My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 456: Your Majesty, please think twice!
Each of them was in a trance and thought for a long time. The three veterans looked at each other;
After a long exchange of glances, it was finally Han Tuidang, the most straightforward and "vulgar" of the three, who stepped forward.

He bowed slightly to Liu Rong, then took the long stick that Liu Rong handed over with a smile, raised his head to look at the hanging feng shui, and then began to talk incessantly.

"Everyone says that Chang'an, the capital of the Han Dynasty, is shaped like the Chinese character 'dou'."

"Some people even say that Chang'an City should be called Dou City."

"Speaking of which, the territory of the Han Dynasty is also roughly shaped like a short and thick Chinese character '斗'."

"——At least the northern border wall originally stretched nearly ten thousand miles from east to west, and was mostly east-west oriented, except for the westernmost side, which was missing a corner like the Chinese character '斗'."

"This missing part is now the Shuofang and Wuyuan counties."

"That is Henan."

"Or as your majesty often says: Hetao."

After a smooth opening speech, Han Tuidang turned around and smiled at Luan Bu.

Then he laughed and said, "Last year, during the battle in Hetao, the three of us, Yuhou, Quzhouhou, and I - especially Yuhou and I, we traveled across most of Hetao."

"Even though Lord Yu and I know the terrain and topography of the area, as well as the surrounding mountains and rivers, we still know a little bit about it."

...

"The Hetao is cut off by high mountains in the south, and is blocked by large rivers on the west, north and east sides."

"Hexi on the west bank of the river and Munan on the north bank are both controlled by the northern barbarians, the Xiongnu."

"Only the east coast belongs to my Han family's Beidi County and Shang County."

"——Beidi is located in the southeast of Hetao, and Shangjun is located in the east of Hetao."

"If we add Yunzhong in the northeast of Hetao, the area between Han and Hetao can barely be considered as 'adjacent to each other for more than a thousand miles'."

After saying this, Han Tuidang, with an abject smile, turned the conversation over to Li Ji, Marquis of Quzhou, who was unable to personally attend the Hetao battlefield last year because he was "overseeing the overall situation."

Sensing Han Tuidang's goodwill, Li Ji smiled and bowed, silently accepting the favor.

Li Ji took a deep breath, then took over the conversation with a smile and a sigh.

"During the battle last year, I was fortunate enough to be entrusted with a large army by your majesty. Thanks to the soldiers' dedication, I gained some merits..."

"However, as early as before the war last year - or even as early as the time of Emperor Taizu Gao, our Han family has been obsessed with Hetao."

"I still remember that Emperor Taizu Gao once said to everyone: Henan is the land promised to us by all the Xia people!"

"Ever since Pangu created the world, Henan has been the sacred and inviolable territory of China."

"Unfortunately, at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the world was engulfed in war, and anti-Qin armies rose up;"

"The Second Emperor, Hu Hai, forced the counties along the northern wall of Qin to move south, which mistakenly left the northern wall defenses unprotected, allowing the northern barbarians, the Xiongnu, to steal the land of Henan."

...

"Looking back to the past, Emperor Taizu Gao wanted to swear an alliance with the dukes and ministers by beheading a white horse."

"But just for the white horse that needed to be killed during the oath of alliance, Prime Minister Xiao spent more than ten days looking for it, and only then did he temporarily get a post horse from the army."

"And the imperial carriage that Emperor Taizu Gao rode on couldn't even have eight horses of the same color."

"Black, brown, chestnut, tan, sand, spotted, gray-green - only eight horses, but seven different colors."

"Since then, everyone in the Han Dynasty, from the emperor and his ministers to the common people, has known that only the land of Henan can alleviate the shortage of horses in the Han Dynasty."

"Only by taking over Henan first can our Han Dynasty no longer be constrained by the Xiongnu's light cavalry."

Speaking of this - especially talking about the old things during the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao, that is, after the founding of the country;
Although he had originally decided to "stand aside and watch" the three old guys in front of him discuss a result, Liu Rong still had to step forward and take over the conversation.

"Yeah~"

"During the Battle of Pingcheng between the Han and the Xiongnu, Emperor Taizu Gao was trapped in the siege of Baideng, and almost put our Han ancestral temples and the country in turmoil."

"After Emperor Taizu Gao died, Empress Dowager Lü took over the government, and the Di chieftain Maodun humiliated her with a letter from the state."

"——National hatred and family feud~"

"Whenever I think of this past, I always feel that the black crown on my body, the sulfur crown on my head, and the seal on my waist are heavier."

Having said that, Liu Rong just participated in the topic in a perfunctory manner, and then fell silent again, handing the discussion back to the three veterans Li, Luan and Han.

The three of them sighed and nodded with empathy, and then Li Ji continued, "At that time, all the generals in the army said: first, we must take Hetao to form a cavalry, and then use the cavalry to fight the Hu head-on."

