Late Tang

At the foot of Taishan Mountain on Shamen Island, Li Jing specially designated a field of about 200 mu as a training ground for horses and cavalry.The battle horse field was temporarily built, but it was not vague at all.As soon as Lin Wu knew that Li Jing had obtained [-] war horses, he began to mobilize a group of craftsmen, city builders and more than [-] cavalry to rush to repair them day and night.The entire battle horse field was completely surrounded by wooden fences, and a moat more than ten feet deep was built outside the fence, and a line of densely packed picket piles was buried outside the moat.

There are only two gates in the north and south on the fence, and more than a dozen arrow towers have been built along the gate.And there is a striking sign on the fence that reads "Military affairs are important, no entry is strictly prohibited".

The battle horse field is divided into three main parts, namely the stables, the cavalry dormitory, and the training ground.Lin Wu built the stables extraordinarily luxuriously. The stables made of wood are tall and wide. Each war horse has an independent and wide stable. The conditions of the whole stables are several times better than the dormitories where the cavalry live. .

Since ancient times, military strategists have always attached great importance to training. Wu Qi, a master in the art of war, once believed that "it is impossible to die often, and it is inconvenient to lose."Therefore, the method of using troops is first and foremost training. "Scholars don't teach them first, they can't be used." "If they don't teach civilian warfare, it's called abandoning them!"

After recruiting soldiers, the most important thing is training.Sweat more in peacetime, bleed less in wartime.These are the experiences and lessons summed up by countless predecessors, and Shamen Town has always believed in and implemented this concept since the beginning of its formation.In order to hurry up the training time, Li Jing not only provided the trainees with four meals a day, but even provided a large amount of nutritious food such as pork and mutton, eggs, poultry, and fresh fruits and vegetables regardless of the cost.Moreover, all the soldiers are listed as full-time professional soldiers. Even if the construction period of the new city is tight now, Li Jing will no longer send one person to work on the construction site.

However, compared with the infantry, the training of the cavalry is more complicated.Li Jing, who was not very familiar with cavalry, left the training of cavalry to Lin Wu, an officer from the cavalry of Shence Army.

Today is the first day of cavalry training. Li Jing and all the civil and military officers in the town have arrived.In addition to them, there are also many guests who came to watch today, mainly Li Huier, Yu Youniang, Xiao Yulou, the first-class craftsmen in charge of the workshops in the town, and White Beard, Megan and Julie The leaders of the Zhendong Sea Pirates headed by others.

War horses are a proud item no matter what era they are in. Even on the prairie, herdsmen mostly raise cattle and sheep, but only a small amount of horses are kept. Excellent war horses are even unaffordable for ordinary herdsmen.At the time when the entire Tang Dynasty had the most war horses, it only had 70 war horses, which shows the preciousness of war horses.War horses are not only precious in themselves, but also more troublesome to feed. War horses are not only expensive to raise, but also very delicate and difficult to raise. Not only do they need special care, they even eat better than humans.

A war horse needs three stones of millet and sixty yards of grass every month. It also needs to get some salt, black beans, green beans, etc., and even the water must drink clean spring water. More than 1 pennies, more than ten times more expensive than an ordinary war horse that consumes two to three pennies a year.

"Wu Zi's Art of War" has a very scientific method of feeding and managing military horses. It is required that the horses should be raised in a suitable place, surrounded by clean spring water and good fodder, and their hunger and fullness should be controlled when feeding; In the stables, a cool stable should be built in summer; when grooming the mane, its eyes and ears should be covered to prevent it from being frightened;He also emphasized that horses should be cared for. Anyone who rides until evening or for a long distance must dismount several times.

"The horse is also a fire animal. Its nature is evil and wet, and it is beneficial to high dryness... In the middle of the spring, let it go with its nature... It must be soaked in midsummer, and it may be injured in the heat, and it must be warm in winter, and it may be injured in the cold. Walk for a long time. It will cause muscle fatigue, standing for a long time will cause bone fatigue, prolonged sweating will cause skin fatigue, drinking and feeding before sweating will cause gas fatigue, and driving without restraint will cause blood fatigue. New grass must be selected for feeding, and beans must be sieved. If it is cooked The feed should be soaked in freshly drawn water before it can be fed; drink fresh water (clean water) three times a day, morning, noon, and evening. After drinking water in winter, you must also ride a horse ), it is not easy to take off in the wind (when the saddle, bridle and rein are removed, it should not be in the windward position)..."

Judging from the experience of these horses, what you raise is not a war horse, but a group of golden lumps, which are afraid of melting in your mouth and afraid of falling when you hold them in your hands.Feeding carefully is for the horses to gallop at the time of Guan Jian and charge to break through the formation.

Since Lin Wu took over these horses, he has promulgated many surprising regulations one after another.For example, the first article at the beginning stipulates that after the cavalry receives their own horses, they have to feed the horses, wash and tickle the horses every day, and even require them to sleep with the horses in the stables for the first three months.

