..We will continue to introduce them this year, and it is estimated that there will be no less than 200 horses. If we can persist for ten years, Fengyang Racecourse will be able to provide a large number of good horses for our cavalry!"
Fengyang Racecourse spent a lot of money to introduce more than 120 Indian horses. Orders were placed with Dutch and Portuguese businessmen more than a year in advance. The price of the stallions (excluding tax) was as high as 1,500 taels of silver. The entry price of the mare is as high as 800 taels of silver!
The purchase of more than 120 horses cost the Ming Dynasty more than 100,000 taels! If you include the expenses of the racecourse, stables, and stablemen, it would be even more serious... In order to prevent the horses at Fengyang Racecourse from having improper relations with local horses, the Horse Administration Department of the Ministry of War even spent money to build a A hundred-mile-long wall surrounded the entire racecourse!
Fortunately, the whole court is now full of loyal and loyal ministers, so the court's financial income is quite acceptable, otherwise it would really be impossible to run Fengyang Racecourse.
However, the shipping capacity of sea transport these days is limited, and horses don’t like to take boats very much. Some people always die on the road, so the transportation cost is very high, and the quantity imported is not too much. Moreover, after arriving in the Ming Dynasty, they will die again due to the acclimatization. It’s really not easy to reach Fengyang Racecourse safely after losing some!
Moreover, Fold-eared horses are also very expensive and high-quality horses in India. Generally, only big nobles can own them, so it is impossible for the Portuguese and Dutch to obtain too many of them.
Therefore, no matter how much money Zhu Cixi had, he would not be able to buy enough Indian fold horses to form several cavalry regiments... In the next ten years, it will not be easy to buy an average of 1,500 or 60 horses per year. . Even if not a single horse dies within ten years, the total number will be fifteen or six hundred. Among them, mares must account for the majority, totaling thirteen or four hundred. Horses are not very fertile animals. Relying on these imported mares, the average output of Fengyang Racecourse in the next ten years will only be around 500 horses. However, a fold-eared mare born in Fengyang can give birth to a foal in three or four years. Therefore, the growth rate of the Fengyang horse herd will accelerate in a few years, and may reach 5,000 or 6,000 horses within ten years. —In the process, we saw that a batch of troops would be eliminated, so reaching a scale of five to six thousand horses within ten years is quite ideal, and it is enough to support five to ten New Army cavalry regiments in frequent combat operations.
Because the Indian Fold Horse is a breed that has been continuously selected and bred for thousands of years, it is a "fixed" horse breed, not a grassland horse that grows up in a natural environment. Therefore, the "good horse rate" of the folded horse farm is very high. If it can produce 5,000 horses per year, there will be no less than 1,500 high-quality war horses (male geldings) that can be used for combat. , and in the next few years, the number will be even more!
"Your Majesty, you can't be in a hurry when it comes to raising horses!" Wu Xiang said to Zhu Cihong again, "I have personally inspected those broken-eared horses. They are all very majestic and tall. The shoulder height of the mares is more than five feet, and the shoulder height of the stallions is more than five feet. They are all five feet two inches...a rare good horse!
If we can raise them in large numbers, Donglu's cavalry will not be able to defeat us. At least when charging against the enemy, the folded-eared horses will have a huge advantage!
Although we cannot fight a decisive battle with large groups of Eight Banners cavalry, with the help of fortresses and infantry, we can ensure the situation along the coasts of Liaodong and western Liaoning and the Liaohe River with a few thousand cavalry. "
What Wu Xiang was talking about was actually the Rakshasa Kingdom's method of conquering Siberia and the Central Asian steppes, with fortresses and Cossacks. The fortress is a bastion, and the Don horses owned by the Cossacks are better than the steppe horses. They can run, chase, and charge in cavalry battles, and their personal combat effectiveness is also better than that of various degraded Mongolian and Turkic steppe tribes. powerful,
Therefore, Central Asia and Siberia were gradually controlled by the Rakshasa Kingdom...