"This is the only way to defeat the Xiongnu and prevent the northern wall of our Han dynasty from being invaded by the Hu cavalry."

"——Later, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen had no choice but to find another way and set up horse farms in Yanmen, Shangjun and other places to breed war horses."

"But this horse farm method of breeding horses is very expensive. Secondly, most of them are located along the northern wall and may be attacked by the Huns at any time."

"Besides, even if it's a ten-step wall, it won't be able to keep a thousand-mile horse from running away."

"Emperor Taizu Gao established horse farms along the border walls, which somewhat alleviated the urgent need for horses in the Han Dynasty. However, less than one in ten horses released from the farms along the border walls could be considered war horses."

...

"Let's take the Yanmen Garden, which was first established by Emperor Taizong Xiaowen, as an example."

"——At the end of last year, Yanmen Garden had 17 stallions, 729 mares, and 146 immature foals."

"Total: nine hundred and ninety-two horses."

"In addition, Yanmenyuan had 74 horses released last year."

"Of these 74 horses, nearly half were castrated and used as post horses."

"Of the remaining half of the mares - a total of 41, 16 of the best quality horses were given to the Shaofu, and 17 of the inferior quality horses were sold to the caravans to be used as carts."

"There are only eight purebred mares left, which were transferred to the Feihu Army as war horses..."

As he spoke, Li Ji still showed deep sorrow and grief, and stretched out five and three fingers on his hands respectively.

"Eight."

"Only eight war horses."

"If we really get to the battlefield, all we need is a hundred Hu cavalrymen to shoot at the same time, and these eight war horses - all the war horses that Yanmen Garden can produce every few years - will all die under the hail of arrows."

"In this case, how long will it take for our Han family to form an army of tens of thousands of cavalry and fight the Xiongnu cavalry head-on to eliminate the threat from the northern wall?"

"--century?"

"—or a thousand years?"

As soon as Li Ji finished speaking, Luan Bu beside him took over the conversation.

"During the twenty-three years of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's reign, he established seven horse gardens along the border walls;"

"During the sixth year of Emperor Xiaojing's reign, 11 horse gardens were built on the north wall, and another 18 were to be built."

"—— Even if we count them all, there are a total of thirty-six gardens along the border wall. Even if they are all as good as the Yanmen Garden, the horses in the gardens are released every three years, but there are no more than three hundred of them."

"We can produce a hundred war horses every year, and an army of ten thousand cavalry really needs more than 20,000 war horses, or even nearly 30,000... " At the end, Luan Bu smiled awkwardly and shook his head.

But he did not refute Li Ji, but rather agreed with him very much.

After a simple arithmetic problem, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion.

——Count the seven established by Emperor Taizong, the eleven established by Emperor Xiaojing, and the eighteen planned but not yet established, for a total of thirty-six horse gardens;
A batch of war horses are released every three years, and each stable produces eight war horses every three years.

On average, each of the thirty-six gardens along the border wall produced two and a half war horses each year, less than three, and the total number of war horses produced was less than a hundred!

Pure cavalry combat units usually use the "cavalry lieutenant" as the basic combat unit, that is, 800 cavalry;
Cavalry commanders were usually used as participating units in different battlefields, that is, 4,800 cavalrymen.

Take the cavalry captain for example. With 800 cavalrymen, based on the low configuration of two horses for each man, he would need a full 1,600 qualified war horses.

However, it took the Han Dynasty thirty-six years, or nearly twenty years, to gather these 1,600 war horses.

In twenty years, they could only form a cavalry lieutenant with only 800 cavalrymen...

As for the Cavalry Commander, let alone him - a total of 4,800 cavalrymen!

If we go a step further and calculate based on the high configuration standard of three horses per person, we would need more than 14,000 war horses!
If we rely entirely on the Thirty-Six Gardens along the Border Wall, it will take at least 150 years...

So, what Li Ji said was right.

Emperor Taizong Xiaowen established horse gardens in many border counties, and instructed his successor: The late Emperor Xiaojing should carry forward this policy. This was truly a "different way" and a "roundabout way to save the country" out of desperation.

Presumably, Emperor Taizong did not expect to build a powerful cavalry consisting of tens of thousands of cavalrymen in this way.

Instead, they simply made some efforts within their capabilities, which were better than nothing, to slightly improve the Han Dynasty's severe shortage of horses, especially the shortage of war horses.

No matter how few war horses are available from the gardens along the border walls, at least the vanguard scouts will no longer have to worry about the lack of war horses, right?
What's more, the gardens along the border walls, in addition to a small number of war horses, can also produce a considerable number of inferior horses.

These poor horses are worth the money, not to mention the economic benefits they can bring - just the support they provide for logistics work during wartime is enough to make them worth the money.

As for the war horses?

