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Compared with Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and Zhu Cilang, who are stationed in Fengyang Prefecture, they are more concerned about the issue of war horses.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the equipment of military war horses has always been paid attention to.

During the Hongwu period, there was a horse political battle, and during the Yongle period, he won many good horses.

After that, the Ming court set up a horse market on the border to buy horses from the Mongolians. Horses can also be raised in Gansu and Shaanxi areas. In general, there is no need to worry too much about the supply of war horses.

But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, all this changed.

The bandits in Shaanxi were in full swing for years, and the Ma Zheng was naturally in a state of slump. The Mongolian tribes, which had a good relationship with the Ming Dynasty, were also beaten by the Manchus for fear of being beaten and subdued, so they were taken as followers.

By the time of Jiashen State, half of the Qing Dynasty entered the pass and was in the hands of thieves.

At this time, the Ming court completely lost the way to obtain war horses from the northwest.

Although he can also compete with the cavalry by relying on well-equipped infantry and artillery, Zhu Cixuan still wants to have his own sharp cavalry.

This is why he set up a cavalry battalion alone when he formed the Shence Army.

However, the source of war horses in the Southern Ming Dynasty is a problem. Most of the war horses are brought by the military leaders of various towns, such as Gao Jie's army and Huang Degong's army.

Most of the horses belonging to the court were offered horses from various provinces and even vassal states.

It is no problem to choose hundreds or thousands of horses to make up these horses, but it is absolutely impossible to make up tens of thousands of horses.

Now Zhu Cilang can barely equip the Shence Army Tianqi Battalion with sufficient war horses, but when the army is expanded in the future and more cavalry battalions are added, it will be impossible to rely on horse equipment.

So Zhu Cilang had to find a way elsewhere.

It was impossible to get the heads of the towns to pay tribute to horses. War horses were extremely important strategic materials in the late Ming Dynasty and far more important than soldiers.

Huang Degong and Gao Jie might have paid dozens or hundreds of tributes for the sake of the emperor, but it would be a delusion to ask them to pay thousands of war horses at once.

It is not reliable to buy horses from the Mongolians.

Not to mention that after Lin Dankhan's death, the Mongolian tribes successively surrendered to the Qing court, so it was said that some small Mongolian tribes really wanted to sell horses to the Ming court at a high price given by the Southern Ming court. How to bring horses back to Jiangnan from the north is also a problem.

You should know that these are thousands of horses, and the target is too obvious. As long as you are targeted, it is difficult to safely transport it to the south.

If you don’t have the north, you can only find a way to the south.

Zhu Cilang thought of Dianma without hesitation.

Yunnan horse, also known as Yunnan horse, is a famous horse breed in Chinese history.

As early as the Han Dynasty, Dian horses had been published in historical books during the Three Kingdoms period. "Huayang Guozhi·Nanzhongzhi" says: "The elders rumored that there was a divine horse in the Dianchi Lake, and they might be intersected, and then they would have a horse, commonly known as the "Dianchi Lake Horse", which traveled 500 miles a day."

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Book of Man recorded: "The horses came out of Yuexiong and Shandong. The tail was high and they were particularly good at galloping. They traveled hundreds of miles a day... Tengchong and Shenxi also came out, and the second was the best. Dianchi Lake was especially good." The "New Book of Tang: Nanzhao Biography" also said: "There are recommended grasses to the west of Yuexiong and produce good horses, which are known as the "Yuexiong and Jun". They were born like lambs. In the year, Xisha scattered them and drank them with rice. They could control them for seven years, and they ran hundreds of miles a day."

Fan Chengda of the Song Dynasty recorded in "Guihai Yuheng Zhi": "Dali horses are the best among the southwest foreign countries."

Zhou Qufei's "Ringwai Dai Answer" also said: "All the barbarian horses in the south all came out of the Dali Kingdom."

In the Yuan Dynasty, Marco Polo's Travels Recorded: "In Yunnan Province and Guangxi Highlands, a strong horse with a small body and strong body, sold in India. However, those who should know should draw two or three tendons so that they cannot use their tails to hit their riders."

