Chapter 052 – The Great Horse of Northern Liang

Yellow sand desert, five hundred riders against five hundred riders.

The two sides of the confrontation are all lightly armored elite cavalry, not wearing bows and crossbows, and the only weapon in their hands is a wooden pole.

On one side were the elite cavalrymen of Jibei Battalion under Yuan Zuozong’s command, while on the other side was the Iron Tablet Battalion of He Zhonghu’s direct line. The reason for both sides to perform martial arts here was not that the big brothers of Beiliang in the distance wanted to see the battle power of Beiliang with their own eyes, but a reason that would be unimaginable even outside of Beiliang Road. Competition for horses! Beiliang most important horse policy, large and small ranches scattered, among them to the rouge ranch out of the most horses, the year out of more than 1,600 horses, which can be supplied to the cavalry in the upper and lower 300, which in the Liyang court side is an appalling number, to know that the south of Gyeonggi, although there are three states in total of seven Supervisory pastoral, but only just equal to this number. Of course, the pastures in the south of the capital are inferior and the horse policy is poor is an important reason. The best horses in Northern Liang are from the Fiber Leaving Ranch. The amount of horses allocated to the various cavalry brigades in Northern Liang has remained unchanged over the years, but the quality of the horses sent from the various ranches is very specific. Even when the Huaihua general Zhong Hongwu held the power of the cavalry, but also has no way to control the specific distribution of the ranch horse, have to follow a rule, that is, every cavalry in Beiliang have to fight against each other, win, take away the good horse, lose, you can only eat other people’s leftovers. Several total of more than ten thousand people of the cavalry army, each time to select cavalry eight hundred, and roughly equal to the strength of the other cavalry army to select the sharp, on the battlefield to kill each other, embrace the flag of the battalion out of the battlefield of five hundred people, the small battalion is between two hundred and three hundred people. Beiliang’s claim of 300,000 iron horsemen is about the total strength, naturally it can’t be true that all of them are cavalry, in fact, the total number of cavalry in Beiliang has been hovering between 100,000 and 150,000, otherwise, unless Liyang sends all the world’s warhorses into Beiliang Road, it is possible to support the Xu family cavalry army. According to historical records, has always been labeled as “after the Great Qin, Feng horse the most prosperous” Feng dynasty, since the Zhengyuan to Linde years thirty years, the country is only “horse 800,000”. What’s more, the most elite cavalry of Beiliang, always ensure that a person double horse or even three horses, which is relatively sufficient in the horse source of the two Liao is also an extremely exaggerated thing.

Horses are the foundation of armor and soldiers, the most important weapon of the country.

Beiliang now cavalry commanders are Yuan Zuozong, veteran vice commander He Zhonghu and last year’s promotion of “Zhou partridge” Zhou Kang, now Xu family 140,000 cavalry, Yuan Zuozong in addition to the three Xu Snapdragon became the king of Beiliang before the existence of the old word battalion, and do not lead the “pro army”, and the “pro army”, and the “pro army”. Excluding the Great Snow Dragon Riders and the Dragon Elephant Army, He Zhonghu led the Left Cavalry of 40,000 men, and Zhou Kang led the Right Cavalry of 30,000 men. The Jibei Battalion was one of the old battalions of Beiliang, and it was under the jurisdiction of the Grand Commander Yuan Zuozong. The name of Jibei Battalion has a deep origin, after Xu Snapdragon was feudalized in Northern Liang, Jizhou, which is under the administration of Han family, was the biggest source of horses outside of Northern Liang, and Xu Snapdragon had made good relationship with Han family, which was full of loyalty, many times during the wars in Spring and Autumn. Later, the Han family was killed, not only because the Han family had offended the old chief minister of the former dynasty, but also because the Liyang court had long coveted the vast pastures of Jizhou, so that it could legitimately put high-quality war horses into the northern defense line, but the Han family in the politics of Jizhou, never in the number of tampering with it, but intentionally or unintentionally to send the good horse to the Northern Liang, although the Han family later with the Xu family bad luck, but it has long been the Liyang Zhao room as a thorn in the side. Although the Han family was at odds with the Xu family in the later years, it had long been regarded as a thorn in the side of the Zhao family in Liyang. Although the Han family was at odds with the Xu family in the later years, it had long been regarded as a thorn in the side of the Zhao family in Liyang.

The two armies rode suddenly, and the dust filled the sky.

Jibei battalion a rider tilted his head, avoiding a wooden pole like a spear without a blade, the long pole in his hand against the heart of the opposite side of a rider, and knocked it down hard on the back of the horse, only to receive a pole of Iron Tablet Battalion cavalry, before the body landed on the ground to the side of the robes grabbed the shoulder, thrown back to the back of the horse, and continued to charge, tearing apart the hostile line.

