Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 161 Forming the Cavalry
That afternoon, Chu Jun and Lou Fanren made an unprecedented transaction in the east of Jiuyuan City. Chu Jun paid a total of [-] double-edged epees, and exchanged [-] horses with a height of more than six feet from Lou Fanren. He exchanged five hundred scale armors for five hundred good horses over seven feet tall from Lou Fanren.

After the transaction was completed, the tense parties quickly withdrew to their camps.

Obviously, both Chu Jun and Lou Fanren were worried that the other party would backtrack and launch a surprise attack.

After all, Chu Jun and Lou Fanren are still in a hostile relationship, but it is a miracle that two rivals who are hostile to each other can conduct such a large-scale transaction. This is certainly related to Chu Jun's eagerness to get horses , but Lou Annoying is also eager to get iron weapons?

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Ten thousand horses had already been driven into the camp, and the soldiers of the Chu army gathered around to watch the excitement.

Xiang Zhuang was riding a black-headed horse, and was patrolling the horses surrounded by generals such as Huan Chu, Ji Bu, Gao Chu, and Pang Yu.

Seeing so many of its kind all of a sudden, the Wuzhima looked a little excited, and would raise its head and hiss from time to time, and with the resonant long neigh of the Wuzhima, the group of horses would neigh one after another. It seemed that tens of thousands of subjects were responding to their king. At this moment, the domineering aura of the king was fully displayed.

Xiang Zhuang was also a little excited. Although the arsenal he moved from Luoyang and Xianyang was empty, the deal was definitely worth it. With these ten thousand horses and more than 6000 horses he snatched from the Aries A good horse is enough for the Chu army to form a huge cavalry. Thinking of the scene of tens of thousands of cavalry galloping freely, Xiang Zhuang's blood boiled a little.

Cavalry, this is the most powerful unit in the cold weapon era, almost invincible!

Returning to the Central Plains with such a huge light cavalry, who else can do nothing to win his Xiangzhuang?
Peng Yue's Liang Jun is indeed unstoppable, but if I don't confront you head-on, what can you do to me?I only need to resort to the wolf pack tactics of the cavalry, and I will wear you down and kill you with cavalry and shooting!
Can a man's two legs outrun a horse's four?nonsense!
Han Xin is resourceful and full of tricks, but so what?

I will not entangle you too much, as long as you cross the river, you will ride your horse south and head straight for the Wujiang River. Can the army of the State of Qi continue to chase you across the river?
What's more, there may not be a fight with Liang Jun and Qi Jun.

Today's general situation in the world is no longer the situation when the Battle of Gaixia just ended. Liu Bang is now just the king of Guanzhong. How much restraint can he have on Peng Yue, Han Xin, Yingbo and other princes?After all, Han Xin, Peng Yue, and Yingbo are just Liu Bang's brothers, not his subjects.

Therefore, with a huge cavalry, it will be almost a smooth journey back to Jiangdong.

Xiang Zhuang has also considered occupying Shanxi or Hebei as the base of the Chu army, but this is unrealistic. First of all, the backbone of Xiang Zhuang's command is still Chu people. Once Xiang Zhuang makes a decision not to return to Jiangdong, these Chu people are likely to die There will be a mutiny. Secondly, the location of Shanxi or Hebei is not good. Isn't it fun to be sandwiched between Maodun, Liu Bang, Peng Yue and Han Xin?
As for the Central Plains, there are now ten rooms and nine empty rooms, and the population has dropped sharply. I am afraid that it will not be able to recover within 20 years.

Yandi is sparsely populated, and the Korean peninsula and the white mountains and black waters are even more barren and barren. You can only be a savage if you go there.

Qinchuan, eight hundred miles away in Guanzhong, is the most ideal foundation for a king. Xiang Zhuang also wants to occupy Guanzhong, but the current Chu army simply does not have the strength to fight Liu Bang to the death.

Therefore, the Chu army still had to return to Jiangdong.

First of all, due to successive years of wars in the Central Plains, a large number of people fled to Jiangdong. The population of Zhangjun and Kuaiji County in Jiangdong has already far exceeded that in the late Qin Dynasty, and now it should exceed 200 million at least!Once the Chu army returns to Jiangdong, the people's hearts are not a problem, and the strong men are not a problem, so the Chu army's source of troops is not a problem.

Secondly, Jiangdong still has the Chu army insisting on resisting until now.

Finally, Jiangdong's strategic environment is not bad, and there is no need to face Liu Bang, Han Xin, and Peng Yue.

At this time, Xiang Zhuang didn't know that the situation in Jiangdong had changed suddenly. After Xiang Tuo returned to Jiangdong from Xuejun with three thousand remnants, he soon received the full support of the Jiangdong family. Xiang Guan, who retreated to Qiantang, also took the opportunity to counterattack and stayed behind. The Han army in Zhangjun and Kuaiji counties suffered several defeats one after another, and they seemed to be unable to hold on.

But for Xiang Zhuang, it is not easy to train [-] infantry into cavalry.

