Although the eldest princess Ajige of Gulun Jianning of the Qing Dynasty, who is only thirteen years old this year, grew up in the Qing palace, she inherited many athletic qualities from her father Huang Taiji and her biological mother from the Mongolian Qilei tribe. She loves horseback riding and can also Shooting on horseback, the development is also very good, very tall and straight. Now wearing a gorgeous Mongolian women's clothing, riding a tall and handsome Tianzhu Fold-eared horse, walking in the procession of seeing off the bride, she is indeed very outstanding.
I don’t know whether it was because she was about to marry the emperor or because she got a good horse that she had never seen in the Qing court (it was given to her by Zhu Cixiang when she was crossing the Huaihe River). Princess Jianning looked very beautiful all the way. He was very cheerful and even chatted and laughed with his cousin, Bambul, who was sending the bride off.
Aixinjueluo Banbulshan, 36 years old this year, is the son of Nurhachi's concubine Tabai. After his father died, he only became a third-class Fengguo general. Later, he climbed up the ranks with military merit in a few years. Two years ago, Only then did he climb to the position of auxiliary Duke. When Dorgon died, he was Suksaha's deputy and was serving in the forward battalion in Beijing, so he did not participate in the Battle of Jieshi Mountain.
Later, when the Zhengbai Banner troops inside the pass were transferred out of the pass by Duduo, he and Suksaha stayed in Beijing because of Bumbutai's persuasion, and continued to be responsible for training the new army, and they also became ministers of the bodyguard together ( There were six internal ministers in the Qing Dynasty), so this time a minister was sent to see the bride off.
He was not as cheerful as his little cousin Ajige. It was fine when he started on the road. A 36-year-old uncle and a beautiful 13-year-old cousin were talking and laughing all the way. What else was unpleasant? Moreover, Ajige's character is very lively and a little silly, which is quite likable.
But when Ban Bulshan entered the territory of Xuzhou, that is, the territory of the Ming Dynasty, his mood immediately became bad.
Because he first saw the very solid Yellow River embankments—compared with the embankments in Xuzhou and Guide Prefecture, they were like the sky and the earth!
The former is impregnable, the latter is in tatters.
Then Banbulshan saw the brand-new Xuzhou Castle. This city that was occupied by He Luohui's troops a few years ago is now solidly built! A large bastion made of masonry and sand, the structure is very complex. The outer walls and moats are all curved. Bamboulshan, who has never studied European geometry, was dizzy when he looked at it. He was asked to lead his troops to fight, and he was afraid. I lost my way while fighting...
But what frightened Bumble the most was the gift Zhu Cihong ordered to give to Princess Ajige when they crossed the Huaihe River and entered Jiangbei Province - a castrated Tianzhu fold-eared horse!
This horse is actually five feet three inches tall at the withers! Moreover, the chest is broad, the waist is round, the leg muscles are well developed, and the saddle spine is strong and powerful. You don’t need to be proficient in the art of horse reading to see that this is a rare and good horse!
And such rare good horses actually appeared in front of Bamboulshan in groups!
In addition to the Tianzhu fold-eared horse presented to Ajige, there was also a group of Xiaoling Guard Cuirass Guards cavalry who came to guard the honor guard. Surprisingly, everyone was riding a fold-eared horse with a shoulder height of five feet three inches. horse......
The so-called Mongolian horse under the crotch of the good man Banbul almost looks like a donkey compared with other people!
By the way, the Ming army cavalry not only had horses, but also mules that were crosses between donkeys and horses. They were all equipped with one person, one horse and one mule. Usually they march on mules to save horse power.
"Minister of the Interior, there is Chu River in front of us, and across the river is the ground of Laoshan Palace."
The speaker was Sun Fugui, the commander of the new army of Xiaoling Guard. He used to be a young man who followed Zhu Cixiang in Beijing. Now he has grown into the commander of the first division of the Ming army, and his official rank has been promoted to commander. He also has a man who can defeat Bei Bo. title.
Emperor Zhu didn't pay much attention to Princess Jianning. When she got married last time in Dongguo, he went to welcome her in person. This time, Sun Fugui and Hou Fangyu, the Minister of Rites, were sent to Huai'an to meet him.