"Ten or twenty years..." Zhu Cixiang thought for a while, "It's still a little longer! How about going up Tianjin's Wei River and canal and heading straight to Yanjing?"
Using Tianjin's Weihe River and Canal to seize the foundation of the Qing Dynasty has always been Zhu Cixiang's secret case. He didn't have this strength in the past, but now he has more than 200,000 new troops!
If we really want to fight Dorgon in a decisive battle, there is a chance of winning!
"Your Majesty," Huang Binqing, the naval commander, first took over the question, "The sandy islands outside Dagu are easy to capture, but Donglu has built a coastal defense fort at Dagu in the past two years, and also built a coastal defense fort in the Wei River in Tianjin called Donglu. A castle was built on the island of Zuidao... Both of these fortresses learned our sandbag fortification method, and the walls were not high and looked like a bastion."
I learned pretty quickly!
Zhu Cixiang pondered for a while, "I have to give it a try...what if I succeed?"
He thought for a while: "Perhaps we can go north to Ningyuan this winter, attract the eastern reinforcements of the Donglu army, and then land at Dagukou after the spring!
At the same time, let the Shandong and Huaibei armies advance westward... Of the three armies, one of them can succeed, right? "
"There is also the minister's third son Wu Sangui!" Wu Xiang reminded, "Sangui still loves the Ming Dynasty! In the past two years, he has been flying the banner of the Ming Dynasty in Shaanxi and Gansu! If the situation is good for Wang's Northern Expedition, he will definitely We will respond with troops."
Li Yan also said: "The situation of the King of Shanxi is pretty good... Our three-way march has a 60-70% chance of winning. It's worth a try!"
Just as he was talking here, the eunuch reported from outside Xinuan Pavilion: "Your Majesty, please see me respectfully."
"Xuan."
Gongshun Hou Wu Ruzheng is the envoy of Youtong Administration. He hurriedly came to see him. Of course he had something important to report.
"Your Majesty, the memorial from Zu Kefa, the marriage envoy, has arrived, with the words "urgent" added.
"Bring it here..." Zhu Cixiang reached out and took the memorial handed over by Wu Ruzheng with both hands. When he opened it and looked at it, he couldn't help but laugh, "Dorgon is married!"
"Dorgon got married?" Wu Xiang was stunned, "Did his wife die and continue their relationship?"
"No, his wife is not dead."
"Then how did he get married?" Wu Xiang shook his head, "taking concubines?"
"It's not concubinage," Zhu Cixiang smiled, "He now has two wives... The new wife is Bumu Butai, the empress dowager of Donglu."
"Ah? The Queen Mother is getting married?"
"Isn't this too ridiculous?"
"Does Dorgon know etiquette?"
Several people in Xinuan Pavilion looked very surprised, including Li Yan - he actually has two wives! One is the original wife, the other is the matchmaker, both are big!
Zhu Cihong glanced at them, "In addition to marrying the Queen Mother, Dorgon is now the regent of Huangama...so Dongguo is a serious Princess Heshuo!"
Wu Xiang's expression changed after hearing the news... Is Donggu Gege going to be the queen?
Zhu Cixiang smiled: "Dorgon promised to let Dongguo Gege be my royal concubine, and also asked me to build Dongguan a palace in Dengzhou, so that she could live there for a few years to adapt to the climate of the southeast, so as not to be acclimated to the climate, and then she would be acclimatized. By the way, let’s learn the etiquette of our Ming Dynasty... It seems that Dorgon is sincere in negotiating peace! Do you think this is an opportunity?"
"Opportunity? No Northern Expedition?" Wu Xiang asked.
"How is that possible?" Zhu Cixiang sneered, "I want to get both Gege and Yanyun... Now it's time to take advantage of Dorgon's unpreparedness and use a surprise to win!"
