Wu Haogu and Wang Hou went out of Donghua Gate together, and Wu Chengjiu, who was similar in age to Wu Haogu (he was Wu Haogu's nineteenth uncle, and now he was the front and back of Wu Haogu's side) immediately led two tall and thin war horses over.

"Dongmen, what do you think of this horse?" Wu Haogu pointed to one of the brown horses and asked Wang Hou with a smile.

"How can you be so tall?" Wang Hou then added, "This horse is at least four feet eight tall...... It's enough for a royal horse! ”

Both of these horses are produced in the Boundary Hippo Farm, and both are male offspring of a cross between a Persian stallion and a tall Hebei mare, which can be regarded as the first generation of Boundary Hippo. Because he was not tall and handsome enough, he did not become a stallion, but after castration, he brought Kaifeng Mansion to Wu Haogu. There were also two other taller geldings, both of which were sent to the Heavenly Prison to be used as imperial horses for Zhao Ji.

In addition, fourteen stallions of the same generation and twenty-two mares of the same generation are left at the Boundary Hippo Farm for mating and breeding – the horses are generally not fully mature until they are three or four years old enough to breed. That is to say, the breeding cycle of horses is four to five generations, and from now until the change of Jingkang, it is about five to six generations. It's not enough to get a stable breed of horses, but it can still provide a sufficient number of good horses.

The so-called "stable horse breed" refers to a horse breed that can be mass-produced, that is, it is not necessary to choose a good horse from a hundred miles or one out of ten, but every horse of the same breed has a similar size, stamina, speed and IQ. In this way, the horses can be mass-produced, rather than choosing a good horse from a large herd of horses that can be used as a war horse.

The advantages of excellent war horses that can be mass-produced in terms of cost and production efficiency are incomparable to those of grassland herds.

However, even if there is no way to obtain a stable breed of horses, the work of the Boundary Hippodrome is still very valuable - even if the "production rate" of good horses is increased from one-twentieth to one-fifth, it can also allow the Boundary Hippo to gain a certain advantage over steppe horses and Jurchen horses in terms of cost and production efficiency, or at least can be countered.

"A total of four horses were brought, two of which were picked up by the officials, and there were still two horses that the officials didn't look down on." Wu Haogu smiled and said to Wang Hou, "Why don't we have one horse per person...... When the time comes, I will ride them when I go to Mu Daogang to be a military attaché, so that I will not lose the dignity of the Celestial Empire. ”

Wu Haogu actually wanted to give Wang Hou a good horse, but he was afraid that he would refuse, so he found such a reason.

Wang Hou didn't understand what Wu Haogu meant, but he didn't refuse, but stepped forward to take the reins of the brown horse, stretched out a big hand, and patted the horse on the shoulder. Then he smiled and asked, "What a horse!" Xuanzan, your horse was smuggled from Liao, right? How much did it cost? ”

"Dongmen, this horse is not from Liao, but is crossed with Persian horses and Hebei horses." Wu Haogu didn't hide it, "I won't hide it from you, Xiaguan built a horse farm in Jiehe Shang City, and also got two Persian stallions from the Liao State, and four folded ear stallions from the Tianzhu Kingdom." ”

Hearing that Wu Haogu actually set up a horse farm and got stallions from places as far away as Persia and Tianzhu, Wang Hou was also taken aback: "Xuanzan, I didn't expect you to know how to raise horses!" ”

Wu Haogu turned over another boundary hippopotamus and said, "How do I know how to raise horses?" But with a few spare money, you can buy a good stallion mare, and you can also hire a good horseman. ”

Wang Hou shook his head and climbed on the back of the horse, "There are more riches, and you can spend it on the blade...... Ma Zheng of the imperial court also spent a lot of money, right? After so many years, in the end, we, the fighting men of the Western Army, still have to buy the horses of the Qiang people. ”

Wu Haogu laughed: "Can spending the court's money be the same as spending your own money?" ”

"That's what Xuanzan said." Wang Hou nodded.

"How are the Qiang horses better than these two boundary hippos?"

Wu Haogu rode a horse, and when he walked to Mahang Street, he asked Wang Hou about the situation of the Hequ horse.

"It's true that they are not as tall as these two hippos," said Wang Hou, shaking his head, "but not bad, an adult stallion can be about four feet five inches to four feet six inches, and if he is a gelding at more than a year old, he can also grow to four feet seven."

But what we can get now is not the best Qingtang horse, the best Qingtang horse comes from the land around Qinghai west of Xining Prefecture. Does Xuanzan know about Qinghai? ”

"You know, it's a saltwater lake." Wu Haogu knew that Wang Hou was referring to Qinghai Lake.

"Yes, yes," said Wang, "the Tibetan tribes of Qiangtang around Qinghai have a custom of raising horses, and they will send selected good horses to a small island in Qinghai in the winter, and let them mate and give birth to cubs, and the foals they give birth to are called dragon breeds. ”

Wu Haogu knew that this was a very primitive but effective breeding method, and as long as he persisted, he could gradually improve his horse breed. For the nomadic people, who rarely use manual intervention for breeding, this "custom" has gradually improved the breed of Qingtang horses and turned them into quite good horse breeds.

"If we can make the best use of the land of Qingtang and horse grazing, our dynasty will no longer be trapped by the shortage of good horses."