And in order to demonstrate to the Northern Qing Dynasty, Sun Fugui was asked to bring a battalion of cuirassiers. Although Prince Kong Dai did not advocate that the Southern Ming invest in the construction of expensive traditional cavalry, Emperor Zhu had spent a lot of money to establish a breeding fold-eared horse. It is impossible to give up the horse farm with Arabian horses.
So Emperor Zhu ordered the establishment of a shock cavalry. They couldn't do wall shocks. How could they be so easy to train? It is a cluster attack with platoon or company as the unit. And the number is not large, that is, each of the Xiaoling Guard New Military Division and the Army Guards Division is assigned a battalion of cuirassiers, the total number is only 1,000. This time, Sun Fugui was asked to take 500 horses to Huai'an to put on a show. Princess Jianning looked happy (the folded-eared horse looked cute), but Banbulshan had a feeling of impending disaster...so much so that I didn't hear Sun Fugui's shouting.
Seeing Banbulshan distracted, Hou Fangyu, who was riding on his left, also raised his voice and said: "Send off the envoy, Laoshan Palace has arrived!"
"Are we here?" Bambulshan was stunned. He raised his head and looked forward. He saw the river embankment about two miles away in front of him, and he could also see a wooden fence standing on the other side of the river.
"Is Laoshan Palace on the other side?" Banbulshan stretched his neck and looked, "I didn't see it!"
"Of course we can't see it. Laoshan Palace is more than 20 miles away from here!" Hou Fangyu smiled, "We are outside the Laoshan Racecourse now. After crossing the Chu River, we will reach the racecourse..."
"The horse farm, is it a horse farm that raises fold-eared horses?" Princess Ajige's silver bell-like voice rang.
"Yes," Hou Fangyu replied, "This horse farm is divided into three parts. One part raises Fell Horses, one part raises Arabian horses, and the other part raises Percheron horses imported from France."
"Why are they divided into three parts?" Ajige asked, "Isn't it good to keep them together?"
"Princess," Bumbleshan said, "it's easy for horses to breed together if they are raised together. This good horse is very particular about its breed... Even if you have a lot of knowledge, even this slave doesn't understand it."
Hou Fangyu said: "This is a good statement. Horse raising is indeed a university subject! We were not very good at it in the past. We introduced Fold-eared horses and did not raise them very well. Fortunately, when the mission to Europe came back the year before last, we brought some Ottoman Empire horses. The horse breeders are all good hands and have been retained, and now they are in charge of Laoshan Racecourse."
In fact, before the Song Dynasty, China's local horse breeding technology was not bad. The introduction of Persian horse breeds was able to raise good horses.
But later, due to Confucian ethics, inbreeding was gradually banned, and the matter of breeding was eliminated... Without breeding, raising horses is a matter of "probability" - the proportion of good horses in the horse herd. The comparison is just that, the more horses there are, the more good horses there will be. And to match tens of thousands of cavalry with good horses, it is impossible to even think about it without a base of several million horses.
Therefore, if we cannot control the prairie, we cannot raise powerful cavalry.
At this time, the bride-to-be team had entered the boundary of Laoshan Racecourse and was marching through the passage separated by two wooden fences. Through the wooden fence, you can see a large area of pasture and horses grazing on the pasture. On one side are folding horses, on the other side are Arabian horses. They are all immature foals, and they are looked after by dedicated personnel.
These ponies were very curious. When they saw someone passing by, they all gathered at the fence to watch the fun. Ajige saw how cute they looked, so he giggled and rode forward, wanting to amuse the foals.
"Your Highness," Sun Fugui said quickly after seeing him, "it's getting late, we have to hurry up...and you will live in Laoshan Palace from now on, and you can often come to the racecourse to play."
"Live in Laoshan Palace?" Ajige seemed a little unhappy, "Why not in Nanjing City? I heard that Nanjing is fun."
Hou Fangyu took over the topic with a smile: "Your Highness, no matter how prosperous Nanjing is, it belongs to ordinary people. You are the imperial concubine, how noble are you? Of course it must be in the deep palace. The palaces in Nanjing are two to three hundred years old, no matter how much they are repaired and renovated, In this case, how can it compare with the newly built Laoshan Palace? Moreover, Laoshan Palace is not just a palace, but has palaces, hot springs, towns, hunting grounds, horse farms, and castles... It can be said that It has everything and has its own pattern.”
