Luoyang, Baibo Camp.

The Baibo camp was built for the reorganization of the Western Army, and it was proposed as early as the early days of Zhao Ji's ascension to the throne. Now Zhao Ji has been the Son of Heaven for seven years, covering an area of tens of thousands of acres, and the camp that is enough to garrison 100,000 troops has also been built, but it has been empty because the Western Army shirked for various reasons, until the thousands of soldiers and horses of the indoctrination regiment led by Zhang Yuan arrived, and the first batch of troops to settle in there.

According to the plan drawn up by the dispatch room of the Military Machinery Department of the capital, the soldiers and horses of the Great Education Regiment will be stationed in the Baibo camp for at least ten days, waiting for all the Taoist soldiers and monks from Kaifeng Prefecture and nearby Dengfeng County to arrive before they embark on the journey again.

The so-called Taoist soldiers and monk soldiers are not actually composed of real Taoist priests and monks, but monks and monks who are recruited by the temples and Taoist temples participating in the Great Sect. However, these disguised monks have not received formal training, nor are they equipped with equipment, and they cannot go to the battlefield without a few months to a year of training.

Even the 5,000 cavalry (4,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry including auxiliary light cavalry retinue) from the Boundary River were far from elite.

Therefore, during the ten days of detention in the Baibo camp, the staff officer corps headed by Ma Zheng and Wang Yan did not relax in the slightest, and still stepped up training.

Wu Haogu accompanied Zhang Yuan to inspect the empty Baibo camp, and he had now set up the Dujun Machinery Division, the Infantry Academy, the Knight Academy, and the Sailor Academy. It also opened the general army engine room in the front of the palace, the guard horse army, the guard infantry army, the upper fourth army, the coastal city ship system and purchase division, the Shuofang Road Shuai Division, the Northwest Xuanfu Division, and the model new army. I also put up the shelves of the model new army!

has done so many things in just a few months, Wu Haogu himself admires himself a little.

However, Wu Haogu, who has been mixed in the officialdom of the Northern Song Dynasty for so many years, still knows the truth that if you want to hurry, you can't reach it. Even if he didn't think of it for a while, Zhao Jiaren, a staff member he brought to Kaifeng Mansion, would still remind him: Reform this kind of thing, it's not good to take too big a step!

Therefore, after propping up so many institutions and turning the brand of the three straight in front of the emperor into a model new army, Wu Haogu threw the daily work of the military aircraft department of the capital to the deputy envoy Zhang Shuye and Zhang Zhifeng of the dispatch room (equivalent to the combat department), Zhao Jiaren of the dispatch room of the right dispatch machine, He Tianran of the military law room of the right dispatch, Miao Fu of the training room of the right to send the army, and Lu Renjia, the director of the military engine room in front of the palace, and others. He took Guo Xiaoxiao out of Kaifeng Mansion to meet with Zhang Yuan in the name of inspecting the Baibo camp.

Now the two are walking side by side, followed by a large number of military attachés in the engine room of the general army of the Indoctrination Regiment, and Chen Jian, who has cheated Cai Jing and Zhong Fu, is impressively listed. He is now Ma Zheng's deputy, and the deputy chief military aircraft of the official worship and education regiment. Moreover, Ma Zheng is the backbone of Wu Haogu, and it is impossible to stay in the northwest all the time, so he will be the chief military aircraft of the indoctrination regiment in the future.

As for Yu Tongdao, Liu Long, and Xue Ding, they also served as generals of the Ma Army and Infantry Army respectively, and are now training their own troops.

Wu Haogu and Zhang Yuan stopped in front of a horse farm fenced off by a wooden fence. In the distance, I saw 500 cavalry divided into 10 teams, all forming a rectangular dense formation, trotting slowly. Compared to the rapid cluster assault that the false knights and the raw girl Zhendangda can launch, these cavalry are much worse, and the formation will be scattered as soon as the speed is fast. However, in the opinion of the experts of the Cavalry Academy, a group charge is still much better than hand-to-hand combat on scattered horses......

At this time, Zhang Yuan noticed that the horses under the crotches of these cavalrymen were tall and powerful, so he asked Wu Hao Gudao: "Brother Chongdao, what's the matter with Cangzhou horses?" In the past, I had never heard of horses in Cangzhou, but now why are there so many good horses? Could it be that the climate in Cangzhou is particularly suitable for raising horses? ”

The Song Dynasty's understanding of horse breeding was based on the "environmental impact theory", so they ignored breeding and breeding, emphasized the environment in which horses grow, and believed that only in the cold grassland could excellent war horses be raised. In the case of the lack of natural grassland in the Central Plains, they even did not hesitate to requisition agriculture to grow grass and artificially create grassland, simulating the "most suitable" environment for raising horses. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

So it was not surprising when Zhang Yuan found that Cangzhou, which did not have a large grassland, actually raised good horses.

Wu Haogu smiled: "What special climate does Cangzhou have?" Isn't it not far from all parts of Hebei? Cangzhou horses are good, mainly because of the introduction of Persian horses, big food horses and Qingtanglong stallions, and the mating of stallions and mares is strictly controlled...... All good horses are kept on file to record their pedigree and mate according to their pedigree. At the same time, the selection of stallions is also relatively strict, and the foals are not easily castrated.