Another Jibei horsemen and Iron Tablet horsemen almost at the same time wooden pole stabbed each other’s chest, borrowing the momentum of the horse, the toughness of the pole bends out of an amazing arc, brawn is weaker than the weak people on the spot to knock down the horse.

Regardless of the gun and spear skills of how exquisite cavalry, but also never shake the kind of pole “point to kill” the enemy’s fancy skills, always rely on the cavalry momentum charge erupted out of the collision force, riding are so clean and sharp.

After each penetrated the formation, both sides are equal to change an orientation, but the back-to-back Jibei Battalion and Iron Tablet Battalion did not slow down the hoofs of their horses, not to mention stopping their horses to turn around rigidly to charge again, but the cavalry team in the success of penetrating the enemy’s camp, both of them almost at the same time rounded a precise arc, both are striving to get more penetrating force brought by the collision in a faster time. During this period, the fallen horse must immediately lead the horse to run away from the battlefield, after all, is not the true meaning of the fight, fall off the horse that is “dead”.

Chen Yuntui is the deputy commander of the Northern Liang infantry, squinting at the battlefield retreat situation, smiled: “Old He, fiber away from the ranch of 120 A-class war horses, with the buckle ranch of more than 400 B-class horses, should not have your iron monument battalion what things.”

He Zhongshu was calm and calmly said: “This is only a charge, if the early disadvantage is considered to be a loss, you Chen Yuntui would have already died seven or eight times in the battle of Xibi wall.”

Chen Yuntui laughed: “This can be the same, Iron Tablet Battalion against our Beiliang first-class elite Jibei Battalion, and not when the West Chu that gang of rash.”

He Zhongkou snickered, “Brother, why don’t we make a bet? If I win, you can send me the yellow compulsion scouts, how about it?”

Chen Yuntui laughed and scolded, “I only have four yellow compulsion scouts in total, each of them is a treasure, this bet is not to be played, resolutely not to be played! Also, why don’t you say what to do if you lose?”

He Zhongshu calmly said, “The soldiers brought out by Laozi would never lose in the first place.”

Chen Yunzhui turned his head to look at the young King of Northern Liang who was sitting high on the back of his horse and carefully staring at the battlefield, and laughed, “Your Highness, take a look at this, is our Great Commander He’s as thick-skinned as a city wall?”

Xu Fengnian smiled without saying anything.

He Zhonghu leading the troops to rule the army has an ancient style, everything must be personally, with the mother-in-law a handful of shit a handful of urine with their own children in general, even if it is a high-powered cavalry vice marshal, but eating and sleeping with the ordinary pawns and no different, and He Zhonghu does not have a family, wife and children, on the support of a few lame old horses, this member of the Spring and Autumn meritorious veterans in this life is determined to live on the border to die on the border. If on the size of the military service, according to seniority, Zhong Hongwu simply can not sit in the position of the cavalry commander, just He Zhonghu never ganged up, and those who have withdrawn from the borders of the old generals with Wei Tieshan has always been a gentleman’s friendship, but also do not like to enlist a large number of young and strong generals as a disciple of the first line. He is the longest-serving vice-commander in the Northern Liang Army, and there is no one else. He Zhonghu did not have a distinctive style in leading his troops, and seldom captured great victories in huge battles, but in his thirty years of military career, He Zhonghu almost never suffered a crushing defeat. Li Maozhen, the weak-stringed lieutenant of Huanghuaguan, who was known for his old-fashioned and prudent behavior, used to be the subordinate of He Zhonghu. But Li Maozhen is notorious for his addiction to officialdom, followed by He Zhonghu for many years, often by Zhong Hongwu’s beloved repeated pinch, in a fit of pique, Li Maozhen left the border army to return to the territory of Beiliang, and Xu Snap asked for a guerrilla general.

Chen Yuntui continued to fan the flames and joked to Yuan Zuozong, “Commander Yuan, can this be tolerated?”

Yuan Zuozong smiled and said, “Winning or losing is still a toss-up, I’m not too good at clamoring for a one-on-one horse battle with old general He now, the old general is ultimately getting old and inevitably his stamina is not good.”

Leopard head and tiger beard He Zhonghu glared: “Yuan Zuozong, twenty years younger, believe it or not old man one hand put down you!”

Yan Wenluan, the seemingly skinny commander of the infantry army, laughed: “Bullshit, regardless of horse and foot combat, even if you, He Zhonghu, had three heads and six arms, you wouldn’t be able to beat Commander Yuan.”

He Zhonghu in the northern Liang army is the most respected at the same time to join the army Yan Wenluan, was exposed to the old bottom, did not have any rebuttal.