Founding father Li Ji, Han Tuidang, the 'Hu' general who surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and Luan Bu, the evergreen in the military - even the emperor Liu Rong had to admit: Li Ji was right.

Even after the founding of the country, it was not just the princes and ministers inside and outside the court of Chang'an;
To this day, the Chang'an court of Liu Rong's reign also firmly believes that only the Han cavalry can defeat the Xiongnu cavalry!

In order to form a strong enough and sufficient cavalry unit, the Han Dynasty urgently needed a suitable horse-breeding land and a considerable base of good horse populations as "start-up capital".

Everything points to Hetao.

Only Hetao can solve all the difficulties faced by the Han Dynasty in forming a cavalry unit.

Hetao is the best place in the world to raise horses!

Hetao has the largest population of fine horses in the entire known world - at least one of the largest!

With the Hetao, there is land for breeding horses and the "start-up capital" for breeding war horses;
Everything after that will become very simple and natural.

Speaking of this time, the three old guys naturally started to flatter Liu Rong one after another, saying things like "Your Majesty's capture of Hetao is a great achievement that will bless your descendants for generations to come."

Liu Rong also exchanged pleasantries with the three of them for a while, saying something like "It's all thanks to you generals, I just know how to use people", before bringing the topic back on track.

Then Li Ji took a deep breath and his expression became serious.

Then, from the perspective of military strategy, the general situation of the Hetao region was presented on the table.

"In the past few decades, the reason why our Han family could not retake Hetao is that Emperor Taizong would rather set up horse farms in border counties than plot against Hetao. It is definitely not because the previous emperors had no ambitions and the soldiers in the army were unwilling to die for them."

"It's the Hetao itself that is extremely difficult to capture!"

...

"The Art of War says: If you are in a high position and want to dominate those below, you must be in a high position and want to 'dominate' those below;"

"If you are in a low position but have a high view, you cannot surround the enemy unless your force is ten times greater than the enemy's; and you cannot attack the enemy unless your force is five times greater than the enemy's."

"If we attack by force, even if we are three times as strong as the enemy, we cannot win; even if we are twice as strong as the enemy, we may be defeated; if the enemy and I are equal, we will be annihilated by the enemy."

"Hetao is such a place that is high up and 'overwhelms' the people below. It is easy to defend but very difficult to attack. Military strategists are very wary of calling it an 'unassailable' place."

"The terrain is such that the south side and the middle part of the mountain are high, while the west, north and east sides are all low."

"——Whether it's from Hexi to the east, from Munan to the north, or from the north to the west, they will all be attacking from the low to the high."

"And Gaoque is located north of Hetao, on the other side of the river, blocking the riverbank between Hetao and Munan."

At this point, Han Tuidang, holding a long stick, finally took back the topic and began to make a summary speech.

Then I saw the long stick raised high, first it touched the word "Gao Que" on the feng shui map, and then it roughly drew a circle around the entire Gao Que.

"To attack Gaoque from the north of Hetao, we should be 'from a high position to look down' and dive down to meet the enemy."

"This is a situation where the enemy is inferior and we are superior."

"However, the great river flows east and west, and the advantage of our Han army's soldiers swooping down from south to north and from high to low will be blocked by the great river."

...

"On the contrary, Gaoque is located by the river and backed by mountains. It has strong walls and a big river to protect it."

"If the Han people want to seize Gaoque, they must first rush across the river in the rain of arrows, and then be attacked by the enemy halfway across the river, resulting in heavy casualties.

"Even if we send hundreds of thousands of soldiers to the other side of the river, it is by no means a complete success."

"——The exhausted soldiers who crossed the river desperately must immediately attack Gaoque."

"Infantrymen should travel light and simply, and it is impossible for them to deliver siege equipment to the other side."

"They crossed the river lightly and then attacked Gaoque almost 'unarmed' without any weapons;"

"When the two are combined, it can almost be said that even if the gods send down thunder and fire to help, there is still no way to break the situation."

After he finished speaking, Han Tuidang finally returned the stick to Liu Rong and bowed deeply to Liu Rong.

Afterwards, Li Ji and Luan Bu also stood up one after another and bowed to Liu Rong.

"Your Majesty wishes to obtain a high palace, and we, the ministers, all respect your majesty's great ambitions."

"However, Gaoque is as difficult to attack as Hangu Pass - it cannot be breached without the power of ghosts and gods."

...

"In the battle last year, the northern barbarians, the Xiongnu, suffered heavy casualties and lost the Hetao area. They have not dared to fight again in the past three to five years."

"It is difficult to maintain peace on the border, and the two counties of Shuofang and Wuyuan bear the heavy responsibility of our Han family's 'invincible cavalry'."

"I hope your majesty will reconsider this."

"Unless we are absolutely sure, the Han family will never cause another war on the border wall by attacking Gaoque..."

"At least in the past few years, unless there is a huge benefit within reach, my Han family should not resort to war again..."

(End of this chapter)