It's not complicated to say, but it's not easy to do, and the effect is slow, and the herd supervisors are afraid that they can't learn it. ”

The Boundary Hippo Farm has been in operation for seven years and has bred a total of three generations of Boundary Hippos. In the beginning, it was just a cross between a Persian stallion and a tall mare from the Central Plains and Khitan. Later, the Tianzhu Folded Ear Horse and the Qingtang Dragon Stallion were introduced, and several new pedigrees were opened.

Now, it's finally a bit of an achievement. However, it is still far from the level of stereotype (i.e., a very high rate of good horses). It will take decades to finalize it.

For a civilian official who has not been a herd for more than a few years, this efficiency is simply unacceptable.

Zhang Yuan nodded silently, and said after a while: "Chongdao, Cangzhou horses are gradually becoming famous, and there are indispensable people in the court who have to worry about it. ”

In fact, some officials who served in Cangzhou, Qingzhou, Xin'an Army, Baoding Army, Hejian Prefecture and other places have already made concerts and reported the news that "Cangzhou has produced good horses".

Listening to Zhang Yuan's kind reminder, Wu Haogu smiled gratefully and said, "I have been prepared for this for a long time. Now the boundary hippopotamus is finally a little basic, not only my horse farm is raised, but the knight's house placed in Cangzhou has also obtained horse breeds. It is still possible to come up with dozens of stallions that can be used as stallions. ”

Wu Haogu's business of raising horses in Jiehe is actually burning money, and there is no possibility of making a profit at all. In addition, he also asked Jiehe Hippodrome to provide free breeding services for the mares of the Cangzhou Knight's Family, so as to improve the quality of Cangzhou horses, so as to breed a horse breeding industry that can generate income for the knight's family.

Since it is an industry, of course, there must be a market and profits. In addition to the Jiehe commercial market (including pack horses, horses, horse racing, horses, and war horses), the Cangzhou horse market is of course the same as the Great Song Dynasty!

It is impossible for the imperial court to requisition stallions, so they can only buy them at a high price...... When the time comes, there will be a lot of bargaining.

……

When Wu Haogu was pondering how to give Cangzhou horses to the imperial court at a high price, the notorious colonist Ji Yi had already arrived in Mingzhou.

He abandoned the main fleet and took the "God of Light" to Shenjiamen Port in Mingzhou, the second largest port in the southeast - an inland port, located at the confluence of the Dahun River and the Yuyao River. The Yuyao River is connected to the southern section of the Grand Canal, which can also be regarded as a part of the Jiangnan Canal. The Dahun River leads to the sea, and the Yuyao River is connected to the canal. The southern section of the Grand Canal leads directly to the Yangtze River and the canal system of the Central Plains.

Because of the extensive water transportation system, Mingzhou has become the most prosperous maritime trade port in the Jiangnan region.

However, the Oriental Headquarters of the Ji family maritime merchants is not here, but placed in the Pingjiang Army - Pingjiang, that is, Suzhou, at this time, is also a coastal city. The Suzhou Creek in Shanghai in later generations, named Wu Songjiang at this time, was the boundary river between the Pingjiang Army and Xiuzhou. The Huangpu River, located in the lower reaches of Suzhou Creek, has not yet appeared, and this section of the river channel in the lower reaches of the Huangpu River into the sea belongs to the Wusong River.

The upper reaches of the Wusong River are connected to the Jiangnan Canal, that is, directly to the city of the Pingjiang Army.

In the eyes of the ancestors of the Ji family, this section of the Wusong River, which belongs to Kunshan County of the Pingjiang Army and Huating County of Xiuzhou, is far better than the Dahun River in Mingzhou, and is more suitable to become a seaport. Therefore, the main hall was moved to Pingjiang, and a huge amount of money was spent to buy a large area of land on both sides of the Wusong River, and then the first maritime merchant in the south of the Yangtze River became the second maritime merchant, which was surpassed by the Xie family in Mingzhou......

By the way, Ji Yi also owns eight estates in the lower reaches of the Wusong River and the area of Shanghai Affairs, with a total of 80,000 mu of land (53.28 million square meters of land reserve in the center of Shanghai)...... If you can hold it until the 21st century, the world's richest man will also become the richest man in the world!

It's a pity that Ji Yi didn't understand the true meaning of real estate at all, and he was not interested in the land he owned in Shanghai.

However, he did not come to do business, nor did he come to meet with the officials of the Mingzhou City Department or the Mingzhou Prefecture Government. Instead, Weifu came, got off the boat at Laiyuanting Wharf, took the jade claw dragon Chenggui, hired a donkey, and went to a big, dilapidated Baoyun Temple outside Mingzhou City, and there was no incense.

Today is not the time to offer incense, the mountain gate of Dayun Temple is closed, and there is only a little monk cleaning in front of the door. Cheng Gui got off the donkey and stepped forward to ask, "Is Master Jingming here?" ”

The monk raised his head, glanced at Cheng Gui and Ji Yi, and suddenly smiled: "But the Jade Claw Dragon and Ji Daguan?" The little monk is Fang Jie. ”

Cheng Gui fixed his eyes for a moment, and then turned back to Ji Yi and said, "Big official, I really met a master." ”

Ji Yi also got off the donkey, walked to Fang Jie, who was fifteen or sixteen years old, and asked with a smile: "I heard that you have entered the Fang La Sect, and now you are the apprentice grandson of Master Jingming." Let me ask you, is your ancestor here? ”

The little monk sang a fat song and replied with a smile: "Ji Daguan, Master Jingming returned to Baoyun Temple six months ago, and he is in the temple today. ”

Ji Yi said: "Then lead the way, I am here to visit the master today, and I have important matters to discuss." ”