Wang Hou then said: "With enough good horses, the Western Army can build an army of tens of thousands of iron cavalry, and with enough iron cavalry can we ensure victory in the field." In this way, our army can advance west along the Wuding River, first pull out the big strongholds of the Western thieves in the east of the Gobi, Xiazhou and Youzhou, and then further seek to conquer Xingling Prefecture. ”

Pulling out Xiazhou and Youzhou is what Wang Hou really dares to think, crossing the four hundred miles of Gobi to fight Xingqing Mansion, the old nest of Western Xia...... That's 400 miles of Gobi, and you have to consider the water source when you transfer it. And the limited water source will definitely be polluted by the Western Xia side in advance!

Therefore, it is not realistic to send troops across the Gobi, and the only feasible thing is to attack Lingzhou from the direction of Huizhou and Xi'an Prefecture (Tiandu Mountain) on the Western Front. However, along this route, the logistics line of the Western Army will be stretched for hundreds of miles, and the transfer of materials will become more difficult.

"Do you have to ride an iron to ensure victory?" Although Wu Haogu knew that Wang Hou's words were untrue, he still humbly asked Wang Hou for advice, "Isn't the infantry army of much use in the northwest battlefield?" ”

"Infantry and cavalry, each with its own use." Wang Houdao, "The infantry is good for the mountains and rivers, and the cavalry is good for the Gobi steppe." Especially fighting in the Gobi steppe, it is impossible to fight without cavalry.

We have already taken the mountains and rivers in the area of Hengshan and Tiandu Mountains on the eastern front (referring to the eastern front of the Song-Xia battlefield), and if we want to further uproot the main points of the Xia army on the banks of the Wuding River, we must use cavalry to reach into the Gobi and block the Xia army advancing westward from Xingzhou.

Our army has always adopted the strategy of attacking the west from the east in the northwest, leaving Xiazhou and Youzhou, which are close to Shaanxi, not to fight, but repeatedly using troops at Hehuang on the western front. It is because there is no way to defeat the cavalry of the Western Thieves in the Gobi Sands, and if you can't defeat the cavalry of the Western Thieves, you can't prevent the Western Thieves' army from coming to the aid of Youxia Erzhou when our side is exhausted for a long time. ”

"I see." Wu Haogu nodded lightly, "Actually, it's the same with Yanyun, on the one hand, our army wants to attack Yanjing Jiancheng, and on the other hand, we have to fight a decisive battle with the Khitan Palace Tent Army coming down from Yanshan Mountain at any time......"

"There must be tens of thousands of iron horsemen!" Wang Hou said, "Cavalry can not only be used to fight dignified battles, but also to contain, harass and shield the battlefield. If tens of thousands of cavalry are scattered around Yanyun, it will be difficult for the Khitans to grasp the virtual and real movements of our army. The truth is unknown, how dare you blindly invest in the elite of the palace tent who rely on the backer of the country? ”

"Then Wang Dongmen is sure to take the two states of Hehuang?" Wu Haogu asked again.

In fact, Wu Haogu has known the answer to this question for a long time, and now he is just asking it routinely.

"How is it not sure?" Wang Hou said with a smile, "The so-called Hehuang Erzhou is a slightly stronger one among the several small countries that were split from the Great Tubo in the past. They are called Tsongkha by the Tibetan people, but it was created by the Tibetan prince Tsangola, and the one who is the Buddha is also the meaning of the Buddha. The country was based on Buddhism, and the reason why it was once strong was also because of the use of Buddhism to command the Tibetan tribes. However, during the reign of Xining in our dynasty, a large country named Guge on the Tibetan highlands began to hold the Great Dharma of Torin Monastery, and in one fell swoop seized the position of the Buddhist leader of Tsongkha State. Since then, the state of Tsongkha has been on a downward slope.

Moreover, after the death of Na Luo, his successor monarch could no longer obtain the status of a Buddha, so naturally the position of power was unstable, and the whole country had a tendency to gradually disintegrate. If we don't take the opportunity to seize it, sooner or later it will be obtained by Western Xia or that Laoshzi Guge, and it will be a great harm to the country at that time. ”

And this kind of thing? Wu Hao Gu Xin said: It turns out that the Na Luo regime is a religious country, and after the lord of the country loses his position as a religious leader, its decline is inevitable...... It seems that it is not unreasonable for Wang Shao and Wang Hou and his son to want to take Hehe and Huangerzhou.

"But the Tubo tribes in the two states of Hehe and Huang are not so easy to obey, right? Moreover, the Western Xia would also reinforce these Tibetan tribes. ”

Wu Haogu didn't know how many difficulties the opening of the river and the opening of the river by Huizong of the Song Dynasty had encountered in history, but he knew that the two failures of the Shenzong Dynasty and the Zhezong Dynasty were not unrelated to the resistance of the Tubo and Qiang tribes.

Wang Hou only smiled bitterly when he heard this: "Tsongkha was originally a friend of our dynasty, and it fought against Western Xia with us in the era of Ngoro. But the alliance between the two sides has long been gone, and it has become an enemy...... Even if we withdraw from Hehuang, Zhao Huaide (Mu Zhengzi Longshu), who is attached to the imperial court, is not forced to be forced by the 'little prince' Xiluo Sa, who is hostile to our dynasty? Since they are going to be my enemy, it is better to subdue them with force! ”

Wu Haogu understood, it turned out that Tsongkha Tubo originally allied with the Great Song Dynasty to deal with the Western Xia, but later the Great Song Dynasty took advantage of the weakness of Tsongkha Tubo to engage in the opening of the river, and the two sides turned from allies to enemies. Tsongkha Tubo and Western Xia went from being enemies in the time of the Tsanggara to allies now...... And the Great Song Dynasty could not sit idly by and watch the Western Xia take the power of Tsongkha Tubo into the bag, so it was inevitable to open the border again.

It's just that this time the river is open, can it bear a positive fruit?