As for the daily feeding, the detailed feeding conditions are announced one by one.Article by article: 7. When the horse feed beans are cooked, they must be left to cool. Mix more feed water and grass before feeding the horses. Never feed the horses with hot feed. After drinking the water, the horses should be led and walked slowly. Walk for five or seven miles, and then tie them to the free sandy soil, so that they can sleep and lie down at will, and they are not allowed to be tied to the trough.9. When the grass grows in spring, let ten, twenty, or thirty to fifty horses go to places where the water and grass are luxuriant, and graze day and night. Put up a pergola.In hot summer, drink water once at Chenshi (11-1 am), once at noon (9 am-11 pm), and at night; 1 o'clock) Drink water once; once a month or half a month, feed the horse with salt water.Horses are not allowed to be fed with cattle tied together.3. Grooms who are responsible for raising stallions must set up stables and mangers. The ground is not allowed to be paved with bricks and stones. , lest the horse accidentally eat and get sick.

"There is nothing like a dragon in the sky, and nothing like a horse in the ground. Horses are the foundation of armored soldiers and the great use of the country." Li Jing fully agreed with Lin Wu's big move.Right now, the Salmon Town army is guarding the island, and the cavalry is still unable to play its due role.Li Jing's dispersal of the cavalry into the team also meant that the cavalry would not be sent to the battlefield immediately.Put the cavalry in the team, just let them do some reconnaissance, cover, and pursuit.The cavalry could not be trained well in a day, and even formed a large scale. Li Jing was reluctant to send these precious cavalry to real war horses for a day.These cavalrymen are the seeds of his future cavalry unit and the cradle of training cavalry officers.

"Do you have your own complete training plan for this cavalry?" Although Lin Wu had already handed over the cavalry training to Lin Wu, Li Jing couldn't help asking.Raising three hundred cavalry is equivalent to raising an entire battalion of soldiers.Judging from the current financial situation of Shamen Town, it is a matter of great pressure.

Today Lin Wei is wearing a shiny red mountain armor with phoenix wings and a red helmet tassel on the pocket.On the shoulders of the armored animal head swallows is a cavalry-specific long cloak specially made by the quilt workshop. It is woven with precious silk. This kind of cloak is not only beautiful and elegant, but also has a great effect of preventing arrows. .With a saddle bow on the left, a crossbow on the right, a horizontal knife on his waist, and a long lance in his hand, he is extremely majestic today.

"These warhorses are still raw horses that have not been tamed and raised, so the most important thing right now is to tame the warhorses, and at the same time let the knights establish a deep relationship with their warhorses and cultivate enough tacit understanding." Come."

Li Jing nodded, this idea is good.To use a horse, you must first tame it.Although Ma has human nature, he is a beast after all.In order for it to better accept the knight's intentions and make the power consumption of the war horse beneficial, then it should focus on the knight, form an effective tacit understanding, and finally achieve the state of unity of man and horse.

But this process is not simple, let alone easy.This requires the cavalry to carefully and patiently condition the horses, and finally achieve a conditioned reflex behavior.No matter how fierce the war horse is, it should be caressed, tickled, fed and washed frequently, so as to cultivate the relationship between the knight and the horse.

"After this period of training, most of our cavalry have achieved a preliminary mastery of riding skills after training with horses. Therefore, my plan now is to train the horses while starting to step up the physical fitness and training of the knights. Skill training. Running with weights, wrestling, hand-to-hand combat. In addition, I also asked the craftsmen in the woodware workshop to make a batch of wooden horses, and used these wooden horses to train the cavalry on and off horses. The method of hitting and other martial arts."

"Besides letting cavalry and horses sleep together, is there any other way to speed up the taming of war horses?" White Beard asked loudly from the side. He has spent half his life at sea, and he knows better than anyone present when it comes to ships and storms and waves But when it comes to war horses, he is limited to the simple cognition that horses can be ridden.He found it very funny and puzzled that Lin Wu made the cavalrymen sleep with the horses for three months first.

Lin Wu ignored White Beard's sarcasm, and after pondering for a moment, he replied: "The difficult movements of training a war horse are inseparable from the harness. The title, bridle, and bridle are all connected with each other. The method of cavalry cavalry training the horse to lie down is explained. Pulling the rein on one side will cause an unbearable pressure on the bicep, the bit, the gums and the corners of the mouth of the horse, forcing the horse to lie down. After lying down, immediately ease the rein Release the oppression of the mouth and gums by the bit, and at the same time give praise or rewards to the horse, such as feeding the horse an egg or a handful of beans. If the horse does not want to submit, it can be punished appropriately. Then pull one side of the rein, and the horse's head is deflected , oppress the corners of the gums, lie down, and finally ease the side reins, relieve the pressure on the corners of the gums, reward or reward. The whole process is connected in sequence and repeated. Then inertia will be formed in the war horse. Although horses are not as smart as humans, they are It is smarter than other domestic animals. Such patient training, over time, once the knight pulls one side of the rein, the horse will immediately lie down. Turn left, turn right, forward, backward, speed up, slow down, etc., through the harness or warrior However, it is much easier than training to lie down. War horses, as a military strategist said: "With their eyes and ears, there is no fear.Learn to relax and chase, close it to advance and stop, and make a blind date, and then you can use it. "

"Wait until the cavalry's basic physical fitness and skills training and the taming of the horses are completed, then the formal riding and archery training will begin!"

"Okay!" Li Jing slapped his hands vigorously. After hearing so much from Lin Wu, he finally believed that he had found the best cavalry instructor. With such professionals, why not worry about his cavalry training?

(To be continued)