After matching the horse with a high bridge saddle and stirrups, it is not difficult to ride a horse. However, if you want to master further riding skills, it is not so easy to perform various chopping movements on horseback. It is even more difficult to draw the bow and release the arrow at the target on the back of a horse running at high speed, and guarantee a certain hit rate.

But the most difficult thing is the unity of man and horse, that is, through long-term combat and training, the cavalry and horse gradually adapt to each other's smell, temper, and some habits. With a light tap of the horse's belly, the horse can respond quickly and correctly.

Once trained to this level, the cavalry can be regarded as an elite.

Elite cavalry and ordinary cavalry are two completely different concepts. Ordinary cavalry basically rush forward in a swarm without any rules when charging, while elite cavalry can maintain a strict formation while sprinting at high speed. For example, the distance between the left and right riders and the distance between the front and rear rows can be maintained very well.

After completing the first charge, the elite cavalry can quickly turn around, regroup, and invest in the second round of charge.

The reaction speed of ordinary cavalry is much slower, and even after the first charge is completed, it is likely that they will never be able to organize a second charge.

In this regard, the Hu people have an incomparable advantage, because they have lived on horseback since they were young, and they have been with their horses every day, and they have long been integrated into one body, while the Central Plains cavalry requires arduous and long training. Therefore, the Hu people randomly selected a strong man as an excellent cavalry, but the Central Plains people were not good.

But then again, once the Central Plains cavalry are trained into an army, they will be much better than the barbarians!

For example, although there are only [-] cavalry in Jiuyuan, the Qin cavalry in Jiuyuan is far more powerful than the same number of Huren cavalry by virtue of its excellent equipment, strict discipline, changeable formation, and rich strategies and tactics.

Ten Daqin cavalrymen fought ten Huren cavalrymen against ten Huren cavalrymen. With the increase in numbers, the advantage of the Great Qin Cavalry will become more obvious. Five thousand Great Qin cavalry can fight at least [-] Hu cavalry!
Of course, it is absolutely impossible to train all [-] Chu troops into elite cavalry.

After three to four months of arduous training, the [-] Chu troops are able to master the most basic riding skills, can draw bows and release arrows while running fast, and can make chopping and killing movements while sprinting, which is already the limit. It is impossible to even think about the unity of people and horses, forming formations and changing formations during the march, charging and then conducting a second round of turning and charging, etc.

After inspecting the entire horse herd, Xiang Zhuang called Gao Chu, Pang Yu, Tian Heng, and Xiao Kai to him.

The current 5000 Chu troops are divided into four armies: the Qin army, the middle army, the right army, and the left army. Each army has 3000 soldiers. The remaining 2000 veterans of the Chu army who survived a hundred battles and survived nine deaths are also fierce warriors selected from various armies and battalions.

With Xiang Zhuang's order, the fourth generals of the senior high school began to carve up the horses with their own parts.

In less than a moment, the entire camp of the Chu army was in chaos. Many soldiers even fought for the same horse. Xiang Zhuang ignored these farts. In fact, Xiang Zhuang didn't take advantage of them. His own authority forcibly distributes the war horses, but lets each army and each battalion choose their own, which is fundamentally intentional.

Xiang Zhuang didn't even say how many horses each army should get.

What Xiang Zhuang did was to create friction and contradictions among the various armies, forming a situation where the generals of each army were not convinced by each other, and the leaders of each army did not agree with each other. There is a saying that there will be competition when there are contradictions. The craziest training competition was launched when the armies were not convinced by each other, and the Chu army was able to change from infantry to cavalry in the shortest possible time.

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While the Chu army was busy dividing up the horses, the Loufan tribe had already left camp and returned to the north for vacation.

Although Lou Fanren just completed a big deal with the Chu people, the relationship between the two parties has not improved because of this.

In fact, Uncle Gong said that he had analyzed it with King Loufan yesterday. It must be the Chu people who ambushed the Baiyang people in the Wild Wolf Valley, and most of the people who intercepted Princess Yingzhen halfway were Chu people, not the old Qin people.

Therefore, after the transaction was completed, King Lou Fan immediately ordered that he would leave the camp and return north.

Even though he got [-] sharp double-edged iron swords and [-] "well-equipped" iron cavalry, King Lou Fan knew very well that before the Chu army left Jiuyuan, Lou Fan was afraid that anything would happen. If you can't do it, you can't use troops against the Linhu tribe, let alone have any wrong thoughts about the old Qin people in Jiuyuan.

Although the Chu army has only 2 people, their equipment is not fake.

Especially when the two parties were trading in the east of Jiuyuan City, the rows of giant bed crossbows hidden in the formation of the Chu army, as well as the thousands of crossbows in the hands of the soldiers of the Chu army in the front row, made King Lou Fan very confused. Terrified.

At that time, if there was any change in the Loufan cavalry involved in the transaction, they would definitely be shot on the spot!

Therefore, King Lou Fan decided to stay away from the Chu people, and at the same time hoped that the Chu army could leave Hetao earlier.

Of course, the Chu army might stay at the Hetao, but even so, that's okay. With the current strength of the Loufan tribe, even if they voted for the Xiongnu, Maodun Shanyu had to give him a corresponding status.

(End of this chapter)