Qiming 1158

Chapter 761 Iron Horseshoe

how to spell?
Han Jinggui looked at Xin Qiji and laughed.

He felt that Xin Qiji seemed to really treat Kelie and Qiyan as enemies of life and death.

However, according to his research on these two tribes during this period, these two tribes are not at all the enemies of Daming.

"Actually, our army doesn't have to be too nervous. It seems that it has encountered an enemy that is too strong. The grassland cavalry is limited to the relative lack of iron products, and the armor rate is low. It is far inferior to our Ming cavalry. The armor is no better than the Ming army.

Therefore, the prairie cavalry and our Daming army are bound to be at a disadvantage in a head-to-head confrontation. If they are close to each other, our Daming army will definitely have the upper hand. It is impossible for the cavalry of Kelie and Qiyan to surpass Daming in this regard.

On the issue of bows and crossbows, many barbarian tribes on the grasslands can only make ordinary longbows. For the cavalry hand crossbow that I improved to the craftsman, it has a short range and weak strength, and the bow and crossbow will not be the opponent of my Ming cavalry .

On the issue of war horses, they do have an advantage. One person has three horses or four horses. Most of them are three horses. My cavalry does not have such conditions at present. They only have two horses, and their running speed is slightly inferior. However, the war horse itself is no different. I I also searched for the war horses of Wang Gubu and compared them with the war horses of my dynasty, and the difference is not big.

On the issue of logistical supplies, they have jerky and dairy products, and our cavalry also have jerky and dairy products. They can use war to support war, and our army can also use war to support war, and they will not lose to them. These main factors are compared. , I'm not finding a reason why we're going to lose. "

Xin Qiji shook his head and said with a serious face: "Soldiers, the place of life and death, the way of life and death, you must not ignore it, you still haven't said anything."

"The difference in riding skills between the Ming cavalry and the steppe barbarian cavalry."

Han Jinggui opened his mouth and said, "Actually, I have also taken into account that the prairie barbarians have grown up on horseback since childhood and are proficient in riding, but are they comparable to the cavalry of our dynasty, but with the blessing of saddles, stirrups, reins and other saddlery equipment? , cavalry training is not that difficult anymore.

With the big horse farm and the selected cavalry, the food is no worse than ours, and the energy is full. They consume energy in the horse farm all day, and their riding skills are very fast.

Generally, after three or five months of intensive training at the racecourse, the recruits can start tactical training. The tactical training takes a little longer. After the mastery is completed, what is needed is no longer training, just actual combat. "

Xin Qiji nodded and was very satisfied with the cavalry training system of the Ming Dynasty.

After a while, he thought of another thing.

"Your Majesty ordered that the army's war horses be fully nailed with iron horseshoes, have you done it?"

Han Jinggui walked to the side of his horse, raised the hoof, pointed at the horseshoe under the hoof, and said with a smile, "It's nailed, Your Majesty gave an order, we'll go all out, and we're ready. Really useful."

Xin Qiji stepped forward and bent over to take a closer look, then nodded slowly, expressing satisfaction.

Also after the founding of the country, Su Yonglin ordered the Ministry of Industry to start making iron horseshoes. It didn't take long for the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry to master the technique of nailing horseshoes, and did experiments on a batch of war horses' hooves, proving the feasibility of iron horseshoes.

Since then, the iron horseshoe has been popularized in the Ming cavalry army.

The horseshoe is actually quite interesting, because as early as BC, the horseshoe appeared in the Roman Empire, and the Romans used iron horseshoes very early and common.

Later, with the war and trade, the iron horseshoe spread all the way eastward, to the western regions of China, and then from the western regions to the northern grasslands, and then to the Liaodong region.

The countries in the Western Regions, the northern grasslands, and the local regimes in Liaodong, such as Goguryeo, have found traces of iron horseshoes, and the entire transmission line is still very clear.

But this thing is wonderful because the spread of horseshoe interestingly avoided the Central Plains and Jiangnan regions, and it has not been popularized in the Central Plains for more than a thousand years.

It's not that the Central Plains Dynasty has never seen the iron horseshoe. They know the existence of this thing, and it has been recorded in the book, but until the Song Dynasty, the officials of the Song Dynasty did not realize the magical effect of this thing, or they did not have the powerful people to promote it. As for the Central Plains Dynasty, although it knew the existence of this thing, it was only regarded as a curious plaything, and it was not widely used in the army.

