Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 102: Horse Breeding Difficulties

Fortunately, the militia captain of Zhaojiayu still knew Zhao Gang. It can even be said that the militia of Zhaojiayu was actually developed by Zhao Gang.

You have to know that Zhaojiayu is also the base of the independent regiment, so militia will naturally be developed. Some militia captains are even veterans of the Eighth Route Army who were injured and unable to fight.

The militia captain immediately introduced Zhao Gang:
"Zheng Wei, these are the militiamen from Zhaojiayu!"

After saying that, the militia captain pointed at the short-haired woman standing beside him and said:

"This is Comrade Yang Xiuqin, Director of the Women's Rescue Association!"

After hearing the militia captain's introduction, Zhao Gang smiled and stretched out his hand to Yang Xiuqin and said:

"Hello, Comrade Xiuqin!"

Yang Xiuqin also shook hands with Zhao Gang in a very generous and generous manner and said with a smile:

"On behalf of the people of Zhaojiayu, I welcome the comrades of the Independent Regiment!"

After Yang Xiuqin finished speaking, Zhao Gang introduced her to her:

"Comrade Xiuqin, this is Li Yunlong, the commander of our independent regiment, and this is Comrade Wang Gensheng, the deputy commander of the New Second Regiment!"

For some reason, Yang Xiuqin fell in love with Li Yunlong, before Li Yunlong could say anything!

Yang Xiuqin just made small talk and said to Li Yunlong:
"Captain Li, how come our independent regiment is a cavalry regiment?"

Wang Gensheng was not angry at Yang Xiuqin for ignoring him. After all, Wang Gensheng had no feelings for someone like Yang Xiuqin, even though she was very pretty and at least 1.7 meters tall.

But to be honest, she is not as attractive as Li Xue, who is only 1.6 meters tall.

In response to Yang Xiuqin's question, Li Yunlong smiled and said:

"Our independent regiment is not a cavalry regiment. During the breakout, we worked with the cavalry company of the New Second Regiment to capture the warhorses captured by the Japanese cavalry regiment!"

Sure enough, after Li Yunlong said this, Yang Xiuqin's eyes were full of admiration. You know, Yang Xiuqin's second brother is the battalion commander of the main regiment, so he naturally knows how difficult it is to fight the Japanese cavalry regiment, so naturally he admires Li Yunlong.

Wang Gensheng was speechless about Li Yunlong's boasting. You know, after rescuing Li Yunlong, Sun Desheng had already told Li Yunlong about Wang Gensheng's sudden appearance to save the cavalry company.

But now Li Yunlong said to Yang Xiuqin that it was the New Second Regiment that cooperated to defeat the Japanese cavalry regiment. Of course, Wang Gensheng was too lazy to expose such words. After all, Wang Gensheng didn't like Yang Xiuqin, so it was okay to let Li Yunlong brag!
Of course, since Li Yunlong had been rescued, Wang Gensheng naturally had no intention of listening to Li Yunlong's bragging. Therefore, after saying goodbye to Li Yunlong and Zhao Gang, he left Zhaojiayu with the cavalry company and the 500 war horses agreed with Sun Desheng.

Of course, when returning to the New Second Regiment, Wang Gensheng also dug out the hundreds of Type 38 rifles that he had buried last night and took them with him. Anyway, there were many horses now, so it was not a big deal to carry so much equipment.

Just looking at the more than 500 new war horses, Wang Gensheng felt both happy and a little distressed.

As for the reason for the distress, it is naturally very simple, that is, some people can no longer afford to support them.

That’s right, they can’t afford to raise war horses. You know, although war horses and wild horses are both horses, they are treated differently.

In order to have sufficient physical strength to fight, war horses are fed fine feed so that they have the strength to run.

For example, during this journey of more than 200 kilometers, Wang Gensheng had eaten up all the 20 kilograms of fine food that he had brought with him when he set out.

You have to know that this is the intake of a war horse. If there are more than a hundred war horses, that would be more than 2,000 kilograms.

You should know that if a horse wants to be full, its food intake must be at least 2.5% of its body weight.

That is to say, a war horse weighing 500 kilograms needs to eat 12.5 kilograms of feed a day.

Of course, if it is a normal war horse, you can let it eat more grass, but you also need to feed it some concentrated feed, about one or two pounds. However, once it is in wartime, you need to feed it at least more than ten pounds or even twenty or thirty pounds.

And this refined food is food that everyone can eat! For example, corn, wheat, soybeans, etc. are all considered refined food.

But unfortunately, the Eighth Route Army is basically self-sufficient in food and rarely asks for help from the common people. For example, the New Second Regiment cultivates the land in Wangjia Village.

However, now is not the era when the per-acre yield will be as high as in the future.

Therefore, raising a large number of horses when the people were barely able to make ends meet would obviously rapidly increase the food burden of the New Second Regiment.

If the Japanese were raising horses, then there would be no need to worry about just robbing them.

But Wang Gensheng, as a member of the Eighth Route Army, would not dare to do so. If he really did so, he would have to be shot.

When Kong Jie returned to the village with the spoils, he was stunned by the more than 600 war horses and thousands of guns.

He immediately asked:
"Where did you get so many war horses? Did you wipe out the entire Japanese cavalry company?"

Wang Gensheng generously admitted this:

"That's right, this time I not only destroyed the Japanese cavalry regiment, but also wiped out four Japanese squadrons in a row!"

After Wang Gensheng finished speaking, he showed the commander's knife in his hand.

Kong Jie certainly had no doubt about Wang Gensheng's words. After all, it was impossible for thousands of guns and more than 500 war horses to appear casually.

After that, Wang Gensheng said to Kong Jie:

"By the way, Commander, when you report the results of the battle, could you please ask the commander to share some of the uneaten food from the other regiments with our New Second Regiment? Otherwise, our New Second Regiment's soldiers' farming skills alone won't be enough to feed these 600-plus war horses!"

As the commander of the New Second Regiment, Kong Jie naturally understood how difficult it was to raise war horses. The original one hundred or so war horses had already exhausted the New Second Regiment's surplus food.

Therefore, the new Second Regiment alone could not support the additional 500 war horses.

So a few days after the raid ended, Kong Jie, who had contacted the head of the village, immediately told the head of the village about his request for food.

.........

"What? You're going to build a 600-man cavalry reinforcement battalion! And you want me to order the other regiments to give some of their food to the new Second Regiment to feed its horses!"

But then the chief discovered something was wrong and immediately asked:

"By the way, you haven't told me how you got these 500 war horses from so many places!"

So next, Kong Jie reported Wang Gensheng's battle record.

In particular, the fact that Sun Desheng took away 300 war horses was also reported.

However, the chief did not agree to Kong Jie's request immediately on the phone, but just said to wait for notification from above.

That’s right, after learning that there were so many horses, the chief actually had some ideas in his mind.

The idea was actually very simple, which was to directly form a cavalry regiment out of his entourage.

You have to know that the commander also has considerations, such as asking for food from other groups.

After all, the cavalry battalion of Kong Jiexin's Second Regiment was fed with food from other regiments. Although each regiment would not say anything due to the pressure from the commander, the prejudice would be deeply imprinted in the minds of the subordinates.

(End of this chapter)