The "Nanzhong Magazine" of the Ming Dynasty recorded: "The horses in central Yunnan are small in nature and strong in their hooves. They go up high mountains and walk on dangerous paths. Although they don't know how to breathe and sweat for dozens of miles, they grow into valleys."

People in the world mistakenly think that the Dian horse is short, so it is not suitable for being a war horse.

In fact, there are countless precedents for using Dian horses as war horses in history, and even the Southern Song Dynasty Yue Fei's army has records of using Dian horses.

In fact, although the Dian horse is short, it has extremely strong endurance. Perhaps the Dian horse can't compare to the Dayuan horse when sprinting for a short distance, but the long-distance marching and trekking for the Dian horse will definitely defeat the Dayuan horse.

There are many types of war horses, some are specially used to charge, some are used to transport soldiers, and some are used to transport food, grass and supplies, so they cannot be generalized.

As for the Yunnan Horse, there is no problem traveling eighty or ninety miles a day.

Dian horses usually can breed and reproduce at the age of two to three, and develop completely at around four.

Generally speaking, Dianma is divided into three categories.

One is Dali Horse.

Dali horses are mainly produced in Heqing, Dali, Jianchuan and other counties in Yunnan. The height of this breed of adult horses is about 1.1 meters and is mainly used as pack horses.

The second is Wumeng Horse.

Wumeng Horse is produced in Zhaotong area and is most distributed in plateaus and mountainous areas.

Because the aquatic grasslands are plump and the number of Wumeng horses is also large, and the average height of adult horses is around one meter and one meter. Compared with Dali horses, Wumeng horses can adapt to two different climates, namely north and south, dry and wet, and are more suitable for war horses than Dali horses.

The last type is Tengchong horse, which is also the largest among the three types of Dian horses. Generally speaking, the high energy of adult Tengchong stallions reaches one meter and two. Because the mountain grasslands in Tengchong are very large, all horses are grazing. Therefore, the wild horses produced in Tengchong are also the strongest among the three types of Dian horses.

Zhu Cilang always believed that horses must be grazed and cannot be kept in captivity. Horses raised in captivity may be okay to be pack horses or pick up horses, but it is not enough to be war horses.

In this way, Tengchong Horse is the most suitable type to choose.

In fact, Mongolian horses are also dwarfs. The average height of adult horses is about 1.3 meters, which is not much higher than that of Tengchong horses.

It is just because the Mongolian grasslands are too vast that the wildness of horses can be retained to the greatest extent, and their endurance is still very explosive, so Mongolian horses are used as war horses on a large scale.

But even so, the cavalry riding Mongolian horses were only light cavalry. The reason was that the Mongolian horses had limited load capacity and could not carry too heavy armor.

The reason why Europe can form heavy cavalry is because the horses are tall and have stronger load-bearing ability.

In this regard, the advantages of Dianma are reflected.

Because most of them are born in alpine pastures, the weight bearing force of the Dian horse is extremely strong, and the weight bearing force of the adult Dian horse can reach 200 kilograms, and it can even be used as a heavy cavalry.

Of course, even the best quality Dian horse cannot adapt to marching and fighting immediately. Rounds of training must be carried out to turn Dian horses into war horses.

Now that Yunnan is still under Mu Tianbo's rule, Zhu Cixuan decided to hand over the procurement of Yunnan horses to the Duke of Qian.

There is no doubt about this person's loyalty to the Ming Dynasty. In history, when Emperor Yongli fled to Myanmar, Mu Tianbo swears to follow him to death. He was held hostage by the Burmese army during the difficulty of the curse. He still took the sword and killed the enemy until he died in battle.

The situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty is better than the original history, so Mu Tianbo will naturally be more loyal to Zhu Cixuan, who succeeded the throne with Prince Zhengshuo.

The only problem is that Zhang Xianzhong has entered Sichuan. In order to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from entering Yunnan, Mu Tianbo will inevitably send a large army to the Yunnan-Sichuan border.

If Zhu Cilang remembers correctly, the Shapu Rebellion in history happened around this.

......
Chapter completed!