Oh......

Zhao Ji looked at Han Zhongyan with wide eyes, what is going on today? Old man Han, who has never had any good ideas, actually has a new way.

It turned out that Wu Haogu and Gao Yu had not talked to Zhao Ji about turning the students of the Privy Council's Military Science Department into warriors in front of the palace - this is a national event, where should the "royal pimp" and "imperial real estate developer" say? So he heard about the idea for the first time.

"Han Qing," Zhao Ji asked, "How can I turn those students into my Xuanjia Riders?" ”

Oh, yes? How has it changed?

Not only Zhao Ji didn't know, but even Zeng Bu, An Tao, and Zhang Qi didn't know. Because Li Shimin's Xuanjia ride was not "transformed", but selected from the children of local tyrants near Taiyuan. Now there are not many children of local tyrants who can fight on horseback in the Great Song Dynasty, how can they choose Xuanjia to ride?

The only way for the Great Song Dynasty to cultivate cavalry was to do a good job in horse administration, and then appoint generals who were proficient in cavalry warfare to train cavalry...... But there is no land in the hands of the Great Song Dynasty that can raise good horses, and the territory that has produced good horses since ancient times has been almost lost in the troubled times of the five dynasties of the Tang Dynasty. In the hands of the Song Dynasty, there was only a little territory left in Lingxia, and it was robbed by the party members. Therefore, the formation of horse administration and cavalry in the Great Song Dynasty has always been very difficult.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the cavalry is not only trained, but also raised. The people of the northern grasslands have been raised on horseback since childhood, and the art of bowing horses is the method of ordinary production, so it is very easy to form a fine horse. And most of the farmers in our Central Plains do not know how to bow and horse, and after enlisting in the army, they learn the methods of horse riding, horse raising, horse training and horse warfare, how can they be compared with those Hulu who have been riding horses and shooting arrows since childhood? ”

Isn't that nonsense!

Zhao Ji frowned slightly, already a little disappointed, and at this moment, Han Zhongyan's words changed and he got to the point.

"But I have always had some families who are good at riding, raising horses, and taming horses. Otherwise, it would be impossible for Tang Taizong to gather 2,000 Xuanjia elite cavalry during the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, even at the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, there were also some elite cavalry. The main reason for the lack of cavalry in the Kaifeng and Hebei forbidden armies is that there is no home in the Central Plains that is good at riding, raising horses and taming horses.

So the top priority now is to raise thousands of knightly families who can ride, raise and train horses. With knights, horses and cavalry naturally existed. ”

What the? And this kind of operation process? Raise knights first and then horses?

Everyone was dumbfounded and looked at Han Zhongyan in a daze, and even Zeng Bu and An Tao, the two leaders of the New Party, forgot to refute for a while.

In fact, Han Zhongyan himself felt quite twisted. As an old party boss who opposed the "Horse Protection Law", he originally did not believe that private individuals could raise good horses, and doing a good job in horse politics was the right way.

But the question is...... Those men in the Privy Council have to have a place to go! Otherwise, the Western Army and Kaifeng Jiangmen, and between the new party and the old party, will quarrel over this issue.

In addition, Han Zhongyan also thought of the military power of the Western Army...... The military power of Kaifeng Jiangmen has long been gone, and they have all been cultivated as capitalists and artists.

However, the generals of the Western Army now have private armies and utilities, and the most capable of fighting in the Western Army are these strong men raised by the generals. Now that the northwest border has been secured, if you don't want to find a way to arrange the strong men of the Western Army's generals, there may be chaos in the future!

And in order to appease these uncles of the Western Army, Yuan Fu allocated the military expenses to the Western Army in the past three years, but it has not been reduced much!

Therefore, the method of "exchanging land for military power" proposed by Wu Haogu still looks good to Han Zhongyan. Even if you can't raise elite cavalry, it would be good if the backbone soldiers of the Western Army could have a place to go......

Seeing that Zeng Bu and An Tao didn't speak, Zhao Ji opened his mouth and asked: "What does Han Qing mean is that the 500 students in the Military Science Department of the Privy Council are all knights who can ride, raise and train horses?" ”

"Your Majesty, whether these 500 people are proficient in horseback riding, horse raising, and horse training can be assessed." Han Zhongyan said, "And as far as the minister knows, most of these are utility men from Shaanxi Sixth Road, and their families are either local tyrants, world soldiers, or generals, all of whom can ride horses and raise horses." ”

In addition to the Guanzhong Plain, Shaanxi Sixth Road is strictly the combination of agriculture in the Central Plains and nomadic economy in the northwest. The population is not very dense, the land is relatively loose, and there is a large customer of the Western Army, which needs horses, so there are more families who raise horses.

In addition, there are not no families without horses in the Central Plains. Among the customers of Han Zhongyan's family, there are several that are specifically responsible for raising horses for the Han family in Xiangzhou.

Zhao Ji nodded slightly, and then set his eyes on Zeng Bu and An Tao. Isn't it just to listen to different opinions?

