When Wang Huazhen walked out of the gate of Wuying Palace, his heart was filled with a sense of mission. Previously, he was taken from the Imperial Prison to the Xinwang Palace, where he went from a complete loss of liberty to a restricted house arrest. Although the material living conditions have improved a lot, what makes him full of gratitude to Chongzhen is the respect for his personality by the newly enthroned Majesty.

Although Wang Huazhen was regarded by the courtiers: he was stupid and embarrassed, never practiced soldiers, despised the enemy, and was good at abusive words. After the defeat of Guangning, he quickly threw himself into the arms of Wei Zhongxian and betrayed the Donglin Party, which was relatively spineless.

But before the defeat of Guangning, Wang Huazhen was still a scholar who was full of enthusiasm and wanted to quell the rebellion in Liaodong as soon as possible.

After the defeat of Liaoshen at the beginning, he relied on 1,000 weak soldiers to recruit scattered soldiers, inspire the fighting spirit of the people, contact Mongolia in the west, and finally held Guangning and kept a base of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, it cannot be said that he was a coward at that time.

It's just that later, from the seemingly good situation in Liaodong, he was suddenly betrayed by his trusted subordinate Sun Degong and became a sinner who fell into Guangning, which instantly shattered all his ambition and confidence.

From the moment he fled from Quang Ninh City, he also lost his faith and ideals, and became a Ming bureaucrat with no shame.

However, the act of betraying his teacher and comrades in the party did not let him escape responsibility. After Wei Zhongxian used him to eliminate the Donglin ministers in the court, he had no interest in exonerating him, but just left him in prison to fend for himself.

Nearly 3 years of prison life, finally let Wang Huazhen sober up a little bit, sometimes he often thinks that he knew that it was the end of today's ruin, and he might have died in Guangning City.

After the new emperor ascended the throne, he pulled him out of the hell of despair, and now he was given another chance to turn over, how could he not be grateful.

The two things that Chongzhen let go of him to do today made him feel as if he had not yet reached the time to close the coffin.

When Wang Huazhen was thinking excitedly, she happened to see Yang Hao being led to the palace by the eunuch, and the two did not say hello, but just nodded and passed by.

In the Wuying Palace, looking at Yang Hao, the Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, who walked in to pay homage to him, Zhu Youzhen hurriedly ordered to be exempted from the ceremony, and asked someone to bring a chair to Yang Hao.

"Mr. Yang, everything is ready now, are you ready for this matter of comforting the soldiers of Liaodong and sending an envoy to Shenyang?"

Yang Hao arched his hand at Zhu Youzhen and said: "The minister is preparing all the time, just wait for His Majesty's order, and the old minister can set off." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded with a smile and said: "I can't let you go empty-handed, the reward of 100,000 taels of silver to comfort the Liaodong army, 240 horses of various colors of silk and satin, 120 catties of spices, and 1,000 catties of tea given to the Shenyang chieftain have been prepared for you." ”

Yang Hao paused, and said a little unhappily: "Your Majesty, the minister is here to negotiate peace, not to send New Year's coins, why prepare these, isn't it in vain to provoke the chieftain to peep at my Daming." The minister is confident that even without these things, he can still accomplish his mission. ”

Zhu Youzhen was not spoiled by Yang Hao, but kept a smile and said: "It's good to peep at Daming, it's better for this Jiannu to peep at my Daming than to be vigilant against us all day long." Besides, now that we have decided to ask for peace, we should lower our posture, we need time, not eternal peace.

Huang Taiji put forward the conditions, you can decide on the camera. I give you two bottom lines, Daming will not withdraw from Guangning, and the relationship between Daming and Houjin can be treated equally. Anything but that's what you can do, you can make a decision on the spot.

As for these possessions, you don't have to pay attention to them, but they are stored in the place where the slaves were built, and they will inevitably be returned with interest in the future. ”

Yang Hao opened his mouth, and finally said with a sigh: "Please also ask Your Majesty to forget today's words, the matter of peace, the old minister is willing to shoulder it." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the gray-haired Yang Hao, and said with some emotion in his heart: "Mr. Yang doesn't need to be like this, on the day of the head of Jiannu, Mr.'s merit can be the first." ”

Yang Haoqian gave a few words, but he doubted in his heart whether he could wait until that day.

After talking a few words with Yang Hao, Zhu Youzhen signaled Wang Chengen to summon Man Gui into the palace. After Man Gui entered the hall and bowed his head to worship Chongzhen, he looked up and saw Yang Hao sitting on the side.

Man Gui subconsciously saluted Yang Hao and said, "The last general will meet Enshuai." ”

Yang Hao was taken aback for a moment, avoided Man Gui's visit, knelt down in front of Chongzhen and pleaded guilty: "The old minister is rude in front of the king, please surrender your majesty." ”

Man Gui suddenly realized that he seemed to have made a mistake, and immediately opened his mouth to ask Chongzhen for his guilt. Zhu Youzhen just smiled and waved his hand and said: "Sir, please get up, General Mangui also invites up, the general just values love and righteousness, and his personality is more straightforward, what is there to be guilty of." I didn't expect the two of them to have a reason? ”

Man Gui glanced at Yang Hao, who was silent beside him, and then said stubbornly: "The ministers of the day are just a garrison of Chaohechuan, and after the battle of Salhu, Deen Shuai recommended to garrison Loess Ridge, so that he had the opportunity to make a meager contribution." ”

"Haha, I'm relieved. Mr. Yang is about to go to Liaodong, and I plan to let you escort him. Since you and Mr. Yang have a relationship, then I don't have to worry about what will go wrong on the road. Zhu Youzhen said with a smile.