So it was not until the Yuan and Ming Dynasties that the iron horseshoe really began to be popularized in the Central Plains army.

Therefore, the Central Plains Dynasty has always been troubled by the high price of war horses and the extremely high damage rate of horseshoes after the war.

It's not that they haven't thought of a way, such as using grass and leather to make horse shoes, but the effect is very general, and they have never taken the initiative to point out the technical point of iron horseshoes, which is very regrettable.

But it should be said that the main enemies of the Central Plains Dynasty in peacetime often came from the northern grasslands. The people in the northern grasslands knew the existence and function of the iron horseshoe earlier than the people in the Central Plains.

However, although the people on the grassland knew about the iron horseshoe earlier than the people in the Central Plains, they were limited by their own iron smelting ability and economic strength, so they could not popularize the iron horseshoe for a long time, so that they could not give full play to the advantages of the iron horseshoe.

Even the iron pans need to be imported and plundered from the Central Plains. They really don't have any excess iron to nail the horses on a large scale. Besides, they have three horses, four horses and five horses.

Maybe they didn't find it very useful even if they mastered the technology of iron horseshoe.

They only need to pile up the number of war horses to fight against the powerful military force of the Central Plains Dynasty.

This is some kind of wonderful historical balance.

However, now, Su Yonglin took the initiative to break this balance, using the powerful iron smelting power of the Ming Dynasty, and fully nailing the horses of the war horses currently serving in the Ming Dynasty. At this moment, it has played a role.

As a frontier general, Han Jinggui liked this iron horseshoe very much.

"In the past, the wear of the horse's hoof was really serious. Many war horses could not continue to run for a period of time, and they were almost useless. But after this horse's shoe was nailed on, not only was it less worn, but the war horse had no difficulty in running. , it's a wonderful thing."

"Of course it's a good thing, but it's quite troublesome to start from scratch. I heard that the first craftsmen didn't have a good grasp of the strength when they nailed the horse's shoes. They kicked and injured several people on the horse, all of them were seriously injured, and they almost didn't get back. , and only later figured out a way to nail horseshoes."

"Is there such a thing?"

As soon as Xin Qiji mentioned this matter, Han Jinggui had a look of fear on his face: "Kick this tall horse, it's really going to be abolished..."

"Fortunately, there are no dead people, and this technology has been mastered."

Xin Qiji bent over and touched the horse's leg: "With this iron horseshoe, you don't have to worry about the horse's hooves being worn so much that the war horse can't ride it. The barbarians on the grasslands know about iron horseshoes, but they can't nail that much. It's not as good as me, Daming, at that time, we can move at high speed and catch them off guard!"

Han Jinggui nodded.

In the past, when there were no horseshoes, the cavalry still had to be careful when using war horses.

When encountering some relatively hard land, try to avoid it as much as possible, and don't dare to run away, for fear that the hoofs will be worn out, and you will be separated from your war horse.

People and horses get along for a long time, and they can also be emotional.

Well now, even if the ground is hard, don't be afraid, just run, don't plan a route, don't worry about wear and tear, and exert a strong horsepower until the horse's physical strength is exhausted and can't run.

This advantage will definitely play its role.

Xin Qiji rushed to the Wang Gu Department before the army arrived, and met Wu Ge, the leader of the Wang Gu Department. Wu Ge learned that this was the military chief of the Ming Dynasty, and he was a big man. He immediately became nervous, and it was delicious. Drink high-standard hospitality Xin Qiji.

They were also worried that Xin Qiji was not used to eating mutton with a strong smell of mutton, and especially took out the spices that Su Yonglin had given Wuge as a reward before, and let the best cooks cook the mutton to entertain Xin Qiji.

Xin Qiji ate the delicious stewed mutton and roasted mutton with a smile. He felt full of flavor, and there was no smell of mutton in his imagination, so he ate a lot, and he felt hot and comfortable, and felt that he had endless energy.

It seems that life on the grassland is not so bad, and the leaders of these grassland tribes are not as poor as they imagined.

They still have a lot of oil on them.

(End of this chapter)