An Tao asked, "How much land does it take to settle a knight?" Where does the land come from? Nowadays, there are many people in the Central Plains, where is there still spare land? And how can these knights be used by the state? And how to ensure their combat effectiveness? ”

Zeng Bu also said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what Han Xianggong said is too taken for granted and is not feasible. ”

"It takes 1,500 acres of land to settle a knight, and the land can be purchased on Hebei East Road, where there are few people and more land. Hebei East Road has a large population reduction because of the Sanyi Huihe, there is a lot of wasteland, and the land price is not expensive. There is no problem in housing 1,000 knights' homes. As for the knight's combat power, it can be guaranteed through the methods of service, assessment, and the granting and deprivation of the field.

The 1,500 acres of land is the hereditary field of knights, and the income is used to raise horses, retinue soldiers, train children, build some weapons, and so on. When you serve in the army, you need to bring your own food, grass, horses, retinue and some weapons. The horses, retinues, weapons, and the knight's own martial arts are all included in the assessment.

If they could not pass the examination of the imperial court, and there was no one in the family to inherit, they would be deprived of their land and granted to others.

And the method of knight service can refer to the Tang Dynasty's Fanshang *** Fan into Beijing and serve as His Majesty's guard, so as to facilitate His Majesty's personal assessment and control. ”

Lao Han was the prime minister's talent, pondered for a night, and perfected the method proposed by Wu Haogu.

First of all, the 1,500 acres of land granted to the knights were hereditary fields, which meant that they could not be divided into inheritances, and someone in the family had to serve in the imperial court in order to keep the estate.

And the imperial service is actually a kind of political umbrella, these people are equivalent to the imperial guards of Zhao Ji himself, even if they do not have an official body, they will have certain political privileges, and they don't have to worry about the local tyrants in Cangzhou seizing their jobs.

Secondly, the knight is to be evaluated...... Their own horses, equipment, and martial arts must be assessed. Who will take the test? Han Zhongyan's method is to let the Holy Monarch Zhao Ji take the test in person!

Zhao Ji himself is proficient in bowing and horses, but it is not good to replace his brother or his father! But he has no problem, whether the horse is good or not, whether the kung fu of riding and archery is good, he can see it himself.

After Han Zhongyan's refinement, the "warrior in front of the palace" proposed by Wu Haogu was somewhat similar to the later Ottoman Empire's Dilik Caiyi cavalry (Sipashi heavy cavalry). It's just that the scale of the "mining estate" is smaller, and the number of people is not as large as that of the Sipashi heavy cavalry.

"How did it become 1,000?"

Zeng Bu had already heard that something was wrong, "There are only 500 students in the Privy Council's Department of Military Sciences!" ”

Han Zhongyan said with a smile: "The world is so big, there must be many powerful warriors who are good at riding and raising horses, and they should be used by His Majesty." Even in the Western Army, there are many such figures, right? ”

Zeng Bu and An Tao's faces changed slightly when they heard this!

Is this about to start disintegrating the Western Army?

There are about 50,000 troops in the Western Army that can really fight, and the core of these 50,000 people is thousands to 10,000 elite cavalry who can charge and kill on horseback.

If he was successively transferred to the Central Plains as the so-called "Imperial Samurai", then the backbone of the Western Army would be taken away.

The Western Army, which has no backbone, how will it bear the heavy responsibility of the Northern Expedition to Yanyun in the future? Is it rare to rely only on 5,000 to 10,000 "Gozen samurai"?

However, Zeng Bu and An Tao could not openly oppose Han Zhongyan's method, because it was the ancestral system of the Great Song Dynasty to concentrate the world's elite troops in Kaifeng.

"Your Majesty," An Tao had already thought of a rebuttal, "these 500 soldiers are generals and talented people, and now using them as cavalry is really a pearl of the pearl." If His Majesty has 500 generals and teams, tens of thousands of troops can also be trained quickly, if there are only 500 elite cavalry, even if it is like the Xuanjia cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, how many barbarians can be defeated? ”

It seems to make some sense.

Saint Monarch Zhao Ji was very embarrassed, Han Zhongyan's method could probably get an elite cavalry, but there was no way to form a new army.

"Your Majesty is now ready to recruit tens of thousands of elite soldiers for strict training?" Han Zhongyan asked rhetorically, "Now that the four seas are peaceful and there is nothing to do in the world, what is the use of recruiting elite soldiers?"

If you don't recruit elite soldiers now, these generals and teams will be useless, so it is better to use them as a basis to cultivate a cavalry. Cavalry is difficult to train, but infantry is easy to obtain. Anyway, now that there are regulations for training and cultivating generals, it will not be too late to train when the troops are to be used in the future.

As for the responsibility of educating generals, the minister thought that it should be handed over to Wuxue. If the martial arts cannot be completed, then consider whether to rebuild the Privy Council Military Science Division. ”

This makes sense, but in reality it is a bureaucratic way to shirk responsibility. The current problem is solved, who can control the future? When you can't play martial arts, you don't know who is on stage?

Zhao Ji had just become a saint, and he didn't know much about these routines, so he clapped his hand and said, "Then according to Han Qing's words." However, the rules and regulations for the establishment of the Imperial Samurai still need to be carefully discussed before they can be decided. ”

A hint of joy flashed across Han Zhongyan's face. These days, he, the prime minister, is really a little aggrieved, and everything has been suppressed by Zeng Bu and An Tao, but this time he finally gained the upper hand and won a very crucial game!

Wu Haogu is fortunate to be close, and it seems that he is still very able to grasp the thoughts of the officials......