Man Gui did not doubt that he said: "The minister will not let His Majesty have such troubles." ”

Yang Hao, who sat back in the chair, closed his eyes slightly, and listened to Chongzhen and Man Gui without saying a word.

After Zhu Youzhen asked a few words about the movements of the Beijing camp, he said: "I summoned General Mangui to come today. In fact, there are a few things I want to discuss with you.

The first is that I want you to leave a squad of cavalry to help the 3,000 battalions with training, and a few veterans to prepare the cavalry combat regulations for the Army Academy. ”

Man Gui hurriedly bowed down and said: "The soldiers of the ministers are all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, what does Your Majesty want, but please give an order, how dare the ministers talk about it." ”

"Otherwise, there are some things that I would like to hear from you. The second thing is that I picked out 1,347 people from the 3,000 battalions, and these people are willing to go to Liaodong. Take them with you to experience the breath of war. Zhu Youzhen looked at Man Gui and said.

Man Gui said with some hesitation: "Your Majesty, the courtiers look at the cavalry of the Beijing camp, not only do the people lack courage, but even the horses are almost useless. There are still some differences between this war horse and a riding horse, like the horse used by the 3,000 battalions, which can scare ordinary people, but if it is brought to the battlefield, I am afraid it will only become a burden. ”

Not to mention that Su Changqing, a person in later generations, didn't understand horses, even the civil officials of this era didn't know the difference between war horses and ordinary horses.

Zhu Youzhen found that he seemed to have taken it for granted from Man Gui's embarrassed expression. He always thought that as long as it was a horse, it could be used as a cavalry mount.

"Then General Man Gui, you might as well explain a thing or two for me." Zhu Youzhen immediately humbly asked for advice.

Man Gui immediately said: "The biggest difference between this war horse and an ordinary horse is that after running for hundreds of miles, the war horse can immediately charge and fight, but an ordinary horse will fall after running for hundreds of miles."

This is because the war horse not only has to be fed with concentrate, but also has to be fed several times a day for a strict fixed time, so that it can maintain full physical strength.

If a war horse is not fed for a long time, and is not fed on time, and is often in a state of hunger and fullness, then its physical strength is not only insufficient, but also its body will soon age, and it is difficult to return to the state of its heyday.

As for the other subtleties, the horses are specially trained to ram the army in formation, while the average horse will dodge when they see people in front of them.

Also, the way the horses sway when they run is also different, ordinary horses are bumpy up and down, and the cavalry will be very painful and physically exert when rushing.

But the horses swayed from side to side when they ran, so that as if in a cradle, some skilled knights could sleep on a steady horse..."

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help frowning and asked, "Isn't there a qualified war horse in Beijing?" ”

Man Gui thought for a while and said: "There are still thousands of horses in the upper pastoral prison on the outskirts of Beijing that can be used as war horses, but after these horses are selected, I am afraid that it will be more difficult for the capital to replace war horses for a period of time in the future." ”

Zhu Youzhen rubbed his temples before deciding: "After General Man Gui goes back, I will pick 1,500 war horses for these sergeants and bring them, I hope that they can follow General Man Gui and learn a little bit of the ability to kill the enemy on the battlefield." Speaking of war horses, I would like to ask how long this war horse can serve. ”

Man Gui looked up at Chongzhen and said: "The lifespan of a horse is about 30-40 years old, and according to convention, the mounts of my Ming cavalry will be about 15-20 years old. But now the number of war horses is insufficient, and the horse undead cavalry will continue to use it.

In fact, as long as the horsemen of the cavalry did not die of old age, the cavalry had to pay for one. In the past, the cavalry camp would set up a pile of silver, and each cavalry would contribute some money, if there were horses in the camp who died unnaturally, then they could withdraw money from the pile money to buy horses.

However, now that the system existed in name only, the officers in the battalion tended to take the money for themselves, and once the horses died, they asked the cavalry to pay for the horses, and some cavalrymen simply fled because they could not afford to buy horses.

On the other hand, the cavalry of some battalions took advantage of the officers' poor supervision and exchanged the good horses they had sent to the camp for inferior horses or old horses, so as to make profits.

The minister believed that all these maladministrations had greatly damaged the combat effectiveness of the army. Your Majesty should send someone to check this situation in the battalions, so as to prevent the Ming Dynasty from running out of cavalry in the future. ”

Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while, and then said to Man Gui: "What you said is very good, I will think about it carefully and start to deal with this problem." So when is the best age for a war horse to serve? ”

"Over 2 years old, under 10 years old, this is the most suitable age for war horses to go to the battlefield." Man Gui regained some emotion and said.