Chu Lushan four hundred pounds of fat, then did not ride a horse, stood on the side of Xu Fengyen’s horse, not lightly said: “Fang just got a spy report, the great general kind of shentong and Gusei dragon waist two states of the festival order appeared in the south dynasty temple, sort of give the resignation of the south court king of the Huang Song Pu send-off, and replace the position is not the original expected Tuoba bodhisattva or Murong Bao Ding, and also is not the North Mang The female empress called equal to half of the righteous father of the great general Liu Gui, but that like to raise crows Dong Zhuo. Huang Song Pu even openly put out the word, North Mang this time is to pour all the national strength, a million troops are a brain all smashed in our North Liang here. This news that North Mang did not intentionally hide, I’m sure the Zhao Family’s Heavenly Prince and Gu Jiantang will be ecstatic when they hear it.”

Cavalry Vice Marshal Zhou Kang laughed, “Dong Zhuo? Wasn’t he a defeated general under your command, Lord Du Gui?”

The fat pig standing alone with him rubbed his hands together and laughed heatedly, “There was still a tiny bit of luck involved back then.”

Yan Wenluan thought for a moment and smiled coldly, “This move by the Northern Court King’s tent is both a matter of honor and caution.”

Chu Lushan nodded and slowly said, “Little Fatty Dong has always been treated as half a son by that old bitch, and it’s more reassuring to hand over the military power of the Southern Dynasties to a young man with such a weak foundation. But this guy hand pinch a whole 100,000 only recognize the word Dong do not recognize the North Mang’s elite troops, even the old lady, also have to weigh. Dong Zhuo nature slippery, if not the head of this head of the South King, once the war opened, on his that do not see the rabbit does not spread the eagle’s temperament, even if he was forced to go on the field, but also certainly out of work, when the time comes to fight, Liang Mang both sides are serious losses, and in the end the North Mang will be counted on the largest number of their Dong’s military strength, in this case, Dong Zhuo does not have ambitions to give birth to ambitions.”

Xu Fenian said, “I heard that Dong Zhuo has always regarded you as a life and death enemy with an undying hatred.”

Dong Zhuo cheerfully said, “That little fatso thinks so, but Luqiu’er doesn’t see him that way.”

Gu Dazu, who was once a pillar of Southern Tang, laughed heartily, “If Dong Zhuo hadn’t become the Grand King of the Southern Courtyard, I would have almost forgotten the marvelous feats of our Lord Dugu back then.”

Chu Lushan raised his fat arm and gently waved it, pretending to be shy and said, “A good man does not mention that year’s courage.”

Xu Fengyen who really can’t stand to watch lifted his foot, gently kicked Chu Lushan’s shoulder and said, “Iron Monument Battalion won, but the cavalrymen who stayed on the horseback were only twenty-one.”

The crowd looked, and it was true.

The twenty-one Iron Tablet Battalion cavalrymen raised one arm at the same time, openly accepting the sky-shaking cheers.

He Zhonghu laughed heartily, and out of the corner of his eye, he looked at Yuan Zuozong who was not far away, the latter’s eyes were clear and he nodded to the old man.

Next, He Zhongchu rode out prominently and shouted aloud to those sons and daughters, “Come on, the old rules, lead away your daughter-in-law!”

Those superior warhorses from the Fiber Leaving Ranch and the Buckle Ranch, all led by the herding officers and pawns, slowly galloped out from the dusty side of the battlefield.

Those five hundred cavalrymen cheered and yelled, dismounting one after another to welcome those new daughters-in-law.

Some of the Iron Tablet Battalion cavalrymen turned a series of dizzying somersaults on their way forward, and some of them fell into a dog’s poop when they were laughed at by the robes behind them and kicked them in the buttocks. Five hundred people are so playful, joyful.

Beiliang horse, has always been the daughter-in-law of Beiliang soldiers.

Who would have too many horses that are rarer than a watery maiden?

Xu Fengyen looked at the 500 riders of the Jibei Battalion, all of them were holding their horses and standing in silence.

Xu Fengyen clamped the belly of the horse, alone out of the line, first came to the side of the Iron Monument Battalion is busy selecting the warhorse, indicating that they do not need to salute, let them continue to receive “daughter-in-law”, quietly waiting for them to finish picking, and wait for everyone to get on the horse, and only then looked to one of the “kill the enemy” most cavalrymen. Only then did he look at one of the cavalrymen who had “killed the most enemies”, Xu Fengyen took off the new Liang sword from his waist and threw it up high.

The young and sturdy cavalryman caught the sword, first stared in disbelief, and then reddened his face, even tears in his eyes, shouted and raised it high.

Xu Fengyen ended up still riding forward, coming before the Jibei Battalion’s queue, turning over and dismounting, leading his horse forward, handing over the reins of the horse in his hand to a cavalryman at the head.